“Damien, it is nice to see you again. I had hoped that it would be under better circumstances.”

“Thank you, Mrs Thompson.”

“Paula, please.”

“Thank you for seeing me again, Paula.”

“I’ve made a call to a good friend of mine. He will be here shortly to talk to you. Don’t be afraid of him. He is a human rights lawyer and is very interested in taking up your case.”

“Eh? My case?”

“It is wrong for you to be sent to one of those camps. That brochure tells a lot, but the reports on the internet say many nasty things about it. Because it is in what they call the ‘Bible Belt’, no one wants to do anything about it.”

“I have no money to pay for a lawyer.”

Paula smiled.
“It won’t cost you a penny. Most civil rights cases involve one side that can’t pay. Thomas Gold does this sort of work, what we call ‘pro bono’. That means free of charge.”

Damien didn’t look impressed.

“What will happen to me?”

“Tonight? We will get you somewhere safe and where your family can’t find you. Then, Mr Gold will start the process of getting you to become a ward of the court. Once that happens, your family can’t force you to go anywhere that you don’t want.”

Just then, his phone bleeped.
“That’s my father.”

He opened up the phone and looked at the message.
“He’s reminding me that I am leading the bible reading tonight and that I need to get home now to prepare.”

“Do you want to go?”

Damien shook his head.

“Then text him and tell him that you are not going to be there and that you are not going to the prison camp in the USA.”

“I can’t say that?” said Damien.

“Yes, you can. If you want to break free from your parents, then there is no better time than the present to do it. They are about thirty miles away if my memory is right?”

He hesitated.
“They are at home, aren’t they?”

Damien nodded.

“Then? What are you waiting for?”

Damien didn’t reply but started creating a text. When he’d done it, he passed his phone to Paula.
“That ok?”

Paula read it and made a spelling correction.
“Being is ‘e’ before ‘I’.”

“Sorry.”

“Well?”

Damien looked at her and then pressed send.

“Wait for it to be delivered, then switch your phone off and remove the SIM Card. That will be the last time the phone or the card is used… Understand?”

“Why? Why should I switch it off?”
“Then he can’t track your phone. Parents have been known to put Trojan horses on their children’s phones just to keep track of them.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Borderline, but they still do it. It is all part of wrapping their children in cotton wool until they walk down the aisle, totally unprepared for the big bad world outside their little bubble.”

Damien didn’t look very happy.

“Don’t look so sad, Damien. It is not all bad.”

“I tried to tell them that I was not like them when we had Sunday lunch after the Ascension Sunday services at the end of May.”

Paula stiffened up.

“I said that I’m not that into all this religious stuff, and I want to be an architect and not a pastor.”

She relaxed.
“What did he say to that?”

“He went very red in the face. Then he stormed away from the table. In doing so, he spilt the gravy boat. He just glared at Mum, and off he went. He came back with that brochure.”

Damien closed his eyes.
“Read this. I’m sending you here to get all those evil thoughts beaten out of your body. Satan has taken your mind and body and is testing me. He will not win, understand!”

He’d accidentally picked up two copies of the brochure, so when he wanted one back, I was able to give it to him. He’d go mad if he knew that I had this one. This sort of material is only allowed for the elders.

He shuddered.
“He sent me to my room. From then on, either Mum, Dad or one of the leaders of his church were with me whenever I left the house. Even going to school to sit my exams, there they were waiting for me outside the exam room and very ready to quote the scriptures at me. They seem fixated with the idea that I have been taken over by Satan’s demons, and I need to have them exorcised from my mind and body.”

“Ugh! It must have been horrible.”

Damien shook his head.
“Not horrible… the worst days of my life.”

“How did you get away from them today?”

“I left the house just before dawn and rode my bike to the station. I had just enough money for the train to Waterloo. I’ve been walking the streets ever since. Well… not quite. I went to the National Gallery for a bit. Then I came here.”

“Well, you are here now and help is on its way.”

Damien didn’t seem convinced.

“Do you think that my phone has been bugged?”

“I don’t know, and no one here is skilled enough to find out. Why?”

“If it is bugged, then my father will know where I was when I switched it off. I’m sure that he’ll be on his way here to rescue me from whatever den of iniquity that I have fallen into.”

Paula laughed.
“This is no den of iniquity, but I know what you mean.”

She thought for a moment.
“We aren’t the only business working out of this building. Plus, our name is not on the list of companies in the lobby, so your father would have to go office by office to find us. However, it might be prudent for us not to be here when he does come looking for you.”

Damien managed a small smile.

“Are you ready to ‘Walk on the Wild Side’?” asked Paula.

“What does that mean?”

Paula smiled. Damien’s education was sorely lacking.

“For now, it means becoming the person that you have always wanted to be.”

“Why?”

Paula mentally sighed.

“Do your father and his friends know what you are wearing?”

“Yeah… probably.”

“Then we need to change how you look. What better time to do it? Then the three of us can leave at the same time and act like three women who are friends.”

“I suppose so. I’ve never dared do it before.”

“With us at your side, it will work. All we need to do is leave the building and get into a taxi. We can lose anyone trailing us in the side streets, but we have to move quickly. Are you game?”

“Yes.”
For the first time, Damien managed a small smile.

She thought for a few seconds before saying,
“Stephanie, can you get the dress rack?” she called out to the outer office.

“Already and waiting.”

“Good, I’ll call Thomas and tell him of the change of plan.”

“Follow me,” said Paula.

Damien followed Paula into the outer office. On a rack was a series of very retro dresses.”

He didn’t look happy.

“This is how we dress, I’m afraid. The big plus is that people look at the outfits and not at the wearer,” said Stephanie.

Paula proceeded to take each dress off the rack and hold it in front of Damien. Eventually, she settled on a black and white polka dot number.

She pointed to the toilet/washroom.

“Go in there and get stripped off down to your undies. We’ll pass you things to put on. Don’t worry about padding upstairs. We’ll deal with that once you have changed.”

Damien took the dress and went into the washroom. He closed the door behind him.

Paula looked at Stephanie. She nodded in return before digging into a cardboard box for some other items of clothing.

“What shoe size are you?” asked Stephanie.

“A men’s size seven,” came the reply.

After a few more seconds of rummaging in the box, she shook her head.

“I’ll nip out and get something appropriate to wear.”

Before Paula could argue, Stephanie had grabbed her coat and bag and was walking out the door to the office.

Paula smiled and continued rummaging in their storage closet. They used it for spare clothes for those out-of-the-ordinary occasions that happened every so often, and where there was no time to go home and get changed. The result was that there were bits of everything in there. Some items should have been thrown away, but for some reason, they’d found their way into their office ‘glory hole’.

She found a bra that should fit and passed it into the washroom.
“Wrap it around your body and fasten it in front. Then swivel it around before hooking your arms inside.”

“Thanks,” said Damien and closed the door again.

Paula shook her head. It had been a while since she’d met someone like Damien. Most of the people who came through her office door had at least some experience with female attire.

Stephanie returned with a pair of shoes in his size and a pair of knee-high socks.

“Are you decent?” asked Paula.

“I think so,” came the answer from behind the door.

“Let us see, and I’ll do up the dress.”

Damien emerged, looking petrified.

“Don’t feel bad. You look pretty good,” said Stephanie.

He didn’t react. Paula stepped behind him and did up the zip of the dress.

“Please, sit down and put these on,” said Stephanie.
She gave him the knee-highs.

“Then I got you these.”

He looked at the shoes. His body language was one of relief.

“Try them on. They should fit.”

Damien sat down, and after putting on the knee-highs, he slipped his feet into the shoes.

“They seem ok.”

“Good.”

“But look at my hair and face? It won’t fool anyone for even a second,” remarked Damien.

“All in good time, Damien. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“We don’t have much time, do we?”

“He’s right, Mum. I saw two characters looking at the block next door. One of them looked like an older version of Damien. The offices there are on the other side of that wall,” said Stephanie, pointing at the back wall of the office.

“Stephanie, can you do the honours and make our guest as pretty as you can?”

“I can. Now, Damien… we can’t call you that. What do you want to be called?”

“Faye. Like Faye Dunaway. I loved how she looked in Bonnie and Clyde. We watched it at school as part of our contemporary studies class.”

Both women laughed.
“That is a good style.”

Paula disappeared into her office and let Stephanie work her magic.

“That will have to do for now,” said Stephanie some fifteen minutes later.
She’d just finished applying some mascara to Faye’s lashes.

“Mum, I’m done.”

Right on cue, Paula emerged from her office. She was carrying a wig and some jewellery.

“Well, don’t you look good? These should be the finishing touches.”

Paula deftly placed the wig on Faye’s head.
“It itches.”

Both women laughed.
“You will get used to it. You will have to if you want to grow your hair long.”

Faye nodded.

Paula put some bangles on Faye’s wrists and a couple of rings on her fingers.

“There. We are ready to go.”

“But… what about the Lawyer?” asked Faye.

“He’s waiting for us at his office. I called him earlier when we decided to decamp.”

“Mum, Faye needs a bag.”

“Yes, I know. She can take mine. I’ll carry my briefcase.”

Paula disappeared into her office only to return a few seconds later.

“Here you are, sling this on your shoulder,” she said, giving Faye her handbag.

“I can’t take this?”
The bag in question was covered in the Louis Vuitton logo.
“This is far too valuable.”

Paula smiled.
“It is only until we get away from here.”

“Ok… but only until we get to the lawyers.”

“Good, let’s go,” suggested Stephanie.

“You two go first and call the lift. I’ll set the alarm and lock up,” said Paula.

Faye appeared hesitant until Stephanie put her arm in hers.
“It will be ok.”

“I hope so,” muttered Faye.

The lift arrived, and for a moment, Faye’s heart stopped. All she could think of was her father stepping out and confronting her, Stephanie and Paula. Thankfully, the lift was empty.

The trip down in the lift, while only five floors, seemed to take an eternity. Once again, Faye held her breath as the doors opened. There was no sign of her father or any of his friends.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Paula.

The three of them walked out of the building and into the bright afternoon sunlight. Faye looked around but could not see any faces that she recognised. Paula was looking for a taxi.

After what seemed an eternity, one with a ‘For Hire’ sign lit up appeared. Paula flagged it down, and the three of them piled in.

“Red Lion Square, Holborn, please,” she said in a firm voice.

The taxi moved off, and the doors locked themselves.

They had only gone a few yards when Faye let out a small yelp.
“That’s the man I saw earlier,” said Stephanie.

He’d just emerged from the building next door to the one that held Paula’s offices. He was not looking at them but at his phone.

“That’s Pastor McMaster. He’s the number two at the church. A nasty man who thinks that it is not a crime to hit a child. He quotes the bible. Proverbs 13:24, ‘He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.’ The last time he did it to me, I quoted Proverbs 22:15 back at him. ‘Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him’. He went apeshit, and I received another six strokes of the cane. All illegal, but God’s word is more powerful than any human law. In their eyes.”

Tears welled up in Faye’s eyes. Stephanie gave her a tissue.
“Try not to smear that mascara.”

Faye looked at Stephanie, who was smiling. Faye relaxed.

The taxi carried on along the street as she was frantically trying to work the phone.

Once the taxi had turned the corner, Paula said,
“I turned Damien’s phone back on before I locked up the office. It is very well covered by CCTV, both internally and externally. If he breaks in, then we’ll have him dead to rights.”

Then she turned to Faye,
“You, young lady, are not coming back here until this is all settled legally. Then he can’t touch you.”

Faye visibly relaxed. Stephanie was on hand to wipe a tear from her eyes.

[to be continued]

The trio left Damien’s father and friends behind. After receiving some more directions from Stephanie, the Taxi took them to a quiet mews not far from Red Lion Square in Central London. They waited in the street while the cab did a ‘U-turn’ and disappeared into the traffic in search of a new fare.

