The Heart of the Matter
Jean sat alone in the kitchen with a cup of tea. Mattie was out with some friends. Lucien was at the town hall on police business already. She'd gone to pick him up from the bus station when he finally returned home from China.
She sipped her tea, trying to muddle through her traitorous thoughts. Oh she had been so excited to see him. The moment she got his letter giving the date of his return, she had been overcome with giddy anticipation. For over a week, she'd daydreamed about his homecoming. She'd been sustained by ideas of seeing him happily playing and singing at the piano, going all through the day and night with his odd experiments for his cases, perhaps news of his daughter in Shanghai, his excitable kindness with his patients.
That trouble with the car nearly frustrated her to tears when it made her late picking him up. But she'd made it, running through the street to greet him. His happy grin on his dear face was such a sight for sore eyes. Jean nearly had the impulse to throw her arms around his strong shoulders, press her cheek to his to feel the scratch of his beard.
Jean shook herself. Silly thought. Horribly inappropriate. Because as soon as she'd been able to get ahold of herself, she saw a most unwelcome sight over his shoulder. Joy MacDonald. Lucien had been just as happy to greet Mrs. MacDonald as he had been to greet Jean. He'd even turned back to say how lovely it was to see her as Jean tried to hurry him away for police business.
The front door opened and Jean sat up, hoping Lucien had returned home. "Lucien?" she heard Mattie call.
Jean sighed, settling back down. "He's not here, Mattie."
The young woman appeared in the kitchen. "I thought you were going to pick him up?"
"I did. And dropped him right at the town hall with his medical bag for whatever police business Superintendent Lawson needs him for."
Mattie frowned, showing the emotion Jean hid from her own face. "I suppose we'll wait up for him, then?"
Jean gave a gentle smile. "I'll make you some tea."
