[Birmingham International Airport Railway Station]
"Sorry, I'm a bit late. My mother called while I was getting ready to leave and… well, she just would not stop talking,” said Maxine.

Michel laughed as he got into her car.
“I’m glad mine is several thousand miles away.”

“Lucky you,” said Maxine as she drove away from the Station.
“Don’t get me wrong Michel, I love my Mum but there are times when she just won’t shut up.”

Michel laughed.
“That’s what my daughter tells me. The thing is that I’m usually done on the phone in just a few minutes but Delphine spends literally hours on the phone to her.”

Maxine giggled as she negotiated the next roundabout.
“Michel… Men talk, women gossip. Two entirely different things.”

“Will we get there on time,” asked Michel as he changed the subject.

“We’ll get there for three no problem.”

“That’s good. How long do you think that we’ll be there for?”

“If everything is as they say it is, then we should be on the road again in an hour or ninety minutes at most.”

“How long will it take to get home?”

“Missing Delphine already?”

"No, it is not that. Delphine had to go to the dentist this afternoon. She broke a crown last night when she fell off the pole. That’s why she’s not with me.”

Maxine tried hard to resist laughing but failed.

“It was funny for a while. It is not the first time and won’t be the last but boy, has it done wonders for her suppleness. Those yoga freaks can eat their heart out besides, having someone pole dancing just for you in your own home is wonderful entertainment.”

Maxine could read between the lines at what he meant.

“We’ll need to stop to charge the car on our way south. I was thinking about stopping at a pub on the edge of Bristol. We can get something to eat while the car charges. Forty minutes will see us have enough charge to get back to South Devon.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

“Are you clear on your role today?”

Michel grinned.
If anyone has asked him even a year ago if there would be two very strong women in his life then he would have laughed them out of court. Delphine and Maxine were unlike any women he’d ever encountered. He wasn’t sure if he could handle another one permanently.

"I am your business associate. If he starts talking to me rather than you, I am to correct him."

"Great. Don't forget that if you have something to say, then say it. We are equal partners in this little venture despite the dog and pony show that we are going to put on today.”

Michel raised an eyebrow. There was no doubt that Maxine was in charge, but he knew that his home needed the sort of solution that they were going to look at that afternoon and had been putting it off for far too long. It had taken the arrival of Delphine into his life to make fixing the problem an imperative. Maxine had offered a solution that would have been overkill for him alone, but it was what Delphine deserved.

"I am. This could be fun!"

Maxine just laughed. It had been a while since she’d been ‘two handed’ on a job. She hoped that her nerves would not get the better of her over the next two hours.

---

“Here we are. J.T. Brown, Engineering,” said Maxine as she drove her car into the car park of the company HQ in Sutton Coldfield.

They’d hardly come to a stop when a man in what looked like his mid 30’s emerged.

“Maxine Forsythe? I’m Ray Symonds, the Sales Manager for Plant Services," he asked.

“That’s me. This is my business associate Michel La Fontaine.”

"Pleased to meet you both. We are expecting you. If you would follow me, then I can show you the units. I have to say that it is most unusual to have potential customers that are not in the construction industry."

Maxine looked at Michel, who grinned.

“We might well be the first of many such customers in the future if the government is going to meet its decarbonisation commitments.”

Mr Symonds didn’t reply but smiled. In his mind, the more of these units that they sold, the bigger his end of year bonus would be.

“Here we are,” said Mr Symonds opening a door into a large workshop.

---

The three of them stopped alongside two 20ft shipping containers.

“This one is the control unit,” said Mr Symonds as he opened the doors of one of the units.

He led the way inside.

"Feeds from the grid comes in here," he said, pointing at a large switch unit.
"Solar here and any auxiliary supplies such as wind enter here," he said, pointing at two further items of switchgear.

"The control panel is here. This is the heart of the system. It regulates the use of grid supply and battery charging."

He added,
“The batteries are in the next unit. We keep them separate for fire protection purposes, but both units have their very own fire control systems. One of our early systems caught fire when a builder's cigarette caught the whole thing alight. Normally, there is no need to go into the other container from one week to another. The monitoring system shows the detailed state of all of the batteries.”

He showed them the contents of the other container. There wasn’t much to see when compared to the other unit. Most of the racking was empty.

“How much capacity has this one installed right now?” asked Michel.

Mr Symonds went into the container and looked at the batteries. He emerged and said,
“Ten Kilowatt Hours.”

Michel nearly choked. That was almost three times his current setup. One small rack would more than replace his three large racks of lead-acid batteries.

