Chapter 28

Our last meeting was with Esther, she doesn’t have an office in the building, and we usually meet in whatever office or meeting room is currently empty, so we went to see Paige to find out where we were meeting Esther.

“Oh hey Belle, how’s your day going?” Paige asked as Belle approached the reception counter.

“Tom is weird.”

“He really is, I’m glad it’s not just me that thinks so.”

“He barely looked at me, I was a bit worried Alex lied to me and I’m not pretty anymore.”

“Oh my god Belle, you are super pretty. Ohh, where’s your makeup gone?”

“Ahh, I had a bit of a meltdown at lunchtime, so my mum washed it all off.”

“Such a shame, it looked great. Your skin is so nice though, you don’t really need makeup, especially with your rosey cheeks.”

“Thank you Paige, that means such a lot coming from someone so pretty.”

“Thank you! That means a lot to me too. So how can I help?”

“We’re meeting Esther and Alex doesn’t know where her office is.”

“That’s because she hot desks when she’s in, and today there are no spare desks, so she’s working out of the bar in the hotel, you can go meet her there.”

“You mean the posh one on the square?”

“Yep, that one, I’ll message her to tell her you’re on the way.”

“Will they let me in like this?”

“Of course, they will.”

Belle turned to me, “ok, we’re off to the posh hotel, I’ll let you buy me a drink.”

“Gosh, that’s nice of you,” I laughed as I waved goodbye to Paige, she blew Belle a kiss.

Belle led me back to the road and round to the hotel entrance, walking up to the top-hatted doorman, “Hello,” she greeted him, “we’re here for a meeting with a lady called Esther, she’s in the bar apparently.”

“Ahh, that would be the lady with the laptop over by the fireplace, is she expecting you?”

“I do hope so.”

“Ok, through the reception, first door on the right Miss.”

The doorman did his job and, err, opened the door, I followed behind as Belle strode confidently through the reception, pushing open the big, dark mahogany doors to the bar.

We stood in the doorway for a moment, Belle pointed past the bar to a fireplace, a proper one, with a log fire burning, a lady was sitting on a sofa with a laptop on her knees, “I’m guessing that’s Esther,” she said as she set off across the bar, weaving between tables and big sofas.

“Excuse me, are you Esther,” Belle asked politely.

The lady looked up and smiled, “yes I am, and you are?”

“I’m Belle, Alex Harrison’s PA, we have a meeting scheduled.”

Esther put her laptop down on the low table and stood to shake Belle’s hand.

“You’re a bit young to be a PA,” Esther laughed as we sat down on the sofa opposite, Belle opened her bag and took out her notepad and iPad.

“Ahh, that’s because she’s my daughter, she’s not in school this week, so I invited her to join me today instead of being stuck at home.”

“And now I get the connection, you’re Belle as in Poppy & Belle, oh wow, I’ve heard a lot about Poppy, now you can tell me about yourself whilst Alex gets drinks.”

I got Belle a Coke, and asked the barman for whatever Esther was drinking, which was iced water. I looked across at them while he was pouring my pint, Esther was leaning forwards, listening intently to whatever story Belle was telling. I watched Belle, she was talking animatedly, gesturing as she spoke.

She really was a girl of contrasts, sometimes nervous, like in the lift earlier, and sometimes exuding confidence, like the way she strolled up to the doorman and asked for Esther.

I’d not met Esther before, never needed to really. I’d done charity work for the publisher, and she may have been hovering around at the events, but I’d not noticed her. She was small, somewhere between Belle and Poppy in height, and very slim. She was wearing a very unflattering blouse and plaid skirt. I’m sure Poppy would have a field day if she had a chance to dress her.

I put the drinks on a tray and carried them through the maze to our table. Belle picked up her Coke, I passed Esther her water.

“So, what are your plans for the foundation?” Esther asked.

I waited for Belle to start answering, but she just looked at me, so I started, “it’s a shame Poppy is in school, because she is very enthusiastic about this foundation, it was her idea, something she explained to me in great detail a day or so after I’d rescued her, while she was still recovering from the terrible injuries she received after being kidnapped and brutalised.”

Esther shuddered as I spoke, “oh that’s horrific.”

“She just disappeared,” Belle replied, “all the girls on the streets thought she was dead, I knew she couldn’t be, because she’s a goddess, she can’t die.”

Esther could see Belle was deadly serious, so she swerved the conversation back to the main topic, “so, what is the foundation’s main focus?”

“Initially, the plan is to deliver sanitary products to girls on the street, and contraceptives.”

“The chemists are supposed to give them out free to street girls, but they almost never have any free stock,” Belle added, “and the ones they have are just generic ones, not everyone is the same, you know,” she added in a whisper to Esther, as if I didn’t have to hear about those things.

“You said initially, you have plans to vary the scope of the foundation?”

“Not so much vary the scope, as expand it. Once we have a network on the ground to distribute sanitary products, which would include soap, deodorants, wet wipes, as well as tampons and sanitary pads,” I replied, “once that network is in place, we’ll use it to also distribute food. We have an offer of storage lockers already; we just need to get the contacts in place to intercept food before it goes to waste.”

