Note: Just a quick note to say thank you to all those that have been reading so far, it's making me very happy looking at my stats and seeing just how many people have read so far. I would also like to say an especially big thank you to the reader who messaged me anonymously on Tumblr earlier to tell me how much they were enjoying this fic, you made my day darling and I'm very grateful! I hope this chapter will continue to please you all and as always reviews are more than welcome. Also, if anyone would like to follow me on Tumblr or message me there as an alternative to reviewing I will post a link below. Enjoy my loves.

Love always

Shadow of a Black Rose xxx

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Walking around Vastra's home Jenny found herself mesmerised by the beauty and grandeur of it all. She had already been living and working in the house for a few weeks but still she couldn't quite believe that she was really living in this world that was so far from the one she had known all of her life. There were no broken windows or pieces of furniture that were so badly rotted that you were afraid to put even the slightest weight on them. Every room was ornately decorated with beautiful wallpapers and carefully polished wood floors, rugs of expensive materials spread along the wood for comfort. The furniture was of the highest quality and there seemed to be plants and flowers sat in pots on every free surface which Jenny supposed must have been to make Vastra feel more at home.

It was a rare occurrence for Jenny to see Vastra during the day as her mistress always seemed to be locked away in her study or out of the house doing one thing or another but in the evenings it had become a regular occurrence for the pair to sit by the fire together until Vastra went out to work. Jenny had tried to tell her employer that usually in service jobs the employee would not be permitted to sit in the main house let alone to spend their evenings in the company of their employer but Vastra had insisted that she wanted the girl to stay with her in the evenings so that they could get to know one another better. So far, however, Jenny had avoided conversation about herself, not wanting Vastra to judge her on her past and preferring to hear about her mistress and her life before she had been awoken from hibernation. Vastra told Jenny such incredible stories about the Earth when it had been inhabited by her people. She said that there had been greenery everywhere, plants and flowers beyond anything Jenny could possibly imagine. She told the maid about how the sun had been closer to the planet then and how there had been no winter, only the warmth of summer for the whole year around. The detail with which Vastra told her stories was amazing and Jenny almost felt as though she had been to that world herself despite it having been gone for millions of years.

One evening as Vastra had just finished telling Jenny about her favourite river that she used to go to when she was a child and needed to get away from her life and training as a warrior for a while the pair fell into a not too uncomfortable silence. For a short while the only sound in the sitting room was the crackling of the fire as the flames slowly ate away at the wood that fuelled it, consuming it bit by bit as the seconds ticked past. As much as Vastra enjoyed re-living her past and the memories from when her family were still alive and with her she was beginning to grow tired of hearing about herself all of the time. Each night when she and Jenny settled themselves in their seats by the fire, with Jenny on the seat to the right of the fire and Vastra on the seat to the left, she would attempt to get the girl to talk about herself and her own life. She asked questions about Jenny's family, the house she grew up in, the friends she had had when she was young, but somehow the maid always seemed to find a way to brush over her own stories and turn the conversation back to Vastra. It was as though she didn't want Vastra to get to know her. On occasion Vastra wondered if perhaps the girl was hiding something, but if she was then what was she hiding? And why did she feel the need to hide it?

"Jenny?" The girl looked up from the dress that she was attempting to fix after Vastra had managed to rip the sleeve off in a fight with a murderer the night before. Jenny had been shocked when she had found the damaged dress on her mistress' bedroom floor, Vastra had never been injured or even so much as touched in her line of work in the time Jenny had worked in the house and the maid hadn't thought it possible until the moment she noticed the damaged dress. She raised an eyebrow slightly as she looked at her mistress, her features painted in mild shock. Vastra had never addressed her by her first name before. It was always 'Miss Flint' that she used whenever she wanted to get Jenny's attention. The unexpected use of her first name stunned her into silence as she wondered what was going through her employer's mind. "May I ask you something?"