“This way,” said Stephanie.
She led them through a passageway and into another street. Her destination was a Georgian townhouse almost at the very end of the street.

“Where are we going?” asked Faye.

“To see your lawyer. He’ll take you aside and explain what will happen next. Then, we’ll head out of the city and take you somewhere where your father can’t find you.”

Faye shook her head.
“You don’t know him. He is like an octopus and has tentacles everywhere.”

“Then tell that to your lawyer. He’ll use that in his application to the court.”

The mention of going to court didn’t appeal to Faye.
“I can’t go to court looking like this? Didn’t you say that I have to use my given name on the application?”

Stephanie laughed and then smiled. Faye/Damien was quite a smart cookie.

“True. We’ll get you some more asexual clothes first thing in the morning. But until we get to where we are staying tonight, you should be Faye. Ok?”

“That makes sense. For today, I’ll stay as Faye.”

“Don’t you like it? You know, being who you want to be?”

“I don’t want to be on the run. I want to be Faye, legally.”

Paula laughed.
“You do have a good head on you. How did your father get to be so… so bad?”

“He’s not my real father. All I know is what he told me years ago. He said that I was adopted when I was six months old. One of the things I want to do before I… before I become Faye is to try to find my birth parents. Once I’m eighteen, he can’t stop me from making an official request.”

“Well, that is for the future,” said Paula.
“In the meantime, we have a lawyer to see.”

Thomas Gold was not what Faye had expected, but after a bit of reflection, he never really had an idea about what to expect.

Mr Gold was a Hasidic Jew. He wore a black hat and a frock coat even indoors and had the ringlets in front of his ears. He’d never met anyone as striking as that.

“Please, come on in. I have been expecting you,” said Mr Gold.

He showed the trio into an office. The sound of children playing could be heard coming from another part of the building.

“Now Ladies. Down to business.”

Then, he addressed Faye.

“Damien, isn’t it? Don’t worry about me being an Orthodox Jew. I understand that God makes people differently, and for some, such as yourself, your body says one thing, and your mind says another. I call it God’s Hiccup. I’m here to try to make sure that your father can’t send you to a conversion camp against your will. That is not God’s way, no matter what your father might preach from the pulpit every week. I’m on your side.”
He looked at a piece of paper on his desk and said,

“From now I’ll refer to you as Faye in all verbal and written communications. I understand that is what you want to be called at the end of all this?”

Faye smiled.

“That’s correct. Thank you, Mr Gold.”

“Now, I understand that you are eighteen in a few weeks. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir. Nineteen days, to be exact.”

“Good. That will make it easier to get a temporary order that will stop your father from even attempting to make contact with you until you are legally an adult.”

“That’s what I want. Thank you.”

He turned his attention to Paula and Stephanie.
“Ladies, if you will make your way to the kitchen, I am sure that my wife will have some refreshments ready. Faye and I have some work to do.”

The trio left Mr Gold’s home almost two hours later. Faye was a lot happier now that she knew what was going to happen to her in the immediate future. Mr Gold would make an application to the family court for a hearing into making Damien a ward of the court until his eighteenth birthday.

Paula hailed another taxi, which took the three of them to Marylebone Railway Station. Stephanie disappeared inside when they arrived to buy some tickets. Faye was still in the dark about where they were going, but she trusted her companions.

“Where are we going?” asked Faye as they walked along the platform. The signs indicated that the train was going to Birmingham.

“High Wycombe. We have only half an hour on the train.”

“Paula,” said Faye.
“Could I get something to eat? I’ve not eaten anything today?”

She looked at the clock and at the board that was showing the departure time of the train.
“We’ll have to get something from the trolley, but don’t worry, we’ll have a good meal tonight.”

Faye managed a small smile. Her thoughts were now on being outed on the train. It was very busy as a 5 pm weekday departure would be. Commuters were going home after a day in the office.

Faye spent the whole journey looking out of the carriage window. For the first time since she’d left home early that morning, she began to feel alone in the world. She knew that Paula, Stephanie and Mr Gold would look out for her, but her destiny was very much in her hands. Mr Gold had made that very clear to her.

The trio let the throng of commuters leave the station before they left the platform. So far, no one had outed Faye, but her tiredness was beginning to show.

Yet another taxi took the trio to a large house up in the hills to the northwest of the town. Faye was impressed by the electronic gates that somehow opened as the taxi drew up outside.

“Faye, your room is on the left at the top of the stairs. There are some clothes in the room. Don’t be worried about the sizes; the last person we helped was a lot larger in stature than you. Tomorrow, we’ll get you some more suitable clothes,” said Paula.

“There is makeup remover in the bathroom. From now on, you are Damien until your legal situation is clarified… unless… you want to do otherwise.”

“Thanks, Paula. I… I think that I’ll go with what Mr Gold suggested and that I should not even think of showing Faye in public until I am of age.”

Paula smiled.
“Good for you. Making decisions is all part of what being an adult is all about. Sadly, most parents wrap their children up in so much cotton wool that they get a huge shock when they do finally get free from the family enclave.”

Stephanie cooked up a good but fairly plain meal for the three of them that evening. Damien cleaned his plate and then visibly sagged.

“Get off to bed and feel free to get up when you feel like it. Steph will be here. I have to go back to the office tomorrow, but as it is Friday, I’ll be back late afternoon.”

“What if my father is still around and follows you here?”

Paula smiled.
“I’ll lose him. Don’t worry about that. I have friends who will make sure that he does not find out where I live. This house is not in my name or the name of the company. We are used to taking precautions in situations like this.”

He didn’t look convinced but had to accept the situation.

[The following Friday]

Damien was starting to feel cooped up at the house near High Wycombe. Stephanie had been shopping earlier in the week, so he had some clothes and shoes for when he eventually did leave.

Thanks to video calling on the phone that Damien had been given, he had a say in the clothes that Stephanie purchased, so it wasn’t all that bad. What wasn’t expected was a phone call from Mr Gold.

“I think that we can make that,” said Stephanie with a frown on her face.
“Yes, he is fine.”

“See you soon,” said Stephanie when she ended the call. The frowns didn’t go away.

“I take it that it was bad news?” said Damien after watching her body language.

“I don’t know. We didn’t expect him to call today. He wants to meet us at Oxford Services on the M40 in an hour. He said that he has a meeting later in Oxford, so that’s why he suggested there for the meeting.”

“How long will it take for us to get there?”

“Half an hour. We’ll join the M40 at Junction 5. Why do you ask?”

Stephanie was dreading his next question.

“I have very little knowledge of the geography of this part of the world. If it had been the Surrey Hills, then that would be different.”

Stephanie did a mental sigh of relief.
“Are you planning on doing a runner?”

“Not really, but if my father and his gang of friends make an appearance, it would be nice to know how to ‘exit stage left’.”

His reply caused Stephanie to smile.
“I’ll mention it to Paula. Speaking of which, I need to phone her and give her an update.”

“What exactly did he say?”

“He said that there have been some unexpected developments and that he needed to ask you some questions face-to-face.”

“Ok, you make the call, and then we can be off.”

Stephanie smiled. She was beginning to like Damien. He had his head screwed on, unlike some of those who come through the door of their London Office.

“Nice to see you again, Mr Gold,” said Stephanie when they met the lawyer at the service area.

“Steph, please stay with us. There are some things that you need to know.”

“Damien, I hope that Steph and Paula are keeping you safe?”

“I think so. So far, there has been no sign of my father and his friends.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Ok, I’ll do my best to help where I can,” said a slightly apprehensive Damien.

“You said that you were adopted. How did you find that out?”

“It was something my mother said one Christmas. She said that because she could not have children, the girl who was my younger sister and I were adopted. My sister is not a blood relative of mine. She was adopted when I was around five or six. She was about two at the time. My father confirmed that when I asked him.”

Mr Gold was making copious notes of Damien’s answers.

“Did you ever see your adoption papers or birth certificate?”

Damien shook his head.
“Dad always kept them in his office safe, and he kept the key with him at all times.”

Mr Gold looked down at his notes before saying,
“Damien, your parents have not contacted the Police about you going missing. Would they, in your opinion, just let you go like that?”

Damien shook his head.
“No way. His plan for me and my future has been drummed into me for years. He sees me as the person who would take over his ministry from him, or that’s what he thinks he has been training me for the last ten years... Any belief I ever had in God has been beaten out of me by him.”

“Beaten? How?”

Damien turned around in his seat and lifted his shirt. Several scars were very visible. Two looked fairly new.”

“Did he do this to you?”

Damien shook his head.
“No, his assistant, Mathew Collins, did the dirty deed. Getting his hands dirty with anything was below him. He won’t even do the dishes.”

Stephanie listened intently. Paula would have to know about the beatings and the scars. She was sure that he’d kept them from her and her mother because of the embarrassment.

“Then…” said Mr Gold.
“My associates can’t find any record of anyone with the first name Damien being born on the date that you said that you were born, and not for several weeks on either side. Plus, there are no records of any adoption of someone with your name through the government process or via any of the major adoption agencies.”

Damien looked at the lawyer with bulging eyes.
“What are you trying to say?”

“Damien, so far, I can find no records of your birth or your adoption. We might just be looking in the wrong place. I say that because we have not checked the Scottish or Northern Irish and even the Irish Republic’s records yet. I have engaged someone to do the searching in Scotland and Ireland, starting on Monday.”

“But…” he added,
“I am concerned about the lack of contact with the Police. Because of the work that I do, I have contacts in all the Police Forces in England and Wales. The lack of any missing persons report after almost a week is not overly suspicious, but… if we get to next Friday and there is still no report, then I’m inclined to think that he is not going to report you missing.”

Damien was about to ask a question, but Mr Gold held up his hand.

“Many parents do not file missing persons reports for children who are over 16 but younger than 18. They hope, and in most cases, that hope is justified, as the missing child returns home of their own accord.”

“But you think that there is something more to this, don’t you?” asked Damien.

“I do, but until my associates have done their work, I don’t want to mention what that something is. I hope you don’t mind?”

Damien smiled.
“I have to trust you, Mr Gold. You are the expert here.”

Stephanie knew from Damien’s body language that he was lying. He was worried about what that something was. Stephanie had a good idea, but was not going to let on what that was. It was just too nasty to contemplate.

[to be continued]

Damien gradually began to understand that his parents were not actively looking for him, was, a good sign. What was troubling was the lack of records that would prove who he really was and whether he had been adopted as he’d been told.

For a brief moment, Damien wanted to go and confront his so-called parents. He needed to know the truth about his background.

“I know what you are thinking. You want the truth?” said Stephanie.

“Wouldn’t you?”

“I would, but there is a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way is to go and confront him without the backing of the law behind you. For all we know, you are already eighteen. What I’d do right now is take a drive past your old home just to check to see that he and your family have not done a runner. If there is something dodgy about your adoption and stuff, then they may decide to up sticks and head off into the night. That would explain the lack of a police report.”

“Can we do that?”

“We can, but only if you are Faye. There is always a chance that they could recognise Damien, whereas Faye looks a lot different. There is no sense in taking unnecessary risks, is there?”

Damien smiled back at Stephanie.

“Are you going to tell Paula?”

“We should. She is the boss, after all.”

“Ok, you can tell her while I make a hash of my makeup.”

Stephanie laughed.
“You will be fine.”

Steph’s words proved correct. Faye took her time but managed to make herself not look like Damien. She only had one female outfit, but it would do for now. The compliments that Stephanie paid her made her feel good for the first time that day.

That good feeling did not last when they drove past Damien’s old home. It was empty, and a ‘To Let’ board was outside.

“They’ve done a runner,” said Stephanie as she pulled over about half a mile later.
Faye was gripping the armrest like a vice and staring straight ahead.
“Everything was a lie, wasn’t it?” she said, fighting to hold back the tears.

