InsaneJournal

Second chance, perhaps?
Who: Eli Donovan & Lizzie MacKenzie
When: August 3, 1867; evening
Where: The MacKenzie homestead
Status: Complete
What: Eli isn't really sure what to expect when he answers Lizzie's note later that evening...

***

It had occurred to Eli on the way over to the MacKenzie home later that evening that he could've ignored the note completely. It had been over two weeks since he'd last been over this way, and there had been no sign of Lizzie even receiving his own letter, and he'd nearly resigned himself to the fact that she was refusing to talk to him and he'd missed his chance. In fact, it probably would've been better for his own sanity if he'd put Mary Elizabeth MacKenzie out of his mind once and for all.

He'd been working even longer hours than usual in the stables for the past two weeks, losing himself in the most mundane, monotonous chores he could find. By the time he finished each work day, every muscle in his body was sore, and he was too exhausted to brood about the fact that Lizzie had essentially given him the mitten. If she didn't want to talk to him, that was that, and he'd stay out of her way as much as was humanly possible in a small town like New Shelby.

That wasn't to say he didn't wonder where exactly he'd gone so horribly wrong. He'd stuffed his foot in his mouth that night on her porch, to be sure, but he'd done his best to explain himself then. And it probably hadn't helped that it had taken him a fortnight to get around to speaking to Robert, but she'd seemed to wish to be friends, at the very least, and to outright avoid him for two whole weeks made him wonder just how badly he'd botched things.

It was too late to turn around and go back home now, though, so he reckoned he'd let her say her piece, at least. The small package tucked under his arm seemed to burn a hole through his shirt, but it seemed a meager sort of peace offering now that he was standing back on her front porch again. Eli studied the toes of his boots -- brushed as clean as he could get them, the more fool he -- for a long moment before shaking his head. It would've been rude to ignore Lizzie's note, and what's more, he hadn't wanted to. He'd wanted to see her, even if she only wished to tell him to stay away from her from now on. With a grimace at his own gluttony for punishment, he knocked firmly on the MacKenzie's front door.