When I'm with you

The traitor's soul. The view from the inside

William started the engine, determined to get out of here as soon as possible. The tears that were bursting from his eyes finally got the better of him and slowly rolled down his cheeks. He knew that Esther was in love with Edward, but he hoped that over the years her painful attachment to her brother would fade and she would be able to live a real, full life. How wrong he was.
As he started off, he saw Esther running around the corner. He stepped on the gas, but she was not going to give up, moving in front of him, right under the wheels of their family car. A second later, he slammed on the brakes, stopping an inch away from her. There are tears on Esther's face, but will can't look at her anymore.
"Go away," Babbington mouthed.
She shook her head.
"I said get out of the way," he said aloud.
There was so much desperation in these words that Esther felt uneasy. Her heart was breaking.
"No! " she almost shouted, drumming her hands on the sun — warmed hood, "please, lesten to me!"
Without wasting a second, William jumped out of the car and walked quickly in the opposite direction. He was ready to run, just not to see his own wife and not to hear anyone's unnecessary excuses.
"William, stop!" exclaimed Esther, running after him, "It's not what you think. Listen to me! What you just saw..."
"What did I see?",  asked Babbington, stopping abruptly and turning to his wife, "that you were hugging the man you loved? What do you think I should do now? Jump for happiness?"
"Will, I don't -" she began.
"Leave me alone, Esther" he said, and turned and walked resolutely on.
"You know me, Will! You know I hate betrayal! You know I would never do that to you! you must believe me!" she almost sobbed, "William, please! For the sake of our children! I can explain everything to you!"
He stopped, but couldn't bring himself to look back at her.
"You have a minute," he said dryly.
"I'm afraid I'll need a lot more time ..." said Esther.