“It looks that way, doesn’t it? I think that we should head home and report to Paula and Mr Gold.”

Faye shook her head.
“Can we drive past one more house? It isn’t far.”

“Who lives there?”

“Faith, the girl I was supposed to marry and who told me that she is gay.”

Stephanie managed a smile.
“Ok, tell me where to go.”

“Left at the traffic lights about a mile down the road. Then it is the second right.”

Faith’s house was also empty but had a crude/homemade ‘For Sale’ board nailed to the front gate. The phone number began with “0001”. Right away, that told Faye that they’d gone to the USA.

“They’ve gone as well. Probably to the camp in the USA. Dad… He was talking about taking the whole family and going with Faith’s. That’s when I knew that they would make us marry. The last time we went to the camp, it was guarded by people carrying what looked like machine guns.”

Those last words shocked Stephanie. To someone who has only known a society where guns are the rare exception rather than the rule, she could not imagine what life was like for those in this sect.

Ten minutes later, Stephanie drove past the building that had been the former church. A few people were milling about outside.
“Those are the people for the bible class that is due to start soon,” said Faye.
The building was closed up, and a ‘To Let’ sign had been nailed to the main door.

“I think that it is time for us to get home. At least a few things are a bit clearer.”

Faye just grunted. The frown on her face told Stephanie that she was thinking hard.

That evening, Paula, Stephanie, Faye and Mr Gold talked over the events of the day.

“The fact that your father and the other family have gone is not a good sign. Something must have rattled them into leaving so abruptly. Then, for the other family to disappear at the same time led me to think of one word: ‘panic’. In my legal eyes, there are things that they don’t want to see in the light of day. Faye, do you agree?” said Mr Gold.

“I think that you are right. Why?”

“Faye, you said that you think that they might be in the USA at this ‘Educational Retreat’?”

“That’s the place where they’d run to. They will be amongst friends there.”

“Do you know where this place is?”

Faye shook her head.
“Not exactly. I think it is somewhere in the hills close to the border between Texas and Arkansas. When we went there, we flew to different airports and then drove for hours. It was always dark when we arrived, and with jet lag, I slept a lot. All that I can remember were vehicles in the car park with both Texas and Arkansas licence plates, but there were other cars and trucks from places like Kentucky, Ohio and Alabama.”

“Thanks for that. It will help me build up a picture of both families.”

“Mr Gold, their services on Sunday are live-streamed on YouTube. We would have to go to church in the morning and listen to my father preach about everyone going to hell, and that we were infected by the Devil, so we had to repent for all our sins. Then, in the late afternoon, he would make us watch their service. Those preachers are fantastic showmen, but they are not serving God. They are only lining their pockets.”

“That’s a rather cynical view, Faye,” said Paula.

“In my last year at school, I spent a lot of time in the Public Library working on my coursework. I used their computers as we were not allowed to have them at home. My father had a huge row with the school principal about using computers. The school wanted to send out homework on Facebook, and that is forbidden in the church. Eventually, he compromised and allowed me to use the computers at the Public Library. Once I had finished my homework, I started searching for press articles about the church. 99% of it was not good. Two of the founders had fled with a couple of million back in the 1990s, and the current leaders were regarded as merely modern-day snake oil salesmen. I had to Google that. It all contributed to my falling out with their version of God, which takes a very dim view of anyone who is LGBT.”

There was silence for more than five seconds.

“Faye,” said Mr Gold.
“I have an update on your birth certificate.”

The change of subject was most welcome.
“Your passport used a birth certificate of someone who died aged one from SIDS.”

“SIDS?” remarked Faye.

“Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It was sometimes labelled as Shaken Baby Syndrome, but this death happened when the child was in hospital with eczema.”

“So, you don’t know who I am or if I am even British?”

“At the moment, that is true. The meeting I had in Oxford was with an official from the Home Office. He’s working from home after breaking his leg badly in a car accident. There is a case open, but I have it in writing that you will not be stateless. The next step is for you to provide a DNA sample so that it can be checked against the national missing persons database.”

A worried look appeared on Faye’s face.
“If I… or the real me was on that list, would it mean that I would have to meet my real parents?”

Mr Gold smiled.
“That, Damien, is entirely up to you. They will be told that their missing child has been found, and the Police will close that part of the case. The case of who took you will remain open. If you are an adult, then it is up to you if you want to contact them. Much like if you were adopted. At eighteen, you have the legal right to find out about your birth parents, but it is your choice if you want to contact them.”

“Thanks. Even more to think about.”

The call ended soon after.
It had been a day when more questions had been asked than answers had been given.

Now that Damien’s parents had flown the coop, there was no reason for Faye to remain hidden. She twisted Stephanie’s arm, and they went shopping at Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush, London. Faye didn’t buy much other than some underwear. That included her first real bra.

“These prices are silly,” she complained.

Stephanie smiled.
“Then we should head towards the discounters,” she remarked as she opened up her phone.

That proved to be far more successful. Stephanie’s car was verging on bursting when they finally headed back to High Wycombe.

Faye paraded her new wardrobe that evening to Paula and Stephanie. The beaming smile on her face told the others that she was in her element.

After dinner, Paula said,
“Now that things are starting to become clearer, it is time to think about the next step in your process.”

She opened her briefcase and pulled out a pile of green folders.

“These folders contain outline details of some possible candidates for the next step. If you remember, we talked about this before things went mad.”

Faye nodded her head.
Paula slid the files across to Faye.

After some hesitation, Faye opened the first folder. After two seconds, she went to the second, third, fourth and fifth folders. When she reached the end, she closed them up and pushed them back to Paula.

“What’s wrong?” asked a surprised Paula.
Off to one side, Stephanie was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Paula, I did try to tell you that I fancy women, not men.”

Stephanie said,
“She’s right, Mum; she did, but you were only thinking of one thing.”

A slightly angry Paula looked at her daughter and then at Faye.

Then she laughed and shook her head.

“Ok, ok. I goofed. Mea culpa.”

Then she thought for a while and then pushed the files back towards Faye.

“I know that these are all men, but please take another look at them and their bio. Tell me what features you like and what you don’t like. That will help me choose some possibilities that are a closer match to what you want.”

“It’s not all about what I want, is it? Steph said to me the other day that it is more about how we get on, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that is perfectly true, but I need to be able to start from somewhere. I have some candidates in mind, but most of our clients on that side of the business are men.”

“Ok, I’ll do that. When do you need to know by?”

“Will the day after tomorrow be ok with you?”

“Yes,” replied a grinning Faye.

As she promised, Faye returned the files to Paula with comments on yellow post-it notes. Faye sat at the breakfast table silently while Paula read each one at least twice.

“I have to say, Faye, that you have done a good job with your comments. I have a much clearer picture of the sort of woman that you would be attracted to. Now, my hard work begins.”

“What’s next for me?” asked Faye.

“Until we hear from Mr Gold, we do nothing on that side. Otherwise, Stephanie is to carry on working her magic on you.”

Faye nodded her head.
“There is one thing that bothers me. When we went shopping, and while we didn’t shop at full-priced stores, we spent a lot of money. I went a little over the top, I’m afraid.”

Paula laughed.
“Consider it a learning experience. Where the money is coming from is, as they say, ‘way above your pay grade’. We get handsomely paid for our work because we do it right. The people we introduce are top quality, and so far, we have not made any mistakes. I’ve been doing this for almost fifteen years. We make the introductions, and if things start to take their own path, then we willingly take a step back. I fully expect that it will be the same for you, although it may take a bit longer than normal.”

“Ok, but eventually, I’m going to need at least a couple of outfits that are suitable for a date… and some false breasts if that is not too much trouble. Rolled-up socks can only take me so far.”

Stephanie and Paula grinned at each other. Privately, they were pleased with how Faye was pushing the difficulties with her private life into the background.

Mr Gold arranged for Faye to give a sample of her DNA to the Police. Deep down, Faye hoped that it would not get a hit.

Nothing much happened for ten days. Then, as the saying goes, it never rains, but it pours. They had a visit from Mr Gold. This time, he was not alone.

“This is Detective Inspector Goodman from the Lancashire Constabulary.”

Faye looked scared.
“Don’t worry, Faye, you are not in trouble. Inspector?”

“Faye, I run the missing persons team in the Lancashire Constabulary. Your DNA sent the alarms blaring in my section.”

“Does that mean I’m a British Citizen?” asked Faye.
She was direct and to the point. That was a point that had not been lost on her hosts.

“It does. You were snatched from a car when your mother went into a garage to pay for some petrol. You were nine months old at the time. Your birthday is the twelfth of October. That means in five weeks, you will be nineteen.”

After a brief smile, Faye asked.
“My parents? What was my name?”

“Faye, your parents were Trevor and Jayne Marshall. Your given name was David Fergus Marshall. You were taken a week before your christening.”

“Inspector?” asked Stephanie.
“You said ‘were’. That is past tense.”

The Inspector nodded his head.
“Your mother never got over the incident. She blamed herself for your kidnapping, even though the CCTV clearly showed that the car that the kidnappers used had been following her for several days. A year to the day and at the same hour after you were taken, she walked off the platform at Lancaster Station into the path of a freight train. She was killed instantly.”

“And my father?”

“He died of brain cancer two years ago. He never gave up looking for you. They are buried together in their parish church.”

“So? I’m on my own then?”

“You have an aunt. She was your mother’s sister; other than that, yes, you are.”

The Inspector produced a folder.
“All the details, including the reports from the newspapers of the day, are in here. My contact details are in there as well, so if there is something I can help you with, please contact me. I’m sorry that I could not be the bearer of good news.”

Faye looked down at the folder and nodded her head.

“Faye?” said the Inspector.

She looked at him.

“There was nothing that you or your mother could have done. The people who took you were organised and very professional. Even the number plates of the car that they used were cloned from a North Yorkshire Police car. That shows a very high level of organisation indeed.”

“But why me? There are thousands of babies to choose from?”

The inspector nodded.
“That puzzled me for a bit, but it seems that your real father looked a lot like the man who was to become your father. Looking at least partially like at least one of your parents stops people from suspecting that the children are not who their parents claim them to be. As I said, this kidnapping was well organised and professional. I… We see this as a developing trend, and our current guidelines for investigating these cases always ask that question.”

“Thank you for that, inspector.”

Paula said,
“Inspector, there is one thing that you can do for Faye now that we know the birth name.”

“If I can help, then I will. What do you want me to do?”

Paula took Faye’s hand.
“Want to make Faye legal?”

Her eyes bulged.

“You mean change my name?”

“Exactly.”

“Yes, please.”

“Inspector,” said Faye.
“Will you be a witness to this?”

He smiled.
“With pleasure. At least my visit will not be all bad news.”

Paula produced a template deed poll form. She filled in the birth name and confirmed with the Inspector that it was correct. Then she passed it to Faye.

“Fill in the names that you want and sign it.”

With a huge grin on her face, she filled in Faye Thompson and signed it.

Paula and the Inspector signed the document as witnesses. Then she gave the form to Mr Gold.

Once the Inspector had been shown out, Mr Gold returned with a serious look on his face.

“I took your advice and looked on YouTube. I saw someone who I think might be your father. I bookmarked it.”

Faye looked sad given the recent news.
“He’s not my father, but I would like to see it just to be sure.”

Two minutes later, the four of them watched the broadcast from the previous Sunday.
Faye gasped.
Mr Gold stopped the playback.
“What’s up?”

“That’s not the man who was my father. That’s Faith’s father giving the sermon. The man in the background is the man you want. He’s the man who pretended to be my father.”

They watched the next fifteen minutes of fire and brimstone preaching. The lies that he told were brazen. He reserved the worst damnation for members of the LGBT community. The word erasure was used more than once. It was not an enjoyable viewing.

“Did you have to sit through that every week?” asked Stephanie.

