Part 3

While we were waiting for the train she asked about the process of supplying the drugs, now that my fingerprints were on file. I told her that the baggies were pre-packaged and the dealer, or his assistants, used nitrile gloves.

They would come to me in a paper bag and I would transfer them to envelopes using tweezers and avoid touching the envelopes unless it was by the edges.

She then asked about the money and I told her that I was paid double what each baggie had cost me and that there were virtually no overheads.

I offered her the whole amount if she wanted it and she told me not to be silly as I needed to get myself a whole new wardrobe. That was not going to be cheap.

“Tonight, though, I will have to lend you something of mine to wear when we go out to the meal.”

I protested that it was her night out with her friend and she argued, “Of course I can’t leave you on the flat alone on the first night without the bracelet. What if you decided to do a runner?”

She did, however, deliver the last bit with a smile.

When we got home I showed her the electrical cabinet as we passed and I opened it. There was no money there and I didn’t expect there to be as the usual business was more towards the end of the week.

Up to our floor in the lift and we were both getting a little nervous. Our new door had already been fitted and a copper was waiting for us in the lounge. With him in tow we inspected the whole place to find exactly what we thought.

My wardrobe was open but the false floor was back down; the dressing table was somewhat worse for wear, looking as if someone had given it a few kicks. Sarah had lost her jewellery box and the cookie jar of loose change was empty. There were also some signs of a very angry person taking their anger out on the furniture.

Sarah said that everything that was damaged would be covered under her insurance and that the jewellery was all paste so no great loss. The only real things she had she wore all the time.

I, of course, had nothing obvious to lose. The only thing the copper was unsure about was that I didn’t look like the person that was supposed to live in the spare room and certainly not the person described in my docket.

I pointed out the various holes in my face and told him that the person described no longer existed. He signed off on a police incident report and gave us a copy for the insurance. We thanked him for his help and showed him out with much relief.

“Right, it’s time we started to get ready for our night out. You take that stuff off and get into the shower and then you can attempt to make yourself look good while I have my shower. I’ll put some things on your bed for you and you can use my vanity to attempt your make-up. I hate to think what you will make of it. I’ve never seen you in make-up since early high school and that was the bare minimum we could get away with.”

So I stripped off and had the best shower of my life, making sure that I shaved my legs and armpits and used a lot of shampoo and conditioner. When I got out with a towel around me I found an evening dress and full set of underwear on the bed and a nightie and dressing gown draped over the pillow.

This was, in my mind, the stuff that fuelled my wet dreams in an earlier life. I suddenly thought that the details of that life were getting a little hazy as the day went on. I was becoming Samantha with every passing minute.

No wonder the old guy had told me to be careful with what I wished. I slowly put on the lacy bra and panties and carefully rolled the panty-hose up, making sure not to snag it. I still had my well-trimmed fingernails and thought that working in a salon may be a blessing in disguise. Being twins we were the same size and the shoes that matched the dress fitted perfectly.

While Sarah was in the shower I sat at her vanity and looked through her collection of make-up. Knowing the dress colour I slowly styled my look to emphasise my better points and then brushed my shortish hair so it covered the tops of my ears to hide the fretwork. The Elastoplast was in the bin and the stitches disguised with foundation.

It was easier than I thought as I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I just had to teach my hands to move in the right way. When I went back into my room I put the dress on and felt right for the first time in my life.

I didn’t have a mirror in my room, having always hated looking at myself, so had to wait until Sarah was ready before I could see the finished product.

In the meantime I pulled all of my ‘bloke’ gear out of the ruined dresser and stacked it in the bottom of the wardrobe, along with the other pair of ‘bovver boots’. There wasn’t a lot in the end and would only need a couple of bags taken down to the charity bin.

When Sarah called that she was ready to see me I went to her room and her hand went to her mouth as she saw me.

“My God!” she cried “You’re beautiful! How on earth did you manage to get that look the first time out, it looks fantastic with that dress. I do try but sometimes I look at myself and something looks off but I don’t know what it is.”

I told her that I had studied for a lot of years about make-up but had never had the opportunity to put it into practice before. I then asked her to sit at the vanity and I made some subtle changes to her own make-up which brought out her eyes more and really made her smile.

We looked at ourselves together in her big mirror and I thought that I would look better when my hair grew a bit. She took some pictures on her phone and sprayed us both with perfume and gave me a coat and bag that matched my dress with some contents already there.

I added the lipstick I had used on myself and then went back to my room and put the disc in the bag. Before we left I told her that I wanted this to be on me as a thank you for her support. She opened the safe and peeled two hundred off and put it in her purse to pay the bill with.

We walked, arm in arm, to the restaurant, our heels clicking on the pavement. I was in another world now, a genuine woman, dressed to the nines and going out to eat.

All I now needed was a good man and I would be complete. The thought made me giggle and she asked me what I had thought of. I could only answer that the thought had been about a cock that wasn’t mine and I had been struck with the concept of being womanly for the first time in my life.

Actually, for the first time in Sam’s life as well. She commented that it was about time.

At the restaurant we put our coats in the cloakroom and went into the main dining area where Sarah saw her friend waiting for us at a table. Sarah had made the booking and it was set for three already.

He stood as we approached and Sarah hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning to me, “Roger, I don’t think you have met my twin sister, Samantha, before. Samantha, this is Roger the door man and a friend for some time through work he has done with the legal firm. We sometimes have to organise changes of locks for divorce cases.”

“I wondered who the third person would be and if it would be your boyfriend, Sarah. I must say that eating out with two lovely ladies is a real treat for me and I must get a waiter to take a picture of us together so I can brag to the guys at work tomorrow.”

He then thought a bit, “Look, I don’t want to talk out of place so please take this as a genuine question. I had been told that your crazy sister was trying to be your brother and was only living with you as a condition of parole. I don’t see anything other than the tom-boy haircut here, what gives?”

I laughed, “Roger, you are not out of line. If you had seen me this time last week you would have run out of the restaurant screaming. I am the crazy sister doing time but the conditions on my parole have been altered today and I start a job tomorrow. And no, I don’t want to be a bloke and was wondering if you had any brothers at home as handsome as you are.”

He smiled and said there were a few at his work who would be happy to be seen with me as long as it was a double date with him and Sarah. There!! The ice had been broken.

I could see Sarah smiling at him, “But only a couple of times, mind. I will want you all to myself sometime.”

We had a good meal with a couple of bottles of wine and we got a waiter to take pictures of us with his phone and also Sarah’s. It was a pleasant evening and we chatted about all sorts of things.

He did tell us that the police had been able to get an image of the guy they thought had broken in from the camera outside the front entrance of the tower. He had been carrying a box and looked a bit like a delivery driver.

There was vision a half an hour later of him with the box under his arm when he left again. I wondered if they had been monitoring it lately and had seen my meetings with the dealer, although I was sure the bench was far enough off to one side not to be fully in shot.

He walked us home and I went inside after giving him a kiss on the cheek. Sarah gave me the new key and said she may be a few minutes. We were all tipsy but I think she had other things on her mind.

Sure enough, when she did get to the flat she had a big smile on her face and her lipstick was no longer in evidence. I had put the kettle on and had made us a couple of mugs of coffee and we sat at the kitchen table to drink it.

“I hope you gave him a tissue to wipe his mouth with or else he’s going to get some odd looks on the way home.”

She laughed that he had the works van at the restaurant car park and his only problem would be if he got stopped.

We alternated with the bathroom cleaning our make-up off and using moisturiser, both in our nighties and gowns.

Sarah said goodnight and then added “It’s been a very strange day. I started off with a hooligan sister who wanted to be my brother and no boyfriend. I’ve finished up with a beautiful ex-drug dealing sister and a boyfriend and, you know what, it just makes me happy.”

“Tomorrow you start work, you will need to wear a simple shift and they will supply a smock. By the time Saturday comes around you’ll have some idea of what you need to get and we will go shopping with your ill-gotten gains. I will, however, bring home some more underwear for you which I will pay for with a bit more of your money. OK with that?”

What else could I do but give her a hug.

Part 4

If Sarah had thought it had been an odd day then what about mine! I had started out as a well-built bloke working in a warehouse who dreamt of being a woman and here I was, at the end of the day, an actual woman with a twin sister who I loved unreservedly for her support and courage.

Not to mention going from a totally clean record to one which ‘almost’ rivalled Al Capone.

I lay in bed and rubbed my hands over my new body through the silky nightie and fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Early on Tuesday morning I was up and out of bed with the larks and made breakfast for the two of us. Sarah was attracted to the kitchen by the smell and, when we had eaten and tidied up, we again alternated with the bathroom and her vanity.

She had pulled out a simple dress for me to wear today and paired it with some clean underwear and low heeled shoes as she said I would be on my feet most of the day. We walked to the salon and she left me to wait for the owner while she headed for her train.

It wasn’t long before the owner turned up and let us both in. She showed me where to leave my bag and where to change into the salon uniform smock while she put the kettle on.

We sat in the kitchenette out the back while she queried me on who had done my make-up this morning and looked a bit dis-believing when I said that I had done it myself.

She commented that she had been told that I was a female to male transgender, heavily studded felon with an attitude.

I laughed, “That’s all so last week,” which made her chuckle.

When the other girls came in she told them that I was to have been their new general cleaner and dogs-body but if my claim about doing my own make-up this morning was correct, I may have a better future.

She picked one of the girls who looked like she had done her make-up with a one inch brush and told her to go and clean off her face. Before the shop opened I was to redo her make-up with the other girls watching and then we would discuss my duties after that.

My subject, Ingrid, was very good and kept still while I worked on her. It didn’t take long at all as she had quite good looks but no idea of colour. The owner did let on that Ingrid was a very good hair stylist and would return the favour if I got it right.

I had to explain why I used the colours I did and any variations I would use to get a different result. When Ingrid looked in the mirror the joy was there for all to see.

I waited as they all looked at me and then Jacquie, the owner, made the decision for them.

“Premium customers, weddings and dinner dances. Samantha, you will get a chair in a separate room and I will need you to work late on Fridays and Saturdays if needed. I will give you a day or so off in the early part of the week so you can do your shopping. That OK with the rest of you?”

They all agreed and so I started my first day as the cleaner being promoted to specialist make-up artist. I still had to do general cleaning as we worked through the day, as did everyone between customers, but it wasn’t hard.

I ended the day with five make-ups on my own and every customer leaving a good tip that went into a shared pool. At the end of the day Ingrid gave me a quick spruce-up with some shaping that made my hair-do a bit more feminine, promising to keep it looking good as it grew out.

When Sarah came to pick me up I had just finished being given a manicure by Jacquie and now sported nails that were a bit longer than I had been used to and certainly a different colour.

The others had left already but Jacquie was reluctant to leave me sitting outside on my own. I think that she was a bit afraid of Mrs. Butcher. She told Sarah about my working hours and Sarah said she would arrange time off for a couple of weeks to help me shop.

As we were walking home she said that it would be a good arrangement because she wanted me to go with her to her office when we were in town again. They had all heard about the criminal tom-boy lout and she wanted to show them just how untrue the reputation was.

I thought about that and wondered just what the reputation of Bill Williams was going to look like before long.

I cooked our dinner that night. I had been cooking for myself for some years now and had often wondered what it would be like to cook a meal for a beautiful woman. Little had I guessed that the beautiful woman would be my own sister!

Afterwards she opened up the bags she had brought home and I was now the owner of several new sets of underwear, hose and nightwear as well as a couple of tops and skirts. Everything was beautiful and fitted like a glove. What else could it do with me having my own exact size model shopping for me? She had doubled up on a few items so we could go out in identical outfits and mess with peoples’ heads.

She said that she had ordered a new vanity for me to be delivered but that that I would have to channel my inner male and wield the Allan key when it got here. There would also be a new coffee table and sideboard which had both been well and truly kicked.

When we started putting my new things away she got a couple of big garbage bags and we filled them with the old Sam clothing, all of which would fit me but none of which I would wear in a fit. These were left by the door to be taken to a charity bin later.

That evening I had another new experience, taking off my clothes with my new nails. I was going to have to learn the technique quickly tomorrow morning when it came to putting my bra on.

I slept very well after running my new nails over my nightie and getting a bit of a shock when I grazed my nipples with them, having to go back and try it again several times to see if I could repeat the charge that went through my body as I did so.

Wednesday at the salon I had a visit from Mrs. Butcher, who was interested to see if I was up to scratch as a cleaner. Jacquie brought her through to my cubicle as I was tidying up after a customer and sat her on the chair.

“Just for coming in today, Madam, you will get a specialist make-over from our head stylist. I’ll leave you in Samantha’s capable hands.”

I put the cape on her and she looked very odd as I cleaned off her face and reapplied her make-up to suit the dress she was wearing.

“This will go with your dress today, Madam; I suggest that if you intend to go out tonight you should not change. However, if you are going to wear something special you should come in again so we can give you a palette to match the outfit.”

The look on her face was priceless when she saw herself and how her look worked with her dress.

As Mrs. Butcher walked out of the salon in a bit of a daze Jacquie couldn’t stop the giggles and it infected everyone else. She gave me a pat and said that if that wasn’t enough to shorten my sentence she didn’t know what was.

I was kept very busy for the rest of the day as it was a church dinner-dance that evening and we were inundated with ladies wanting to look their best. Sarah had to wait for a quarter of an hour while I made the Lady Mayoress look good so Jacquie gave her a quick hairdo to fill her time, chatting all the time about the effect I was having on the business with my sunny attitude and willingness to pitch in.

She related the earlier incident with Mrs. Butcher and the giggles bubbled out again so we were all in a good mood when she locked up and we went home.

Sarah had a couple of bags with some food so I cooked us up a different meal that night and we sat with the radio on as the TV had been kicked in.

I didn’t mind as the only time I used to watch TV was when there was a show with good looking women in it and that didn’t matter anymore. I wasn’t ready, yet, to start looking at shows to ogle buff guys.

I told Sarah that we had a full set of bookings for Friday and Saturday and that Thursday had been filling quickly as well. There was a civic do that the local hobnobs were going to and word had spread quickly about some new girl at Jacquies’ salon.

I had all day Monday and Tuesday morning off so Sarah could make her arrangements around that. I had been busy most of the day so I said goodnight early and went off to do my face cleaning and went off to bed, falling into a deep sleep.

I woke up in a start around midnight but everything was quiet. I tried to settle but felt that something was wrong.

Eventually the feeling faded and I went off into another deep sleep. I didn’t tell Sarah about it next morning as I thought that I must have had a bad dream that I had immediately forgotten.

Thursday was full on, the salon being a queue of non-stop customers with us having to stagger our lunches to suit. Once again Sarah had to wait while I finished with my eleventh make-over of the day.

Before we closed Jacquie totalled up the tip jar and gave us all cash for our share. I was only eligible for three days’ worth but it was still more than I thought it would be.

Sarah suggested that we could set up a new bank account for me with it and that any money in my old account would be transferred on-line with my wages following. She thought that we should work through the cash I had made with normal and clothes shopping and save my legal earnings.

Friday was a repeat with a steady line of customers being worked on. Even Jacquie had to do some of the work and the other girls were excited at the amount of business we were working through. A couple of times Jacquie had to warn about taking short cuts.

When Sarah came to pick me up I still had two customers waiting so she just said she would cook tonight and that she would be at home when I got there. When I finally got home and took my shoes off she had a meal almost ready to serve.

We sat down and as we began to eat she said “I had an interesting phone call today. A Fiona rang my mobile and wanted to speak to the friend who texted her and to thank her, or him. It seems that there was a bit of an altercation between the police and a guy who looks a lot like a rugby player.”

“That would have been about midnight to two on Thursday morning.”

She looked shocked as she nodded.

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 5

I told her about being woken at that time, and that the odd feeling had faded a bit before two, so I could sleep again.

She was a quiet for a while, “It didn’t seem right about the magic bit until now. Now I’m certain that my butch sister left the food court in your old body. It all adds up, how did a burglar know where everything was here?”

“You, just this week, are a better person than Sam ever was, even as a child before she got moody. I should be angry that my sister left without even saying goodbye to me but, I realise now, that this was the sort of person she had become. Instead of being angry or sad, I now feel as if I had been blessed with a new, improved, happier and more loving sister after all.”

