"How does it feel to be free of Elsie?" Alaya asks her wife.
"I feel terrible how I manipulated her into disclosing herself." Fiona looks outside watching Scotland disappear into the distance. "I had to get Elsie to talk. I needed her to be responsible for her own words. I wanted her to be her own undoing."
"How did you know she would say anything?" Mother Vastra asks Fiona, "It was risky."
"All those criminal documentation I dictated and typed, for the family business, taught me one single thing. Get them angry."
"I am pleased your career is your own. But," Mother Vastra takes a deep breath, "I would have like to read Elsie's papers."
Fiona goes through all the papers in her according file and hands Mother Vastra a folder, "You mean this one? I made the switch with an empty folder."
"Aren't you the clever one."
Vastra starts to open the folder.
Alaya leans towards her mother, "May I suggest we wait until we are in our own home."
Vastra closes the folder, folds it in half and places inside her coat pocket. "Wise advice."
On the train ride back to London Louisa, Fiona, Lou and Mary discussed with Fiona expectations, curriculum and schedule. It is agreed, Fiona would take two weeks to recuperate.
"What will you do with your two weeks?"
"Read, take on a few rambles and locate my whiskey supply." Fiona leans into her wife and softly asks. "May we plan for day outings?"
"Of course. What do you desire? Trip?"
Fiona shakes her head no, "I want to just be in our London. I want to relax, go to the park, enjoy the last bit of summer ... anything. I want to relax, read and do nothing. Cinema or possibly just tea. I want to be with you and our mothers."
"We have many hours before we arrive home. May I ask questions about Elsie?"
Fiona pulls her wife closer, readjusts her head, and softly responds "Yes."
With hush tones and stone in her throat Alaya fearlessly asks, "When she barged into your room, did she ever violate you?"
"She tried. It made me angry." Fiona starts to tear up and closes her eyes.
'"Next stop York ... Next stop York," the porter yells as he enters and exits the car.
Fiona smiles and opens her eyes to see Mother Vastra and Mother Jenny offering genuine smiles. Fiona smiles back and instantly feels secure. "I kicked her off, but she kept coming. She tried to kiss me, but my hands kept her off my face. She even dared to reach under my skirt multiple times. She did not succeed in feeling any bare skin." Fiona takes a deep breath. "She was stronger, but I had the advantage. I knew what she wanted. I knew her goal."
Mother Vastra smiles, "You did well little one."
"When you stood by my side," Alaya continues her quest for clarification, "You did not hesitate to come to my side with your cricket bat in hand. We have never been in that situation before."
"After the first time Elsie assaulted me I taught myself to leap from my bed and have my cricket bat in hand. I would practice every time I had time to myself. If she ever got near me again, I would take her down at the knees." Fiona continued, "She was devious. She knew when I was tired and exhausted. The final attempt she made I was fast asleep and she was already on top of me. I was pinned."
"What did you do?"
"I did the best I could to get myself free. When that failed, I screamed." Fiona becomes quiet. "She had to choose to hold my wrists and hair down or cover my mouth."
"You are safe now."
"All I could do was scream. She kept trying to kiss me. I spat, turned my head, bit any skin I had access and even attempted to kick her off ... she was too strong." Fiona sits up, "Mother Vastra is there anything I could have done?"
"By yourself?" Mother Vastra would answer without clarification.
Fiona nods yes.
"How are you pinned?"
"She straddled her legs around my waist, held my wrists down and had my hair in her grips."
Vastra tilts her head and ponders the situation.
Fiona and Alaya patiently wait for Mother Vastra's analysis.
"I am sorry. There isn't any solution."
Fiona sits back, "I am relieved. I constantly replay the events over and over again. I wonder if I could have done something different. I just don't see a solution. It wasn't until my cries have been answered and nurses and other doctors pulled Elsie off me that I could find my strength."
"What did you do?"
"Oh, I wanted to hit her with a cricket bat across her face. She was off of me, and I just wanted her to stay away. That is when she demanded I leave. I didn't hesitate, I packed my belonging, put on my cape and walked towards the coast. I was prepared to walk all the way back to Calais. I would have telegrammed, but I lack funds. All I thought about was coming home."
Fiona pulled her wife closer and looked to the Mothers. "I just wanted to be with my family. I was determined. You do not know how pleased I was when the Bari Hospital administrator told me that I stayed until my escorts arrive. Every single day my bags were packed readily to leave in an instant." Fiona sat up a little taller, "The hospital offered me a position on their staff. If I knew, it would be safe for our family I would have sent for all of you. Then I remembered my mother's journal and advice. I needed to be home, to prepare, to at my rightful place."
