Vastra nodded.
‘I know I would be rather concerned if I found my taxes were going to pay you to collar dogs, not criminals.’
Danforth laughed, a smile wrinkling his face.
‘Right you are, Mrs. Vastravosky. Right you are!’
He paused, considered his next thought, and continued.
‘Course, the boys back at the station are torn. Some of them want to find the blighter doing this and lock him away for the rest of his natural life.’
‘And the rest of them?’
Danforth laughed.
‘The rest of us? Hell, we want to give him a badge and commendation and set him to work walking the streets at night!’
Vastra smiled beneath her cowl.
‘I’ll be honest, madam…I didn’t expect you’d be able to tell me anything different from anyone else we spoke to today. The storm’s a convenient cover, but honestly…these days, people’d sooner turn their head and look the other way than offer a hand to someone in need. It’s a sad world we live in these days.’
Vastra nodded. ‘A sad world indeed. But there is always hope.’
Danforth smiled.
‘That there is.’
He paused.
‘You will…um…that is, if you hear anything…’
Vastra put a hand on his shoulder.
‘Of course. If I hear anything, I will inform you immediately.’
Inspector Danforth took her hand and shook it vigorously.
‘Thank you madam. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I still have two or three dozen more people to interview today, and if I don’t get to it…’
She reached out and grabbed the door handle.
‘I understand, Inspector. Good luck to you. I hope you catch the man who did this and bring him to justice.’
‘You and me both, Mrs. Vastravosky. You and me both.’
Vastra turned the handle and opened the door inward. Inspector Danforth took one step toward the door and stopped suddenly.
‘Oi there! And who might you be, missy?’
Vastra looked over the Inspector’s shoulder to see a young girl, dressed in dripping wet clothes and shivering as if she’d been caught in an ice storm. The girl looked up, and two brown eyes gazed directly into Vastra’s eyes, hidden in her cowl.
‘Jenny?’
Inspector Danforth turned back to look at Vastra.
‘Jenny? Who’s this Jenny, then?’ His voice was cautious and questioning.
Vastra pushed past the Inspector and pulled Jenny back into the house. Jenny moved in a jerky, ragged fashion, almost unsure of her surroundings, her muscles still from the chill. Vastra looked at her closely, and then turned back to the Inspector.
‘Jenny is my house keeper…the one I told you left three days ago.’
Danforth smiled.
‘And now she’s back. One mystery solved, and without the intervention of the Met! Most excellent! I’ll just let myself out and let you take care of the girl.’
He leaned over and whispered near Vastra’s ear.
‘If I were you, I’d give the urchin a good seeing to for up and leaving like that. Just my unofficial opinion, of course.’
He turned, grabbed the door handle as he passed through the entryway, and closed the door behind him. Jenny flinched at the loud click, the only sound in the otherwise silent front hall. She looked up at Vastra and two trembling hands reached toward Vastra’s cowl. Vastra took Jenny’s hands in her own and held them.
‘Jenny…no. You don’t…’
‘Shh….’
It seemed the only sound the girl was capable of making. Vastra cautiously let go and watched as the hands reached up, touched the front edge of the cowl, and pushed it back, exposing her head and face to Jenny. Jenny’s left hand dropped, while her right slipped down, fingertips touching Vastra’s cheek. Vastra shuddered, her heart beating faster.
‘Jenny…’
‘Shhh…’
Vastra stood, unable to move, as those fingertips continued to trace her cheek, scale by scale.
‘Saved me.’ Jenny’s voice was weak, barely a whisper.
Vastra’s lips parted. Her mouth was dry, but she was able to whisper in reply.
‘Saved you? How?’
Jenny continued to gaze at Vastra.
‘Saved me when you hired me.’
Her right hand dropped, and she raised her left hand, caressing Vastra’s other cheek.
‘Saved me last night when that man nearly...it was you, wasn’t it?’
Vastra pursed her lips. Of course it was Jenny.
‘Of course I did. How could I not?’
During the exchange, Vastra failed to notice Jenny inch forward. She was, therefore, surprised beyond reckoning when she felt a pair of lips, soft and warm and human, press against hers. They stayed there for a few seconds, and Vastra closed her eyes, letting the emotion and release wash over her.
Suddenly the lips were gone.
Vastra opened her eyes and saw Jenny looking at her, a hint of shock in her eyes.
‘Sorry…I didn’t mean…I…’
Jenny tried to pull away, tried to run, but as sluggish and chilled as she was, it took Vastra very little effort to catch one of Jenny’s wrists in her hand. She held Jenny in place, firmly but gently.
