Matthew enters the Colonist Club in his civilian attire. He finds a quiet table across the room from where Jean will sit. Cec approaches the table.
"Can I get you something sir?
"A pint. And Cec..." Matthew motions for Cec to come closer. "Could you go to the alley door? The one Jean has used before."
"Certainly, sir."
Cec takes a turn around the barroom, reminding the last remaining members to move on, that the club needs to close early for the night. He pours a long draft for the Chief Superintendent before making his way through to the kitchen. He scatters the few remaining employees to tasks in other location, none questioning the gentle man. Cec turns to the alley door, uncertain of what he will find but always trusting. When Mrs. Blake phoned asking him for help he gladly agreed, no questions asked.
The click of the door causes Jean and Lucien to jump, nerves on edge as they are, only to sigh in relief when Cec's kind face appears.
The old man's eye grow wide with shock at the sight of Lucien standing beside Jean. "Sir? You're alive?" He forgets himself and pulls Lucien into a hearty embrace.
"I am, old friend."
Turning to Jean, Cec places a hand on her cheek. "I knew something was going on with you but I never imagined. Why didn't you tell me?"
"At the time I wasn't really sure of anything. Still searching for my own answers. And Cec, it is all so dangerous but we need your help now."
"Yes, yes. Come on up the backstairs."
"Lucien, you go with Cec. I need to go through the front door."
"Right." He holds her shoulders wanting to say you don't have to do this but he knows that it isn't true. Only she can do this. So instead of words he just kisses her deeply before heading through the door to the back rooms of the Colonists.
Jean is barely in her seat waiting for her sherry to arrive when Major Hannam walks into the bar. He locates her quickly in the empty room, taking note of the police officer watching his every move.
"Mrs. Blake. You wanted to speak to me?"
"Yes, Major. Please have a seat."
Hannam hesitates but his curious nature gets the best of him. He takes a the seat across from Jean, "What do you want from me Mrs. Blake?" Knowing that Jean is not a frivolous woman easily played, he gets right to the point.
"Why did you send my husband to the Malay Peninsula?"
"I didn't."
"Major, I don't have time for games or splitting hairs."
Her steel blue eyes gazing upon him causes Hanam to shift in his chair despite himself before steadying himself. He knows the questions that she is looking for answers to but he doesn't have them. Damn, I can understand how Blake fell for this woman. In the moment it takes for the thought to cross his mind he decides to tell her everything he knows of the situation.
"General Graham had been closely involved with the situation in Vietnam. He was looking for someone that knew the area, that could be trusted. He approached me with Major Blake's name as a viable option to assist with some ground work over there. He remembered your husband from the war and his post war work, knew that I had, let's say, an acquaintance with him, so I was asked to contact him about giving his service once again."
"But you didn't think he would actually join up, did you? I mean after everything that happened with Alderton."
"No I didn't. To be honest I was very surprised that the general came to me with his name. I think someone put Lucien's name in his head. My orders were to talk to him and that is all I did." He is about to end the confession there but Jean's raised brow urges him to continue. "That really is all I did. I spoke to him twice a couple weeks apart and left it. Then one day he is calling to meet with the general and I with all sorts of terms if he agrees to the mission."
"But he didn't show." Jean's mind is swirling with all the connections that are being made.
"No, he didn't. Then I read how he disappeared."
He watches as her eyes change color, "and you never questioned it? My husband is set to do a secret intelligence mission for the army and no one even looked into what happened?" The rage in Jean makes her voice rise causing Matthew and Cec to move closer to the table.
Hannam is aware of the shift in the men but remains focused on Jean. "I did, Mrs. Blake. I've done a lot of digging into the disappearance of your husband. I know that the army had nothing to do with the Major landing in Singapore." Jean's face betrays her, "yes, I know he landed in Singapore. I know everything that happened to him in his travels into Vietnam just as I know that Dr. Lucien Blake is not buried in that cemetery. I would even bet that he is here watching over you tonight."
Jean's change in breathing confirms Hannam's hunch that Lucien is close by. "I'm glad he has made it home to you. Whether you want to believe it or not I am one of the good guys, Mrs. Blake." Hannam stands abruptly taking the three by surprise. "Now I will take my leave. If I continue to be correct in my hunches you will be waiting for someone else's arrival soon." He turns to leave then turns back, "Be careful, Mrs. Blake. You are very clever but not everyone plays as nicely as I do." Before leaving the bar Major Hannam looks at the closed door to the small office that Lucien is hiding in and smirks.
Behind the closed door Lucien strains to hear the conversation in the bar. The faint words are not more than a mumble. The designated knock on the door is not given so he remains in his hiding place, trusting his friends to watch over his Jean.
Jean's fingers run over the edge of her sherry glass digesting all that Major Hannam told her. She thinks of all the pieces, all the players as if it is an elaborate chess game waiting for George to walk through the doors. With another sip of sherry, her brow creases in thought, she looks around the room at Cec, Matthew, and the closed door that Lucien is behind and it comes to her. They are there to protect her, the queen in this ruthless game. That's it! There are two queens in a game of chess. They both want to protect their queen.
The last piece of the puzzle is in place for Jean. She will never fully understand the male brain, their rationale for the things they do but she does understand the love that some men have for their women; a deep profound unconditional love. Lucien will always be willing to give his life for hers and her happiness which is why they are in this very predicament. The images of Paris are clear in her mind as George McLeod's large looming frame enters through the doorway.
If the Scotsman is wary of the nearly empty room he shows no outward signs. He walks past the bar speaking to Cec, never taking his eyes off of Jean. "I'll have a whiskey neat." He continues towards the table giving Jean a hard smile that causes her skin to crawl. "Hullo lass."
"Please, take a seat."