"O' course ma'am, anythin' you want." Jenny knew that deep down she didn't mean it. She was almost certain that Vastra wanted to ask about her life again and she just didn't feel like she could tell her those things. This whole place and the life Vastra had lead, both in her past and now in their present, was so far from Jenny's life that she was sure that her mistress couldn't possibly understand everything she had been through. She would judge her just as everyone else judged women like her.

"Can I trust you?" Jenny frowned, of all the questions Vastra could have asked that wasn't one that she had been expecting.

"I 'aven't told anyone what you really are yet 'ave I?" She attempted a smile but she was still a little confused. "Don't you think I would 'ave told someone by now if I couldn't be trusted?" Vastra was watching her closely, her blue eyes scanning her maid's face as though there was something in particular she was looking for.

"I didn't mean to cause offense Miss Flint, I only meant... you never want to talk about your past. Whenever I've asked you seem to push my questions aside. I can't help but wonder if there is something you're holding back." Her eyes dropped from Jenny's for a second but the maid continued to look straight at her. Vastra really believed that she had something to hide? Something that would make her untrustworthy? She didn't know why but for some reason it hurt a little that her mistress would think so badly of her. It seemed to Jenny as though Vastra's ability to trust was damaged, she was too suspicious and Jenny was a little afraid of what would happen to her job if Vastra couldn't learn to trust her.

"My past isn't like yours ma'am" Jenny muttered still watching Vastra who kept her eyes averted. "I can't tell you about pretty forests and 'appy times spent with my family because there 'aven't been any. My life's been 'ard. You would think bad o' me if I told you some o' the things I've 'ad to do to stay alive, an' I don't want you to think bad o' me..."

"You know, not all of my life has been as simple and carefree as the things I have told you about Jenny. I've done things I shouldn't have in the past, to protect myself just as you say you have. What I have told you of myself has all come from my life before this world. Since I was woken here my life seems to have become a great deal harder." A soft hiss reverberated from somewhere deep within Vastra and Jenny felt every muscle in her body tense. The last time she had heard that sound was the night that they had met - the night when the Silurian had killed those men who had attacked her.

Both women fell into silence once more and for the first time Jenny allowed her eyes to drop from Vastra's face. Had she been wrong about Vastra? Would her mistress understand after all?

"I've always lived in the same 'ouse for as long as I can remember, not far from where you an' the Doctor rescued me that night." Jenny's voice was barely a whisper. She'd never told anyone about her life before and there was something deep within her that screamed at her to stop. It didn't feel right, but she was going to tell Vastra everything if only to get her new employer to trust her. "It's small, an' old. My family share it with another family, it's the only way any of us can afford a roof over our 'eads." Vastra was looking at her as she spoke, wondering what she must have said to convince Jenny to open up to her so suddenly. Jenny tried not to let it distract her, instead keeping her eyes on the sewing in her hands. "There's four of us in my family, my parents, me an' my little brother, an' we have the two upstairs rooms in the 'ouse. It's in pretty bad shape, the furniture's old, the windows don't keep out the cold. We can't afford much so we only own basic things." She stopped for a moment, opening up was harder than Jenny had imagined it would be. It might not have been so bad if Vastra's eyes hadn't been fixed on her, but she couldn't seem to escape the gaze no matter how hard she tried to pretend she couldn't feel it going through her. "Growin' up I 'ad a bit of schoolin'. My mother taught me to read as best she could an' I can use money with no problems but other than that I never really took to learnin' all that well. I was always too busy worryin' about gettin' a job an' workin' to 'elp my parents out. I've been workin' since I was seven, always as a match girl. It was easier when I was younger, rich folks are 'appier to give their money to a child than an adult, but recently it got a lot 'arder." Here Jenny stopped. She felt the blood drain from her face and fidgeted nervously with her needle and thread.

