Enola Holmes - The Witch

CHAPTER 11

"Is this how you're living?" Tewkesbury asked, walking through the room and looking around.

"Did you just rent a room at the Ritz?" I asked opening the window. Enola was still reading her newspapers sitting on the bed, a small stack on the floor.

"I afforded myself a shade more comfort than this."

"Well, the woman Enola and I boarded off assured us this was a fine room."

Tewkesbury began taking off his coat, placing it on the footboard of the bed. "The woman you boarded off lied." He began staring at something and I turned to see Enola's undergarments still out.

"Enola, I told you to put these away while I was out."

"Sorry, I was busy reading." I quickly put them away and turned back to the conversation.

"There is but a single bed, which Enola is using, so you'll have to sleep on the floor. I've taken this side of the bed's flooring, you can have the other if you'd like." He seemed to pay little to no mind of what I said and walked over to the bed, looking at Enola's papers.

"You two keep old newspapers?"

"Be careful with that. I haven't finished reading it yet." Enola stated, finally looking up from her paper.

"Oh, I'm in this one." He said, showing me a picture of his photo.

"So you are."

"Why do you keep all these old newspapers?"

We were quiet for a second, feeling that I shouldn't share if Enola wasn't ready. "My mother. I'm waiting for ner to leave me a message. She hasn't yet."

"'Message?'"

"She likes ciphers. Coded messages that need to be deciphered." I added.

"And why would she leave you a message?"

"Because she left us." Enola stated sadly. I know it was a sad thing to say, but it felt comforting that she said us instead of me. "And I thought she meant for us to find her, but I'm not sure she did now. So I left her a message, and I'm hopeful of a reply. I keep the newspapers to check." She picked one up, but it fell from her hand, and the two of them started to pick it up. If she wanted to admit it or not, I knew Tewkesbury was growing on her. Even just a little. I went and sat down next to Enola on the other side, by the pillows. I noticed the look of pity that was being thrown our way, and apparently so did Enola. "Don't look at me like that."

"I'm sorry," said Tewkesbury.

"I don't want your pity, Tewkesbury." He continued to look at Enola with the same look, though trying his best to hide it. "If you don't stop looking at me like that, Viscount Irritation, Marquess of Bothersomeshire, I'll murder you myself." It got silent for a second when Tewkesbury finally spoke up.

"People don't seem to want us, do they?"

"No." I answered.

"Still, at least we've got each other." I stood up and walked over to the door to grab my spellbook. "What's this?"

I turned to see Tewkesbury holding the envelope that I had gotten from Edith. I walked over and sat in between Enola and Tewkesbury, grabbing the envelope from him. "It's from my father. When we were still deep in the search for Enola's mother, someone who knew my parents gave me this. Apparently the person I had been living with all these years wasn't my father."

"Who was he?" Tewkesbury asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that my real father left this for me, and I was to open it with people who I could trust. I trust you two." I turned to the envelope and began opening it to see two papers, one longer one that seemed to be a song, and one shorter one that seemed to be plain writing.