Love & Murder: An Eliza Winter Mystery

A Secret

The next morning, while cracking into her egg and soldiers, Eliza's startled by their butler, Martin walking briskly into the dining room.

"Lady Eliza, I'm sorry to disturb your breakfast but Lady Vanderwahl is here to see you. She seems a bit...distressed," Martin says while twisting his massive hands together. Eliza immediately shoves her chair out with her legs and swallows her nervousness down. If Lady Vanderwahl is here this early, making an unexpected appearance, it can't be for tea and cake. She follows Martin down the long Georgian paneled hallway and finds Penelope's mother waiting by the front doors.

"Lady Eliza," Rose Vanderwahl says breathlessly. She crosses the foyer and clutches onto Eliza's dainty hands as she asks, "Have you seen Penelope? Is she here?" Eliza's eyes dart between Rose's worried ones and answers, "No, I haven't. Truthfully, I thought she had forgotten we had lunch plans yesterday. She never showed at the tea house."

Rose bites her lip as she falls deep in thought. She looks back to Eliza's worried face and says, "No one has seen her since the night before last. We thought she was possibly with you." Eliza slowly shakes her head and feels her hands become clammy. This isn't like Penelope. She's very vocal about her plans and always has her maid dress her accordingly. By her outfits alone one can usually determine where she's off to.

"Can you think of any place she can be? Did she mention leaving London or meeting with anyone?" Rose asks and Eliza thinks back to their last correspondence. She holds up a finger to Rose and rushes off to the mahogany secretary that sits in their drawing-room. She fingers through her various letters and plucks a rose pink one from the pile. Recognizing the scent and swirly handwriting, she brings the letter back out to Rose. Penelope's mother runs her eyes over the short letter, but Eliza knows there is nothing other than the tea house details inside.

"That was the last I had heard from Penelope. Last I saw her, she said she had been out riding with Matthew Pennington more frequently, but other than that, I can't think of who she's been around," Eliza confesses, only omitting a small detail. A very small yet potentially important detail. One she knows Penelope would never forgive her for telling.

Rose sighs and glances back to the letter, "Can I keep this? I don't know what good it will do but..."

"Of course."

"I'll go round the Pennington's and see if Matthew has seen her. It's just not like Penelope to not come home or to not tell Sarah or Benjamin where's she's off to. I'm getting a bit worried," Rose says, but she didn't need to. Fright is oozing off of her.

"Please let me know if you find her or if there is anything I can help with. If Sarah doesn't know and I don't know... I'm sorry I don't have more to go on," Eliza says apologetically. Rose bites her lip again and Eliza adds, "I'm sure she's fine. She's a smart girl."

"Yes. Sometimes too smart for her own good," Rose mutters as she turns away from Eliza and heads back to the door. Eliza gives her one last small wave and watches as she disappears. Martin appears back in the foyer and asks, "Everything alright?"

Eliza shrugs, "I don't know. She can't find Penelope."

"Oh? So maybe you weren't stood up yesterday. Maybe it's a bit more serious?" Martin asks, but Eliza won't share all Penelope's secrets with Martin either.

"I hope not. I'm sure she'll turn up. She was probably invited to a party or decided to go to the country on a whim," Eliza suggests. Martin decides to let Eliza off the hook as she darts upstairs, hoping to evade any more questions. She almost runs to her room and when she's inside, she quietly closes the door and flings herself onto her bed. She runs a hand on the underside of her headboard and pulls a small purple diary out of a small slit in the wood. With maids cleaning her room and her own maid Lucy, dressing Eliza there's hardly any privacy in her room.

She flips back around and glances to make sure the door is still closed. She opens the small notebook and flips through until she finds the entry she's looking for. She glances at the date and realizes the last time she spoke to Penelope face to face was six days ago, at the pie competition near Hyde Park.

It was while they were sprawled, basking in the sunshine when Penelope rolled over and told her she had a secret. One she could no longer keep from Eliza.

"What kind of secret?" Eliza curiously asked her.

"One that could get me sent to America if my parents find out," Penelope answered with her signature coy smirk. Eliza felt her stomach flip and wondered what her friend had been up to.

"Well go on, don't leave me hanging," Eliza prodded her and they both sat up and scooted a bit closer to each other. They shouldn't have been dirtying their day dresses by sitting on the lawn, and they really were too old to be giggling on the ground instead of strolling around the festivities looking dignified.

She could see the mischievousness gleaming in her friend's eye and Eliza knew this wasn't going to be a juicy secret about someone else. Penelope finally had something worth sharing and Eliza knew that Penelope liked the spotlight. Leaning into her, Penelope whispered, "I've met someone. Well not met, because I already knew him...but...met in a new way."

"How do you mean?" Eliza cautiously asked and excitedly Penelope answered, "I...we...well we're in love really. It happened so fast. I wasn't expecting it and neither was he, but suddenly we both just knew and..." Eliza could tell Penelope truly thought she was in love. She was bursting with excitement and could hardly put her feelings into words.

"So why the secrecy? Won't your parents be thrilled when they hear? You won't need another season-"

Penelope quickly cut Eliza off, "That's just it. They won't be thrilled. He's not exactly...he's not..." Eliza could tell where Penelope was going. If this was an admirer she couldn't tell her parents about, it meant her secret love wasn't of their class. Or he was incredibly old.

"Who is he?" Eliza decided to ask bluntly but Penelope just shook her head.

"I don't want to jinx it, Eliza. I'm not going to say. But he wants to marry me. And I want to marry him."

"And how do you propose to do that if your parents won't approve?" Penelope glanced back at Eliza and that gleam in her eye was back. She pushed a blonde curl out of her bright blue eyes and answered, "Runaway of course."

Eliza immediately shook her head, "No Penelope, you'd lose everything. Whoever this man is has to understand that if you don't do this the right way, you'll be starting out with nothing. Unless he has property or a way to take care of you that doesn't require your dowry."

"That's just it Eliza, we don't need my dowry. We don't want a posh home in London. We want to escape to the countryside where he could farm and I could raise the babies."

"You hate the country," Eliza reminded Penelope and at that she huffed.

"I could get used to it."

"Could you? Really? Not having maids or nannies. Or the shops at your fingertips," Eliza reminded her, but she could see her friend was getting worked up. She knew she didn't want Penelope feeling like she had to hide anything so Eliza quickly added, "Just don't do anything rash, Penelope. Promise me you'll tell me if you feel you absolutely have to elope. Promise me you'll try every other option before it truly comes to that."

Penelope looked into Eliza's worried green eyes and sighed. Eliza knew this secret was important and could tell Penelope wanted Eliza to be happy for her.

"I promise I'll tell you if we decide to run away. It's probably best someone knows where I ran off to anyway." Penelope said with a smile. Eliza could feel the hint of tension she felt before floating away and as Penelope pushed herself off of the grass, she looked to Eliza and said, "I really am in love Eliza. And if we can't be together...I might just die."

Eliza stopped reading over her diary entry that contained the details of the secret that was shared. It wasn't much to go on, but if Penelope had decided to elope, how should she tell the Vanderwahls? It wasn't Eliza's secret to tell, but if they thought she was missing, maybe they should know she's fine. Eliza closes the diary and slumps back against her mound of silk pillows. Her finger taps against the leather cover, wondering how long to sit on Penelope's secret and if she broke her promise to Eliza.