Vivienne spoke at length on the phone with her lawyer, Verity May later that day. After some discussion of the downsides to the plan to change their names, Verity agreed with what Jacques had outlined. Their previously planned meeting for Monday was still going to take place but at her offices. That way, anyone watching her offices will see nothing out of the ordinary other than a client visiting their lawyer. Verity called it ‘scheming in plain sight’.

Verity had promised to have all the documents that Vivienne had requested ready for their signatures apart from a few missing details that would be filled in on the day.

That afternoon, Jacques and Vivienne went into Plymouth to do some grocery shopping. At the supermarket, the used a machine that produced Passport Photos while you wait. Those would be needed for the meeting in London for their new documentation.

Once their shopping was done, they went to the local Apple Store. There, they bought a replacement laptop for Vivienne as hers had somehow damaged its screen during the move to Devon. They also took the chance to use one of the demonstration computers to search for cars and also a place to sell Vivienne’s current vehicle.

“Can we be in London or close by so we can park the car and then at Verity’s by ten?” asked Vivienne after searching for places to sell her car on the spot. One of them in West London had a slot at 15:00 on the following Monday.
“We need to get everything done with Verity, and back to the car and have enough time to get to the car-buying site.”

“It should be doable if we park at Richmond. Once you have sold your car, we can get a cab to the dealers and drive off in your new car,” replied Jacques.

Vivienne had seen a car that was the same make, model and colour as Maxine’s.
“It should not need any work doing to it. The advert says that it has only done three thousand miles. It was probably the demonstrator for last years model,” commented Jacques.

“Do you like the colour?”

“What is it called again?”

“Caesium Blue. There is just something about that colour that makes me want to smile,” replied Vivienne.

“Then why not give them a call?”

Vivienne went outside to make the call to the dealers in West London.

She found the salesman a bit stiffy when she told him that the car was for her. Vivienne countered by saying that a close friend of hers drove one and she was a woman. Eventually, the dealer agreed to put a 'hold' on the car until the close of business on Monday. They also agreed to have it ready to drive away. They could apply for a road fund license online at the dealers. All that remained was for Vivienne to arrange insurance.

"All done. We have until 5 pm on Monday to either buy or pass on the car."

“Insurance?”

“I’ll need to arrange temporary cover from my current company.”

Jacques smiled.
“What are you waiting for? The car won’t be finished charging for another twenty minutes.”

Vivienne looked at the charging app display on her phone. Jacques was telling the truth so she went off to call here insurers. That took longer than she’d hoped. Because she was moving out of London, getting a much more powerful car and adding Jacques to the list of drivers, she needed a complete requote. She got a bit of a shock when she was told the price. It was more than double the cost of her current policy. She bit her teeth and said ok but not to put anything in place until she called them. They understood the situation which pleased her.

The last call she made was to the place that was hopefully going to buy her car. She booked it in for 3:00 pm on Monday. Their office was only two miles away from the car dealership so getting there would be easy.

“All done,” she said when she returned to the car.
Jacques was sitting with his eyes closed. He didn’t move.

Vivienne gently laughed but then felt a bit sorry for him. He was fast asleep. It was clear that he’d stayed up late the other night reading more of her diaries that he’d admitted.

As quietly as she could, she disconnected the charger and got into the driver’s seat.
Thankfully, as the car was electric, it was virtually silent until she put it into reverse. Then the reversing bleep started to sound. Vivienne froze for half a second but Jacques hadn’t moved. Then she saw that he’d put his seatbelt on. She could not remember if it was on when she’d returned to the car or not.

She shrugged her shoulders and drove out of the car park.

“I was just resting my eyes,” came a voice from her left.

“Really?”
“Could have fooled me?”

Jacques just grunted and kept his eyes closed. Vivienne did detect a slight smile appear on his face.

Once again, she said thank you to Maxine for introducing her to this marvellous man. That meeting had changed her life in so many ways and apart from her daughters, they were all positive.

---

[Monday Morning]
“Are they open yet? It isn’t six by the clock on the dash?” asked Jacques.

Vivienne had just pulled into an ‘American Diner’ on the A303 east of Honiton. She was connecting the charger up to her car. Both of them were ready for some breakfast.

“Why don’t you go and take a look? I need to figure out how to use this charger.”

Jacques wandered off towards the diner leaving Vivienne wafting her credit card over the reader on the charger.

A minute later Vivienne joined him.
“It was so simple. Just plug in, swipe my contactless card and press start.”

“Good. They have just opened. Shall we go in?”

