The Heart-Skip
The first time it happened, Jean had dropped the frying pan and ruined breakfast.
"Mum!" Jack whined, annoyed his eggs and bacon were on the floor.
Christopher Jr. hopped up from his chair to help clean things up, but he was watching his mother very carefully. He'd never seen her like this. But since Dad had gone off to the war, he'd seen Mum be very different than she ever had been before.
Jean was frozen where she stood. Fear gripped her from the inside out. She'd never had this feeling before, but she instantly knew what it was.
It was an old wives' tale that your heart would skip a beat when your soulmate was in danger. Most people didn't believe it. But most people had never had their heart physically skip a beat, and most people didn't have a soulmate at all, let alone one who ever got themselves into trouble.
But that's what Jean had felt in the kitchen that morning. She assumed, obviously, that Christopher was experiencing danger wherever he was in battle. She'd never felt anything from him before, but she knew he'd never been in such a frightening situation before.
This assumption changed, however, when she'd gotten word of Christopher's death. The heart-skip, as it was known, had plagued her almost constantly after that first feeling. But the army informed her that Christopher had been killed in battle months earlier. Jean had felt the heart-skip that morning.
That was when she understood that Christopher hadn't been her soulmate. Someone else out there, in quite a bit of danger, was waiting for them to find each other.
But the war ended and the years went by, and the frequency of the heart-skips lessened but never really went away. Her boys grew up and lived their own lives. She moved into Dr. Blake's house to work in his employ.
The heart-skips became a strangely comforting experience. She would worry every time she felt one, but the next one would prove that he'd escaped whatever trouble had befallen him, only to find more. He obviously lived a very exciting life, that soulmate of hers. And while she worried about him, Jean couldn't help but feel the smallest bit jealous that he could go off on his adventures and the most danger Jean ever experienced was driving Dr. Blake's old car in the rain after dark. She doubted her soulmate had ever felt a heart-skip for her.
Dr. Blake got sick, and Jean sent for his son, Lucien. Patients needed seeing to, and Dr. Blake deserved to be with family at the very end. When the doctor died, Lucien stayed to get things in order. Jean felt very precarious in her situation, unsure of whether he would remain in Ballarat, and regardless of his plans for himself, would he discharge her and force her to find another place to live and work?
She would lie awake at night, stressed over her fate. Probably best that she stayed up late, since Lucien needed help getting his drunken soul into bed more often than not. It was a help that she hadn't felt the heart-skip in quite some time; she had enough to worry about without her soulmate causing problems, assuming he was even still alive.
Lucien Blake had never felt a heart-skip. And at his age, he assumed he never would. After all, not everyone had a soulmate. Mei Lin had been in plenty of danger when Singapore was taken by the Japanese and he'd rushed his family out before he himself was captured. But he had never felt that telltale sensation.
The first time it happened, he didn't even recognize it for what it was. He himself was being held at gunpoint at the time. It wasn't new to Lucien, after his time in the war and being held prisoner and working as a spy. But it had been a few years, and he wasn't used to it anymore. Yes, that must have been what he'd felt. Just his own nerves as Jean accosted Sergeant Hannam, her shaky hand pointing her dead husband's service pistol.
Jean had held a gun before; she'd worked most her life on a farm. But way off somewhere, her soulmate had taken that particular moment to get himself into danger again. The heart-skip rattled her nerves as she rescued Lucien from Hannam's threats.
Ever so slowly, Jean started to notice the increased frequency of the heart-skips and the way they coincided with Lucien Blake getting in over his head with murder suspects and such. She tried to ignore it. Surely it couldn't be…no, that wasn't even a rational thought for her to have. He was her employer. Her friend. Her brilliant, kind, gorgeous friend. Her feelings for Lucien Blake were complicated enough as it was without entertaining the idea that perhaps he was her soulmate.
But she couldn't deny it after a while. And she couldn't possibly address it with him. There was already enough tension between them, too much temptation to fall into something improper and ruin all the good they brought to each other's lives. That was why Christopher's request to have her help Ruby with baby Amelia was such a godsend. She insisted on moving to Adelaide. Best to escape Lucien, even if she couldn't escape the heart-skips.
Jean squeezed her hands into fists as she waited to say goodbye to him at the bus station, willing for him to appear. But she felt the heart-skip and prayed he stayed safe; he obviously wouldn't be coming to see her off now. When he showed up on the bus and held her close to him the whole ride to Adelaide, she couldn't believe she was in her soulmate's arms at last.
The two of them embarked on their beautiful, happy romance. She found she could use the heart-skip as a warning, as a message directly to her to find a way to save the man she loved. It had worked exactly that way when he'd nearly been crushed under a car and Jean had to hit a man with a wrench to rescue him. She vowed she'd rescue him every time she felt that heart-skip.
God willing, Jean would never have to tell Lucien that he was her soulmate. They had fallen in love without that knowledge, proof in Jean's mind that they truly were destined to be together.
