Adeline Holmes - Lord Tewksbury

Chapter 6

Adeline's dress for the second part of the chapter

The next morning, Adeline woke up to an arm around her waist and a jacket laid over her legs. She looked over to see Tewksbury snoring lightly and she laughed quietly, causing him to wake up. "Good morning Linnie." He said softly, with a dazed smile on his face. Adeline stood up and dusted off her trousers, despite Tewksbury begging her to stay so they could fall back to sleep. That morning a was they had a breakfast of the leftover dinner and Adeline finished his haircut, and in her opinion, it made him look even more dashing. They managed to get a ride into London with an old cart filled with hay and sheep from the farms. Adeline sat with his jacket draped over her shoulders, a smile on her face as Tewksbury held her hand and lifted it up to kiss the palm every ten minutes or so.

Once they got into the centre of London, Adeline jumped off of the cart carefully, still managing to hold onto Tewksbury's hand as he gripped it for dear life. She turned back around to face Tewksbury when she'd gotten off, to see tears in his eyes. She smiled softly before whispering "Tewky, I will see you again, I have no doubt in that. I do wish you the best, and I will never forget you." He smiled lightly before she leaned forward and kissed his cheek gently, and pulled back to look at him again, this time with a tear rolling down her cheek. He sighed as he wiped the tear away and kissed the back of her hand before the cart started moving again and they watched each other as they moved apart. Adeline sighed before turning around and walking towards the nearest clothes shop, vowing in her head to find him once she's found Enola.

Adeline walked through the heart of London, prepared and looking like a local, except from a women dressed like a boy, for she had read every book in the library the last week, in order to organize plans for the sisters. She was simply scared for Enola because she is clueless about the outside world.

Adeline stopped at a shop called Ladies garments, taking off her hat to show that she's a girl. As she walked in, an older woman walked up to her and said "welcome, I take it you'd like a full fitting?" Adeline smiled and replied "Yes please, and a corset." The woman nodded and worked away at once until Adeline was decked up in a beautiful mint green dress, a delicate hairstyle and a small purse hanging from her arm. "It's so strange...." the lady mumbled. Adeline looked at her curiously before the woman carried on "You look the spitting image of a girl that came in here yesterday, dressed in the same clothes as well." Adeline paused, realizing that Enola was her yesterday before passing the woman her payment, and swiftly walking out to find the next person on her check list, Edith.

Adeline entered the tea room, specifically looking for one person only, and hearing the thuds upstairs, she knew exactly where to go. Walking into the first floor she found groups of women practicing all types of martial arts, and Edith walking around praising them, that is of course until her eyes landed on Adeline.

Edith walked forward and greeted Adeline saying "Good afternoon, you must be Adeline. God you look just like your sister.. and you have your brothers eyes." She smiled lightly, since she was told that a lot of the time. However Adeline asked what she desperately needed to know "Has my sister already passed? If she has then I know to meet her at Lime House Lane." Edith was shocked that Adeline even understood what Lime House Lane was, but replied with a disbelieving tone "Eudora warned me you were smart but..." Adeline smiled yet again before bidding goodbye and heading straight to where's he knew Enola would be.

Walking down the bland street Adeline obsessed bed the dark shops and rundown houses with people talking quietly and maybe suspiciously dotted around. Quickening her pace, she reached a door with a rather elegant purple bow on the lock, but when smelling the sulfur and other chemicals her mother used in experiments, along with the patterned empty box by the door, Adeline knew Eudoria's plans and yet couldn't really believe them until now. She strolled along the street, away with her thoughts before her head was shoved into a water bucket and she came back to her senses.

She was gasping for air when her head was brought back up, when she came face to face with the brown bowler hat himself. "I will ask you this only once. Where is the marquess?" He sneered in her ear and she replies snidely "I'm afraid I don't know where Tewky is." He ducked her head back in and when she came back up she shouted "We went our separate ways earlier today, I haven't seen him not so I have anything to do with him." She said with regret and just as he was about to shove her head back in for the last time, a fist flew into his jaw and as he let go, Adeline came face to face with her sister.

Bowler hat, groaned to the wall before turning back around to see Adeline shielding Enola with her arms.  Adeline immediately stepped forward and after a series of punches and kicks Adline fell to the floor unconscious, or that's what he thought. Regarding her no longer he turned back to the warehouse doors to see Enola back up before he stabbed her in the stomach. Enola gasped before unbuttoning her middle to see that the corset did it's job. "No more surprises." He jabbed coldly, but in the blink of an eye, he was knocked out and when he fell, Adeline appeared in his shadow, holding the crow bar he'd left in the floor. "That's for stabbing my sister." She sneered before running over to Enola and embracing her as, the younger sister cried into her shoulder, whispering about her worries and scares.

Later that night, Enola was fast asleep and Adeline was sitting by the fire, pondering wether to help Tewksbury or not.
"When I was a child, I cut my knee open trying to save a sheep from the cliff edge. I almost died, in truth. Mother was angry, as was Sherlock. Very angry. The truth is, I did not ask for Viscount Tewksbury Marquess of Basilwether in my life. I didn't want the Viscount Tewksbury Marquess of Basilwether in my life, and I still couldn't even though I wanted to so much, when I.. well when I fell in love with him I think. But still, why do I feel responsibility for the Viscount Tewksbury Marquess of Basilwether? Because, there are those who want to hurt him..and he has no strength to stop them, and I do have the strength. She would have me leave him, he is foolish, and proud, and utterly ridiculous, yet I think I love him.
And he's on the edge of the cliff.
Mother, you'll have to wait."