AA Lock, stock and barrel 2

Isabel. Entrepreneur and asset stripper.
Edward Thorpe Isabel’s father. Deceased.
Josephine Thorpe Isabel’s mother.
Lucinda Thorpe Isabel’s sister.
Abigail Thorpe Isabel’s 2nd sister
Veronica Thorpe Isabel’s 3rd sister
Jacqueline Thorp Isabel’s youngest sister
Marjorie Tansley Lawyer to Edward Thorpe
Shula Isabel’s bisexual female partner.

Josephine checked her appearance one last time in the hall mirror then closed and locked the front door as she left to visit The Drover’s Arms Hotel.

‘A daughter,’ she mused as she picked her way along the country lane as the rain persisted. ‘A transgendered daughter, no less!’

Multiple thoughts raced through her brain as she tried to imagine a female version of her son Digby.

‘Would she be tall?’ She asked herself. ‘After all he would most likely have gone through a male puberty; but then, she had absolutely no idea of what had happened to him after he had run away. Seventeen years without a word, not a whisper.

‘Would she resemble her other daughters like their father or would she resemble me? As Digby had done when as a child.’ So many questions so much to find.

“Oooh come on lights!” She fumed impatiently as she arrived at the main road where the traffic lights accorded priority to the major road.

Finally the much-anticipated green light invited her forward and it was but another five minutes before she was parking her car in the rear hotel carpark.
Moments later she peered nervously first into the lounge then into the public bar before finally locating the door under the stairs that led to the cosy little secluded ‘snug’ where a notice declared there to be a private function in progress. Cautiously, she stepped past the reception desk then peeped through the little courtesy window and recognised her oldest daughter Lucinda sitting in one of the wing-backed, cushioned leather chairs. Simultaneously Lucinda spotted her mother’s face through the little diamond panel of glass and she quickly smiled encouragement.

Still a bit unsure of her reception, Josephine opened the door slowly and peered around until she spotted an unfamiliar but somehow familiar face.

“Digby?” She hazarded a guess, though fairly certain it was him.

The tall, smartly suited woman stood up and stepped out of the other wingback chair then picked her way past her sisters with arms slightly extended. Not quite a widespread offer of an embrace for uncertainty was the watchword.

“Mummy?” The woman offered.

Lost a bit for words, Josephine simply stepped into the opened arms and forced herself into an embrace by wrapping her arms around the woman.

“What did you say your new name was?” She whispered guiltily. “I’m so beset, I forgot.”

“Isabel Mummy.” She whispered back as she reciprocated the hug.

The embrace continued as Josephine’s tears started to flow, so to give support to their mother, the four younger sisters formed a group hug around the pair. Eventually, Josephine recovered her composure and the questions started.

“So what’s your full name now?”

“Isabel; - Isabel Jane Thorpe. I kept the family name.”

“And a bloody good job she did or I would never have found her.” Marjorie declared.

Josephine paused to face Marjorie.

“So why did you go looking for her?”

“My father helped Edward write his will, but since my dad died, I’ve been the company solicitor.”

“When Mr Thorpe had his stroke, I opened the will in my capacity as both the family and company solicitor then I realised that there was scope for confusion and conflict. I also learned that Edward Thorpe did not have much time to live and if Digby had learned of his father’s death after the will had been executed, there was huge scope for contention and litigation.

After his stroke, I tried getting Edward to explain his wishes and be more explicit but the brain haemorrhage had taken away his speech and left him seriously confused. There is also a rider to the will that it wasn’t to be shown to the family until after his death. I was in a quandary and Edward was sinking fast. I didn’t have much time. I went to court and the judges agreed with me that the best solution was to try and find Digby Thorpe

Whether as Digby or Isabel, she’s still the firstborn child and the will clearly states first-born or oldest child. It does not say daughter or son.

Being as I knew that you and Edward had once had a son, I was bound by law to make every reasonable effort to locate him.”

“How did you find him; - or more correctly her?” Josephine pressed.

Marjorie turned to Isabel. “Can I tell her?”

“Be my guest. It doesn’t matter anymore.” Isabel shrugged.

So Marjorie weighed in.

“We were besties at school and Digby once admitted to me that he thought he might be gay. I told him he couldn’t be because he preferred girls company. I told him gays only like other gays but that confused him even more. He couldn’t understand how he was so effeminate but he liked girls. I’m afraid I was confused about it too., we were just kids back then.

We were trying to research gay stuff when his dad beat him up and he left home. I always thought his dad was cruel to do that.”

Marjorie paused then added.

“Oh! And I used ‘he’ because he was a boy then. I call her ‘she’ now.”

Isabel smiled and nodded softly to Marjorie.

“Thanks for that Marge, seriously, that’s nice.”

Marjorie continued explaining how she located Isabel.

“Well I started out searching gay sites but when I had no luck I went to the gay village in Manchester. That was a pure stroke of luck and there was an LGBT office down there who suggested that Isabel might not be gay.

They went on to explain about transvestism, then transgenderism and I had a sort of Epiphany. One of the staff knew of a transgender girl named Thorpe, who owned a bar in the village. They described her and gave me some background and I concluded that the drag queen on the posters outside the bar might well be her.

She was a busy girl though and somewhat reluctant to talk. Lots of transgender people are reluctant to describe their life journeys and Isabel was no exception. She didn’t trust me at first and when I finally arranged a meeting she had one of her doorkeepers attend the meeting.

