The couple didn’t get much done that afternoon other than clearing a bit of the seed beds as it came onto rain after about half an hour. After a while if got a lot heavier so they retreated into the house where Liam got the log fire going.

The previous owner had left a woodshed full of logs so making the place nice and warm was not that difficult if you knew how. Liam didn’t but, after a lot of swearing and frustration, the fire was burning brightly.

Liam went off the following morning in search of some stout fence posts, chicken netting and a host of other things that would allow them to build a fence that might deter the boars in future. It was soon painfully obvious that his car was not the right vehicle for life in that part of the world. Carrying rolls on Chicken wire in a saloon car was not going to work in the long run.

Over lunch he broached the idea of a new vehicle to Sophia.

“I think we need a different car if we are going to make a go of growing stuff and having chickens and the like.

Sophia just smiled back at him.
“Don’t look at me. I was born in Wandsworth and have lived all my life in London until now. I know sod all about this malarkey.

Liam chuckled.

Sophia added,
“I also don’t know how to drive. I’ve never had the need for a car or anything.”

“I guess that is another thing to add to our ever increasing, list of things to sort out then?”

Sophia nodded her head.
“Can we go into town this afternoon. I want to move my account here. That way the Russians can’t get at my money even if they have the account number. I’ll change banks at the same time.”

Liam smiled.

“I guess that is the afternoon taken care of. Perhaps we can drop by the store where I got the wire and that from so that we can get you some wellies?”

“And a pair of overalls? There is no way I’m going to ruin these new clothes.”

Liam smiled and nodded his head.
At the back of his mind, he was happy that he had someone here with him. He hoped that she’d be here for the summer at least but was afraid to mention that topic at the present time.

A few days later, a decent enough fence had been built around their vegetable plot. A local labourer had come up to the house and helped them out. George, had showed them how deep to bury the fence wire to keep the boars out. They’d met George at the local farmers merchants when they’d gone to buy the fencing.

“Them’s devious animals all right. They can barge their way through most wooden fences they are that strong,” he said as he ate some lunch.

At the end of the job, Liam thrust a £20 note thrust into his hand and George went off happy in that he had enough for a beer or three before he went home.

The following day, they had an unexpected visitor in the shape of Inspector Jarvis. He’d guessed that Trixie was staying with Liam when he saw her get into his car at Didcot when she’d made her statement.

“I didn’t recognise the driver,” he said as they sat down in the kitchen.

Sophia looked at Liam. He sighed.

“It was me.”

The Inspector looked at him earnestly for a few seconds. Then a smile appeared on his face. After digging into his briefcase, he retrieved a photo.

“I take it that this is you then?”

Liam looked at the image. It was of him going into Trixie’s old place.

“Yes, that’s me.”

The Inspector chuckled.

“That is a very good disguise. It had my men fooled.”

Then he looked at me sternly.

“Did you get what you wanted?”

Sophia intervened.

“That’s our business unless doing things on my behalf is suddenly a crime?”

The Inspector smiled. Sophia was far too sharp for him.

“I will keep this brief then. The purpose of my visit is to inform you that the Russians are very angry. They saw you as a prized asset and as such they won’t settle until you are back with them or pushing up daises somewhere where no one will find you.”

This didn’t faze Sophia at all.

“That is to be expected Inspector. I have to hope that you don’t have a leak in your department. You should know that those guys have an awful lot of influential people either on their payroll or being blackmailed by them.”

“I know and I was rather hoping for some leads. They are like an Octopus, with tentacles everywhere. If we can take down enough then they might decide to cut their losses?”

Sophia laughed.

“If you think for even one second that they’ll go back to Mother Russia then you are sadly mistaken. They have second, third and even tenth homes all over the world ready for them to bolt too.”

Sophia thought for several seconds before saying,
“I don’t know if I can trust you all the way Inspector so I’ll give you some names. You have to prove to me that you are willing to as you say cut a few tentacles off before I give you the rest. How does that sound?”

The Inspector smiled.
“That would do nicely.”

“Good. Give me an email address that I can use. One that only you have access to. I will send the details there. When you get them, call me and I will send you the key to decrypt the message. Then you have 72 hours to act on them and get it into the media. If you don’t, then I know you can’t be trusted. Oh, I’ll be gone from here tonight. I can’t risk dragging Liam into this even more. Do you understand Inspector?”

Her tone was one that said, ‘do not mess with me’.

“Perfectly.”

