Thanks for the comments and reviews. The babysitting seemed to go down surprisingly well!
There will be one more chapter to this story after this one, then I've got a few half finished drafts I'm going to try to finish.
Two evenings later, Lucien drew the car up in front of the Soldier's Hill Hotel. He turned to Jean and sighed miserably. Then she smiled beautifully at him and he was won over, at least for the moment.
"I know, I know, it's only for a little while. But it's too long for me." He ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her, slowly and leisurely, making Jean choose the moment to end the kiss and get out of the car.
He carried her case up the steps but did not go into the hotel. If the idea was to dispel any rumours of adultery, then he could hardly be seen checking into a hotel with her. The irony that it had been perfectly acceptable to spend the night, in the same hotel, with Mei Lin was not lost on him.
Lucien had insisted on paying for the hotel, but Jean had to write the cheque; again, it was all about appearances, and Lucien hated it.
The hotel would do for the time being, but if this were to go on for long, they would have to find a flat for Jean. She was not expecting to spend much time in the hotel anyway. It was just a place to sleep.
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She arrived at the house, the place that she would always think of as home, in time to cook breakfast, and let herself in quietly. Lucien was already in the kitchen setting the table, and she hurried over to kiss him.
He ran his hand down her back until it settled low down on her spine, and he pulled her close in to him. How could he have missed her so much in just a few hours?
"Mmm, good morning," he said, his voice very deep. He kissed her again, and asked how the hotel was.
"It was fine, Lucien." She didn't seem to want to discuss it.
She had been slightly disturbed to be given the same room Mei Lin had stayed in, and she hadn't been able to resist checking to see if the slit in the mattress was still there (and it was). Jean made the decision not to share this news with Lucien; he already had enough reasons to not want her to stay there.
Charlie arrived in the kitchen, coughed gently so they moved apart, and started to help get breakfast ready. For a moment, with all three of them there together, Jean felt a strong sense of family. By moving out she had perhaps emphasised that she was 'just' an employee, but in reality she was the lynchpin of the Blake household, and she knew it.
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Over the following weeks, they settled into a new routine; one that appeared superficially to work well, but which both Lucien and Jean found difficult.
She arrived early each morning, cooked meals and ate them with Lucien and Charlie, and did all her usual housework. Then, after dinner each evening, they settled to their books or sewing, and Lucien would drive Jean back to the hotel sometime before going to bed.
Lucien missed having late evening discussions with Jean, turning over the current investigation together over a glass of whisky. He missed seeing her ready for bed in her pale pink silk pyjamas, with no make up and bare feet. He missed her coming to him when he had a nightmare, and the chats over tea that used to follow.
Jean missed sleeping in her familiar room, with all her belongings around her. She missed hearing Charlie and Lucien moving around downstairs in the early morning. Most of all she missed the few intimate moments with Lucien, after Charlie had turned in, when they talked and held each other in the semi darkness in the living room.
The benefit for them both was that their plan seemed to be working. After a few curious looks, acquaintances seemed to accept that Jean moving out was a genuine attempt to do the right thing.
It also brought out into the open that they were involved, and of course that was never going to please those who disapproved of Jean seeing a married man, or who disapproved of him for sending his wife away. But they couldn't change that.
No one seemed very surprised at their now publicly acknowledged relationship. Apparently they had entirely failed to hide their feelings for months, if not years.
All they had to do now was keep a steady nerve till the divorce came through.
