Once Vivienne had gotten over feeling so foolish, a silly old woman and a dozen other even more derogatory things she suddenly felt a little lost. This sort of thing was all new to her. Back in London, her life had been framed by routine. Walk Betty, go to work, come home, walk Betty and go to bed. Rinse and repeat every day with a slight variation at the weekend.

Standing there with nature alive all around her made her realise that she was very much out of her comfort zone.

Sure, she reasoned, she'd started the hunt for a new home but if she was brutally honest with herself, that part of her reasoning for this trip was pretty bogus. She… she just wanted to see if Jacques was in the least bit interested in her before she made a total fool of herself.

It had been a long time since she'd felt even remotely like this. An incident with Roger 'the Todger' Jones behind the bike sheds at school was the one. In that, she'd nearly lost her virginity to him. Roger was the serial 'virgin robber' of the school. He boasted that he'd conquered all but one of the girls in her year. That one was Vivienne. He'd been determined to 'complete the set' like his two elder brothers had done before him in previous years.

She'd only escaped being his final conquest when a parent appeared looking for their son's bicycle. Although she'd kept her virginity, he put it around that Vivienne Young as she was then, was a 'frigid bitch'. That ended up hurting her an awful lot more than if he'd succeeded in his quest.

Those were just the same feelings that she was experiencing right now.
Once again, the words of the old pop-song, 'We Gotta Get Out of this Place' [1] came into her mind.

She had to get away from the smallholding before she became too morbid.

---

The drizzle from earlier had just about stopped and the skies looked like they are clearing down on the coast. That bode well for the afternoon. After consulting the map, Vivienne drove down to the coast and parked near the hamlet of Hope. There, she put on her walking boots and walked part of the Coastal Path from 'Bolt Tail' to 'Bolt Head'. The weather was great but it was strange being without Betty at her side. The sheer number of Rabbits would have driven her late companion berserk but in a good way.

One of the things on her bucket list was to walk all 630 miles of it from Sandbanks to Minehead. For her 50th Birthday, she'd walked the part from Sandbanks to Portland Bill and all along Chesil Beach to West Bay in Dorset. That was about one-sixth of it. One of the advantages of moving down to this part of the world was that getting to parts of the path would be a lot easier than if she was living in London. It remained to be seen if she would ever complete the walk but she could chalk up a few more miles of the path and clear her head at the same time.

Feeling happier with life in general, Vivienne walked back to her car with the sun shining and in doing so, she began to see things in a different light. How true that vision was as yet unknown but she knew that she needed to expedite the sale of her house and move away from London even if it meant renting somewhere for a while.

---

Once she was back in her Hotel and over a most welcome cup of tea in the bar, she checked her emails. There was one from Gavin Thurston, the Estate Agent. He reported that he'd done two viewings of her home that day and that one of them wanted to return for a second viewing the following Wednesday afternoon if that time was convenient with her. she replied to him stating that it was.

There was another email from an address that she'd never seen before. It had only arrived a few minutes before she'd returned to the Hotel. She almost marked it as junk but something made her open it. After a few seconds, she was really glad that she had opened it.

"Dear Vivienne,
I am so sorry to have missed your visits to my home. I'm fine. I am away on business for the next few days. A neighbour of mine is looking after my plants and animals so you don't have to worry about them. She saw your car visit earlier today but was unable to get to you before you'd disappeared.

I heard through the grapevine that you are starting to look for houses. There is a property that might interest you that is not far from mine. It isn't listed with an agent yet but I'm sure that you and the owner could reach a deal if you put your minds to it. When I'm back home, I'll have a word with the owner so don't fret (that's such a lovely word isn't it?) about finding anywhere for the time being.

I had some free time today and please don't get angry with me, I twisted the arm of your estate agent and viewed your home. No, I'm not moving back to London but I wanted to see your home. Where people live and how their home is furnished and used says a lot about them. I was not disappointed at all. I didn't find any trace of Betty apart from some tins of dog food in the cupboard. Mr Thurston told me that she'd recently died. I'm am so sorry. You had a great understanding with her and she really liked me and got on with my flock. I hope that you get another dog when you are settled in my neck of the woods.

