15th of March 1888
The next morning, Jenny filled Vastra in, in detail, on the misadventure down at the canal edge. She listened in studious silence, eyes narrowed.
"And Jim had disappeared afterwards, you say?" she asked when Jenny had finished describing her escape, being sure to explain, in detail, that these heroic ventures were the reason why Vastra's second best cloak was now a wee bit tattered along the edge.
"Yes. But I don't think he was eaten. I mean it'd already turned and run really. Don't think it fancied its chances against an adult."
"Still. It might be an idea to find him again. Amongst other things, it could be said that he knows a little too much about us."
"An' not enough. He's 'alf convinced it really is Matthew I reck'n."
"All the more reason then." Vastra shrugged.
"I'll ask around. What're we gonna do about Matthew?"
"Take him his letter. There's nothing else we can do really." If Jenny hadn't known better, she'd have thought Vastra had just let out a sigh. But Vastra wouldn't be feeling sorry for an ape.
Jenny was not best pleased at leaving Matthew in a cell when he was innocent, but if the monster did attack more people while he was incarcerated, that would prove his innocence well enough. For now, he was probably safest in the police station and she set off there to deliver his letter.
She did have to read it to him as she'd suspected, in a muttered whisper through the bars of the cell so that the police guard at the end of the hall couldn't hear.
"Oh." Matthew said, when she'd finished. He'd hunched his shoulders over leaning down to listen but now they sagged as he leaned against the bars.
"It's prob'ly for the best." Jenny tried. "I mean how would it have even worked…"
"You and your missus make it work." Matthew said sullenly, moving away to sit on the board that was his bed.
Jenny ignored the "missus" once again. "Well no-one questions a maid livin' with her mistress." She tucked the letter back inside her dress to destroy later. Being found with such a letter on his person wouldn't help Matthew's situation one bit.
"Must be nice. Havin' tin like that." Matthew scuffed a boot on the floor. "No-one'd question me with a butler or a gardener if I 'ad tin." He stared intensely at his clenched fists as they rested on his knees.
"They lettin' you out any time soon Matthew?"
"Not with all this murdered child business." He snorted, looking in her general direction but not meeting her eye. "They reckon it was me what done it. Dressin' meself up as a monster to fool people. I'm amazed they let you see me." His angry gaze returned to his hands.
"I told 'em I had pers'nal news to tell yer."
"Thanks." The bitter tone of his voice caught at Jenny's conscience. But there was nothing she or Vastra could do to change Joseph's mind nor Matthew's situation.
"We're workin' on it. To prove it weren't you. To catch the monster." She tried to reassure him.
"Wouldn' make much difference anyhow." Matthew shrugged. He shifted in one smooth motion fully onto the bed, stretching himself out, making himself comfortable in his resignation and misery.
"We'll get you out." Jenny promised but he didn't respond and it sounded more like a hope even to her own ears. Her own shoulders sagged and she left to track down Jim.
He was working at the station again, under the watchful wrathful eye of the station porter and Jenny let him be until the last train left.
He stared at her suspiciously as he walked out but crossed the road anyway to join her.
"They're all saying it was Matthew." He started as soon as she was within hearing distance. "It ain't Matthew, he were in prison. It couldn't've been. But they won't hear anything else."
"Look, we're workin' on proving it weren't Matthew an' gettin' him out." Jenny sighed, knowing that although Matthew had volunteered, quite a lot of the blame could still be laid squarely at her and Vastra's feet for his current circumstances. Which had not been helped by Joseph's letter. "All we gotta do is catch whatever that thing was…"
"I know what it was. Is." Jim corrected himself. "I went and tol' me nan what happened and she tol' me what it was. She's sensible is me Nan."
"You told yer Nan?" A spike of fear shot down Jenny's spine.
"On'y that I'd been messin' by the river last night and near got attacked by something." He waved off her concern.
"What something did she reckon it was then?" Jenny folded her arms.
"Jenny."
Jenny froze in horror. He couldn't possibly be accusing her. Could he? But it would be very difficult to explain if he was.
A small, crafty but also slightly guilty grin grinned up at her.
"A Jenny Greenteeth, miss."
The horror faded into blankness. "A who?"
