A/N: I'm Baaaack! Hope it lives up to your expectations! Enjoy!

VIII. Reparations

Captain Becker could not remember having lived a worse four days in his life. Not even when he had been stationed in China had he had more miserable a set of days. Certain...occurrences had come to light. The first and most important being the letter that came to him the morning after his altercation with Miss Jessica Parker. The letter made him sigh with relief, blink at horror at his thoughtless actions and left him feeling hollow all in turn. Not that he didn't deserve it, he thought bleakly as he read the letter for the one-hundredth time.

Captain Becker,

This letter does not entail any form of apology on my part and truthfully, I am unsure quite why I feel the need to explain myself to you, but I feel I must in any matter.

I cannot recall ever have been spoken to as such in my life Sir, and I can only guess what motivated your unwarranted outburst. Never in my short life have I been branded as one who 'panders to one man whilst courting another' and never have I been one to entertain such an idea. I would have thought you, Captain, would have known that. Have I ever given you reason to believe otherwise?

Mr. Hart was asking me for advice on how to approach a lady he has admiration for. He thought my affections lay with him and did not wish to hurt my feelings by asking to court another lady. Upon my denial and indication otherwise, he left in delight, not before talking with Lester about some business matter.

That is when I saw you, and you accused me of thing beyond my wildest nightmares. To think that that very morning, I was penning a letter to ask you to dinner, for two is far to lonely a company in such a large house.

I think it is fair to say, that any acquaintance we may have entertained before is now over.

J.

And that was that. In one fell swoop he had let his temper overcome him, and destroyed any chance he might have had at convincing Jessica Parker that they- It didn't even matter what he had wanted, any more he was left with the sting of his actions and he would live with them. If that was not enough to put him in a foul temper he did not know what was.

..oOo..

Jess sat down at her harpsichord and looked at the keys. Lester had given the instrument to her for her eighteenth birthday, as a 'coming of age' gift. He had complained the entire time of course, insisting he did not even know why he had given it too her, because all of it was only going to be an infernal racket in any case, but Jess knew better. There was a reason he had put it right next to his study (the room in the house he practically lived in) after all.

But today, she was not feeling quite in the mood for her usual slow, happy, pretty songs. Instead, Jess got out the most complicated, angriest sort of song she could find, and began playing. It took Lester a total of five seconds to emerge from his study and demand to know what it was exactly that she was doing.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Jess said through pursed lips, her brow creased as she concentrated on the notes in front of her. Jabbing a key particularly hard, "I am just fine."

"Oh really?" Lester questioned dryly, "Because it looks from where I stand, that you are trying to punch a hole in that beautiful, expensive, perfectly pitched, expensive harpsichord which was a gift from your mother and I. Please tell me I am wrong?"

Jess sighed, her shoulders slumping as she halted her playing. "Lester, I have-" she began, only to be interrupted by the arrival of one of their doormen.

"Your post Sir."the man said, holding out the tray full of letters to Lester before she could say what she wanted.

As Lester leaved through the mail, she tried again "Yesterday I-" Jess got no further than that when her guardian picked up a letter and immediately went pale, all the blood draining from his face. "Lester, what is it?"

"Nothing Jessica." he muttered, all thoughts of listening to her clearly disappearing out the open window as Lester retreated back into his study, "I have to read this. Carry on."

More than a little deflated, Jess sighed again and leant her head against the cold wood of the piano. She decided then and there she needed something to distract her from these morbid thoughts. A bird chirped from just outside the window and suddenly, she knew just the thing.

..oOo..

Claudia Brown was once again making her way down to Abbys house for tea. She had since recovered from the cold that had kept her in bed for almost a week and she was positively bursting to leave the house.

Instead of choosing to enter the front door, as one usually might, Claudia unlatched the lock on the side gate and went straight through. Abby had garnered a reputation for collecting pets. Her menagerie to date consisted of two dogs, four cats, six rabbits (and more on the way), one canary and a flock of sparrows. For almost as many hours of the day as one could count, she was out the back with her creatures.

Today however, seemed to be the exception. "Abby?" she called, and when the other woman didn't answer, Claudia undid the ribbon on her bonnet and took it off as she headed into the house. "Good day Mrs. Maitland, would you know where Abby is?"

The older woman looked up from her embroidery, utterly unperturbed by her sudden appearance (after all it had become common practice over the years) and shook her head, "I have no notion of where she might be, unfortunately," the woman sighed, "That girl is sometimes more trouble than she's worth."

Claudia forced herself to smile politely at the woman - she had never liked her much (neither had she much affection for Abbys younger brother Jack), before bidding her good day and setting off in search of her friend.

..oOo..

"Who is she?" Connor spoke up from behind the military man. Watching in amusement as he hastily put down the flowers he was looking at in a stall and stepping away.

"I do not know what you mean." the man replied quickly.

Connor tapped his nose and winked, "Can't fool me." he said, either ignoring, or oblivious to the look the taller man was giving him. Of course, he probably should have taken the hint and walked away, but since when did Connor Temple ever recognise a hint? "Doctor Connor Temple, at your service. Connor to my friends."

