I was now adjusting more and more to life as a girl and was accepted by everybody at work and in my social life as Jo. It was now time to meet with my sister to make sure about what her plans were before I got deeper and deeper into living and working as Jo.

‘Hi Josie, can we meet up for a chat, there are a few things we need to agree on.”

“ I can’t talk at the moment, I will call you back later.” she replied, obviously within earshot of someone she did not want to overhear our conversation.

When she eventually rang back I sensed that something was wrong. she was not the lively bubbly person that I had last spoken to .

"Are you alright, you sound a bit on edge? What happened to all the wonderful excitement of your new life with Jack, you haven’t had a row have you?”.”

"I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Josie, as I said before, can we meet up I need to have a talk with you?”

"It’s a bit difficult, can we not just chat on the phone.”

"You have me worried now, no, we really must meet. To save problems about us being seen together, we need to meet away from here and from the sound of it away from Jack and his folks.”

"I can’t do today or tomorrow, but the following day is fine, find a place about halfway between us and text me the details.”

I wanted to make an impact impression on Josie and so took extra time and care getting myself ready to meet her. The previous night I had washed and conditioned my, hair, blow dried it almost dry and put it up in rollers the same way that Susie had, put on a toning face mask while I was doing my nails, and used waxing strips to clean up the odd hairs on my legs and arms.

I wanted to look smart casual but feminine so I brushed out my hair into soft waves, with a barrette high at the back to hold the top in place, but just left the sides hanging loose, and applied my make up very subtly, not too over the top. I quickly dressed in a lilac floral summer skirt and plain white Broderie Anglaise gypsy top and white sandals with a slight wedge sole, and was ready to present myself for the first time as Jo to my sister.

I walked into the hotel where we had arranged to meet and saw Josie already there sitting at a corner table. She looked up in surprise when I walked over to her table and sat down opposite her and was silent for a while as she took it all in and had to catch her breath.

"OMG, look at you Jo, apart from the hair style it is almost like looking in a mirror. Actually I really like your hair like that, I might get mine done the same. Susie told me that she had done a good job on you, but I never imagined that you would look so convincing.”

"Just stop gabbling and calm down Josie, let me order some drinks and then we need to have a proper talk.”

I called over a waiter and ordered a white wine spritzer for me and a diet cola for Josie, she had been advised that although she was only in the early stages of her pregnancy that alcohol should be avoided.

"There are some things I need to talk to you about, but first, tell me what is wrong, you seemed so tense on the phone the other day. Are you having second thoughts about Jack?”

"No, definitely not, Jack is fine, in fact better than fine, he is amazing. It’s his folks that are the problem, particularly his mother, she is so controlling and dominating. She wants to know everything I am doing and where I am going, and even has someone following me most of the time, for my security they say. I only managed to get away to see you today by telling them that I had an appointment with my obstetrician about the baby.”

"Is there anything I can do to help?”

"Now I have seen you, I think there might be. I need a bit of breathing space while I sort out what I want to do about his parents. I can arrange to spend a few days with Ellie, one of the gang from university, if you can cover for me. I will tell Jack and his folks that I need to come back home to sort out a few things with you about the house and get some of my stuff. If we can get our hair done in similar styles anyone following me would not be able to easily tell the difference between us. Can you do that for me please?”

“Of course, I will do anything I can to help you. However there could be a problem. I am getting on well at work, and as part of my job I am posting a vlog every week updating people about what is going on on site. It tends to be mainly local viewers but this could turn into a major discovery and I will be more high profile. We need to get a story together in case anyone spots that there are two identical Josephine Johnsons living totally separate lives.”

"Hmm, let me have a think about that. Now tell me all about how Susie turned you into the spitting image of me, how you have adjusted to your new life as a girl, and about this job of yours that should have been mine.”

I gave her all the details of Susie transforming and coaching me, meeting up and becoming friends with Karen and Jen, all the activity at the museum and the dig site and the people involved, including my sorting out the vlog and website updates with Darren.

"Are you comfortable with all this, Jo seems to be taking you over.”