"More of a what. Jenny Greenteeth. S'like…a story. Well I thought it was a story. She's an ol' hag who lives in stagnant water thas all o'er with weeds and pulls children in if they get too close."
Jenny continued to stare at him blankly.
"Din't your mother ever tell you stories like that?" Jim asked, puzzled.
"My mother's dead." Jenny answered shortly.
The colour drained from his face. "I din't mean nuffin' by it miss." He whispered.
"So what does your ma say about Jenny Greenteeth then?" On the rather murky and stagnant waters just touched on, there was a small ripple of amusement at the fact that she shared her name with a monster.
"Well, more me nan. Me ma had to work. But me nan brought us up with all sorts of stories like that. Mostly to warn us against wanderin' off I s'pose. So I always thought at any rate."
"Hmm." Jenny stared into the distance, thinking. Children's stories couldn't possibly start coming to life. Aliens could visit earth, could be an alien. There was a Below to everything, was this a creature from a Swindon Below?
"Anyways, what're we gonna do to kill her an' prove it was her that killed that boy and not Matthew?"
Jenny shrugged. It was unlikely the police, having used her assistance to capture Matthew, would be willing to follow her again to prove it wasn't him after all. And certainly not, if she told them it was a monster from folk lore.
They set off in silence to the place where "Jenny Greenteeth" had attacked Jim but there was nothing more remarkable than tufts of grass and weeds floating in the water now. The evening light fading fast and with no sign of the monster or even a hint that she might be around, Jenny sent Jim off home and returned to Vastra and the hotel room, frustrated once again about the lack of leads in this case.
"I think, in this case my dear, the police would not be able to convince the people it was a monster unless they'd seen it themselves as well." Vastra mused, once she'd finished laughing at "Jenny Greenteeth". Jenny was still scowling at her. "But the nice thing about a mob is that they're so much more amenable to chasing after something than the police."
"What'd'yer mean?"
"I mean that if you cannot convince the police to help you in your investigations, you should call for other means of assistance."
"What, just yell "Help there's a monster attackin' me!" and hope enough people turn up?"
"Something along those lines?"
"What if it don't attack me? I scored it once, it might not fancy another round. 'Sides, if it really is Greenteeth, she only attacks children. An' I like to think I'm a ways past that."
"Use Jim again?" Vastra looked quizzically at Jenny, as if she'd missed something obvious.
"An' what if this time it catches 'im ey? What if 'e gets locked up in jail like Matthew? I ain't usin' him again!" Jenny had been thinking about the ethics of this.
"Is it 'usin' him if he volunteers?"
"Yes." Jenny frowned.
"Then how else do you suggest capturing the monster?"
Jenny took a deep breath.
But she hadn't been able to come up with anything better.
Jim had stood quite quietly while she asked in stops and starts for his assistance.
"So I'm to be the bait again."
"I din't intend to…"
"If it gets Matthew out of prison." He folded his arms determinedly, sticking his chin up in the air. Jenny sighed. "'Sides…" he gave another sly grin. "How much danger can I be in with the Isle Dog Slayer ready an' waiting. Bet Jenny Greenteeth ain't nuffin' to an Isle Dog."
Jenny was beginning to sincerely regret ever telling him her list of titles. She was also beginning to suspect Jim was sharper than she'd first realised. He'd make a first rate Irregular, she thought idly.
"What would you be anyways? If you killed her? Jenny Flint, the Greenteeth Destroyer. Jenny Flint, Water Witch Killer. Jenny the Jenny…" he caught a glimpse of her expression and fell silent, listening attentively as she outlined her plan. He was more aware than she'd been in planning with Matthew of all the things that could go wrong, that more was at stake than Vastra's freedom.
Thus it was that on the night of Friday the 16th of March, she was crouched in the shadows of the trees by the canal, her sword concealed beneath what was now her cloak. Vastra had declared she would get a new one, what with this one having become quite so ragged, muttering something about style and reputations.
Jim had told the boys that he intended to go hunting for the monster down by the canal. Apparently they'd laughed at him but were idly watching him from the bridge. Hopefully between them and Jenny, enough noise would be caused to bring people running.
Her legs were beginning to cramp and she was severely doubting that this plan would be in any way successful when she saw Jim move, raising his arm in warning. She scanned the canal and found the small tell-tale V shape disturbing the water. There was slightly more light this time, from nearby houses where help would hopefully come running from, and it danced on the ripples. She'd drawn her sword half an hour ago and she stood up, swiftly shaking the stiffness from her legs.
