“Hello darling,” said Adrian softly.
He was sitting in Maxine’s room waiting for her to come around after her operation.

She didn’t answer straight away.

After a bit, she said,
“It hurts.”

Adrian smiled. Maxine could not see his reaction as her eyes were screwed shut.

He put a control device into her left hand.
“Nurse says to use this to help with the pain.”

Maxine squeezed the plunger on the top of the device. That released some painkiller into her drip.

It didn’t take long for her to be ‘away with the fairies’ as her doctor had described it.

---

[the next morning]

“How are you feeling today?” asked Adrian as he entered her room. He’d been there until the early hours and had fallen asleep. The nurses had sent him back to his hotel to get some proper sleep as they called it.

Maxine groaned.

Adrian smiled.
“Still living then?”

Another groan from Maxine. She searched for the pain relief device. It had been removed by the nurse in the night.

“I think you used too much ‘goofy juice’ in the night.”

Maxine just sank back into the bed.
“Why the fuck did I agree to this?”

Adrian took her hand and gently stroked the fine hairs on her arm.

“Doctor Kuo said that everything went fine. No, not fine but perfect.”

Maxine didn’t answer but her stomach rumbled.

“Do you want some breakfast?”
“Only if it is laced with really strong hooch!”

“Sorry love, that’s not on the menu. The Coffee is good though.”

Maxine opened her eyes and glared at Adrian.

“Tea. Early Grey!”

Adrian laughed as he headed off to find some food. He knew that Maxine was on the mend.

---

Maxine felt a lot better after something to eat and some tea even if it wasn’t Earl Grey.

“Your Mother has been on the phone almost every other hour,” said Adrian.

Maxine grinned.
“There I was starting to feel better and you have to go and spoil it!”

“She’s only wants to know how you are getting on.”

“What did you say? That I was away with the fairies?”

Adrian chuckled.
“No. I simply said that you were resting and that everything went fine. I also promised her that you would call her tomorrow.”

“Thanks. Mum is kinda possessive over me since Dawn went AWOL.”

“I know she is but that’s what Mum’s are put on Earth to do.”

Maxine sighed.

“Did the Doc say when I might get out of here?”

“Three days. They want to change your dressings first. Then we can go to our hotel as planned. After three more days, you come back here for the dressings to be removed and for you to be introduced to the delights of Dilation!”

Maxine sighed. Her body language told Adrian that she wanted to be back at home.
“Patience my dear, patience. You can’t rush anything after your operation. Remember what Dr Kuo said about lifting things? Nothing more than a 1 kilo bag of sugar for three months.”

“I know but… I’m only thinking about you?”

“And that’s what nurses and carers are for. We talked about this point in my life before remember?”

“That was so long ago,” said Maxine with a sad tone to her voice.

“And now it is time for me to care for you. Your turn to care for me won’t be that far away now will it?”

“I know my darling but I had hoped for… for a bit more time as a proper married couple.”

Adrian smiled and gripped her hand a bit tighter.

“I’m not going anywhere… at least until you are better so get used to it and let me make sure that you don’t undo all that nice work that Dr Kuo did on you.”

---

Maxine was discharged from the clinic two days later. The moved into a suite at a very plush hotel not far away. The plan was that she’d return after a few days for her dressings to be removed although a nurse would be coming into the Hotel every other day to change them. Then they’d head back to Phuket for a week before returning to Bangkok and a final examination on their way home.

As the days went by, Maxine became more and more frustrated by not being at home but mostly by her inability to do even simple tasks such as lacing up her trainers without experiencing a lot of pain from her nether regions. She began to question how well the operation had gone but Adrian was firm with her that it went well and that it would take time for her body to readjust to its new configuration. His favourite words were,

“Rome wasn’t built in a day and nor was Maxine”.

The words annoyed her yet still provided some comfort to her at this time.