“How much capacity are you thinking about?” asked Mr Symonds.

Maxine answered first.
“At least one hundred kilowatts but preferably closer to two hundred in each unit.”

Mr Symonds almost choked. The ‘£££’ signs racked up in his mind.

“Is that going to be a problem?” asked Michel.

“Surely you will have a grid supply overnight to keep the batteries charged?”

“Who said anything about a grid connection?” asked Michel.

“But… Isn’t everyone connected to the grid? Even building sites put that in very early on in the construction process. Often that is a limited supply so that's where units like this come into their own. Even with a good connection, one JCB digging in the wrong place, and the whole site can go dark. That’s when the batteries come into their own.”

“I understand your reasoning but, my home and business is not and has never been connected to the grid,” said Michel defiantly.

“And mine will be disconnected once devices like these are installed.”

“How will you keep the batteries charged?”

“The prime source will be Solar and a small amount of water. I have a waterwheel on my property," said Michel confidently.

“That size battery is going to need a lot of solar,” stated Mr Symonds.

“Is a 30kWh solar array good enough?” said Maxine smiling.

“Oh. That’s not the normal domestic system then?”

"No, it is half the roof of my cowshed," replied a grinning Maxine.

“It seems that you have everything covered. What do you think of these units?”

Maxine looked at Michel, who returned a brief nod.

“We think that these will be perfect for our needs. Can you supply two pairs of units and say 200kWh of batteries by the end of January? With another 200kWh by April?” asked Michel.

The directness of his question threw Mr Symonds quite a bit.

“Well… I don’t know.”

"Please find out and let us know. If you can, then we'll sign the contract."

“These won’t be cheap with that amount of battery capacity?”

“We both have a good idea of the costs of such a system, and they will be within our budgets.”

Maxine decided to help things out.

“If you are wondering why we think that we need such large capacity battery units, is mostly down to transportation. The car that we arrived in has a 90kWh battery. I want to be able to charge it from close to zero to 90% full from the battery as well as run the whole house with plenty to spare.”

"I have to say, that is a most unusual use case but, you are the customer. I'll need to check on the supply of batteries with the maker in China. I'll let you know as soon as I find out."

“Don’t you have a supply nearer at hand?”
Mr Symonds thought for a moment.
“Well, the battery trays that we use comes from Germany. I could make a call?”

“Please do. We’d like to wrap up this deal today if you get my drift.”

Mr Symonds went off to make a call.

“Are you going too far?” asked Michel.

“Getting the units without any batteries is a total waste of time. They can’t be used without at least some battery installed. For the amount of money that we are going to spend, we don't want to be left with four containers of nothing until a ship arrives from China."

Michel smiled.
“But you are willing to compromise, aren’t you?”

"Only on the amount of capacity, we get on day one. As I said just now, I want 100kWh in each unit by the new year or end of January at the very latest with the other 100kWh as soon as possible after that.”

“You are certainly ambitious, aren’t you?”

"I know what I want and, I'm willing to pay for it. Those control units have been sitting here for fifteen months since Carillion went bust. He needs to get rid of them. If he can fill them up with batteries, then he can go home a happy bunny. That a win all around in my book."

This was the first time that Michel had seen Maxine in full business mode. He already knew that she was not to be trifled with but, the way she'd handled Mr Symonds had impressed him no end.

Mr Symonds soon returned with a smile on his face.

“I can get the full 400kWh shipped to us by the time the German company shuts for Christmas. They should arrive here in early January. Normally, they'd come by ship and, that amount of battery capacity can't be flown by air so, we are left with rail. The supplier in China has just started shipping by train to Germany. That takes about nine days.”

“That’s good, very good indeed,” said Maxine.
"If you can prepare some paperwork that explains all of that, I'll get my lawyer to go over it. You can have my decision by the end of the week if that is acceptable to you?"

“It is perfectly acceptable if you can agree to sign a letter of intent.”

“As long as it states ‘subject to contract’ then we have a deal.”

“If you’d come into the office, we can get the paperwork started.”

---

Michel was still admiring the way Maxine had handled the deal with the power units when they came to a grinding halt just after they had turned onto the M5. The traffic started to move but slowly. He had forgotten just how very busy the main Motorways could be in rush hour.

Just south of Worcester Michel, let out a little shriek.

“Are you ok? Do you want me to stop?” asked Maxine.

“No, I’m fine. That lorry ahead of us is the solution to my solar panel problems.”

They were following an articulated lorry that had two flat-bed trailers on top of a third. It was clear that the empty trailers were being taken somewhere for their next load.

