King of the Lake
Lucien changed from his suit into a more comfortable cardigan after dinner. He went down to the kitchen for a glass of water, somewhat anxious over what he might find. The light was on. Jean was there. They'd been bickering far too much recently. After their emotional moment in the sunroom and what had happened afterwards, they'd both avoided each other for about two days and then tried to move on as though nothing had happened. But something had happened. And Lucien couldn't get it out of his head. Still, that was nothing to focus on now.
"Foxglove," Jean announced as he came in, arranging flowers in a vase. "From the garden."
"Foxglove?" he asked, watching her work.
"Mmm."
"Very medicinal, you know," Lucien told her as he got a glass from the cupboard.
"Really? And I just thought they were pretty flowers. Oh, I've put some more of your father's belongings in the surgery. I don't know what you want to do with them," Jean said.
Lucien crossed to the sink to fill his glass. He scoffed, "That makes two of us."
"Oh, Charlie told me about the Goodman boy down at the lake."
"Yes, I knew his mother years ago. Before I left to study in Scotland. She was the first woman I ever…courted."
"Oh."
Christ, this was the last thing he wanted to tell Jean. Though she was just his housekeeper and friend. Nothing more. No reason he couldn't tell her these things. It wasn't as though he were courting Jean and going on about an old girlfriend. The way she'd reacted, though, made him very nervous. What was she thinking? Was she jealous, perhaps? No, that was probably too much to hope for. Probably his ego getting a bit puffed up. Was she just interested? Disappointed in him? Bloody hell, why did he care so much about what she thought!?
He tried not to look at her as he spoke, but he couldn't seem to look away from her. Then again, that was nothing new. "The night before I was leaving, we had a…oh, we had a silly argument. Believe it or not, I was thinking about proposing to her. Instead, I left the next day and never saw her again. Joined the army, eventually got posted to Singapore," he said, skipping over all the things that led to those changes in his life. But that's what had started him down that path. Going to Scotland to become a doctor and deciding rather resolutely that he had absolutely no intention of going back to Ballarat. He realized, "It's funny, isn't it? How your life can turn on a single moment. On a single decision."
As he mused on that thought, Lucien watched the expression on Jean's face turn to something very pensive, very significant. But for what purpose, he could not quite tell. She replied, "Yes, it is, isn't it?"
How he longed to ask her how it was that she understood his statement so well. What decision had she made that changed everything? What paths diverged before her that she had chosen one over another to lead her here? But Lucien did not ask her these things. For she was his housekeeper, and it would be impertinent of him to ask.
"Well, goodnight, Lucien," Jean said, turning to leave the kitchen.
Lucien was left alone with his glass of water, saying, "Goodnight, Jean," after she'd already walked out of the room. He stared at the pretty foxglove flowers and could not help but feel that there was a great divide still between Jean and himself, and for the life of him, Lucien could not figure out how to solve it.
