Hettie asked if the good Doctor was having a problem with the tea and hoped he was a bit quicker than this if there was a medical emergency to cope with. Then again, she did like it well stewed.

"Oh, no, I have it." He brought a tray to the table that had a teapot, cups, and a little jar of cream. The sugar and cookies were already on the table. He poured tea into cups, then sat across from her. "I'm sorry, I didn't intend for this to become a session for the love-lorn." Who had started that, he didn't remember, and while he wasn't really comfortable with it, part of him wanted to work out how he was feeling about Leah.

"Listen, when you're carrying a torch for someone who seems unattainable, or isn't interested in you, you talk about it with whoever'll listen, right? and whoever you can trust to keep it secret. It's not healthy to keep it bottled up. Well, my profession might not be exactly what you'd call respectable, but if you want to stay in it in once piece, you learn to keep secrets, believe me." she philosophised.

"I don't want her to be interested in me, as I said, she needs a good man, without a past." And with a future, he added silently, to himself.

Hettie was starting to feel an almost motherly concern for Doctor Danforth's interests. "Look, I haven't met Miss Steelgrave, so I don't know what she's like, but I reckon that what she needs is probably a nice decent man, who may well have made mistakes in the past - Christ, haven't we all? - but who's learned from them. And what'd you mean 'with a future'. What d'you thinks going to happen in the future that's so bad? Have you got some terrible secret that's gonna pop up like a jack-in-the-box and hit Miss Leah in the face? Come on, tell Auntie Hettie. I don't even charge for this sort of 'unloading'." the tart-with-a-heart offered.

Bongo

Hettie asked if the good Doctor was having a problem with the tea and hoped he was a bit quicker than this if there was a medical emergency to cope with. Then again, she did like it well stewed.

"Oh, no, I have it." He brought a tray to the table that had a teapot, cups, and a little jar of cream. The sugar and cookies were already on the table. He poured tea into cups, then sat across from her. "I'm sorry, I didn't intend for this to become a session for the love-lorn."

"So you admit you are a little... 'love lorn'" Hettie smiled sympathetically. "Listen, when you're carrying a torch for someone who seems unattainable, or isn't interested in you, you talk about it with whoever'll listen, right? and whoever you can trust to keep it secret. It's not healthy to keep it bottled up. Well, my profession might not be exactly what you'd call respectable, but if you want to stay in it in once piece, you learn to keep secrets, believe me." she philosophised.

"I don't want her to be interested in me, as I said, she needs a good man, without a past." And with a future, he added silently, to himself.

Hettie was starting to feel an almost motherly concern for Doctor Danforth's interests. "Look, I haven't met Miss Steelgrave, so I don't know what she's like, but I reckon that what she needs is probably a nice decent man, who may well have made mistakes in the past - Christ, haven't we all? - but who's learned from them. What d'you think's going to happen? You got some terrible secret that's gonna pop up like a jack-in-the-box and hit Miss Leah in the face some day? Come on, you can tell Auntie Hettie. I don't even charge for this sort of 'unloading'." the tart-with-a-heart offered.

Bongo

Jonah shook his head, taking a sip of the hot tea.  "Not just one massive sin, but many little ones along the way."  He shrugged.  "The worst would be lying to her to woo her, or at least not revealing the important truths."  He wasn't going to elaborate on that.  "I've no intention on breaking her heart, it's just better to let her go her way."

"Oh you men!" tutted Hettie, rolling her eyes "When you're not acting like pigs, you've always got to be so God damned 'noble'! Why don't you just tell her what a bad boy you've been in the past but that..." Hettie put on a simpering, misty eyed visage "... 'with the love of a good woman, you hope that you can change...'"

She laughed "Women love that kind of thing. Taking an exciting, rough, bad man and changing him into a boring, timid, henpecked husband. Course, they end up with a feller they can't stand at the end of the day, but they enjoy doing the changing: bending him and breaking him and nagging him half to death. Huh! Then they go sneaking off behind his back to look for some exciting, rough, bad man to ruffle their feathers for 'em all over again!" 

Hettie had a rather pessimistic but cheery view of the dance of human relationships. 

He glanced at Hettie, wondering how sincere she might really be regarding secrets, not that it really mattered.  "I do appreciate having an ear to bend, for what that's worth.  And don't bother trying to use any of my nonsense, I haven't done enough here warrant tar and feathers, and I've no qualms about up and leaving."

The woman of ill repute shrugged "Don't be silly, Doc. I like you, why would I try and blackmail you and try and haunt you with you past? Sounds like you're already doing a good job of that yourself. Well, I've said my piece. I think you should reveal all and see if you can't at least get a tumble out of her. And if she sends you packing, you can always come and cry on my shoulder. Reasonable rates for friends, you know!" she smiled, taking a slurp of the coffee and sticking a whole cookie in her mouth at one go. Hettie was, unfortunately, a bit of a glutton.

Bongo

"So, when do you plan to settle, find some unsuspecting rich gent and become a well-kept lady?"  Yes, he was changing the subject, but he was also genuinely curious.

Hettie tipped her head. It was unusual for anyone to ask her about herself. 

"Nahhh, I've been that well-kept lady, it was boring. And I was respectable once, for about a week, when I first got married. That was even more boring. I lit out." a wistful smile decorated her lips for a second as she remembered that fateful day she had thrown caution to the wind and, stealing all the money she could grab from her husband, the Reverend Pastor Rosenkrantz, and his overstuffed collection plate, got on the first train west out of North Smithfield, Rhode Island, and began her life as an adventuress.

"See, my essential problem, Doc, is this... I've never really been in love." she revealed, munching listlessly on a cookie. She turned those big blue eyes on him, like limpid pools of cool water "You'd think, wouldn't you, that out of all those fellers I've met and, believe me, they haven't all been ugly bastards, there's been some real nice handsome gentlemanly ones mixed in there, I never really met one I'd give up my freedom for." she sighed "To be honest, in my game, you tend to start to fall more for one of the other girls. You get a little sick of men."

She look a big slurp of coffee.

"Hey this is OK. You should give old Ermentrout the boot and do all the housekeeping yourself!" she laughed.

JulieS

"I imagine it could get pretty tedious, if that isn't the sort of thing you like.  And if you have the means to be free of that..."  Yet another reason to leave Leah to herself and not complicate things for her. 

"What's to like?" pondered Hettie "Cooking, cleaning, having babies, looking after babies, laundering, ironing, washing dishes: or even if you're rich, ordering maids to do the same." she took a slurp of her coffee and complimented him on it. She was used to lying to men about how great their performance was; not usually about their coffee making prowess, though. 

He chuckled as he sipped the coffee.  "This is just a fluke, really.  Most of my coffee is undrinkable, although Mrs. Armentrout is trying her best to teach me.  Some attempts turn out better than others."  Now, there was a woman suited to life making a home, and she thrived in it.

"It's just like you, strong, dark and sweet!" she smiled. Hmmm, could be a little richer, perhaps. 

"Each to his own, right?  If only we were allowed that luxury."

She shoved in a last cookie and swallowed the rest of her coffee. "Well, Doc. I'd better push off. I'll let Sally know the check-ups are a go. Say, come over for Sunday lunch if you like, I haggled us a nice leg of pork from a feller who didn't have the wherewithal in cash for a 'special'." The chair leg scraped on the kitchen floor tiles as she pushed back her seat and picked up her drawers from where she'd dangled them over the back. She held them up.

"One last chance, Doc: before these go back on and I get out of here?" she offered "Sounds like you won't be getting it anywhere else, anytime soon." And neither would Miss Leah Steelgrave, either, by the sound of things.

Bongo