---

It was with immense relief that Dr Kuo pronounced that Maxine was healing well and was fit to travel home. The last few days had gone by at a virtual snail’s pace because she knew that her body was starting to heal but they had to wait for the Doctor to examine her before they could finally confirm their flights home.

Adrian kept up his fussing of Maxine. She wanted to tell him to stop all the time but stopped herself from doing so. She knew that it would not be long before their roles were reversed and she’d be the one fussing over him so she sat back, bit her tongue and let him get on with it.

---

Maxine was for once glad to see the house that she called home but really wasn’t. It was Adrian’s place and would be that way forever.

Adrian kept up with the fussing until the arrival of her Mother and Sally. They arrived and took over the fussing over the patient. Adrian smiled and disappeared into the office that they shared. He knew when he’d be better off getting out of the way and letting the women make the world right once again.

Maxine on the other hand, knew that Adrian was itching to catch up on business. She’d caught him looking at several reports while they were away. She knew him well enough to know that was Adrian being Adrian and he’d never change. Well that would be true for a few more months then he’d not be able to do it and then it would be down to her and Cliff to keep him informed even though he would be no longer part of the decision-making process. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be part of it but he’d handed over the business to Maxine when they’d married. It was all part of his succession planning. Maxine agreed with it but whenever the words ‘succession planning’ were mentioned, she felt somewhat guilty even though she shouldn’t have done so. Deep down inside her there were the remnants of Thomas telling her that her blatant fraud would be discovered sooner or later and that the whole world would get to know about it.

Maxine made it clear to her Mother and Sally that she was recovering very well and that they really didn’t need to be there. Naturally, their collective ‘deaf ears’ sprung into action and they took over.

Neither Maxine nor Adrian were allowed to do anything. Cliff kept well away but kept in touch with Maxine via Facetime and emails. He’d gotten on the wrong side of Maxine’s Mother at the Wedding Reception and had no desire to have a repeat of that episode. Maxine understood completely but for a whole week, there was no sign of her mother nor Sally wanting to leave. In the end, Maxine had to give them a nudge.

“Mum… I don’t want to appear ungrateful but don’t you and Sally have your own lives to get on with? I’m not really an invalid you know and Adrian isn’t on his last legs quite yet.”

Sally came and gave Maxine a big hug.

“We only want to make sure that you are coping well,” said her Mother.

“How can I know if I can cope when you do everything for me eh? There will come a time then Adrian will be unable to do anything. Then there will be nurses and carers doing the heavy lifting. As Adrian said, all I need to do is sit back, let nature heal my body and look beautiful.”

All three of them laughed at that.

---

Sally made sure that Maxine’s mother left them the following morning without too many tears. There one positive to come out of the whole episode was that Maxine had seen how close her Mother and Sally really were. Her previous doubts paled into insignificance when Maxine realised how happy her mother really was. She’d never seen her that happy since before she could remember. The only fly in the ointment was the whereabouts of her sister Dawn.

Maxine had mentioned this to Sally who had taken her aside and told her that Dawn was living in a squat just outside the city centre in Bristol. Dawn’s child had been taken into care when she’d had been busted for trying to sell a fifty gram bag of Meth to an undercover Police Officer. Dawn had shown no signs of really being attached to the child and had been more concerned with not telling the Police where she’d scored the bag from that she’d been trying to sell that worrying about the welfare of her daughter. At least Maxine knew approximately where her sister was which helped her no end. As long as they kept apart, life could carry on. On the rare occasions when she ran into Dawn, it was Dawn who went for Maxine’s jugular.

---

[Autumn that year]

Adrian was sinking fast but he kept refusing to go into the Hospice. There was a bed waiting for him but… he was determined to keep going and going.

Maxine had engaged a nurse to be available 24/7. She’d also engaged two carers to come in during the day. Normally, Maxine would have done the hard work herself but her recent surgery meant that lifting anything was totally out of the question for another month at the very least.