“Twice on Sundays. It is awful. How people can believe this crap is beyond me. Sermons like this made me become a non-believer. How can they worship a pastor who is not preaching what the bible says? He is a fake idol who pretends to have a direct line to God. He is full of bovine excrement that stinks to high heaven. The weak and simple-minded fall for it and send them money, lots of money. I read that one of these crackpot pastors has four private jets at his disposal. All they do is twist the word of God entirely for their own profit. Fuck the lot of them, and I hope that Hell has space for them because that’s where they are going.”

“You could be a preacher… if you carry on like that,” joked Stephanie.

That resulted in a bit of laughter. Even Faye saw the funny side of things.
“Not me,” she countered.

[to be continued]

While Paula searched for a suitable date for Faye and dealt with other clients, Stephanie continued to work on Faye’s behaviour and appearance. When Steph mentioned ‘behaviour’, Faye went a little mad.

“My behaviour is very good, isn’t it?”

Steph smiled.
“It is very good indeed, but for a male. Women react very differently to the same situation as men. I see parts of that female side of you from time to time. I did that very first day when you didn’t raise hell at being turned away. An ‘alpha’ male would not have done that. What I need is to gently tease that female side of you out into the open and make it the norm rather than the exception.”

“Ok, I get you now. What is the next step?”

“I think that we need to get you out of here a lot more. We can go shopping and not buy anything. Can you do that?”

“I think so. Before I was placed under virtual guard, I used to go to places like Guildford and Reading. I would wander around the shops and not buy anything because I never had any money. I was always grilled on what I’d spent my money on. Fast food was out of the question because those places were inhabited by the devil, who wanted to tempt me into sin. If I wanted to eat, then it had to be from places like a supermarket or a sandwich shop. I had to produce receipts, so nothing, not even an ice cream from a street vendor, was allowed.”

She swallowed hard.
“If I went to say Reading and bought a ‘meal deal’ from a supermarket, I had to produce a receipt for the meal. Then I’d be grilled on why I went to Reading. I used to say that I was watching people sin and mentally praying for their forgiveness. Most of the time, I was believed, and from time to time, I was even mentioned during the next church service. I hated lying, but at least for a few hours, I could mix with normal people who were not judging my every move.”

“That must have been awful?”

Faye smiled.
“I thought of it as a test of not my faith but simply my willpower. If I buckled, then I’d get a beating from my father’s fellow pastors. He’d never lay a hand on me. It was always one of the others. He would dish out punishment to their children.”

“Yet, you survived?”

“When I was at the public library, I read lots of stories about LGBT people hiding in plain sight. There was one about an SS Captain. He was gay but knew that he’d be shot if it came out that he was anything but a straight and true believer of the Führer. He covered his tracks by being more brutal to members of the LGBT community than his compatriots. That lasted until 1944, when he was posted to the border with Switzerland, where he was dropped in it by someone who had been to one of the same gay clubs that he had before the war. The captain was summarily shot by direct order of Himmler.”

“Ouch, but I get your point. You had to do things that you hated, but you had to survive.”

“Yes. So? Where shall we go shopping?”

“How about Milton Keynes? We can call in at the Shopping Village in Bicester along the way.”

“That’s good, but I still don’t have any money. At the moment, I would not be tempted to even think of buying anything because I could not afford it.”

Steph smiled.
“Let me lend you some money. Then you can buy whatever you want, can’t you?”

Faye shook her head.
“No. That’s your money, and I’d have to pay you back.”

Steph knew that she was going to lose that argument.
“Then let’s go window shopping and talk about things, but neither of us should buy anything other than food and drink. Deal?”

Faye smiled.
“Deal.”

“Well?” asked Stephanie when they returned to the car after spending almost two hours wandering around the shops in central Milton Keynes.

“Nothing really tickled my fancy,” said a slightly dejected Faye.
“I had hoped that something might leap out and say, ‘buy me or you will regret it’.”

Steph laughed.
“Some shops were already full-on for Christmas, which to my mind is silly, and others were trying to get rid of the last dregs of their summer clothes. A bit of a mess, really.”

“Then let’s head to Bicester and get some lunch on the way.”

“Yes, Boss!”

“Hey! Whose bright idea was this trip anyway?”

Steph smiled.
“Ok, it was mine.”

Faye put on her seatbelt with a smug grin on her face.

“Ever been tempted… to go and watch some races?” asked Steph as they passed the entrance to the Silverstone Circuit.

“We were not allowed to watch any sport on TV, let alone attend anything. When the London Olympics were on, the TV was taken out of the living room, apart from Sundays when we’d watch some firebrand preacher from the USA trying to get funds for his next private jet.”

Steph laughed.
“Ever the cynic then?”

Faye shook her head.
“A fact of life. I look back on those events as entertainment rather than a sermon. The grift was there for anyone with half a brain to see. My so-called father lapped it up. The next week, a lot of what we saw on a Sunday afternoon and evening would be in his next sermon. The sad thing was that the punters lapped it up. I used to have to go around with the collection plate. Many a time, I saw an old person empty their purse or wallet into the plate. That was sad, really sad. If I said anything, then he’d threaten me with the family being put out on the street. Not with many hundreds of pounds being collected every week, it wouldn’t. All those bits of information gradually allowed me to see through the façade. A week before I came to see you for the first time, I managed to see his bank statement. He had over half a million in the bank, and all the time, he pleaded poverty. Most of the clothes I wore, except for when I went to church, were bought from charity shops. It was horrible at school. One time, my shorts ripped apart when I was playing football at school. He made me sew them up rather than buy a new pair. I think the word is ‘skinflint’.”

“Are you glad that you got out?”

“Sometimes I have these thoughts that tell me that I should have stayed and then blown the whistle on the whole thing from the inside. But I’m happy that I chose a different path. I turned the other cheek and… well, I did, and that’s that.”

Steph smiled. She knew that what Faye was saying was only the tip of the iceberg of the abuse and brainwashing that had gone on in her childhood home.

After some lunch, the pair went on to the group of shops that were little more than outlets for old stock of major brands. Some items were cheap, but others were full price. It would take an expert to see the difference. Still, for both of them, there was a lot of temptation, which they were able to resist. It was when they’d gone into one shop that Faye suddenly went white in the face and turned around and left Steph looking like a fool.

Stephanie caught up with Faye outside.
“What’s wrong? You look as if you have seen a ghost?”

Faye nodded her head.
“Did you see a young woman sweeping the floor near the rear of the shop?”

“Yes, I remember. Is she someone you know?”

“Do you remember me mentioning someone called Faith?”

Stephanie smiled.
“Yes. You were supposed to marry her or something?”

“We were supposed to get married. That woman sweeping the floor was Faith. At least, I am pretty sure it is her. Her hair is a lot longer than I remember.”

All sorts of questions and theories went racing through Stephanie’s mind.

After some thought, she said,
“I think that we should go home and discuss this with my mother. If I remember right, you identified Faith’s father as giving the sermon in the USA. I wonder if Faith was like you, taken as a baby. To my mind, if she were his real child, then there is no way he’d abandon them like that. We may even get Mr Gold involved. If my suspicions are true, then there could well be a family somewhere who are still looking for their baby.”

“Yeah. That’s much the same as what I was thinking…”

Faye smiled.
“Thank you for that. If you hadn’t done that, then I would have gone up to her and tried to explain who I was.”

“Which could have caused a scene in the shop?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was in reaction mode for a bit.”

Stephanie looked pleased.
“Does starting to think like an adult scare you?”

“It does. I was kept in a virtual cocoon by ‘him’. All he ever said to me was about becoming a preacher. He kept on saying that it was my God-given destiny. The more he said it, the more I became disillusioned with the whole thing. Then, when I realised that I was trans, I knew that I had to get out of his grasp. When he said that I was going to the camp, that was it. I was done. I know that Faith was close to doing the same. She told me that she was going to leave home after the end of her exams. As we came out of the last exam, she told me that her parents had hidden her passport and the passbook for her savings account. She didn’t know what she was going to do if they took her to the camp.”

That evening, after updating Paula on the events of the day, Paula went off to make a phone call to Mr Gold. Faye wasn’t surprised at this move. She would have called him from the car at the outlet centre.

Nearly an hour later, Paula returned with the frown lines on her forehead, working overtime.

“Mr Gold wants to make contact with Faith. If she has representation or does not want it, then it is game over… Understand?”

The last word was aimed at Faye.
“Yes, she is an adult and can make up her own mind.”

“And,” said Paula.
“We don’t want you in the picture when the approach is made. The less she knows about Faye, the better, until she is on board. Your security is uppermost, ok?”

“I think I understand. You and Mr Gold are not sure what side of the fence she is on or something like that.”

Paula smiled and took hold of Faye’s hand.
“If the approach works, then you can tell her about yourself. I take it that she does not know about you being trans?”

“That is true. I only know about her being gay because I saw her one lunchtime at school kissing another girl. Later on, she told me that I was too feminine for her and that she wanted a butch lady. She knows that I know, but I told her that while our parents might be pastors at the same church, I would not tell on her. I hope that she believes me. I never told anyone but you and Mr Gold.”

“Good. Then we have a plan of sorts.”

“Steph, I want you and you alone to go back to the outlet centre tomorrow and make sure that she is working there. If she is, Mr Gold will come with you on Thursday to make contact with her. The mention of Damien should break the ice.”

“What can I do?” asked Faye.

“At the moment, not a thing. We still have to be careful as the church that your fake father was a pastor at is still operating. Their US website has put a price on your head as a follower of the devil and a traitor to the word of God. Thankfully, they are using a photo from well over a year ago, but even still, coming out as who you were could still end up on social media and present a threat to you.”

That news seemed to shock Faye, but Paula had a surprise for her.

“Changing the subject, I have some folders for you to look at.”

She passed over six pink coloured folders.
“Read them and think about what the information in them tells you. If you want to meet one or more of them, just let me know, and I can look into setting up a ‘first date’.”

“Do these women know about my history?”

“They know that you are trans. The rest is down to you to tell them if you want to. They know that you are nineteen and have only recently transitioned. They also know that you have a good brain and are willing and eager to learn.”

“Thanks, Paula. I’ll look at them later, sleep on what my first impressions are, and then review them again in the morning. The last thing I want is to piss these women off. If I’m not the one, then I do not want to lead them on.”

Paula chuckled.
“What did I just say about you having a good brain?”

“Mum is right, Faye,” said Steph.
“You are right to be cautious, and to be thinking about the other party shows a maturity that many others in a similar situation to you just do not have at your age.”

“I guess some of the teaching that was pounded into me at Sunday School about being considerate to your elders did sink in. I was called ‘Teachers Pet’ at school for never mouthing off at the teachers. Even if I got a ‘C’ on a piece of work, I would go and ask why in the hope that I’d never repeat that mistake. Dad… The old one would get one of his minions to beat the living crap out of me if I ever repeated a mistake. The first time was ok, but the second was well over the red line.”

Steph looked at her mother. Both of them would miss Faye when she eventually moved on. Out of all the others like her that they’d helped, Faye was most certainly a one-off.

The following evening, Faye put the folders that Paula had given her the previous evening on the table once the dinner things had been cleared away.

“I looked at the files at least three times. I graded them in order of my preference.”

She pushed them over to Paula.

There was a bit of hesitation before Paula opened the first file.

Then, a smile slowly spread across her face.

“I see that you have chosen ‘No. 3’.”

“Yeah. She sounds far more interesting a person than the others. From the little data that you have included, she seems like she has been there, done it and is now building something from the ground up. Whereas… No 4 and No 1 are workaholics. Their minds seem to be 100% focused on beating men at their own game.”

Steph laughed.
“I think we should employ Faye here as a screener. Her comments are spot on.”

“I agree,” said Paula.
“Don’t you want to know who No. 3 is in real life?”

