"Er.. What room is it?" Jack asked. The manager flew into action - he fancied himself as a rescuer of damsels in distress, so he quickly amended the guest register, collected the room keys and motioned for the bell boy to collect their baggage and follow them up to the room.
Once inside the room, Jack carefully laid Miss Fisher on the bed under the watchful eye of the manager. She murmured and rolled over, away from him as if to sleep.
"Will there be anything else, Sir?" he asked.
"Yes, one last thing - I imagine Miss Fisher would like to freshen up a little after her long journey. Could you send someone in to run a bath for her, I'm sure she'll wake long enough for that and she'll feel so much better for it, don't you think?"
"Of course Sir!" and with that, he was gone.
"Mrs Robinson?!"she said accusingly, sitting up from her 'sleeping' position on the bed.
Jack burst out laughing at her. "I couldn't resist" he replied. Her eyes narrowed.
"Have no fear, Phryne, you will always be 'Miss Fisher' to me." he said that so earnestly she knew he was telling the truth. He blushed a little as he smiled at her.
"I'm sure I can think of something else you can't resist, Jack Robinson" she said as she slowly took off her gloves and scarf whilst crawling towards him on the bed...
The tables had turned again. This new relationship thing might end up being lots of fun, she thought.
Jack put his hand up to halt her "The maid will be coming in to run your bath any second."
"Not even a 'hello' kiss on the cheek, Inspector?" she said, temptingly.
Jack coughed "No."
He knew that if he touched her again, he would lose all self control and he couldn't risk blowing the cover he so carefully constructed with the manager, if the maid walked in on them. He didn't know who was likely to be looking for her, but he didn't want any further interruptions after this.
Just then, the maid knocked politely and he ushered her in to the room.
"Just the bath is it, Mrs Robinson?" she asked.
They both looked at her for a second before remembering she was talking to Phryne.
"Yes, Thankyou." As much as she wanted to ravage Jack, right at that moment the bath was the most inviting thing she had seen. She quickly walked over to the bathroom, undressed and almost fell into the tub. For the first time in weeks she could truly relax.
The maid left after being assured that Phryne could cope on her own from there and Jack was alone in the room.
He sat on the sofa feeling quite pleased for himself, wondering if it were all just a dream.
Phryne allowed herself to soak for a while and slowly washed away the weeks of grime from the flight. She felt like she was washing away the effects of her father too - now that he was safely deposited with her mother, he was no longer her responsibility. Finally she could truly relax. She closed her eyes and let her mind unravel the past weeks; uncle Eugene wasn't a threat any more, her father really did love her mother, her mother was happy to have her husband returned and was financially stable again, and Jack had stepped forward to pursue her.
She sighed. Jack. At this point, she really didn't know who was pursuing whom. She knew she wanted to be with Jack, she had played a card and had been waiting for him to do the same. She had stepped forward and so had he - was this a card game or a dance? A competition or ... Phryne realised that they were meeting in the middle - a true partnership, which was something completely new to her. It was scary and exciting at the same time.
She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax again. She really did need 3 days sleep to allow her tired muscles to relax! Whilst she was fit and really loved flying her plane, her body was definitely not designed to sit in the cockpit for weeks at a time, unable to stretch out or move her arms. She was much more used to action - running, dancing, climbing or lounging in the parlour; definitely not sitting bolt upright for 10 hours a day...
Jack unpacked his suitcase, taking just one drawer and a small portion of the hanging space for his tux, his blue dinner suit and one other day suit. He looked over at Phryne's travel bag & wondered if she knew that Mr Butler had given him a second suitcase of clothes for her. He had given Mr B one of his famous bemused smiles when he'd been handed the case - it matched the one Mr Butler had bought for Jack. He knew he was being manipulated by the man, but Jack found that he didn't mind at all. It also made the ruse more believable to have matching luggage and on his travels everyone just thought he had a lot of clothes...
He decided against unpacking any of her bags and sat back on the sofa. He wished he'd brought the newspaper up with him, although even downstairs, he'd been reading the same article a dozen times, mind racing - what to do, what to say?
He decided that she would be a while, so he would work on his cover story and went back downstairs to talk to the manager again.