“When Fiona spoke to me about the person she knew as Dot, I felt as if she was describing you. She, and the other girls, loved you for being who you were, and have been devastated with what happened this week. If it wasn’t for your text, someone could have been very badly hurt.”

I put my knife down and held her wrist, asking, “Dot died, didn’t he?”

There were tears in her eyes as she nodded, “You were right about the timings, there must have still been a link between you and him. Fiona said that when he arrived he was aggressive and controlling. Even after they told him to stop he kept on touching them and being sexually aggressive.”

“Sandra had a friend nearby who is in the police and texted him to come and help. When he arrived Dot pulled out a gun and hit him with it and escaped. Sandra and the girls got her friend back on his feet and he put out an alert. A patrol spotted him and cornered him.”

“He went to fire the gun but he was hit with two Tasers. It seems that although he was a big guy, his heart couldn’t take it and he went into cardiac arrest, being kept alive until around two in the morning. I’m so sorry for you.”

“Don’t be, it’s all for the best. Sam would have come back to upset us if she had stayed alive. It was only my body but with it went the spirit of your sister, God rest her soul.”

She nodded and dabbed her eyes with a tissue before saying, “Oh, there is a bit of good news, though. We, that is, both of us, have a date Sunday. Roger and a friend of his are taking us down the coast for a day out. He seems to have the crazy idea that we would like a ride on a steam train! While you’re at work I’ll get us a couple of suitable outfits.”

As we were tidying up she said, “Oh, Fiona wanted to meet the friend who texted and I said that I would speak to them and see what transpired. I don’t think it would be good for them to know that Dot lives in you so we had better come up with something plausible. Perhaps you could have known him from his work, long enough to know who he met with and also to see that he was different.”

That evening we were both in shock when the radio news announcer said that, “William Williams, who has died after being subdued by the police early Thursday morning, was found to have a commercial quantity of cocaine in his flat. The gun found when he was arrested has been linked to two drug gang killings a few years ago and his DNA has matched that taken from the body of a woman found in the park early Wednesday morning. She had been raped and strangled.”

So that’s what Sam ended up doing with my reputation. My parents would have been mortified if they’d still been alive.

I had a broken night but did get some sleep. Sarah came out to breakfast a bit red-eyed as well so I went to her and held her close.

I whispered in her ear, “This is the first day of our new world, darling sister. The only way now is onward and upward. Tomorrow you will be going steady and we’ll all have a lot of fun, believe me. No looking back at what went before or even thinking about what might have been.”

“You know, the first time I saw you in the food court I was in awe of your looks and wanted to take a picture of you to pray to every night. Now I see the mirror image every time I look in a mirror except my hair isn’t long enough yet. Then we will truly be twins.”

She smiled at that and gave me a kiss on the cheek, “You’re really the best sister I have ever had. I’m really looking forward to our future now.”

After breakfast I got ready for work and left the flat to walk there. No-one seemed to worry about me being out on my own, now. The day was tiring, a constant stream of customers that had booked, as well as a few walk-in’s who were happy to wait for a slot.

When we closed up we all were happy to have the next day off and Jacquie quietly said, “Thank you, I’ll see you Tuesday lunch-time,” as I went to leave.

Sarah had been busy during the day and our new outfits were hanging in our rooms. Seeing that we were going to ride the rails she had got us both fancy jeans with tops that looked like they had been in a dye-shop explosion.

“That’s in case there’s smuts in the air,” she told me. She had also bought calf boots in soft leather which would have to have been the most expensive footwear I would have worn.

She commented that she had bought well as the boots were in a ‘Buy 2 pairs - pay half’ sale. She wanted me to OK the receipts but I told her that I didn’t want to see them as long as we were both happy. She did tell me that she had counted the cash I had saved and that we’d hardly put a dent in it yet.

We had a light tea to make sure there was room for the expensive lunch we would insist on tomorrow and went to bed early so we could be up and ready on time.

Sarah woke me at first light and we had breakfast. Then we had showers, dressed in our jazzy outfits and I did both our make-ups with a colour mix to match the tops.

We stood together and looked in the mirror and Sarah had a big smile on her face, telling me that she couldn’t pay me for my services but I could have free board and lodging.

We both had large shoulder bags to carry the things we needed, such as cardies and a hat; depending on the day. We took some of the cash and split it so we could get things if we saw them.

As we left the tower, I realised that I had not asked about the friend and was pleasantly surprised when a nice Rover pulled up and Roger got out of the passenger side, greeting us both with a kiss on the cheek.

The driver got out and my heart skipped a beat. He was handsome and not that much older than us. He came around to the kerbside and Roger introduced us as Sarah and Samantha Silvestri.

He was “David Devine, the owner of the company” said Roger as this Adonis took my hand and said that he was happy to meet the two of us in the flesh, so to speak, having been captivated by us in the photos Roger had showed everyone at the office.

David ushered me into the passenger seat while Roger helped Sarah in the back. Then the guys got in their side and we drove off, leaving the concrete jungle behind for a while.

As we drove south we talked and I made the comment that David seemed too young to have founded the business. He laughed and said his grandfather had started it with a motor-cycle and sidecar with a ladder.

His father had carried it on and he had taken over the reins when his father had a fall from a ladder which put him in hospital for a long time. He said that Roger had been there when he started and was classed as the Managing Foreman, although still doing favours for pretty friends.

Sarah snorted, “Not too many of those, I hope!” and we all had a laugh.

Down by the sea we had a walk around the small alley-ways and I saw a jeweller open. I asked the others to stop for a moment and I went inside, pulling the wish disc out of my bag. It felt warm to my touch and also felt as if something inside it was buzzing.

I asked if they could put a chain on it so I could put it around my neck and they said they could do that if I came back in an hour. I also asked for them to engrave the words ‘Dot and Sam’ with last Thursdays date under it followed by ‘RIP’.

While I was doing that, the others were looking around and when I turned around they were looking at me with smiles.

Sarah said, “Samantha, the boys have seen a pair of rings which they want to buy for us. I told them they were being foolish and David said that being with us made him want to be foolish. Besides, he said he would take half out of Rogers' wages.”

So, when we left there the two of us sported identical rings and our continued stroll was with each of us being held by our guy. As we were strolling I saw an artists’ shop open and asked them to wait while I got a sketch book and a range of drawing pencils.

We had lunch in a seaside fish café. When I picked up the disc and put it in my bag it was odd as it still felt like it was buzzing to me. We went inland for the train trip, which was a lot of fun. On the return trip I pulled out the sketchbook and started drawing.

I had been rather good before but my new outlook seemed to give me more insight to what I wanted to depict and I had suddenly become pretty fast at getting the picture down. David kept quiet as I quickly sketched the outline of the train station with a waiting steam train and then I felt him tense as I drew him standing next to the engine, in the billowing steam in a boiler suit and black cap. When I had finished it he kissed me, for a long and luscious time.

As he pulled back he said, “I’m sorry about that but I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I saw you.”

I smiled, “Don’t be sorry, I liked it. If it takes me to draw a picture of you to get a kiss I think I may have to take up cartoons with you as the central character.”

He chuckled and said that this would not be necessary. I turned the page over and did another sketch of Roger and Sarah standing by the sea wall looking at a small boat, his arm over her shoulder and hers around his waist, as I had seen them earlier in the day.

David whispered not to show them the picture as he would get it framed next week for Roger to keep.

Then he said, “There isn’t a picture of you, I want one for myself.”

So I giggled and drew a picture of the two of us, in wedding gear and standing beside his Rover which had tin cans spread out on the road behind it with coloured ribbons.

It took me the rest of the trip and he had a look in his eyes as I closed the book and put it in my bag.

When we got off the train he held me back a bit and, once we were out of the crowd, he held me close and we kissed as lovers for the first time.

Part 6

When we pulled back he smiled. I put my head on his chest, breathing in the smell of man though the nose of woman, and realised that I wanted this man to take me as his own.

We said nothing as we turned to catch up with the others, who were standing by the car in an embrace of their own.

David remarked, “There must have been something in the fish at lunch” and we laughed.

Sarah and Roger looked a bit sheepish as we joined them. David explained that we had been caught up in the crowd and then we all burst out laughing.

When we sat in the car David asked if we had anywhere special we wanted to see and Sarah wondered if we could go to Sissinghurst and look at the gardens, seeing that it was such a lovely day.

So this is what we did, arriving with an hour or so left of opening time to have a look around. When we were standing in the fabled White Garden David made the comment that it would be a great place for a wedding and no-one laughed, I just squeezed his hand.

On the way out he discovered that you could, indeed, book it for weddings and they also could do a marquee in the gardens if we wanted the reception there as well. Talk about a quick mover!

He didn’t pencil in any dates, which was good considering neither of us sisters had been asked yet; but we did get a price sheet and calendar with free dates marked on it for the rest of the year.

As we drove away I could feel the disc, now hanging against my chest, getting warm and it felt as if it was vibrating for a while.

I felt in my bag and pulled out the sketchbook, turning to the picture of us by the car, I quickly added the tower where Vita worked appearing behind us and put the sketchbook away before the couple behind us could see what I was doing. They were too busy gazing into the others’ eyes to notice anyway.

Back towards the city David took us to a country pub on the banks of the river, near Windsor, where he said the owner and chef was a friend of his.

When we walked in the guy behind the bar came out and gave David a big hug and then exclaimed, “David, you sly old dog, you. Not only do you bring in the most beautiful woman around, you’ve got a spare as well for Roger to keep warm!”

We had a wonderful meal and shared a bottle of wine, although David only had half a glass and I didn’t have much either. The chef had been to University with David and, like him, had inherited his family business at an early age. He told us that he loved to cook, but, even more, he loved to cook for people who loved to eat, like us.

After the meal, Sarah and I went to the ladies and spoke while we repaired our lipstick. She was over the moon with Roger and said that I looked like I had got myself a man of my own as well.

We hugged before we went back to the boys. David took me outside and we sat in a swinging seat and he proceeded to destroy the efforts I had put into my lipstick but I didn’t mind.

We were just swinging there, my head on his shoulder and he said, “Samantha, I was captivated by you from the photo but am now entrapped by you as a person. I know that we only met today but I feel as if I have known you all my life. Would you be upset if I said that I will ask you to marry me one day?”

I smiled, “As long as you don’t wait too long. I may get impatient.”

We then removed what little was left of my lipstick. Before we went back into the pub he asked about the disc.

I pulled it up so he could read the inscription and said, “Both Dot and Sam were very close to Sarah and I. They were even more as one than we are. Unfortunately they died on Thursday morning, very early in the day and far too early in their shared existence. They had both held this disc and that, my darling, is all that I will say about it except to tell you that it is called a Wish Disc and they both had their wish granted.”

As we went back into the bar we saw that Sarah and Roger were making out in a similar swing seat further along and that they were oblivious to us as we passed. In the bar I got to know the chef more and we spoke about places we had both been to.

I had a bit of an advantage as I could pull memories of two people. David was constantly smiling.

His friend noticed this, “David, this lady is more than a date, isn’t she? I think that I may be catering for a happy event in the future.”

I laughed, “You had better believe it! He picked out the site for the wedding this afternoon and we had only met for the first time this morning. Is he always this fast?”

We had a chuckle and David said, “Show him the pictures, darling.”

I pulled out the sketchbook and the first one brought a comment on just how I had captured David in a job that he had wanted all his boyhood. The second had the stamp of approval as well.

Before I turned the page over I said, “Darling, I added a detail in the car on the way here, I hope you like it.”

He was staggered at the addition of the tower and his friend let out a hoot, “She’s got you bang to rights there, boyo. You, sir, are hooked!”

I put my hand on his arm and said, in a low voice, “And this was before he even asked me!”

When Roger and Sarah came back in, she and I went off to the ladies to look presentable to go home. The sketchbook was back in my bag with orders to leave the pictures under the front seat before I got out.

It was a very happy pair of couples that went back to the tower that night. We had left as individuals but the day had pulled us together as a team. Roger and Sarah were steaming in the back seat and I held Davids’ hand all the way home.

At the tower we had a little smooch and I got out, leaving the pictures well tucked away. I had told David that I didn’t have a phone but may be buying one on Monday. He gave me his business card so that I could ring him when I did and we made a date for the following Sunday, either as a foursome or just us two, depending on what Roger and Sarah wanted to do.

The boys got back into the car after yet another set of goodnight kisses and Sarah and I waved them off before heading up to the flat. She was very quiet and I didn’t mind as I had a lot on my mind as well.

When we had cleaned our faces and put on our nighties I put the kettle on and we had a cup of hot chocolate each, only then starting to talk about the day. She was a bit shell-shocked at the force of her emotions and I must say I was as shocked at the fact that I had those emotions myself.

I took off the disc and asked her if she could feel the warmth and she said she could. I was wondering if it was building up to another wish. Pity the S.R.U. shop had disappeared as it hadn’t been there when I passed the spot after we had been to Ed’s.

I was up, showered and dressed very early on Monday morning. I made my breakfast thinking about the amazing week I had lived.

When Sarah came into the kitchen she was smiling, “I had a wonderful sleep and a wonderful dream that we were walking along the path to the White Garden where our two grooms were waiting. I never thought that I would be so happy.”

When she had dressed we just had to take a snap again as she had picked short denim skirts with opaque blouses that showed off our lace bras. She wore her usual jewellery and I had the disc around my neck. We both had our new rings on. It wasn’t too cold but we both had panty-hose and pixie boots. I had my big bag in case I saw things I liked.

At nine there was a knock on the door and when Sarah opened it we saw a guy with a big box on a trolley. It was my new vanity, or, should I say, the first part of the new vanity.

Four trips later we had the rest of the vanity, the new coffee table and sideboard stacked against various walls. We had taken fifty more from the cash and given it to him as a tip, as long as he took away the old, kicked in, TV; something he was happy to do.

As we were about to leave I was suddenly aware that I needed a pee so Sarah went down in the lift while I went to the loo. When I got down to the front door I could see her talking to my old dealer.

He nodded at her and walked away around the corner and I went to join her.

She said, “I think that you knew that guy as he asked me where ‘Studs’ Sam was as he needed to get in touch. I told him that ‘Studs’ had left last Monday after dumping the bracelet and that I haven’t seen him since then. He seemed happy enough.”

I told her that he had probably been getting calls from his customers about the lack of supply over the weekend and that he will have to go back to looking after them himself.

We linked arms and strolled towards the station. There was a row of old, closed up, shops to pass as we got near and suddenly a voice said, “Ladies, I would like to speak with you, please come in.”

We looked and right there was the shop with S.R.U. over the door, although the windows were still shuttered. The old guy stood by the door and beckoned us in. I could feel Sarah tense and I assured her that we would come to no harm here.

We followed the guy in and the door closed behind us quietly.

He looked at us and said, “Sarah, you can see me because you have come to believe that magic exists. I normally only appear to people who are searching for an answer to their problems but today I just had to talk to you both. Samantha, you can guess what I want to talk about.” I nodded.

“I have to apologise to you, Samantha. I normally help those who want to live in another body and often sell my customers the way forward but often with little jokes of my own thrown in. I was fobbing you off with an item that had been in stock for centuries but had no idea how powerful it really was.”

He went on, “When you, as William, made your wish you thought that it was your wish that triggered the transformation. I have to tell you that it wasn’t you but Sam who initiated the wish. I could feel the force of her emotion from where I was and it was, I am sorry to say, pure evil. You, by engraving the disc, have shown your forgiveness and the disc has started to recharge, am I right?”

We agreed and he then said, “Because it wasn’t the owner of the disc to initiate the wish, the laws of ancient magic decrees that a wish must still be made available. The disc I gave you was very old and the true nature of it was hidden from even my wise self. It is now drawing on ancient magical fields and I’m not sure what it will be able to do when it’s fully charged. What it’s doing already is creating an aura of happiness and light about the two of you because you helped in removing an evil from the world.”

“It’s almost too hard for me to be so close to it but I must ask if I can touch it.” I took it off my neck and passed it to him. He held it and then gave it back, saying, “This has become a beacon of good in our magic universe. With it you both are protected from evil but must be very careful about what you say.”