“Only when you are good and ready to tell me. I have learned one thing since walking through your office door all those months ago, and that is, ‘everything has a time and a place’ and that ‘rushing around like a headless chicken won’t solve anything’.”

“The real name of No. 3 is Becca Youngman.”

Faye looked at Paula without reacting.

“Don’t you know who she is?”

Faye shook her head.
“The name vaguely rings a bell, but that is all.”

“Becca spent eight years as a top, top model. She earned the really big money, and then suddenly, about two years ago, she gave it all up and seemed to disappear off the face of the planet. All sorts of theories were bandied about as to why this was. These ranged from being a junkie to being pregnant and finally to suffering from a mental disease. None of these claims were even remotely correct.”

“I think that’s where I heard the name before, but as I said, we were not allowed to watch or listen to the news on TV or Radio.”

“Becca now lives in East Sussex and runs a bookshop and attached café. Her book business also doubles as a publisher for local authors. She had been running it in the background for a couple of years before she quit the catwalk.”

“She sounds like an interesting woman,” said Faye.
“And before you take me to task for saying that, I don’t know the full picture yet, but I would like to meet her if she is agreeable to meeting me.”

Steph and her mother shook their heads and smiled.

[to be continued]

Faye went to her room that evening with her mind in a complete mess. To find out that a woman whom she might like to date had been front-page news for years was a huge shock for her. In her mind, she would find a nice woman, settle down and live quietly out of the public eye.

The last thing she wanted was to be thrust into the world of hate that is social media. Then, there was the news that her old family had put a price on the head of Damien. While she was not Damien any longer, there was still the ever-present threat of a connection being made if she was recognised on social media.

She used a laptop that Paula had given her to search for pictures and stories about Becca. There were hundreds of them, but none for the past few years. Paula had hinted that she’d just dropped out of sight after a fairly frantic Milan Fashion Week. She’d just said, ‘I quit,’ and that was it.

There were a couple of more recent mentions of her. Still, they all seemed to be reports from a local newspaper about the launch of a couple of local history books at her bookshop and the results of the ‘biggest onion’ competition at the local show, where Becca had come second.

Neither of these ‘stories’ had been picked up by the mainstream media. It did seem as if she was out of the limelight and that her new life was just not newsworthy. Just before Faye was about to shut it down for the night, she noticed a story from a few months before she quit the modelling business.

There was a photo of Becca and an unknown woman, as the caption said, ‘getting it on’ at a party to celebrate the end of Paris Fashion Week. Faye tried to dig a bit deeper into the story, but her inexperience with search engines prevented her from getting much more information. The only thing she came up with was that the photo was staged for the media and that Becca’s dating and sex life was as invisible then as her life was now.

“Well?” asked Stephanie the next morning.

“Well, what?” said Faye, feigning ignorance.

“You know what I mean.”

Faye smiled.
“Paula was right. Becca does seem to have dropped off the face of the earth since quitting the fashion business. The two most recent posts about her were to do with a book launch and coming second in the ‘biggest onion’ competition at the village show.”

Stephanie grinned.
“Well?”

“Are you asking about the risks of social media?”

“What do you think?”

“I thought about it a lot last night, and I’m going to have to face the real world eventually, so why not start with a small village in East Sussex? It seems to me to be a safer place than London as regards my ugly mug appearing on social media.”

“You don’t have an ugly mug. Don’t ever say that again. With a little work, you will be a little hottie!”

Faye shook her head.
“Being a hottie is not what I want!”

Stephanie laughed.
“I’ll hold you to that…!”

‘Nervous?” asked Paula as she prepared to drop Faye off for her first meeting with Becca.

“Is the Pope a Catholic?”

“Good. Now put your best foot forward and enjoy yourself.”

Faye and Becca had spoken at length on Zoom during the preceding week. They’d managed to get on well enough for Becca to ask Faye to come and visit for the weekend. A very reluctant Faye had agreed to go, but the second and third thoughts had nearly scuppered the trip. Then there was the inevitable…

“I don’t have anything to wear. You saw the sort of clothes that she was wearing!”

Paula had tried to calm Faye’s nerves.
“She’s interested in what makes you tick and not how you look. How you look is easy to fix. What makes you, you, your personality is harder to change.”

Faye was not convinced but had gone along with the plan until it came time to pack.
“Do not even think of taking the kitchen sink…” quipped Stephanie.

“Ok, ok. I need to take less, but what should I leave behind?”

“Almost everything,” said Stephanie.

“Everything?”

“Yes, everything. Has it not occurred to you that Becca might have a huge wardrobe of clothes? You read her bio… All that work she did out of fashion weeks for the ready-to-wear market. Other models who have done that would get the pick of the things that they modelled.”

“But… she is not my size?”

“Until you see her face to face, you can’t tell. Go with the flow. If she is even a little bit interested in you, then she’ll make sure that you have something appropriate to wear. If you get embarrassed, then it rubs off on her.”

Faye wasn’t fully convinced but went along with it.

Now, it was too late to back out. Paula’s car was now parked outside Becca’s home. Even that was quite daunting to Faye. For someone who had only ever lived in rented houses in suburbia, the ‘chocolate box’ white-walled, half-timbered, thatched cottage, complete with roses around the front door, was out of another world. It was just another reminder that Becca had lived and worked in a different world from hers.

“Go on before the car takes root,” said Paula.

“Sorry,” said Faye.
I was just admiring the house.

“Just remember to duck when you go through the doors. People were a lot shorter when this place was built.”

Faye didn’t answer. Instead, she took a deep breath and opened the car door.

Paula reached over and held Faye’s hand.
“You will be fine.”

With a slight shake of her head, Faye got out of the car and, after retrieving her bag from the boot, she walked up the garden path. The smell of the last of the Lavender blooms seemed to fill the air.

The front door of the cottage was slightly ajar. Faye knocked on it and called out,

“Hello?”

“Faye, come on in. I’m in the kitchen,” came a voice from inside the cottage.

She went inside, and immediately, the goosebumps formed on her bare arms. It must have been 15 °C cooler inside than outside in the sun. For late summer, the weather was pretty nice, but the house was decidedly cold.

Faye found the kitchen and was surprised at how warm it was.

“Trust the supermarket to deliver my order just when I was about to have an important visitor,” said Becca.
She was busy putting the food delivery away. Faye stopped and looked at her host. In person, Becca was beautiful. Even the wearing of a frilly apron failed to detract from her beauty.

“Can I help?” asked Faye for want of anything better to do.

“The frozen stuff needs to go in the chest freezer in the room next door. Just pile it in as best you can. We had a glut of soft fruit this year, so there isn’t a lot of room at the moment.”

Becca had not stopped working to look at Faye. That told her that Becca was pretty single-minded.

Faye saw two large bags of frozen food sitting on the kitchen table. She took them into the adjoining room and opened a large chest freezer.

There was just enough room to fit it all in. Only when she’d finished did Faye see Becca watching her out of the corner of her eye.

“It just fitted in,” said Faye.

Becca smiled.
“I’ll put the kettle on. We can sit and talk when it has boiled.”

Faye went to return to the kitchen, but Becca decided that it was time to properly welcome her visitor.

Two brief kisses on each cheek almost caused Faye to run for the hills. No one had ever done that before. Becca sensed her unease.

“Sorry for that.”

Faye managed to smile.
“It was just a little unexpected, that’s all.”

Becca grinned.
“Then welcome to my home, and I am sorry for greeting you like that. That’s how we used to do it in Paris.”

“This is all a bit new to me; that’s all.”

“Then let’s reset and start again.”

Faye smiled and decided to change the subject.

“This room is nice and warm, but the hallway was cold.”

Becca grinned.
“That’s what living in a four-hundred-year-old cottage is like. I started the Aga yesterday, and it will gradually warm the whole place. I say gradually… it takes up to a week.”
Becca pointed at a large stove with three hotplates.
“It is wood-fired and will be kept going until next April. That and another fire in the living room are all the heating we have. This place is Grade 1 listed, so I can’t put in central heating, but you get used to it. In summer, it is nice and cool no matter how hot it gets outside.”

“It is certainly a lovely place to live. Paula said that you lived in an old cottage, but nothing like this.”

“Thanks. I’m glad that you like it. I fully intend to live the rest of my life in this village. I first came here on a fashion shoot when I was just turned eighteen. It just happened to coincide with the Harvest Festival, which, by the way, is tomorrow. I saw the whole village come together and celebrate the end of the growing season. Something in me said, ‘This is home.’ I bought this place a couple of years later and have lived here since I retired.”

Faye looked at her host.
“And you are only going to leave in a coffin? At least, that is the impression I get.”

Becca laughed.
“Something like that. But I am going to be moving house soon. I’m not going far, only to the other end of the village.”

A look of concern appeared over Faye’s face.

Becca smiled.
“How about we take a walk? It is a lovely afternoon, and my new house is only a short walk away.”

Faye was a little unsure.
“It will be fine.”

“Ok. Let’s go.”

Becca smiled again.
“Good. I like people who can make a decision.”

The kettle was switched off, and for the moment, the niceties of a cup of tea were forgotten.

Together, they walked through the village. Becca stopped and chatted with several people. Each time, she introduced Faye as a good friend. At first, this worried her, but soon, she began to understand that this was Becca saying ‘hands-off’ to the young men who might be interested in Faye.

At the end of the Village, Becca stopped at what looked like a building site.
“This is my new home. It is a barn conversion. The barn itself dates from the sixteenth century, with a major extension from early in the last century. I got fed up banging my head on the doors when I wore heels, so when planning was granted for this place, I jumped right in and bought it. It might not look much at the moment, but in a couple of months, hopefully, it will be finished.”

“It… it looks a lot bigger than your existing place.”

“Just a bit, but that’s not the most important thing. The place is being rebuilt to the latest standards and will require almost zero heating. Feeding an endless supply of wood into the Aga will be a thing of the past. It will have a small wood burner in the living room, but it is more for effect than raw heat.”

Faye was rather lost. All the homes that she’d lived in, and there were a good number, had been cold and drafty. Her old father had said more than once, ‘a bit of cold makes you harder to fool’. That was a lie. The places were cheap, and that was good in his eyes. Any form of central heating only made you soft.

“What’s the matter?” asked Becca.

“Oh… I was just thinking about some of the places that I’ve lived in over the years. Many were cold and damp. One place was even condemned by the local council, but did we move out? No, we didn’t. Cheap was the order of the day. You must be spending a fortune on this place.”

Becca then did something that surprised Faye. She took Faye’s hand in hers.
“Then come and live here and help me turn it into a home?”

“Eh? I’ve only been here a short while.”

Becca grinned.
“So? I already like you and your openness.”

“But… but what about me being a fake woman?”

“Details, my dear Faye and nothing that can’t be fixed in time and once you are here, there will be plenty of time for us to fix up this house together.”

Faye didn’t know what to say or do. Paula had warned Faye that Becca was a person who made decisions quickly. She’d just done that, and they’d been together for less than an hour.

“Let me show you around what has been finished?”

Together, Becca gave Faye the grand tour. To say that Faye was impressed would be an understatement, but all the time, she was wondering what the catch was.

When they went into what was to be the rear garden, Faye said,
“Becca, I can’t help thinking that we are trying to run before we can walk. I know very little about your desires for the future other than this place, and you know little about what I want from life.”

Becca took hold of Faye’s hand again.
“From what Paula told me, you decided to leave home pretty quickly. Am I right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“When you walked into Paula’s office for the first time, how did you feel?”

“Nervous as hell, but I did it.”

“A sort of journey into the unknown?”

“Into the abyss, more like,” replied Faye, trying to make a joke.

“That’s how I felt the first time I was on the catwalk in Paris. One of the older models, who, by the way, lives just a few miles away, took me to one side and said, ‘Darling, think of every step you take on the catwalk as one step nearer to being able to say goodbye to all this smoke and mirrors.’ She retired the next season.”

