Although Alice was prepared for Jean's visit, well, just about, she hadn't thought she would bring the baby with her, but she had.
"Oh, er, Jean," she swallowed, "hello."
"Hello, Alice," Jean smiled gently, "how are you?"
"Um, sore, bored ..." Alice shrugged, "oh, congratulations, Mrs Blake."
"Thank you," Jean sat down in a chair next to the bed, "when you're up and about we shall have a celebration."
"Oh, you don't have to wait for me."
"We most certainly do," Jean laughed, "our friends will be invited and I rather hope I can count you as a friend – can't I?"
Tears sprang to Alice's eyes, she had never had a proper female friend, not any kind of proper friend so to have someone describe her as such caught her unawares. She nodded, fearing that if she spoke she would burst into tears.
"Good, that's settled then," Jean continued, "now, this is Amelia, my granddaughter and she is living with us for a while, until her parents sort themselves out ..."
"What happened?" Alice felt she was on easier ground talking about this than cooing over a small child, "Matthew said they had the baby to please you and Ruby's mother."
"Really, Alice, they have been rather too silly. Ruby's mother and I had what I would term a typical mother's conversation at the wedding, about what they were like when they were little and who the first child would take after. They overheard us and took that to mean we wanted to be grandmothers as soon as possible – which was ridiculous, and they should have said they were going to settle down to being husband and wife first. When they asked me to go and help it was really to go and be their nanny and housekeeper – unpaid – "she grimaced, "and when I found this out I was not happy. I love Amelia, really, she is such a good baby, somewhat like Christopher in many ways, but Amelia, Ruby's mother, said Ruby was quite a demanding baby and her late husband spoiled her."
"That's rather selfish, not paying you, or helping you out financially," Alice pouted, "so, how long do you think Amelia will stay with you?"
"Hopefully just a few months until they realise they miss her, but, honestly, I'm already wondering what school to put her down for."
"So, you think permanently?"
"Sadly, I think that is what will happen but I can always hope for the alternative, can't I?"
"You can." Alice agreed, though she thought the young parents would have to go through a gruelling interview of some sort to ascertain they were suitable parents – in Jean's eyes.
"Now, you," Jean changed the subject, "I have your own toiletries and nightwear here, which I'm sure will make you feel much more comfortable until Lucien allows you out of here."
"Thank you, Jean, and on being allowed out," Alice sighed, "really it would be far too much for you, with the baby, to have me stay."
Jean frowned, it was her 'don't you argue with me' frown that she used on the boys when they were young and occasionally on Lucien when he decided to show a different point of view.
"I suppose you argued with my husband that you would be fine in a second floor flat with small children running around your feet and playing with balls, eh?"
Alice blushed.
"I see, well, Dr Harvey, I know you are probably a lousy patient, all doctors are, but the guest room has enough for now and with a new bathroom by the studio you will be able to have a shower, or a bath, without a nurse washing you down between the blankets – bed-baths are awful aren't they?"
Alice admitted it was so, she almost felt violated the way some nurses did everything for her.
"Good," Jean nodded, "now that's settled, as soon as Lucien deems you fit enough to leave hospital I shall go and get an outfit from your wardrobe, pack up the rest and come and help you to dress, if you need help that is."
"Hopefully not, by then, though I'm sure you will be quite gentle and ..."
"I will let you have as much privacy as you want, or need, Alice, Amelia is the one who needs changing and cleaning up, not you."
"Jean, I'm enormously grateful to you, especially when you should not be worried about anyone other than your family." Alice hummed.
"As I said, you are our friend, and friends look out for each other."
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Of course before Alice could be discharged the new bathroom had to be installed. Lucien left it all to Jean – he didn't know the builders and plumbers in Ballarat, unless they were patients, so he considered she was the best person to deal with all of it. However, because Alice would be on crutches, and probably not able to get in and out of a bath he suggested that they have a shower cubicle and a bath instead of the shower over one end of the bath, but that was about the only idea he had.
The plumber scratched his head as he looked around the room.
"Well, Mrs Blake," he hummed, "not a lot of room ..."
"True," she sighed, "but, what about if we don't have a bath, just the shower, basin and loo?"