"At first I was embarrassed and a bit awkward, convinced that I would soon be discovered, but the longer it goes on the more at ease I am, and I just get on with things and don’t even think about it too much.”

"Wow, you have been a busy girl haven’t you, tell me more about Darren, he sounds a lot more interesting than the the dig.”

"What is it with all you girls, Karen, Jen, Laura and now you, are all trying to get me paired of with him, don’t forget who I really am."

"Come off it Jo, you are stunning, you look and act as a girl, and you even talk like one now, just accept what you now are, at least for the next few years, and enjoy it all. There are not many boys who get the opportunity that you have to experience life on the fair side.”

‘Keep your voice down Josie, someone might hear you.”

“I’ve been thinking Jo. Everyone has been told that Joey is away seeing the world for a while so I will tell Jack and his family that he has asked his cousin to house sit for him while he and I are away and that she is working on the archaeological project. Mum is a twin and I can tell Jack and his folks that you are Auntie Jane’s daughter, who also happens to be called Josephine, a traditional name in our wider family. That way there will be no problems when you meet the family, or if they do come across your vlog.”

"“This is getting confusing, there are too many of us called Jo, you Josie, me Joey, me Josephine or Jo, and now cousin Jo.

"That’s the whole point, we will never use the wrong name by mistake, but it might help if you keep using the name ‘Jo’ on your vlog, that way it differentiates between us a bit more.”

"Ok, that might work, and will not be a problem.”

"Right, change of subject Jo. Assuming I can sort out how to get myself out of the control clutches of Jack’s parents, we want to arrange a wedding date, and it will be soon, before the baby shows too much. I was going to ask you as Joey to escort me down the aisle with Dad to give me away, but I suppose that I will now have to ask you as Jo to be my Chief Bridesmaid, are you up for it?”

"Does that mean that Dad and Mum will be coming over for the wedding and for Dad to give you away? They will have to know about what I am doing and agree to go along with it.”

"Mum will not be a problem, she always thought that we looked so alike anyway and sometimes found it hard to tell which one of us was which. Dad will go along with whatever Mum tells him.”

"Ok let’s sort out how we are going to cover for those few days when you want to escape to get your thoughts together about his parents.

That was soon all agreed for the next weekend, so there would be no problem with anyone following me spotting me going into work. As we were leaving she gave me a big hug and kiss, looked me in the eyes and gave me a gentle warning, "Take care Sis, you have to be much more aware of people around you, particularly men, you are much more vulnerable as Jo than you were as Joey.”

I had just arrived home and was going to get changed when Maggie came over and knocked on the door.

"Hi Jo, are you doing anything special at the moment or can you spare a bit of time.”

Although I just wanted to relax for a while, I didn’t want to turn her down. "No I’m ok Maggie, how can I help?”

"As it is such a nice day, I invited a few friends around and we are sitting in the back garden having some snacks and a natter. Would you like to join us?”

"Will I not be in the way, after all they are all your friends and I wouldn’t want to intrude?s”

"Actually, and please do not take this the wrong way, I do have an ulterior motive. As a group we often go out for the day together to visit historic sites, National Trust Houses, English Heritage sites and ruins, and things like that. Most of us have seen your vlog and are really interested and have started following you. It would be wonderful if they could meet you, and you could maybe tell us a little bit more about what is going on. I hope you can come over because I have to admit that I have exaggerated how friendly we are, and have told them that we often get together for a chat, it is nice to be able to say you know somebody a bit famous. I’m sorry for that.”

“Don’t worry about that Maggie, we all tend to blow our own trumpet occasionally. Just give me a couple of minutes and I will be over. Now, do not blow up how important you think I am, I am just a small cog in the wheel, I am not the world’s expert.”

I freshened up, brushed my hair, re-applied my lipstick and made my way over to Maggie’s. I was surprised to find that the ‘few friends’ actually meant a group of eight sitting on garden lounger chairs around a weathered oak table, plus a couple of their husbands, who were probably acting as the drivers, and were standing apart from the main group further down the garden.