"Go on..." Vastra hadn't wanted to speak but the expression on Jenny's face worried her. The maid had gone deadly pale and her lower lip was quivering a little as she tried to collect her thoughts.

"People 'adn't been buyin' matches like they used to an' if I didn't bring 'ome enough money... well, I explained all o' this before you 'ired me. So, on occasion I 'ad to find other ways of gettin' food. Ways I aint proud of."

"Theft?"

"Sometimes... that aint so easy for a full grown woman though, they notice you too easily. Sometimes I 'ad to... well..." Jenny didn't want to say it. Of all things she had done in her life this was the one thing she was sure she would be judged for the most. "Men are easily persuaded as long as you give 'em somethin' in return." Vastra's mouth opened slightly but she didn't know what she could say. If she had thought even for a minute that Jenny had had to compromise herself in such a way she would never have asked her to talk about her past. Vastra seemed to be cursing herself far too often as of late but she continued to make mistakes over and over when it came to her maid and every time she did she regretted ever opening her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she whispered in a softer tone than Jenny thought she had ever heard her mistress use before "Jenny if I had known..."

"Don't. Don't say you wouldn't 'ave asked. You were right, 'ow could you trust me with me keepin' my past a secret?" Jenny still couldn't bear to look up at her mistress, the shame was too much for her to handle. Jenny didn't know how but within a moment or so Vastra was stood close in front of her. The Silurian reached out her hand and gently tilted Jenny's head backwards until she could look into the girl's eyes.

"You should not be so hard on yourself for what you did Jenny. You thought of your family before yourself and you did what you believed you had to." The scales of Vastra's fingers were cold against the warm flesh of Jenny's cheek as she held the girl's head in place. Jenny found it strangely comforting and yet she still couldn't hold back the tears brimming in her eyes. Just the memory of the times she had allowed men to manhandle her in order to feed her family made her skin crawl. She wrapped her arms around herself feeling uneasy, as though it were happening all over again. "It's a noble thing to protect one's family Jenny" Vastra could sense her discomfort. She wished she'd never asked her to tell her these things. Despite herself she had developed a certain sense of protectiveness over Jenny and to see her in such discomfort was not a pleasant experience. She lifted the dress Jenny held in her lap away, careful to remove the needle so that the girl would not harm herself when she went back to her sewing. " That's enough work for one night I think."

"But ma'am, you said you needed it for later."

"I know what I said, but that was before I unsettled your feelings. Now please, no arguments." Vastra placed the dress and needle on a table close by and returned to her seat. "You're not the only one who has done things you regret in the aid of your family Jenny. When I was first awoken here I killed needlessly as an act of revenge." The Silurian sighed and turned to watch the fire, flames still crackling in their endless attempts to consume the firewood. "The Doctor found me in a tunnel under the city where the underground was being constructed. The workers there had already woken my sisters before me during their work, it did not take me long to realise what had happened after that. So, as soon as I had the chance I fought back and killed two of them, the others I injured. I would have killed them all had the Doctor not found me first." Vastra wasn't sure if her story would be of any help but she knew she had to try and do what she could to settle her maid's unease. She had been the cause of Jenny's pain and she only wanted to ease it once more.

"Thank you" Jenny had a small, sad smile on her face, her arms still wrapped loosely around herself as a sort of shield, protection from the memories of what she had done.

"I could hardly allow a good person to think badly of themselves. You are a good person Jenny, a caring girl who I do not believe deserves the hardship which you have suffered in your life." Vastra was still looking into the fire and as Jenny watched her she noticed how the light of the flames illuminated the woman's scales so it seemed as though she were glowing with a soft fiery shadow.

"I don't feel like I'm livin' in such 'ardship any more ma'am" she commented and stood from her seat. "Now, I think it's about time for you to get to work. I'd 'ate for you to be late on my account, although I'm not so sure your victims would agree with me. I'll get your cloak ready while you change." With that she left the room quickly, not giving her mistress the chance to argue.