"Anything else?" Alaya prodded.
"Not really. If anything comes to mind, I will let you know."
"Good. Are you ready for your next chapter in our lives?"
"As long as we stay together, yes."
After a long train ride everyone went directly to their homes.
Vastra ran up to the drawing-room and flayed out Elise's documents on the table. Everyone picks up a piece of paper and sat down to read the information.
"Some information is wrong, so I suspect this is all speculation rather than researched." Mother Jenny smiles as she points to a paragraph pertaining to herself, "I am not old and frail. Do I look old and frail to you?"
"My dear, you are strong as an ox and more cunning than a fox." Mother Vastra smiles at her wife. "This document concludes I am just a few years older than a hatchling egg. They write you as an old mammal and myself as if I am not able to hunt for my own food. My dear, Jenny you are, at least according to this dossier you are the queen of our little matriarchy."
"At least they know who is in charge." Jenny smiles without looking up and continues reading.
"I am concerned and wonder why Elsie even had this information."
"Alaya, do you have your magnifying glass?" Fiona asks as puts down papers.
Alaya goes to the secretary and pulls out her detective kit. She hands the magnifying glass to her wife who looks to a certain section of the document.
"Feel here and look."
Alaya places her finger and notices a raised area and looks through a magnifying glass, "What is it?"
Alaya goes back to the desk, the fireplace before she returns to the table. "Watch."
Alaya takes the onion paper, lays it lightly over the raised image and takes a piece of charcoal to lightly rub over the area.
"It looks like two Crossed Keys joined by a cord." Vastra looks closely.
"A coat of arms, but to whose?" Jenny looks at it carefully.
"College of Arms would know." Vastra looks to Fiona, "I am sorry dear, but it looks like we shall call on your free time to visit on your family's behalf. Do you mind?"
"Of course not. I shall go directly tomorrow and inquire." Fiona smiles, she loves being part of this team.
"On that note," Alaya pulls her wife close, "I need to work tomorrow. Do you mind if I take my leave?"
"Oh," Fiona smiles at the table full of papers needing her attention and then turns to see her wife's eyes. "I am coming. These papers will be here tomorrow. Good night mothers. Fiona and Alaya offer kisses on Mother Vastra and Mother Jenny's cheeks.
"Good night dears."
Alaya and Fiona go to their bedroom.
Alaya makes a beeline to the dresser in an attempt to pull out nightgowns. She speaks to her wife, "I didn't expect you to follow. I have to wake early tomorrow for work." Alaya smiles as she feels warms hands working around her torso.
"Ah, will aye choose ye," Fiona reminds her wife as she kisses her wife's neck.
Alaya starts to have deeper tones, "That is nice."
"Nice? Ye shood be afraid of yer Scottish warriur."
Alaya's scales flex in anticipation as Fiona yanks off her wife's clothing. Within seconds, Alaya's naked back is revealed. Fiona pushes her own naked body against the cool, elegant scale design and responds to the temperature change with a soft moan. Seconds later she spins Alaya around and looks devilishly at her wife's body.
She pushes Alaya against the dresser and pounces between her legs pushing back the soft rose petals with her warm tongue.
Alaya starts to make soft clicking sounds, it only encourages Fiona more to push deeper.
Alaya knees become weak and Fiona makes no attempt to sustain her stance. She lets her wife drop to her knees.
Alaya leans her crowned head into her wife's stomach wrapping her arms around the waist.
Fiona doesn't hesitates. She doesn't question. She plunges her mouth and pushes her tongue into the soft flesh underneath the crown crest. Alaya lets out a deep almost painful sound.
Fiona digs deeper flicking her tongue in the flesh drinking up the Silurian scent fighting against her own breath's current. Fiona moans at the sensation.
Alaya attempts to touch her wife, but her hands are swatted down. The only option is to let her long tongue slither around her wife's body.
Fiona reacts arching her back and returns instantly to plunge her tongue deep into the moist flesh secret area of her wife's crown. She remains steadfast and soon rewarded as her wife's clicking sound is faster and deeper. Alaya's tongue squeezes Fiona's body and lets out a deep roar into her wife's stomach, clenching her scale hands into her wife's buttocks.
Fiona stays and drinks in the Silurian scent still exploding out of the crown. As soon as she feels her wife's collapsed body she comes to Alaya's rescue and leads her to the bed.
Alaya curls up into her wife's body.
Fiona feels her wife's heart pounding heart and she falls asleep to the rhythm of her wife.