"It might work," he stepped further into the small space, "if you have the shower here, then the basin and the loo in the corner - you still won't have a lot of room, but it should be workable."
"Then we shall go with that," she nodded, "it needs to be completed rather quickly, is that possible?"
He flicked through his diary and found that he could start at the end of the week ..."should be finished by the following Wednesday, Thursday at the latest – how does that suit you?"
Jean thought for a moment, Alice would be in hospital for another ten days, according to Lucien, and then agreed to the timescale and the price.
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"You ok?" Matthew pulled up a chair next to Alice's bed and looked at her curiously. She had a strange, faraway look in her eyes and he was sure she had been crying.
At first she didn't answer, she had spent much of the day thinking about her conversation with Jean and the more she thought the more emotional she got. Nobody had ever been as nice to her as Jean was, nobody had treated her with such gentleness and generosity as she did, with the invitations to dinner, the cups of tea and pieces of homemade shortbread and now the offer of a temporary home while she recovered from her injuries. She had been embarrassed when the nurses came in and snapped at them when they asked if she was alright - because if she was crying of course she wasn't alright but she couldn't tell them why she was crying because that was more embarrassing. And now Matthew asked the same question!
She shook her head and looked down.
"What's the matter?" his voice was soft and low and his touch as he took her hand was tender.
"Jean ..." she sniffed.
"Jean?"
"She's so kind, nobody has ever been that kind to me," she looked up at him, "except you."
"I didn't think I was particularly kind," he frowned.
"You don't treat me as anything other than human, you don't seem to think I'm strange or odd ..."
"You're not," he squeezed her hand, "you're quite fascinating, you're interesting to talk to, you're clever and you have a wicked sense of humour and, if I may be so bold, I find you attractive." He blushed at this admission, but he was also pleased to note so did she.
"Matthew ..." she bit her lip.
"So, what has Jean done to make you feel this way?"
"She said I was to go and stay with them until I'm properly mobile, though I shall need a stick, I'll never walk fully unaided, again," she huffed and slumped her shoulders. "I tried to tell her I'd be alright, in the flat, but she, and Lucien, say it's too dangerous for me to use the stairs with crutches and there are a few children that play with balls on the landing. One nearly knocked Jean over when she went to collect my things."
"Railroaded?"
"Hm, well, they're right, really, the flat isn't suitable and I don't have family to go to, not that would help me, anyway; I just worry that I'm giving Jean too much work especially now she has Amelia to look after." She gripped his hand and looked at him, "you will come and see me, won't you?"
"If you want me to," he smiled, "I expect I shall be around to talk to Blake anyway, but I can make a point of coming to see you."
"Sorry, I shouldn't expect you to drop everything for me, but, well, I er, have got used to your company."
"And I yours." He studied her for a few moments, "do you really have no family to go to?"
"Not that would care," she sighed, "my parents expected me and my sister to marry and have children and look after them in their old age. Neither of us was expected to go to university, to have ambition and if we showed some spark of independence we were usually beaten. I don't think they know where I am, and I don't want them to know, really."
"Well, that's your prerogative, Alice," Matthew nodded, "I shan't be the one to tell."
"Thank you ..."
"... but as I don't know where they live that's not going to be difficult," he laughed.
She smiled for the first time that day, that week, and felt that in spite of everything things might be alright after all.
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Jean continued to visit Alice, sometimes with Amelia other times, if Mattie was prepared to do a bit of babysitting, she would appear with biscuits to add to the hospital tea they drank. She kept her informed on things that Lucien was doing, any cases they had, which Matthew also told her about, and the progress of the new bathroom.
"We shall all feel the benefit of an extra loo, at the very least," Jean hummed, "and with a shower on the ground floor at least Lucien won't be trailing mud and lake water up the stairs."
"How is Mrs Toohey doing?" Alice didn't know the woman but Jean had told her she was a pious soul and tended to disapprove of Mattie and Charlie wandering about the house before breakfast still in their night things.
"Oh, she's managing," Jean tipped her head to one side, "she avoids Amelia as if she has the plague, tuts over Lucien's experiments in the study and frowns at the way I make so many cakes and biscuits."
"Half of what you bake ends up at the station," Alice took another bite of the sweet, crumbly shortbread she had brought with her this visit, "and I know Lucien has a sweet tooth."
