[For Dot] Valentine's Dea--Day

[st_illunsmeared]

Oh, this day!

Bathed, deshabille, Phryne flung herself down on the white leather couch in her room and resolved not to get up for anything.

Now that she had a bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket by her hand and a box of chocolate truffles, it was entirely plausible. After all, she had a stack of contemporary "classics" to keep her busy, and Phillip Roth would be more reliably entertaining than any young man. Or the mature one she'd put firmly to the back of her mind for the night.

She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seemed to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise...

Yes. Much more reliably entertained, Phryne thought, and sipped at her champagne while she read on.

Comments

[st_oh_honestly]

When Dot came rushing in, it wasn't with her usual sensible sangfroid, she wasn't carrying freshly pressed dresses or a pot of coffee as she was wont to do.

She was in fact carrying nothing. Her face was flushed, cheeks scarlet, her usual tidy hair was escaping from it's bun and curling wildly about her face, she was breathless and wide eyed.

In fact for Dot she was positively disheveled.

"Oh, Miss!" She exclaimed and burst into tears.

[st_illunsmeared]

As the door pushed open, Phryne sat up and swung her feet around to the floor. No one who knew her well enough to come in, would come in without knock--

Dot.

In an instant, Phryne took in the details of her appearance and it was exactly as she'd feared. Why sweet, innocent Dot of all people? She rushed over to Dot and took her into her arms. She didn't ask questions or do anything but shut the door behind Dot after flipping the latch so it would lock, and she drew Dot after her to the couch and sit down with her.

Dot would tell her story in her own time, and then she and Jack would make sure whoever did this to her would never hurt another young woman again. It wasn't enough, but she'd spend the rest of her life making up for it. Gladly.

[st_oh_honestly]

"I... we... he had his hands on my..." She was sniffling and trying to talk while making a soggy spot on Phryne's dressing gown. "I don't know what happened first there was cake and then I just... threw myself at him like.. like.. some hussy."

She gasped, and half sprang to her feet. "I left a cake in the oven!"

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne listened close and tried to make sense of Dot's story through her tears. The 'we' came first and anger coursed through her at the sound of doubt blaming herself, but then... oh, goodness. Phryne stifled a terribly inappropriate laugh with a kiss to the top of Dot's head.

"You are most certainly not a hussy, Dorothy Williams," she murmured just as Dot moved to stand and narrowly avoided a collision.

Then she did laugh, or at least smile. "Sit, Dot. We'll call down to the bakery about the cake."

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She was, she was a hussy. She'd thrown herself at a man whose name she didn't even know.

"I can't call, what if he answers the phone?" She sank back down on the sofa and covered her face with her apron. I don't know what came over me, I really don't... I've never done anything so.. so forward before."

[st_illunsmeared]

Quite certain a cake wouldn't go untended in the bakery oven for long, Phryne returned to the couch to see to her own charge. She was equally certain Dot had done nothing unforgivable, but in such matters, her opinion mattered far less than the specter of Father Grogan.

As tempting as it was to pooh-pooh the 'good' Father, she judged it best to let Dot spit it all out first. "Well, go on, then. Let's hear it. What have you done that's so terribly forward?"

[st_oh_honestly]

"I honesty don't know what came over me," her voice was muffled by the apron and broken by sniffles. "He was just so... magnetic. And then I was feeding him cake with my fingers and then I... I... I kissed him."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Honestly, Dot. You can't possibly have missed the extraordinary upsurge in--" Sexual. "--Romantic activity. I imagine what came over you is the same thing that came over everyone else." The words came out rather more peevish than Phryne intended, but her tone, at least, remained mild and caring. "I know it must be distressing, darling, but you are absolutely not to blame."

[st_oh_honestly]

Had she noticed? She'd been baking, certainly people had been a bit more amorous in public but she assumed that was just the holiday.

"If not me, then who is to blame?" She'd always been taught that your actions were your own. "I was the one kissing a man whose name I don't even know Miss, not anyone else."

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"Magic" would give Dot apoplexy, so Phryne cast about for a suitable response. Finally, she hit upon, "Was it Mister Butler's fault when he danced in Aunt Prudence's fountain?" Dot had been there for the incident, hadn't she? She did find this time travel terribly inconvenient. "You were acting under outside influences, Dot, and you are certainly not the only person I know to have been similarly affected."

[st_oh_honestly]

"It was the fudge," for the first time Dot raised her head and looked at Phryne, she still had abject embarrassment burned on her cheeks but at least she'd stopped crying.

"Outside influences?" It helped some, though there was still a man out there who has touched her... well parts that only a husband touched.

[st_illunsmeared]

"Outside influences," Phryne affirmed without attempting to explain what she didn't understand. "The young gentleman who spends so much time talking to Kitty, Mr. Logan? He kissed me, quite without the usual preliminaries." Her lips pressed tightly together, trembling slightly with the suppressed emotion. "Even Inspector Robinson was not immune."

[st_oh_honestly]

That was not the face of a woman who had happily been kissed by Inspector Robinson, Dot knew Phryne well enough to know that.

"Inspector Robinson?" Was it wrong that in spite of Phryne's expression it made Dot feel a little better that someone like the Inspector had found himself effected as she had been.

[st_illunsmeared]

As much as she would never wish to embarrass Jack, still Phryne needed to tell someone what had happened. Someone who would never mention it or think less of Jack for having succumbed.

