An: New Year's Day is swiftly becoming as eventful as Boxing Day
Vastra and Jenny both were left frozen, staring at the door. Jenny relaxed first, letting out a slow whistle.
"You stupid bloody lizard!" she shouted once she'd taken another breath. "What did you go sayin' you'd refuse the case for? They know about us! Might've taken yer away right then and there!"
"They know about me." Vastra corrected delicately, placing down the address on the small table before rising and removing her veil to place it over the back of the chair. "I do not believe they consider us an "us". You have nothing to fear."
There was a very frosty silence and Vastra closed her eyes and smiled bitterly to herself.
"Well if I got nuffin' to fear I may as well start investigatin' then." It was as cold and polite as Jenny could manage with her accent.
"Jenny!" well at least the ape stopped. That counted as progress surely, Vastra thought to herself.
"On'y the loss of you!" she was even coming back over to Vastra. "Not money or the house or my position or anythin' but the loss of you!"
Vastra had expected a slap but the ape was clinging to her, crying, really crying and it stunned her once again that an ape would cry for her.
"I was so scared. So scared." Jenny's voice was muffled. "I thought they wuz comin' to take you an' I din't know that I'd be able ter stop 'em. You stupid lizard!"
Vastra hugged her tightly back. "I was scared too, little ape." She confessed.
"I know. 'm sorry." Jenny let her go, wiping at her eyes with a sleeve. She felt guilty at her outburst now, having felt Vastra tremble with fear.
"I fear we have to take this case." Vastra sighed, handing her a handkerchief. "They will not be pushed on such a matter."
"Then I'll start investigatin'. Sooner it's done, sooner they can sod off." Jenny blew her nose violently, swept up the piece of paper and walked out.
"Jenny!" Vastra called out, involuntarily. She didn't want the ape to leave her alone quite so soon after that. Even if Jenny wasn't sure she was strong enough, Vastra had a feeling that if anything did threaten her, Jenny would go, well, ape. Such courage the brown eyes held as they stared back at Vastra, confused at the Silurian's silence, waiting for further instructions. They melted as realisation filled them and Jenny walked back to her, stood on tiptoe and kissed her. It filled Vastra with a little courage, enough to let the ape leave her.
Jenny's suspicions were confirmed as she approached the address that had been scrawled on the paper. It'd required getting a few odd looks from passers-by and muttering but she'd gained directions to it.
On the outside, it looked enough like a respectable house; built of bricks that weren't even worn or mossy, plenty of rooms judging by the amount of windows but Jenny saw the discrete entrance, the small bell above the rather shabby wooden door with a strong bolt. The peeling sign offering rooms "for the night." And there was a bully boy leaning casually against the wall beside the bell and smoking. He didn't look armed but with his size he wouldn't have to be. He eyed her as she walked past, looking out the corner of her eye.
Well there was nothing else for it. She turned, strode purposefully up to the back door and knocked. He looked at her.
"I've come fer a job." She explained, keeping her eyes on the door.
"You don' look like yer need money." He raked a gaze over her maid's dress. It was made of slightly finer material than her first dresses had been. George had bought it in specially to make them for her. She'd tried to stop him adding the irritating lace cuffs and collar but he'd said they'd make her look more of a lady's maid. Apparently he'd been right.
"Bit of cash on the side never 'urt." Jenny shrugged. She remembered her fellow skivs from when she'd been working in the house with Grace sometimes taking a nightly constitutional, as they'd called it.
He snorted at her unrealistic story and banged a fist on the wall. "Someone ter see you Mrs Palmer." He grumbled.
There was the clattering sound of a complicated lock being undone and the scrape of metal as the bolt was slid back. The door opened and Jenny wasn't sure what exactly she'd been expecting but Lettie standing there looking at her in equal shock was not it. Cathy's words rushed back to her as her brain desperately tried to find explanations for Lettie's presence. "I met a woman in the dress house…called Lettie. She said she knew you…"
"Well!" Lettie was the first to break the silence, leaning against the door frame. Jenny was still gawping and hadn't yet found the capacity to speak. "Jenny Flint. Here's a face an' lookin' all togged up."
Jenny cast a glance over Lettie; the rich red dress and the probably fake jewels, the outrageously piled up hair that was a shade rather too black for nature. Jenny sniffed and caught a whiff of harsh fragrance.
