Chapter 7

Jerry Smallbridge:

Sally and I worried about our wards, Yelka and Lena particularly. It’s not as though they gave us any problems – far from it. They applied themselves academically and contributed enthusiastically to the housework. No, our concern was just whether they would be able to form healthy relationships outside the family. If they wanted to remain single and continue living at Woodside Lodge after we passed on, it would have been no big deal, but certainly for me my relationship with Sally has made my life much better, and I feel comfortable that I have done the same for her.

When Yelka brought a man to our family, though it wasn’t, on her part, a case of ‘bringing a prospective partner to visit the parents’, we took notice. I ... both of us, really ... were impressed. He was older by ten or so years, which was no bad thing. Mature, skilled, considerate, intelligent; as you might expect I interviewed him. It was apparent that he was being very careful in his relationship with Yelka, and also that he’d formed an idea about how she came to be how she was.

That she’d gone to his room, and the reason for doing so, were amply demonstrated by the sounds issuing therefrom. Of course, similar sounds are apt to issue from the master bedroom too, as Sally and I have never tired of each other. In the morning, though, despite their arriving in the kitchen for breakfast separately, Yelka’s glow told the tale well. Matches, though, appeared nervous. But he asked to talk to me, and during the conversation, asked for my blessing on his marriage to our adopted daughter. I did not hesitate in giving that blessing, though I did suggest that Yelka herself might be reluctant.

As it was, Yelka needed to go next door to talk to the new girls, and Lena went with her. Matches and I went up to the range to look at the armourer’s tools Uncle Jeremiah had left, but which neither Sally nor I had ever used, or, in fact, ever examined. We stripped and examined the older weapons I’d inherited from my uncle, and Matches pointed out the evidence of work on the actions.

“Perhaps,” I suggested, “when next you come, you can give us a master class in the armourer’s art.”

“I’d like that. Assuming that Yelka wants to keep me around. We can certainly work on some of the newer weapons, those which haven’t had any attention.”

Yelka:

I felt it important that the new girls meet Lena as well as myself. It was quite possible that they would not be staying at Mason’s Farm, but I wanted to reassure them that a meaningful future was possible for them.

“But what will we do?” Katya asked, the other girls nodding in agreement.

“You could be returned to whence you came,” I responded, with Lena reinforcing the message, nodding. “But probably you wouldn’t want that. It is an option, though, and we have contacts who could look after you. On the other hand, you can work at learning English, get western qualifications, have a place in this society. England and America are not perfect, but they are much better than some parts of the world. You will not need to be prostitutes to survive. There is good training for health-care, nursing, physiotherapy, that sort of thing, even training to be a doctor. There is a desperate need for people to work in hotels, or if you prefer there are trades – joinery, plumbing, bricklaying, roofing, welding. Nothing is necessarily excluded if that’s what you want to do.”

“This is ... difficult to take in,” Polina commented. “It is so different from what we were used to.”

“It is, but there’s no pressure to make up your minds. Despite the attitude of the present government, you can be made legal and have a whole new life in front of you.”

“Really?”

“Really.” I smiled around at them. “Look at me. Look at Lena. We were very popular with the ... customers, being twins. If we’d lived, we’d probably have been prostitutes at best, more likely we’d be dead, now. But we are daughters to a lovely couple. You know how we met, what I was doing. I have hope, and a future. Perhaps I will have a husband, a family of my own.” I hadn’t vocalised that even to myself, but I saw Lena smiling.

The girls had computers with language packages. Although I’d talked to them in Russian, that was just to make sure they understood what I was saying. They were at the beginning of the journey I’d made, just as Lena, and Sofia, Daria, Yana.

Lena and I didn’t stop to eat lunch with everyone there, though Betty Braithwaite was, as a cook, the equal of Mama Sally. I was thinking about an afternoon sailing. So we made our way back to Woodside Lodge, and into the kitchen where Mama Sally was putting bread, sliced meat, cheese, pickles, salad, on the table ready for lunch. The kettle was singing its welcome song.

Matches Bryant:

I don’t know what I expected when I rode that motorbike from Burnley to Coniston. I suppose I had some hope of spending time with a pretty blonde warrior, and I did expect the prospect of being inspected by her family. I had the latter, and the former exceeded my hopes. She did warn me, after telling me something of how she came to be where she is. She asked – asked I tell you – if I would make love to her. It was quite incredible. I desperately wanted to marry her, to share my life with her. Unsure about how to proceed I actually asked Jerry Smallbridge if he approved of my marrying his daughter. He gave his blessing, but did suggest persuading Yelka might be an uphill task.

Lena Smallbridge:

Yelka and I are twins. Monozygotic twins. I never expected to get an education like the one I got when Papa Jerry and Mama Sally adopted us! Monozygotic! What most people call ‘identical’ twins. However, despite looking identical, despite having identical DNA, we are not identical in any other way. Now, I love my sister. She’s an integral part of my life. She is the leader, and the fighter. I will fight, but I don’t have the drive to excel in that way, though don’t be deceived, I shoot as well as Yelka, I fight with and without blades just as she does. But I have no desire to be a warrior. I want to be a mother, a nurturer. But a wife? I don’t know. How would I meet a suitable partner?

It was a wrench when Yelka left to join Ginger White’s unit, but I knew she had to do it. Inevitably there was a ... separation ... between us even when she returned on leave. Then she went off on an assignment and returned with a new batch of girls rescued from durance vile; she’d been up over twenty-four hours when she fell into bed with me, and I left her asleep when I went down to breakfast. I didn’t know she’d ridden back in a minibus with the girls – at that point I didn’t know the population of the house next door had increased, which I found out at breakfast – but then Sergeant Bryant turned up riding Yelka’s motorbike.

He fitted in to the family; pleasant, considerate, articulate. Other than that, I don’t know – there was something. Then she told me she wasn’t going to be in bed with me that night. “I need to know,” she said. “I need to know if I am a complete woman. Don’t you?”

I thought about that. I loved Jerry junior, and Diane. I loved little Nadia, Irene’s little one. Yes, I’d like to have babies of my own one day. But did I want a man? “I don’t know.” Then, “I suppose if I want to be a mother I would have to have sex, but...”

Yelka nodded. “I understand. But having got to know and work alongside good men, men like Papa Jerry, I feel I owe it to myself to at least explore. The ... creatures who abused us, shall I let them win? Let them cripple me?” But then she grinned and, sotto voce, added, “besides, he makes me tingle.”

“Yelka!”

“What? Matches is the first man who actually made me think about experimenting.”

Well, she did. And it was, evidently, a success.

Sally Smallbridge:

I’m submissive. I’m a masochist. But I went through my life being used by men without much in the way of satisfaction. I really thought I might die when my master left me tied, naked, spread-eagle in some woodland, and in some ways I didn’t mind. But I was found, released and redeemed by old Master Jeremiah. It’s a very strange fact that I found more satisfaction from serving him, despite a lack of sexual activity, than all my previous life. When he died, I thought I was lost, but his great-nephew arrived. We were each given half of old Master Jeremiah’s estate, and I set about serving young master Jeremiah. I could tell he found me attractive, and my service to him was really just guiding him through the house and property until one day I asked him to collar me. He was uncomfortable, but gradually I was able to lead him to meeting my needs as I worked to meet his.