A/N Thank you all who reviewed. Seriously you guys are amazing, I truly appreciate what you do. If I haven't gotten back to you, i'm sorry I'm still figuring out how to reply, apparently I can't reply straight from the email alerts. But needless to say, I will get back to each of you. Keep letting me know what you want to see, I will do my best to incorporate it.
Special shoutout to Trina Tiffany, thanks for the fav and follow! The rest of you visitors, PLEASE review, good bad ugly I love it all! let me know what you think, I promise I don't bite!
SO this chapter is like DOUBLE the size of the other ones, the characters just kept talking. Literally there were like 3 places where I planned to stop it they decided to keep going. Seeing as the next few chapters may take a little longer, research into the crime scene etc. and my life will begin to get SUPER hectic. I have a big audition on Weds for an apprenticeship, CROSS YOUR FINGERS FOR ME!
The next morning, Phryne and Jack were roused by a light tap on the door.
"Miss Fisher, your breakfast is ready, and hope it wasn't too presumptuous for me to lay a place for the Inspector at the table this morning. Dot felt a little too unnecessary to ask you herself"
"Oh lord does your entire household know?' Jack asked her?
"Of course not Mr B, thank you very much we will be down shortly, and tell Dot, not to worry herself over it, Jack will be a regular guest here from now on I'm sure" She glared at Jack amusingly at his shocked face.
"There is no point in keeping it from them, they have the highest discretion and I'm sure they regard you all in very high esteem. I'm sure even Cec and Burt have grown a fondish sort of tolerance for you. You needn't worry yourself."
She grinned as she climbed out of bed, pulling on her silk nightgown, to go pick an outfit for the day.
"And what exactly do you expect me to wear to breakfast? I can't very well go downstairs in yesterday's clothes, heaven forbid your Aunt decides to pay you a visit, I fear she may just kill me if she found me here, and put two and two together, like the rest of your household seems to have done"
"Don't worry so much Jack, I'm sure we can find something here that is about your size, and if not we can send Dot to the tailor to get you some new clothes. I have always wondered what you would look like in a tailor made suit," She grinned, enjoying Jack's discomfort.
"As much as I am sure you would enjoy that, I think I would prefer to wait at least a little while before you start buying me clothes." He remarked dryly.
"Well. Fortunately for you, Dot laundered the clothes you jumped off the dock with at Queenscliffe, and I kept them here in case there was ever a need, so there need be no embarrassment".
Jack breathed a sigh of relief, he was amused that Phryne had kept the suit, but then this was Phryne Fisher, she always had a plan, it was up to the rest of the world to keep up with her. He watched as Phryne removed her nightgown to put on her clothes for today, a pair of cream silk high wasted trousers, with a top to match and a devastatingly gorgeous belt, with a crimson red overcoat that he was sure would match her shade of lipstick. Her alabaster skin gleamed in the sunlight pouring in through her bedroom window, and he couldn't take his eyes of her. He begrudgingly got up and began to dress, gathering and neatly folding his carelessly tossed aside clothes.
When they had both dressed, they headed down the stairs arm in arm. Neither could quite bring themselves to be physically separated from each other*. Still reveling in their newfound views of each other. A shrill ring interrupted their daydream-like state while walking down the stairs. They heard Mr B answer the telephone.
"Ah Hello Constable, yes the Inspector is here, I'll just fetch him for you."
Jack rolled his eyes. "I couldn't have asked for one day to enjoy this could I?"
"Oh come now Jack" Phryne replied "It will be fun. Could be more fun now that we have a reward at the end of the day for our hard work"
Jack turned to her and replied "Oh yes," stepping closer, and saying in a deep sultry voice "and what might that be Miss Fisher"
"Oh I don't know inspector, I suppose you will just have to wait and find out," and with that she continued on, trailing his tie behind her.
Jack took a few moments to recover from this brief interaction, and walked forward to answer the telephone.
