Brotherly Love

Oh, that man! Jean was a bit more aggressive than she should have been in cutting the rabbit. But it felt good to get out her frustrations somehow. Better hacking away at the rabbit than at Lucien Blake's face.

Mattie wandered into the kitchen soon after the doctor left. Too soon for Jean's annoyance to have cooled, to give way to her rational thought.

"Lucien's right," Mattie said gently.

Jean looked up, her turquoise eyes looking steely gray with the fire of her frustration. "You really mean to tell me that you agree that a man who murdered a police officer and nearly shot Danny shouldn't have to pay for his crimes?"

"No, I'm saying that the prison killing Sean McBride is no better than what Sean McBride did to Clive Cooper," Mattie replied with the strength of her conviction in her own voice.

"If Sean really did kill Clive Cooper."

"What, now you agree with Lucien?" Mattie asked incredulously, hardly believing her ears.

"Lucien doesn't know what he believes, and that is something we should all pay attention to. Lest you forget that his doubts and hunches have done more good than any of us even knows," Jean answered, gesturing the knife at Mattie to make her point.

Mattie could see she was getting nowhere and huffed slightly as she turned and walked away.

Jean's anger was now sufficiently dulled. She realized what she'd said to Mattie. And that she'd meant it. Lucien had doubts. And if Lucien had doubts, perhaps they should all pay closer attention. He had a way of noticing things that others didn't. He was so brilliant and so observant but sometimes—oftentimes, it seemed to Jean—he had so much in that clever mind of his that he couldn't quite sift through it all and put the pieces together.

So maybe he was onto something here. Maybe there was a chance that Sean didn't kill Clive. And if that were the case, even after his earlier confession, should he be executed? Jean felt certain he was guilty and for that, he should hang.

Lucien didn't. Lucien always seemed to find the best in anyone. Well, perhaps not the best, but he was so much more forgiving of the things Jean often saw to be fatal flaws. Perhaps they weren't so fatal after all. Perhaps the doctor was onto something there, too, finding those tiny redeeming qualities in even the most wicked people.

Jean smiled to herself, not unlike the way she did when he was hanging through the servery window earlier, absent-mindedly watching her work. She didn't like being studied, but she did like that he found her presence helpful when he was trying to work through his problems.

Perhaps whatever it was about Lucien Blake that allowed him to see the sliver of redemption in Sean McBride was the same part of him that saw Jean Beazley, who was never regarded by anyone as more than a farm girl, a farmer's wife, a pitiful widow, and a housekeeper, as worthy of his respect and esteem.

She stood up a bit straighter as she finished her task with the rabbit. Yes, perhaps Lucien was onto something.