“As a freebie, I’ll give you one name. The person is very close to home so to speak.”

She reached over and took his notepad. On it, she wrote a name. Then she gave it back to him.

The Inspector read the name. The faint smile that was on his face disappeared in a flash.

“You can’t be serious?”

“She has a gambling problem. As far as I know, she is in for at least six figures. She frequents the Blue Haze Club on Soho Square at least twice a week. There is a back room where… well I am sure that you can guess what goes on there.”

“How… How do you know this?”

Sophia smiled.
“Lets’ just say that at least one of my Gentlemen Clients from when I worked for Delroy took me to the club on more than one occasion. I have eyes Inspector. Most of the time I was on the lookout for your mob but it was hard not to see what was going on.”

Sophia pushed a sheet of paper his way.
“The email address if you please?”

With a sigh, the Inspector wrote down an email address.

“Thank you. I will only use this once. The email it will come from will be a throw away one.”

---

Once the Inspector had left, Sophia sank into her chair.
“You need a drink,” said Liam.

She shook her head.
“No. I need to pack a few things and then can you take me to the nearest Station? I need to get away from here. I can’t risk you and this place any more than I have already.”

Liam thought for a moment or three before saying,
“Why don’t I come with you as Sylvia? As I said, we can get a new vehicle when we get off the train. That will make us harder to track.”

Sophia thought for a moment. Then she said,
“How would you buy a car or whatever? All your cards are in Liam’s name aren’t they?”

Liam smiled and shook his head.
“I have one credit card in my company name, Thyme Consulting.”

“Will it be accepted? Sometimes people are a bit… picky.”

“We can only try it and see. If the dealer has a machine, there should be no problem.”

Sophia thought again. She wanted Liam/Sylvia to be with her but she didn’t want to put anyone else in danger for no good reason.

Reluctantly she agreed.

“Very well but we have to go somewhere so that I can get some funds.”

“Where?”

“Jersey. I have a safe deposit box there. One of the things you retrieved from my flat was the key.”

A very surprised Liam looked at Sophia.
“You had planned for this sort of thing to happen, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. When I teamed up with Delroy, he told me right away that he was planning to retire one day and go back to Barbados and that he was advising all his girls to prepare for that day. Some of my… Clients were like you in the Banking and Finance world. I got advice about how to stash my money so that only I could get at it. Delroy was aware of the Russians moving in on other pimps in London. We all got the message. Now I am thankful I took his advice.”

Sophia looked at Liam with sadness in her eyes.

“I’m really not bringing you much luck, am I?”

“Sophia, I am… I am so pleased to be able to help you in any way I can no matter how small it is.”
Then he added,
“You know that I want you to stay here with me but in this case, I think you are right and that you need to get away from here. However, I know from my dealing customers that there is a sizeable Russian community in the Channel Islands. If I were you, I’d get into Jersey, go to the bank and then get out ASAP. There are plenty of flights out of the airport and even a fast ferry to St Malo in France.”

Sophia smiled back at him before giving Liam a huge hug.

When they broke free Liam said,
“I think you should go in at least some form of disguise.”

Sophia thought for a moment before shaking her head.

“No. If there is anyone who can see me in Jersey then let them. Then when I get on a plane out of there, they will not think to look here. That in itself will keep you and this place safe.”

Liam could not argue with that logic.

Two days later, Liam took Sophia to the station in Dorchester. There after a tearful goodbye, she caught the London train intending to get off at Southampton Airport. She was booked on a flight to Jersey that afternoon.

That was the plan as far as Liam and the world at large was concerned. Sophia had other ideas that did not involve flying. Instead she was going to take the midday fast ferry from Poole to Jersey. For some reason she had a fear that her booking on the flight would be a risk whereas she’d found out that there was space on the ferry for ‘walk-up’ foot passengers.

The train journey from Dorchester to Poole does not take very long and neither did the Taxi ride to the Ferry port.

It was only when the ferry passed the Sandbanks chain ferry as it left Poole Harbour, did she begin to relax.

---

Sophia got off the ferry at the port in St Helier in good spirits. These were dampened less than ten minutes later when she arrived at her bank only to find out that they’d closed an hour earlier. For a moment, she cursed herself for not taking the plane. There was nothing for it but to find a hotel and lie low until the following morning.

The previous time that Sophia had been in Jersey, she’d also stayed overnight. A quick phone call and she had a room in that very same hotel.