"Looks like we both gone up in the world." Jenny replied, amazed at the steadiness of her voice after its brief absence.
"Aye. Well. I s'pose you'd best come in then. I take it you don't really need a job." Lettie winked at her as she stood back to let Jenny in. The woman had lost none of her ability to flirt it seemed. It was after all what had made her good at her job and had indeed caught Jenny Flint's eye in the first place as she'd sat in a bar, clutching a half pint of weak ale.
"No." She followed Lettie through a corridor into the kitchen. It was a tidy room; filled with pots and pans but well organised along two separate benches. At a large table in the middle of the room, two women were laughing bawdily over a finished meal.
"Be off now girls! Business to attend to." Lettie shooed them away.
"Yes Mrs Palmer." They sing-songed together and happily abandoned clearing up their mess, giggling as they fled.
"Mrs?" it was the first thing that came into her head as she looked around at all the neat cupboards on the walls. Lettie kept a good house, she'd give her that.
Lettie eyed her as she scraped the leftovers into the swill barrel in the corner. "In a way. It's good for business. Better than Madame. I feel I'm a little young. Are you still Miss Flint?" she enquired, stacking the plates on the side.
"Technic'ly." Jenny flushed at that.
"Ah." Lettie grinned broadly as she flopped onto a battered arm chair by the stove, flinging her legs over the arm and folding her hands in her lap. "So. What's your story? Judging by your expression, you didn't come here for me. Nor for a job. What has my…establishment done to gain your attention? Would you like a go? I do keep a few girls for the purpose. You'd be surprised, the types that turn up you know." Jenny's expression told Lettie what she was digging for. "So. Verrrrry 'technic'ly' miss." Lettie grinned. "You don't have to glare. I shan't offer again."
"Your establishment?" Jenny asked, avoiding confirming anything.
"Oh well, I suppose if we're swapping. But you'll owe me a story back, 'technic'ly' Miss Jenny Flint." Lettie nodded towards the chairs around the table. Jenny awkwardly sat down in one. "After you scarpered, and thank you for that darling, I ended up in here. Even the Tong Gang didn't bother the bully boys. But the gent owned this place, such a sweetheart, left it to me when he passed on a few months ago. I was a…particular favourite of his, you know." Lettie watched Jenny like a hawk for a reaction and was disappointed at the lack of one. "Met your sister, you know. She worked here for a bit." Lettie stared at her hands, twiddling her thumbs.
"From what she tol' me the owner weren't such a 'sweetheart'." Jenny narrowed her eyes.
Lettie shifted and sat upright. "He was a bastard." She said flatly. "Most men are. But I got the place. It's mine now. After what I put up with, I've bleedin' earned it too. It's…better now. For a place of low virtue at any rate. If Cathy were still here…" Lettie paused and stood up, looking out the window from behind the lace curtains. "My boys know to sort out that type now. Anyone who tries any violence, out on their ear and their money robbed for their troubles." She turned and gave a twirl. "Hence the new dress." She struck a pose but Jenny's eyes were caught by the flash of gold at her throat. They went wide as Jenny realised what it was, reminding Jenny of her purpose in coming. She made her decision there and then, standing and tugging Lettie away from the window, in case of anyone looking.
"Hoi Jenny Flint, I'll turn you out on yer ear in a…" Lettie protested.
"Listen." Jenny hissed, cutting her off. "Yer in trouble. Your boys I'm assumin' took that…" she pointed to the locket, "off some gent but it's slightly more important than some bit of jewellery. An' the people that gent worked for want it back. Thas why I'm 'ere."
"It's fake darling." Lettie frowned at her, puzzled. "Tried to pawn it; got told it wasn't worth the wages of the boy who did the gent for it. Why do you think I'm wearing it?" she shrugged. "And why do you care? Still a snout for the peelers are we? It's verrrrry touching of you to warn me but my boys can handle them. If they want it so bad, they merely have to come ask." She waved a hand and went to walk towards the door but Jenny grabbed her back again.
"S'not the peelers. It's this…gang. Called Torchwood."
"An' you work for them now do you?" Lettie folded her arms.
"No! They…they're after me too. Sort of."
