Chapter 29

Belle banged on our bedroom door at 6:30 just as Jenny was getting up, “get up Alex, we don’t want to be late!”

“I’m awake, I’ll use the bathroom after Jenny has finished.”

“Use the big bathroom now, I’ve finished, it’s free.”

“OK boss, I’ll get up.”

“Are you regretting offering to drive her to York now,” Jenny laughed.

“Not at all, she’ll be fine when she’s in the car.”

“I’ll make coffee,” Belle said as I crossed the landing to the master bathroom.

“How long have you been up?” I asked when I saw she was fully dressed, her hair in buns again, no makeup today.

“I dunno, I was too excited to sleep. Poppy did nice things to me for a bit and that made me sleepy, but I’ve been awake for ages.”

Poppy’s head appeared round their door, “she was very nice and didn’t wake us though, she’s such a love.”

“You’ll be able to sleep in the car if you get tired.”

“Oh no, I am going to experience every minute of today. Now go get a shower while I make coffee.”

Twenty minutes later I walked into the kitchen, Belle was cooking pancakes, “I hope these are OK, Katie told me what to do, but I’ve never cooked them before.”

“I can take over if you like.”

“Only if I set fire to something, there’s coffee on the table,” she replied without looking up from the pan.

A couple of minutes later Belle brought a plate over with two thick pancakes and a blob of chocolate spread.

“They don’t look so great,” she said sadly, “maybe I should have practiced first. Tell me if they’re rubbish.”

I tried a piece of pancake with the chocolate spread, it tasted fine, “it’s great, honestly.”

“Are you sure?”

“Look, I’m finishing them both, they’re fine.”

“I need to try some more, can you eat another two?”

The second pair looked better, with fewer bits that had obviously been chiselled out of the pan.

“I’m going to make some for everyone at the weekend. I didn’t do much cooking for everyone before, and Katie does so much cooking for us all, I want to help out more.”

“I’m sure she’ll welcome that,” I said, “now let me make you some pancakes.”

“You don’t need to, I can do it.”

“I know you can, but I’ll make you some while you go and change your top, you’ve splattered a bit.”

Belle pulled the bottom of her sweatshirt out and looked down, “ahh shit, I like this one as well.”

She stomped off as I poured two pancakes worth of batter into rings in the pan. By the time Belle stomped back into the kitchen with a new sweatshirt, pink this time with a unicorn print, I was plating the pancakes spread with chocolate.

I got the full strength of her smile as I slid the plate over towards her, “that’s what they’re supposed to look like, what did I do wrong?”

I picked up the metal rings from the pan, “you’re supposed to use these moulds.”

“Damn,” Belle cried, “Katie did mention them, ahh well, lesson learnt, and although they were ugly, they tasted ok didn’t they.”

“They tasted just fine,” I assured her as she sat down to eat her breakfast.

Soon the sound of footsteps heralded the arrival of Poppy, Katie and Jenny.

“Hey, those pancakes look amazing,” Katie said, “well done.”

“Ahh, Alex made these, mine were ugly but they tasted ok apparently. I forgot the rings, I spent so long trying to keep them round they stuck to the pan.”

“Nobody gets them right first time, next time you’ll know.”

“Thank you for helping me.”

Jenny looked at her watch, “you’d better get a move on folks if you want to get the car as soon as they open.”

Belle finished off her pancakes then licked the residual chocolate off the plate, she looked defiantly at her sisters’ frowning faces, “I know, I won’t do it tonight in the hotel, at least not when anyone’s looking,” the last said quietly, but I heard it and smiled at her.

Poppy cleared the table whilst Katie used a piece of kitchen towel to wipe the chocolate from around Belle’s mouth, Belle kissed Katie quickly before she dashed upstairs to get her overnight bag, returning with a pink teddy bear on her back.

“Isn’t it great,” Katie said, “we saw it in the charity shop when we were walking home from school yesterday and I just knew Belle would love it.”

I had to smile, “I honestly can’t think of anything more Belle,” I said as I collected a jacket from the hall cupboard.

Jenny gave me a hug at the door, she whispered in my ear, “I hope it’s ok at the nursing home, he might not recognise Belle, I’d hate her to be upset, she’s so excited, it’ll be a huge let-down.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, in the meantime, I like happy and excited Belle.”