I also told Mr Thurston that the asking price was too low. He agreed with me so it might be a good idea to have a word with him upon your return to London.

I know that these few words leave you with more questions than they have answered but I'm sure that whatever they are can be answered easily when my business has concluded.

Jacques.

PS The email address that this came from is a throwaway one. I'll try to explain it all when we meet again."

Vivienne sat there feeling slightly dazed and confused. She read the email several more times and he was right… The problem was that the email asked many more questions than it had answered. There was only one person who could help answer them aside from Jacques and that was Maxine. After all, it was Maxine that had introduced them in the first place.

With some renewed determination, she picked up her phone and pulled out Maxine's number from her contacts list. She was about to make the call but she put the phone down. She had no idea what to say to her other than 'Jacques sent me an email…'.

Vivienne was also one of those people who liked to speak to people in person. She'd done many a deal with suspected Tax Evaders in the past by getting them and their lawyers in front of her and giving it to them straight. Settle or face jail time. We'd have all the paperwork in place to send to the CPS all done and in plain sight on the table in front of us. Invariably, they'd cave in and settle up there and then. Only twice did the lawyer call the HMRC's bluff and want to look at the paperwork. Once they'd seen that it was for real they got their client to cave in. Vivienne was a creature of habit so she needed to speak to Maxine in person.

Instead of calling Maxine and despite feeling like a bit of a wimp, she sent a text asking for a meeting the next day. Maxine replied an interminable hour later, agreeing to a meeting at 4 pm at a Coffee Shop just off 'The Strand'. Vivienne knew from the days that she'd spent with Maxine, that she didn't come into the city very often. Vivienne assumed that she had some business in London and that it would be concluded by then. Feeling a lot better she replied agreeing to the meeting.

After getting changed, Vivienne went down to dinner. On the way, she informed the Hotel that she would be leaving the next morning. They asked if there was anything wrong with her room or the hotel. Vivienne just replied,

"My business here has concluded for the time being and I must be back in London for a business meeting tomorrow afternoon."

---

Vivienne's trip back to London was ok, if you count being held up at Stonehenge due to the sheer volume of traffic on the road as being ok, then… Even with them and the inevitable queues on the M25 and A40, she made it home just before 2 pm. After putting her car onto charge, she made herself a cheese and ham sandwich washed down with a cup of tea. Then she sat in the kitchen trying to gather her thoughts and exactly what questions she was going to ask Maxine in just a couple of hours.

Vivienne found the silence of her home was deafening. One part of her mind was always listening for Betty. That confirmed to her that the sooner she was gone from the place the better, the sooner she could leave the ghost of Betty behind, the sooner she could start life again.

She knew that the meeting with Maxine wasn't going to be easy. Vivienne didn't want to put Maxine on the spot with regards to her relationship with Jacques. She'd seen far too many friendships break up over men. Even though Maxine was a new friend, and about half her age, she was far more worldly-wise than almost anyone she knew that was twice Maxine's age.

As she got herself ready to go out once again, she wondered if she'd fall back into the habits of almost a lifetime of working for the HMRC. There, using direct and unambiguous questions had been part of her job for so long that it was hard to be subtle and nice and just plain chatty with friends. She resolved to try her best to play it cool with her but knowing how Maxine could read people she didn't have any great hope of it lasting very long at all.

At five to four that afternoon, Vivienne walked out of Trafalgar Square exit of Charing Cross Tube station and began to walk eastwards along the north side of 'The Strand'. Vivienne's mind was more concerned with what questions she was going to ask Maxine than where she was going. As she passed the entrance to one building, someone emerged from it and right into her path. Vivienne felt a bit indignant until she realised exactly who it was.

"Jacques? What..?"

[to be continued]

[Authors Note]
Yes, I know that this is a very short chapter but… as I was writing it, I decided to change who Vivienne was going to meet but she didn't know it until it was about to happen. When a cliff-hanger comes and bites you where it hurts… you gotta let it happen. {that's my excuse anyway}

Because of the shortness of this chapter, Part 13 will be posted on Monday.

[1] We Gotta Get Out of this Place:
This was a song by the British Pop (more blues than Pop) group, 'The Animals'.