Lettie raised her eyebrows. "What've you gotten yourself into now Jenny Flint?" She shook her head. "And why does it always end up at my door?" she huffed and walked towards the set of stairs that led up to the main part of the house. Jenny darted round in front of her.
"S'not like that. I work fer an investigator. They…Torchwood came askin' us to take this case. The sort of askin' that…"
"Is asked with a knife?" Lettie finished. "I'll forgive you for taking it then. But what on earth does this Torchwood want with a fake locket?" Her fingers toyed with it as she frowned. "And what do they want with you?"
"I don't think it's fake." Jenny jabbed a finger at it. "An' I don't think the pawner thinks it is either. I reckon when your boys took it off whoever they did, Torchwood put out…a call you might say, arskin' any pawner to come tell 'em if someone tried to hock it. And whoever you rolled fer it gave Torchwood your address. An' they gave it to me." Jenny showed her the now rather crumpled piece of paper.
"I did wonder. Sounds like they're as big as the Tong gang." Lettie sighed, running a hand through her thick hair and dislodging its careful piling.
"Bigger. Much, much bigger. The Doctor said the Queen herself set it up." Jenny told her.
Lettie gazed at her in amazement. "I should've known you'd be nothing but trouble turning up on my doorstep."
"I won't be. An' neither will they be, if you give me the locket. Then they'll be after me an' the locket together an' they'll leave you alone after that." Jenny held out her hand.
"Not bleedin' likely!" Lettie's smooth tones dropped as she clutched at the locket.
"They want it back! Just give it to 'em!"
"An' they go away an' leave me in peace, no 'arm done?" Lettie had been thinking it through as Jenny explained. "Oh you are still bleedin' naïve Jenny Flint. Thought the Tong gang chasin' after yer might've given you some sense. Those kind of people don't leave yer alone." There was no hint of any cultured accent now as Lettie snapped at Jenny.
Jenny breathed through her nose, aware that Lettie was one step away from throwing her out.
"I think," she began in a low voice, forcing herself to be calm, "whatever that locket is, it's much, much bigger'n some dress house. An' if you give it back now, they might just consider you as not big enough to bother with. But if you don't want to, then I suggest you bleedin' well…" Jenny was interrupted by a bang on the door. It sounded heavy, even for a bully boy's knock. More like the bully boy had just got thrown against it instead. "…run!" Jenny hissed, grabbing Lettie's hand. "Is there another way out?"
A second thud resulted in the door splintering and it galvanised Lettie into action.
"Not as can be got out in a hurry. Through the window then! Like a customer who ain't plannin' on payin' fer the ride!" Lettie tugged Jenny up the stairs and through the house. There were men standing at each window they came across and they fled into an upper bedroom.
"What are we gonna do?" Lettie cursed, clutching at Jenny, panicked now as the sound of more splintering wood and a heavy dull thud echoed up to them.
"Look! They don' know what you look like right? Jus' a description from a pawner and an address. So change! Now! Become just another of yer girls. An' gimme that bleedin' locket!" Jenny flung open a wardrobe and grabbed a nondescript grey dress from it.
"That's Annie's! She'll go spare!"
"Wear it!" Jenny shoved it at her, grabbing the locket as Lettie lurched backwards and yanked hard enough to break the chain.
"Ow! Bleedin' 'ell Jenny Flint!" Lettie massaged the back of her neck.
"Do it!" Jenny hissed back, aware of the sound of firm voices calling out directions. "This place got an attic room? Hidin' place? Hide!"
"What about you? An' what about my girls?" Lettie had heard them too and half ripped her dress off before shoving it in a trunk. She struggled to get the grey dress on, being several sizes larger than the petite Annie.
Jenny ignored her and looked at the locket in her hand. It was still slightly warm from being round Lettie's neck and it looked like costume jewellery. She ran a finger over the front and then clicked the hasp absentmindedly; her mind too busy thinking up an answer to Lettie's question to tell her that doing so might not be a very good idea…
Lettie gazed in horror and disbelief at the space where Jenny Flint had vanished but the sounds of heavy footsteps and raised voices on the stairs brought her mind back to reality and she fled into the attic, wrenching open the hidden hatch where she kept all the real money and jewellery, curling herself up to hide with it, praying that her girls would be sensible enough to not cause trouble.
An: Well that escalated quickly
