Chapter 1

The younger of the two men couldn't help staring at the attractive redhead standing in her black underwear only a few yards away from him. The older man, noticing his young partner's gaze, leaned over and spoke quietly into his ear:

"Don't stare, Chris ... Ginny's much too nice to say anything, and I know it's your first week on the job since you finished training, but she's your colleague, not some Page Three pin up girl!" The young man's reverie was broken and he turned his head to face his partner.

"What! Oh, right! Should I say something to apologise?"

"No! Just try to remember in future! Come on, our shift begins in thirty minutes ... just time to grab a cup of tea first!"

Ginny Webster finished tying up her hair, then she went to join her current partner, Karen Sykes, in the car park behind the police station. She got behind the wheel of the patrol car and adjusted the seat and mirrors from where they had been left by one of her taller, male colleagues, who had just finished the night shift. Ginny and Karen had been friends since their first week together at Hendon Police College nearly seven years previously; and although they hadn't always worked together since then, after graduation they had been posted to the same North London station where they were now.

"Have you seen the new guy ... Chris ... quite dishy!" Karen said to her friend.

"Yes, he was in the locker room just now, with Harry. You can tell he isn't used to mixed changing rooms, yet!"

"I don't mind when the newbies do it!" said Karen, " ... They've got to learn ... It's the older guys who creep me out! But next time I see Chris in there on his own ... maybe I'll just give the poor, cute, baby something to look at!"

"You do what you want, Kaz: but please don't bring any more of them home; I see enough of policemen all day, I'd prefer not to see them in my own home, too!"

" ... Aw! But you know how hard it is to get civilians interested, Ginny: once they know that you're in the Force, you're either just a challenge ... another potential notch on their proverbial bedpost ... or they run away! At least with other coppers everyone knows the score from the start!"

" ... And then the next day they run away! I want more than that, Kaz! I know it's hard to find a good one who isn't freaked by the job ... but I'd rather do without, than settle for a succession of one-night-stands!"

They settled down to their patrol, and while their minds may have stayed on the subject of close encounters of the male kind, most of their attention was back on the job in hand! The black car shot past them, at what was obviously a speed in excess of the legal limit.

"Here we go: first one of the day!" Ginny exclaimed, "Call it in: let's see who our boy racer is!"

Almost as soon as he'd seen the blue light and heard the distinctive siren, the driver of the car had pulled into the side of the road and turned off his ignition. As Ginny walked over towards the car the driver's window slid down.

"Would you step out of the car, please!" she said; a steady, even tone to her voice. The driver responded immediately. There was something familiar about him, Ginny thought, her brain's synapses firing trying to recall whether he was a known villain! She looked at the screen of her hand-held communication device ... George Edward Porter ... where did she know that name from?

"Are you the registered owner of this vehicle, Sir?"

"Yes, officer ... and are you still the same Virgin Princess!"

Ginny's wide-eyed, quizzical expression briefly betrayed her emotions. She hadn't heard that expression used for a long time: not since... 4B! Of course! Now she knew why the name was familiar!

" ... Georgie Porter!" she exclaimed, " ... I should have known! And less of your cheek, if you don't mind, Mr Porter! You do know why we pulled you over?"

Although he still had the same smile, the one that used to turn Ginny's teenage knees to jelly: he was at least more respectful than he had been at fifteen!

" ... Yes, I suppose I was going a bit fast just then!"

"Yes, Sir: we measured your speed as 48 miles per hour. However, our information shows that your vehicle's documentation is currently up to date, and your vehicle is apparently roadworthy; so I will just be reporting you for the speeding offence; that should just mean a fine and three points on your licence. Do you have your licence with you, Sir?"

Georgie took the photo card out of his wallet and handed it to Ginny, who inspected it carefully, as if she expected to find something wrong with it. He had been the class clown and had teased her constantly when they had been in school together: and he also had a reputation for being a 'bad boy'; which of course, together with his inherent cuteness, only added to the attraction for most of the school's female population!

He was the boy who would always push his luck to the limit ... who could both make his teachers laugh, and also run for the solace of strong coffee in the staff room! If it wasn't for the fact that he was both quite intelligent, and a good all-round athlete, he may well have been excluded several times for his disregard of school rules!

Ginny was always his polar opposite: diligent, quiet, polite; a real pleasure to teach. Okay, she was also pretty, but chronically shy, and never had so much as an overdue library book during all her school years.

"Now that you've done your duty, Officer, can I just say how good it is to see you again after all these years; I would never have guessed that shy Ginny Webster would have ended up doing this ... and you've filled out quite nicely, too!"

She couldn't stop herself blushing! How very unprofessional! Was he chatting her up ... oh, how she wished he would have done that back in 4B! Georgie saw Ginny's partner walking slowing towards them.

" ... Look," he said, quietly, "I think your mate is coming over to rescue you! If I was to be in town, say, about 8:30 tonight; where would I 'not' accidentally see you?" Ginny smiled.

" ... Well, Mr Porter: I think that it's highly unlikely that I'll be in Macey's at that time!"