Three hours earlier …

Mary, as promised, acted quickly. Less than five minutes later, an email arrived with a link to a folder in the cloud. Esther poured herself a Cup of coffee and started going through the files. The video presentation of the party itself, as expected, did not give her anything new. Tom announced the opening of the ball. God, his shoes were funny. Here are couples whirling in a waltz. She saw Charlotte and Stringer, Sidney looking at them, Georgie walking toward him. Now she and Babbington were waltzing with the others. Esther smiled, fondly Recalling the evening when, after her bitter disappointment in Edward, she had finally decided to give William a chance. The camera zoomed up to see Charlotte and Sidney standing on the balcony. Once, and Arthur performs his masterly steps... A few more minutes and the video is over. No sign of Mrs. Campion.
"Maybe I started all this for nothing?»  Esther thought to herself, but opened the next file. There were also shots from the party. Some shots were repeated, some were new. No one edited these parts. Then the music stopped and she heard and saw something she would rather never remember again. Edward burst through the main doors of the hall. He shouted, giving out very unflattering epithets to everyone present, and called her to come with him. Esther closed her eyes, feeling suddenly sick. The humiliation he'd put her through to amuse his overblown ego, how she would have survived it if it hadn't been Babbington with her. Lifting her eyelids, she saw Sidney and William tossing Edward out of the hall. She is no longer in the room. Everyone is confused, and there are dozens of surprised faces around.
"You must not judge her too harshly"' Mrs Griffiths can be heard saying off — screen.
"I don't judge her at all ," Sophia said dryly.
Bitter tears streamed down Esther's cheeks. Deep down, she had always known that her aunt loved her in her own way, but this was the first time Esther had seen it for herself.
The video, meanwhile, went on, the costume ball continued, and the guests, absorbed in the music, seemed to forget about the incident. It was the same as always, as if neither she nor Edward had ever been in their lives.
Esther rubbed her tired eyes and stared at the monitor again, suddenly it seemed to her that a familiar figure flashed on the screen, the one she was so desperately looking for and because of which she decided to go through all this horror again. She rewound the recording. Similar, Yes, but is it she? Or was Esther just imagining things?
"Damn, it's too hard to see" she muttered under her breath, and continued to stare.
Soon there was a commotion in the Assembly, the guests became agitated, and some rushed out of the hall, alternately shouting something inarticulate.
" A fire ... a fire has started" , Esther thought.
Now the cameraman ran out of the hall, ran down the street, making his way through the crowd of onlookers, and began to shoot as the fire devoured the office and the surrounding buildings. The fire spread very quickly, covering more and more rooms. "My God, where are the firemen? Why is it taking so long?»  Esther kept repeating to herself, as if that would make any difference.
Everyone was in the picture: Charlotte, Mary Sidney, and Tom. The men are all dirty and soot-covered, the women with frozen horror in their eyes. James Stringer, kneeling over the lifeless body of his father. He was sobbing in pain and despair.
Esther stopped the recording. It was too much for her to continue. Now she understood why Mary had never been able to watch the video, and why Tom had been crying.
When she came back, she opened the folder with the photos and began to look at them until her eyes were blurry. As expected, there was nothing interesting in the photo either. She closed the photo editor and was about to exit the folder when she noticed a video at the bottom of the list with the strange name "Entrance".
Opening it, Esther realized that she had already seen the footage. Most likely, the operator placed the camera somewhere near the entrance of the Assembly to get a picture of the arriving guests, without wasting his own time.
Without much hope, she pressed play and a whole line of people dressed in strange antique dresses flashed before her eyes. As she scanned the groups of people she knew, Esther felt a little sick at the constantly changing image. But the excitement that gripped her was taking its toll. If Eliza was at the party, she should have been in the frame. And indeed. As the main stream subsided, the one whose presence in Sanditon that day was unknown appeared on the Assembly stairs. In front of Esther stood Eliza Campion herself, wearing a high-waisted gold dress, a fan in her hands, and a haughty expression on her face.
"What the hell was she doing there ?»  Esther thought all the time.
Then the stairs were empty, and Esther turned on the rewind to see the end of the evening, or at least the moment when the uninvited guest would leave the party. Nothing happened for a long time, then Edward appeared on the stairs. Esther pressed play again. Her brother, swaying slightly and holding an open bottle, came to the stairs. Leaving the glass jar at the foot of it, he went up surprisingly quickly and disappeared through the main doors. Esther sped up the recording again. And now William and Sydney are kicking Edward out of the Assembly. He screams, clearly calling the men and her the very last words (but the words are not heard), falls down the stairs, gets up. William called someone on the phone and immediately went back inside, but Parker didn't leave, waiting patiently for something to happen. A taxi pulled up, and Sidney literally pushed Edward into the back seat, not forgetting to say a few words to the driver and hand him the money. The car pulled away, leaving Sidney alone. He stands motionless for a moment, as if watching the car drive away, and then shakes himself and goes back into the hall. Esther let out a sigh of relief, but continued to stare.
Nothing happens for another couple of minutes, but then Edward comes around the corner like a shadow or Ghost, goes to the stairs, and picks up his bottle. He takes a couple of long SIPS and looks up the stairs, Smoking nervously, still cursing out loud. Esther pressed the zoom button and made a screenshot of the screen, automatically sending it to print. Edward turned around, obviously intending to leave, but suddenly looked around, as if there was something Esther could not hear. Without wasting a second, she returned to her original scale and almost cried out in surprise when she saw that Eliza Campion was standing right in front of Edward.
Upon seeing Edward smiled greasily, awkwardly adjusting his hair and spreading his feathers like a peacock in a zoo. Esther couldn't see her face, but she could tell that Eliza had done something similar in response. He lit another cigarette and offered it to her. Campion took it, lit it with the lighter Esther had given to her brother, and took a deep drag on it. Edward was talking about something, gesturing at the Assembly as if complaining or venting his displeasure. She was talking back to him, making gestures in the air that Mrs. Babbington couldn't understand. He was clearly drunk and angry, so Esther couldn't even guess how it would end.
What happened next was beyond her comprehension. Eliza Campion moved closer to him and took his hand in hers, then touched his cheek, and a few moments later was kissing him on the lips. Esther was in shock.
Unable to wrap her mind around what had happened, she looked on. The kiss became impetuous and passionate. Edward's hands ran down her body and finally slid under her skirt, pulling it up to her waist, exposing her thin, pale thighs and buttocks in white lace swimming trunks.
Esther closed her eyes, disgusted with both of them.
After a while , Eliza took a step back and continued to say something to Edward, constantly lighting the lighter that was still in her hand. The bright flames flickered on, off, and on again, mesmerizing Esther as she stared at the screen. She scanned the screen again and typed in the photo. Finally, Edward broke into a satisfied smile and turned to point Eliza's way to the next alley. A few moments later, the two of them, hand in hand, set off in the direction her brother had indicated.
Esther rubbed her eyes wearily, digesting what she saw.
"But what does it do? I'll never know what he was told," she thought, " if only Edward were here. What should I do next? "Esther walked around the office, unable to find a place. She had to find out what really happened that night.
The video, meanwhile, continued on, and Diana and Arthur appeared on the screen, heading towards the house, and a couple of minutes later, coming back screaming.
"A fire", she thought, "Stop, Edward and Eliza went in the same direction just a few minutes ago, they couldn't have missed the fire... why didn't they raise the alarm? If only... no, it can't be..."
All the most terrible forebodings, thoughts, and fears rushed at once upon Esther. She could've driven them away from herself with this moment she knew that whatever was supposed to talk to your brother." But, hell, how do I find it? ", she said aloud. Five years ago, she cut off all ties with him. 
Esther turned off the video and looked at the picture of Edward again.
"Stop. Where did he live when he came to Sanditon?", she thought suddenly, and ran to the living room where she had left her phone.
She dialed the number of her old friend and rival from memory and put the phone to her ear.
"Crown hotel, how can I help you?" a friendly female voice asked.
"Hello, I'd like to talk to your Manager," Esther said calmly, actually barely able to control her own excitement.
"Just a second," the girl said.
There was a crack in the phone, and a moment later Esther heard another voice.
"Hello, how can I help you?", a pleasant baritone voice asked.
"Good morning, Alex, it's Esther," she blurted out.
"Mrs. Babbington! What can I do for you?" he asked in surprise.
"I need to know if Edward Denham has been staying with you," she said, "Maybe he left some contacts?"
Esther heard the sound of the keyboard. Alex searched for data.
"No, unfortunately, he didn't leave any contacts," Alex replied, but when he heard Esther curse, he added , " but I don't think it matters, because he's still here?"
"Has Edward left yet?" she exclaime, "is he at the Crown now?"
"Yes, in room 203," Alex said.
Esther wrote down the numbers in her notebook and circled them several times automatically to keep them in her memory.
"Thank you, Alex, you really helped me out", she said.
"You're welcome, but I'd hurry if I were you," he said, Mr. Denham wanted to leave us today in the morning"
"Yes, I'll be right there," she said hastily, and hung up.
"Is something wrong?"  William's voice suddenly sounded so familiar behind her
"What?"  Esther asked almost fearfully, trying to buy some time to decide what to do next.
She slipped the photo of Edward into her diary and tossed it carelessly on the table, as if there was nothing interesting in it. She didn't want to lie to William, just as much as she didn't want to reopen his old wounds. Edward had always been a sore subject for their family. A man who brought pain to both spouses. She knew that she should have told him, explained everything, but there was so little time that Esther went against herself. She lied to her husband. Ridiculous, stupid, shameless, and unfair. Hastily gathering up her bag and muttering something to her husband, she left the house. Esther hated herself for being weak, and hated Edward for making her false and pathetic again.