In order to get there, Sophia took a Taxi to the airport and then another to a Hotel on the northern side of the Island. The Hotel had been recommended to her by a client as it was not only quiet but very discrete. To the owners, discrete meant asking no questions or demanding to see ID from their guests. Payment by cash was the norm. Liam had given Sophia a good float for exactly times like this.

Sophia took the bus into St Hellier the following morning. Again, she was going for annominity in her movements. Years of being very discrete when it came to visiting clients was perfect training for how she needed to travel at the moment. Today, she was wearing one of Liam’s wigs as a disguise. With the obligatory large framed dark glasses, she looked very different to how she looked in London in her former life.

After a coffee in a Café close to the bank, she sauntered up the street some fifteen minutes after the bank opened. She didn’t want to appear too keen to anyone watching her. As she approached the bank, a black Range Rover drew up outside and two burly men got out. She froze for a second. One of them looked like one of the Russians who’d beaten her up more than once.

After a second glance, she breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was a very beautiful woman getting out of the back of the Range Rover but neither of the men had any of the very visible tattoos’ that the Russians she hated so much proudly wore.

As she approached the bank, one of the men even held the door open for her and gave her a small smile as she entered the building.

Once inside, she breathed a huge sigh of relief before preparing mentally to get her business done.

Less than twenty minutes later, Sophia emerged from the bank into the sunshine. The Range Rover had gone which pleased her no end. Trying to look unhurried, she wandered down to the Ferry Terminal and booked a seat on the midday sailing to France. This was her big worry. Would her ‘backup’ passport in the name of Lavinia Fletcher pass muster.

She need not have worried as border formalities consisted of waving her UK passport at the officer who let her through with a nod and a smile.

---

Three hours later, the ferry docked at St Malo. Once again, passport checks were a mere formality and very soon, she was on the bus to the Railway Station.

Sophia booked a ticket to Paris although once again, she had no intention of going all the way. This was all part of the plan that she’d worked out with Liam. She was carrying close on £200,000 in £50 notes in her overnight bag. The last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself.

The Paris train drew to a stop at Tours. From here to Paris, it would be non-stop. It was her last chance to get off before she reached the Capital and she took it. Sophia got off the train and left the station only to return a few minutes later whereupon, she purchased a ticket to Bordeaux.

While Sophia was waiting for the TGV south, Liam was getting worried about the apparent lack of things happening in London. It had been several days since the Police got the list of people who were connected to the Russians. She’d been rather busy in the interim to bother checking to see if anything had happened. It was too late to do anything now but she’d be back in the UK in the morning and she would catch up then.

Sophia found an Hotel close to the Railway Station. Once she was settled in her room, she went back to the station and booked a ticket to Paris for the following morning. The new TGV line had just opened so Paris was only three hours away. All this travel was taking its toll on the Euros that she’d obtained in Jersey but she knew that she’d be home the following evening.

She stopped herself almost in mid stride. She’d called Liam’s place ‘home’. Then she smiled at herself and carried on walking back to the Hotel. It wasn’t such a bad place after all and Liam was a nice person. Then she stopped again. Liam was more than a nice person. That was why she’d turned to him when she needed somewhere to hide. She’d knew that she would need to think carefully about the long-term implications of committing to him. She’d never committed to anyone in her life. That was why she’d been so good as a call girl.

Early the following morning, Sophia caught the early train to Paris. By anyone’s standards, 05:10 is early but the train was relatively busy even at that ungodly time. The coffee and fresh Croissants she had for breakfast was very welcome especially as the French countryside whizzed past at more than 150mph.

It was a little after 08:20 when the train arrived in Paris. She headed for the Gare du Nord and booked a ticket on the next Eurostar to London.

It was late that afternoon when Sophia called Liam as the train bound for Exeter left the stop at Salisbury.

“It’s me. I’ve just left Salisbury.”

“Yes, everything went fine.”

“See you soon. Oh, and drive carefully.”

Sophia hung up the call and thought, ‘so much for treading carefully with Liam’.

Liam was waiting for her at Gillingham Station. Once again, caution went out the door as she embraced Liam. He responded. Then he felt her relax into his arms.

“I was worried about you?”

“I guessed as much but I’m here now. Shall we head home?”

“Are you hungry?”

“Me? No, I had a pretty decent meal on the Eurostar.”

“Fair enough, home it is,” said Liam.

“Out with it?” asked Liam the following morning.

“I was thinking about those Russians. So far, we’ve heard nothing about any arrests. I’m not sure that we are safe here in the long term.”