Faye didn’t know what to say.

“Then… perhaps you can think of moving here as the next step on your journey out of the Abyss. Yes, it is a huge step, but it would allow you to have a place of safety and one where you can begin to think about the long term. If that is with me, then all the better,” said Becca.

Faye still didn’t know what to say.

“When Steph told me that you had never heard of me and my career as a model, I knew right away that we had to meet. The way you just pitched in and put the frozen food away without question told me right there and then that I wanted you in my life. If something happens and we become a couple, then good. If not, then I would hope that we could remain friends. Either way, you need a base from which to face the big, bad world. Why not make it here?”

“This is all a bit of a shock. If we don’t make it, what happens with the money that you have to pay Paula? The work that she undertakes does not come cheap. I learned that much very early on, but she would not talk about it.”

Becca laughed.
“Steph said right from the outset that you had your head screwed on. Paula, Steph and I are all square. Why? We are all square because I put up half the money to make their business what it is today after I saw first-hand how a transwoman model was jerked around by normal dating agencies. People like you… And two of my dressers were trans, but just not open about it. One came out to me after taking a really bad beating from a date after he’d found out her real status. I worked some magic and found her a man who wasn’t worried about the sex of their partner. He wanted some nice arm candy to be with him. He funded their transition, and three years later, they were married. Much the same with the second dresser. That’s when I got the idea for an agency, only to find that Steph was already doing that, but on a small scale and part-time. My investment allowed them to go full-time. This all happened over five years ago. Paula has been on the lookout for a partner for me ever since. Then you walked into her office and later chose me as a possible partner.”

Faye didn’t say anything. The tears rolling down her cheek said everything to her. Becca saw this and wrapped her arms around Faye. Faye responded.

When the tears had stopped, Faye said,
“Sorry for being a bit of a crybaby. All this kindness has got to me. I’m not used to it. He… He used to say that it was a sign of weakness, despite what the good book tells us about the life of Jesus. I received a beating for trying to argue that the feeding of the five thousand was an act of kindness. He said… It does not matter now. Thank you for just being there.”

Becca gave Faye another hug.
“Shall we head back to the cottage? I don’t know about you, but I am starting to feel a bit hungry.”

Faye took Becca’s hand and managed a smile. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she had three people in her life who were not trying to bring her down or beat her with a belt or cane.

[to be continued]

When they returned to the cottage, Faye said,
“Please bear with me. For almost all my life, I was not allowed to make even the smallest decisions. What I wore was chosen for me. I was never allowed to wear jeans or trainers. I had to wear a white shirt and tie even at weekends.

Even when I was doing my chores, I had to wear the appropriate clothing; otherwise, I would be punished, and I would be required to confess my sins to everyone in Church the next Sunday. Being made to confess more than twice a year would mean being sent away to camp for the whole of the summer vacation. Having to decide what to eat is still hard for me. Everything was decided for me in advance.”

“Oh,” remarked Becca.
“I didn’t know that it was that bad…”

“I never fully told anyone before, not even Paula or Steph. I am trying hard to learn, but everyone my age has made lots of mistakes and learned from them. I was not allowed to make mistakes. I had to be perfect and never do anything that would be regarded as a sin by the church.”

“You poor thing. I will try to make allowances for that. I was going to ask you what you wanted to eat tonight, but… But I think that I will have to find out what you don’t like first.”

Faye managed a smile.
“I’m not keen on Brussels Sprouts. The ones we had were always very bitter, but the ones we had at school were a lot sweeter.”

“And you could not complain?”

“If you complained or did not eat what was put in front of you, you were punished with washing-up duty for a month. It was his way of making everyone compliant. I didn’t know about it until I read about Stockholm Syndrome at the Library. I first saw it in a newspaper at the Public Library. From that and some other books I read about religious cults in the USA, I started to understand that I was being brainwashed. From that day on, I obeyed, but I was always looking for a way out. When he said that I was going to the camp, I had to leave that night.”

“Then I will have to make the rest of your stay here a lot easier by making most of the decisions for you when it comes to important matters. In time, you can challenge me over them, and eventually, we can become equals. When I quit, I came here and didn’t know what to do with myself most of the time. Gradually, the hustle, bustle and panic of a catwalk show and there were sometimes three shows a day, faded, and I became a human being again. Time is a great healer, Faye.”

“Thank you, Becca. When we were at your new place, you talked about making decisions on how the place would be finished. That scared me to my core.”

Becca smiled.
“Why don’t you go and unpack? Your room is on the right at the top of the stairs. I’ll give you a shout when dinner is ready.”

“Thank you, Becca.”

As Faye started to climb the stairs, she heard Becca say,
“You don’t have to change for dinner.”

Faye felt a lot happier with things now that someone was taking charge. All this decision-making was hard work.

“How did you sleep?” asked Becca the next morning.

“Pretty well considering.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Not wrong, just different. This place is so quiet at night. My old home was close to a main road, and Paula’s is up on a hill above a railway line, and there are trains through the night.
Paula said, ‘Give it a while, and it will be ok.’”

“Ah… I had the same problem when I moved here from Paris. Even though I lived in a quiet suburb, there was a level of background noise that I never noticed until I moved here. You will get used to it, even though we often get a Tawny Owl sitting in my apple tree and calling at night. Then there are the foxes.”

“I get you.”

Then Faye said,
“What do you have planned for today? Paula said that she’d be here around five.”

“This morning, I thought that we might go to church.”

Faye immediately stiffened up.
“As I said yesterday, it is Harvest Festival this week, so everything is very informal. The vicar does not bite. She is a bit of a laugh.”

“She?”

“Yes. We have had a woman in charge of this and two other parishes for almost as long as I’ve been here. She used to play Rugby for England back when it was an amateur sport. Ruth is very down to earth when you get to know her.”

Faye was visibly apprehensive.

Becca poured some tea and said,
“Think of it this way… Sooner or later, you are going to have to face up to your demons. At the moment, you probably think that every church is like the one that you were forced to attend. Do it today when there will be a lot of locals there who only attend today, at Christmas and possibly the Easter services, and you can blend into the background.”

Faye shook her head.
“I’ll be the ‘stranger in town’ and subject to a lot of gossip, won’t I?”

Becca laughed.
“Another thing to get out of the way sooner rather than later.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you come and live here, there will be gossip. People have been trying to marry me off for years. Today is the perfect time to mix with the locals. Besides, there is a Hog Roast on the Playing Field after the service. The pub that we walked past yesterday has donated a couple of barrels of beer. Some of the hops that were used to brew it came from this parish. Everyone will be in a good mood.”

“I don’t have anything to wear that is suitable for church.”

“Have some breakfast, and then we can see what is in my clothes store.”

“Clothes store?”

“When I was not at one of the fashion weeks, I modelled for some of the top ‘ready to wear’ labels. Sometimes, I would be given the clothes I’d worn that day. I have most of them in the Barn out back. There will be something that you can wear.”

Faye started to complain but failed.
“Ok. You win.”

Becca took Faye’s hand.
“Faye, it is not a question of winning. I learned very early on that you can’t keep on running from the things that you fear. Believe it or not, I had a fear of flying. It was only after I’d been signed up as a model that I told them about it. The agency wanted to send me to New York, and I didn’t want to fly. So, they signed me up for a course with other people with the same phobia. It worked… but only after I’d done the course twice.”

Faye drank her tea in silence. At least she had not legged it. Becca remembered almost doing that very thing on the first fear-of-flying course.

After breakfast, the two of them went out to the ancient barn that was at the rear of the cottage. To Faye’s surprise, inside were two 20-foot shipping containers. These held Becca’s clothes store.

“This would look good on you,” said Becca as she held up a blue shirt dress.
“It isn’t too short in the skirt, and with a simple white fake pearl necklace to set it off, you would look good.”

“What sort of shoes should I wear? I only have the ones I came in.”

“I would suggest a small heel, but I don’t have anything in your size, so it will have to be flat sandals.”

Faye shook her head.
“My legs will need shaving to wear a skirt.”

Becca grinned.
“Then we’ll have to cover them up with some leggings, but you will have to put some colour on your nails.”

Becca saw Faye’s reluctance.
“How about I do it for you?”

“Thanks, Becca.”

“Good. Now, we should get going.”

Faye looked at her hair in the mirror. While it was growing, it was still a very ‘boyish’ style.
“Do you have a wig I can wear?”

“I have a few to choose from. One point. If you wear one today, people will associate it with you from now on.”

“That means I’ll have to carry on wearing it until my hair is a decent length, doesn’t it?”

“It does. One year, many of the top models opted for a very short look and regretted it immediately, having to wear wigs for almost a year. After that, they refused all demands from even the top designers to go short. They compromised by wearing short wigs for those shows.”

“Your hair is lovely and long and very shiny.”

Becca smiled.
“It is, but it takes a lot of looking after. That is another thing that you are going to have to learn in time. I’d love for you to brush it at night. Then, when yours is long enough, I could do yours.”

They compromised over the wig. Faye immediately chose one that wasn’t long but suited her face. Becca saw the pleasure on Faye’s face when she put it on. A small but key step forward.

With Faye wearing a black pageboy wig, they walked the few hundred yards to the church. Becca sensed Faye’s increasing nervousness, so she took her hand in hers. Faye managed a smile.

Becca introduced Faye to a lot of people. Faye promptly forgot most of their names. One that she didn’t forget was that of the vicar, Ruth Gardner.

Faye immediately saw why Becca had enthused about the vicar. She made Faye feel very welcome and didn’t question Faye other than to compliment her dress.
“That dress suits you.”

Faye’s reluctance to attend the service gradually dissipated as everyone went inside the church. Services such as ‘Harvest Festival’ were not part of the church that she’d been brought up in for years. That didn’t fit in with the ‘any celebration is nothing more than a direct path to a date with the devil’ despite it praising God for the bountiful harvest of that year.

After the service was over, they and almost all the congregation moved over to the playing field where the Hog Roast was almost ready. The animal being roasted was one of the wild boars that roamed the countryside. This one, a male, had been shot a week before, just a few miles away, by a gamekeeper. It was huge! There would be more than enough to go around. That could not be said for the barrels of local beer. Becca went and had a quiet word with the landlord of the pub.

“What did you do?” asked Faye, who was a little overawed by the whole thing.

“I bought another two barrels of beer. It won’t be the same as the current one needs to settle, but for this lot of boozers, they won’t care. As long as it is free, then they will ask for another pint.”

“This is all very strange to me, but it shows that there is a lot to the community here.”

“Does this mean that you will come back?”

“It does. I have to start somewhere with building my new life and… everything. Talking to some of the locals after the service hammered home to me just how much I have been sheltered from the real world. He… He wanted it that way. To him, the only way was his way, and any dissension was not allowed.”

“Dissension is allowed in my home except for one thing, and that is my long relaxation sessions in the bath. I don’t like being interrupted when I’m in the bath unless it is to refill my glass of wine.”

Faye tried not to laugh but failed. Becca joined in.

Later that afternoon, Faye and Becca were back at the cottage. Faye appeared to be deep in thought.

“Whatever it is, it is not the end of the world,” said Becca, trying to coax Faye into talking.

“Sorry, but I was thinking about what happens if we don’t click?”

“Err… Haven’t we clicked already?”

“Sort of, but I was thinking about clicking more seriously.”

“Faye, I would not have taken you to the Harvest Festival if I didn’t think that we could make it as a couple. Now, you are known as my other half. Since I came here, I have not done anything like that with anyone.”

“But you are so much older than I am?”

“Just under seven years. That is not a lot. Remember, I started working full-time as a model at age sixteen. Like you, I missed a lot of growing-up experiences with my peers. Yes, I was living the high life, but it was not without problems. A lot of the men I worked with were gay, so that was not a problem, but there were sexual predators just waiting for us to get pissed or high, and they’d be in like a flash. I was never able to truly enjoy myself. My vision for this place was to find someone with whom I could share growing up and then grow old with.”