‘Jenny. Listen to me.’
Jenny struggled, but she was still weak.
‘Listen to me.’
She stopped struggling, and Vastra loosened her hand ever so slightly.
‘Jenny…I have spent the last three nights looking for you. Every place I could think of to go, I went. I have barely slept in three days. You have had me worried sick. And here you are, returning to my door, my house. Our house, if you want it to be. But you have to stop running. Whatever you are afraid of, we can face it together. Just let me help you, the way I was helped. Please.’
A tear fell from Vastra’s eye as her voice broke on those final words. Jenny stepped forward, haltingly, almost in a stagger, and felt Vastra’s arms encircle her.
‘I am glad you came back,’ Vastra said.
‘Me…’
Vastra felt Jenny’s body go limp in her arms. Terrified, she dropped to her knees, lowering Jenny to the floor with her. She placed an ear over the girl’s chest and heard her heart beating. A hand placed above her mouth caught the feel of breath exhaled.
Passed out, Vastra thought. Exhausted, chilled to the bone. It’s a wonder she kept conscious as long as she did when she got back.
‘Oh, my Jenny,’ she said to the unconscious form before her. ‘Welcome home.’
Wordlessly she placed one arm under Jenny’s shoulders, the other under her knees, and lifted the girl from the floor. Vastra carried her up the stairs, marveling at how light she was. I doubt she ate anything while she was gone…no wonder she is so weak, Vastra thought. Without thinking she carried Jenny to her own bedroom and sat her in a chair next to the window closest to the bed. She looked down at her own hands, drenched in wetness from carrying Jenny upstairs. Finally, and after moments of worry, she was comfortable that Jenny was not going to slip from the chair. She ran to the girl’s bedroom, grabbed some clean, dry night clothes and hurried back to her own room. She held them in her hands, and froze.
‘Now what do I do?’ she asked aloud.
She placed the cotton garments on the bed and carefully, nervously, began stripping off Jenny’s wet clothing. It was the first time she had seen Jenny, or any human for that matter, naked. Tentatively she reached out and brushed a fingertip against her skin. It was cold…colder, almost, than her own. Worried, she spun around, grabbed the dry nightgown, and pulled it over Jenny’s head. She carefully worked the girl’s arms into the sleeves, standing her up to allow the garment to flow to the floor. She sat her back down, pulled the sheets back on the bed, and carried the girl over. Laying her down, she pulled the sheets back up, then hurried to a closet and grabbed two blankets from storage. She shook them open and covered Jenny with them as well.
Vastra stepped back and watched as Jenny slept, her breathing slow, unhindered, normal…or at least normal as Vastra knew it to be. Vastra felt her own tension start to unwind ebb away, and she walked downstairs to grab a drink of water.
Five minutes later she was back at the door, checking in on Jenny.
There was no change. She’d not moved from the spot Vastra had laid her down, curled over on her right side and facing the windows and the sun’s warmth.
She tried going down to the library. She pulled out the book Inspector Danforth had mentioned, and sat down to read. She picked up from where she had stopped his distracted reading.
We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
Then she thought she heard a sound from upstairs.
Frantic, she dropped the book and ran back to her room. She opened the door and…
Nothing.
No change.
Jenny had not moved an inch, her breathing still normal as ever.
Vastra sighed. There was no way she’d find comfort until she was certain everything was alright. She drew the curtains open wide, to allow as much sun and light and heat in as possible, pulled off her boots, and laid down on the bed next to Jenny. Protectively she wrapped one arm around her, and she felt Jenny, in her sleep, nestle closer. Vastra smiled as her eyes, heavy with fatigue, closed to a welcome darkness.
~~~
Vastra had no idea how long she had been sleeping when she felt a rustling next to her. Her eyes opened in a flash and she watched Jenny toss and turn slightly. Jenny settled for a moment, and then spoke.
‘Where am I?’
Vastra smiled…not that Jenny could see it, of course.
‘You are in my room.’
Jenny struggled for a few seconds, and Vastra reflexively held her closer.
‘No, please…I’m just too hot under all these blankets.’
Her speech took on a slightly more playful tone, to ensure that Vastra didn’t think she was angry.
‘What’re you tryin’ to do, smother me?’
Vastra relaxed.
‘No, but when you got back, you were freezing. Your skin was cold to the touch, even to me.’
Jenny started to move again, and once again Vastra wrapped her arm slightly tighter around her.
'Madam...I'm not goin; anywhere, I swear. But it's rude for me to not face you when we talk...isn't it?'