When Mattie arrived home from work the next afternoon, she went in search of Lucien. She wanted him sober for Jean's phone call, and that meant finding him before he settled into an evening's serious drinking.
It quickly became clear he was not anywhere in the house or garden, unless he was in his bedroom. He wasn't answering her knock at his door. She opened it and peeped in; he wasn't in there either.
A month ago she would have assumed he was out on a house call, or at the police station, but he had done so little work recently that that didn't seem likely now. Mattie sat restlessly in the living room, one ear listening for his return, finding it hard to settle to her book.
Mrs Toohey arrived to cook dinner, and then Charlie came home, but neither of them had seen Lucien, and Charlie said there were no current cases he might be out on. They ate another meal without him and Mattie worried about how much longer he could go on like this.
Irritated that Lucien had gone out to avoid Jean's call, Mattie washed up after their meal, and Charlie dried the dishes.
"Jean's going to ring this evening," she said, to break the silence. "Do you want to speak to her?"
Charlie looked at her curiously. "Have you told her about Lucien?" She nodded, biting her lower lip.
"Maybe I shouldn't have. Now he's avoiding her. Or he's at the club, drinking." Mattie sighed. She should never have got involved with their problems, she thought.
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Jean had spent the afternoon in a state of nervous excitement. This evening's call was really their last chance; she wouldn't humiliate herself by going back to Lucien's house uninvited.
Even Ruby had noticed Jean seemed preoccupied, but she didn't ask her about it.
Playing with Amelia seemed to be the one thing that kept her from fretting, so Ruby left her with the baby and tackled the washing herself, a reversal of their usual roles. When Christopher came home, Jean was out for a walk with the baby in the pram.
His thoughts on the matter were to the point. "It'll be something to do with Lucien Blake. I knew he'd end up by hurting her. You should have seen them, Ruby, that evening in Ballarat. He had his hands all over her. But she's not mentioned him since she moved here, and I don't think he's phoned or written to her."
"Someone phoned her yesterday, long distance, but I don't know who it was," Ruby said thoughtfully. They exchanged a knowing look.
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After a near-silent dinner, Jean slipped into the hall, hoping not to be noticed. She sat on the stairs, looking at the phone, putting off the moment. Eventually she sighed to herself, and reached out for it, and dialled the familiar number with the phone balanced on her knee.
Rather to her surprise, Charlie answered, and they had a few minutes awkward small talk before he passed the phone to Mattie.
"Jean, I don't know where Lucien is. I haven't seen him at all today; I think he must have gone to the club."
Jean's heart sank. "Did you tell him I was going to phone this evening?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"Yes. I talked to him yesterday evening. I'm sorry. He knew you were intending to ring, but I'm sure he's just forgotten..." Mattie realised that what she had said was ridiculous, but she was trying to soften the blow for Jean.
Jean was not a woman to avoid a harsh truth. "No, Mattie, he just doesn't want to talk to me." She could feel tears building.
"Jean, he does love you." Even to Mattie, it sounded hollow.
"Maybe, in his own way. But not enough apparently. Mattie, I know you've tried, and thank you for that, but it's over. I can't keep on hoping he'll change." Jean was keen now to end the phone call, so she just sent her love to Mattie and said goodbye.
She hung up, and then stood up decisively, wiping away a stray tear with her hand. Fixing a smile on her face, she went back into the small front room of Christopher and Ruby's house. Perhaps it was time she moved into a flat of her own. Now she knew she would be staying in Adelaide for the long term, it would be better to have her own place, she reasoned to herself.
She made some tea for them all, then Ruby went upstairs to put Amelia to bed, and Christopher went into the garden to do some weeding, making the most of the last of the daylight.
Jean stood at the open back door for some time, watching him and reminding herself of all she had: two healthy sons, a daughter in law, a gorgeous granddaughter she was lucky enough to see every day. People she loved and who loved her. That would have to be enough for her.