The carers wondered why Maxine wasn’t helping with Adrian’s care but once she’d told them that she’d had surgery for a congenital women’s problem they stopped asking which pleased her no end.

Maxine spent her time mostly doing much about nothing. The business was now hers to run but thanks to the preparations they’d done, there was little to do on a day to day basis. Many companies had put a hold on investments since the BREXIT vote. That had worked well for the business. There were no ‘hot’ or even ‘warm’ leads. It gave a her a chance to evaluate their holdings and possible opportunities but her mind was not really on the task. It was more focussed on caring for Adrian.

Telling all their partners that Adrian was terminally ill was not a job that Maxine relished. Thankfully, Adrian had prepared a letter for each of them explaining the situation and how Maxine was going to take over his role and importantly, it was to be 'Business as Usual'.

Maxine gave regular updates to her Mother. More than once she wondered why is it that giving bad news to your parent who had been there for you through thick and thin was often harder than informing virtual strangers. Ok, so they weren’t really strangers but none of the other businesses that the company had invested in were as close to Maxine as Nina and Belinda were. That was probably because Belinda and her shared something more than most people could ever imagine.

Cliff was always there trying his best to support Maxine. There was little he could do apart from giving her some moral support.

There is only so much twiddling of thumbs and office paper shuffling you can do before it drives you mad. Stir Crazy is very aptly named. Maxine was a virtual prisoner and had to be here for Adrian should she be needed.

There is an Album by the 1970’s Rock Band, ELO called ‘On the Third Day’ that Tom had bought her Sister as a Birthday present. At the time, Dawn was into a totally different kind of Music so she threw it back at him. Their Mother had laughed and made Dawn listen to it ten times before she was forgiven. It turned out that Mum had been a big fan of ELO in her youth.
Maxine played it and other music from her childhood as a way of escaping what was going on with Adrian.

Three days was all she lasted before she had to get out at least for a while. Cliff drove her up to Leith Hill where she went for a brief walk despite the October drizzle. It felt so good to get out of the house just for a bit.

As a way of saying thanks, Maxine treated Cliff to lunch on their way home at the Wotten Arms. She did feel a bit guilty actually enjoying herself when Adrian was getting worse almost by the day. Cliff tried to make her feel proud of being there for Adrian.

“Every Florence Nightingale needs a bit of R&R from time to time.”

Maxine felt rather ashamed to admit to myself that he was right.

---

[two days later]
The Doctor had just left the house after yet another failed attempt to get Adrian to go into the Hospice when the front door bell rang.

Maxine answered it thinking that it was the Doctor coming back for something. It wasn’t. A grey-haired man in what Maxine estimated to be his early 60’s stood there. He was dressed in clothes that probably came from Saville Row rather than TopMan or M&S.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Maxine Forsythe?”

“Who wants to know?”

“My name is John Blair. I’m not here to try to sell you anything like that. I was given your name as being someone who could help us in our work.”

Maxine’s alarms and suspicions that were already high started running at maximum.

“Exactly who is us?”

He deftly opened his suit jacker and removed a card from a pocket in the front of his waistcoat. He handed it to her.

She looked at it.
“John Blair, Ministry of Supply,” said Maxine just to confirm what it said.
Apart from that and a single ‘0207’ phone number the card was blank. No physical address, email or social media contact details which seemed to her to be rather OTT but what did she know…

“That’s me.”

“Forgive me for being very suspicious but you don’t look like you represent the US Clothing Manufacturer one little bit.”

He smiled.

“I can see that what my friends have said about you is correct. You are very sharp indeed. No, I represent the original ‘Ministry of Supply’ that was created in September 1939.”

“Yeah, and wasn’t it shut down after the end of rationing in this country around 1955 or so?” Replied Maxine trying to remember those boring history lessons from her days at school in Trowbridge.

“Officially it was but the Cabinet Office kept a small bunch of us on and we work on special projects for the government.”

