An: If it seems like Jenny's training is suffering, it is a bit but then again if you've ever had a major injury and tried to do anything whilst it heals…
18th February 1888
It was a few days after the Prime Minister had paid his visit and Jenny was trying to go through a set of stances and stretches without re-opening the wounds on her back. It was proving an unsuccessful venture and at the sound of a rather furtive knock at the back door, she gave up and stormed up out the cellar to answer it.
Stood there in the slush that still lay on the ground after the snow before Valentine's day was a smartly dressed young woman. Jenny took a closer as the she gazed at Jenny in awe and realised there were patches and mends. The clothes were smart enough but clearly this young woman wasn't affluent. The young woman shivered and Jenny stood back and let her in. She moved swiftly past Jenny to the hob where the breakfast fire was still burning and barely stifled a small sigh of relief.
"Did the Irregulars send yer?" Jenny asked as she closed the door behind her, curious as to whether this was a slightly older informant than usual.
"The army?" the young woman turned back towards Jenny, looking horrified. "No." She shook her head vigorously.
Jenny waited with an impatient expression for anything more but nothing was forthcoming.
"How c'n I help yer then?" she asked, making the young woman jump nervously. She stared at Jenny again, still dressed in her jodhpurs and loose shirt from training.
"Oh!" She startled herself out her reverie. "Yes! Yes. I'm looking for the Adventuress Detective?"
"Madame Vastra y'mean." Jenny folded her arms. Vastra collected titles almost as much as Jenny did.
"Yes! Yes."
Jenny rolled her eyes. "You got a case for her then."
"Yes." The young woman hunched her shoulders and looked at the floor.
Swallowing down several curses, Jenny beckoned for the young woman to follow her, ringing a small bell on the hallway mantelpiece as she did so to warn Vastra: Case Incoming.
Vastra was hastily seating herself in the wicker chair, veil thrown hastily on, when Jenny entered. Jenny saw the Silurian tilt her head curiously at Jenny bringing a case to her, when she was in quite such a state of dishevelment. Jenny knew she was being careless, knew she should've changed into her proper dress, before she ever answered the door but frustration at her injuries and their preventing her from training made her defiant.
"This woman 'ere got a case fer you."
Vastra's eyes widened at the almost insolent tone. She blinked and smiled to herself behind the veil, switching her attention to the young woman who was edging nervously towards the chair.
"Have a seat." Vastra gestured at it, to save her the agonies of a slow descent into it. The young woman gratefully plopped down in an instant. "And your name?"
"Fields. Um. Harriet. Harriet Fields. Mrs." Mrs Fields stumbled over her introduction.
"And the case?" Vastra took a small breath, beginning to understand why Jenny was staring fixedly at the opposite wall.
"Well you see…"
A good half an hour of ramblings and diversions later, Vastra took a deep breath and held up her hand. "Essentially, Mrs Fields, your husband is missing and you'd like us to find him."
Harriet, who'd been interrupted mid-flow, nodded, folding her hands into her lap and tucking her chin into her chest to stare at them.
Jenny looked at Vastra and shook her head imperceptibly. No, this young lady was not going to be able to pay them. But something about the young woman's demeanour had evoked Jenny Flint's sympathy, overcoming her initial exasperation and she stared meaningfully at Vastra to prompt an affirmative answer.
"Very well. We will take the case." Vastra stood up and gave a small nod, holding up a hand to cut off Harriet's effusive thanks.
"I carn't pay you very much…" Harriet tried again.
"We will take what you can afford." Vastra waved her off. Jenny took Harriet gently by the arm and escorted her out back through the kitchen. She felt the young woman tremble.
"She ain't all that scary y'know. Don' worry."
Harriet still looked entirely miserable even after Jenny's reassurances they'd find her husband and Jenny got the strange feeling there was something that Harriet wasn't telling them. Or it'd gotten lost in her convoluted story. She bid goodbye to Harriet and went through to the plant room, throwing herself into Harriet's recently vacated chair.
"Sounds pretty simple. Bloke works on the railway as a fireman, decides to up and disappear. Could be anywhere in England by now." Jenny leaned backwards and steepled her fingers, crossing her legs.
