Chapter 24 - Making Friends

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The one very good thing, Phryne decided, in their sudden changes of circumstance was that once she had settled into life as a lady of leisure, and once her aunt and sister allowed her a little more freedom as they felt more confident that she wasn't going to run away again, she actually found that she could spend even more time with Jack.

Except, Phryne silently sighed as she sulked, on occasions like this.

Her aunt had organised a dinner for some charity of hers, one Phryne had been dismayed to learn Janey had taken a keen interest in. Not that she minded either of them being charitable, only that instead of spending the night with Jack she had to spend it with a group of people who thought that throwing a few pennies at poor people turned themselves into philanthropic angels.

She had enjoyed going with Janey to buy an expensive dress to wear and Phryne had to admit that the cut and style, while a little more demure than she was used to, actually was much more flattering on her than her old clothes. She found herself wishing Jack could see her like this. It was a shame that she couldn't invite him along. It would have been quite nice to have his company while she had to endure this. Plus, it would have stopped any of Aunt P's un-subtly invited potential suitors for her from getting too close, having a stern policeman on her arm.

Dot had been smart enough to wriggle out of attending. Hugh had taken her out for the evening instead. Phryne hadn't seen Hugh when he arrived to collect Dot and she decided it was probably better to stay out of his way anyway. As Jack had said, he had seemed to be warming to her but he did care about Jack and almost certainly blamed her for his plight. Speaking to Collins at her aunt's house could be risky.

Janey had a lot more experience in these situations and she'd already got to know most of the guests, so Phryne had left her to socialise and wandered off in search of some food and drink, the only saving grace of the evening as far as she was concerned.

Out at the edge of the gathering Phryne spied the maid Marigold speaking with a man. Phryne sighed and rolled her eyes. In her short time here she'd got the measure of Marigold. Arthur loved her, partly because she was the youngest member of the household and in many ways Arthur was like a child. She had obviously indulged him when she'd first taken up her position, barely a woman at that point. From Phryne's own experience she could tell that Marigold had discovered men. She wasn't as good as Phryne at sneaking away for her liaisons and Phryne had spied her on more than one occasion suspiciously coming in from the garden with twigs in her hair and rumpled skirts. Phryne didn't care that the girl liked sex; she fully understood that, what she did mind was how she let it distract her from her work. Dot often took up the slack left by Marigold running after men and Aunt P and Janey were frustrated with the girl. Now, when she should be serving drinks, she was flirting with some rich man, who was probably married and would give her nothing more than a big belly for her attentions.

The man turned slightly and Phryne got a quick look at his face.

She looked around to ensure no one was paying any of them any particular attention. She knew this would happen eventually. Sooner or later she was bound to bump into a member of the Imperial Club who happened to walk in the same circles as her family. She had never expected it to be him, that man she'd thrown out for hurting Lola on his very first visit. Lola who was Dot's own sister, Phryne remembered. No, she couldn't let him stay here.

Some habits proved very hard to break and while Phryne had left her gun in her room she still always kept a knife in her garter. Unobserved by Marigold or the man, she took out the knife and hid it against the underside of her arm for quicker access if the man turned violent.

"Marigold!" she barked, causing the girl to jump as Phryne finally made her presence known to the pair. "Shouldn't you be offering champagne to all the guests?"

Marigold nodded and curtsied slightly. "Yes, Miss. Sorry, Miss."

Marigold picked up the tray and ran off. As Phryne intended, she had brought the man's attention on herself and she realised that he recognised her as well. It may have been nice to have someone not recognise Phryne Fisher as Peony but for now it probably better suited her purpose that he knew she wasn't someone to mess with. She walked over to him and stood beside him, taking a glass of champagne that Marigold had left behind in her rush to get away from Phryne.

"Now how did you talk your way into this gathering?" the man asked her, bemused rather than scared. "Tell me, I'm quite intrigued, which of these poor men have paid for your attention tonight?"

Phryne chuckled. "You really do think of yourself as untouchable, don't you? And here I was wondering how you managed to convince Prudence Stanley to invite you."

"I'm an important man. Didn't I tell you that?"

"You did," Phryne nodded, "and I can tell you believe it. Do you believe me when I tell you that I can make you leave here just as I did the club?"

"I'll tell everyone you're a whore."

"And I'll tell everyone how you know."

The man looked into the distance and Phryne recognised Deputy Commissioner Sanderson from his raid on the club. Luckily their paths hadn't crossed yet and Phryne hoped that he wouldn't recognise her. They hadn't interacted at the raid. Instead Phryne had just watched him from a distance but she couldn't be certain that he hadn't done the same to her. However Phryne did remember this man before her boasting that he knew him.

"Just a word to the Commissioner there, or even dear Mrs Stanley, and you're gone my love," the man threatened her.

"A part of me is tempted to let you try, just to see the look on your face when you're asked to leave instead of me," Phryne admitted, "but that will do neither of us any good. So, why don't you just leave? Make your excuses to Mrs Stanley and go."

