This story is set about a month after Jean left for Adelaide at the end of series 3. In this story, Lucien didn't go with her, he let her go without saying anything.
This will have a few chapters, not sure quite how many yet!
"Beazley residence," Mattie had not heard that familiar voice for over a month, and she could not help smiling now.
"Jean? It's Mattie." She knew her voice was a little unsteady. She had hesitated for so long to make this call, and she still was not sure it was the right thing to do.
"Mattie! How lovely to hear from you. How are you?" Then Jean paused. A long distance call rarely meant good news. "Is something wrong?"
"Charlie and I are fine, Jean, but I'm afraid Lucien isn't. He...misses you." Mattie knew this was not what she wanted to say, but how could she explain?
"You said that before I even left Ballarat, that day in the hotel. Nothing's changed, Mattie. I promised Christopher I'd move to Adelaide." Jean's voice was sympathetic but firm.
"But Lucien's not the same, he's changed a lot, Jean. I think he's depressed. He's drinking more than ever, he's angry all the time, he doesn't want to speak to any of us." Mattie thought back to the previous evening when he had shouted at Charlie for disturbing him when he was 'busy'. Busy drinking, perhaps, but Lucien certainly was not doing any work to speak of.
"Jean, he's stopped seeing patients, and Frank Carlyle has been asking Alice to fill in as police surgeon. Lucien's too unreliable. He's either drunk or he doesn't turn up." Mattie took a deep breath. "I didn't know what to do, Jean."
Jean paused to think. She had spent the last month trying not to think about Lucien, unsuccessfully. The pain of missing him was back now, clutching at her stomach as she tried to explain to Mattie.
"Mattie, he let me go. He had every chance to ask me to stay, and he didn't." The pain of that rejection, his failure to say anything to stop her going, was still fresh. "What could I do now?"
What Mattie really wanted her to do was to get back on a bus and come home, but it seemed Jean was not going to do that. At least not without a lot more persuasion.
She sighed. It was time to get to the truth, and to cut through Jean's usual reticence.
"Jean, are you in love with Lucien?"
The reply was almost a whisper, an admission of defeat. "Yes."
"Then come home. Please, Jean. He can't go on like this."
"I can't just come back, Mattie. Quite apart from my promise to Christopher, I can't just come home. It would all go back to how it was before. I'd be the housekeeper, Lucien would be out working all the time, nothing would ever be resolved, and I'm not sure I could bear that again." Her voice dipped at the last phrase, and Mattie could tell it had cost her dearly to admit that.
"So what would Lucien have to do to persuade you to come back?" Mattie laughed as she said it, but Jean knew the question was a serious one. "Give up whisky? Turn up for meals?"
"He only has to ask, Mattie. But I need more than a job as his housekeeper. I need more of him than that."
They were both silent for a moment. Then Jean said, "I'll ring tomorrow evening. If he wants to speak to me then, he can. But if not, I won't ring again. I'll have to try to forget him."