"It's a pleasure and I get the impression pleasures are sinful, she's a more committed catholic than I am, I'd rather have an extra biscuit and confess the next time I go."
"Would you confess to an extra biscuit?" Alice had not been brought up in any faith, though she had a feeling her parents were catholics. She, as far as she knew, hadn't even been baptised, never mind confirmed.
"It's the least of my sins, Alice," Jean laughed, "some of them are not for the priest's ears!"
"Jean!"
"I'm a married woman, Alice, it's allowed," she laughed.
"They have strict ideas on sex, don't they? From what I've heard."
"Only within marriage, well I blew that with Christopher," Jean blushed, "then, touching yourself is a sin ..."
Alice blushed.
"Using contraception ... again I've blown that one, quite recently," she gave a wicked grin.
"Jean!" Alice gasped.
"Hey, I'm not that old ..."
"I never said you were ..."
"... and coming back from Adelaide in the family way would have just confirmed what a lot of the old biddies have suspected ever since Lucien returned to live in his father's house."
"Did you ...with Lucien ... before you married him?" Alice's eyebrows shot up to her hairline.
"Not sayin' I did, not sayin' I didn't," Jean gave an innocent smile.
Alice began to giggle, it was so nice to talk with another woman who was not afraid of her own desires.
"It's good to see you smile, Alice," Jean hummed, "and, in answer to your question, because I can trust you, it wasn't until Adelaide."
"Well, Jean, good for you," Alice put her cup down, "it's not as if I could in all honesty condemn you for following your heart, I'm not untouched." She blushed, "though it hasn't happened for a long time, so ..."
"I get you," Jean understood what she was saying, "I'm sure there's that certain someone out there for you, somewhere."
"I hope so," she sighed, "there is someone I would like to become closer to, and I think he might too ..."
"Then I shall be sure to see he comes to dinner regularly," Jean stood up and kissed Alice's cheek, "he likes a good roast."
Alice knew that Jean had seen that she and Matthew were close and she didn't mind that she had seen through her.
"He doesn't seem to mind that I am a bit more broken than before, at least, I hope that's what his visits mean."
"I've known Matthew for many years, Alice, and he is loyal and kind. If he's interested in you he will make you feel special and the only woman on the planet when he is with you. I'm sure his visits are to show you he cares more than he would for any other pathologist – that he cares for you, as a person, a woman."
"Do you think so? He said I was interesting, even attractive, no man has ever said such things to me before. Jean, I'm not good with kind words, I'm just not used to them but you're right, Matthew makes me feel something."
"Lucien said he was really scared, when he talked of the injuries you received, scared and impressed that you could still tell the ambos what to do, and him to ring Lucien ..."
"I'm sorry if I interrupted something ..."
"Hey, I have Lucien most of the time, I can let you have him for this, it's what he does, who he is, and he would never forgive Matthew if he had ignored your request to come and treat you. I at least knew what he was like before I married him, a caring country doctor and a right royal smart-Alec – some things are worth accepting."
"I suppose so," Alice smiled again, she was feeling so much better now.
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"Are you sure?" Alice took the dress and underwear Jean passed to her, "that you are ready, I mean it doesn't seem too long since you were telling me that the builder had started."
"It wasn't a large space, Alice," Jean laughed "but there is room for you to shower, it's a cubicle, not over the bath so you should be fine."
Jean left her to dress with the instruction to call for her if she got stuck with anything, she would just be outside the room.
Alice dressed, slowly, the hardest part was putting her knickers on, as she couldn't bend the injured knee fully, but she wasn't going to ask Jean to help her with such an intimate garment; eventually she was ready and called out that Jean could re enter the room.
"OK?" Jean asked, folding the night clothes and putting them with the toiletries in her basket.
"Truthfully?"
Jean nodded.
"I feel like I've done a full day's work chasing after your husband and Matthew."
"I shan't say a thing," Jean laughed, "but I'm not surprised."