"And why would I do that?" he asked, leaning in far too close to her.

Phryne took out her knife and lazily started twirling it on the table for him to see. He opened his mouth to reply when, to Phryne's horror, she heard Janey calling her name.

They both looked up to see Janey and another woman walking over to them. Phryne quickly hid the knife again and the man held out his arm to the stranger who willingly walked into it.

"I'm so glad you've met," Janey beamed as she went to Phryne's side, almost mirroring the couple opposite them.

"Only just I'm afraid," the man replied, suddenly effortlessly charming. "We haven't even exchanged names yet, have we my dear?"

"Oh, this is my sister, Miss Phryne Fisher. Phryne, this is Mr Sidney Fletcher and Miss Rosie Sanderson."

Phryne held her hand out to Miss Sanderson. "You've been working with my sister? It's lovely to finally meet you."

"And you, Miss Fisher," Rosie smiled back. "Janey's talked about you so often, it's so wonderful that you're finally with us."

Fletcher stared at Phryne in wonder. "So you're Prudence Stanley's long lost niece, are you?"

"Not lost, just misplaced," Phryne answered, wondering how on earth to get rid of him now. She knew from the way Janey and Aunt P had spoken about him and his fiancée that he was more than a casual acquaintance of her family so it was going to be harder than she'd thought. However that just made her more determined to get rid of him before he could do any real damage. She had to protect her family.

"Well, well, well. What a small world we live in. I suppose that's one more to add to the wedding guest list now, isn't it darling?"

Phryne tried not to roll her eyes. Janey had already told her that the pair were engaged when they'd been brought up in conversation. Now Phryne knew about him, knew who he really was, she wondered whether she was duty bound to open the poor woman's eyes about his true nature. She knew Janey thought well of Miss Sanderson, she'd presumably think less well of a man who hurt and threatened women.

"So what were you talking about?" Janey asked innocently.

"Oh, well, I think we were just discussing Rosie's father, isn't that right, Miss Fisher?"

Fletcher said her name so pointedly now he knew it that it almost hurt. Phryne wished she had nothing to hide but she had to protect Janey from both of them. "Oh, yes, your father's the Deputy Commissioner of Police, isn't he, Miss Sanderson?"

Rosie nodded. "Yes, that's right."

Her father was the man who had raided the Imperial Club and suspended Jack. Phryne was not happy with any of this.

Fletcher took a sip of his champagne, apparently unconcerned with this turn of events. "Actually, for a while I thought I'd struggle to get Rosie to come here with me this evening."

"Sidney," Rosie hissed at him, clearly embarrassed about something.

"Now, now, you won't mind my telling the Misses Fisher, I'm sure," Fletcher pushed her and Phryne wondered how anyone could think anything positive about the man.

"If Miss Sanderson doesn't want to tell us she doesn't have to," Phryne told him in a warning voice, raising the arm she had hidden the knife with in case he didn't get the hint.

"Well, it's not much of a secret, I'm afraid," Rosie said with a sigh. "It was in all the papers. I was married before, Miss Fisher, and apparently my ex-husband has been caught using prostitutes."

Phryne's stomach started to churn.

"Wait? Is your ex-husband Detective Inspector Robinson?" Janey asked, wide-eyed. "I know you've mentioned your former husband a few times and you told me he was a policeman but you never said his name. I never asked because I didn't want to pry."

Rosie looked distressed. "I'm shocked, to tell you the truth, Janey. Our marriage had its problems, obviously, but I never thought Jack would…"

Fletcher grinned smugly at Phryne over his glass of champagne as the pieces all slotted together in her mind. He had, somehow, at some point, seen her with Jack then. Knew she was from the Imperial Club, obviously, told the man who was going to be his father-in-law, the man who had been Jack's father-in-law…

She turned her attention to Rosie, who Janey was trying to console while seeming completely oblivious to the turmoil going on inside her sister's head. "No, I was shocked too. Phryne and I have both met him, isn't that right? When I came back to Melbourne he re-opened her missing person case for me and he found her. He always seemed like a good man, didn't he, Phryne?"

Phryne stared at Rosie, finding herself looking at her with fresh eyes. This was the woman Jack had married, Jack had loved. As Phryne had once said to him, she and Rosie did not seem at all alike but this was the woman Jack had wanted to spend his life with. She felt a surge of jealousy, an emotion she was completely unused to, at least in a romantic sense.

"Yes," Phryne agreed, refusing to look at Fletcher even though it meant focusing on Jack's former wife. She refused to give Fletcher the satisfaction of seeing her try to not look distressed. "Yes, he did."

"Oh," Rosie let out an angry huff as she leant against Fletcher. "I don't know. Maybe it's my fault, maybe if I hadn't divorced him… but what if he'd been doing this all along, the entire time I knew him? Oh, Sidney, I can't help but be grateful that you suggested that I should think about formalising our separation. At least there are some people who don't know I ever was Mrs Robinson."