Faye didn’t respond right away, so Becca said,

“Ready to take a walk on the wild side?”

Faye smiled.
“Yeah. I am ready.”

Becca stepped forward and kissed Faye. For several seconds, Faye froze solid, so Becca backed off.
“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve never been kissed before.”

Becca smiled.
“Then let’s try it again, and this time, just let your body respond.”

This time, Faye didn’t freeze.

“What time did Paula say that she’d be here?” asked Faye just before five in the afternoon.

“She said just before six.”

“Then I’d better go and get packed.”

“She texted me earlier and said that she had a surprise for you. Do you have any idea what it might be?”

“Not a clue.”

“Then we’d better be ready for them then.”

At five to six, Paula’s car backed into the drive. To Faye’s surprise, there were two people in it. For a moment, she thought that it might be Stephanie. That idea was quashed in an instant when the mysterious person got out of the car.

“Faith! What are you doing here?” said Faye.

“Becca, this is Faith. If we had not run away from our so-called parents, then we’d be married by now. We had no say in that plan.”

“I remember you telling me about that,” said Becca.

“I’m giving Faith a lift to Gatwick Airport. She’s going to meet her real parents for the first time since she was just one,” said Paula.

“They moved to Spain a couple of years after I was taken. They run a hotel not far from Gibraltar. I’m flying down there later this evening,” said Faith.

“What Paula didn’t say was that you are now a girl!”

“Didn’t you say that I was too feminine for you?” replied Faye.

Faith burst out laughing. They were good.

“Faith, this is Becca,” said Faye when they’d stopped laughing.

“Hello, Faith. Welcome to my home, even if this visit is a bit brief.”

“Hi, Becca. This is just a quick visit. I have a plane to catch.”

“Are you ready to go?” asked Paula.

“I am. If you load up the car, I’ll join you when I’ve said goodbye.”

Paula raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Becca and Faye returned to the kitchen, where they kissed.

“Come back soon,” said Becca.

“I will. I have a few things to do first, but it won’t be long. I’m sure that Paula will be glad to see the back of me.”

Paula drove away from Becca’s home with a wry smile on her face.
“Is there something that you want to tell me?”

Faye went a bit red in the face.
“Not really. We had a good time at the Hog Roast earlier.”

Paula shook her head and concentrated on driving.

“How come you are going to Spain?”

Faith smiled.
“The short version is that Mr Gold came to see me and signed me up as a client. He took a DNA sample, and much like yours, it came back with a hit. I was taken from the family car at a Supermarket when my mother went to return the shopping trolley. It was the week before Christmas, and despite the place being packed, no one saw the kidnappers.”

“Like my case, it seems well organised and planned to perfection.”

“That’s what the cops think. Anyway, unlike you, my parents are alive. I spoke to them last Monday. It was very emotional. Mr Gold managed to get me a passport in my real name.”

“So, Faith is no more?”

She grinned.
“I changed my name to include Faith as a given name. I sort of like it. My real name, Jacqui, will take some getting used to.”

“You kept Faith even though it has a horrible history?”

“It reminds me of where I was at my lowest point. The threat of that camp was a wake-up call for both of us.”

“Yeah, it was. Did you see the old folks on YouTube?”

“I did. They are acting as if we never existed. Someone will eventually do something about them.”

Then Paula said,
“Mr Gold has been talking to the FBI’s London Office. He will probably want us to make a statement about what we went through. Mr Gold suggested that their visas may be cancelled and they could be deported back here, but it is early days yet.”

At the airport, Faye gave Faith a goodbye hug.
“It seems that we have both come out of this with a future,” said Faye.

“You have come up smelling of roses, all right. Do you know who Becca was?”

“I do now, and was is the operative word. She’s settled down to a life in the country, and I’m going to give it a go with her. If we click, then fine, but it will need time. What about you? What are you going to do when you come back?”

“The job at the shop was temporary, but it gave me enough for a small room in a house share. I liked working in the shop, so I’ll go back and see about another one. According to the manager of the shop I worked at, there are always a couple of shops wanting good, reliable staff. If you keep your nose clean, then it is easier to get hired as a permie.”

“I meant romantically? You said to me that you wanted a butch lover.”

Faith laughed.
“That was to keep you off. I’m not into butch women. As most of the staff at the village are women, I’m sure that I’ll find someone, but I’m in no hurry. I want to at least get some money in the bank. Mr Gold has been great about making me legal. I even have a National Insurance number.”

“Good luck in Spain. Stephanie will know how to contact me. I’m sure Becca won’t mind you coming to visit for a weekend.”

Faith came to Faye and gave her a big hug.
“Sister, you are too good a friend to marry.”

Then she dashed off.

“You took your time,” said Stephanie when Faye returned to the car.

“We had a lot to say to each other. Her parting words were, ‘You are too good to marry. ’ I think I now have four friends.”

Stephanie laughed.
“I think that you will do fine out in the big, bad world.”

[to be continued]

“How did it go at Becca’s?” asked Stephanie when Faye and Paula returned to Paula’s home near High Wycombe.

“Didn’t she give you a call?” asked Faye.

Paula grinned.
“She did, but I’d like to hear it in your own words. So?”

“She’s a lovely, beautiful woman who could have almost anyone she wants in her life.”

“And?”

“She would like to give it a go with me… Someone who is not a real woman and has only been with her for two days. It does not make sense.”

“The world is a crazy place, as you well know. We, humans, are unpredictable at times. We still know very little about how our brains work. Knowing Becca as we do, I know she would not do wrong by you should you not make it as a couple.”

“That’s the very thing she said.”

“And?”

“She is moving to a new house soon and wants me to help her make it a home. That is bloody scary.”

“On the other hand, it gives you both a project to work on. That will expose any fundamental issues with the two of you, won’t it?”

“If I screw up, then she’ll have to live with it for years… That’s the scary part.”

Paula shook her head.
“Again, knowing Becca, she’ll rip out the crap bits and do it again. She is a bit of a perfectionist.”

“I know that. Her freezer is perfectly ordered. Well, it was until I stuffed some frozen food into it. She’d had a delivery of groceries only a few minutes before we arrived.”

“Did she tell you to stuff it all in?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Then it does not matter one little bit. I’ll bet that it would be perfectly stacked if you went to that freezer right now. That’s Becca.”

“I’m beginning to understand that she is a complex character.”

“We are all complex in one way or another. Are you going to give it a go? With her, I mean?”

“I am. I don’t have any other options on the table at the moment, do I? None of the others that you gave me dossiers on came anywhere close to Becca.”

Paula grinned.
“You got me there. As soon as you said that you fancied women, I thought of Becca. I added the others as a bit of a test. You passed that with flying colours. I think that you and Becca will be a great couple, but it will take some time.”

“I know, and that is what scares me shitless.”

“Roll with the flow, Faye, roll with the flow.”

Then, she changed the subject.
“I do like that wig on you. It suits your face.”

“Thanks. I’m starting to get used to it. I do think that I should colour my real hair to match.”

Paula grinned.
“There you are, thinking like a woman again. What are we to do with you?”

For half a second, Faye thought that Paula was being serious. Then she saw the grin on Paula’s face.

“Ok, you got me there.”

“Becca said that you had some things to do before you went back to hers. What sort of things?”

“Oh, just simple things. Getting some official documents like a birth certificate, National Insurance number and, oh, getting my ears pierced. Plus, any girl stuff that I need before stepping out into the real world full-time.”

“Mr Gold is sorting your documents. He was diverted a bit by Faith. With her going to Spain, she needed a passport in short order. It was complicated by the fact that, despite her father never giving up the search, she was declared dead. Officialdom being what it is, bringing back someone from the dead takes a lot of work. The DNA match helped. From what he said, your stuff is next on his list.”

“As for getting your ears done, we can do that tomorrow. Steph and I have to be in the office all day. There are places on Oxford Street that will pierce your ears.”

“One problem. I don’t have any money.”

Paula grinned.

“Mr Gold couriered these to me on Saturday afternoon.”

She pulled a padded envelope out of her very expensive handbag and handed it to Faye.

“What’s in it?”

Paula grinned.
“I have a good idea, but why don’t you open it and see?”

Faye opened the bag, and three envelopes came out.

The first was a phone SIM card. The second was the notification of a bank account and that £2000 had been deposited into it. The third was a debit card for that account.

“Where did that money come from? I didn’t earn it, did I?”

“That is true, but Becca sent it to me after your second Skype session. Her words were something like, Faye needs some cash to enable her at least to be able to buy a coffee or two when she is doing those other things before going to her place.”

“I’ll have to pay her back. I can’t take this.”

“Then tell her to her face when you go back, and that you need a job. Shouldn’t it be between the two of you?”

“You are right. It should. I won’t touch it until I’ve seen her.”

Paula shook her head.
“Speak to her tonight. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get your ears pierced or buy some hair dye or anything else, such as a train ticket down to her place.”

“Eh? Are you saying that I should travel down to Kent on my own?”

“We are. One of us will take you to the station. From then on, it is up to you.”

Faye didn’t look very happy.
“You will be fine,” said a voice from behind them. It was Stephanie.

“Dinner is ready.”

“How did your call to Becca go?” asked Stephanie the next evening.

Faye didn’t say anything right away. Then she said,
“It was good. I’ve agreed to take the money as a loan, and she will have a job for me.”

“So, you two are cool then?”

“Yes, Steph, we are cool,” she replied with a smile on her face.

“Faye, I have some news for you,” said Paula.

Faye looked at Paula’s face.
“I take it that it is bad news?”

She nodded.
“Your father has been arrested and charged with abuse of a minor.”

Faye stared into space for a few seconds. The memories of her past were not that old.

“According to the reports on the internet, he locked up one of the other people’s children for speaking back to him. That child was the subject of a court order, and the sheriff’s people found her locked up inside a dog cage and very dehydrated. The child was abducted by the father during a supervised visit in Boston so he’s been charged with all sorts of crimes including the transportation of a minor over state lines. The reports indicate that the child is in the hospital. Your Father’s people have serious contacts as you are well aware, and he was released on bail of $500,000 cash, before the immigration people could get there. Your family has had their visas revoked. Your former mother and siblings are in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Austin, Texas, but he is in the wind. Deportation procedures will begin shortly, but as usual, lawyers are getting in the way, but as their visas will expire shortly anyway, they don’t have a leg to stand on. What will complicate matters is the suspect parentage of your former father and mother over those siblings. When they do get back here, Mr Gold will represent them free of charge if it is proved that they are not blood relatives of your former parents.”

“That makes sense. One thing that I learned very early on when he went radical was to never question his authority. A dog cage does seem a bit extreme, but it does make sense.”

“Faye,” said Paula.
“The sooner we get you 100% legal, the better. Then you can disappear from London and begin your new life.”

“Thank you, Paula. You make it seem so simple, but it has to be hard work.”

Paula shook her head.
“The first time that we gave someone a new start, it was difficult, but now, we have a process, and we are still learning. I think that we may be seeing more clients such as yourself in the future. It seems that families are becoming less tolerant of each other especially when it comes to people who are members of the LGBT community.”

Faye looked a bit concerned.

“Don’t worry, Faye. With the things being put in place by our lawyers, even if your parents remain free when they get back here, they would not know where you are or what your name is, and they’d have court orders banning all forms of contact, even indirect contact through third parties. Then there is the little matter that you are now an adult.”

“You seem very sure of all this?”

Paula smiled.
“You are not the first person to come to us. We have a good process in place now. Plus, there are no records of any communication between me and Steph and Becca. All our phone calls are done over the internet using a random VPN and can’t be traced. Becca’s file is not stored in Europe, and when you move down to Kent, it will be destroyed. We are pretty good at covering our tracks. As you were eighteen and, therefore, an adult, courts will be very reluctant to order us to divulge what went on between us. Nothing we have done is illegal in any way.”

