Chapter Text
Jocelyn had a fixed schedule. Which had been established years ago and it worked very well. And honestly, visiting your family twice a year, was more than sufficient, right? During her July visit, her mother always dragged her into town to the annual summer fair. By now, the both of them knew the barrister would accompany her, but never without trying to back out of it at least once. As this was Broadchurch it wasn’t a big happening. You could walk through the whole fair within fifteen minutes and that was if you walked slowly. Honestly, Knight really didn’t get what her mother loved about it. Neither of them was the social type and you had to talk to people there. The conversations were, well, what you would expect. For her, usually it were three or four tedious hours until her mother either was satisfied enough or had found someone else she’d spent the rest of the night with.
This year, was a little different, though. Jocelyn had trotted along her mother like always, but she met Madeline from school. The only one, she’d still consider a friend after all these years.
“Jocey! You either stay and behave like you’re happy to see us, or I’ll come to London and call you Jocey in front of your peers. Your choice.” Madeline blackmailed her, knowing that deep down Jocelyn wouldn’t mind talking for a couple of minutes. After all it was just her and the new editor.
“That would mean, you’d voluntarily leave this town for more than three consecutive hours. I don’t see that happening.” Knight mumbled, but decided to stay, knowing otherwise her mother would just drag her to some old friends of hers, Jocelyn didn’t know what to talk about with them anyhow. This seemed like a good compromise. So she waved to Veronica and stayed with the other women. “Hi there, how are you, Maddie? How are the kids?” She asked in a friendly voice, actually happy to see her school mate again, going in for a short hello hug.
“I’ll let you know, we’ve visited Bristol last month for a whole two weeks. You would know that, if you would answer your correspondence from time to time. I swear, you make it impossible to stay in touch with. The kids are well, so is Nick. Thanks for asking.” Madeline replied and then nodded her head towards the other woman next to them. “Jocelyn, let me introduce you to Maggie Radcliffe. The journalist genius who decided to step down from the national news and help bring the Echo back to life.”
“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Jocelyn Kn-“ The barrister had stretched out her hand to introduce herself, but the journalist interrupted her, while shaking her hand,
“Jocelyn Knight, QC. With only a few women before her, when called to the bar. Best record of her chamber.” Radcliffe filled in, letting the other woman know she was very well aware who was talking to, with a smirk. Always enjoying having the upper hand.
Jocelyn didn’t show her confusion, she just looked at Madeline and asked in a stale voice. “Why did you get your journalist to stalk me?”
“I did not. In fact, I didn’t know she knew you.” Madeline replied, looking at Maggie questioningly, who was still watching Jocelyn closely, therefore closing the triangle of stares.
“I did not stalk you. I’ve covered a couple of your cases, watched you in action in the Old Bailey. I knew you were from West Dorset, but not that you’re from Broadchurch. I would think a stalker knew that.” The journalist stepped in, with a grin. She liked taking her by surprise, too. Until now she only knew the QC as in charge of the room, it was nice to switch it up a little.
“Why in the world would you give up London for this piece of earth? I mean yes, it’s exceptionally beautiful here, but nothing compared to the life in London.” Jocelyn asked, completely perplexed by such a choice, turning her head back to Maggie, suddenly intrigued by the younger woman.
“It was time for something different.” Maggie shrugged off the answer, not too much of a fan of having to talk about herself. “I see you do leave London after all. Who would have thought?” She changed the topic immediately.
“And I see you like being the interviewer not the interviewee, that’s not really fair, is it?” Knight responded, instead of answering, liking the challenge the journalist was giving her. It was a different kind of conversation.
“Okay, I introduced you two, because I figured you could enjoy reminiscing about London and since Jocelyn here loves to take long walks, she can show you all the best spots around Broadchurch. This was not meant for you two to - I don’t even know what you’re doing.” Madeline stepped in, when she realised the turn this was taking, becoming something competitive, although she didn’t how that had even happened.
“Could you? Show me around, I mean. I haven’t really had the chance to see much outside of the town.” Maggie asked, looking right back at Jocelyn, having to do her hardest to not forget that Madeline was part of the conversation again.
The QC nodded, needing a moment to understand what had just happened. She usually wasn’t this rude, or drawn to one person that she forgot about another party. “Absolutely. Is tomorrow good for you? With the fair still in town, the cliffs should be even less crowded than they usually are.” Knight offered politely.
“See, was that so hard? Mags, can I call you Mags? I swear Jocelyn is on of the nicest persons around here, she sometimes just forgets how to talk to others.” Madeline joined the conversation again “Anyway, Maggie, I wanted to introduce you to John, I don’t think you’ve met him yet. He’s one of the council members, but travels a lot for work. He’s just over there.”
“Give me a sec and I’ll follow you.” Maggie nodded and then watched the other two women hug goodbye. It looked like Madeline was right, Jocelyn did appear really nice, but you needed to draw it out of her. In London she had only ever seen the successful, smart minded QC who was empathetic to the clients, but rather cold to everyone else around. Knight had a talent to know how others would react, which often let her appear to be calculating, Maggie had noticed. This was a different side of her, which didn’t make the journalist like the barrister any less.
“I don’t want to twist your arm. If tomorrow doesn’t work-“ Radcliffe started, knowing how Madeline had a way to get people to say yes, before you had even thought about it. That’s how she ended up at the fair in the first place.
“No, don’t worry. I know Maddie. But I don’t mind. It was either going for a walk or going fishing, you just helped me decide. If it’s not too early for you, we could meet up just before sunrise? I know a great spot on the cliffs, which isn’t too far from my house. Otherwise, just tell me when it suits you best.” Knight offered, happy to do something she liked and share it with someone who should love this place as much as anyone born here, if she wanted to do the Echo justice. Well, as much of justice as possible for a local newspaper. How someone could give up national news for this, that wasn’t something that her brain understood.
“Being up before the others is nothing new to me. I take it Madeline knows your address?” Maggie answered happily, really enjoying to get to know the private side of a QC she had only written about from afar for a while.
“She does. Don’t believe everything, she’ll say about me. I was not that much of a loner in school, like she’ll want to make you believe.” Jocelyn cautioned, knowing that Madeline only meant well, but sometimes twisted the truth a little, just to give her stories more emphasis.
“Journalist, remember? Scepticism is in my blood. I guess you won’t join us in meeting this Joe?” Radcliffe asked, a little sad having to say goodbye to the other woman already. She seemed like someone she could talk to for ages. It made her even forget to listen to Madeline properly, so she had to guess the council man's name. That was untypical of her. She usually was very good with remembering small details and names. But right now, her whole attention lay with the woman in front of her.
“It’s John. And no, I already know his ode to Broadchurch by heart. I think I’m going to go and find my mum again.” Knight declined with a soft smile and then said her goodbye.