"Those trailers. They will be perfect for mounting the solar panels on the top. By putting the panels on a trailer, they will be considered movable and outside the planning laws. If our homes were inside the National Park then, they'd be banned."

“How will you mount them?” asked Maxine.

"I'll make up some frames out of wood. I have a load of seasoned oak just waiting to be used. There will be more than enough for sixty frames."

“Won’t that be an awful lot of work for one person?”

Michel laughed.
"It will but, I have all the charcoal ready for the next season already bagged, so I will have plenty of free time.

"It is nearly wintertime. Shouldn't you do something about your workshop?" asked Maxine.

At that time, Michel did all his carpentry under a structure that had started its life as a Gazebo. All that was left was the roof which, had been strengthened with an industrial-strength tarpaulin.

“You have a point there. I’ll need to move a lot of things around before those containers arrive. If I get that done, then I’ll have the space. This will give me the incentive to put some walls on my workshop for the winter.”

“Sounds like a plan then.”

Michel laughed again.
“You sound just like my wife when you say that.”

Maxine drew an imaginary zip across her mouth. She smiled at the same time.

---

“I was watching an expert back in Sutton Coldfield,” said Michel as they grabbed a bite to eat while the car was charging.
“You pretty well had him wrapped around your little finger.”

“Thanks. That was all down to Adrian. He used to drum into me that I should be firm but don’t be overly stubborn. I have tried to keep to that advice. So far it is working but some men still take objection to dealing with a woman when it comes to money and contracts.”

"I know and, I've seen Delphine give people like that a good dressing down. I would not have like to have been investigated by her department at the HMRC.”

"She's not the same woman since then and, that is down to you," remarked Maxine.

Michel just shook his head.

Maxine just smiled. She knew a lot more about the relationship between Delphine and Michel than either of them would admit in public. A couple of bottles of bubbly and a hot tub had worked wonders for making Delphine open up.

---

[The following Wednesday morning in Bristol]

“Mum? What’s so important that you couldn’t tell me on the phone?”
“Come in and sit down my daughter dear.”

“What do you want? I’m due to meet Cliff at two. We are discussing a possible investment in a company in deepest, darkest Herefordshire and I need to meet his train.”

“Always in a rush, aren’t you?”

"Not always but, today I am."

"Please stop pacing about. Cliff won't disappear, at midnight you know."

Maxine sat down with a sigh. She knew that she had to let her have her say.”

“Ok Mum. What is it?”

“You made a great impression at the conference.”

“Stop right there. I made it clear that my performance was a one-night stand and will never be repeated.”

"We know. Sally and especially Garth have been very clear with me on the matter. We have it all on tape and the edited version will be used at future events."

“So?”

“You and Hayley?”

“Yes?”

“Well? Come on darling, you can tell your old Mum?”

"Not so much of the old, and besides, who got married again a few weeks ago?”

“Stop trying to change the subject. What about you and Hayley?”

“It is early days.”

"Early days my foot. Ever since she came back to work after being with you, she's been in a dream world."

“Mum, it is early days. It won’t be easy for us. Both of us will need to change. That applies especially to me, ok? It is going to take time for us to work out how we can live together. This isn't Trowbridge anymore and, we aren't those lovesick teenagers that Dawn tore apart. Living with Hayley is a very different thing to being with Adrian.”

Pauline raised an eyebrow.
“Mum! I want to do it my way.”

“I know that you do my darling.”

“I sense a but coming?”

“Not exactly a but! Can’t I look out for my only daughter?”

“Only daughter? What about Dawn?”

“She’s no daughter of mine. After what she has said and done about you, I disowned her last year. I told her to her face a week after you buried Adrian. She’d been spouting off on Facebook media about your apparent sham marriage. I put her straight once and for all. I also gave her this.”

Maxine’s mother opened a folder that had been sitting on the desk. She handed Maxine a sheet of paper.

"That is a summary of a report that I had done on her by a Private Eye. It clearly shows that she is involved in dealing in Class A drugs. I told her that she is to stop taunting you or the full report goes to the Police."

“Ok, I get you on that, but please stop trying to get Hayley and me together. You are too late. As I said, we are trying to work things out between ourselves. Moving down to Devon will be a big step for her. It means burning her bridges here in Bristol.”

“Why am I too late?”

Maxine smiled at her mother. It wasn’t often that she got one over on her.

“Garth Samson bent my ear last Thursday after our charity conference call. He went on for over an hour. I understand how he used to operate in business. That man can talk forever. But as you know he does not take no for an answer. Hayley is coming down for the weekend to help me move in. Garth told me in no uncertain terms to get off my backside and tell her how I feel. Hayley made a big impression on Morag and Kim at the conference.”