Maggie quickly did the introductions. I was surprised at the mix of people from Jane and Emma who were in their early thirties through to Elizabeth and Mary who were well into their seventies.

"From what you have said on your vlog, it is going to take a while before you find anything really exciting, am I right?” Emma started the conversation with the openness and enthusiasm of youth, most of the others were being more reserved and polite.

"You’re right, when you watch ‘Time Team’ or similar programmes on TV, they seem to instantly find what they are looking for, but it is not very often like that, there is usually a lot of boring hard work getting down to the historic levels before we can start getting excited.”

"Tell us more about Ostia Septentrionalis, please, I have lived here all my life and have never heard of it?” Maggie took back control of her groups questions.

The conversation kept on about the dig, my role, and how I had got the job, for the next two hours until it was time for some of them to leave, all of them being really grateful for the time I had spent with them and the things I had described and soon there were only Emma and Jane left with Maggie and me, they had deliberately hung back to talk to me.

“On ‘Time Team’ and suchlike, they usually have some volunteers in addition to the professionals and the usual teams of students working on the digs as part of their courses. Do you need any more up at Ostia Septentrionalis? Emma and I would be interested if you do.We both studied history at Uni, mainly medieval and later, rather than Roman, but we did a bit on it and we also worked on a dig as part of an investigative project at a 16th century manor house ruin”

.”How much time do you have to spare?”

"The company we were working for closed down their plant in this area and we were made redundant with quite a decent payout. At the moment we are having a bit of a sabbatical, so really we have a lot of free time. it will be good to get back into doing something useful and interesting.”

"Oh, thanks Jane, that is not really my responsibility but I can ask the right people for you, I’m sure that they will welcome your help. I must warn you that as volunteers you will get a lot of the boring jobs, but at least you will be able to see what is happening. Give me your phone numbers and I will let you know.”

We all said our goodbyes and went home. I had enjoyed my time with them all, but I was glad to get back, close the door, and just sit and relax and think about Josie and her problems.

“Hi Susie, can we meet for a drink or a coffee or something, I need to sort something out and you could be a big help.”

"Glad to help of course. Meet me at the pub near to the salon tomorrow after work, say 6:00, is that ok”

At the site the next morning I asked Jake, the dig team leader, about Emma and Jane’s offers of volunteering at the site.”

"Glad to have them on the team, the more we have the sooner we can get down to the interesting stuff. With the experience they already have, if they want, I can take them on as paid staff, rather than just as volunteers, they could probably supervise some of the raw students we have here. The money is not very good but at least it will be something.”

“Thanks Jake, I’ll let them know and see when they can start.”

“Hi Emma, good news, you are on the team. Even better news, if you want you can get paid for it, not much but at least it will keep you in food and drink. Because you have done this sort of thing before, you will not be starting right at the bottom of the pile, you will actually be looking after other volunteers and the untrained students doing the donkey work.”

“That’s brilliant, when do we start?”

“Tomorrow if you want. Can you make your own way to site or do you want me to pick you up?”

"Just for tomorrow, until we know where we are and what we are doing, can you pick us up, after that we can look after ourselves. Thank you so much, I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll let Jane know what is happening.”

After work I drove into town to meet Susie at the salon.

"If I’d known that you would be coming in your jeans and tee-shirt that you have been wearing on site all day, I would have suggested meeting somewhere further from the salon, being out with a scruff is not good for my professional image.” she joked as she gave me a welcome hug."Now, what is your problem and how can I help?”

I told her about Josie's problems with Jack’s mother and how I had offered to take her place while she had a bit of a break.

"The main problem is our different hairstyles, one or both of us is going to have to change so that I can easily be mistaken for her.”

“Have you got any recent photos of her that I can look at to consider what can be done.”

I pulled up some photos on my phone that I had taken when we had met and Susie spent a few minutes looking through them and over at me.

"Luckily Josie’s hair is not too long, just touching her shoulders but it is a few inches longer than yours. Either she needs to get hers trimmed a bit, which she will probably not want to do as she will want it as long as possible for the wedding, or we give you some extensions. They are expensive but you only really need them at the back, your hair on top and at the sides is not really noticeably shorter. If I slightly restyle both of you, I reckon most people will not be able to tell the difference.”