Jim yelled and the boys on the bridge, who were by now rather bored, stood upright and peered at the water. Even in the small amount of light, they could see the shadow of the dark shape rising out of the water. Jenny saw Jim scrabble on the bank, heard the boys shouting in alarm, calling for help.
Not yet, not yet. She told herself even as the clawed hands stretched out. People had to see it. The shape had stopped, what assumedly was its head, was wriggling it about in the air, as if it had sensed something. Sensed her?
"Jenny!" Jim screamed. There was a crowd now, drawn there by the boy's noise, shouting exclamations as in the light of lanterns they saw the dripping green fleshed head of Jenny Greenteeth. It turned away from the light, away from Jim. Jenny heard it hiss as it recoiled away from the Jim. Now!
She tugged her cloak off and ran down the short bank to the canal. They'd seen it but she still had to kill it. It was already almost under water. Nothing else for it then. She leapt into the canal.
The water was freezing and thick with slime and it occurred to Jenny that she'd never really learnt to swim properly. She felt something brush against her and grabbed at it with both arms. It felt scaly and slippery but she managed to hang on as it pulled her under. She struggled with her sword, trying to pull it against the weight of the water, to stab, to cut at the creature. There were splashes in the water next to her, other people were leaping in, kicking out and grabbing around them. One of them accidentally thumped her on the back and she let out a stream of bubbles. She kicked with her legs, trying to fight back to the surface, her lungs protesting vehemently as the monster tried to swim deeper. She didn't dare try to use her sword now with so many other people in the water around her. She felt sharp teeth bite at her, tearing through the sleeve of her dress. She saw bubbles as the head snapped again, felt a tug on her sword. It'd tried to bite her blade. The body she was still grasping went taut in pain, spewing more bubbles as hands grabbed at Jenny's dress, pulling her upwards. Her chest was tight and she concentrated solely on holding on to the monster for dear life.
Shouts and cries filled her ears as air filled her lungs when she was dragged to the surface and then to the edge of canal. The creature wriggled and snapped furiously as it was hauled onto the bank with Jenny, who wriggled almost as much, as she tried to cough up water and whatever else was in the canal that she didn't like to think about. Someone standing beside Jenny dealt a swift cudgel blow to the monster's head and Jenny felt it flop once more and go still.
She swiftly released it and struggled away, trying to hide her sword, but the crowd was far more interested in the stretched-out body than herself and she able to stand and merge with the front row of the crowd. In the lantern light, she saw tangles of long dark hair, green tinged skin that stretched over elongated webbed hands that ended in inch long claws and an open snarl of vicious pointed teeth.
Jim found her and pulled her further away from the scene, as the police arrived and were greeted with derogatory shouts.
"You alright miss?" He'd found her cloak and wrapped it round her tightly.
"Bit disappointed." She shivered, moving swiftly away but not so swiftly as to draw unwanted attention.
"Disappointed?!" Jim sounded appalled.
"Weellllll…carn't add 'Jenny Greenteeth Destroyer' to me list now." She grinned at him.
He blinked.
"Wonder what it really was." She pondered aloud, turning back to watch the crowd as it moved away from the canal, the vague suggestion of a limp figure being carried in the middle of it.
"You don't think it was a Jenny Greenteeth then miss?" Jim asked.
"S'pose it don't really matter now." She shrugged.
"You ain't feelin' sorry for it miss? It killed a child." Jim stared at her.
"Thas true." But still, she felt strangely uneasy. Vastra's words came back to her. "Console yourself. There are people alive today because you killed them." She looked at Jim. "You alive then?"
"Just about, Miss."
"Fancy followin' them lot then and findin' out what happens next?"
He gave the best imitation of a salute he could and ran off. The crowd wasn't moving that fast, although as far as Jenny could tell, they were moving towards the police station.
For herself, what happened next definitely included another bath.
AN: By the by, if you happen to write fanfic, you might just happen to meet a wonderful intelligent awesome (and attractive) person along the way and get to know them and it might just happen that they think you're awesome enough back that they come stay with you for a while.
As dating advice goes, disclaimer, might not work for everyone. But you never know!