“And my real name is Lord Lucan,” she retorted, not believing a word of it.

“Actually, your given name was Thomas Saunders, then Maxine Saunders and lately, Maxine Forsythe.”

“So? You have done your homework… What is the scam then? Blackmail? Want to expose me to the press for a payoff? Those clothes don’t exactly come, cheap do they?”

Maxine looked beyond him and there was a Chauffeur driven Rolls Royce waiting in the drive.
“Nor do wheels like that.”

Mr Blair smiled back at her.

“Indeed, they don’t come cheap. The Government can and does pay well when the recipient deserves it. I’m willing to pay you a considerable sum of money to do some work for us. Work that I understand you excel at.”

“And pay at least 40% of that back to the Government.”

He shook his head.

“I think that you misunderstand me. This is an off the books payment. Nothing our department does appears in Government Records. Call it ‘Black Ops’ if you like but my section does nothing but investigate money, where it comes from, where it goes and why.”

The prospect of some easy money was always tempting but she resisted it.

“Is there some way that I can verify your bona-fides?”

“Indeed, there is. I do understand your caution but the piece of work that we need you to do is fairly time critical.”

“I’m not touching anything until you check out. If you know all about me, you will also know that my Husband suffers from a terminal disease and won’t last more than a few weeks.”

“I do and for that you have my best wishes. One week of your time is all we need for now. For that I am willing to pay you £10,000 cash. Obviously if I check out as you say.”

“How do I check you out? Your card has no address, website or social media details.”

He smiled back at Maxine.

“In an hour or so, you will receive an email from your MP. The email will come from a verifiable address and will contain his contact details which can be verified online. Please call the number and verify that it came from him. Read the email and check out what it says. When you are satisfied that I am not some scam artist call me on that number day or night. It will be answered. Then the details of the work that we need you to do will be couriered over within four to six hours. Time is of the essence and we don’t use anything but the phone to communicate. When the work is done, it will be collected by the same courier that delivered it. He will give you the money, take the work and go.”

“You are awfully sure that I’ll agree to do this?”

“You have an inquiring mind. From my reports, it is clear that once you get your teeth into something, you really don’t like to let go until you are done. I’m talking about the report you did that led to you meeting Mr Forsythe specifically, the one you did for Sally Jameson. That is exactly the sort of resource we need. If you do this bit of work for us to the standard that we know you can, then you can expect to have three or four similar operations per year until you say ‘no more’. Ms Jameson was the person who recommended you to us for this particular investigation.”

Maxine knew that he was trying to butter her up. She wondered how he’d gotten to know about Sally Jameson.

“Obviously, if you accept then in the first work package will be a copy of the Official Secrets Act for you to sign. This work is not just classified but could even be top secret.”

“Now you are talking bollocks. I’d need to be properly vetted for anything like that.”

Mr Blair smiled and pulled out a sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. He handed it to her.

“Who says that you have not been vetted already? If you were deemed to be a security risk, I would not be standing here.”

Without waiting for an answer, he said,
“I’ll bid you goodbye. I don’t expect that we’ll meet again but I do hope that you can be of service to your country in the future.”

He turned around and headed back to his car. The Chauffeur opened the door to him. Then they were gone leaving Maxine totally gobsmacked by what had just happened.

Her first thoughts that who the hell was he to come barging into her life at a time like this?

---

The sheet of paper that Mr Blair had given her contained a full family history and her profile examination. It didn’t pull any punches but was totally accurate which irked Maxine all the more. In her view, only the Government or more accurately, one or more of the departments of ‘spooks’ could have gotten that sort of information.

The email from the local MP arrived as he’d promised. Maxine didn’t open it. In fact, she almost deleted it but eventually, she left it there unread for the rest of the day. Every time she read or replied to an email, the lure of that email grew larger but she resisted the temptation. It was hard but she managed it.