“Don’t say things like, ‘I wish you were dead,’ because the disc may just make it happen. You are in for some interesting times but you can be assured that I, or someone like me, will be around to help if you need it. No matter where you are the disc will show us where we need to be. If it vibrates it is taking in the emotions around it so you should be able to know when to stay silent.”

With that he took Sarahs’ hand and told her that it was unusual for him to touch an angel and then took mine and told me that in an earlier life I had been a saint who had sacrificed his mortal body to inhabit another angel.

It all would sound over the top if we had not been standing there talking to a wizard in a shop that didn’t even exist in our own world.

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 7

I asked about the Mythral gowns and he said that items being shown in the window are there to attract a particular customer and are not for sale.

The window was bare today because I had been granted a rare second visit and there was nothing he could show me that I needed at the moment.

Sarah wanted to know if it was the disc that caused our happiness yesterday.

“What you were feeling yesterday was generated by the moment. The disc was re-awakened by the love between the two of you sisters; and I have to say that you are true sisters now, in both looks and temperament. The love you generated yesterday has fuelled the disc in double time. I expect it to be still for a few days but may get warm again when there is love around you again. The song was right, you know, it’s possible to ‘feed off luuurve.”

He showed us out and, when we looked back, the row of dilapidated shops were back to normal.

“Well, that’s a strange way to start the week!” said Sarah, as we linked arms again to finally reach the station.

It was just a few minutes wait for the train and we headed into the city. We got seats and were heading into town when I felt the disc vibrate. I looked around me to see what had woken it up this morning. Across from us were a couple of older men and a lady with a shopping trolley.

Further down on that same side were a trio of louts. I knew that we would be at a station in a couple of minutes which is the optimum time for a bag snatch. Just as I thought, one of them made to leap up and grab our bags but was standing on a loose lace from his sneaker.

As he went to leap at our bags he found he couldn’t move and fell flat on his face, stunning him. His pals were about to follow him and impede our chase as we started to slow for the station.

I gave them the fingers pointing at my eyes and then pointing at them and they went very pale, grabbed their friend and raced out of the train just before the doors closed again.

Across the way, one of the old guys was crossing himself before getting up and moving down to the end of the carriage to find another seat.

“That’s odd,” I said, “What is he afraid of?”

Sarah laughed, “When you did ‘I’m lookin’at you’ gesture to those louts, your eyes glowed red just like in the horror movies. If I didn’t know you well I would need to have changed my panties. I’m sure the guy saw it as well and thinks you may be a demon or something. That will be something he can tell his priest next Sunday, ‘forgive me father for I saw a Devil last week’ would just not go down well in any church I have been in. If I thought the start of the day was odd, I hate to think how much odder it can get.”

Back in town we went to the shopping mall and I got Ed to look at the stitches above my eyebrow. He was amazed at how well it had healed and took the stitches out and just dabbing the place with some antiseptic.

He had a look at my ears as well and declared that the holes were closing remarkably quickly and when I poked my tongue out he said that this hole, one which is very likely to cause troubles, was almost closed as well. I bought some more girly studs from him and thanked him for his care and attention.

Next up was a phone shop where I bought a good smartphone on a pay-as-you-use plan and pre-paying fifty pounds worth. I was going through the cash but it was all in a good cause.

The guy in the shop was upset because I refused to buy extra ‘apps’ as I didn’t need to know my heart rate, walking pace, position in the world to the nearest inch or the time zones of upper Mongolia.

I also got him to remove the Farcebook app as well as the others that many can’t live without. I knew who I was, I knew my place in the world and, dammit, I just wanted to send and receive calls or texts.

We didn’t get Sarah one as hers was still good but she did get him to simplify it to the same specs as mine, which I thought will drop her bill costs. We did a little window shopping and I sent a text to David with my new phone number. Then it was time for the big reveal in the office.

Sarah was almost beside herself as many thought that I was a studded, tattooed thug that had been on testosterone and muscle builders. It was odd that Sam had been so much on the edge of the drug scene that she had not taken anything, waiting for the time she could get a double mastectomy and then taking all of the right things under supervision. She did have some brains there, at least.

We went up to the right floor and, before we got to reception, Sarah got me to go into the office first and see what the receptionist thought.

“Her name is Tina and she thinks she knows everything and everyone.”

I walked in, bold as brass and Tina said, “Hi Sarah, I thought you were bringing your thug sister to see us, did he get out of it?”

“No Tina, she’s right here in front of you. Sarah will be a couple of moments.”

The look on her face was priceless as my twin came in, “Got you there, Tina. That will teach you to listen to gossip. Actually, this showed just how observant you are as Samantha has much shorter hair.”

Tina blustered that she thought that Sarah had been and got hers cut as we went into the inner office where Sarah worked, bringing the place to a crashing silence for a few seconds before we were surrounded by all the girls, eager to know what had happened to ‘the lout’.

We were included in the group that went to lunch and we all chatted merrily as we ate. The others were happy to have seen me, especially as I was really the other twin and not the monster that the rumour mill had generated.

I had my sketchbook with me and sat back towards the end of the meal, drawing a picture of Sarah in the middle of the group and then added a ghostly monster vaguely in the background.

Sally, one of the managers, was looking over my shoulder as I sketched and asked me if she could have it to frame and put on Sarahs’ desk for the next day. She and I went off to the toilets together and I pulled the page from the book and gave it to her. At the mirror she was fussing with her make-up.

“Sally, I can see what your problem is, let me fix it for you. I do work in a salon as a stylist.”

It only took a few minutes to reline some of her features and extend the outline of her lipstick.

When she looked at herself she frowned, “Why couldn’t I see that?”She gave me a hug before we went back to the crowd who were getting ready to head back to the office.

Sarah and I stayed as the others left, promising that I would be a regular in the future.

Sarah sat back, “Well, that went well, didn’t it? The look on Tinas’ face was price-less, I would’ve liked to capture it”.

I pulled the sketchbook out of my bag and started drawing Tina at her desk, with the glazed look that she had at that time, the two of us standing side by side in front of her.

Now, this was the first time that Sarah had seen me sketch, every other time she had been busy with other things. She was amazed and enthralled as I nailed the look and the detail of the reception area.

“How do you do that?” she asked. “You were only there moments. Do you have a photographic memory as well?”

I told her that I could visualise things now and that my drawing was much more enhanced by the feeling of the moment.

She then asked, “Well, what about a subject that you have never seen, how would you go then?”

I thought for a few moments and started drawing. After ten minutes there was a picture of her in a long, flowing robe with a light behind her head. Her hand was outstretched to me, kneeling in front of her in a sack-like dress with my hands clasped in prayer and the disc hanging from my fingers on the chain. I did say that I wanted a picture of my angel to pray to every night, didn’t I?

She had tears messing up her mascara and we hugged. The café owner, who was coming around clearing the table, saw the picture and said that he would pay to have a picture of himself to put on the bar.

It took me twenty minutes to do one that did him justice and when I took it out of the book he asked me if I would sign it for him as well. He said he would get it framed for the next time we were in and insisted that I take the fifty he gave me, saying that it was a good buy as one of my originals could be worth thousands in a few years.

As we were back in the toilets repairing Sarah’s face, my phone rang and I heard David when I answered.

He told me that his secretary had just dropped a bomb on his deck. The company was in line for an award at a Building Industry Dinner on Saturday night and he wanted to know if Sarah and I could go with Roger and himself.

Sarah could hear what he was saying and nodded enthusiastically. I told him that we would love to and he said that they would pick us up in a limo at seven, Saturday evening.

Sarah asked where the function was going to be held and he said it was the Ritz and classed as a ‘white tie and tails’ event. He said that he and Roger would fund our dresses but not to send them to the poorhouse.

That afternoon we made sure that the Silvestri Sisters were going to be the ‘Belles of the Ball’.

Part 8

We needed to look like twins but able to be seen as individuals. Firstly Sarah phoned her usual salon in the city to see if they could do a hair extension job this afternoon and they said they could if we got there straight away.

We took a picture of her on my phone for the template and she left me there while she went off to find the right dresses, having more experience at the sort of do.

I sat in the chair while a very competent girl gave me longer hair, a bit longer than my sister’s at the moment but we were the same colour so it looked just like hers after it was trimmed.

When Sarah came back for me we stood together as the hair stylist took a couple of pictures for her portfolio. Except for the slight mark on my forehead and a small hole in my nose, we were now almost identical. She hustled me down the street and around the corner to a little boutique that you would have missed if you didn’t know it was there.

I had the thought that it should have been named B.R.U. as in Beauties rather than Spells.

She had found two identical style dresses but in different colours. One was a glorious, glowing ivory and the other was a very pale pink. She said that all the other women would be wearing rich colours and we would stand out as being elegant.

The sales lady, a real professional, agreed wholeheartedly. Sarah opted for the pink so we went off to change and I put on the ivory one. Looking at myself in the mirror I thought that I looked just like a bride.

“Sarah,” I called out, “You know that we’ll look like two brides with their grooms at the dinner?”

She laughed, “Now I know that you’ve changed, you’re thinking ahead like me.”

We did negotiate a discount by buying both dresses and promising to push the name of the boutique if asked on the night. Both were in a single bag and we took turns to carry it so the other could have both hands free as we then went to get perfect shoes, underwear and bags to suit.

By the time we got home we were loaded down and her cards had been given a severe shaking. We had kept the receipts so David and Roger could figure out how much they would pay. Their credibility would be reduced by every pound less than the total!

We had a light tea and listened to the radio for a while before opening up the box containing the coffee table as being, hopefully, the easiest to assemble. By ten we had it put together and decided that this would be enough for the day.

Tuesday was work for Sarah and also for me trying to assemble the vanity, something I achieved in just enough time for a sandwich before I rushed off to the salon. The girls complimented me on my new hair style and Ingrid was a bit put out that I had gone somewhere else until I explained that it was the salon where Sarah was a regular.

I told her that she would have the two of us to work on Saturday afternoon as we were going to an evening presentation at the Ritz.

That day and the working days up until Saturday were full on again and I was doing around a dozen make-overs a day, sometimes helping out with the other girls. Towards the end of the week we were getting a few of the older clientele coming in for a touch-up for the weekend and a couple were vocal about going to the Ritz on Saturday evening with their ‘management’ husbands.

I had to smile as, knowing the industry they were in, their husbands were probably brickies who had done well. No-one mentioned that the stylist would be there as well as you never upstage your good customers.

The disc sat quietly against my chest most of the time, just giving off a vibration when I started thinking unladylike thoughts as I struggled with the sideboard assembly.

I thought that we should mount the three Allan keys on a board and display them as a symbol of our perseverance.

Thursday evening Sarah came home with two sets of paste jewellery from her favourite outlet. I had to admit that they were very good. They were pairs of long pearl drops, one in each dress colour, as well as a pair of studs to match.

Sarah, up until now, had only the single piercing on her ears but had gone and got a second so that we matched there as well. On top of that were two necklaces and four bracelets to suit and even a pair of rings. I had the feeling that we were going to look like a pair of Disney princesses on the night.

Saturday I went off to work, leaving Sarah to tidy up in the flat and take the cardboards down to the container beside the tower. She told me that she would remove the couple of bags of ‘Sam stuff’ as well.

A bit after four she came into the salon and Ingrid did her hair into an up-do and I did her make-up. She then chatted with Jacquie while Ingrid did my hair in the same look and then I did my own make-up. We must have looked quite a sight as we strolled back to the tower, done up to the nines from the neck up.

We had a light snack and got stuck into the serious business of producing a pair of babes who were going to wow them on the red carpet. Although, being a builders’ do, I suspect that it would look more like the Yellow Brick Road.

We helped each other get into our dresses and ensured that every bit showed that we wanted to show and that those bits we hid away looked like they were about to peek out. One of the pearl bracelets was a bit longer and this went into our hair and, when we had finished off with a good spray of an expensive scent, we both felt as if we were ready for the BAFTAs, rather than the Builders.

Roger rang to tell us they were five minutes away and the looks on their faces as we came out to the limo was worth the whole effort. David was the one to ask which was which.

I said, “Does it really matter, darling?” He took me by the hand and told Roger the he got the pink one. They helped us into the limo and the driver had a smirk on his face as we drove off for our evening in the spotlights, or so we hoped.

At the Ritz it was as we expected, most of the other women were in vibrant colours and some looked like they were going on to a hooker’s convention afterwards.

The men, of course, were strictly controlled by the ‘white tie’ conventions so all looked a bit similar until you took in the hair, or lack of it, combined with the beard, or lack of it.

I started to categorise them by the eyebrow bushiness and the ear and nose sprouting; so many older men just don’t seem to care.

We were sat on a table for eight and the others were already seated when we extricated ourselves from the newspaper and official photographers.

Sarah had been absolutely right with her prediction and we stood head and shoulders over most of the women there with our style and elegance. I hoped that they would get the boutique into the copy if it got that far.

The others at our table were Davids' secretary / office manager and her husband and the others were his parents.

His father stood and hugged the two of us, saying to me “Now I know why he has been smiling all week.”

His mother also stood up and hugged me with the correct air kiss. She floored me by saying, “Welcome to the family, daughter.”

Over the entrée and main course I found out that this was the ‘Devine Builders’ table. I had known that David was David Devine and found out that his parents were David Senior and Annette.

Roger was Mr. Maldon and was a nephew of Annettes’, while the other two were Zoe and Zach Baker. He was an art teacher at the Uni. so the two of us had a bit of a discussion about our favourite artists.

After the mains there was a general exodus of the ladies to repair our faces. As I stood to leave the table I saw Mrs. Butcher done up to the nines, coming out from the official area by the stage, and her face was very furrowed.

She made a bee-line for the toilets and was standing by the mirrors looking at her phone when we went in. There was a queue for the cubicles so I went over to say hello.

I spoke to her and she couldn’t place me so I told her that I was Samantha and here with Sarah, my sister.

“My goodness, I just didn’t recognise you looking like a princess. Who are you here with?”

I said we were partners to David and Roger on the Devine table and she said “Those guys have always been behind the Industry Group, I am sure they will help me if you girls will.”

“So what do you want us to do?” I asked.

She showed me her phone which had a message on it saying, ‘Can’t make it, on way to hospital, appendix. Sonya.’

She said “Our presenter has let us down, in the old days we would have gone on, burst appendix or not. Can you, or better still, you and your sister do the trophy presentation if I talk to David and Annette about why I am taking you away from them for a while?”

I said we could as we had done something like that before and she rushed out of the toilet to see if she could get us a leave pass from our partners. I didn’t tell her that the last time we had presented prizes it was at High School sports trophies and we had been dressed as a pair of Saint Trinian’s sixth formers, all stockings and garters. That was before puberty and Sam starting to hate herself.

I rejoined Sarah in the line and said “We have to work for our meal tonight, but not in the way you are thinking, you naughty sister. We’ve been invited to be the celebrity award presenters and I said yes.”

She laughed, “Life has been a roller coaster this past couple of weeks and I think we’ll show them what the ‘Magnificent Silvestries’ are made of. I don’t think sugar and spice went anywhere near us when we were created.”

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 9

When we got back to the table and sat down we were quizzed by Annette on how we knew Mrs. Butcher, and I said that it had been in a professional capacity in an earlier life.

Annette wanted to know what my profession was and I just said, “Drunkard, but I’m over that now.”

We found out that Mr. Butcher was the Chairman of the Industry Board and the Head of the Building Approvals on the local council. He and his wife were the main organisers of this event and we were told that if we were going to help out everyone was happy with that.

I didn’t think that they had been told what we were wanted for. The dessert was fantastic and we just had time for a sip of water before one of the waiters came over and asked us to follow him.

He led us to the back of the stage where we were fitted out with small radio mics. We were advised not to say anything we didn’t want anyone to hear after we had been turned on.

We were given the list of Awards each. Two podiums had been set up on stage and we could hear the hubbub as the crowd got ready for the presentation. There was also a mic on a stand for the winners to give the victory speech and Mr. Butcher asked us if we were ready.