"Inspector, I'm so sorry sir, I hope it's alright that I've telephoned you here, when I rang your house, I didn't receive an answer, so I called Dotty to see if she knew what time you left here last night, and she said you hadn't left."
"That's alright Collins, now what is so important that you had to telephone me on my day off to tell me?"
"Well sir, there has been a bank robbery and a murder, the new Chief Inspector would like you on the case so you can solve it and I am quoting here 'quick and fast with that clever woman of yours'" Collins read off, making sure Jack knew the message came from above.
"Thank you Collins, secure the crime scene for me, Miss Fisher and I will come in about an hour or so, we have some important things to take care of here"
Phryne frowned at this, what on earth could he mean by that, she didn't think now was the right time to discuss their future and Jack wouldn't lie to Collins like that…would he?
"Jack what are you on about, things we have to take care of here?" Phryne asked, after he hung up the telephone.
"What's for breakfast?" He said simply and walked towards with a faint smile playing on his lips, to the kitchen where Cec and Bert were leaning in the doorway munching on Dot's latest batch of scones. Phryne followed, extremely turned on by Jack's behavior. Lying, and mysterious answers was her tool, she never expected them to be used on her, especially by Jack. Unfortunately she couldn't do anything about this, as they were about to have breakfast with the whole house. He would pay for this later today, but she had to admit, breakfast did smell delectable. Dot and Mr. B must have pulled out all the stops for Jack's first morning here, knowing his feelings towards their cooking.
"Mr B, Dot, how lovely this all smells," She sat down next to Jane, who was making sure to look extremely preoccupied with buttering her scone in the hopes that last night's incident would be forgotten. Phryne also suspected she didn't know what to do or how to behave with Jack. "It's alright Jane, it's not as if Jack hasn't eaten here before, this morning is no different."
Jane turned a bright shade of pink, but still didn't look up, continuing to spread the same piece of butter over her scone. Phryne gave up, she was sure putting Jane on the spot wasn't going to help any more, and Jane being who she was, was sure to come around eventually. She instead turned to Jack, to find out what was so important that had pulled him in on a day off.
"So Jack, what did Collins want?"
"Well Miss Fisher, it seems just up your ally, there has been a robbery and a murder at the Commercial Bank**."
"And what pray tell is so important that we couldn't go immediately?"
"I told you, I want breakfast, and I want to enjoy it, without Collins coming in and giving us gruesome details of the murder. I so rarely get to enjoy my breakfast." And that was the end of it. He thought it was high time he made an attempt to get to know Jane, so he attempted to engage her in light conversation "So Jane, are you looking forward to going back to school in a few weeks?"
"Yes, thank you Inspector" She said, suddenly very interested in the ribbons in her hair. Taking his cues from Phryne, he didn't push the subject. He was very surprised when she then looked up and asked them a question.
"Miss Fisher, do you think it would be alright if maybe I came with you to a crime scene one day before school starts? It doesn't have to be a gruesome one, and I know I'm still a teenager, but I just want to see how it all works, it seems quite interesting." She blushed again and looked down.
Jack turned to Phryne, shocked. Jane, interested in murder?
"Well Jane, it's up to Jack really. I think some of the best education a girl can receive is outside the classroom, and perhaps this is a good opportunity for you. Jack?"
"I'm not sure, perhaps not this one, the new Chief Inspector is on my case about getting this solved quick and neatly, but I'll think about it,"
Jack was completely torn up inside, he didn't envy Phryne's job, trying to raise a teenager with such difficult decisions to make, especially one as battered as Jane was.
* NERDALERT Penicillin was invented at this point so people were able to be freer with how much they touched other people at this point. Before the late 1920's touching was a thing rarely seen because people were afraid of getting sick
**This is based on an actual case, that actually happened in the early 20's, if you want t look it up, just type Squizzy Taylor bank robbery into Google. I will be taking loads of liberties with it though, so don't hold me by it.