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The front of 7 Mycroft Avenue was a warm and comforting sight for Alice. It always seemed to be a haven of sensibility in the chaos of her usual life working with Lucien, somehow Jean had always managed to make the rest of the world go away when she was there. It had been missing when Jean was in Adelaide, Mrs Toohey was not so warm and welcoming – Lucien had stopped asking her to join them for dinner and had taken to eating at the club himself whenever possible. She'd asked Mattie about it but Mattie said she was missing nothing in the meals they were less than well cooked, so she stayed away and took Matthew's occasional invitation to dinner at one of the restaurants in Ballarat or the club and on one warm summer evening, fish and chips by the side of the lake. Now things were getting back to normal, though it was a different normal to the one she was used to, it now included a small child and Lucien and Jean were man and wife.
"Here we are," Jean smiled, "home at last."
Alice smiled, accepting it for how it was meant, not home, just a place of refuge for her.
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"Jean this looks so comfortable," Alice sat on the bed and put her crutches to her side. "I can't thank you enough."
Jean just smiled and put Alice's robe on the back of the door and went to put her toiletries by the washbasin. "I hope this will be alright, your things have been put away, these things from the hospital will go in the next wash – there's a laundry basket for you."
Alice bit her lip.
"Hey," Jean sat next to her and took her hand, "what's the matter?"
"Laundry, I er ... well I'm not used to anyone doing my laundry for me."
"I do Mattie's and Charlie's, Lucien's – even before we were married I washed his smalls," Jean smiled, "I suppose it is rather intimate – but if there is some way in particular you want them washed ...?"
"When I was growing up I wore second hand flannel drawers and the like, when I went to university my sponsor gave me a generous allowance and told me to be a little reckless, to treat myself to nice things." She blushed.
"And you treated yourself to expensive underwear," Jean patted her hand, "I have just gone through all your things, Alice, or you'd still be in a hospital gown. I know how to wash silk – don't worry, Lucien treated me to some when we were in Paris."
Alice sighed.
"Come on, let's go and have some tea," Jean stood up and extended her hand to Alice, "and maybe, with luck Lucien won't have eaten the biscuits."
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"We're back!" Mattie called from the front door.
"Kitchen, Mattie," Jean stood up and went to the hall, "has she behaved?"
"Of course," Mattie set the pram by the coats and lifted Amelia out, "she wouldn't dare do otherwise 'cos I'd tell Gran'ma."
"I've brought Alice back," Jean accepted her granddaughter and kissed the growing curls.
"Good, I bet she was glad to get out."
"Ask her," Jean laughed.
"I will," she headed into the kitchen and pulled out a chair, "hello Dr Harvey," she lifted the teapot and poured herself a cup of tea, "how are you?"
"Better for being out of hospital," Alice confirmed her suspicions.
""They're no holiday camps," she agreed, "do you have any medication?"
"I expect Lucien has it, painkillers, in the surgery," Alice shrugged, "I've tried not to take them."
"No need to be brave," Mattie smiled, "there's no shame in giving in."
"I just don't like them, they make me sleepy and the strong ones he prescribed just after the operation made me sick."
"Morphine can do that," she agreed, "as you know. Well, if you do need some ..."
"Ok, I'll let you know," Alice gave a resigned sigh.
Mattie smiled and drank her tea.
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Alice found it amazing the way the house worked. Jean was always first up in the morning, bathing herself and Amelia, making breakfast for everyone, checking the surgery schedule; Mattie or Charlie, or both, would wash the pots before taking their turns in the bathroom and all before Mrs Toohey arrived to help with the cleaning and laundry.
She found Mrs Toohey a difficult woman to get on with. Because Jean has told her to be in no rush to get up in the mornings she found her hovering outside her room waiting to make her bed and tidy the small en-suite. She was always stiff when she woke, stretching her injured leg hurt and she had initially been grateful to Jean for allowing her the space to rise in her own time. Jean would take her a cup of tea and open the curtains just enough to let the morning light in, she could hear the general hubbub of the kitchen, Amelia banging on the high chair with a wooden spoon, Charlie and Mattie grumbling about something and Lucien's relentless cheerfulness. When it became quieter she would drag her injured leg to the edge of the bed and push herself up into a sitting position then use her crutches to get to the loo. It was then that Mrs Toohey would enter with a cursory knock and fling back the covers, open the window and gather up any laundry from the basket by the door. Alice would return to the bed and sit with a hot flannel on her knee to soothe the ache and loosen the joint then go to the new shower. The bed would be made while she had breakfast then Jean would help her back to the room, sit her with Amelia on the bed and begin to administer the physiotherapy Lucien had planned out for her. Amelia would crawl around and play with the lamb toy she was rarely without and Alice got used to it. The baby seemed to distract her from Jean's pulling and manipulating, bending and flexing the joint, never encroaching on her personal space; it was as if she knew Alice wasn't used to small children.