He strode onto the stage and went to that microphone, “Welcome all to the Annual Building Industry Awards. I know that we are now at the point that you have all come here for so, without further ado, I am very happy to introduce to you our guest presenters – Sarah and Samantha Silvestri.”

As we walked on to the stage we went live. We waved at the applauding crowd and Sarah said “Good evening all. I’m Sarah and we’re here because the advertised presenter was offered a good gig in another theatre. I think that she’ll be opening about now. I’m sure that you’ll all offer your good wishes for a speedy recovery.”

I took over, “Tonight we have the good fortune to be here to give out these Awards, all well and truly earned by the winners. So let’s cut to the chase and make some of you very happy.”

I looked at a table of just men, “No, you naughty boys, not like that!”

As the laughter died down we started with the lesser Awards and it all went smoothly as long as we kept to the list. Mr. and Mrs. Butcher alternated in handing over the correct trophy and the winners all gave short and happy speeches, thanking everyone from God to their long lost mothers and the odd thing was that all the guys wanted the official photos to include the two of us, which slowed things down a bit but it was going pretty well.

We got to the Award for Concept Presentation and the winner turned out to be Zachary Baker of Devine Designs for the ‘Camden Project’ which was the first one on our table.

Now I had heard of this because the warehouse I used to work at delivered truckloads of electrical goods to the project. It was a redevelopment including a large quantity of affordable housing. He hammed it up when he got his picture with us so we gave him a peck on each cheek.

That was a mistake because every guy after that wanted their own pair of pecks; with much mirth from some tables with their wives on.

A little while later we announced the winner of the Best Restoration Project and it went to Devine Builders for one of the heritage Barclays branches. David came up and gave a short speech which he ended saying that he lived for moments like this and posed with us for his pair of pecks.

Three awards later Devine Builders got the Award for Best Development Project for the Camden Project and David sent up Roger to accept the Award.

His speech included how he loved working with David as he did share things around. We did the photos as usual and he got his pecks. Before we got to the big awards I made the comment that Sarah and I could get a job with the Tour de France with the number of kisses we had given out.

The last three awards were for Best Low Value project; Best High Value Project and the Builder of the Year. I saw that Devine had won both of the last two so before we gave out the first I announced that we wanted to take a group picture of the last three winners so asked if the winners could stay on the stage until we had finished all of the presentations.

The winners of the first award were the table full of guys that I had spoken to earlier and it was mayhem for a few minutes.

The second was the Devine Builders for the Camden Project and everyone from the table came up, David Senior getting a good round of applause when young David pushed him into the spotlight to accept the award.

He gave a very nice speech saying that tonight had been the best in his life, after his wedding night.

When we got some order back Sarah said that we were now at the point of Awarding the Builder of the Year and then threw to me so I carried on saying that we had been very happy standing in to do the presentations and that we didn’t need to make room on the stage for the biggest award which went to -- Devine Builders.

There was general whooping and hugging and I think I may have picked up a few bruises but it was happy groups that went back to their respective tables.

Mr. Butcher had indicated that he wanted the two of us to stay on stage for a while and closed the official part of the evening by thanking every for building a better environment.

He then thanked us for stepping in with ten minutes notice and making the evening such a happy event. I held Sarahs’ hand and we made a small curtsey.

We were relieved of our microphones and went back to our table where Roger and David stood up and enveloped us in their arms and gave us big kisses, with much hooting and clapping from the crowd.

After the euphoria of the awards there was much drinking and talking before the band assembled on the stage and started playing.

David pulled me onto the dance floor and held me close as we circulated. A lot of people wanted to speak to the Silvestri sisters that night and it was a lot of fun.

As things started to wind down Mrs. Butcher cornered me in the loos and asked if I could come into her office on Monday about mid-morning as she would have all the papers ready to finalise my parole period and then gave me a hug and thanked me for saving her bacon.

David Senior announced that he had told the limo drivers to come back around ten in the morning as he had managed to get rooms in the hotel for tonight so we can get blotto if we wanted.

Sarah and I had more than we normally would but nowhere near the amount that Sam used to put down. We shared one of the rooms and Annette said that she had arranged with the hotel to have day dresses delivered to our room in the morning.

She thanked us for making the evening memorable and then asked us if we needed to be home for anything on Sunday which was, as she looked at her watch, already a couple of hours old. The boys gave us goodnight kisses and we went off to our beds.

In our room there was all the things needed to finish the day, from make-up remover and moisturiser to nighties and gowns. When we had changed we hugged each other.

Sarah said, “Thank you, sis; that was a blast.”

Then we dived into our beds and slept like logs. Actually it was more like waterlogged as we seemed to wake up at the same times during the night to release the pressure in our bladders.

We surfaced about nine with the knocking on the door that announced our breakfast and our clothing for the day. Annette had arranged for day dresses in the same colours of our good gowns so the shoes and bags still worked.

After eating we had showers and dressed. I did our make-up in a less dramatic look. At ten to ten we were sitting in the lobby with our evening gowns and excess jewellery in Ritz bags at our feet.

The receptionist came over and gave us both a Sunday paper, saying “Look at page eight.”

There, sure enough, were pictures of the event with the two of us in front and centre with the caption about the beautiful Silvestri sisters who saved the day by standing in at short notice for the presentation. They gave the boutique name correctly and the fashion editor commented on how refreshing it was to see style back in with a vengeance.

There was also a picture from the red carpet with us on the arms of our guys with the caption that the winners of Builder of the Year are truly winners in more ways than one.

I laughed at that and asked Sarah how she liked being a trophy. The rest of the clan joined us and we got our morning kisses.

Annette took over and told us that we would be taken home for lunch and then David would take us to our home in the afternoon. They had all seen the paper and were over the moon with the evening.

David Senior told me that he had been in the running many times for the big award but this was the first time they had won it, due to his son taking a punt with a huge undertaking.

We all went to the Devine family home which, as you could expect of builders, was magnificent. Zoe and Zach had their own car there so would leave us after lunch.

While the others were imagining what the awards would mean to the company Zach gave me a sketchbook and some pencils, “Young David tells me you are an artist of note. I know that I calm down after an exciting time by drawing so have a break and I will mark you afterwards.”

The last bit was delivered with a broad smile. Sarah snuggled up to Roger while father and son discussed the firm and the future.

By the time lunch came around I had a number of sketches finished. There was one of David and his parents at the table last night with the trophies in front of them.

Another was his father and mother as they were now but sitting on their sofa holding hands.

Another was totally from the imagination because it showed David and Roger with Sarah and I dressed like the trophies from last night and they were standing behind us with their arms around our waists.

The last was of Zach and Zoe with his trophy in front of them and I had her looking lovingly at him in the way I had seen it a number of times last night.

Before we sat down for lunch Zach said “OK, let’s see what you have done for us” and I showed him the one of him first.

Zoe looked at it and burst into tears and came over to me with a ‘hug you to death’ look on her face. Zach said that it was an impressive piece of work.

The one with both Davids and Annette last night came second and Annette declared that it was going to be framed and hung over the fireplace.

The third was she and her husband and they both had tears in their eyes when they saw it.

I said that I had saved the fourth for last because it was drawn from imagination.

I showed it to Zach first and he hooted before passing it on to the older Devine’s and his father also hooted.

Finally Sarah, Roger and my David had a look and Roger said, ‘That is priceless”.

I said that the idea came from the caption in todays’ paper. David stood up and left the room, coming back a few minutes later with three framed pictures in his hands.

“I’m sorry, Roger,” he said, “I had these framed during the week and was to give you yours but this presentation thing just took over.”

He gave him the one I did of Roger and Sarah by the seaside and they both got up to give me hugs.

He then passed his father the one of him by the train, saying, “Dad, Samantha drew this on Sunday, having only met me a few hours before. Is she psychic or not?”

His father looked at the picture and then asked his son. “Firstly, had anyone told her of your other passion and, secondly, how did she know what Gertie looks like?”

Part 10

David took the picture back and looked at it closely.

“Good God” he said “You’re right. She’s drawn a two six four standard loco and there certainly wasn’t one working Bluebell last week.”

It was time I put my two-penneth in so asked, “OK buster, just who is this Gertie you’re two timing me with?”

His father laughed, “Nothing to worry about, my dear. Gertie is the Lady Gertrude Hewson, a two six four standard that is down in the workshops of the Devon Heritage Line and we go down there to work on it together. The really odd thing is that you have drawn him in exactly the right outfit. Who told you the details?”

Roger then piped up. “She didn’t know anything, she didn’t even know who she was going out with until we met on Sunday morning. I hadn’t told Sarah anything about David although Sarah did know the business I worked for.”

Sarah said, “Don’t look at me. I was as much in the dark as my sister.”

Annette then said, “David, you have held one back. This is the one I really want to see because you are holding it as if it means something more than usual. Please show it to me?”

David went to his mother and gave it to her. He then said that I had added the tower after we had been to Sissinghurst but the rest had been done on the train, the same time as the other two. His mother was still examining it closely and then she passed it to her husband who looked shocked at first and the broke out into a wide grin and slapped his knee with his free hand.

“Oh David,” he cried, “You are so hooked!”

I said, “It is just a picture, a flight of fantasy.”

Annette smiled, “This, my girl, is not just a picture. It is what we will use to make your wedding dress. David always said that he wanted to use the Rover as his wedding car. If this is the future then I fully approve. You and your sister have shown us that you are beautiful, caring and courageous and able to take on something at the drop of a hat. No-one, last night, would have thought that you were not professional presenters; keeping the show moving along without any let-up. I don’t care how you came to be within Mrs. Butchers’ ambit because I only see the girl in front of me now. If you two sisters become part of our family through marriage it will be an outcome my David and I will approve.”

When the others had a look at the picture there was a murmur of congratulations from Sarah and Zoe. Zach said that he wanted me to come into his studio and see what I could do with paints so we made an arrangement where David would pick me up the following weekend and take me there.

Roger made an arrangement with Sarah to spend the day together. We had lunch and Annette took me aside and told me a few stories about David as a youngster while the menfolk discussed the future of the company. Zoe and Sarah were off in a corner comparing notes about Roger, I guess.

After a pleasant afternoon David took me home, the long way round, and Roger took Sarah, also by a circuitous route. They must have agreed a time because they got us to the tower almost at the same time and we kissed our men before heading in.

“That was a very odd weekend,” said Sarah. “Roger wants me to meet up with him during the week and pick a ring. He said that only when I have chosen one will he propose. Do you think it’s too quick?”

I told her that she had known him a lot longer than a couple of weeks so it wasn’t quick at all. She commented that the wedding picture was really beautiful but that David had mentioned a double wedding.

I told her that I didn’t think the parents would approve of their day being shared and that she could be my Maid of Honour if she didn’t want to miss out.

I then cracked up laughing as it all seemed so strange. Me, sometime wannabe bloke Sam, talking about my wedding day. We were smiling together as we had our light tea, having eaten far too much for our own good in the last twenty four hours.

Monday! Well, Monday was different. Monday was not as nice as the weekend but it did seem to bear all the hallmarks of inevitability rearing its ugly head.

Sarah went to work and I got myself ready to go into see Mrs. Butcher. I was looking forward to being released from obligations and thought that no-one had been monitoring my movements for a week or more, now. I made sure that I was as girly as I could be and took the train in.

The disc was giving off a slow throb and I started to prepare myself for something odd to happen. Nothing occurred until I got to the office of the Parole Officers when it started to vibrate strongly. Someone was here who did not have good thoughts about me.

The secretary in reception told me that there was someone in with Mrs. Butcher and whispered that I should not allow him to get under my skin. She had heard him saying that he wanted to get me back to the station and under the lights.

At exactly the appointment time the secretary knocked on the door and opened it, saying, “Your appointment is here Mrs. Butcher.”

I heard a voice say, “Send her in,” and the secretary ushered me into the inner office. As I walked in I saw Mrs. Butcher with a neutral expression on her face and, sitting to one side of her was a large, florid man who screamed ‘copper’.

Behind the door stood a young guy who wasn’t too bad a looker so I smiled at him as I went past and he smiled back.

There were two chairs in front of the desk and Mrs. Butcher gave me a slow wink when she said, “Please take a seat Miss Silvestri.”

I sat down and waited quietly, watching the man get madder and madder.

I said, sweetly, “Can someone tell me what the hold-up is, I do need to be at the hairdressers before lunch.”

The copper growled, “We are waiting for your mad sister to come in, because that’s the person I want to talk to.”

I smiled, “Sarah is at work today, do you want me to ring her and ask her to come around? I am sure she would take umbrage at being called mad, that is tantamount to slander and she does work for a legal company.”

Mrs. Butcher was smiling now and said, “Samantha, dear, this is Inspector Watson of the Drug Squad and the good looking one by the door is the aptly named Constable Holmes. They are here to ask you some questions and, when they have left, we will complete the forms I have for you. Actually, if you sign these papers now we can get that bit over and done with quickly.”

She pushed the papers towards me and I signed all the ones that she indicated.

“There, now I will pass over to the Inspector to ask you his questions,” she said with a smile on her face, sitting back and waiting for the fireworks.

“Thank you, Mrs. Butcher,” he said, evidently happier now he had the floor. “Is this a wind-up with one sister standing in for the other, because I will not be happy if it is? No! I’m not happy, period.”

He pulled a mugshot out of his file, “Is this, or is this not you?”

I looked at my former self. “Yes, that was how I looked when that picture was taken. If you want proof I still have my original fingers so the prints will match.”

I detected a slight snort behind me and Holmes pulled out a hankie and wiped his nose.

The Inspector then said, “I must remind you that you are still on parole and that I can take you back in if you give me cheek.”

Mrs. Butcher held up a hand. “I’m sorry, Inspector, we’ve just signed all the papers that end Miss Silvestri’s parole period and she is now able to walk out this door if you’re out of line, so be polite to an upstanding member of the public. One who saved my bacon on the weekend in front of the cream of local society, and who is going with the builder who is, I believe, doing the renovations on your station.”

“I would hate it if you end up with your new office only able to be accessed by a fire escape.”

The snort behind me was more evident now and Watson growled, “Holmes, take a break and I‘ll meet you at the car.”

When the door shut he said, “I need you to tell me how long you have been dealing with William Williams. He said some weird stuff before he died and you’re incriminated.”

I asked just how that could be as our paths had never crossed. He said there was CCTV of him giving me something in the food court of the mall. I said that this was the only time he and I had met and that he had thanked me for fulfilling his wish and that he gave me a talisman.

“He wasn’t passing you drugs, then,” said the unbelieving copper. I reached up to my neck and pulled off the disc and passed it to Mrs. Butcher who held it, rubbed it and put it on her desk. The Inspector grabbed at it and yelled, tossing it my way where it fell at my feet.

“That bastard thing burnt me,” he yelled,” I’ll have your hide for assaulting a police officer!”

I reached down and picked it up and said “I’m sure you’re mistaken, officer, this disc works with only good. It would only attack someone evil and I am sure that an upright member of the force couldn’t be evil.”

I passed the disc to Mrs. Butcher again and she held it in her hand saying “It seems perfectly harmless to me Inspector, perhaps you would like to try again?”

He glowered and left it lie there. Then he said, “If that is the only time you met, how did he know so much about you and your sister, including names, addresses and the like. He kept saying his name was Sam, not William, and that we were all bastards trying to stitch him up. We had him to rights – assault, drug trafficking and now rape and murder. Give me one good reason how this all happens.”

I looked him in the eye, “OK Inspector, one word and that word is Magic.”

He smirked, “Now I know this is a wind-up.”

Mrs. Butcher said, “I can see how this happened now, let the girl speak.”

I carried on. “Inspector, I am telling you the truth and would swear on a whole stack of bibles for you. That medallion on the desk is a Wish Disc. William, or should I say, Dot, bought it from a guy who said that it would grant him just one wish.”

“In the food court that day he wished he was a woman and he stole my personality, leaving me with his. I bet you haven’t been able to reconcile his actions with what everyone said he was like.”

“Nor would you find any evidence of wrongdoing before those last few days. I believe that I got the better deal out of it because he could never have guessed just what an evil bitch I was and I’m sure that this is what sent him off the rails.”

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 11

Mrs. Butcher was nodding as I spoke and then remarked, “The change in you was almost too sudden to believe. There was no way the Sam I had been seeing would suddenly become the Samantha I now know any other way. I’m a believer.”