“Please. I could do with a cuppa or two.”

Over breakfast, Vivienne asked Jacques about the notes and sketches he’d made the other night.

“Just some doodles. We can think about them when we get your daughters off your back.”

“Come on darling, can’t you give me a hint or three?”

“No, I can’t!” said Jacques being firm with her for once.”

“Ohhhh. I like it when you get all like that,” joked Vivienne.

---

“Hello Verity, this is Jacques,” said Vivienne as they were shown into her office.

Vivienne could see Verity size up Jacques and possibly mentally undress him.

Verity smiled and shook his hand. Vivienne breathed a mental sigh of relief. Verity’s expression told her that she approved of Jacques.

“Please take a seat. I have everything ready as I can.”

With them seated, Verity became all ‘lawyery’.

“Why don’t we start with names? Vivienne?”

“Delphine… Delphine Dubois,” replied Vivienne hesitantly.
“One of my Grandmothers was called Delphine. She came to England after WW2 with her husband who’d been shot down in early 1944. Her family hid him until they were liberated.”

“You never said that you were part French?” exclaimed Jacques.

"My Grandfather, who was the one-shot down, was her second husband. Her first husband was killed in June 1940. My mother was very young when that happened and could never remember him.” [1]

Vivienne filled in some details on her computer screen. The printer at the side of her desk burst into life. Five sheets of paper came out. Verity stapled them together and turned her attention to Jacques.

“Jacques?”

“Michel La Fontaine. It was my great, great grandfathers name,” said Jacques.

Once a similar number of sheets had been printed, Verity called for two people to witness the signatures.

It was all so simple. Two minutes later, their names were changed. No more Vivienne, no more Jacques.

“Right,” said Verity.
“Now for the passports. I’ve filled in everything apart from your new names and your signatures. Your old ones please, and the photos.”

With the forms signed, Verity put them into separate envelopes along with their existing passports.
“I’ll put cheques for payment in later. Now for the driving licenses.”

Ten minutes later, they were done.
Verity put the remaining copies of the ‘Deed Poll’ that documented their change of names into another envelope and handed it to Delphine.

“I’ll pay the Mail Diversion online. They’ll send a verification copy to your old address.”

“That’s fine. I left your address as my contact for mail.”

“And I’ll forward that to you as we agreed.”

"Thanks, Verity," said Delphine.

“I think that there is something else? There is isn’t there?”

“You could always read me,” said Delphine.

“So?”

“It is my daughters.”

“Now why didn’t I think of that?”
Verity facepalmed herself.

All three of them laughed. Verity recovered first.

“What can I do to help?”

“They hired a P.I. to spy on us. We…”
Delphine looked at Michel who smiled.

“We want to do the same to them. Find out exactly how deep in the mire they are. You know the sort of thing?”

“Going on the offensive I see?”

“It can’t hurt provided that the Investigator can’t be traced back to you?”

Verity grinned.
“Not a problem. We have a law firm in Bristol that we use for work like this. They don’t come cheap though?”

Delphine smiled.
“I’ll transfer some more money to your bank today.”

"Thanks, Viv… Delphine.”
She sighed.
“It will take some time to stop calling you Vivienne after what is it? Fifty years?”

“Fifty-one years and eight months or thereabouts.”

Delphine stood up. Michel followed. Their business was done.

“Don’t be a stranger when this is all over,” said Delphine to Verity as they hugged each other.
“We won’t. Jerry does not need much of an excuse to get out of London.”

“I’ll keep you to that promise.”

---

As they waited for the next District Line, train to Richmond, Delphine took Michel’s hand in hers.

"Hello, Michel. It is nice to meet you."

"Hello, Delphine. You do seem to remind me of someone? I think her name was Vivienne?"

“Vivienne? I don’t think I know anyone of that name?”

They hugged each other laughing.

When they broke apart, Delphine said,
“Thank you, Maxine. Thank you, for rescuing me. Thank you for introducing me to a wonderful man, a wonderful Frenchman named Michel,”

Then she whispered into his ear,
“If I was not wearing knickers you could have me right now,”

“Right here?”

“Yes, right here!”

Their moment of joy was spoilt by the arrival of a train with the word “Richmond” on the front.

---

[one and a half hours later]
“I’ve come to see this car,” said Delphine.

She showed the salesman a picture of the car on her phone.

“I’m afraid that is being held for someone,” said the man.

“Yes. That’s me. If you were to call the number that the caller gave then it will ring here.”

“Oh?”

“Can we see the car?”

