Chapter 6

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Lia woke them around 10 o’clock on Sunday morning, “wake up sleepyheads, it’s not like you need any beauty sleep.”

“My head hurts,” Belle groaned.

“There’s orange juice and paracetamol downstairs, and a full cooked breakfast.”

Poppy lifted Belle and slipped out from under her, “I’ll grab the first shower, unless you want to share.”

Belle immediately sprang to life, jumped off the bed and raced Poppy to the shower.

Twenty minutes later they met the others on the patio downstairs and helped themselves to food, juice and coffee.

“Any idea how we’re getting home?” Belle asked as she mopped up egg yolk with a piece of crusty bread, “not that I’m desperate to leave or anything,” she added quickly.

“Geoff, why don’t you give them the news,” Amy said as she poured herself another mug of coffee.

“Well, at 1 o’clock I’m flying to Brussels, with a short detour to London City airport, I’ll have a driver waiting to take you home...”

Belle’s eyes were wide with wonderment, she turned to Poppy, “we’re flying home! In a fucking private jet!”

Poppy turned to Geoff, “mmm, that sounds amazing, really, but, mmm, this is really cheeky, the driver waiting for us, that’s a nice touch, but would it be super cheeky to ask if our parents could see us climbing out of your plane ... not that they wouldn’t believe us or anything ... but you know, it sounds special.”

Geoff laughed and clapped his hands, “of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Give me your address and I’ll get a driver to collect your parents. The driver will contact them with a time, it’ll probably be around, mmm, 1:30 I’d say.”

“Who wants to ring mum to tell her?” Belle asked excitedly.

“I think you should,” Poppy and Lia agreed.

Belle threw her phone to Poppy, “You dial, I’m too excited.”

Poppy dialled, put the phone on speaker and placed it before Belle.

“Hey Belle! Where are you?”

“We’re still at Amy’s house having breakfast,” Belle replied.

“That’s nice, when do you think you’ll be home, I don’t know what plans to make for dinner.”

“Oh I don’t know,” Belle replied casually, “A couple of hours or so.”

“Don’t be silly, even Amy’s super car can’t get you home in a couple of hours.”

“We’re coming home in a fucking plane!” Belle cried, “a real plane, we’ll be landing at London City around...” she looked to Geoff for help.

“Our landing slot is 2:15, so bar any delays, you’ll be on the tarmac in the private aviation terminal around 2:20pm.”

“Did you hear that?” Belle asked.

“Seriously, you have access to a plane?”

“Geoff is giving us a lift in his plane, I’m so excited. Poppy’s never flown before, she looks like she’s going to explode.”

“I’ll get Alex to book us a car, that big Audi we used the other week should be OK if Sally has it available.”

“It’s OK, Geoff is booking a car to pick you up, he thinks it’ll be there about 1:30.”

“Who’s Geoff?”

“He’s Amy’s friend, the one who gave her the money. He’s popped over from America for the day.”

“You mean like we pop to London for the day,” Jenny laughed.

“Pretty much, I suppose it’s easy when you own a fucking plane! I can’t believe this is happening...”

Belle was hyperventilating, so Poppy grabbed her Nokia whilst Katie took her to the kitchen for some water.

“Hey mum...”

“Oh, hi Poppy, is Belle OK?”

“She’s a little excited is all. We’ve so much to tell you, Amy’s giving us people and money to set up the outreach centres and any money that we need on top of Taylor’s money...”

“And what do you have to do in return?” Jenny asked, sounding just a little suspicious.

“Hey Jenny, this is Amy. There are no conditions on the help I’m giving Poppy and Belle, they could walk off the plane and never speak to me again, and the funds would still be paid. They have, however, offered some really useful help. I’m looking to open a school in Walthamstow. It’ll be very different to my school up here, but it will have the same ethos, and offer the same full boarding education experience for girls who’ve fallen through the cracks. They’ve also offered to come back here to talk to my girls again. I think everyone got a lot from the talks they’ve given over the last couple of days, we’re very grateful.”

“I’m so sorry, Amy. That’s twice now that I’ve been far too defensive about your intentions.”

“Think nothing of it, I imagine I’d have trouble trusting someone who appeared from nowhere and whisked my kids away.”

“I’ve been doing some reading about you...”

“Not in the police database I hope,” Amy laughed.

“Oh gosh, I never thought to look there,” Jenny replied, “should I?”

“You’ll find two things, and both are rape complaints I made that went nowhere.”

“Ahh, I’m sorry to hear that, anything I can do there?”

“Not really, a lot of water has gone under that bridge, there’s nothing to be gained from reopening those wounds.”

“Still, the offer is there. Anyway, I’ve been reading about your foundation, and your school. It’s amazing the work you’re doing.”

“What you see in the press is a fraction of the work we’re doing, Jenny. I’ve got projects on the go across the world, although I’m having to put a lot of trust in people, as I can’t keep as close an eye on things as I’d like. I’m looking out for good people to supervise work overseas. I’m hoping some of my girls who graduate in the coming years will be able to supervise operations for me.”

“I apologise again for being rude...”

“And I’ll say once more, think nothing of it. I’d like to invite you all up for a weekend, no strings, although I’m sure the girls would want to see the friends they made, and chat with them some more.”

“Thank you, we’ll need to plan around the charity work, but I’ll gladly accept the invitation.”

“Anyway, I need to get your daughters packed up and on the road, we’ve got about an hour’s drive to the airport.”

As the girls were packing their bags, Amy brought the Range Rover round to the front of the house.

Amy headed off any comments from Belle, “it’s an hour to the airport, you can’t sit on Poppy’s knee for that long.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Belle replied, chin held high as she opened the back door and clambered over the seat to the third row.

Poppy shrugged as she dropped the middle row seat and slid onto the back seat next to Belle.

The girls marvelled at Amy’s driving as she wove the big car effortlessly along the winding A- and B-roads to the airport. Using a route normally avoided by people travelling north, she covered the 80-minute journey in under an hour.

“And I didn’t break too many speed limits,” Amy told them, as she pulled into the private aviation terminal.

As the girls climbed out of the Range Rover their eyes were caught by the sleek, silver jet that loomed above the car.

“Shit! Is this yours?” Lia asked in an awed whisper.

“It is,” Geoff replied, proudly. “Apart from Amy’s wedding gift, this is my greatest extravagance. I had a smaller jet before, but whilst we were rearranging my finances prior to passing my empire onto Amy, my accountants advised me to upgrade my old Gulfstream IV to this G650, which is both faster, and able to fly from Austin to Berlin and beyond without refuelling. Their idea was that when I’m not using the plane, I can make some money by leasing it out. The thing is, America is such a big place, and I have meetings almost every week in New York, LA and Chicago, I hardly ever get chance to loan it out.”

“Can we look inside?” Belle asked, bouncing with excitement.

“Ask the nice man at the bottom of the steps, he’ll show you everything, including the cockpit.”

“I’m taking some photos to send to mum,” Poppy said as she pulled out her phone, “Pose on the steps,” she shouted as Belle ran towards the pilot.