There was silence in the office for well over a minute.

"Say something, Mum?"

“I feel so small.”

"No, Mum. You are just being a good mother and caring for her brood."

“Will you forgive me?”

Maxine smiled at her mother. She came around to face her directly and gave her a big hug.

“You are forgiven… This time but in future?”

“I know. Just stay out of your love life.”

"Thanks, mum but I have to hit the road. Cliff will be waiting for me if I don’t get a move on."

“Why don’t you take the train from Parkway? Can’t Cliff drive you to wherever you are going to go?”

Maxine briefly hesitated.

“The place we are going to is well off the beaten track.”

Maxine's Mum just shook her head. Maxine took her cue to, as they say 'exit stage left'.

---

[The following weekend]

“Is this all your stuff?” remarked Hayley as she surveyed the pile of boxes that almost filled the dining room of the cottage.

"It is all my stuff. Cliff will pack up the office next week and drive it down himself on Friday."

“So, we have to do all this again next weekend?”

“No, we don’t. I’ll sort out the business stuff. A lot of it can go into long term storage. I’ve been meaning to do it since Adrian passed but I never got around to it until now. Some of the files go back almost thirty years. Those can be sorted and shredded.”

“Isn’t it an ideal opportunity for me to start getting into the business?”

They hadn't fully discussed the role that Hayley would do in the business. Maxine had not been looking forward to this.

“I’m not sure.”

"Not sure of what? Me or me working in the business? I have a good idea from your mother, about the role that Cliff plays and, I'll be the first to say that I could never replace his years of experience or his network of contacts. I was thinking about this on the train coming down today. Why don't you offer him a part-time research role? That's what he is good at and, he can do that from just about anywhere with a half-decent internet and phone connection?"

Maxine was slightly stunned by what Hayley had just said.

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

Hayley smiled.

“Then think about it while we sort this lot out.”

Maxine was starting to look at Hayley in a different light. Perhaps all her reservations about her childhood friend were groundless.

They only dealt with a small amount of the pile when there was the sound of a car arriving.

“That must be Delphine. She said that she’d come and help us.”

“From the size of what is left here, I think that we will need all the help we can get.”

---

[Two weeks later]

“I’m going to give Sally my notice in on Monday,” said Hayley.
"I’ve already told the letting agents that I'm leaving. They seemed pleased, which surprised me. I met one of the other tenants that evening, and he said that the owner was looking to sell the property. It would sell a lot easier with vacant possession."

“Does this mean that you won’t have to wait three months to leave?”

“It does mean just that. The agents said that as I have paid up to the end of the month and if I can leave by then, that will be it,” replied Hayley with a grin on her face.

“I got it confirmed in an email. They specifically said 31st of December which is good because of the Christmas and New Year holidays.”

Hayley saw the colour in Maxine’s face drain away.
“What’s wrong? I thought that you would be happy?”

“I am but that leaves us the little issue of Christmas to deal with,” said Maxine.

"It would be nice to spend it on our own but, I guess from the expression on your face, that will not be possible."

Maxine shook her head.
“Pauline and Sally have asked us for the 25th and 26th. That would be good and would allow us to clear out your place and get any remedial work done before the end of the year.”

“It would but, you are thinking about my family, aren’t you?”

Maxine nodded. Hayley's family were famous for the large gathering that took place on Christmas day. It was an open house not only to relatives but friends as well.

“We’d have to make an appearance at some point during the day.”

“As long as your brother Phil isn't there when we are then I'm game."

“You still haven’t forgiven him, have you?”

“Would you for what he did to me?”

“I see your point.”

“The point is my darling is that he has promised more than once to do it again if he ever met me again when I was wearing women’s clothes. Pulling down my skirt and knickers in the middle of M&S is one thing but I could never be sure that he would not do it in front of your family.”

Hayley remembered that incident only too well. Ever since then, she and her brother had hardly spoken not that they met more than once a year. Phillip had gone off to and started working for a finance company in Edinburgh. Phil now had a wife and two children, but as far as Hayley was concerned, he was still not to be trusted. He was like an Elephant in that he would never forget about making good his promises.

“I think I should ask my Mum about Christmas Day. She’ll know what my dear brother is going to do. How about that?”

“Good idea. Does your Mum know what he did to me?”

“She does but, it can’t help to remind her just in case.”

Maxine didn’t look too happy. The prospect of meeting Hayley’s brother at Christmas was up there with meeting her sister Dawn… something to be avoided at all costs.

[to be continued]