Phryne and Janey being two of them until Fletcher had forced her to tell them, Phryne realised. How could she not see what her fiancé was doing? Could Janey not see it either? These were exactly the same sort of tactics their father had used to get information on people he was trying to steal from, only Phryne had to admit that Henry Fisher was much better at being subtle than Sidney Fletcher. Phryne had always hated that her father was dishonest but the more she saw of other dishonest men she almost felt a strange sense of pride that her father was at least good at it.

"Phryne, where did you get that knife?"

Janey's voice jolted her back out of her thoughts. Phryne had been so focused on sorting through all the information she'd just taken in and the feelings it had evoked, and trying to keep a poker face to fool Fletcher into thinking that she didn't care, that she hadn't even noticed that she'd started playing with the knife again, bringing it out into view for all to see.

"Won it in a fight when I was seventeen," Phryne replied flatly, her gaze returning to Fletcher who was still smiling smugly at her while he held Rosie Sanderson, formerly Rosie Robinson.

"You must have done some awful things when you were younger," Fletcher said, almost sounding sympathetic. Phryne didn't believe it. He was setting her up now, to make it believable if he needed to announce to the room what she had been.

"And I can still beat anyone in a knife fight," Phryne promised him.

"Phryne!" Janey hissed at her, appalled by her behaviour.

Phryne thought for a moment. Clearly she couldn't get rid of Fletcher, not without causing an incident that would probably out her and make things a hell of a lot worse for Jack considering what she now knew about the assembled company. She already didn't like the way Janey was looking at her and that was just because she was armed, never mind how she'd look if Fletcher announced how she'd been earning money when they'd very first met each other. Phryne held the knife against her body, not quite willing to let Janey see her sheath it back in her garter.

"Sorry," Phryne apologised sincerely to her sister. "As Mr Fletcher said, I'm not used to being somewhere where you don't need to be armed. Old habits and that. Excuse me, I'll just take it back up to my room."

Phryne quickly ran off, finding herself quite glad of the excuse to be out of the party. She could go and hide away in Arthur's room for the rest of the night. She had suggested staying there to keep him company before but Aunt Prudence had refused, however Phryne suspected she wouldn't pull her out of his room if she found her there now.

Her relief at being away from any confrontation was short lived as instead of staying downstairs with her new friends, Janey seemed to have decided to follow her upstairs. As Phryne paused in the corridor outside her room, Janey strode angrily towards her.

"Phryne! What was that all about?"

Phryne swallowed, not liking being told off by her younger sister but acknowledging that when it came to these sorts of social situations, she was the less experienced one. "I can't explain it, Janey."

"Do you always have a knife on you?"

"Pretty much," Phryne admitted. "Janey, my entire life I haven't been safe! Of course I've always got a weapon on me. I'd be long dead if I'd have walked around unarmed."

"You're safe here!" Janey yelled at her and Phryne suspected she'd still be yelling even if there wasn't music downstairs to drown the argument out.

Phryne, however, wasn't convinced that she was safe at all, not after her run in with Fletcher. "Maybe."

Phryne turned and walked into her room with Janey following straight behind, not giving her a chance to close the door on her. "I'm not stupid, Phryne. What were you and Fletcher talking about before we joined you?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me, Phryne, please!"

Phryne put her knife under her pillow and turned round to face her angry sister. "Janey, there are things about me you don't want to know, trust me on that. Yes, I'm keeping things from you and yes, there was more to my conversation with Fletcher, but I can't tell you what. I do need you to do something for me, though."

Phryne searched Janey's face. She was angry, confused and upset but Phryne could see that some part of her still implicitly trusted her big sister. "That depends. What is it?"

"Don't trust Sidney Fletcher. Don't let him into this house if you can help it and never, ever, be alone with him."

Janey pouted. "That man has been nothing but nice to me and you've just admitted to lying to me. Why should I trust you and not him?"

"Because I love you and I would die for you. I'm not even convinced Sidney Fletcher likes his fiancée, let alone you."

Janey folded her arms. "Well, in this instance, I will trust you. But only because I've never actually liked Sidney Fletcher, not because you're honest about being dishonest with me."

"I'm always honest about my dishonesty," Phryne joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Janey let out an exasperated groan. "I don't know what I thought it would be like having you back, Phryne, but I didn't think you'd keep secrets from me. Let me know when you're ready to be my sister. If you need me, I'll be making sure Rosie's all right after all that!"

Janey stormed out of the room slamming the door behind her. Phryne briefly thought about chasing after her but the only way to make this better would be to let Janey know it all and she couldn't do that. Let her comfort this Rosie who everyone seemed so fond of and who was clearly so superior to Phryne in every way. Phryne had a certain former son-in-law of a Deputy Commissioner to throttle anyway.

TBC...