Chapter 3

“Hello, Jerry – how’s things?”

“Pretty good, on the whole, Jonny. Good to hear your voice.”

“You might change your mind about that in a moment. The Police made some arrests. Despite the seriousness of the charges, the clown of a judge granted bail. It was high, but in view of the profits of the business, hardly difficult for the accused to find. We’re trying to keep tabs on the underlings, some of whom evaded arrest. But that’s not all. Your guest.”

“Lisette? She’s been quiet. Seems to have settled quite happily.”

“She’s maintained a low-key email correspondence with a ‘person of interest’. Yesterday, she communicated your location and a number of details about you and Sally. You’ll need to watch your backs. Maybe start carrying one of those Glocks I sent you. They know you and Sally have some martial arts skills, but not that you have firearms.”

“Shit.”

“Yup. Definite defecation factor. We may – probably will – get some warning of any move against you, but ... be prepared, Jerry. I’m sorry about this.”

I shrugged, which of course he couldn’t see. “Don’t worry about it, Jonny. I assumed a degree of risk anyway, and despite Lisette’s recent behaviour I’ve always been a little suspicious of her. We’ll be okay, I’m pretty sure.”

I was less confident than I made myself sound, but chatted a bit generally before Jonny said, “If we know there’s something on, there’ll be some operatives about in your grounds, so don’t shoot at shadows, please. I’ll let you know if there is someone of ours around, though.”

“Thanks, Jonny.”

I waited until the evening when Sally and I were cuddled up post-coitally to speak to her.

“Sweetie, I spoke to Jonny this morning.”

“Trouble? You seemed a little worried today.”

“Two things. Some baddies are on the loose thanks to a lax judge, and Lisette has apparently been communicating with, quote, ‘a person of interest’. In other words someone probably associated with the, um, ‘alleged villains’. He suggested we carry those Glocks he sent and watch our backs. But Sally, we need to be very careful about what Lisette knows. If we carry weapons, she mustn’t know about it.”

“Oh.” Sniff. “I did hope...”

“I know.” I wrapped her up, the contact comforting to both of us. Curiously, neither of us seemed inclined to go any further; certainly I barely reacted to her smooth, warm, curves. Not much later, her breathing steadied and she lay relaxed in my arms. Being trusted like that is really something. I lay, chewing over the situation until I was surprised by sleep.

Lisette noticed that we were different. “Something wrong?”

I shrugged. “Apparently the people who were arrested got bailed. Jonny isn’t happy they’re on the loose. I’m not happy they’re on the loose. At least they don’t know where you are. I hope.”

Sally’s very good at concealing her feelings – at least, she used to be; it was a part of the ‘training’ she underwent before being found by my uncle. As it was, she was merely quiet, which is not so different from usual. She got on with feeding us breakfast.

“Um...” Lisette hesitated, but went on, “Is there anything you need help with today?” She glanced from me to Sally, who was just sitting down with her own breakfast at that point.

Sally raised an eyebrow at me. “There’s that downed tree, Master. The one you wouldn’t let me cut up.”

I can never frown at Sally, though I do try from time to time. “And you’re the one with the chainsaw certificate. Okay. Lisette, there’s a dead tree out there. You may have noticed it?”

She nodded.

“I need to cut it up and store it for firewood. You can help, but it’s heavy work, humping bits of tree around. If you’re up for it, you can see if you can get into Sally’s protective gear.”

“Protective gear?”

“Yeah. Heavy boots, reinforced trousers and jacket. Hard hat, mesh visor, ear protectors, rigger gloves. Not that I’m going to let you handle the chainsaw.”

Her eyes flicked between Sally and me. “If it’s too much...”

“You can stop,” Sally said. “Master Jerry can do it, but having two pairs of hands would speed things up. If you do that, I can get on here and sort out lunch.”

“Well, I suppose it’s better than lounging around doing nothing. Watching DVDs is okay, but after a point...”

“Finish your breakfast, Sally. I’m going to dress for work and go out to get organised. If Lisette doesn’t change her mind, and your gear fits, I’ll see her at the tree when she’s ready.”

Well, I dressed up, loaded everything I needed in a big barrow, and headed up the hill. The first thing was to trim off the branches and drag them out of the way. Lisette arrived as I was doing that, and took over clearing the branches out of the way. She seemed to cope without noticeable strain.