"Can you talk it through with her and tell her exactly what she has to do, and when she sends a photo of the finished style you can do the same for me.”

After a long chat between them, Susie handed me back my phone and told me that it was all sorted and that If I went to the salon after work on Friday, she would copy Josie’s new style onto me.

We stayed and chatted for a while for me to update Susie on what I had been doing, she had not seen the vlog, but promised to start following me.

"What about how you are settling in as Jo? Looking at you and listening to you now, it is like you have always been a girl, there are not many traces of Joey left.”

"When we started this, i decided that I was going to have to do this properly 24/7. all Joey’s stuff is packed away, I am totally immersed in Jo, even in the house I dress and act as Jo. I have friends neighbours and work colleagues who only know me as Jo. In my mind Joey is somewhere in South America at the moment. When you first started on me I was embarrassed and worried, but now I am quite comfortable as I now am and just get on with my life as Jo.”

"That’s good that you are not feeling awkward, but don’t forget who you are.”

The next morning I picked up Emma and Jane, drove them to the site, took their photos to add to the list of people on the vlog, left them to be given their tasks by Jake, and went back to the museum to update everything and prepare a report on progress for Jacqui. At the end of the afternoon when I returned to site to take them home they were still fired up by their day at the dig, and insisted on stopping off for a drink on the way home as a thank you to me.

I was finding that I was relaxed in the company of women and seemed to fit in with them and their interests. Other than Darren, who I was still casually dating with, all my friends were now women and they just accepted me as Jo and as far as they were concerned I was just another girl. At Uni, I had often been out as the only male with Josie and her friends and was made welcome in their company, but this was different now. Not only was I totally included in their conversations, but was now an active equal with them and was chatting away as easily as they did.

On Friday afternoon the way home I stopped off at the salon for Susie to work her magic.

"Josie sent me some photos after her visit to the hairdressers yesterday. She only had a light trim, and set but it was enough to let me do your hair in the same style without all the bother and expense of extensions, and last time I tinted your hair to match hers, so we should not be too long doing this.” Unfortunately Susie’s definition of ‘not too long’ and mine were totally different. She cut set and styled my hair, and completely changed my makeup style to match Josie’s, as she was a lot heavier with the eyeliner, shadow and mascara than I was in my day-to-day work image. Three hours later we were ready to leave .

"We can’t just waste the last three hours Jo, it’s too late to go home and prepare a meal, do you fancy stopping off for something to eat?”

"That sounds good to me, but it is my treat as a thank you for what you have done for me. However I am still in my work clothes. jeans and casual top, i am not really dressed to go anyway.”

"Attagirl Jo, you are now really becoming one of us, worrying about how you are dressed. Don’t worry, we still have your uniform outfit in the cupboard, it is a bit plain and characterless, but at least it is clean and tidy. Go and get changed.”

We stopped off at a local fish restaurant and enjoyed a smoked salmon starter, followed by Sea Bass and seasonal veg, and a Cranachan dessert, all very healthy other than the indulgence of the cream in the dessert. Susie was extremely good company and as we left she insisted that she would like to meet up with Josie sometime to talk about everything we were doing.

"As you know, tomorrow, i am going trade places with Josie. We are going to meet in a motorway service station, go to the rest room and exchange clothes and swap identities in case she is being followed, come with me if you want to, it might even help to look like it is a chance meeting.”

“Sounds like fun, I need to go into the salon first thing to sort a few things out but after that I would love to join you, it all seems very undercover, a bit like a spy drama.”

Josie had given me a list of clothes, accessories and beauty products that she felt she needed as she had only taken enough for a couple of weeks trip up country. Now that she was living at Jack’s she needed a lot more of her stuff and when I got home I spent an hour or so sorting through her things and packing a suitcase for her.

I was looking forward to seeing her again and went to bed eagerly anticipating our little adventure trying to get her out of the clutches of Jack’s family.

To be continued.