Maxine didn’t bother Adrian with the tale of the mysterious visitor. Cliff was right behind her in that respect. He’d found the story of the caller a bit far-fetched but they agreed to leave things until the morning and even more emphatic that Adrian was not to be informed.

---

The next morning, Maxine was tempted but didn’t open the email until after breakfast. It gave the contact details of the local MP and his schedule for yesterday and today.

The rest of the email contained the details of a company with a registered address in Leeds but who was operating out of an address in Slough. Their business was import/export. They were suspected of being a front for a criminal gang and the export part of the business was used to remove stolen property from the country. The man from the Ministry of Supply wanted to know if what they suspected was true.

Mr Blair was right and her interest was piqued but she still had huge doubts about how kosher the man was. The sheet of paper showing the results of her security vetting was impressive but any fool with a computer, a colour laser printer and a bit of software could have knocked one up in a few minutes.

Just before ten that morning, Maxine called her local MP at his parliamentary office. His secretary answered.

“My name is Maxine Forsythe. I was supposed to call the Member. I am a constituent of his.”

“He is? Thanks.”

She was put on hold while the call was connected to him. Maxine almost put the phone down but he came on the line before she could make the decision.

“That’s me.”
Maxine recognised his voice from the regular appearances on TV when he was a Minister.

“Yes, he did. That’s why I’m calling today. He told me what amounts to a very tall tale and offered…”

He interrupted her.

“Sorry. I do understand the need for confidentiality.”

She listened to what the MP had to say.

“Are you saying that he is genuine then?”

“I understand. I will think about what you said. Thank you.”

The line went dead. It was then that Maxine found that she was gripping her phone so tightly that her knuckles were white.

Maxine put the phone down on the table. It seemed that Mr Blair was what he said he was. Now it was up to her.

“You stupid woman. It isn’t just up to me!”

She went to see Adrian.

---

“Hello love, how are you doing?”

He managed a smile. It was clear that he was struggling badly. She knew then that he’d have to go to into the Hospice either later that day or tomorrow at the latest. He was just about beyond complaining now. It was sad to see him like this but it was as he described it too her all those months ago.

“I had a visitor yesterday. A man named Blair. No, it wasn’t Tony Blair but someone else…”

Maxine proceeded to tell Adrian the whole story including the outline of the work Mr Blair wanted her to do.

“He’s genuine.”

Adrian managed a smile.

She gripped his hand. He squeezed it.

“I’m going to do it. I can’t do much else at the moment.”

He squeezed her hand twice. He agreed with her decision.

Then she told him.

“It is time and I’m not having any arguments understand…”

He managed a weak smile and squeezed her hand twice.

---

The following morning Adrian said goodbye to his home for the last time. An Ambulance took him to the Hospice that was about 10 miles away in Crawley. Maxine followed in her car feeling sad that it was the end of an era. She knew that Adrian was fighting but it was not going to last much longer. Even though she knew it had to come it meant that her companion and friend and lover was not going to be with us much longer.

The people at the Hospice were very welcoming and started to make a fuss of Adrian. It was clear that he wasn’t impressed but that was Adrian through and through.

“Please don’t fuss over Adrian he’s not that sort of person,” she said to the team.

Two of them looked at her as if she was from a different planet.

“My husband is a man with simple demands. Make him happy and I’ll be happy.”

The team leader grasped what she was on about. They’d discussed Adrian’s little foibles when they arranged the bed and outlined his needs a month before.

“Just make him comfortable at the moment,” she said.
“Then we can settle him in later.”

Maxine stayed around until he was happily settled in his room.

“I’m going home now but I will be back tomorrow.”

Adrian squeezed Maxine’s hand just once.

“No?”

“The day after?”

Again, one squeeze of her hand.

“Ah, you want me to do that little research job?”

Two squeezes.

“Ok but two days and then I’m coming back.”

Maxine didn’t wait for an answer as she pulled her hand away.

As she left the room, she looked back and it was almost as if he was grinning.
[to be continued]