" ... Okay! So I definitely won't see you in Macey's at 8:30, then! All right, officer, I'll keep my speed down, from now on!"

"Everything all right here?" Karen said.

"Yes, I've cautioned the driver, and issued him with a speeding ticket. Get along now, Sir ... and remember what I said!" Georgie grinned as he pulled slowly away.

" ... Mmm! Quite cute!" Karen said.

" ... Yes, and cheeky with it!" Ginny replied. " ... Fancies himself as a bit of a ladies man, probably!"

"Well, I suppose we'd better get back on patrol!" Karen added.

Their shift over for another day, Ginny and Karen left the patrol car in the car park and walked back towards the station building. They deposited all the accumulated paperwork from their day's activities, then headed towards the locker room before they went home.

"Hello, Harry! How's your new boy coming along?"

Harry greeted them with a smile. As an experienced officer, who was good at his job, but didn't have the drive or the ambition to want to get on; he was often paired up with the rookies straight out of the police college. In fact, both Ginny and Karen had also done so, and both had learned a lot about practical policing from Harry!

"He'll get there! I think he's got what it takes to be a good copper ... just like you two!"

"Thanks, Harry!" Karen replied, "Have a good evening! See you tomorrow!"

When they got to the locker room, they saw that Chris was still in there, tapping out a text message on his phone. Karen winked at Ginny: which Ginny knew meant that Chris was ripe for a little of Karen's 'fun'!

"Evening, Chris!" she said, "Settling in all right?"

"Yes, thanks! It's Karen, isn't it?"

"Yes! And this is Ginny!"

Ginny nodded, then turned away as she unbuttoned her shirt. Chris continued to type his text. Karen was quickly out of her own uniform shirt and her work shoes. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Chris had looked up in her direction; so with her back to him, she slowly took off her uniform trousers; bending low as if to get something out of her locker and presenting him with a good look at her shapely rear end! Chris' reaction was to swallow hard.

" ... Oh, bum!" she said, turning towards Ginny, "That's another bra strap broken!" Before the words had even registered in Chris' consciousness, she had reached round and unhooked her bra and taken it off. He had now abandoned his text and was looking directly at Karen's upper torso. She just smiled at him as she pulled a T-shirt over her head, then a pair of jeans over her legs. Ginny, just out of his line of sight, could have been stark naked and he wouldn't have noticed!

As the two young women left the locker room, Chris was still texting; but they both noticed that his face was a little flushed, and he now had his jacket draped over his lap. As Karen left she walked over to him and pressed something into his hand and winked at him.

" ... You gave him your phone number, I suppose!" Ginny said in a slightly exasperated tone of voice.

" ... Of course!" said her friend, "He's had the entree; let's see if he's ready for the main course!"

"I don't know!" said Ginny, " ... Just remember what I said this morning!" Karen laughed.

" ... Okay! If he wants to play ... only at his place! Are you staying in tonight, Gin?" Ginny tried to keep her voice neutral.

" ... Not sure! I might go into town later!"

"All right!" said Karen, "But with a bit of luck, I'll be having an early night!"

"At least we're off duty tomorrow!" Ginny said, " ... I might go to see my mum and dad!"

They had only been home an hour or so, when Karen received the call from Chris. Ginny showered, washed her hair, put on fresh underwear, then wiggled into a pair of skinny jeans. It was a nice evening and Macey's was no more than thirty minutes walk from Ginny's house, so she set off on foot to the club.

Ever since her chance meeting with Georgie Porter that morning, she had been thinking about this evening. She still had strong memories of her schooldays: she had started at Swan Lane Comprehensive a few months after her eleventh birthday, and unlike most of her peers, she had moved into the school's catchment area only a short time before, when her father had changed jobs, so she knew no one. All of her friends from primary school were still in Leicestershire, and as she was naturally shy and a little wary of strangers, the thought of going to a new institution: and one that had over a thousand pupils; unlike her little junior school where there were only a few hundred, was a daunting prospect.

She also had that hair! It was naturally red, but a darker shade than ginger, that her mother refused to allow her to cut; so it hung in tight curls half way down her back. She knew now that her hair was much admired by other women and was a prized asset: but at eleven it was a distinct handicap; one that was soon picked up on by a few of her new school's pupils, who continued to tease her about it for the next few years; and ultimately had an effect on her already shaky self-confidence.

So, being academically bright, she retreated into that world: forgetting about developing the usual social skills that probably would have helped her cope in ways that she couldn't at the time envisage, and instead becoming the bookish swot, whose intelligence only served to insulate and isolate her even more.

She didn't know how the 'Virgin Princess' nickname had originally come about: but later on she came to appreciate that the first part was both a play on words of her name, Virginia; and also a reference, along with 'Princess', to her perceived aloofness and reluctance to mix; by those schoolmates that didn't appreciate her crippling shyness and who only thought her snobbish and stand-offish! And of these, Georgie Porter had been one of her worst tormentors ... and where the bold and gregarious Georgie went, others blindly followed!