Katie ran to meet us at the door, “don’t forget these,” she said, holding a neatly wrapped package, “I wrapped them for you last night. I had to stop Poppy stealing one.”

The box was too big for Belle’s backpack, so I put the chocolates and card in my overnight bag while Belle kissed Katie, then Poppy as she came to say goodbye.

Twenty-five minutes later we were waiting outside for the office to open. Belle was a fast walker, we’d made such good time we managed to stop for a takeout coffee and hot chocolate. We were sitting on the wall as the receptionist unlocked the gates and we followed her in.

We took seats in the waiting room, finishing our drinks as she booted up her computer and got the office ready for the day.

“Dad’s hired a Porsche,” Belle said as she dropped her empty cup in the recycling container.

“Oh really, that’s exciting, are you going anywhere nice?”

“I’m going to see my grandad, he’s in York, I’ve not seen him for over 18 months, since I ran away from home.”

The receptionist looked up at Belle, she put her hand out for Belle to shake, “I’m Sally, why don’t you take a seat, we can chat while we wait for Derek to arrive, he’s got the keys to the safe.”

Belle took a seat by Sally’s desk, “I’m Belle, Alex is not my real dad, well not until tomorrow, his girlfriend is a police detective and she’s adopting me, with Alex obviously.”

“Oh my, so why did you run away, or is that private?”

“My mum and dad died, and so the courts gave me to my uncle, but he’s not a nice man at all, so I ran away, I came to London and this wonderful girl found me and let me live with her and her friends in a squat, Poppy is my girlfriend now, and my sister, if that isn’t too weird, Jenny and Alex adopted Poppy first.”

“That’s amazing, my sister ran away from home a couple of years ago, she was missing for a few weeks before we found her.”

“I was on the streets for over a year,” Belle replied, not boasting, just stating a fact, “your sister was lucky she had someone looking for her. Why did she run away?”

“She had a row with our mum about her boyfriend, by the time we got Erica back her boyfriend was seeing someone else, kind of proving mum’s point that Erica was wasting her time with him.”

“Boys can be such idiots at times,” Belle replied with genuine sympathy.

“Oh yes, and that particular boy was a bigger idiot than any of us suspected, he finally got himself killed a few weeks back.”

“Did he live round here, maybe I’ve heard of him,” Belle asked.

“He used to live near us, but a couple of years back he moved over to Camden, never told his parents, they were worried sick, by all accounts he got himself into all kinds of trouble selling drugs, eventually he ended up dead in his flat with some hooker. That’s the first time his family had heard about him since he went missing.”

Belle frowned at the term hooker, but Sally was a polite, middle class girl, she’d probably never been mixed up in the life, so she let it go.

Then I remembered something, “what was his name?” I asked, “maybe we’d heard this on the news if it was recent.”

“David, David Kemp I think his surname was, I was never friendly with him, something about him creeped me out.”

Belle and I sat back and we both said “well, fuck,” at the same time.

“What!” Sally asked.

“It’s a small world,” Belle said, “he took part in the kidnap and gang rape of my girlfriend Poppy, spent a whole weekend beating and raping her until she escaped.”

“Oh no!” Sally cried, horrified by what she just heard.

“So tell your sister she dodged a massive bullet with him.”

“How is your girlfriend, is she OK?”

“She’s fine now,” I said, “took a few weeks for her wounds to heal...”

“She’s so strong, she kept me safe when I was living with her, she’s like a superhero or something. One of our friends went a bit mad when Poppy was kidnapped, then when she disappeared we thought she was dead, we think our friend snapped then, it was her that killed David.”

“Oh gosh, so what happened to this friend, have the police arrested her?”

“They can’t find her, that’s the thing with the streets, people go missing all the time and nobody notices.”

“So your girlfriend, is that Poppy?”

“Yes,” I replied, “I found her after she escaped, she was at a bus stop in the pouring rain, I took her in to get her dry. When I saw her injuries I wanted to take her to hospital, but she refused, luckily my sister lives with a doctor, so we could get her fixed up at home.”

“Oh man, I don’t know what to say,” she said as her phone beeped, she checked it and looked up, “that’s Derek, he’ll be a few more minutes, can I make you a coffee?”