“Food banks are great,” Belle added, “but they’re not so good for people on the streets, because they’re mostly non-perishables, tins, pasta, rice, stuff to make meals, which is amazing for families, a few pounds worth of food can make a meal for a family that may last a couple of days. When you’re on the streets though, it’s not so useful, as we rarely have access to cooking equipment. When I was in the squat with Poppy we were lucky, we had a cooker, although we didn’t always have gas to cook with.”

“So, you plan to distribute what?” Esther asked, quite reasonably.

“Sandwiches, salad bowls, all the lunch stuff left by early evening in supermarkets, Pret etc...” I replied, “maybe we could set up mobile kitchens to cook the leftover veg, make soups and stuff, it depends on budget and the number of volunteers we can harness.”

“We have a well-placed contact on the ground,” Belle continued, “he loves Poppy, not in a pervy way,” she added quickly, “he respects her enormously and saved her life twice. He’s offered to help in any way needed to get the foundation off the ground.”

“We just need some start-up cash, and a short-term income stream until we get additional funding channels,” I finished.

“Do you have any idea of the money you’ll need to get off the ground?” Esther asked, again, not unreasonably.

“Err, not really,” I admitted, “we have zero experience in this area. I’m willing to chip into the start-up pot.”

“Ok, I really, really like this idea. I know Lois and Tara are totally behind it. Tara says you’re writing a book, Belle, with a plan for all profits, including ours, going into the fund.”

“Not me writing it, that would be rubbish, it’s mostly Poppy, with me helping.”

“I’m sure you have just as much to contribute as Poppy, Tara showed me the plan for the book. It sounds great, too many people have misconceptions about life on the streets, this will tell your truth. Let me make a quick call to the finance people.”

Belle helped herself to my Guinness while we listened to Esther’s side of the call, “mmm, this is a nice beer,” she said, absently wiping the foam from her mouth with the back of her hand, “smoother than the ones you normally drink.”

Esther turned back to us as Belle was taking a second drink of my Guinness, she raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“We always share my beer,” I said, “it keeps my weekly alcohol units down a bit.”

She laughed as she slipped her phone into her handbag, “ok, we’ll need to get some firm details of the work you plan, numbers of volunteers, numbers of people you estimate will be helped, and Poppy and Belle will need to be available for a couple of rounds of marketing work. Obviously all this will be drawn up legally. In return, we can promise at least £50k, 50% as startup capital, the other 50% in 12 monthly payments. We’ll also look to match the income from your book for 12 months, then you’re on your own, but I have a feeling you won’t let this foundation fail.”

“Oh wow,” Belle exclaimed, “that’s amazing news.”

“Also, I’m guessing you don’t know how to set up a charity,” Esther said with a smile.

“And you’d be right,” I replied, returning her smile.

“Let me handle that for you, I’ll drop you an email with the forms, fill them in and I’ll get it all registered.”

I looked at Belle’s notepad as we finished the meeting, she’d filled several pages with notes, all in very neat print. She’d been serious about making notes today and I was a little ashamed I’d only just noticed.

We shook hands with Esther and left the hotel.

“Thanks for being my PA today Belle,” I said as we walked across the square towards the Underground, “did you enjoy yourself?”

“I really did,” she replied earnestly, “Only that Tom guy was dull, the rest of the day was really interesting, I had no idea how much work goes on to get a book in the shops.”

“Have you used your laptop yet?”

Belle looked at the floor in shame, “I turned it on, then it asked me questions I didn’t know how to answer, so I shut the lid.”

“No problem, so when we get home tonight we’ll get it all set up, and I’ll show you how to use the word processor, and you can type up all your notes from today, and I’ll show you how to email them to me.”

“Great, then I’ll know what to do in school.”

“Yes, and then you’ll know what to do next time I have meetings and you’re available to help me.”

“You mean you’d like me to come with you again?”

“Of course, today has been a lot of fun for me too.”

As we got to the station I remembered Belle wanted a Marks and Spencers to get chocolates and a greetings card. I checked my phone for the nearest store and directions.

“There’s one about a 10 minutes walk away, are you up for that?” I asked her.

“Of course, you said I’d be doing a lot of walking, in these shoes I could walk all the way home if I needed to.”

They didn’t have the chocolates her grandad likes, so she chose a box of Belgian chocolates, “oh wow, I think these are the ones we had in Lois’s office, that cherry one was amazing.”

Belle spent another 10 minutes choosing a card to go with the chocolates, and some wrapping paper, before taking them to the checkout.

“I’m going to see my grandad for the first time in like 18 months tomorrow,” she told the girl on the till, “I’ve just had a private detective find him, because I lost track of him after I ran away from home. So now my new dad is going to drive me up to see him tomorrow and I’m so excited.”

“That’s great,” the girl replied as she bagged the chocolates and took her money.

“I’m not sure she was excited as I am,” Belle said as we left the shop, “she didn’t even try to smile.”

“I imagine I’d be like her if I’d been standing there for 8 hours.”

“Maybe, I’m just so excited for tomorrow I could wee.”

“I’d rather you don’t wee until we get you to a toilet.”

“I’ll do my best,” Belle said with a grin, she took hold of my hand as we started walking towards the Underground station on Oxford Street.

Back home Katie was making dinner, “sorry it’s just chicken and pasta,” she said as we walked into the kitchen, “much more boring than your burger.”

“Oh my god, that burger was heavenly,” Belle gushed.