After a sigh, she added.
“We have to take precautions in case we have some unexpected visitors.”

Faye looked a bit bewildered, so Steph came to her rescue.

“I know that there is a lot to take in, but we are on your and Becca’s side.”

“Thanks… thanks for being in my corner.”

“That’s what we are here for,” said Paula.

“Now… tomorrow, we are going shopping. We’ll get your ears pierced and also get you kitted out for a life in the country. Ok? It will be fun, believe me.”

Faye smiled and nodded her head.

“See, that didn’t hurt, did it?” asked Steph.
Faye had just had her ears pierced. A Stainless-steel stud adorned each lobe.
“Now remember the advice that you have been given, and eventually, they’ll heal up and be good to go for proper earrings.”

“I’ll try. Thanks for being there with me.”

“I said I would, and I am here. Now… let’s hit the shops.”

Faye wasn’t sure, but she went along with the flow. After an hour or so, she started to enjoy the idea of going into a shop and trying lots of things on and walking out without actually buying anything. She did feel a bit guilty for doing that, but as she watched others doing it, she didn’t feel so bad.

After a break for some much-needed refreshment, they carried on looking at clothes. Faye suddenly saw something that attracted Steph’s attention.

“Those dungarees that woman is wearing. I want some of those.”

To say that Faye was surprised would be an understatement.
“Why? Why would you need things like that?”

“Because Becca’s new home is a building site.”

Slowly, a smile appeared on Steph’s face.
“Ok, but what about when you are not on the building site?”

“Then, these would do fine,” she said, showing her some photos of fairly ordinary clothes.”

“But Faye, Becca is a supermodel?”

“And there is no way that I can compete with that beauty. It is better not to try than any paparazzi that come snooping will concentrate on her and not me, the hired help.”

“Whoa… Is that how you see yourself, ‘the hired help?’”

“I do… at least for a while. This is all new to me, and I have to find my feet.”

“You sound like my mother?”

“She’s right. Meeting Becca scared me shitless; I can tell you. On the way back, I began to realise that if it is going to work, then at the start, I have to be as invisible as possible. Then, when people have gotten used to me, then and only then, perhaps I can be a little more adventurous. Becca might have been a supermodel, but she was dressed down all the time I was there. She has vast amounts of fashionable clothes, but they are next to useless for what she wants to do with her life now.”

Steph looked at Faye and saw how certain she looked. Certain that her way was right.

“Ok, but we need at least two posh frocks for those special events. Didn’t you go to the village Fete or something? I’ll bet that a lot of people were wearing their ‘Sunday Best’.”

“It was the Harvest Festival, but yes, two or three posher outfits.”

Steph nearly punched the sky. A small victory, but a victory nevertheless. Getting someone who never had any say in what they wore was often hard, but to Faye, it was like plucking teeth from a hen.

The shopping trip was declared a success when Faye bought a wheeled suitcase that would hold all their purchases.

“We aren’t done yet,” said Steph.

“Eh?” remarked Faye.
“I thought that we were ready to call it a day.”

“We are apart from knickers and other underwear. You can’t wear that black bra with that yellow top.”

Slowly, a smile spread over Faye’s face.
“I get you. I think?”

Under Steph’s direction, Faye learned about matching underwear to the outfit.
“Of course, most of the time, it won’t matter if you are working on Becca’s house, but outside that, you have to make the right impression even if you stay out of the limelight.”

Then she added,
“Because there is always the chance that Becca wants you to be more visible. I’m not saying right away, but in time… that might happen.”

“Ok, I get the message, and undies it is as long as you control the case while I make the selections. You can yay or nay it.”

Steph had been backed into a corner but didn’t mind at all.

Four days later, a very different-looking Faye, who had her hair dyed properly for the first time and had dispensed with the wig thanks to some expertly applied extensions, travelled into London on the train with Steph. At Charing Cross station, Steph said her goodbyes. Then Faye was on her own. All her worldly goods were in the suitcase. The only extra things that they’d bought were some walking boots that would double as work boots to go with the dungarees and a waterproof jacket. A woolly hat completed the outfit, much to the amusement of Paula.
“All the builders I’ve seen since I left home wear these things. I have to fit in, don’t I?”

For once, Paula was left speechless, but in a good way.

Becca was waiting for Faye at the local station. She grinned when she saw Faye’s outfit.

“Ready for work, I see?” said Becca after they’d briefly kissed.

“I have to earn my keep somehow, don’t I?”
Then, with a grin, she said,
“I can’t sit at home all day looking gorgeous, now, can I?”

Both of them had a good laugh over that. All was good between them, and from then on, it seemed the only way forward for Faye was with Becca.

Over breakfast the next morning, Becca said,
“Take a look at this photo and tell me what you see?”

She handed Faye a photo of a girl sticking her tongue out at the camera.

“I see a youngish girl with lots of heavy makeup on, her hair in a complete mess and a pierced tongue.”

Becca smiled.
“And?”

Faye looked at the image a lot closer.
“That’s you, isn’t it?”

Becca grinned.
“When I was first noticed by the media, I was terrified of them following me and intruding into my life. I’d seen what could happen to two of the then very top models who got caught by someone out for a quick buck, snorting cocaine. They were both dropped by their agency, and it took them years to get back on the circuit. I never did, or rather, knowingly ever did, drugs, but the fear was still there. So, I dressed up like that. It felt good to be able to go around without some supposed fan from social media snapping my every move. Eventually, I was rumbled, but by changing my hair, I was able to continue. These days, when I have to go up to London for business reasons, I will often dress like that. The people I do business with know about it and accept my reasons for doing it.”

“Do you want me to look like that?”

Becca laughed.
“I think that you need to let yourself go. I’d been doing what other people wanted of me for years until I ducked out and started doing things for myself. Dressing like that allowed me to do that. If you want to go through your own ‘rebel without a cause’ phase, then it is fine by me. You are like me in having to do as others want you to. In your case, it was your parents. With me, it was the model agency. We are people and want to make our own mistakes. Their job is to make all our decisions for us until we are ready to go out on our own. Does this sound familiar?”

“It does. I hadn’t thought of it that way. What do you want me to do?”

Becca shook her head.
“No, Faye, what do you want to do and don’t say something like ‘be here with me’?”

Faye sat thinking for several minutes before replying,
“When I went shopping with Steph, I kept thinking about what you’d said about the new house and all that, so I tried to buy things so that I could help you. Hence, the dungarees and stuff. I was thinking about what you wanted from me rather than what I wanted from life.”

Becca smiled.
“If we are to be a proper partnership that lasts, then both of us have to be aware of each other’s demands, faults and even fantasies. That’s why I said that you need to let yourself go a bit. Stop thinking about other people for a bit and think about yourself for a change. I know that it will be hard. All those years being subservient to that monster of a fake father will take some time to work out of your psyche. We have time and an ideal place to let that happen.”

Before Faye could answer, Becca said,
“Think about it for a bit. In the meantime, we can take a walk down to the new house, and you can see what has been happening since you were last here.”

To her surprise, Faye came and gave Becca a hug and a brief kiss.
“Thank you. Thank you for being so nice to me.”

Becca laughed.
“Nice?”

“Yes, nice. You were that before, and I didn’t fully grasp it all. Now, I am going to get ready to go out.”

She kissed Becca and left her sitting at the kitchen table. When the door closed, Becca broke out into a huge smile. She was well aware of the trials and tribulations ahead, but that little bit of positivity that Faye had just shown was a step in the right direction.

“The builders have gone off on another job for a few days,” said Becca as they approached the new house.
“They are waiting on a delivery of concrete for the internal floor. That’s coming on Friday; then it can dry over the weekend.”
“Don’t you mind them disappearing like that?”

“Normally, I would, but the Concrete company let us down the other day. It wasn’t really their fault. Once the mix is loaded, there is only a finite time it lasts before going off. There was an accident between their depot and here, so they had to divert the load to another site. I’m not paying the builders for the next few days, but they were going to have to wait while it dried anyway, so it may work out well in the long run.”

Becca led the way into the building.
“See, that’s the underfloor heating. When the floor is down and dry, they can start on the walls.”
Becca was pointing at a lot of black plastic pipe that was covering the floor of most of the ground floor.

“There is so much to do, isn’t there?”

“There is… if it is to be our home, it needs to be right, doesn’t it?”

The word ‘our’ brought the enormity of it all into perspective. Becca noticed her reaction.

“Faye, I know that this is all a big step for you… That’s why now is the time to be free to express yourself and experiment with your looks and makeup. To me, it does not matter if you make mistakes. That is all part of the big tapestry of life.”

“You wouldn’t mind if I went a bit mad?”

“Not. You can… no, make that need. You need to find what makes you happy with yourself, and my job is to be here for you while you make all sorts of mistakes. Then, when you are satisfied with your look and everything, I’ll be here for you.”

“But Becca… Why? The real reason, please. Not the wishy-washy excuse you gave me last time.”

Becca laughed.
“Wow! That was a short rebel phase.”

Faye smiled.
“I’ve not started it yet. So?”

Becca took a deep breath before answering.

“Because I escaped from parents like yours when I was eleven years old. My life was completely under their control. Even at school, I had to have their permission to speak to the person sitting at the desk next to me. I ran away from home and got picked up by the police. They took one look at my legs, where he would tie me up at night to stop me from running away, and they sent me into care. My then parents were tried and convicted of child abuse. A year later, I was adopted by the people I call Mum and Dad. They allowed me to try out as a model, and the rest is history. You deserve a chance in the world, so here you are. When you came here the last time, I tried hard, but I felt something for you that wasn’t pity or sorrow. I hoped that you felt something for me.”

Then Becca said,
“They are chomping at the bit to meet you but I’ve told them to hold off for a while. I told them that you need to find out who you really are and get comfortable before meeting my parents. Eventually, they agreed.”

Faye was left speechless by what Becca had said.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, she wrapped her arms around Becca and wept.

Becca let her cry herself out. It was something that she’d done a few weeks after going to live with the family that had just told her that they wanted to adopt her.

When Faye had recovered some composure, she said,
“Thank you.”

“We have a long way to go to even get to the point of having a serious relationship, but there is time for you, as I said, to spread your wings and make some mistakes in the knowledge that I have your back.”

Faye kissed Becca on each cheek and took her hand.
“I think that it is time for me to attempt to poison you with lunch.”

“This I want to see.”

All was good between them. Faye had someone in her life who cared for her. That was going to take some getting used to. Love and all that crap might come in time, but she had a lot of growing up to do first.

[the end]
[postscript]

The arrival of COVID forced them to see just how tolerant of each other they could be for many couples. The several stages of lockdown were the last straw for a lot of people. For Becca and Faye, it was a test that they passed with flying colours. Being stuck at their home for most of the time, Faye had a chance to ‘go wild’ with all the clothes that Becca had in the shipping containers. Becca taught Faye how to apply makeup that was not just for the catwalk but for daytime and evening. After seeing herself wearing a dress that Becca had worn for a wedding, she pronounced, ‘Pink is not my colour’. That was the moment that sealed the bond between them. Becca had hated that dress. Later that day, it was burned on the bonfire of fallen leaves in the garden. Both of them raised a glass to, as Becca said, ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’.

Becca loved having Faye with her. Until Faye’s arrival, she hadn’t realised just how much she missed female company. At the end of the last period of lockdown, Becca got down on one knee and asked Faye to marry her. Faye accepted. Eleven months later, Becca gave birth to a lovely baby girl who was going to be spoiled something rotten, but pink things were not on their shopping list. She was named Stephanie after the person who had brought them together in the first place.

They planned to have one more child before Faye took the final step towards being the woman she’d become.