Begrudgingly, the military man nodded politely in reply, "Captain Becker." he said brusquely. When Connor smirked, Becker glared at the other man, "Is that funny?"

Wide-eyed, Connor shook his head, "No, no." he said emphatically, "I mean, you don't have a Christian name?"

"No." Becker said cooly, his eyes never leaving the other mans.

Connor blinked, "Oh...Right." he said, a little confused, before punching the other mans arm lightly in a friendly manner (albeit awkwardly), "Well...who's the lucky girl to be getting flowers from such a 'fine chap' as you?"

"Did you just hit me?"

"I would call it more of a friendly tap..." Connor answered nervously, "But I can see you are not willing to disclose such information...although...I will say, that unless you're trying to tell this girl you are deeply and passionately in love with her, I suggest you do not get her those carnations."

Becker raised his eyebrows at the other man, but Connor simply smiled in reply. Thoughtfully, and carefully, the soldier reached down and picked up another bunch, "What about these?" Becker asked, a little hesitantly.

"Uhhh no mate, not unless you want the poor girl to have a heart attack." Connor said as soon as he saw the other man's choice of flower. "That's Lavender, Becker."

"Yes. So? It's pretty isn't it?" The captain replied tersely, becoming increasingly agitated at the fact he was asking the other man for help, "Now just wait a moment, did you just call me 'mate'?"

Connor gulped as the other man turned his glare on him, "I...erm...yeh...my apologies for the slip of the tongue Captain." he cleared his throat, "As I was just saying - Lavender, signifies distrust."

Becker looked at Connor blankly, "How, may I ask, do you know this, Mr Temple?" he said disbelievingly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Aha! It's all in here!" Connor replied, pulling a small brown book from his coat pocket and waving it in front of Becker's nose. "Everything a courting man needs to know."

"Temple. I am NOT courting her, simply apologising!" Becker growled in discomfort, "And stop waving that in front of me - I am not blind! What is it?"

Connor grinned slyly. "This, my friend, is a man's best friend! His confidante! His guide! His guardian! His-" he caught the look the other man was directing at him and immediately stopped, passing the book over meekly, "It's a flower-meaning book Becker."

"Well this is just ridiculous!" Becker exclaimed glaring at the book, "Half of these don't even make sense! Where on earth am I supposed to get a Bee Ophrys? What even is that?"

"Hey! Don't manhandle the book Becker!" Connor scowled, rescuing it from the other mans clutches, before licking his thumb and flicking through the pages, "You said you wanted to apologise. Hmmmmm,"

Captain Becker assumed the look of someone who was entirely uncomfortable and simply glared at the other man. "Yew, no. Throatwart, definitely not. Lotus flower, no..." Connor mumbled to himself, flicking through the pages at rapid speed. "Ah here we go - Asphodel."

"What does that one mean?" Becker asked suspiciously, not entirely happy with the self-pleased look on the Doctors face.

"'My regrets follow you to the grave'." Connor said smugly, apparently oblivious to the skeptical look on the other mans face.

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Becker asked.

Connor shrugged in reply, "It's just a very fancy way of saying sorry, and would you look at that, there's one coming into bud right here."

Becker simply stared at the flower the other man had shoved in his hands and Connor swore he could see the cogs turning in the his brain. "Alright then." Captain Becker growled, quickly turning and passing over the coins to the store holder, "But trust me, I will hold you accountable if something goes wrong."

..oOo..

Abby quickly undid the gate and stepped through, locking it behind her and ducking beneath hedgerows as she went. As much as she loved Claudia, and her friend was always supportive, she didn't quite understand how much she loathed this endless, monotonous cycle of life filled with embroidery and shopping and reading. That was why she came here, as often as she could.

'Here', was one of Mr. Hoggetts (an elderly farmer who was so old he was barely able to walk into his barnyard and feed the pigs) outlying fields. Here, Abby could do whatever she wanted to and not have anyone judge her on how fashionable she was, or whether or not she was acting with propriety.

Happily, Abby tore off her constricting shoes and socks, and ran like the wind through the fields. Letting her roughly-cut (in a fury at her mother several months ago, she had shorn off her once-long hair at the shoulders) blonde hair whip about her face.

Laughing gaily and so enraptured with this single moment of blissful freedom, Abby failed to notice the man standing under a nearby oak, black top hat tilted to the side as he watched her, and waited.

Thank you so much to all of my reviewers. Your support is what has kept me going! Sorry it's been so long. Kudos whoever gets the 'Mr Hoggett' reference. The War mentioned by Becker in China is the 'First Opium War' which raged from 1839-1842 between China and the UK. Flower meanings were very important to Victorian society, and was something 'any courting man should know' as Connor says. Different flowers meant and mean different things, and a lot of emphasis was placed on who gave who, what.

P.s. I listened to Guinevere and Arthurs theme from the BBC One TV show 'Adventures of MERLIN' whilst writing most of this. One of my alltime favourite themes.