“I’d like a hot chocolate if you’ve got one.”

“It’s only a pod machine, and I have no cream, will that be ok?”

“It’ll be fine,” Belle replied with a smile.

Sally set the machine going then returned to her computer and started typing, fetching Belle’s drink as soon as it was finished.

Belle was finishing her hot chocolate as the door opened, “ahh Mr Harrison,” a voice boomed across the office, “good to see you again. Who’s the little lady?”

Belle jumped up and shook Derek’s hand, “I’m Belle, Alex’s PA.”

“Really,” Derek said with a smile, “I love your very professional looking backpack.”

“I’m undercover,” Belle replied quickly.

“She really is my PA, as well as my daughter,” I explained.

“So, what car are you having today?” Derek asked as he unlocked the key safe.

“I’ve booked the Por...” I started, but Sally interrupted me.

“They’ve got the Bentley Continental.”

“Oh, very nice, it’s just been serviced this week, the tyres are brand new, so please be careful,” Derek said, handing me the keys, “When are you due back, because I was hoping to borrow it for an evening.”

“They’re back on Sunday afternoon,” Sally said with a smile, “so you can have it for Sunday evening, Derek.”

“Great stuff, enjoy your trip Belle,” Derek said as he wandered off to his office.

“A little upgrade,” Sally said, “and it’s not booked again until Monday, so you may as well have it for Saturday so you can take Poppy and Jenny out.”

“And Katie, my other sister, she can go for a ride.”

“You have three daughters, that’s amazing, were they all runaways?”

“Not Katie, she was about to be abandoned by her parents, her mother couldn’t cope with her being gay, so we took her in.”

“I don’t know what to say, how could anyone do that?”

“I know, it’s awful,” I replied, “but we made them pay, literally, they’ve had to give Katie the equivalent cash to the money they’re spending on their son’s school fees.”

“At least that’s something, a punishment for being cruel,” Sally replied as she passed over the forms for me to sign.

We took the forms outside so we could do the usual visual check of the car before I signed for it. I popped the doors open so Belle could jump in and get herself comfortable, “no feet on the seats,” shouted as I saw her standing on the front seat to lean into the back.

Sally laughed as I went back inside with her so she could swipe my credit card for the damage deposit then we were free to leave.

“Well, this is a nice surprise,” I said as I fastened my seatbelt and adjusted everything so I was comfortable.

“Is this nicer than the car you booked for us?”

“A lot nicer,” I replied as I took a photo of the steering wheel and sent it to Jenny, with the message ‘Belle got chatting with the receptionist and suddenly we’ve got an upgrade, I’ll tell you why later.’

Whilst I worked out what did what on the dashboard Belle pulled her iPad out of her backpack, “Katie showed me how to use my iPad to send music to the stereo, she gave me some music as well, can I play some?”

“Of course you can,” I replied, as I spun through the menus on the entertainment system until I found the Bluetooth settings. Belle tapped a code off the Bentley’s screen into her iPad and they were paired, and soon we had Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album playing.

“I like this album, she’s got a nice voice, very sexy.” Belle said as she settled back into her seat, “she’s so pretty as well, and tall. Mmmm, I’m just going to think about her while you talk to me.”

“I’ll talk after I’ve managed to get this beast out of London and onto the motorway, it’s a long time since I’ve driven anything this big.”

“Ok, I’m just having happy thoughts about Dua Lipa.”

The sat nav was great, with really clear maps ahead of the steering wheel between the rev counter and speedo, it was easy to follow the directions onto the M4, then onward to the M25 and M1.

As soon as we hit a clear section of the motorway I put my foot down and felt the surge of power as the big 12-cylinder engine took a deep breath and threw us forwards.

“Oh fuck!” Belle cried as she was forced back in her seat, “man, this car is fast.”

“It really is, such a shame we can’t keep this speed up all the way, the roads will be too busy, and I’m pretty sure I can’t afford to keep refuelling it at motorway prices.”

“Do you have a lot of money Alex? Not that it matters or anything, but I really don’t know what rich means. Like, my dad must have had some money, because we had a house, and a nice car, not like this one, but it was new and it was pretty fancy, it was German, with the star thing on the front...”

