Chapter 23

Angie lay next to Katie on the bed on Thursday morning, one week after their encounter on the sands, and gently stroked the top of her darling's feet with the soles of her own. Katie was still asleep, her breast rising and falling gently and she was making no sound at all. Angie put her face next to that of her friend and felt her warm breath waft gently over her cheek.

"We're so lucky to have each other, darling Katie"

She prodded her Katie in her healing but still painful ribcage.

"What, Angie?" murmured a waking Katie.

"I think the bedroom should be light blue"

"Rubbish!! - pink. You are so silly sometimes, Angie - really quite pathetic!"

"Blue"

"Pink"

"Blue"

"Pink if I win our next fight, blue if you do"

"OK."

And so the day began with a walk over the Heath to the bathing pond. It was February now and a cold frost made their feet so numb with cold that they avoided the grass and stuck to the paths. "Just look at us, Katie, we are blue all over before we've even got into the water. They'll be locking us up for being raving mad before long, just for our own good"

"WE know what's good for us Angie!!. To hell with some gutless wonder of a fucking chair bound bureaucrat telling us all what's good for us."

"Right"

LATER ON THURSDAY

"Hi, Katie", said Angie over the 'phone. "Just heard four friends of ours have gone abroad for a while - a long while. In fact they won't be back ever."

THURSDAY EVENING

The two lovers lay on the rug and looked at each others' rapidly healing bodies.

"When do you think we'll be ready, Katie"

"Let's give it three weeks, when we're due to move in"

"That means we can't have the bedroom done until after"

THREE WEEKS LATER

Angie stood over her fallen friend and placed her foot triumphantly on Katie's stomach.

"Blue, my dear friend." She gave Katie's battered ribs a final vicious kick, turned away from her unconscious lover and walked back to the cottage.

THE LAST FIGHT

They had agreed to go up to Norfolk in order to avoid John watching them again. As they had walked out onto the battleground on Saturday morning just as it was becoming light.

"Angie!"

"Yes, darling?"

When it's over, the winner goes back to the cottage and the loser makes her own way back when she recovers"

"OK, Katie"

Katie then drew the circle on the sand.

"You've made it so small, Katie. You're giving me such an advantage over you!"

"Yes. My reward to you for being the best friend I ever had."

Katie never really had much chance to use her greater speed. She was forced to fight at close quarters and it was not long before Angie's greater strength began to slow her down and inflict awful punishment. It was only ten minutes before she was bidden by Angie to get to HER feet to be given the final mighty kick. Then she slumped to the ground.

Angie waited anxiously watching the clock. Twenty minutes went by and she determined to ignore these horrible rules that SHE had never made in the first place and go and bring her friend back home. Just as she was getting to her feet, the door slowly opened and a shamefaced Katie crept into the cottage. She came over to her friend and stuck out her hand.

"Congratulations, Angie. Well done!"

"Oh, Katie. Have whatever colour you want in the bedroom my sweet. Only don't let's ever do this again! I mean it Katie NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!!!"

"No, Angie. You won and we'll have blue."

"No Katie. I won and I'll have whatever bloody colour I want and I say we have pink!"

"Fine, Angie. Lets go to bed and can we have sheets and blankets, please? I feel so ill."

And so the friends finally lost the urge to fight each other. After that last terible fight they lost their love of cold discomfort and settled down to live in peace and increasingly platonic love for three happy years until Steve finally persuaded Angie to marry him and Katie, now that John was a widower, became the Countess of Killimuir presenting John inside a year with a son and heir, who was spoiled rotten by his mother and father and his three step-sisters.

Charlie Ford had a massive and fatal stroke shortly after arriving in Brazil with his three relatives, leaving the long-suffering Jane a widow. Evans and his gross half-sisters never returned to England.

Katie and Angie never ceased to be friends and every so often they would go off somewhere for a few days and rekindle the love that still meant so much to them. Angie's daughters and Katie's three sons and three step daughters were always inseparable friends.

And Katie never found out exactly what Angie's job was. In the end she gave up asking.