The Inspector was still not convinced and pulled out another file.

I said, “If that’s the William Williams file you can follow what I say”

I then started with name, date of birth, parent’s names and birthdays, schooling and work history, including the names of all the girls I used to see, the foreman in the warehouse, amount in the weekly pay and the locker number.

He became more incredulous as I spoke.

I said, “When you spoke to all the people that knew him you would have found that he was kind and considerate, a totally law abiding citizen and the bug that is biting your butt is why he changed to the monster he ended as. I can tell you that he had one major flaw and that was that he thought he should have been born a woman.”

“Sam had one major flaw as well, besides being a pain in the arse, and that was what created the monster she had become. She wanted, with all her heart, to be a man and the transfer to a body that fulfilled all her dreams was, in the end, the one thing that brought her to her death.”

He asked, “So you are Williams?”

“No, I have his personality and some of his skills. I am Samantha and have all the memories of her and her life. I now can do things she never could. I’m a gifted make-up artist when she didn’t know one end of a lipstick from the other. I’m a good artist who may get better and, after all that, I find that I have a gift of fortune telling that neither of them had. The disc gave up its only wish but is still active, drawing on ancient magic to be ready for something else that none of us are prepared for.”

As I was speaking the disc started to hum and the hum turned to a vibration that made the pens in the desk drawer rattle together.

“Inspector, someone is coming this way. It’s someone who is genuinely and truly an evil person. The disc is warning us. If you believe me you can pick it up and it will be just warm.”

“If you are still my enemy it will burn you again. You only have seconds to find out where you stand.”

He had guts, I give him that, as he reached out and picked up the disc and held it in his palm to feel the warmth. Just then there was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Mr. Butcher who said, ”Sorry to butt in on your meeting, dear, but we have been invited to lunch with the Minister and he is here to take us in his car.”

He opened the door wider and the Minister of Housing, a dour and disliked man, put his head in, looked at us all, his eyes resting on me for a moment or two, and said “I only have an hour if you want to eat,” and backed out of the room.

Mrs. Butcher nodded, “I think we are finished here, or it could be that we have just started something else. Thank you for your time, Inspector, and I’ll be in touch Samantha, I am sure we’ll need to speak again.”

She left the office with her husband and I stayed sitting.

The Inspector sat thinking for a few moments, “That disc can certainly pick them. I have had the Minister on my radar for some time. He just never does anything I can book him on. Look, Samantha, truce?”

He held out his hand. I shook it and said, “Certainly, my dear Watson.” He winced.

I stood and put all of the paperwork that had been left for me into my bag. The Inspector was still thoughtful and then asked, “Miss Silvestri, there are aspects of the case that still make no sense. Can I buy you lunch so we can continue this talk, but well off the record, so that I can tidy up loose ends.”

I nodded and we went down to the car where Holmes was waiting patiently. I got in the back with the Inspector.

Holmes asked, “The station then, Sir?” and was told that we were heading for somewhere to eat. He asked me if I had a preference and I named the pub that David had taken us to as I knew we would get a good meal as well as me having a friend on hand.

It didn’t take us long, especially as Holmes was a very competent driver and only used the lights and siren a couple of times. At the pub Alan, the owner, greeted me with a hug and I asked if we could have a quiet corner, or better still, an unused bit of the bar as I wanted to have a confidential chat with my companions.

He took our orders and we sat at a distant table. Watson asked if Holmes could take notes and when I nodded said, “The unofficial notebook Holmes; this is purely between us.”

Over a very nice lunch I gave them chapter and verse of the “Life of Sam” with names, places and times, including the full list of flat numbers where the owners were users.

I told them that the gun had been given to me to hold on to not long after I had been placed with Sarah and that I had no idea why.

I even told them how the tower deliveries worked and that the drugs found in Dots’ flat were taken in the break-in at our flat, along with the gun.

I said that DC Stevens would be able to give him the background on that. With what had been said before, he now fully understood the why and the how everything happened.

I did say that I had no idea why Dot had done the rape and murder, except that it may have been Sam’s need to prove her new masculinity as I had no memories of that kind of desire in my brain.

I told him that if there had been any remnants of those thoughts I would have contacted the police instead of just warning Fiona and the girls. We were having a coffee when the disc started vibrating again between my breasts.

“Inspector, I believe there is someone in, or around, this pub that has less than good thoughts, maybe you should take a look.”

He got up and walked out, through the bar, as if he was going to the toilet. I heard a scuffle and his voice called, “Holmes, your assistance if you please.”

When I followed Holmes there were a couple of stools that were scattered around and the Inspector with his knee on the back of a guy.

“Your cuffs, please” and Holmes cuffed the guy.

“Take him out to the car and wait with him in the back” and Holmes took the guy outside.

The Inspector paid our account and apologised for the upset.

He turned to me. “I would love to take that disc off you to see how it works but I’m sure that it is just a solid piece of metal. That guy has been on our wanted posters for the last month and we’ll get a commendation for bringing him in. I am sorry that I can’t take you back to town now but the publican can call a cab for you which I will pay for the next time I see you.”

“I thank you for your frank discussion today, it puts full stops to a lot of loose ends and I think we may need to get together in the future to take the Minister down. If that disc just vibrated with the scum we just arrested, I hate to think of the evil that the Minister has, the way it acted in the office.”

Alan called David and we sat and chatted for a while as I collected my thoughts. David was only a half an hour away and we took the opportunity to stop for some snuggling before he dropped me off at a train station so I could get back home again.

I told him that I had been having lunch with an Inspector from the drug squad but he had not been able to take me back to town because he had arrested someone in the pub. I promised that I would fill him in once I had more information but that I was not two-timing him as it was an official but un-official exchange of information. Besides, I now had the papers to show that I was, once again, an innocent member of the general populace.

When I got back to the flat I put the papers where Sarah could check them over before putting them in the safe. I then rang her at work and told her that I was now a free woman and that I was taking her out for a meal tonight.

I told her to wait at work and that I would call in around her finishing time. I then took a shower and got myself ready for a trip back to the city, taking another few notes off of my stash.

When I got to her office, Sarah was chatting with a couple of the girls who she said were wanting to go and celebrate one of them falling pregnant so we agreed to join them, giving her the opportunity to choose, just in case she was already in the odd food stage.

We had a lovely night, full of girl talk. Of course we couldn’t go through the evening without being approached by guys wanting to buy us drinks and, no doubt, take us home afterwards. We did rebuff all advances and the two of us got home, well fed and a little tipsy, about eleven.

Before we went to bed, I made a cocoa each and she had a look at the paperwork before putting it away in the safe.

I also told her about my interesting day with Watson and Holmes and the disc going mad when the Minister arrived on the scene.

She told me that he had a long reputation as a man-about-town and womaniser but seemed to have been quiet since he had been elevated to cabinet status. She did say that he was not a likeable man and that he did not seem to care.

Oddly, it all went better for him in his conservative with a capital ‘C” electorate as he only acted like the majority of the men around him.

Part 12

On Tuesday morning Sarah went off to work again and I had the morning to myself. I did some laundry and cleaning before putting on a nice dress and going down to the local supermarket for some needed supplies.

Coming out I saw Jerky, the dealer that Sam had been getting the drugs from.

He saw me. “It’s Sarah, isn’t it? I spoke to you before outside the tower”

I lied that I was and he asked of Studs was likely to come back. I told him that Studs was long gone and that I had been interviewed by the drug squad in regard to her association with a now-dead rapist and murderer.

I suggested that he should stay clear of the tower for a while as I thought that it may be under observation in case Studs returned.

He said that there were some things that were being kept for him and went pale when I told him that it was all in the possession of the police and that they had asked me about a gun.

He muttered his thanks and hurried away, no doubt off to execute ‘Plan Z’, the one where he finds a bolt-hole until things blow over.

It turned out that I was right about the observation as I saw Holmes sitting on the bench when I got back. He beckoned me over and I sat next to him with my bags at my feet.

He pointed at the bud in his ear and said, “I’ve just had word that you had a chat with your old friend Jerky, can you tell me what was said?”

I related our conversation, making sure that he knew that Jerky thought that I was Sarah.

He smiled and I was suddenly taken with how handsome he was. Am I thinking lewd thoughts?

“That was perfect, we put a tracker on his car and he’s now leading us to his special hidey hole to probably pick up false papers. If we’re lucky he’ll have some stock there as well and we’ll be able to put him away for a while.”

We sat in silence for a few moments and I said, “I can’t just keep calling you Holmes. Don’t tell me that your parents called you Sherlock, it would be too terrible.”

He laughed, “They weren’t that terrible. They called me Mycroft instead.”

I agreed that I had better keep calling him Holmes and he smiled that it was all for the best if I did.

In the stories Sherlock was gifted, if on the edge of the spectrum, while Mycroft was simply weird.

I asked if they were keeping an eye on the tower or if it was just me and he told me that it was all part of an area operation which included most of the various squads.

“It’s a strange one,” he mused, “Inspector Patterson is in charge. He is Homicide. There have been a number of disappearances of teen to twenty year old girls over the past six months. All were very pretty and you fit the profile exactly. We are just trying to find out how they disappeared as there are no links between them and they came from different backgrounds. It is a strange case and the whole station is baffled. Just make sure you and Sarah don’t go with strange men or take short cuts down dark alleys.”

We stood and he helped me gather my bags, “I’ll be off, now. Just be careful, both of you. I, for one, would be very upset if either of you got hurt.”

I watched him walk away and wondered just what he meant by that. As far as I know he had never met Sarah but, there again, she had met a lot of the local force during her time with the legal office.

I knew I had to ask her about this. I went up to the flat, put everything away and then had a light lunch before heading off to the salon to start work.

The week continued as usual, I was kept busy doing make-overs. Friday was a bit different as there was going to be a ‘Butch and Bitch’ evening in one of the pubs and we worked on a few guys that came in for waxing, make-up and reworking their wigs.

It wasn’t something I had ever thought I would be doing in my previous life. On the Saturday one of them came back and showed us the photos that he had taken. I must say they all looked like real women and the ‘guys’ were over the top in a way that the old Sam would have appreciated.

Saturday I was about to finish my last customer when Sarah came into the salon.

I could tell that she had been crying and gave her a quick hug, telling her to sit with a cuppa until I was clear.

She did look a little better by the time we left, mainly due to Ingrid telling her that she looked a fright and dragging her to one of the chairs for a quick repair session.

On the way home she was quiet and I just waited until she was able to sort her internal problems out. We had a meal and were sitting with a cup each when she finally came out with it.

“I‘ve broken it off with Roger,” she sobbed, “He has been the perfect gentleman up until today and I thought that it could be love. Today we went to the jewellers and looked at engagement rings. I picked out a lovely one that was not too expensive and he told the jeweller to put it aside for a while.”

“We then went to a café and sat with some coffee and cake and he told me that he would buy the ring and give it to me in the morning when we woke up. Well! That’s when I woke up. All he’s wanted is to get into my pants and he thought that I would roll over with the carrot of a nice ring!”

“I told him that I was going to wait for my wedding night and he got angry, telling me that I should consider myself lucky that he loved me. It went from bad to worse and I told him to get out of my life and he stormed off in a huff.”

I gave her a hug and she sobbed for a bit, “You know, he did seem pushy, especially when we were alone together. He had hands that were all over the place and sometimes it felt good but other times it just seemed strange”.

“He used to take my hand and put it on the bulge in his trousers as if that was guaranteed to get me horny but I would always make sure that I could find something to break the moment. It’s such a waste, why on earth can’t I find a nice guy?”

“There’re plenty of nice guys out there, sister dear; I was talking to one the other day. His name is Holmes and I think he may have a bit of a crush on you.”

She looked startled. “Are you talking about the copper? If you are I have to agree that he is one of the nicest guys I have met around the courts but he has never shown interest in me in that way.”

She then got thoughtful, “Actually, now I think of it, he has been very attentive whenever I was around. I would never have guessed.”

I then went on to tell her about our conversation and she agreed that we had better keep vigilant, especially as we needed to stay aware of the Minister as well.

We had an early night and she came with me when David picked me up on Sunday to take me to my first painting session. She said that she wanted to try to paint something if she was allowed.

When we got to the studio Zach set her up with a canvas on an easel and some paints and we left her to it. He had set up a canvas for me and asked me what I wanted to paint.

I thought I would do a bigger version of the train picture and he and David went off to discuss business while I did my thing.

I used a light pencil to recreate the original picture and then added the colour. It was fun and also very soothing. I had finished just before lunch and went to have a look at what Sarah had achieved.

I was no expert but I could see that she also had talent as her landscape of a grassy meadow with some cows grazing was, if a little bland, nicely done. We covered the two pictures and went to find the boys so they could take us to lunch while the paints dried.

All in all it was very pleasant. I was happy to see Sarah with the sparkle back in her eyes and realised that the painting had been soothing for her as well, it must be some kind of twin effect.

After lunch we went back to the studio and looked at Sarahs’ work first. Zach was quite excited because he could see talent when it smacked him in the eye.

He gave her a paint box with all of the equipment needed and a small easel and a pack of canvas, telling her to do some more work for him but to try to paint the things around her, rather than trying to reproduce an old master.

I then revealed my picture and David gave me a big kiss, then Sarah gave me a hug, “If this is your foresight in operation, it looks as I am going to have an interesting future.”

I had recreated the picture of David standing next to the railway engine. However, in this one there was far more detail. The colours were as real as I remembered from the trains at the Bluebell and I now had David standing next to the name plate on the side of the boiler.

His father was poking his head out of the drivers’ cabin and I had added carriages behind the tender. I had painted Annette leaning out of a window and, further along and next to an open door, I was about to get on board with a stroller that contained a pair of babies.

Further along the platform there were a group of normal people but, walking towards the front carriage were Sarah with her arm linked to Holmes.

“I can’t explain it but the picture just seemed to take on a life of its own and I was just there to add the paints.”

Zach said that it didn’t matter how I did it because it was brilliant. David said he wanted it to hang in the office and Zach said he would organise to get it framed.

They asked me if I minded and I said I was just happy if it got a good home. They got me to sign it before we left.

Taking us home in the car, David was upbeat about the picture and said that if that was the future he will be happy to live it.

He asked who the guy was that I had put with Sarah and I told him that it was a guy who had a crush on her. He asked about Roger and Sarah told him straight out that it was over between them.

“That’s awkward,” he said, “Zoe told me yesterday that I’m invited to a high level dinner next Saturday evening and that I’m expected to have the two of you with me as you made quite a splash at the presentation.”

“I suppose you can ask your admirer because Roger has not specifically been invited. Zoe told me that the host for the evening is the Minister of Housing so it is a real lift in my status as I’ve never been invited to his events in the past.”

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 13

Sarah and I were somewhat gobsmacked at that statement. There we were, trying to avoid the Minister and now we were expected to be at a dinner he would be hosting. I quietly said to Sarah that it may be a blessing in disguise, in more ways than one.

She did not grace me with a reply but I knew she was thinking. “Pushy bitch, running my life!”

When we got back to the tower we both gave David a kiss, Sarah on the cheek and mine on his luscious lips. We waved him off and carried her new painting kit into the lift and up to our floor.

We were sitting with our steaming cups when my phone rang. It was Holmes to let me know that I had raised the quarry as he had thought and that Jerky was now parked in a holding cell while the SOCO guys went through the lock-up he had been tracked to.

I told him that I had been invited to a dinner that the Minister was hosting and that Watson may be interested. He said that he would like to be a fly on that wall and I told him that he was a very lucky boy, because that opportunity had arisen.

I passed him over to Sarah who spoke with him before telling him that she was also invited to the dinner but did not have a partner to go with. This, she told him, was an opportunity for him to be near the Minister for a number of hours. He jumped at the chance and told her that he would be in touch.

Monday I went shopping for the two of us. We needed similar dresses and shoes for the Saturday evening. David had told us that he needed to be seen as a player now the company had won the top award so he would fund our outfits again.

I was looking for dresses that were not low cut in case Watson wanted us to wear a wire and I did want to have the disc on but out of sight. I found a pair of glorious silken fabric cheongsam dresses that would make the men drool.