She glanced away to give herself some emotional privacy. "I saw him kissing River Song, and not at all chastely. Jack would never kiss a woman he hardly knew." The only time he'd kissed her before they arrived here had been to protect her from Rene. "And certainly not when he's finally begun kissing me."

[st_oh_honestly]

"Oh," There was equal parts understanding and horror in Dot's 'oh' and she reached out to pat Miss Phryne's hand.

"The Inspector is a good man, he would never do anything like that... not on his own account." Which made her feel unaccountably better about her own forward behavior.

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Head ducked down, Phryne agreed, "No, he wouldn't," and reached up to brush her hair back behind her ear. What she might do on her own account in response was another matter entirely, and one Dot couldn't help with. So she lifted her gaze and smiled mildly at Dot. "And neither would you. So, I'll hear no more about your unforgivably forward behavior."

[st_oh_honestly]

Silently Dot was still more than a little horrified at her own behavior. Responsible or not, she most certainly had damaged her virtue. Not badly thank goodness, but well, she was a little besmirched as Father Grogan would have said.

She didn't even want to think about what Hugh would say, if she even ever saw Hugh again.

"Yes Miss Phryne," she said finally, though her tone wasn't 100% accepting.

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne knew better than to expect it would be the end of the matter, but she also knew that Dot would have to come to terms with it in her own way, in her own time. She did wish Mr. Butler were here to give Dot his usual, sensible counsel.

In lieu of it, she substituted her own wisdom, or at least, her own interests. "Was it a pleasurable kiss at least?"

[st_oh_honestly]

"Oh! I..." She flushed deeply and had to resist the urge to cover her face again.

"Yes?" But there was a part of her that wasn't sure a kiss without some emotion behind it should be quite so... pleasurable.

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Phryne's eyebrows lifted, both in surprise and in bemusement. "Are you asking me or telling me? Because, Dot, darling, I'm no more a mindreader than a priest."

Although to be fair, Phryne could read Dot's residual arousal and shame perfectly well. She simply felt it would be best for Dot to admit it was possible to enjoy a kiss with someone other than Hugh.

[st_oh_honestly]

"It was..." Dot hesitated searching for the right words. "More than pleasant."

Her voice dropepd and she leaned in slightly as though about to impart a secret, "He wasn't shy about, well, his tongue."

Or his hands. At least from her point of view, from his it was probably fairly chaste.

[st_illunsmeared]

"'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is sweeter than wine,'" Phryne recited. She generally gave the Bible a wide berth, but Song of Songs was a different matter entirely.

"Without the tongue, there is no taste. It's an essential part of kissing."

[st_oh_honestly]

She wasn't so sure about that last bit, she'd never felt anything was lacking from the generally more chaste kisses of Hugh. Not entirely chaste, but still nothing like what she'd just experienced.

Hugh's kisses had been warm and lovely, the strangers had been... well she didn't have the words but she was sure her mother and her priest would NOT have approved of the way parts of her had reacted.

And with that thought she felt disloyal even though it had been weeks since she'd broken off her engagement or even seen Hugh.

"I don't think that's quite what the bible meant." But then the church taught the Song of Songs as an allegory for Gods love, not sexual desire.

[st_illunsmeared]

"In this instance, I am afraid I have to disagree. Song of Songs is the Kama Sutra of the Bible, if you read it properly," Phryne replied, mischief and amusement warm in her bright eyes. "The Bible condones sexual pleasure, darling. It's only the Church that makes you ashamed."

[st_oh_honestly]

Silently she agreed, somewhat in any event. But she didn't say that.

"It isn't shame, not really. When you're married..." Well then of course pleasure was a welcome addition to a marriage. "It's just different miss, before."

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne's day had been long enough without a discussion with Dot on what she considered nothing but mean-spirited on the part of the Church. "I don't believe that, and I won't believe in a god who forgives murderers and prostitutes but won't allow the dearest soul I've ever known the pleasure of a man's embrace."

[st_oh_honestly]

Generally one had to ask for forgiveness and without a proper priest... Well.. But Dot didn't argue, instead she impulsively hugged Phryne.

"Thank you Miss. That means an awful lot to me. And I'm sure things with th Inspector will work out."

[st_illunsmeared]

Touched by the gesture, Phryne hugged Dot back and then kissed her forehead. "Thank you, Dot." Phryne's fears had less to do with Jack than herself, but that was not an issue she could discuss with Dot, no mattered how dear she was.

[st_oh_honestly]

Dot would claim that Phryne could talk to her about anything, but she also knew that she had a very specific lack of experience with... Well most things.

"Do you need anything before I go back to my room Miss?"

[st_illunsmeared]

"No. Thank you, Dot."

What Phryne needed was nothing Dot could provide, though, bless her, if Phryne asked for him, Dot would try. Of course, she wouldn't ask. If she wanted Jack, she would do them both the courtesy of calling him herself. Or she would go to him.

For now, she thought she would rather be alone to think and read. Tomorrow, tomorrow would be soon enough to talk to Jack.

[st_oh_honestly]

"Alright then, if you change your mind I'll be in my room." With the door locked in case she lost her senses again.

She got to her feet and smoothed down her apron.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

[st_illunsmeared]

With a smile that didn't reach her eyes but a tone that was fond nevertheless, Phryne replied, "As long as there's no kissing involved, mm?"

Although she didn't say it, Dot surely knew to come back without hesitation if she had the slightest need.