One morning while she was in the shower, Mrs Toohey decided to strip the bed as well as fling back the covers for its morning airing. Alice returned to find her turning the mattress which meant she couldn't sit and get dressed. She sighed and headed to the kitchen, hopefully she would be able to have her breakfast and get dressed later.
"Alice?" Jean raised her eyebrows, "are you alright?"
Alice nodded. "Mrs Toohey is turning my mattress ..."
"Oh, I did ask her to wait until you had got dressed. Sit down, I'll do your breakfast, if you're ready for it ..."
"Thank you, Jean, is there anything I can do?"
There wasn't a lot she could do, hampered by the crutches but Jean pulled a chair over to the sink, "Care to dry up these pots for me, while I cook?"
"Of course, it's the least I can do," Alice was actually glad to do something that made her feel as if she was contributing to the household chores.
"Would you like to come into the market with me, today?" Jean thought Alice might be becoming stir crazy, not having left the house or garden for over a week. "I can drive down and park close, you can swing along with us and go back to the car when you get tired, if you like."
"Oh, well, it would be nice, to get out – not that the garden and the house aren't nice –"
"Alice, you are bound to get stir crazy, I'm sure this is a totally alien situation to you; I was climbing the walls after I had the boys because I was supposed to stay in bed for three weeks. One week and I was sneaking out of bed and into the living room while Christopher was in the field ... so I can well imagine how you are feeling."
"You are all so kind, I don't want to seem ungrateful ..."
"You don't," Jean smiled and placed bacon and eggs on the table, "now, eat and we shall plan a day that will keep you happy." In the back of her mind she thought that if they timed the visit to the market just right they could have lunch in a café.
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They left Mrs Toohey dealing with the washing machine and making beds, heaved the pram into the car and drove into town.
"Do you always have to load the pram into the car, it seems, I dunno, hard?"
"It's awkward," Jean agreed, "so usually I just walk, but ... " she shrugged her shoulders.
"You drove because of me," Alice bit her lip.
"I drove so we can do some shopping and bring Amelia with us," Jean smiled. "Sometimes I just do it this way. If you didn't have crutches we still would probably used the car."
"Oh."
They drove on in silence for a few minutes. "Have you heard from your son, yet?" Alice frowned, she hadn't noticed Jean take a private call since she had been there, nor had she said anything about him.
"Uh huh," Jean shook her head, "I was going to ring but Lucien said it would be better to leave it, wait for them to ring me ..."
"But they haven't, Jean, I don't understand what they want. I mean I never thought about having children and it never became something I would need to discuss but if I had have had a child I wouldn't have abandoned it, not even to a grandparent. It's not responsible, it's not loving ..." she scowled not really sure if she had understood it right. "I had a rotten childhood, Jean, I wasn't wanted, shifted from foster home to foster home, so was my sister, until I ran away and found someone who thought I was worth something. I would have loved to have had a grandmother like you – Amelia is a very lucky little girl."
"And I would have been happy to raise a girl like you, Alice, someone who's brave and clever ... but we are what circumstances made us and I guess whoever you found to help you through university was one very special person."
"I wish I could introduce you, but Mrs Stanley died some years ago. She and some other wealthy ladies in Melbourne had a system in place called Gratitude Girls, most were sent into service but her niece saw something in me and persuaded her aunt to sponsor me at university."
"I don't see you as going into service, Alice," Jean pulled up in a parking space near the market.
"That's why Miss Phryne interfered, and her friend Dr Macmillan, but it was Mrs Stanley who sponsored me."
"And your sister?"
"We were split up, Ruth was a much nicer child than I was, older by four years, I think I was a disappointment because I was a girl and father wanted a boy."
"No reason to ill-treat you, though," Jean lifted Amelia into the pram, "I take it you lost touch?"