They were in a bright red and a deep blue, both with dragons on them. I was still in town for lunch when Watson rang and asked if he could meet me. I was not far from him so we met up at a little café and he asked me about the dinner.

I told him all I knew and he told me that he had approved an operation that evening where Holmes, Sarah and I would be wearing small radio mics that would transmit everything we hear to a control van parked next to the venue.

He pulled one of the mics from his pocket and it looked a bit like a pearl brooch. I opened the shopping bags and showed him the dresses and he promised to have a pair of mics for us that would suit the dresses.

I told him that, as it was the first time David had been invited, it was unlikely that we would be close to the Minister and he said that it didn’t matter as all background conversations would be recorded for future listening.

I said that the dresses were too tight fitting to allow for a transmitter and he told me the mics had enough range to get from one end of the dining room to the other and that Holmes would have a repeater with more power disguised as a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

Before he left he said that Jerky was proving to be a real fountain of information, firstly from what they had found in the lock-up and, secondly, because he had done a deal to testify against the ones above him in the supply chain; as long as he could be protected.

I half expected that because Jerky had always been one to look after himself first. In the afternoon I found us some strappy heels that went with the dresses and went home, as they say, tired but happy.

Tuesday was clean-up day and the rest of the week followed the usual course. I did my make-overs, Sarah went to the office and the evenings were taken up with an artistic flavour.

Sarah had been taking pictures with her phone and was trying to create pictures based on the result. It was a lot harder for her than the field scene but I could help her with her initial drafting outline. I spent a lot of time doodling with the sketchbook to give me a range of basic pictures that I could turn into paintings.

Saturday afternoon Sarah came into the salon and Ingrid did our hair to suit the oriental dresses. I then did our make-up to suit. Holmes joined us at the tower and we sat with a soft drink waiting for David.

Sarah and Holmes were hesitant at first but soon got chatting away like old friends once they had latched on to anecdotes from the courts. David texted me that he was downstairs and we went out to meet him with the limo.

It was the same driver and he gave us a wink when he helped us in. David did not know that Holmes was the law and we introduced him as being with public relations.

Actually we introduced him as Mike Howard. Sarah and I both had a dragon brooch that Holmes had supplied and his was a small microphone with an ITV logo under it.

When we got to the venue we were helped out of the limo by uniformed flunkies and I linked arms with David as we went in.

There was a sign that pointed to the room where the Minister was holding his dinner and we strolled to the room where a ministerial staffer checked our names off a list, filling in Mike Howard in the blank next to Sarah.

David said, as we went in “This is where you find out who the movers and shakers are. They’ll be the ones nearest the Minister. I expect that, as this is our first time, we’ll be somewhere near the back wall.”

To our surprise, we were led to a table set for eight where Mrs. Butcher was already sitting. We were shown our places and we joined her, ordering drinks from a waiter.

I knew the minister was getting close as the disc started vibrating. A few moments later he walked into the room, in close conversation with Mr. Butcher and a stunning blonde girl walking behind with a bored look on her face.

They came over and Mr. Butcher made the formal introductions with Holmes giving his new name when looked at. The blonde was, we found out, Miss Yvonne Golightly, a professional companion if I ever saw one.

Everyone sat and the meal started to be served. There was a soup and entrée and a big choice of main course.

The Minister was the real deal, urbane, chatty and very well-schooled on Devine Builders. He teased David with a couple of government contracts that were coming up for tender which would put the company into the upper echelon if they won just one of them.

I felt that there may be more there in the way of discrete backhanders being asked for but I knew that David would never fall for it.

Holmes actually made good work about public relations in a discussion with Mr. Butcher while his wife spoke to us three other girls.

After the main course Yvonne said she needed the toilet so, naturally, it was a general exodus of women heading for the conveniences.

After we had used the cubicles we stood at the mirrors and I helped the others with their make-up repair. Yvonne wanted to know how we knew that Minister and Mrs. Butcher said that he was an old friend of her husband as she left the room.

Once she had gone Yvonne made that comment that the Minister had no friends, only people who did his bidding for reward.

Sarah said that this was a bit harsh but we probably would never find out if she was right as this was our first invitation and could be our last.

“No way,” spat Yvonne, “A pair of girls that look like you are exactly his preference. I can tell you that if I didn’t need the money I would be at home looking after my little one. He will expect full service and I am sorry to say that that will be what I do. At least I managed to steer him away from the kinky stuff.”

“Cathy, one of the other girls in the agency, used to see him regularly until he produced some handcuffs and tried to restrain her. She looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth but used to be in the army. She had him on the bed with his hands cuffed to the bedhead and sucking on a dildo. She took pictures and told him that if he ever tried it again we would release the pictures to the press.”

I commented that it would be good for a little blackmail and she said that the agency did not do things like that as they needed to have a reliable reputation. She stopped for a moment and then said, as we were heading back to the table. “It’s odd, though, Cathy seems to have gone off without saying goodbye and she was usually very sociable.”

Back at the table we had the dessert and coffee and the Minister turned his attention to the two of us, being very open in his admiration of our looks as twins as well, or so he had been told, of our skills as presenters. I felt as if I was being chatted up.

When his attention was diverted by something Mr. Butcher said, I turned to David and said, “Get us out of here, but do it gracefully.”

After about twenty minutes we were back in the limo heading for the tower. On the way Holmes sent a text, no doubt to Watson. When we got to the tower I gave David a hug and a kiss and told him I would see him Sunday morning to take us to the painting session.

He shook hands with Holmes who said he had his car around the corner. As the limo left we turned to go into the tower, only to find Watson waiting for us in the entrance lobby.

“Good work, tonight, you three. There was a lot to listen to but the conversation with Yvonne gives us something to go on. I happen to know that a girl called Cathy is one of those that seem to have disappeared. I have notified Patterson and he will be coming in to listen to the recordings tomorrow.”

We gave him his brooches back and he and Holmes said goodnight. I could see Holmes looking wistful so I nudged Sarah. “Don’t you think your partner for the evening deserves a little goodnight kiss,” and she went to him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

He left with a smile on his face. On the way up to our floor she asked, “How is it you keep setting me up with guys? My life was very ordinary and structured before you changed. Now it is so full of wonderful things I don’t know if I can take it all.”

Part 14

The next morning David picked us up to go for our painting session. He was a little hyper about his time with the Minister and had looked up the two projects on the government web site early in the morning. He estimated that each one was worth millions and would really put Devine Builders on the map.

When we saw Zach he looked at the paintings that Sarah had done over the week and he declared them as good work. We got set up in the studio and David excused the two of them as they needed to have a talk about the projects and how they may tender for them.

Sarah and I started working on our paintings. She worked from more pictures she had taken on her journeys to and from work, as well as a couple she had taken in her office. She wanted to do something that she could present to her fellow workers to hang on the office wall if the partners allowed it.

I started by sitting and sketching a scene with the Minister, Yvonne and the Butchers sitting at a table with a meal in front of them because I just wanted to capture the essence of last night.

I then started to work on a full-size painting of the picture I had drawn of Sarah as an angel with me as the supplicant. It was incredibly easy once I had sketched the outlines and she ended up looking like a true Madonna.

I drew myself with short hair and no make-up to show the difference between us. As I was doing some finishing touches she came over and stood behind me to see what I had been doing. It took several minutes of hugs before we were able to dry our tears of love for each other.

We covered up our pictures and went to find the boys to see if we were going for lunch. Over the meal we all spoke about the projects and David told us that usually a developer would tender and then sub-contract the actual building but he and Zach had decided that, if they were going to tender, it would have to be a proper package, with drawings of the vistas and amenities.

One was out towards the mouth of the Thames and would have some waterside frontage once the land had been reclaimed; the other was a bit contentious as it was set near the West Downs near a conservation area and would have to fit with its surroundings. Zach asked me if I would like to help with concept pictures and I agreed as long as Sarah was able to contribute with her landscape skills.

The boys needed to talk some more so we went back to our creativity for another couple of hours. Sarah and I worked on a single painting of a scene of rolling hills with livestock, bordered by a housing estate which I took some liberties on the building designs to fit with the scenery.

It was a bit of fantasy, I know, but there was a sense of sisterly companionship as we worked on it together. Sarah said that if the boys didn’t like it we could hang it on our own wall to remind us of what we had achieved. She did comment that she loved the look of the houses and wouldn’t mind living in one like that.

The attitude of the guys when they came in to look at what we had done was interesting. The picture that Sarah had done for her work colleagues was well regarded by Zach as a real leap forward in her skills and was a pointer at how good she could be.

We told her to sign it and Zach said he would get it framed for her. My painting of Sarah the Madonna was looked at with some level of awe by both guys. David thought it was just beautiful and Zach said that it would fetch thousands if it went on the market. I told him that it would be going on our wall at home.

The painting of the rural development brought gasps of astonishment from both of them, especially when we told them that it was a joint work. They both looked closely at the house designs we had put into the countryside and they were adamant that we had come up with something new and vibrant, as long as they could be built.

It started a conversation about new movements in construction with poured concrete that went way over my head, even though I still knew roughly what they were talking about. David said it would hang in his office to give him inspiration.

On Monday I was cleaning up in the flat when I was visited by Watson and the Homicide Inspector Patterson. He had listened to some of the conversations from Saturday and wanted to talk to me to get some idea of my feelings.

I didn’t tell him about the Wish Disc as I thought it may be too much a leap of faith for him. I did tell him that I had a very bad feeling about the Minister and put forward my thought that he may be corrupt in regard to contracts.

He did divulge that there was quite a big file on the Minister and a lot of supposition and corruption had been included but he was very careful. He did say that the comment Yvonne made about him only having lackeys had caused him to think a bit further down that track, starting with the Butchers.

Tuesday morning David picked me up and took me out to look at the waterside area so that I could visualise the possible development.

We had a bit of a discussion about building with concrete and I remembered an article about precast walls with the window and door openings already in the correct place, a system that has been used in other countries for some years now.

He thought about it and said that it would bring the building costs down as long as they could come up with some way to put texture on the outside face. We stopped at a little café for a coffee and cake and then he took me home so I could get ready for work.

The rest of the week went as usual, plenty of ladies leaving the salon looking better than when they arrived. Sarah spent most evenings painting small pictures while I was frantically sketching buildings and retail areas.

Saturday evening she went out for a meal with Holmes and was a bit flushed when she got back, quite late. I went out with David to see a movie.

Sunday we did another art session but this time was much more aligned to a possible concept package. Much of the time I did detailed sketches based on photos that Zach showed us.

He had been spending a lot of time in the countryside at the project sites and had been able to get a map of each site off the government web site.

During the following week we were sitting at home when David rang to see if he could come and talk to us. When he arrived he was in a state of excitement and showed us a set of tender forms that he had been sent from the Minister.

For each of the tenders there was an official looking form which listed the company’s attributes in relation to the granting of the tenders and was signed by the Minister as recommending Devine Builders for the project.

He told us that if we could put a viable tender package together, this alone would put him on the front of the queue. He then told us that we were invited to yet another dinner with the Minister, but this time with other developers present.

I reminded him that we couldn’t wear the same dresses so he said he would fund us again as we had such a positive effect on proceedings.

So Sarah came around to the salon Saturday afternoon to get prettied up. When we left she was presented with a loyalty card which gave her the fifth session free. She had found the dresses this time, contrasting colours on simple sheaths.

We got dressed and had been joined again by Holmes in his alter ego. David came by with the limo again. Before we went down to the car David gave us both an envelope. He said that they contained cheques to pay for our clothing outlays as well as for the pictures we had done that he would be keeping.

The driver gave us a wink when we got in as we were getting to be good regulars by now. The event was in an entertainment venue north of the city and was in a separate room with tables set for ten each.

We found ourselves sat with the Butchers again as well as two couples from other building companies. The Minister had a table with nine guys and I asked Mr. Butcher who the guys were.

He reeled off their names and said that they had all completed projects in the past. I hoped that Watson was getting all of this as I thought it was good information.

The wish disc had set up a vibration from the moment we had come in and didn’t settle until we left. In the meantime we had a pretty ordinary meal and the Minister had circulated around the tables between courses.

He spoke to David and then asked if he had got the documents, stressing that the recommendation would not be any good if the tender was poor.

David assured him that he would be pulling out all of the stops to make sure it was up to scratch and that we would get the papers in before the tender period elapsed.

Before he went on to another table, the Minister again commented on how beautiful Sarah and I were and how lucky David was to have us. The last was said in such a way that it made my skin crawl.

Before we left we went to the toilet and Mrs. Butcher talked to us. She asked us what we were doing Monday and Sarah told her that she would be at work and I said I would be meeting her at her office. I thought we may go for a meal, seeing that I wanted to go to town and see my bank.

She mentioned that her husband had been out looking for a gift for each of us as a thank you for our help with the presentation and that she would get in touch when he had found them.

When we got home Holmes took our microphones, gave Sarah a kiss or two and left us to go up to the flat. We had a look in the envelopes before we went to bed and were blown away by the generosity.

David had put in a note that Zach had valued all of the pictures he had and the cheque showed the market valuation. All of a sudden I had a massive windfall.

Sarah filled out a deposit form for hers so that I could put both cheques in our banks on Monday.

Sunday we had a trip into the country with Zach and Zoe; Zach directing David to the right places within the project boundaries so we could get a good idea of the lie of the land and make some decisions on where various things would be put.

The riverside one was first and David decided that we would tender to include reclamation of a considerable stretch of riverbank.

In the afternoon we went to the West Downs and ended up in the country pub where Alan cooked us a great meal.

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 15

Monday morning Sarah went off to work and I sorted out the cleaning, dusting and a bit of washing before getting a light lunch and making ready for a trip into town.

The teller in the bank called the manager when I went to deposit the cheques and he asked me about them, ‘purely as a matter of prudent banking, in case I started to deposit similar amounts in future’.

I told him that the bulk of my cheque was for the sale of paintings I had done and that I would possibly be depositing similar amounts once I had put on a show in a gallery.

It all was accepted and I walked out with a couple of receipts. I had a wander around the shops, just looking for the moment as I now had some idea of my financial situation so needed to see what I could get within my budget.

As it got near closing time I went up to collect Sarah from her office and take her out for a meal.

We left her building and were walking along and talking about where we should eat when I heard our names being called. When we turned we could see Mrs. Butcher standing by her double-parked car waving to us.

“I’m so glad to have caught you two. My husband has told me that he had found the ideal present for the two of you and that, if I took you home with me, he’ll present them and I could take you to wherever you want to go for your meal.”

Sarah and I got into the car with Mrs. Butcher. I was wondering what sort of gift Mr Butcher thought would be suitable for a pair of first-time presenters. She drove us to her house and, as we got closer, the disc started to vibrate.

I worried about what, or who was near but was not prepared to see the Minister in the lounge in a deep discussion with Mr. Butcher.

I nearly turned around but Mrs. Butcher was behind me having put our coats on a hook and it would have been unladylike to have pushed by her. Sarah was looking at me as if she was picking up on my unease.

Mr. Butcher welcomed us with, “Ah, the stars of the show and very likely the real stars of shows to come. The Minister and I were just finishing our business. I’ll get us all drinks before he leaves. Make yourselves comfortable.”

I was just relieved that the monster was going so I sat next to Sarah on the sofa while Mrs. Butcher went to her easy chair.

Mr. Butcher brought us our drinks, wine for us ladies and a whisky for himself and the Minister. He said some nice things about our performance and raised a toast on our behalf.

The minister then said that he had heard that he was likely to be our next Prime Minister in a couple of months as the incumbent was about to step down. Mr. Butcher raised a toast to the new PM and we all drank.

I thought that Mr. Butcher had either a very bad taste in wine or else was truly stingy. The Minister said cheerio and that he looked forward to meeting us again; all while looking directly at me which sent shivers down my spine.

The two men left the room and the vibration in my cleavage lessened. The three of us sat, seemingly concerned with our own thoughts and then I heard someone snore. I looked over and saw that Mrs. Butcher had fallen asleep; she must have had a busy day.

I put my wine glass on the coffee table and felt like I was moving inside a tub of molasses. I looked at Sarah and she was sagged against the arm of the sofa with her eyes shut.