“A Mercedes...” I offered.

“Yes, that’s it, it was gold and really smooth. We went on holiday to Greece the year before it happened, we stayed in a villa, it had a swimming pool, it was so nice.”

“Do you know who inherited the house?”

“I’ve no idea, and to be honest I don’t care, I’m just wondering what sort of job you’d need to buy a car like this, it probably costs as much as a house.”

“Well, yes, in much of the country you could buy a nice house for the same price as this car.”

“How much was your house?”

“I paid just over £2 million for it when I moved in with Tammy, that’s a while ago now, it’s probably worth twice as much now.”

“I can’t even process that number, if I was your PA, earning what a normal PA earns, how long would it take to earn what the house is worth now?”

I did a quick calculation, based on the PA jobs I’d seen advertised recently.

“Over a hundred years, and that’s just the full earnings, you’d need someone else to pay the bills.”

“I guess that means you’re rich,” she said, there was no judgement though.

“I’d just been paid a huge fee for some work, and I had a couple of really successful books. I don’t earn that much anymore.”

“Could you afford to buy and run this car, if you wanted to.”

“I probably could, and I probably wouldn’t miss the money.”

“Cool,” is all Belle said before she closed her eyes and was quiet for a while, listening to the music, which sounded amazing coming from the many, many speakers dotted around the cabin.

“I hope you don’t think I was prying then, it’s not like I want any money off you or anything. I was just thinking about what you said earlier, how you made Katie’s parents give her some money, and I was wondering how much money posh people have, you know, how much more than regular people.”

“I’ve no idea how much money Katie’s parents have, but I can say that we made her mum give Katie the equivalent of the money they were spending on sending her brother to a boarding school, I think they gave her £80,000, then Katie’s dad wrote Poppy a cheque for the same amount, he said he was doing it to punish her mum, and because Poppy was giving Katie the love her mother never gave her.”

“What would this car cost?”

“Probably about £160,000,” I replied.

“So between them they could buy this car.”

“Yes, but they’re really expensive things to run.”

“I’m not suggesting we buy this car, why would we need a car in London, I’m just trying to get my head around the concept of money is all, because my head is whirling right now.”

“Are you jealous that Poppy and Katie have money in the bank?”

“Why would I be jealous? What do I need money for, I’ve no dreams or ambitions. If I need clothes or anything I’ll save up my pocket money, or do extra chores. When I finish school I’ll work for you full time, or work for Poppy’s charity. I really don’t want a Gucci bag or a posh car.”

I looked across at Belle, she was sitting cross legged in the big passenger chair, the iPad in her lap, she was scrolling through the music Katie had given her. My heart soared watching her, utterly at peace, wanting nothing but a family and a roof over her head.

It wasn’t long before the two hot chocolates Belle drank had the usual effect, so I pulled into Heston services and Belle was out and sprinting across to the toilets before I’d even turned the engine off.

I’d been thinking as we drove in silence, and I’d decided to give Belle the same money as her sisters, it wasn’t fair that she’d missed out. I pulled out my phone and accessed my banking app, I checked the funds on my savings and I really wouldn’t miss £80,000, so I transferred it over to Belle. She didn’t want it, she wasn’t expecting it, but I loved her so much I couldn’t not give it to her. Besides, she probably wouldn’t even notice it unless she checked her annual savings statement when it arrived next year.

With that done I climbed out of the car and headed over to the services, I needed the toilet myself.

I found Belle in the shop, browsing the magazines, “oh, hi Alex. Katie knows so much about fashions and styles, and I know nothing, so I thought I’d do some research.”

She picked up a couple of teen fashion magazines and a bag of sweets, I picked up a couple of bottles of water.

We hit the motorway again, traffic was heavier now and we pretty much crawled the next 25 miles until we reached the M1. I was grateful for the Bentley’s adaptive cruise control which meant I only had to steer as the myriad sensors around the car kept me a consistent distance from the car in front.

Belle’s phone pinged, “oh, a text message, must be Poppy,” she said brightly as she dug her little Nokia phone out of her bag.

“Mmm, it’s the bank,” she said, “Katie set me up so they text me every Friday with my balance so I know how much pocket money I’ve got, but it’s not Friday is it?”