“We?”

“Yes, ‘we’. I didn’t realise it until I watched two people obviously in love saying goodbye to each other as the train approached Woking. She didn’t want to go but had to. I felt the same about you.”

“I missed you too,” said Liam quietly.
Then he added,
“I think you are right. We can’t trust anyone in London. What do you suggest we do?”

“Go to France. My French is passable. France is a big place. There are many places we can drop out of sight.”

Liam smiled.

“Just when did this devious plan come to you?”

Sophia smiled.
“During my little side trip to Bordeaux. I realised just how big the place is compared to London. What are we? An hour and a half from the M25? That’s nothing for them. Then there is the little matter that the Police know where we are despite our best efforts. One leak and well, I don’t want to think of the consequences.”

Liam looked around his kitchen. He had so many plans for the place.

“I guess you should go. Go somewhere and not tell me then if they come here I can’t tell them anything.”

Sophia shook her head.

“You would be tortured and probably killed. I saw the way they work at first hand. It was not pretty. They did it to make sure that none of their girls spoke out of turn.”

“I can’t leave this place,” said Liam sadly.

Sophia took hold of his hand.
“I know it is hard but the risks are too great unless…”

“Unless what?”

“I gave the inspector just some of the client list. I have a lot more. If we leave and I send it to all the media at least one of them is sure to publish it. The names are just too juicy to ignore.”

Liam looked around his kitchen. He had so many plans for this place.

“You don’t want to go do you?” asked Sophia.

“I don’t. I’ve planned this move for years. This is where I want to grow old.”

That statement shocked Sophia. She knew that this was his dream but she had no real idea about how much the place meant to him.

“It is only for a short while.”

“I know but…”

Liam looked at Sophia.

“One month. Then I will come back and hang the consequences.”
There was a tear in his eyes.

“One month it is then. Then we will both come back.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Don’t you want me to come back?”

“Yes, I do. I want to be here with you.”
Then she looked at the floor.

“I didn’t at first but on the train from Paris, we passed through the Somme. So many people lost their lives for what? They didn’t get the chance to fulfil their dreams. The made the ultimate sacrifice. I’ve lost so much and you have given me the chance to live again. I want to be here with you and make this place something. Something that we can both be proud of.”

Liam sat there stunned for quite a while.

“Are you going to say something?”

“Sorry. I was a bit stunned by what you said.”

“Well? I’ve sort of laid all my cards on the table.”

“That’s what stunned me. Every day I wake up I am amazed that you are still here. Now you say that to me. Is it any wonder that I am a bit stunned, tongue tied and totally lost for words?”

Sophia stood up and smiled.

“While you are thinking, I’m going to use your computer. I need to put together what will be sent to the media. Don’t worry, I won’t send it from here. I know the risks.”

Liam didn’t answer. No refusal was enough for her to go off and use his computer.

An hour later, she’d put together a file with all the gory details of the people who were Delroy’s and then the Russians clients. She added what she knew about the blackmail threats that the Russians were using on some of the more influential clients to not only avoid prosecution but to get sensitive information. Once the file was complete, she uploaded it to a dozen different cloud sites. She saved the locations to a file. She copied the file to an ‘SD’ card in encrypted form. Sophia mentally thanked Delroy for making her aware of her personal data security. She then put the card into her ‘burner’ phone. She mentally thanked Liam for getting a phone that could accept a data card when they’d gone shopping for a phone.

With all that done, she erased all trace of her activities on the computer. Being in the ‘escort’ game for as long as she’d been, her client records were like gold dust to the right people. Delroy had made sure that she knew how to keep client records away from prying eyes.

Sylvia saw that Liam was troubled when she returned to the kitchen.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was listening to the news. It said that the body of a Police Detective had been recovered from the Welsh Harp Reservoir.”

The smile that was on her face disappeared in a flash.

“Fuck. You don’t think…?”

Liam nodded her head.

“Then we need to get out of here now.”

Liam shook his head.

“The report said that it appeared that he’d been dead for some days. If he had revealed everything then we’d probably be dead as well by now.”

“I don’t want to take any chances. Do you?”
“What if they are watching us now?”

Liam looked at her.
“If they are watching us, then we are doomed. There is no way we can lose them out here in the country. This isn’t London where there are back alleys all over the place. If you are going to leave then we do indeed need to do it now and together.”