The disc started vibrating again and Mr. Butcher came back into the room with a big grin on his face and evil in his eyes. Had we suspected the wrong one!

As I was losing my senses he gloated. “I’m sad that I’ve been told to leave you for my friend but at least I’ll get to play with her twin.”

Then my world went black. When I woke up I was sitting on a hard chair with a belt or something holding me upright. My arms were pulled back and I could feel that my wrists were in shackles or, perhaps cuffs, behind the chair.

There was a gag in my mouth and I felt terrible. I was in what appeared to be a large room and it felt as if it was underground.

Mr. Butcher was fussing over something across the room from me and, when he turned around, I saw that he had been finalising his restraints on Sarah, who was now stretched on an iron-framed bed with her wrists and ankles shackled to the four corners. Her head lolled towards me and I saw that she, too, had a gag in her mouth. We were now both prisoners of Mr. Butcher and – his friend!!

He saw that I was awake and came over to me, put his hand under my chin and lifted my face towards his.

He kissed me on the forehead and then said, “Samantha, dear one. It has been a pleasure to watch you as I planned this day. You will not be lighting up your world for very long, maybe a few days longer than your sister. I have to leave you now to see about my good wife, she is always randy after her little snooze but it will make me take longer when I come back for my fun with Sarah.”

“It will be the first time I’ve had a spectator so that may add a little spice. Of course, it will be so much better that you’ll be seeing your own fate when it comes to your turn on the bed. I will see you in an hour or so, don’t you go away.”

He left the room, closing the door with a thud and I also heard the rattle of keys in the lock. There was no way we were going to escape, now. I took my time to look around me, as much as I could with my restricted movement. The room was lit by what appeared to be a night-light in a single hanging lamp.

The bed looked almost antique and I could see that no amount of pulling or heaving would allow someone to break free from the shackles. I was sat against the same wall as the door and it looked as if someone had meant the room to be a wine cellar because there were wine racks along the side wall to my left. There were a couple of hooks with our coats and bags hanging from them. On the side to my right was a table with a number of very worrying implements laid out on it.

The biggest of these were a pair of dressmaker’s shears and the smallest looked like a scalpel. On the floor near my chair were a couple of mops and an old steel bucket with a big bottle of bleach sitting in it.

That done, I thought back to the times when the disc had vibrated. In recent times it had gone crazy when the Minister had been close and then I realised that, from the very first time in Mrs. Butchers’ office, Mr. Butcher had been there as well.

The first time I had met Mr. Butcher was at the presentation night and I hadn’t been wearing the disc because it didn’t fit with the pearls look.

As I sat I saw Sarah come around and start pulling on her restraints. My heart was heavy as there was nothing I could do to calm her and just had to watch until she stopped and sagged flat, no doubt starting to come to accept what the fates had decreed was hers.

I knew she wasn’t a virgin and the thought came to me that I was so it was going to be worse for me. When the disc started vibrating again I knew he was coming back and I was sure that I was about to witness something so horrible it would be a good job they would be finishing me off as well.

I heard the rattle of keys and the door opened. Mr. Butcher came in, wearing a dressing gown. He put the keys in a pocket and then came to me to check that I was still as he had left me.

He couldn’t help himself and he fondled my breasts. The dressing gown gaped open and I could see his cock rampant and still glistening from his wifes’ juices.

He smiled, seeing where my eyes were pointed, “Maybe I can give you something after my friend leaves. The Minister is like all the pollies, likes the spoils but has nothing to do with the clean-up afterwards. Still, it won’t be the first time I’ve savoured his sloppy seconds.”

He turned and went to the bedside to look at Sarah struggling and making muffled sounds through the gag.

“Don’t struggle so much, my pretty one. I am sure that you’ll enjoy what’s to come; if not the first time but maybe when I come back in the morning for the second or third round. It all depends on how good these pills are. My best girl, so far, lasted five times before I put her out of her misery.”

He picked up the dressmakers shears and went to the bed, looking like he was deciding whether to cut her clothes off top to bottom or bottom to top.

All the time the disc was practically making my breasts sway with its vibration and was getting very hot. I was screaming inside, hating what was in store for my angel sister.

My heart was at breaking point and I wished that I was free so that I could save her.

At that moment the cuffs holding my wrists opened up and the belt around my chest went loose. I hoped that my legs worked as I grabbed the handle of the steel bucket and stood up; bringing the bucket up in a roundhouse swing that took no prisoners.

He heard the movement and turned to look at me in the chair as I bore down on him like the avenging angel I now was. The bucket hit him in the side of his head with a resounding clang, the big bottle of bleach inside giving it a lot of impetus.

He spun around and went down in a heap on his front and, as I watched, he shuddered a few times and then went very still and I saw blood seeping out from under his body.

I stood there for a few seconds gasping with the strain and then dropped the bucket and went to his body to feel in his pockets for the keys. I unlocked the shackles that held Sarah to the bed and then took out her gag before taking mine off. She just held me close and we cried for a little while.

When she had calmed down we took our coats and bags off the hooks and left the room. I could see that it was rather a large, but unfinished, basement.

The floors had not even been finished in most of the area. We found the stairs and went up to find ourselves in the kitchen. I got a couple of glasses and filled them from the tap.

We drank thankfully and then I pulled my phone out of my bag and rang Watson, telling him that he needed to come and clear up a bit of mess at the Butcher residence and that the Minister was involved but not here at present. Luckily he was still having a beer with Holmes after a hard day working.

Sarah went off to see how Mrs. Butcher was and came back to tell me that she was flat on her back, her nightie up around her neck and sleeping with a smile on her face and dried semen around her groin.

At least someone was happy with the evening events. We went and sat on the front steps waiting for Watson and, when he arrived, we told him of the general run of events.

When we spoke about the basement he sent Holmes off to have a look. While we were alone I told him that the disc had used up the final wish; freeing me from my restraints because of my anguish for my sister.

He nodded, “The report will show that you managed to slip your hands free, then. Make sure that’s what you put in your statement, the law has no interest in magic.”

When Holmes came back he was very pale, “Boss, I think we may have caught the person taking the young girls, or rather, the sisters have. He’s dead and it looks like he fell on some shears as Samantha said. The rest of the basement isn’t finished and I think that I could see at least five places where the earth has been disturbed. We need to call Patterson and a SOCO team. We may be here all night.”

Watson ushered us back into the lounge where we sat as things progressed with Sarah clinging to Holmes and not allowing him any time to do his actual work. Watson was good with it, though.

Holmes had rung Patterson who turned up around eight. By that time the paramedics had been and gone, having confirmed that Mr. Butcher was dead and that Mrs. Butcher was in a deep sleep, no doubt assisted by the tablets they had found by her bedside.

They also checked us both over and declared that, except for the bruising on our wrists from the cuffs, we were healthy. Patterson went down to the basement and was joined, some ten minutes later, by a SOCO team in hazmat suiting, who sent Patterson back upstairs while they carried out their preliminary search.

We were no longer needed and Holmes took us home. We were told to stay at home on Tuesday as they would send a car for us in the early afternoon so that we could give our statements.

Patterson said that he wanted to interrogate Mrs. Butcher first when she woke up. As we went towards the front door, a SOCO guy came out from the kitchen and spoke to Patterson, who went a little pale.

“You sure?” he asked. “Seven – maybe more?”

The guy nodded and returned to what I expected to be a very grisly job. I know that I couldn’t do it.

Part 16

On the way home we told Holmes that we had intended to go somewhere for a meal before things had taken a turn for the worse.

He stopped at a pizza place and we waited until they had our order and then took us home, coming up to the flat with us to make sure we got in safely. Also, I suspect, to help us eat the pizzas.

He had a pocket recorder and, as we ate, he gently took us through the events of the evening from the time we had been picked up.

Sarah pointed out that, as none of it seemed arranged, it would have been as if we had left her work and simply vanished. He agreed that it did have a lot of similarities to the other disappearances.

When we got to the point where I killed him Sarah said, “He would have known that the avenging angel was coming for him, your eyes glowed even brighter than they did in the tube train and I knew, at that moment, that I had nothing to fear.”

I said that they would not do that again as I thought that the disc had given up its accumulated power to free me and give me the strength for a few moments.

When we had eaten and put the boxes in the bin, Holmes went to Sarah and told her that if she had been killed he would not have had the strength to carry on. As they kissed I left to go into my room.

What was really odd was that the disc had got warm again. I took out my phone and rang David.

When he answered I said, “I know it’s late, my darling, but can you come over to the tower, please? There are some things that we need to talk about as it may affect our future.”

He sounded worried and I assured him that it was nothing to do with our love but was something I didn’t want to discuss over the phone.

When he arrived Holmes was still in deep discussion with Sarah on the sofa but sat up when I let David in.

He was very upset as we told him about the events of the evening and held me close, “I don’t know what I would do without you in my life; I’m so happy that you got out alive.”

I stressed that a lot of what had been going on had been Butcher and the Minister setting us up to be raped and murdered. It could be that the Minister would have withdrawn his recommendation once we had been disposed of as David would, supposedly, have been none the wiser.

Holmes commented that this was likely and, at last, showed David his warrant card and badge, revealing that the only public relations he was involved with was taking felons off the streets.

It took David a little while to cotton on to the fact that we had all been wearing mics during the dinners and that the Minister had been digging himself a big hole the whole time.

By the time we finished thrashing it out it was after midnight and, by common consent, both guys spent the night with us. Neither of us wanted to be alone that night.

It wasn’t the way I thought that I would lose my virginity but it was a powerful release from the pressures of the experiences I had been through. It was the true joining of David and me, hopefully for life. I know that when I saw Sarah in the morning she looked as satisfied as I felt.

If the twins in the painting weren’t created that night I knew that there would be plenty of chances for them to be conceived later. We were all having breakfast and I could feel the disc getting warmer.

A phone burbled and Holmes went and got his out of his jacket. He listened for a while and his face went pale.

“I’m with them now and David Devine is here as well.”

He listened some more. “I’ve been instructed to take you girls down to the station where my bosses want to talk to you. It does include you as well, David, because there’s a little kink that has crept into the case and your input is also required.”

We all showered and dressed. Holmes told us he had a change of clothes at the station and told David to take me with him and to meet at the station when he had changed.

Holmes and Sarah went off in his car and David and I went to his home in his car.

On the way I was quiet for a while and then said, “David, my darling. I’ve just realised that there’s something I haven’t told you, even in the throes of our passion last night. I love you, truly and completely and want to be in your life, as a wife, lover, and mother to your children.”

He pulled the car over and kissed me for a long time, “Will you marry me, in the White Garden and go away with me in the Rover?”

“Of course I will, my darling, it’s written in our stars to be together.”

When we got to the police station Sarah had already given her statement and Holmes had played the recording he had made last night so my own statement was already being typed.

We were assembled in a large office with Watson, Patterson and a couple of forensic boffins when Patterson gave us the latest news.

He was very serious. “This does not get spoken about outside this room but I’m going to give you the facts as I know it. Mrs. Butcher was interviewed when she came around and has told us that her husband had entertained young ladies who he told her worked for the council. She said that she would fall asleep and wake to find her husband making violent love to her before he gave her another drink which sent her off to sleep again. He would tell her in the morning that the young girls had left before he had come to bed.”

“Down in what she thought of as his wine cellar we found extensive bloodstains in the room you had been held in. Although it had been cleaned with the bleach there are always little bits that get missed. The SOCO guys are still down there looking for bodies but I can tell you that we have brought five out so far and between them we have managed to get three different samples of DNA from semen still in the bodies. One is from Butcher and one, we think, will be from the Minister. The other is from a person who had been charged once with assault in a bar brawl over a woman. He had not been sent to jail but his DNA was kept on file.”

“His name is Roger Maldon, and I think that he’s a relative of yours, David.”

David went pale, “My mother is going to be devastated as he’s a nephew of hers. I know he was the black sheep of the family in his younger days but he’s been a steady worker for me in the company.”

Patterson went on, “We picked him up this morning. Your secretary told us where he would be and the DNA we took then has proved correct with the other sample. We did impound the company van that he usually drives and there are traces of blood and DNA in the back that will probably match some of the other samples from the victims.”

Sarah went white and Holmes had to comfort her, taking her out of the room and getting her some water while she lay on a sofa in the canteen.

“Now,” said Patterson, “We have to connect the Minister to the crimes with an unshakeable link and the only way I can see that happening is if he is captured in the killing room in that cellar. From what you’ve told me, Samantha, he’s expecting to come back there tonight or tomorrow night to have his way with you, am I right?”

I nodded and he went on, “We have him on constant watch now so will know when he’s heading that way. Mrs. Butcher has offered the use of her home in any way we need. She’s mortified at what he husband had been up to and wants to make reparations in any way she can.”

“I suggest that we set up an ambush with you, looking as if you are waiting for him to deal with you. You will need to wear the same clothes you had on last night and, when we know he is heading that way, we will loosely restrain you on the bed so that we may be able to record what he says. There will be a camera in the room so we can act before he goes too far but we do want him to go far enough to hang himself. Will you help?”

I held Davids hand and said that I would do whatever it took to put the monster behind bars so we started to formulate plans. I rang the salon to say I would not be in.

The police had already notified Sarah’s office to let them know that she was helping them with some enquiries but wasn’t implicated in anything. She would be going through a full interrogation from the girls when she did turn up for work next.

Everyone was so certain that it would go without a hitch so I was not unduly worried. David took me home, via a small café so I could get some lunch and I changed into the same outfit from last night, having to pull it out of the wash hamper first. It did pong a bit but that would add to the scene.

Holmes brought Sarah home and told us that she had insisted that she would be nearby tonight. It was arranged that she and David would be allowed to sit in with the police in the control van, parked several streets away next to a park.

When Holmes took me to the Butcher house there was note on the door that read ‘Gone out on Industry business, your gift is waiting’.

The house was quiet and we went down to the cellar so that a police woman could check that I could be restrained quickly when the need arose. She said that I was her responsibility after the arrest as well.

I double checked that the table was set up properly and the bucket was back where it should be; the bent side away from view.

I lay on the bed and she checked the cuffs and then we all went back upstairs into the lounge for comfort to wait for the order to set up. There were a couple of armed police who would be around the corner in the burial part of the cellar. It was thought that the Minister wouldn’t bother looking there with me waiting for him.

It was an agonising couple of hours but we then got the word that he had left his office and was coming our way.

I went back down to the cellar and the police woman restrained me and then said “Sorry about this but it does have to look real” as she gagged me with the one I had worn last night.

She then left the room, pulling the door behind her and I was alone, stretched out on the bed and unable to do anything to save myself.

Marianne Gregory (C) 2022

Part 17

I knew when he got near as the disc started to vibrate so I started to thrash about a bit to work up a sweat. Not long after I heard the key in the door lock and he came in to the room.

I thrashed about some more and he grinned. “Samantha, dear heart, I’ve been looking forward to this moment from the day I saw you in the bitches office. You just drew me in and every time I saw you after that I could hardly keep my hands to myself. Now we are here and my hands are free to do whatever they want.”

“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he took off his jacket and hung it on a hook. “This is going to be such a wonderful experience. Well, for me, anyway. You may find bits of it – well, uncomfortable -- but rest assured, my darling one, I will finally take the pain away.”

“This time I won’t leave my seconds for Butcher to enjoy. You’ll be mine, tonight, and mine alone. Whatever you saw happen to your sister will be nothing to what I can do. Butcher, I know, does like to live up to his name but is far too unimaginative.”

As he was speaking he was taking off his trousers and then his shirt. I thrashed about and made muffled sounds through the gag. He had his shoes and socks off and finally stood over me and peeled his underpants down to allow his rampant cock to leap out.

My God, the man was built like a donkey!! It did not take much for me to look scared and thrash against the cuffs. He smiled and felt my breasts and then went towards the table to pick up the dressmakers shears.

“I took a keepsake from all the others,” he said, dreamily. “The odd finger or toe was fun to collect. Oh! How those beauties screamed, especially that bitch Cathy. But from you, I really think I’ll keep your nipples to join the other items in my safe at home. Before you can’t take any more I‘ll tell you that your friend David won’t have much time to look for you.”

