Dark Secrets
Chapter 1 - Changes
Since the horrific storms and her admission of an uncontrollable fear of thunder and lightning, Jean and Lucien had grown even closer. At home, even in front of Charlie, they were more open about their love; hands touching when they passed around the house, sitting closer together on the couch and snatched kisses as Lucien left on a police case or home visit to a patient. The one thing they worried about; more Jean than Lucien; was Charlie seeing Jean leaving Lucien's room if she had spent the night there. To start with, they had shared the bed when one or the other was feeling a bit low, and they both agreed that Charlie shouldn't be put in the position of having to deny or confirm certain domestic arrangements. As it was, there was enough talk in town about them, which actually pushed them closer rather than driving them apart. Charlie, as it happened did know and didn't see it as any of his business, they were mature adults, not his brothers who he had to keep a moral eye on. And he wasn't disturbed by Lucien's nightmares as much. What he couldn't understand was why the women of Ballarat should bad mouth the Doctor's receptionist; after all she had access to patient records and probably knew far more about them than they would like. Premature births...ahem!
Since Mattie had left for London there was no district nurse. No-one had been appointed to fill her place, so Lucien had now taken on the role of checking immunisations records and children's health checks. In fact he had shown Jean how to check the records and she arranged the health check appointments and immunisation clinics. She also updated the records, which is how the truth about Lucien's claustrophobia came out.
A farming family about an hour out of Ballarat had recently been blessed with a baby boy. Jean was doing the weekly record checks and noticed that this mother hadn't attended clinic since the boy had been born. Looking back through the file she found birth notes for two girls, but no other records. She found this odd, Mattie was usually so thorough and Lucien, for all his haphazard ways with receipts, was usually on top of records, even if he actually asked Jean to check the paperwork.
When he came home that evening, after his now customary greeting, a kiss and hug for Jean, she showed him what she had found.
'Oh dear,' he mused, 'That's not good. I'll pop over tomorrow if I can. Do you want to come too?' he was hopeful she would say yes, he didn't like confronting those who had no regard for his profession.
'Sorry, Lucien, I'd love to but I promised Alice I'd show her how to do a one-pot-roast, as it's her free day. I can cancel of you think it's necessary.' she smiled sweetly. She quite enjoyed the odd times she and Alice met up: they had developed a friendship since the time Mei Lin was there. Apart from the Sewing Circle she had few female friends she could confide in and Lucien knew that these days that was important to her.
'No, you have your 'Girlie Time', I know Alice is the one woman you can spend time with, without fear of rumours being passed around town.'
So he knew about the tittle-tattle; good. Jean found that talking to Alice reduced the chance of her having a meltdown if it all got on top of her. She had to admit she found it difficult sometimes, the sharing of the bed had become more than comfort for low times and they had been 'intimate' on more than one occasion. they knew they had to be so careful; Jean knew it was still possible for her to conceive so precautions had to be taken- this was down to Lucien - nipping into a chemist when he went to Melbourne or Bendigo, anywhere but Ballarat! And preferably not the same place twice. Lucien would do anything for Jean. This was against her Catholic principles, but then again she was planning to marry a divorcee, also against the Church's teachings. Life could be so complicated sometimes. Having Lucien's child was not the problem, but the scandal...