I could see where walkers had skirted the downed tree, walking into the woodland to get round it. We just had to make sure we didn’t block the diversion as well as the main path. By lunch-time, we had a pile of branches and brush-wood at the side of the path and a bare trunk still across the path, but any reasonably agile walker could climb over if they preferred that to the diversion. We loaded the tools into the barrow and made our way back to the house.

Bangers and mash for lunch. The sausages from a local pork-butcher whose source of meat is his brother’s free-range pig farm, locally grown King Edward potatoes. Rich gravy, thick with onion.

Lisette, like Sally and I, cleared her plate and sat back with a sigh. “You’ll make me fat, feeding me like this. But, oh, that was,” sigh, “delicious.”

Sally giggled. “Thank you.”

“You won’t put on weight working as hard as you did this morning,” I told her. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Ache in some different places.”

“Relax for an hour with a cup of tea. Or coffee, if you’d rather.

“Coffee, Master?”

“Yes, please, Sally.”

“Me too,” Lisette added.

“I’ll bring it into the lounge.”

Lisette sank into an armchair with a groan. “You could give work a miss this afternoon,” I told her.

“Not a bit of it. I’ve actually enjoyed myself; it’s just that I haven’t done much of this sort of thing before. Make that ... I’ve never done this sort of thing before. Still, it’s more interesting than exercising in the gym.”

“I expect to have the path cleared this afternoon, but it’ll take a day or so to actually tidy up the wood, get it into store. The small stuff we can leave in the woods for little critters to live in, but there’s a lot of firewood there.”

“No kidding!”

Sally appeared with a tray, poured a latte for Lisette and herself, a cafe noir for me, and settled down on her knees to lean against my legs. I sipped my coffee and stroked her head; such a satisfying feeling, both tactilely and emotionally. I happened to glance at Lisette, who had a curious expression, part thoughtful, part sadness.

When we went back to work, Lisette tackled cutting up small stuff with loppers and piling it out of the way, while I got on with cutting up the trunk. It was only a couple of feet in diameter, but even so that was quite a task. Before the end of the afternoon, though, I had a pile of log rounds to split, and had made a start on the smaller branches. The path was clear, which was really the main point of the exercise.

Bread and butter tea. Cold meat, salad, pickles. Scones, still warm from the oven. Chocolate cake. Earl Grey tea. Lisette groaning as she stood up from the table.

“You okay?”

“I ache.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I chose to keep going. Besides, I quite enjoyed it. Never done anything like that before.”

“Go soak in a warm bath, and Sally’ll give you a massage.”

“Sally? Not you?” She had an impish half-smile.

“Sally knows what to do.”

To be honest, I’m not completely ignorant of massage, but as I told Lisette, Sally really does know. I enjoy sliding oily hands over smooth skin. I can often sense tense or knotted muscles and work on them, but there’s no way I can match Sally’s skills – learned, hard, under the whip.

As it was, Lisette soaked for half an hour in a Radox bath before Sally massaged her in her bed, which took perhaps another hour. At the end of that, she was barely semi-conscious, and Sally covered her up and left her to sleep.

While they were busy, I was sipping some good whisky and listening to some John Rutter. When Sally appeared, smelling faintly of massage oils, she took her usual position, kneeling and leaning against my leg. I caressed her hair, as I love to do.

“Oh, Master,” she sighed, then was silent until the recording ended. “Master, I don’t like to think of Lisette betraying us.”

“It did seem that she was trying to fit in with us.”

“She definitely likes you. I think she’s just trying to get your attention.”

I shrugged, though she wasn’t looking up and wouldn’t see. “Why would I bother? I’ve got you.”

“Don’t you think she’s pretty?”

“Not as pretty as you. Admittedly, now she’s washed off the heavy make-up and hairspray, she’s ... okay.”

“Bigger boobs than me.”

“Too big, by definition.”

“I wouldn’t mind, you know. If you wanted to try her out.”

“Not going to happen. Come on, Slave. I require that you help me shower. Precede me up the stairs so I can watch you wiggle.”

She rose smoothly to her feet. “Yes, Master.”