“No, it’s Thursday today.”

“I thought so,” she said thoughtfully as she opened the message.

Belle’s face went white as she read the message, “it says there’s been a deposit in my account, £80,000. There must have been a mistake, why would someone do that?”

She sat back, holding the phone in both hands.

“Hang on a second, it’s you isn’t it, you’ve paid that money in. Why? I told you I don’t want or need any money.”

“That’s why I gave you the money. If you’d been angling for the money before I wouldn’t have done it, but you emphatically told me you didn’t need the money, so I’ve given it to you.”

“What do I need that money for?”

“I’ll tell you the same as I told Poppy. Things change, people change, in a few years you might decide to move out, and that money will be a huge help to get a flat somewhere. Or you might decide you want to go to university, obviously if you do Jenny and I would pay for your tuition and accommodation, but if you go to a university outside London, you’ll probably want a car or a motorbike so you can get around.”

Belle was silent as she processed what I’d told her, then she sat up, slipped her phone into her bag, unfastened her seatbelt and leaned over to kiss me delicately on my cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she refastened her seatbelt to stop the alarm.

“On a related note, are you still ok with that phone, or do you want a nice smartphone, like Poppy’s.”

“I still don’t see the point, a phone is for calls and quick messages, if I need more then I’ll always be near someone who can lend me theirs.”

“Ok, but when you get to school, if you find you need one, let me know.”

“Will do,” she replied as she unlocked her iPad and found a new album, this time she treated me to Taylor Swift’s great Folklore album.

The M1 was much clearer, I released the cruise control and floored the accelerator, letting the big Bentley stretch its legs up the outside lane for a few miles.

“Does that really say 110 on the speedo?” Belle asked after a couple of minutes.

“Ahh, yes it does,” I replied, lifting off the loud pedal slightly.

“I like this car, it doesn’t feel like a car, it feels like a really comfy cinema seat, as if I’m watching a road movie.”

“It’s not a very exciting film though.”

“Don’t feel like you need to get involved in a car chase to make it more exciting,” Belle replied, “I can live with boring right now.”

We stopped for lunch just south of Sheffield, we had a choice of places to eat, Belle chose KFC, we shared a bucket, Belle had coke, I had coffee.

“Mmm, I love this, KFC or one of the copycat places were our treat if we had enough money for everyone to have something, otherwise it’s not fair for just one or two of us to have something nice and the rest just have cold beans.”

“This is why you and Poppy are such wonderful people, even at the worst of times, when you’re on the brink of survival, you still think of others before yourself.”

“Isn’t everyone like that?”

“Unfortunately not.”

“Oh,” Belle said, genuinely puzzled that some people aren’t as kind as she is, “but you’re like that, aren’t you?”

“I’ve never been poor, so I can’t know for sure, but I’d like to think I’d share my last meal with someone.”

“That’s what Poppy did, when she found me, she gave me her burger, that was her meal, and she gave it to me. That made a huge impact on me, someone who’d never met me, didn’t know anything about me, but she gave me the only food she had. Nothing anyone says will persuade me that she isn’t an actual goddess.”

We got back on the road, about 60 miles to go.

“Tell me about your family,” Belle asked, “we know about Poppy’s, and Katie’s, and you know about mine, but we don’t really know about yours.”

“Ok, well you know about one member of my family,”

“Who? Ha, sorry, yes, Helen, I know about Helen.”

“And you know what my mum looked like.”

“Oh yes, she was wonderful, and once again, I’m sorry I made you look at your mum’s porn.”

“On that subject, Helen is fine about you having the box, but first we have to remove the illegal stuff from the magazines.”

“Oh wow, really. Man, we’re going to have a fun time looking at Helen’s porn, did she tell you what’s on the DVD?”

“Would you be surprised if I said porn?”

“Not really, oh gosh, I’m so excited to see her, she’s so beautiful, and so was your mum.”

“Right, my family,” I said, pausing to both work out where to start, and to pass a line of lorries.

“Mum was a flight attendant, they called them air hostesses back then, mostly on the London to New York run, but sometimes to LA or Durban in South Africa.”

“Oh my, that was such a glamorous job, I bet she was popular.”

