Figuring Out the Timing

Jean was just about to set the table for a romantic dinner for Lucien and herself when the phone rang. She sighed, hoping it wouldn't take away from their evening. It was very rare that both Charlie and Matthew were working through dinnertime and Lucien wasn't off on some case with them.

The ringing stopped. Lucien must have picked up the phone in the study. Or, even better, whoever had called had thought the better of it and hung up.

No such luck. Lucien came dashing out a moment later. "There's a body at the barber's," he announced, grabbing his keys and hat. He paused to quickly kiss her on the cheek. "I'll be back as soon as I can, love. Sorry about dinner."

"I'll keep a plate for you," she replied, trying not to be upset at the disruption to her carefully made plans.

When she was left alone in the kitchen, Jean stared at her beautiful roast and got immediately frustrated. Why did she bother trying to make a nice evening for them? They were constantly interrupted by his work or their lodgers or any number of other things that took their attention.

Knowing she had to eat anyway, Jean carved a small helping onto a plate for herself and sat in the kitchen quietly by herself.

Lucien returned home very late from the initial autopsy examination. He and Alice had done as much as they could for the time being. Hoping to salvage at least part of his evening with Jean, Lucien raced home.

He found her at the staircase. "Jean, I'm sorry I'm late."

"I understand," she replied, trying not to sound as disappointed as she really was. "There's a plate in the oven for you. I don't think it's dried out too much. I'm off to bed." She kissed his cheek and turned to go up to her room.

"You aren't going to join me?"

"It's very late, Lucien. I have an early appointment in the morning."

He frowned. "You do?"

"Yes. I'm doing some extra sewing for some of the ladies in town. I have to see Mrs. Daniels for a fitting first thing."

Lucien found himself confused and strangely hurt. "Why are you doing extra sewing?"

"I want to save a little money for our wedding. You don't think I'm going to let you pay for everything, do you? And besides, soon enough I won't be getting paid wages from you, so I'll need some source of income outside the house," she pointed out.

"Jean, I don't want you to worry about money."

"I'm not worried," she assured him. "But this is what I'm doing. We'll have an evening together some other night. Today was just bad timing." She kissed him one last time. "Goodnight, love."

He sat alone in the kitchen eating the marvelous meal she had painstakingly prepared for them to share together. As he chewed, he contemplated whether he could actually say no when the police called about a body.

Two days later, Lucien tried to arrange another romantic evening alone for the two of them. Matthew was at a dinner with his sister and Rose, who had brought Charlie home to meet the family.

"We have the whole house to ourselves. I say we light some candles, put on some music, and snuggle by the fire, hmm?" he suggested with a happy smile.

"Lucien, we can't. Don't you remember? Agnes invited us out to dinner to celebrate our engagement. You'd better get your jacket now or we'll be late."

He sighed, seeing that he should have known Jean hadn't gotten all dressed up and put her hair up just so for an evening at home. Of course they were going out. And he should have remembered about Agnes. She'd practically forced them to accept her invitation. That was the way with Agnes Clasby.

"Are we ever going to get a moment to ourselves?" he grumbled as they got in the car.

"We have plenty of moments to ourselves. But I know what you mean. The timing had been all off for us this week," she lamented.

He placed a gentle hand on her knee. "We'll figure something out soon."

Jean saw the lonely look on his face and felt exactly the same way. She saw him every day and they lived in the house together, but it felt as though they hadn't really spent time together in quite a while. And she wanted to fix that.

"Matthew, I need you out of the house," Jean stated the next night as soon as the Chief Superintendent walked through the door.

"What? Why?"

"Because I do," Jean replied evasively. "Shall I call Alice to come pick you up? You go get changed out of uniform and I'll see that she's here to get you."

"Jean, what's going on?" Matthew asked, feeling frustrated with her insistence.

"I am engaged to be married and there are policemen crawling underfoot!" she blurted.

He finally understood her meaning. "I was wondering when something like this would happen," Matthew replied knowingly. "Don't call Alice. I'll go to the Club. You two take your time," he told her with a smirk.

Charlie and Rose were about to come into the house as Matthew was leaving.

"Come on, you two. We're going out. My treat."

"But Uncle Matthew..." Rose protested.

"Not open for discussion. Get in the car," Matthew ordered.

Jean watched from the front window with a satisfied smile. After the car drove away, she made her way to the study. "Lucien, we have the house to ourselves for the evening," she informed him.

His face lit up. "Oh well done, Jean."

He stood and crossed the room to meet her. He stroked her cheek and leaned in to kiss her when the phone rang. Lucien groaned, resting his forehead against hers. "You'd better get that. It's probably important," she whispered sadly.

Lucien reluctantly let her go to pick up the phone. "I don't have time now. Call back tomorrow," he said before promptly hanging up.

Jean was surprised and delighted by his action. "Couldn't you have seen who it was and seen to it later this evening?"

"No," he replied returning to take her in his arms. "I'm going to take my time with you. All the time I can."

Jean just smiled as they leaned in to share a romantic kiss. The first of many for their evening alone.