“Oh yes, please come this way.”

Both of them gave the car a real thorough going over.

“Why is it for sale? These have not been on sale for very long?” asked Delphine.

“It was our demonstrator and is the 2019 Model. We have a 2020 model arriving next week.”

“Ok. It looks good. A friend of mine has one just like this and I liked it. Can I take it for a test drive?”

The salesman looked at Michel.

“I’m more of an old-style ‘Defender’ sort of person,” he replied guessing that the salesman was expecting it to be the man who would be buying the car.

“It is ready to go? Importantly, is the battery fully charged?”

“Yes. Our service people gave it the once over earlier and we cleaned it as well. The battery is almost fully charged. As you can see it is charging now.”

“Good. Can we do a short test drive? Just down the A4 for a bit would be fine.”

"That is possible. Don't you have a car to trade-in?"

“Oh no. I sold it just before we came here.”

“We could have given you a good price if it was any good.”

“That might be true but I had my reasons to want to do it this way,” said Delphine in a way that told the salesman that she was very clear in what she wanted and that no amount of sales flim-flam would shift her position.

[after the short test drive]

“That was fine," said Delphine. “I’ll take it.”

“Don’t you want to quibble over the price?” asked the salesman.

“Not really. I want to just do the paperwork, pay the money, get it insured and go. We have a long drive ahead of us.”

“Oh? Where too?” asked the salesman.

“Lampeter. That’s in West Wales, to the south of Aberystwyth. The capability to go off-road will be perfect for when we move into our new home. It is a little remote and the track up to it is not exactly flat.”

“Oh. I’ll get started on the paperwork.”

[Thirty minutes later]

“Ok, thanks. The cover starts from now?” said Delphine into her phone.

“That’s good. If you send me the new policy document by email I’ll pay the difference by bank transfer tomorrow.”

“Thanks. That’s all I need at the moment.”

Delphine hung up the call.
“That’s it darling, we are good to go. The car is insured for me to drive so is there no reason to hang around?”

“I don’t think so,” said Michel.

“Lets’ go then?”

"Yes, boss!"

---

“Glad to be back?” asked Michel as Delphine parked the new car next to his decidedly tatty Land Rover.

“Yes. London is just so noisy when you compare it to here. Smelly as well.”

“That’s why I love it here so much. What about you?”

“It is growing on me like you are,” said Delphine with a devilish grin on her face.

“About that?”

“Yes?”

“That bit of you that isn’t growing… It has gone as far as it can at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

"The edges of your corset… they meet. Your waist is getting too small for it. I noticed it this morning.”

Vivienne who had just put the kettle on came and sat on Michel’s lap.

"Do you like it?"

He didn’t answer right away.

“At first, I didn’t.”

“But you have grown to like the new me?”

“I have but… Are you sure that you want to go smaller?”

“I do but not much. I want to look good and curvy for you. Finding that cutting again has given me some direction. It is something that I can only do myself. Yes, you lace me up every day but the rest is down to me and me alone. Can you understand that?”

“Your little demon?”

“One of them. There are at least two sitting on my shoulders.”

Michel laughed.

“Where do I sit? Which shoulder?”

It was Delphine’s turn to laugh.
“Neither. You sit right in my heart and…”

She looked down.

"Have you turned into a sex-mad nympho?"

“Maybe but we both have a lot of time to catch up for, don’t we?”

“We both do but we have to get over a few hurdles, first don’t we?”

“Then get our love nest finished as well?”

“Yes, there is that of course.”

---

[later in bed]

“You haven’t really commented on my new little toy?” asked Delphine.

“Your car?”

“I’m thinking of calling her Vixen.”

Michel laughed.
“Not ‘Big Toy’”

Delphine hit Michel on the arm.

"What did you honestly think about her?"

“I’m just wondering how long it will be before you get your first speeding ticket.”

“I really do not know what you mean?”

“Pah. I suppose that you didn’t see three figures come up on the speedo near as we passed near the Thruxton Motor Racing Circuit on the A303 then?”

"Well… I had to see what she could do, didn't I? It was effortless wasn’t it?”

“Your face all the way home was one big smile. I guess if it makes you happy then that’s fine by me.”

“Don’t worry darling, once the Insurance is paid up you can drive it. I’m itching to try your Land Rover out.”

“Not in those heels you won’t.”

“Spoilsport!”

Delphine snuggled down in the bed feeling so happy that Michel was right next to her.

[to be continued]
[1] The story of Vivienne’s Grandfather in WW2 will be told in a forthcoming story.