She thought I was some sort of protectionist, mobster moll at first. Eventually I got through to her and explained about her father’s will.”

Marjorie turned to Isabel to check if it was okay to continue. Isabel nodded assent so the lawyer pressed on.

“At first, Isabel wasn’t interested. She still hadn’t forgiven her father and now she had a very successful enterprise in the gay village. I explained that it mattered not what Isabel felt, the will was quite explicit. Whether she liked it or not, the factory went to her after Edward died and there wasn’t much time.

That’s when I learned that Isabel also now had her fingers in a few other pies. She was the main shareholder in several small enterprises operated by her transgendered sisters in and around Manchester. They were not large businesses but they were relatively successful and above all, growing.

Isabel couldn’t just leave her interests in Manchester at the drop of a hat. She had to reorganise her appointments and by the time she was able to come up here, Edward her father had died. She explained that she would come up for the will reading then leave it to you four sisters to sort out any mess associated with the inheritance. I told her that it was more complex than that. Despite Edward owning the vast majority of the shares, there were other minor shareholders including Josephine and the bank going way back.

There would have to be a shareholder’s meeting even it was just to rubber-stamp your decisions.”

The room fell silent as the sisters tried to grasp the implications while Josephine turned to Isabel.

“What are you going to do?”

Isabel shrugged before replying.

“First thing first, I’ll have to check the accounts to see how healthy the business is.”

After a nervous pause the older sister Lucinda asked.

“Could you run the business; I mean if you’ve got places in Manchester and you understand accounts, you don’t have to be a welder to run the factory. The men do that.”

“It’s not off the table.” Isabel replied thoughtfully. “I’ll have to see the books and meet the work force. More importantly, I’ll need to have my father’s personal books to contact his customer base.”

“They’ll be either in his office at the factory or in his study at his apartment.” Lucinda replied.

Isabel turned to her mother Josephine.

“I suppose the old homestead’s gone then is it, since you two got divorced.”

“No.” Lucinda interrupted, “Mum still lives at the house with Veronica and Jackie.”

“Oh!” Isabel exclaimed. “I’d have thought that with the bad family memories, divorce and all that; you’d have sold it and moved on.”

“No. I like the house and I like the location,” Josephine replied, “and my family memories were not that bad until you and your father fell out.”

“Sorry,” Isabel replied in a flat tone that implied her disinterest and disconnection. “It was leave and stay sane or remain and die. I had no choice.”

“You’ve got choices now.” Abigail interjected. “The house is still there and there’s plenty of room. You can come back.”

“I don’t think so.” Isabel demurred, “I’ve got too much going on in Manchester, both with business and what little time I have for social life.”

“Are you telling us you’re like daddy?” Veronica asked. “All work, work, work and no play. No time ever for family; but then, I suppose you’ll never have a family.”

“Veronica!!” Josephine almost shrieked. “That was cruel!”

Isabel did not respond. For the time being she had no cause to reveal that she shared a life with a sympathetic bisexual partner who had born her two children before Isabel had transitioned. They lived in the same luxury apartment block in the centre of Manchester, next door to each other on the same floor.

The children, now of junior school age, lived happily alternating daily if not hourly between apartments. There had even been talk of conjoining the apartments until a building check revealed that a doorway between the apartments might have compromised the structure of the block and affected fire separation rules.

Isabel concluded there would be time enough to reveal her little family when she knew more about everybody’s feelings. Though so far she had been more than pleasantly surprised.

After discovering that their recently found sibling was truly a rare find who might even yet serve the sisters by keeping the business within the family and continuing to provide income; the mood in the room sweetened considerably.

For Josephine, the share-out from the will was immaterial. She had received her portion of the estate when she and Edward had divorced but nevertheless, Josephine was still relieved that there was now another option for her daughters. And it was an option that would serve to keep Josephine’s brood around her.

For the rest of the evening, the family transferred back to the old family home where they discussed various ideas about going forward.

Even if Isabel chose to remain in Manchester she would still have to attend at the factory if she were to take control and Josephine presumed that Isabel would at least call on her mother when she drove up for weekly or fortnightly meetings.

For Lucinda the oldest daughter, a load was lifted off her mind when she realised she would not have to shoulder the burden of running the factory or selling it and sharing the proceeds. She was married but her husband had shown no interest in the factory while her father Edward was alive. He worked for the administration in the local authority and had shown little ambition once he had a secure tenure.

The thought of sharing a decent dividend without having to do much to earn it, gave Lucinda a secure sense of satisfaction.

Abigail, the second natal daughter had just finished university and the annual dividend would serve to speedily repay back her university loan. Then she would be free to spread her wings.

The same liberties now became available to Veronica and Jacqueline who, while now at university, would live to enjoy their college years without fear of student poverty.

All in all, the family were happy.

The sisters decided to stay over at the family home that night for there was a lot to catch up although they were disappointed that Isabel had decided to overnight at her hotel room at the Drovers Public House.

“Waste not, want not,” Isabel declared. “The room is paid for and the breakfast is included. I’ll not waste it by cancelling. Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

The sisters and there mother watched with mild disappointment as Isabel dashed across the forecourt of their old family home and clambered into her car as the rain had returned with a vengeance.

“So, what do you make of her?”
Josephine asked almost rhetorically.

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