Vastra gave her a reproving look. "Well we will begin our investigation at the station. Undoubtedly someone will have seen him around his place of work. I suspect he's been murdered."
Jenny blinked at such a fatalistic prediction. "Maybe 'e were an alien an' Torchwood got 'im."
"Maybe he slipped through the cracks and got eaten by an opportunistic hawk."
Jenny sat forward. "Maybe…"
"Maybe we should begin our investigations." Vastra raked her eyes over Jenny. "Which might require a change of attire?"
Jenny gave her a trademark unimpressed glare but heaved herself up out the chair. "Like I'm gonna remain clean snoopin' round a train station anyways." She muttered as she walked out the room to scrub up.
Their enquiries at the train station after a Joseph Fields found that he'd last been sighted on a train heading west. The porter at the office told them it wasn't likely he'd been able to skip off anywhere without it being reported. A fireman was necessary on the trains to stoke the engines and refill it with water. "'less he skipped an' someone replaced him. The train stops at Swindon for a relief break. Ten minutes. Coulda gone then." He shrugged. "All I can tell yer I'm afraid."
Vastra thanked him for his information and went to the ticket office to enquire about passage along the Great Western Railway to Swindon for the next day.
Having acquired a compartment for the mid-morning train, they returned home to pack, Jenny growing increasingly nervous.
"It's a missing husband. What are we planning? Fighting him for her honour?" Vastra snorted as Jenny checked the smoothness of the draw of her sword from the sheath that evening. They were both dressed in their nightgowns but only Vastra was curled up in bed, watching Jenny agitatedly double check everything.
"I don't think it's as simple as that. Our cases 'ardly ever are." Jenny put the sword back in its case and sat down on the edge of the bed with an almost despondent sigh. Vastra wriggled over and curled up around Jenny's waist, running her hand over the bandages on Jenny's back and up through her hair, trying to relax her. "I jus' get the feelin' she ain't told us somethin'. Somethin' she knows. Or at least suspects."
"Hm. She was particularly loquacious. Easy enough to disguise the truth when you're babbling." Vastra sat up, resting her head against Jenny's shoulder, feeling the tension in the young woman's body change at the contact. She gave a small smile as Jenny turned round to kiss her.
19th February 1888
The journey to Swindon was freezing, and Vastra a very pale green when the train duly stopped for the relief break as the porter had told them. They'd had to share their compartment which meant she couldn't even hold Jenny to keep warm. The station was dingy and Vastra struggled to follow Jenny to the porter's office, where they were rudely directed across the road to the Great Western Hotel, the porter enquiring as to whether they were blind.
The hotel was at least mildly warmer and Vastra walked gratefully to the fire in the hallway whilst Jenny enquired about a room. Her request for only one was met with raised eyebrows but Vastra turned around to inform the receptionist that her maid was accustomed to sleeping on the floor. Jenny gave a rather fixed grin towards the receptionist who looked at her sympathetically and then showed them upstairs to a small single bed room.
"Well this will be cosy." Vastra examined the bed after the porter had left. It was a narrow and nothing like their double bed in 13 Paternoster Row.
"I ain't sleepin' on the floor." Jenny scowled, turning round from looking out the window at the station.
Vastra grinned in return. "Wouldn't dream of it my dear."
Rolling her eyes towards the ceiling, Jenny unpacked their cases and then sat on the bed. It gave a tired jangle of springs.
"On second thoughts the floor might be more comfortable." Jenny muttered.
Vastra was still shivering, so Jenny curled up with her on the bed whilst she ate the lunch she'd packed.
The surly porter was still on duty when they crossed back to the station to make enquiries about Joseph Fields.
"An' if 'e is a fireman 'ow the bleedin' 'ell am I suppose to recognise 'im? One sooty bastard looks like the rest." the porter scoffed. Jenny gave him one of her best glowering smiles and slid a coin onto his desk. He brightened and became a little more cordial. "But as it 'appens I did see one young fella skip off the train here with the coal dust still round 'is eyes. Coulda been your man." He swiped the coin up and turned his back on them.
"Well at least we're in the right place." Vastra commiserated as they walked off.