“I bet she was. My dad was a travel writer, he’d jet off to some fabulous holiday location and write about it for the Sunday newspapers, or travel magazines, or even National Geographic.”

“And that’s where he met your mum!” Belle said, sounding delighted at her detective work.

“Yes, they met on a flight, got chatting, met up later, and soon were a couple. Dad grew tired of constant travelling, he’d seen most of the world, so he decided to settle down, concentrate on writing his memoirs and became a full-time editor for a travel magazine publisher. Around this time mum was made redundant, so they were both at home, they got married and mum went back into modelling...”

“Is that when those photos were taken?”

“I don’t think so, she’d have been about 30 when she and dad met, and she looks younger than that in the photos.”

“Oh, so she was modelling when she was working?”

“Helen knows more, but what I reckon is she was doing short haul flights first, to Europe, and those photos are in Danish and Dutch magazines, so she was probably doing photo shoots in between flights.”

“Oh, sneaky, so she didn’t even have to pay to travel to the photo shoots. I like that. So what did she do afterwards?”

“She got a job running a modelling agency, booking models, booking shoots, and when Helen moved into modelling she helped her get work.”

“Your mum booked Helen’s porn?”

“Oh no, Helen did general modelling first, you know, catalogues, fashion shoots in magazines, that kind of stuff.”

“Ahh, I see. Did she know about Helen’s other work?”

“Helen hasn’t said, but I don’t think so. Anyway, mum fell ill, she had been a heavy smoker since her early teens, she got cancer...”

“Oh no, my dad smoked, but not at home, I hate the smell, Poppy smoked for a little bit you know, but she quit everything, she’s so strong, a lot of girls, they could kick the hard drugs, but they couldn’t stop smoking, I don’t know why.”

“A lot of people say tobacco is tougher to quit than hard drugs. So, mum had a few bad years, health wise, until one day she died suddenly at home, dad found her when he came home.”

“Oh no, that’s horrible.”

“They were still so much in love, dad had a stroke and passed away not long after mum’s funeral, he died of a broken heart.”

“I’ve heard about that, people who can’t manage to live without their partner.”

We drove in silence for a while, then Belle spoke quietly, “you know, Max loves Poppy, I mean, really, obsessively loves her, but she knew that the age difference made it wrong, and she had this weird Mother of the House attitude that I guess made her feel weird about acting on it. Although we sometimes did things to each other and she would generally try to be next to Poppy when we started, so Poppy was the one to go down on her...”

Belle stopped talking for a while, we were another couple of miles down the road before she spoke again.

“Sorry, I got really angry inside then, because Poppy was my girlfriend, and Max always monopolised her. I’m ok now, so anyway, back on track, I was just thinking how Max snapped when we thought Poppy was dead, but instead of having a stroke and dying, she went on a killing spree. I wonder if she was hoping someone would fight back?”

“Interesting idea, but we’ll never know. Thinking back to the sexy times, you did get chance to be with Poppy some times I hope?”

“Oh yes,” Belle answered wistfully, “sometimes Max wanted to be with Evie, because if I’m honest, Evie was the best at girl sex, oh my, yes, she knows exactly what buttons to push. Poppy though, I love Poppy with every gram of my body, and our times were the best times. I’m not saying Flower was bad, she could knock my socks off, but she’s not Poppy.”

I turned off the motorway and started to wind my way through the ancient streets of York until we found the nursing home, Belle looked at me as I turned the engine off, “what if he doesn’t know who I am, I’ve heard about old people, sometimes they can’t even remember their own wives.”

“I don’t know, we won’t have wasted our time, because you’ll have seen him even if he doesn’t know you, you’ll know him.”

“I guess.”

“And we can share these nice chocolates with him,” I added as I removed the chocolates and card from my bag.

“Oh yes, and I’m having the cherry one.”

Belle closed her eyes, breathing deeply, centring herself before she set off towards the reception, “ok, let’s do this.”

The front door was locked, “they do this to stop residents just wandering off.”

“Oh, a bit like in a nursery,” Belle replied.

“Exactly like in a nursery,” I said as I pushed the intercom, there was a squelch of static that I assumed was the receptionist, “hello, we’re here to see Clive Dean.”

The door clicked and I pulled it open, letting Belle in first.