Sophia hugged Liam until he cried out.
“Enough! I need to breathe”

Less than half an hour later the car was loaded with a few clothes. Liam locked up the house and got into the car. He was about to leave his dream behind. Nevertheless, he got into the car and drove away from his home hopefully not for the last time.

Liam headed for Shaftesbury where he filled the car with petrol. Not a lot had been said once they’d left Liam’s home.

Having paid for the fuel, Liam got back into the car and said,
“Which way?”

“Any way that does not mean going towards London,” said Sophia firmly.

“Portsmouth, Poole or Plymouth?”

“It makes no difference to me.”

“Ok, I’ll head towards Poole but you had better get searching for ferries and make a booking. You have my credit card.”

Sophia could not fault that argument.

She spent the next twenty minutes looking at the options for getting over to France.

“Everything seems to be full for tonight apart from the Plymouth to Roscoff sailing.”

“Make the booking and I’ll get us there,” said Liam as he turned the car around and headed west.

---

“I can see land,” said a slightly excited Sophia as she peered out of the porthole of their cabin.

Liam was packing things up. They’d had a few hours sleep on the crossing.

“Why don’t you go and get us some coffee? We can pick up some croissants in Roscoff but some coffee would be nice.”

Sophia smiled and disappeared from the cabin. Liam breathed a sigh of relief. Things had been a little tense between them the previous evening. He looked out on the French Coastline and hoped that it would bring back some of the happiness that had been so much part of their life together.

Things had been made worse when they heard that the deceased Police Officer had been identified as Inspector Jarvis.

Liam joined Sophia in the Cafeteria. She’d bought two Coffees.

“Thanks, I need this.”

She smiled back at him and squeezed his hand.

“Darling, we will get through this. When we find somewhere to stay, I’ll send a few emails and make a few posts. That should set a few balls rolling. Delroy was a good man and so was the Inspector.”

Before Liam could respond, the announcement ‘Would all Car Passengers return to their Vehicles’ spurred everyone into action.

It wasn’t long before they were in Brittany and heading for the town of Morlaix where they soon found a large supermarket where Liam went shopping for some food and ‘stuff’. Sophia saw a mobile phone shop and went off in search of a French SIM card.

The pair met back at the car a little later. Liam had a road atlas for France and Sophia had a new SIM card for the Laptop ‘dongle’.

“Let me get the first of these emails sent and then we can head off,” she said as she opened the Laptop.

Liam sorted out the food and waited for Sophia.

She joined him at the rear of the car.

“Sorry for putting a downer on everything.”

“Don’t worry, events elsewhere conspired to spoil things. I wasn’t really sure how serious things were until… until we heard about the Inspector. If anyone tracks us, they will assume that we are hiding in Brittany. A lot of brits live here.”

Sophia managed a small smile.

“I sent links to all the data to six newspapers plus the Police and the BBC. Hopefully at least one of them will take some action against those bastards. A couple of former Government Ministers will have more than a bit of explaining to do.”

“Didn’t you say that you were going to post it all on Social Media?”

Sophia grinned.
“All of my emails said that if nothing was done, it all goes on Twitter and Facebook.”

“Did you name names? Of the Russians?”

She nodded.
“I expect that a lot of people in London would like to see the back of the Russians. Before they got going, there was a set of rules that stopped the different factions killing each other. I knew nothing of this when I was with Delroy but the Russians were rather loose with their tongues.”

“Ok, where to now?”

“How about the Cevennes?”

Liam looked blank.

“In the middle but a long way south. I went there as a child.”

Liam looked at the Atlas and shook his head.

“We won’t get there today.”

“Then I’d better get us a room for tonight and then somewhere to stay for a bit.”

“What about money?”

Sophia grinned.

“I have access to my money. It won’t be a problem.”

Liam breathed a visible sigh of relief.

“We should get going then. I think we should avoid the Autoroutes. It will take is longer but we would be more invisible to CCTV cameras.”

Sophia smiled.
Then she hugged Liam.

“We will get through this,” she said softly.

“I hope so,” said Liam.

That evening in an Hotel near Poitiers, they searched the Internet for any reports. To their dismay, there were none. Sophia checked her email accounts and none of them had even a delivery failure. It was as if the emails had just disappeared.

“Why?” she said with more than a hint of desperation in her voice.

Liam put his arm around her to comfort her.

“Give it time. They need to check their facts and given the high profile of some of the people you have named, the lawyers will need to be involved for sure.”