Alice just nodded, she had rarely thought about Ruth for years, not because she didn't care but it was so long ago, Ruth had probably found a much nicer foster home, maybe even been adopted, as long as she was happy Alice didn't see the need to try and find her – until now.
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Alice found it relatively easy to swing along on her crutches beside the pram and actually enjoyed helping Jean choose fruit and vegetables, indicating her preferences and purchasing a few things herself towards the meals that Jean was planning over the next week.
"Oh, white peaches!" she exclaimed, lifting one lovely specimen from its box, "Miss Phryne's favourite ..."
"Shall we have some?" Jean lifted another two, "they are nice and Amelia can have some if they're mashed up."
"My treat," Alice laughed, "I got rather a liking for them too."
They bought half a dozen in total, Jean feeling that they would go down rather well – perhaps with some ice-cream that she had in the freezer.
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"I think that trip out to the market did Alice a world of good," Lucien slipped into bed beside his wife.
"I agree, I shall have to take her out more often, perhaps just for lunch - when I can leave Amelia with someone," she wriggled close to him, "now, how about doing me the world of good?" she giggled.
"Huh, making demands of an old man, are we?"
"Well, if you think you're too old ..."
"C'm 'ere," he grabbed her and smothered her in kisses ...
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Alice's leg continued to improve with the physiotherapy, the walks out in Ballarat and the attention of her own personal physician and surgeon. Matthew seemed to be around a lot, too, dinner, or just a cuppa and as she improved he would take her out to dinner and once to the cinema though they did have to find an aisle seat so she could sit with her leg half extended. Some evenings Jean and Lucien would retire to the studio early, Mattie and or Charlie would make themselves scarce and Matthew and Alice had the living room to themselves.
"You happy here?" he asked one evening, as he dug around the couch for his tie.
"Yes, too happy," she sighed, "I don't actually want to go back to the flat but it's too much for Jean for me to be here permanently."
"I haven't noticed her worrying about it, she thrives on being busy." He looked up from nibbling her neck, "hey! Are you still paying for the flat?"
"I expected to be going back within a couple of weeks ..." she shrugged.
"Awh, c'mon, Alice," he scoffed, "a couple of weeks, after a break like that? You doctors ..."
"It was a bit rash, wasn't it?"
"Well, I suggest you give notice," he frowned, "Lucien isn't going to let you live in a flat when you are using a stick ... you need something on one level ... a bungalow ..."
"And how am I supposed to find something like that," she huffed, "be reasonable, Matthew, landlords don't like renting to single women, it was hard enough getting the flat."
"I have a bungalow," he hummed, "you could live with me ..."
"Matthew Lawson!" she screeched, "what kind of woman do you think I am?"
"Heck, Alice, sorry, I didn't mean live as in 'live together' – well not unless you want to that is – I just meant I have a spare room ... um ..." he blushed. "We could get married," he whispered.
"And why would you want to marry me?" she gaped at him.
"Well, let's see," he sat up, "you're smart, you're strong, you're beautiful ..."
"Don't be silly," she huffed.
"You are, all of those things and more," he smiled and tipped her face with one finger under her chin, "and there are evenings I want to do more with you than canoodle on the couch, but only if you want to, canoodle, that is."
Alice would love to 'canoodle' with Matthew, and more, but they couldn't there, or in her room, to her it would be betraying Jean's trust.
"I mean it, Alice, I wasn't sure when would be the right time to ask you, but I've been wanting to for some time now, so, will you marry me?"
"You really mean it?"
He shook his head and chuckled, "yeah, you goof, of course I mean it – so whaddya say?"
"I say yes, I will marry you, grumpy," she laughed.
He nudged her and they laughed a little together, careful not to wake anyone sleeping in the house.
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"You'd think they'd ring today, of all days," Lucien huffed, "she's a year old, how bloody unfeeling are they?"
"They've probably forgotten," Matthew grunted over the mortuary file he was reading, "how's Jean taken it?"
"Not very well, to be honest." He scowled, "she tried to be brave about it but she cried this morning, angry and hurt."
"Amelia is a lucky little girl," Matthew put the file down, it wasn't that interesting, "Christopher and Ruby don't know what they're missing, even Alice has grown fond of her."