“I’ll take back the recommendation for the tenders and Butcher will start finding problems with his existing buildings which will eventually get his licence cancelled. I’ve an inside man who’ll ensure that the company fails and he will buy it from the administrators cheap. He’s so looking forward to that day. What he doesn’t know is that I will own him, lock, stock and scaffolding.”

“Now,” he smiled, “Let’s see what you look like without those clothes”.

“Not as silly as you do,” said a deep voice from behind him. “Now, sonny boy, how about you drop those scissors or else I may have to Taser you. Oh, what the hell, I think I will anyway.”

There was a zipping sound and I heard a body fall to the floor and a distinct mewling sound.

The voice said, “Sorry about that sir, but I caught sight of your main armament and I pulled the trigger as a reflex. Forgive me?”

The policewoman came rushing in and released me and helped remove the gag. She took me out of the room and back upstairs to get me a stiff drink.

“You did well there, dear,” she said as she sat me on the sofa. “He was so taken with you I think we got everything we need.”

By the time I felt human again the Minister had been brought upstairs, still naked with his arms cuffed behind his back. He was blustering about who he was and how he would have everyones job by the end of the week.

He was taken out to a waiting police van and, as he got to the steps of the house, a number of lights went on and I could see a whole host of reporters and cameras.

The policewoman stood by my side as we watched him paraded, naked, in front of the press.

She said, quietly, “Holmes really was in public relations before he joined the force. You have to hand it to him, he can organise a circus that no-one will forget for ages. I’m so happy I was on duty tonight.”

Patterson turned up and called out to the press that there would be a full press announcement in the morning but, if anyone was interested, he would hold a meeting at the station in an hour.

We stayed out of sight until the press had followed the van. Then we were joined by David and Sarah who both enveloped me in hugs.

Watson followed up with, “Thank you for that, I think you can all go home, now.”

So that’s what we did. David was needed at home to make sure his mother was all right and Holmes was needed back at work so it left the two of us to put the clothes into the bin.

There was no way I could put them on again. I had a long bath and got into my nightie and we chatted about the events of the day before going to bed. We both slept in Sarahs’ bed as we couldn’t face the night alone.

When I woke on Wednesday morning I lay there with Sarah spooned into my back and thought about what all these events would mean.

I had a think about Davids’ business and wondered if the new Minister of Housing would pull the recommendations or whether he would just let them add to the tender process.

Roger was waiting in a cell to see just how deep in the shit he was and the old Minister was so far in it now I doubted that he would see daylight again. Butcher was dead and I felt sorry for his wife.

We just had to see what transpired but today it was work for the two of us so I gave Sarah a nudge and got out to head for the bathroom.

It was a bit of an anti-climax to be back at work and the day passed pretty quickly. The talk of the moment was the arrest of the Minister of Housing and everyone was a bit shaken by the pictures of him being paraded naked.

Some of the girls wondered about the size of the pixilation on his groin and most said his dick couldn’t have been that big. I knew otherwise but kept my knowledge to myself.

When we shut that evening David was there to take me home. When we got into the flat he held me close and kissed me for the longest time.

He then said that he wanted me to work with Zach in Devine Designs to put together the concept brochure that would be part of the tenders and, later on, a basis for the sales push if we won the jobs.

I agreed and when Sarah came home he took us both out for a meal. He made a text call on the way down in the lift and I was not surprised when Holmes joined us at the restaurant.

Over the meal he told the other two that I would be working full-time for the Devine group trying to complete the concept pictures and, maybe, having an input into the house designs as well. He then asked Sarah if she wanted to be part of it and she said that she had some leave owed to her and that she could take it to help out.

David asked if she could consider changing jobs to come on board as a legal eagle in charge of the developments should we win any and she said she would consider it. He then turned his attention to Holmes and asked him to consider coming as well in a dual role of Public Relations and head of site security, again dependent on the company winning the tenders.

I had to give a two week notice at the salon and much of that time was taken up with training the other girls in advanced make-up with them assisting me one by one and working with me on customers before the last customer of the day was their passing examination.

Ingrid was the surprise package; having been extra careful with her own make-up after being shown how good she could look. She took to the advanced work like a duck to water and was a natural to take over from me as she was also able to do the hairdressing as well.

Our Sundays were taken up with time with Zach, working on general landscape and shopping precinct sketches, things that tended to look the same in any development.

The police were working extra hard to keep Sarah and me out of the case, seeing as we had been instrumental in breaking it open but with the magical aspect that would not be believed readily.

Holmes kept us up to date as the evidence mounted up. They had searched the Ministers’ apartment and got a representative of the safe company to open his with a couple of press photographers on hand as ‘independent’ witnesses.

They found the bottles of formaldehyde with fingers and toes in them, as he had stated in the cellar. There were eight bottles, which matched the eight bodies that had finally been taken out of the cellar and all had been identified through DNA matching.

One was, as to be expected, the Cathy that had taken the photos of the Minister.

Oddly enough, those photos were sent to one of the national papers in a plain parcel a couple of days later and made quite a splash on their front page. The headline was ‘House that one, Minister!’ It was after that some developers started telling their stories of kickbacks and corruption.

I finished at the salon on the Wednesday so had a couple of days free before I started working full time with Zach. We had eight weeks to complete the riverside tender and an extra two to finish the one in the country.

I had spent several evenings with the whole Devine household talking about what we would be offering. The range of structures was varied; the biggest being the retail centres but they would be similar to all those that went before.

Next were the schools and medical facilities which were, again, standardised because of their functions. The third included the fire station, police station and council depot which would be specified by the relevant bodies.

Then we got to shared housing where it was decided that we would quote with flat-poured concrete tilt-slab construction for speed and cost effectiveness. These would be three story maximum, rendered with a wide range of colours and would all surround parks.

Then we got to the general range of houses and David had gone one further with the tilt-slab construction. He had an engineering firm cost the manufacture of three meter by three metre moulds, with the form of bricks, stone work and even overlapping boards impressed into the outer skin.

These could be set out inside temporary walls for the pouring and would allow a way we could alter the door position and the window positions as well as allowing services to be set into the walls during the pour.

He had organised a single mould and had a concrete sandwich made. When it came out of the mould the outside face looked like brick, especially as they had coloured the concrete. There was a layer of insulation and the inside wall which had some sample utilities embedded. This went off to a laboratory to be tested for strength and the ability to resist heat transfer.

It came through with flying colours and we could then build a row of houses that were all individual in appearance and structure. The other thing that could be done was to guarantee three metre ceiling height and the real icing on the cake was that each one could be built with just the main inner walls on the lower and upper floors.

The buyer could specify the interior layout which would then be quickly achieved with stud walls. Both Davids got a bit excited about the procedure as it would speed up the overall development with every house getting to lock-up stage a long time before the interior fit-out took place. Also, every single house would end up unique.

For the riverside project, the family had decided that there would be an upmarket section along the water’s edge, once the remediation had been completed. These would be a mixture of tilt-slab and brick and all at least four bedroom. The work here was able to be spread over both tenders with just some tweaking to the up-market houses to reflect their position.

The waterside ones would feature big balconies and David had his people draw one up with an ability to option the upper floor. One customer may like a party deck and I suggested that the rear being south facing, an artist’s studio would suit nicely.

The country project would have these houses on the outer edge, facing the countryside, and with the more organic look that I had put in our first picture.

Part 18

On that first Thursday after finishing in the salon I was going to go into the city to get some more business-like outfits as the family had asked if I could lead on promoting future projects if we didn’t win these.

I had the ability to listen to what a customer was thinking and draw it in real time. Something that David thought would clinch most deals. On my way to the station I was walking past the old shops when, once more, I heard a voice.

“Samantha, dear angel; would you please step into my humble shop?” When I looked there was, indeed, the S.R.U. shop with the old guy standing at the door.

When I went in and the door was closed, he asked me if I still wore the disc and, if I had it today, could he hold it? It had been moving from neutral to warm over the past couple of weeks, even though I was sure that I had used up the final wish in the cellar.

The wizard held it close to his forehead and closed his eyes for several minutes.

When he opened them and gave me back the disc. “You have been truly blessed by the magic this disc represents. Firstly it decided that the first wish was not instigated by you and built up the magic to give you a second. The second wish you used was so you could save your sister but I believe that there were thoughts in the head of Mr. Butcher; along the lines of how glad he was that you were well restrained because he could sense the emotions within you. As such, the magic seems to have decided that this was enough of an opposite for the wish to be accepted.”

“The disc is now taking power from around it again and the amount of love you have generated will keep it active. You may never have another wish granted but I can tell you that it is still generating an aura of peace and good will which will allow you to avoid the sort of evil that has tried to remove you from the world already”.

“I’m sure that it will warn you of evil people and my advice is that you use your contacts to fight them, rather than put yourself in danger. There are, of course, others for you to look out for now. I can tell you that they will be twin girls but I am sure you already knew that.”

He smiled and let me out of the shop, saying as I left, “Farewell Samantha, It’s been a real pleasure and a privilege to meet you. One, even in my humble netherworld, hardly ever meets a genuine angel.”

That made me think a bit as I continued to walk to the station. It wasn’t until we were getting near the city and I saw a toddler in a pram that the other thing he said hit me like a ton of bricks. Twin baby girls!

I was only a few days off my period so I had no inkling. “Wow,” I thought,” David’s certainly a dead shot with his first one right in the centre ring.” Now I was going to have to go to the chemist and get a pregnancy test kit. It did take the edge off my shopping for a little while but then I found some really classy pencil skirts and silk blouses that were to die for.

I met Sarah for lunch and then went back to her office where I spoke to some of the other girls. The painting that Sarah had done was now on the wall of the office and everyone was very happy with it.

Sarah told me that she had put in for her accrued holidays and would be joining me on Monday to start, maybe, her next career. I knew that I would also need to see how I went with it. I had been in seventh heaven using my knowledge of cosmetics and the full-time artistic activity was something very new, even if I had been dabbling in it already.

We went out for a meal and, before we went home, I got Sarah to help me take the pregnancy test in the restaurant toilets. She hugged me tightly when the strip showed that I was very likely pregnant.

On Saturday David picked us both up and took us to work with Zach. When we got there I held back when I got out of the car and positioned myself so that David had no choice but to kiss me.

“David, sweetie-pie darling. When are you going to buy me that engagement ring?”

He said that there was a lot to think about but we would get around to it as soon as we could.

“Sweetheart, please don’t wait too long, you know how people gossip when the bride has a baby bump.” That stopped him in his tracks!

After we had put in a good day drawing pictures Zach said that we now had enough to produce a professional brochure and David, instead of taking us to the tower, took us to see his parents.

I had sat with Annette a few times to help her get over her upset with Roger but I had to comfort her more when she was told she was likely to be a grandmother. Of course, that set the wheels of a wedding in motion but we luckily had most of it sorted already.

The wedding took place just a month later, after a doctor had confirmed the test strip result. It was in the White Garden and Sarah was my one and only bridesmaid while Holmes stood beside David, the two of them really hitting it off.

David Senior was there to give me away and Annette just did all the things every mother-in-law is meant to do. It was not a huge wedding, only about twenty or so guests in the marquee. We left in the Rover and the photo sits on our mantelpiece next to the drawing I had done months earlier. They looked as if they had been done at the same time.

We spent a week down in the West Country and I was introduced to Gertie in all her glory. I reminded David that if the painting was to be true to life as well he had better get it finished inside a couple of years because the children I had drawn would be about eighteen months old.

He expected that if we won the projects he would be able to throw money at the engine. We hadn’t set the procedure back with our honeymoon as the first tender documents with the brochure were being printed and the second set was not that far off. When we got back we moved into Davids’ apartment in his parents’ house.

I went with David and his father to lodge the tender papers and the secretary took them and then made a call on her phone. We were asked to wait a while and then were taken to see the new Minister of Housing.

He asked what had been paid for the old ministerial reference and David told him, straight out, that nothing had been paid, nothing had been agreed and, indeed, nothing of the sort had been implied.

He said that the signature was weeks before the old minister had been arrested and that if he had been asked to pay for it he would have refused point blank. It was his openness and his reputation that saved the day as the tender was received.

Two weeks later we took in the second set with no questions asked. In the quieter period Sarah went back to her office after telling me that she would be joining us if we got lucky with the projects and that Holmes had popped the question.

She admitted that they were off to pick a ring that weekend. I gave her a big hug and told her she was a lucky girl. Of course, once Annette got wind of that there was another wedding to organise Holmes was just carried along by the force of feminine pressure and, as David Senior had said that he would pay the bills, didn’t have much of a say anyway.

That wedding was a bit more traditional in the local church with a lot more than twenty guests, many from the force. Sarah was radiant and a friend from her work was the bridesmaid.

Well, by that time I was not in a proper shape to fit the dress. Watson was best man. It was actually a double celebration that day as we had heard on the Friday, that we had got the riverside project to build. I must admit that both Davids were a little under the weather during the service but woke up once the drinks started to come out.

By the time the happy couple came back from their honeymoon we had heard that we were the winners of the second project as well.

Sarah had seen already just how big it was going to be over the next few years and immediately tendered her resignation. Holmes could also see the opportunity of working with his new wife and resigned from the force.

After the rush of getting the papers sorted it was now a lot different as we had to get the sites fenced off, install workers huts and toilets, organise roadworks; sewerage; water and power supplies to both sites.

One good thing that we had a ready place to put any soil or rubbish into the remediation by the shore and the fact that we had almost double of everything gave us a cost saving due to volume purchasing.

The houses started going up in both sites with an amazing speed, once the technique had been finalised, and the sites took on an interesting air of progress.

David was true to his word and we had a lovely few days for the inaugural trip of Gertie, me with the twins in the stroller as depicted.

We had called them Danielle and Desdemona Devine so that they would be able to revert to Dan and Des should the old Samantha gene sneak through.

Sarah eventually gave birth to twin boys who were called Henry and Harold Holmes, just in case they wanted to be girls later they could become Henrietta and Harriette. Well, you do have to plan ahead, don’t you?

When the Riverside Project was nearly completed, David and Annette took possession of Number One River View Way, one of the up-market properties, and had it finished to their own specifications with wide doors and an internal lift so that they could enjoy their retirement, at last.

Zach and Zoe took over Number Two and had the artist studio option added.

David and I took over Number One Scenic Vista Circuit, a really beautiful house overlooking the hills and fields on the western edge of the West Downs Project.

Sarah got her own wish as she and her family moved in at Number Two. Both houses featured fully operational studios on the top floor.

With the obvious success of these two projects, the sales being absolutely manic, the company moved into the realm of go-to developers if something fresh was required.

Both Sarah and I were kept busy travelling the country with our husbands looking at green field sites and producing concept drawings. Beside that we were both turning out pictures that people wanted to see on their walls.

Every one of the up-market houses had a portrait of itself already in the house when it was sold and you know that if someone loves your work, they will always want to own more.

As the years went on our children played together in the playgrounds we had designed, went to the schools we had built and, if they hurt themselves or got sick, stayed in the medical centres we had also built.

I was thankful that they never showed signs of disliking the gender they had been born in but I did get the better bargain as my two never got as muddy as the boys.

Actually, I should say my four as three years later I had another set of girl twins. By this time, though, we had a live in nanny to look after them and Maise was, as always, there with a smile and a helping hand when the little tackers did something they shouldn’t.

Maise had reverted to her previous surname and had dropped the Butcher one altogether. She had spent some time in hospital being detoxed from all the things she had been given. It was no wonder she used to drop off to sleep in minutes. She also needed extra help to get over the trauma of her husband and his friends.

The disc stayed feeling just warm and hardly ever vibrated to warn us of any person nearby with less than nice thoughts.

David and I spent a lot of our days together and I couldn’t be happier, even when I was up to my elbows in grease or paint while working on ‘Fran,’ the new project with a name plate that would read ‘Frances Nightingale.’

It was one of the early Angel Pacers that had been donated to us in a rather dilapidated state. It had originally been called nothing at all so we had decided it would need a proper name when it was finished.

The disc became extremely warm on my chest when I thought of the name. Perhaps it recognised another angel.

Marianne Gregory © 2022