Then he added,
“How long did you give them before you post it all on Social Media?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

“Then we will stick to it. That is the least we can do.”

Sophia hugged Liam.
“Why are you so good to me?”

“Because we are both rather lost souls, aren’t we?”

She didn’t answer but a tear did run down her cheek.

---

The journey south took a lot longer than Sophia had thought. To her, it seemed that every village had a 30kph (or worse) speed limit. Still, she agreed with Liam’s reasoning to avoid traffic cameras.

Sophia did some searching on the Internet as Liam drove south. There was no news of any arrests or investigations. Once Liam had digested the bad news, he said,

“You had better book us a room for a few nights. Find a place with internet and we can start spreading the data.”

Sophia sat back and thought for a bit.

“How about we call the Inspector investigating the murder of Inspector Jarvis, and give him a final warning?”

“Sounds like a plan. Book a place for two nights. If the push comes to shove and we have to upload everything then we can make a clean exit and head somewhere else once we have done it.”

Sophia grunted her agreement and after a few minutes, she announced,

“I’ve booked an hotel in a place called Meyrueis for two nights.”

Sophia made the call to London but didn't get much information about what was happening other than the name and contact details of the lead detective on the murder case.

---

That evening Sophia sent an email to the Inspector using the same address that she’d used before to communicate with the Police. She warned them that unless things happened within the next 24 hours all the data she had would be made public.

The following morning there was bad news. The BBC was reporting that the body of a Police Inspector had been found in the River Mole near where it flows into the River Thames. Liam looked at Sophia. Neither of them needed to say anything. Liam tried to call the Inspector who had been investigating the death of Inspector Jarvis. The hesitancy that those answering the phone told them everything. They didn’t need any more hints.

After a few minutes of thought, Sophia said,
“Time to go public I think.”

Liam nodded.

Within an hour all the major newspapers and media organisations had all the data. They'd had a snapshot before. This time it was everything including dates and times. All of it had been posted on Facebook with a link to the reports of both Police Officers deaths.

The pair checked out of the Hotel and headed further south and into the Pyrenees.

From an Hotel in Andorra they watched the News. It was dominated by the arrests of literally dozens of people.

“I didn’t finger than many,” exclaimed Sophia.

“Does it matter?” Liam asked softly.

“I don’t know what to think,” she replied.

“It is all out in the open now. A lot of people are going to have to answer a lot of very embarrassing questions.”

Sophia thought for a while. Then a slight chuckle came from her.

“Delroy would have enjoyed what was going on. He was a good man. I sort of miss him. He always looked after us.”

“If those bastards are jailed or thrown out of the country then great.”

Liam took Sophia’s hand.

“You are a good man Liam. Too good for someone like me,” said Sophia quietly.

“That is bollocks Trixie and you know it.”

She didn’t answer so Liam carried on.

“Sophia nee Trixie, I like you. I like you a lot. I don’t know if I love you but the more time I spend with you, the more I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

“I can’t,” she said through tearful eyes.

“Why not? Where else are you going to go?”

Sophia didn’t answer for some time.

“There you are, being good to me. I don’t deserve it.”

“Stop being silly. I want you with me and part of my life. Besides, who am I going to get who understands both Suzi and me?”

Sophia chuckled for half a second before the serious look returned to her face.

“But, what about my past? It isn’t exactly run of the mill now was it?”

“So? Does it matter? It does not to me. I always had a soft spot for you and these past days… well I really don’t want to lose you from my life again.”

In the end, Sophia had to accept the situation that Liam was going nowhere without her.

---

They stayed in France for another two weeks and watched the story unfold from there. Questions were raised in Parliament about two members of the opposition front bench’s implication in the sordid affair. Until then, their names had not been made public. Parliamentary privilege allows a member to name names without fear of repercussions.

Those two shadow ministers resigned their position and also their seat in Parliament once the extent of their wrongdoing was exposed. Both of them had been Home Office Ministers before the previous election and had used their influence to obtain resident visas for the leaders of the Russian gang. They’d also received large sums of money in return which naturally had not been declared to the House nor to the Inland Revenue.

Many of the Russians were found to be in the country illegally and that Moscow was very keen to get their hands on them. The UK government needed to get back into the Kremlin’s good books after a recent spying case so the majority of the gang were extradited back to their homeland where an uncertain fate awaited them.

Once the heat had died down, they returned to Dorset. To their immense surprise, the herb garden was intact and things were actually growing. They both saw this as a sign that they were meant to be there.

[the end]