"Worse luck." Jenny muttered. The porter was now bellowing at some unfortunate boy who was struggling with a case as big as he was. Swindon was not impressing her.
They returned to the hotel to ask directions to the nearest police station and was told there was only one, at the top of Eastcott Lane and to ask for George North. The receptionist stared at them with even more interest and looked as if he'd liked to have asked more questions but they duly thanked him and walked out before he could.
After a climb up a rather steep hill, they arrived at a stone house with the words County Constabulary over the entrance. Avoiding the children chasing each other around the yard in front, Jenny and Vastra walked into the reception area and up the front desk to enquire after George North.
"Super's not in at the mo." The man shrugged at them. "What might be yer business?"
"I am a private investigator from London. I'd like to ask for his assistance in a missing persons case." Vastra told him grandly. "My name is Madame Vastra. And yours?"
He sighed. "Sergeant Rebbick at your service." He sat back in his chair. "'oo you lookin' for then."
"A railway fireman by the name of Joseph Fields."
"One of those railway workers is he?" Thomas said in the same tone as Vastra might've said "One of those apes is he?" "Bloody navvies are always more trouble than they're worth."
"We have reason to believe he may be in Swindon."
"I'll put 'is name down to be passed around." Thomas scribbled something on a piece of paper in front of him and then picked up a newspaper. Which he promptly then looked at them over the top of. "Feel free to start the search yerselves. Til 'e commits a crime ain't really a lot we c'n do but keep an eye out."
They walked all the way back to the hotel a little fed up of this case already, particularly as they weren't getting paid. Enquiries with the porter at the Great Western Hotel revealed that he hadn't seen anyone of Joseph's description and thus could only assume he'd had friends in the area.
Jenny sorely missed the Irregulars now and made a note to always bring one along with her in the future. Leaving a grumpy Vastra shivering in the hotel room next to the fire, Jenny set off to find somewhere to have dinner. As she was munching on a pasty, she remembered the young lad who was being lambasted by the Porter and was in no doubt that a shilling might brighten his eye and refresh his memory, as it had done so many others.
The young boy was still struggling with the last of the baggage off a train when she came up to him and she let him finish his work to save him another tongue lashing before asking him about Joseph Fields.
"I saw 'im I fink. He got off the train, coal dust all over and another bloke took 'is place. Then he disappeared. Musta 'ad a wash cos 'e came back the cleaner f'r it." The boy shrugged. "What you want to know for anyway?"
"I'm helpin' a private investigator track 'im down. His lady back in London's missin' 'im."
"In London!" The boy's eyes went wide.
"You from around 'ere then I take it?"
"Born an' raised. I want to work on the engine when I'm older. Got a job 'ere as a luggage boy figured it'd 'elp. Ev'ryone round 'ere works on the railway see. On'y good job there is. An' you get healthcare an' even a dentist. They looks at yer teeth." He bared his own in a crooked smile. "Me da works on a farm."
"Woss yer name?"
"Jim. Well James. But nobod calls me James." The boy darted a look over his shoulder at the porter who was watching the train set back off.
"You reck'n you might be able to help me find out more Jim?" He looked at her a little suspiciously until she waved a guinea in front of him. His eyes went wide and he staggered.
"Find out anythin' you want!" he nodded eagerly.
"Joseph Fields. Any known associates, current whereabouts, that sort of thing." She switched the guinea for a shilling. "Down payment for yer."
He took the shilling but eyed the guinea. "'oo're you then?"
Jenny thought about all the titles she'd acquired recently that she could introduce herself as and a spark of mischief lit her eyes up.
"I'm the assistant of the Great Detective. Also known as Isle Dog Slayer, Great Warrior of the Earth an' Rider of the Golden 'awk. But you c'n call me Jenny Flint." She smiled her best smile at him. His jaw dropped progressively further and further open throughout her introduction. "Any results or information, come find me at the Great Western or the police station."
"Yuss m'm." he said in hushed tones.
Jenny looked back as she exited the station. He hadn't moved from the spot. She allowed herself a small grin before heading back to the hotel to warm up Vastra.
An: Rebbick is a real person as is George North, they were a Sergeant and Superintendent at Swindon Police Station in 1881 and I am finding out more about Swindon then I would ever really care to know.