"Yeah," Lucien grinned, "I have to say I never thought I'd see her so comfortable with a little one – perhaps you should have your own."
"Hey, that's enough of that," Matthew grumbled, "if it happens it happens, but we ought to be married first."
"You over for dinner tonight?"
"Invited for the little Miss's birthday, Alice is wondering if it would be sensible to have Amelia as a flower girl for us. I reckon as she's only just walking it's a bit of a stretch."
"I'm sure Jean will have the answer."
"She usually does."
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Jean was grateful Mrs Toohey wasn't around, cards and balloons needed placing for Amelia's birthday, she was baking lots of cakes and sweet things for all to eat – things she hadn't been able to do for her own boys she was having so much fun doing for her granddaughter, until she found that she was short of chocolate to decorate the cake.
"I'll have Amelia," Alice smiled, "we'll be fine together."
"It's your day off, Alice ..." Jean sighed.
"And mine to do with what I will, go on, I know you won't be long."
"If you're sure?"
"I am."
Jean grabbed her coat and the car keys, Alice had come a long way in such a short space of time, instead of distancing herself from the small child she seemed to have grown closer to her and would quite happily spend time playing with her or reading to her, even singing to her once. Amelia in turn seemed to enjoy the pathologist's attention and it wasn't unusual for her to snuggle close to her on the couch and have a short nap in her arms.
Alice was helping Amelia stack some bricks when there was a knock at the door.
"Hello, Missy," she shrugged, "seems we have company. You be a good girl and wait for Auntie Alice a moment, eh?" she pushed herself up from the couch and took her walking cane, a rather elegant stick Matthew had found on a trip into Melbourne one court day, "now, Amelia, stay here."
Amelia sat on the floor and watched her limp up the hall to the front door.
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The visitor, a woman, had her back to the door, surveying the garden while she waited for her knock to be answered.
"Hello, can I help you?"
She turned round and nearly dropped her handbag. The face hadn't changed much in all the years they had been separated, but there stood Alice, her sister, where she expected to see Jean Beazley Blake.
"Ruth?" Alice stood there stunned.
"Alice? I haven't been called Ruth in thirty years." The woman laughed.
"Sorry," Alice blinked, "frankly, you are the last person I expected to see."
"It's alright, I didn't expect to see you here either; so Mrs Blake?"
"What? Oh, no, still Harvey, Dr Harvey; Mrs Blake is out, but come in," she stepped aside to allow Ruth to enter.
"I'm actually looking for my granddaughter, Amelia Jean Beazley, I was told she was staying with Mrs Blake." Ruth looked round the hallway.
"Oh, well, she's here, playing in the living room," Alice indicated where she should go, "are you Ruby's mother?"
"Sadly, I am," Ruth turned round and frowned, "and I am very disappointed in her, in both of them."
"Jean's disappointed too, in fact she was very angry that it wasn't help for a little while, they wanted an unpaid nanny-housekeeper ... until Amelia started school."
"Preposterous!" Ruth snapped, "oh poor Jean – so ...?"
"When Jean realised it was all on her ... well, I should let her tell you herself, however the Jean you are looking for is now Mrs Blake." Alice stopped, "here's Amelia."
Amelia was crawling around in her pile of bricks, turning them over in her hands and examining the pictures on each side.
"Oh my, isn't she lovely," Ruth smiled and knelt down on the floor, "hello, little one."
Amelia looked at her and gave her a dribbly grin.
"Amelia," Alice sat down on the couch, "this is ..." she looked at Ruth.
"Grandma? What does she call Jean?"
"We tried referring to Jean as Grandma, but Amelia of course calls her 'mama', Lucien, Jean's husband, says it what all babies say and Jean agrees it is either that or 'dada'." Alice sighed, "Lucien supposes it was inevitable, really."
"Well, if Amelia only knows Jean as her mother figure ..." Ruth sighed and hauled herself up to sit on the couch.
"Why don't I make some tea," Alice smiled, "and you can tell me why you changed your name, amongst other things. Jean can tell her story when she gets back from buying some chocolate to decorate Amelia's cake."
"And you can tell me all about your life after we were separated." Ruth laughed, "we've got some catching up to do, little sister."