That all changed, however, when Mei Lin showed up at their door. Everything in Jean screamed at her to tell him, to confess that he couldn't be with his wife because it was Jean who felt her heart skip a beat for him. But what if he didn't feel the heart-skip for her? She'd never really experienced true danger like Lucien had. Mei Lin certainly had; maybe Lucien got a heart-skip for his wife. Could that be? Could Jean have her soulmate in Lucien but he have a soulmate in Mei Lin?
Jean soldiered on, trying as hard as she could manage to support Lucien and Mei Lin and whatever they might face. After all, it was her job. And she loved him so deeply that she wouldn't rest until he was safe and happy and had anything he could ever want in life.
Lucien was sitting calmly when he felt the heart-skip. There was no mistaking it this time. He gasped and whispered, "Jean."
"What about her?" Mei Lin asked him curiously, wondering what could have prompted this strange reaction.
"She's in danger," he replied instinctively. "I felt…"
Mei Lin smiled sadly at her husband, placing her hand on his forearm and giving it a small squeeze. "We've never felt a heart-skip for each other, have we? I was so certain that I would feel it for you during the war if I would feel it at all. But it seems we were never meant to last, Lucien. It is plain for anyone to see that your heart belongs to Jean and hers to you."
Both Lucien and Jean lost count of the heart-skips they felt in their pursuit of Robert Hannam. And when it was all over and Mei Lin was on her way to Hong Kong, they were finally free to share a passionate kiss, filled with the catharsis they both needed after such an ordeal.
"Jean, there's something I need to ask you," he said, stopping her from walking away from him.
"Inside, Lucien," she insisted.
He took her hand and led her into the parlor to sit comfortably on the sofa. "Jean," he breathed, taking her hand in his and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "I have to ask…how long have you known that we're soulmates?"
Tears pricked her eyes. "You felt the heart-skip?" she asked, her voice cracking.
"A few times. I didn't realize what it was until the other day. Hannam attacked you at the house when I wasn't here. The other times we were together when it happened, and I wasn't sure if it wasn't just me. How long have you known?"
She squeezed his hand. "I first felt it during the war. I thought it was for Christopher. But he was killed, and I felt it more and more. Almost constantly. I suppose that's when you were in the camp. Over our time together, I started to notice the pattern. It was why I wanted to go to Adelaide, actually," she explained with a hint of shame. "I didn't hope for anything more between us, and the possibility of it was too frightening, and I couldn't stay here and constantly be filled with love and worry for you and not be able to do anything about it."
Lucien cupped her cheek. "Oh, my darling Jean, I cannot tell you how glad I am that fate agrees with me about you."
She chuckled, nuzzling into his hand.
He continued, "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Jean's eyes went wide, and she leaned away from his touch. She hadn't expected his renewed attempt at a proposal so soon after Mei Lin left. "Are you…are you sure? I know the heart-skip is new for you. It shouldn't dictate your choices."
"Jean, I have wanted to marry you since I first held you in my arms."
"On the bus to Adelaide?"
"No, actually. The day Jack left. You were crying in the sunroom, and you let me comfort you. And that was the moment I knew I never want to live a day of my life without you. That's why I said I'm glad fate agrees with me. I'd want to marry you even if I never felt that damned heart-skip. And I hope I never feel it again, knowing what it means. I want to love you and protect you for the rest of our lives, if you'll let me. Jean, will you marry me?" he asked again.
Jean put her hand on his neck and pulled him into another passionate kiss. This time, their kiss was filled with the promise of a future together. She rested her forehead against his. "Yes, Lucien, I will marry you," she whispered before his lips captured hers once more.
After that, Jean felt the heart-skip at least a dozen more times, never worse than when he was stabbed, nearly to death. But she never stopped trying to rescue him, holding his hand and kissing his wounds.
Lucien felt the most powerful heart-skip when they were in the graveyard with Norman Baker pointing a gun at them. Jean pushed Lucien aside to stand between him and Baker's gun, shouting at him to shoot her because without Lucien, she'd have nothing left. Lucien felt physically ill with the violence of the heart-skip and his own desperate worry over his fiancée.
When Baker was arrested, Lucien whirled back to Jean and grabbed her by her arms tightly. "Don't you dare do that ever again!" he shouted.
"Then stop getting guns pointed at you!" she shouted right back. "I meant every word I said to that man, Lucien. Without you, I have nothing. You are my life and my love and my entire world. You are my soulmate, and I don't take those heart-skips lightly."
He loosened his grip on her to pull her into a protective embrace. "I'm so sorry, Jean. I love you more than anything, my darling, and I cannot lose you," he murmured, pressing desperate kisses on her temple and forehead.
"And I cannot lose you. I am going to be your wife, and I will give myself to you for the rest of our lives. And I just want that to be a very, very long time," she told him.
Lucien knew he couldn't reasonably promise that he'd never cause her to feel that heart-skip ever again. But he did know one thing. "I plan on having a very long marriage to you, and I won't allow it to be cut short."
They held each other tight, feeling the other's heart beat with their own, knowing that their hearts would forever be entwined, and they would protect the heart they loved until the end of time.