"Nae. I won't be staying long enough." George takes the tumbler from Cec, downing the amber liquid in one swallow.
"Why are you still in Ballarat, Mr. McLeod? I would have thought you would be heading home to Fleur right after the funeral." Jean's gaze never falters from the large man.
"Unfinished business."
Jean is getting restless of the mind games that George continues to want to play. She wants, needs this to end now. "Did you ever care what happened to Lucien or was he always one of your pawns?"
"Aye, long ago Lucien was one of me best mates."
"But?"
"But it is of no concern of yours, lass. Now I bid you farewell." The large man gives a dramatic mocking bow towards Jean giving her the seconds she needs in her anger to pull the gun from her purse. The same gun that Lucien purchased for her to protect herself, the gun that has weighed her purse down for weeks now in her search for the truth.
When George lifts his head he sees the gun pointing towards him. All pretense of friendliness shatters as the Scot's menacing laughter fills the room. "You really are quite something but you won't shoot me." He turns taking two steps towards the door when a deafening blast of a gunshot shakes the room.
The room is deadly quiet in the moments after as four men look at Jean in shock for in the seconds that the gunshot rang out Lucien bounds out of the small office to protect his wife. Jean's hand remains steady addressing George, "Now please take a seat."
The venom is thick in his voice as he pulls out a chair to sit, "You missed."
"Did I? If you still had that arm I believe that bullet would have gone clear through your brachial artery. You would be dead within the hour without assistance." The look of astonishment on George's face has her adding, "many years working for a doctor and police surgeon comes in quite handy."
"Lucien, you did say she was something special."
"Yes, she is." Lucien says, taking the seat next to his wife removing the gun from her hand. "Cec, why don't you go finish downstairs." Lucien waits till his old friend is safely out of the barroom. "Why George? I thought we were friends. I trusted you with my life so many times."
George snickers, shaking his head. "I knew it was too convenient for you to drop dead in your hometown." The large man suddenly looks small as his shoulders sag in defeat. "You know in our line of work there is no such thing as friends. We gave up the right to remain university mates when we signed our lives away. I really did respect you for your talents and tried to protect you from yourself for so many years. After the war, you were the perfect spy; angry, intelligent, lonely but you were your own worst enemy. Your relentless search for Mei Lin and Li blinded you to so much. Your goddamn trusting nature always wanting to help the underdog. You would have been removed years ago if I didn't insist that you were harmless."
"I don't follow. What do you mean?" Jean can feel the tension in her husband, his leg muscles hardening next to her leg.
"After the Eiffel Tower incident, I convinced the brass that you were unstable, that they should let you be. You wanted out and they let you go. But they kept a man on you at all times. When your father died and you stayed in Ballarat they placed a couple people here."
"The grocer Mr. Camisa and his son Tony." Jean interrupts.
George has a glimmer in his eye at Jean's deductions. "You know we could use a woman like you. Yes, Giuseppe wanted to have a quieter life in his golden years so he and Tony became the newest grocers in Ballarat, quickly winning over the business of the Blake housekeeper with their fair prices and excellent selections. They easily watched the coming and going of the good doctor."
Jean feels the churn in the pit of her stomach remembering the first time she walked in that store. The old gentleman won her over in minutes. Through the years he kindly helped with any request whether it be for her home or the orphanage. She can't help the rise of tears that rest in her eyes at the feeling of how violated her trust has been. Lucien takes a hold of her hand to steady her.
George continues, "It would all have been fine even with Derek's meddling but you had to go and fall in love. See that has always been your greatest weakness, your heart. You care too much."
Lucien is seething about to use Jean's gun when she speaks. "But that is your very own weakness too, isn't George? It is why you can see it in Lucien. How you know to use me to harm him. Isn't that right?" She notices the slightest twitch in the man's lip. "Fleur and your children, were they being threatened?"
George looks at the Blakes, knowing the final move is made, check mate. He looks at Lucien holding Jean's hand and relinquishes defeat. "Gabriel Aries put it together after seeing you in Paris. He started talking thinking it would be his way up in ranks."
"So you killed him?" Jean questions.
George shakes his head, "Collateral damage for talking too much. They wanted someone to pay for the breakdown. It was my family or yours Lucien. Fleur has been by my side for so long, never questioning anything. I have kept her safe, protected her from the evils that make up my life. What would you do if you had to choose between your wife and another man's?"
"Now what? It is only a matter of days before word will be out that I'm alive. How will you protect them if you go home?"
The Scotsman rises, the scraping of the chair on the floor causing Matthew to stand. Locking eyes with Jean, "In time she will get a call as you did informing her of my demise. She will spend the remainder of her days grieving for a man that doesn't deserve it. You, lass, are a worthy woman." He turns to Lucien. "Take her home and be the man she deserves."
Matthew approaches them, George's heavy footsteps echo in the silent room. "You just going to let him go?"
Jean and Lucien look to each other, then to Matthew. Lucien speaks first, "There is nothing we can do. The people behind this for all intents and purposes do not exist."
Jean follows, "I don't think anything that the law could do to him would be worse than the punishment he will be living."
"I think you are right, my darling." He pulls her close into his side.
"I'll go get Cec and take care of things here. You two go home."
"Thank you Matthew." Matthew pauses at the bullet hole in the wall, looking back at Jean shaking his head.
"Would you have really shot him?" Lucien pulls her closer.
"I honestly don't know Lucien and that frightens me." She rests her head on his chest. "It will never really be over will it?"
"I'll talk to Graham, make it better."
"But there will always be someone watching us."
He holds her tighter, "I am no threat to them. We will have our life back. I promise."
"I want to go home."
"Me too and never leave."
They exit the Colonists Club, two people as one, through the front door, onto the street of their hometown.