Finally Gabriel went home and Zelma went to her home. It was still snowing slightly and if it was worse by the next day they would be making plans to bring Zelma into the main house, see what George was doing and if necessary, have Gabriel and Si staying. Liza would go to the store the next day to make sure that they had ample supplies should they be stuck at home for some days as had happened the previous year.
When they got to their bedroom, Patrick insisted that he studied how Liza had hidden her underclothes. Liza giggled and showed him that her petticoats were shaped and sewn in place to the bodice, but her knickerbockers were tied in place with loops and had a flap which she could open if she had a call of nature. A type of corset was made within the material of the bodice. In fact, the whole dress accommodated all the underwear.
“But how do you get out of it all?” asked Patrick.
“You just undo the laces at the back and everything falls off,” said Liza.
“Oh, ingenious,” said Patrick as he undid the laces at the back of her dress and let it all fall away from her. “Yes, definitely ingenious,” he said smiling as if he had achieved something clever.
“Happy New Year, Patrick,” said Liza. “It’s got to be better than the last one, hasn’t it?”
“We’ve been all right though, Liza. You and I are happy, aren’t we? It’s just that we’ve had one or two very sad happenings and I know I reacted very badly when I thought you didn’t love me anymore, but I know that you do and I’m still very sorry about that. We’re going to have a much better year, I’m sure of it,” said Patrick.
Liza climbed into bed and Patrick soon followed and they made love before falling into a very comfortable sleep and her last thoughts that night reiterated what Patrick had said, “Yes, next year is going to be a much better year,” and her dreams were of pleasant things to come.
Epilogue
Once again Ellie Fuller felt drained after writing about the highs and lows of Liza Marchant’s life. The highs were always related to Patrick and her boys as well as the wonderful relationships that she had with the people of both the town of Benson and the families at the fort.
The lows were naturally the death of her daughter, little Meg, at only five months old, and also how she nearly lost her life giving birth to her.
Ellie now preferred to close the chapter on this part of Liza’s life and she was going to again rest before she continued on Liza’s journey through life.
She was getting increasingly concerned that the current Lord Edgeworth was now completely ignoring her requests to discuss his knowledge of Liza in relation to his family.
“I know that he must have been completely misled regarding Liza’s place in his history and I wonder whether Jamie Edgeworth’s first wife, Evelyn, had anything to do with it,” Ellie said one day to her brother Eddy.
“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Eddy. “It seems to me that no matter what Liza did to help that woman, it was only appreciated for a short while and then she reverted to her hatred of her. I wonder why she hated her so much.”
“It has to be because she was caught out forging Liza’s name on various documents in the early days of them knowing one another, although it originally was for the benefit of James’ son, Frederick, but she stupidly did it again for the delusional Felicity Fuller,” said Ellie. “I don’t think that I have finished discovering the depths that Liza and Evelyn are associated, and I believe that is going to be interesting and will probably shock the current Lord Edgeworth.”
“I suppose that as you are delving into Liza’s life your loyalties are to her and you will have to tell Lord Edgeworth what you have discovered, no matter how much it will ruin his illusions of his family,” said Eddie.
“I believe it’s about time that Liza was acknowledged for the good that she did during her life and from what I am beginning to discover it seems that Lord Edgeworth would not currently have a roof over his head without her, so why should his feelings be spared when Liza has been maligned throughout the years?” said Ellie somewhat defensively.
Eddy laughed, “Don’t have a go at me for the current Lord Edgeworth’s blinkered attitude towards Liza. I’m thinking that perhaps we should now put some of her jewellery up for sale, what do you think, Ell?”
“I suppose so. We have no use for it, so it would be better to have the money for it,” said Ellie reluctantly and as she said that there was a loud crash from the bedroom that she was using. They both jumped and rushed into the room only to find that a large and very imposing picture had crashed from the wall, smashing the glass and the frame onto the floor.
They cleared up the mess and when Ellie was asleep that night she dreamed of Liza and the message that she kept getting was from a very sad looking Liza and her words were that the jewellery was not theirs to sell and that they would eventually find out who it really belonged to.
Eddy came bursting into her room, “I’ve just had a dream, Ellie, and Liza told me that the jewellery wasn’t ours to sell,” he exclaimed.
“I know, Ed, I’ve just had the same dream and she will eventually let us know who it really belongs to,” said a fairly calm Ellie.
“It’s a long time since I’ve had any of those dreams; in fact I haven’t had any since you arrived here. It has rather unsettled me,” said Eddy.
“I’m used to her coming to me, so I’m not concerned, but we mustn’t sell the jewellery. It will all become clear in the fullness of time. I suppose I had better start researching the next chapter in her life, I thought I was going to have a break and rest for a while. I don’t suppose they will want me back at the New York Times; I’ve been gone well past the time that I said,” said Ellie.
“Don’t worry, Ellie, I won’t let you starve. Has Liza indicated what the next part should be called?” asked Eddy.
“Yes, it’s going to be ‘Now and Forever’, and as yet, I don’t know why that should be,” said Ellie.
Against All Odds Page 84