Scene Twenty-Four

The dark haired man had a rigid sense of duty in providing for his wife and children, paying for the mortgage on his large detached house at a comfortable distance out of London. He had carved out his empire in the form of his status in life and his material possessions. They were the visible results of all he'd worked hard to achieve in his life. His values were written into the stiffness of his body language and the relative tonelessness of his voice. His rigid unbreakable way of behaving was the result of how he had been brought up to behave. It was something that he had never questioned. He lived his life constantly on the move from his office in the heart of London, driving back home to his sanctuary where he was a dutiful husband and father. He never missed accompanying his wife to the parent's evenings and the thousand and one little details of family life.

Life didn't get any easier as he got older. He had to drive himself hard to keep up with the up and coming younger solicitors who were joining the practice. He reckoned he had got to the point in life where he had achieved a measure of experience while the flames of his drive and ambition still burnt brightly within him. He stood in high esteem in his local community and was on good terms with his father who was a naval Captain and his mother who was a pillar of strength in the local community. The only fly in the ointment was that he faced the highly unpleasant reentry into his life of that outcast sister of his that he'd put out of his mind many years ago ever since she'd landed their family in such deep disgrace. The naval port that he grew up in was a small community and it didn't take long for word to get back that his sister had been expelled from her boarding school for 'lesbian activities.' The shame and embarrassment of it all was unendurable to the young man that he had been. He had been highly conscious that his proud family name had been dragged through the mud. He could see it in the censorious expressions that he could see around him, everywhere he moved.

What enraged him right now was how his father, of all people, had taken a soft line with his sister. Whenever he passed his opinions on his sister to his father, opinions that were family truisms, his father would instantly contradict him and stick up for her. It enraged him and gave him the uncomfortable reminder that Nicola had always been his favourite. He wouldn't admit to himself that he had always found her brighter and wittier than he was. When he came off the phone or got home from the family visit, he would complain to his very patient wife until he got it out of his system and life would continue as before. Life was so unfair, he reflected.

Never mind, he thought to himself. He looked outside his first floor office window on a hot, sunny July day and reckoned that he was finding himself in the world. He had been given a new case that he wanted to get his teeth into. It involved prosecuting some neurotic woman who had a clear grudge against the police force

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"Hi dad," sang out Nikki as she picked up the phone in the hall while Helen was getting their evening meal together. A light summer breeze wafted through the kitchen, taking the edge off the harsh summer heat and the sunlight streamed through the front door windows. On the other end of the line, her father talked in his usual friendly fashion.

"I thought it was only time I phoned to ask you how your new job settling down, Nicola?"

"It's great. It's made me work harder than I ever have had before in my life but that's no bad thing," came the considered, meditative reply for which her father mentally gave ten out of ten. It is no bad thing for a father to have a talented independent minded daughter who has a lot of old fashioned values of diligence and application. She'd never admit it if he ever told her, he smiled smugly to himself. In turn Nikki grinned at her father down the line as she leant against the wall. It was a quirk of his personality that everything had to have a purpose and this was his way of phoning to have a chat.

"I've had to learn a lot in a short space of time. It's stretched my ability to research into prison conditions, to get advance notice of what horrors the Home Office plan to inflict on the Prison Service. You simply have no idea of the sort of crackpot plans we are trying to block or water down before they see the light of day."

"Isn't this being tough on crime and the causes of crime?" her father said

"The problem is they don't work even on their own terms. They sound as if they were written on the back of a fag packet. I'm part of a team, which gets to look at the fine details of the proposals in detail. You need to develop a perspective without forgetting that you're talking about human beings. As I work, I think all the time about how old mates of mine like the Julies, Yvonne, Denny and yes, decent prison officers like Dominic would think of it. That helps to keep me grounded."

"A bird's eye view is very helpful, Nicola. It sees everything."

"You need a worm's eye as well, dad. Both together. There's nothing contemptible about the worm. I know that from working in the prison gardens and our own garden. Worms see things that birds don't see, as they're too high up and at far too removed from the situation. Helen got to know that in the end."

"That reminds me, how's Helen doing these days?"

"You know her. She's blossoming, doing the junior executive role to perfection. Even as we speak, she's cooking the dinner which I can smell wafting through into the hall. She's got her feet under the table, happily 'out' and those who work for her trust her and have faith in her as I do."

"Have you got any more holidays booked, Nicola?" came the thoroughly natural and conventional question.

"We may have a short break in Scotland and pop in on her father. Do you know, he's never seen us? His only presence is the occasional chilly voice on the phone and that really winds up Helen."

"Do you mean he can't accept you as her partner?"

Nikki smiled with pleasure as her father's reference to Helen rolled so smoothly off his tongue and she felt comfortable explaining the situation to him.

"He's a Scottish Presbyterian minister, dad. He's incredibly straight laced."

"I know the type. All hellfire and damnation. Still, I know you're both strong enough to sort him out. "

Her father's simple statement gave her a glowing feeling in the pit of her stomach and emboldened her to ask a question she'd meant to ask for months and kept putting off, not wanting to risk her newfound closeness to her father.

"Do you hear anything of my brother these days?" Nikki asked in a more guarded tone of voice.

"You must know me well enough now, Nicola," came the firm reply.' Both you and John are our children and I'll do my damnedness to see that you are both treated fairly. You'll know that I won't stand for any sniping behind each other's backs. If either of you have a problem with each other, you sort it out yourselves."

The forceful reply had an exhilarating effect on Nikki. This reply was as utterly transparent as it could be and also told her that he would be stand by her like a rock. It didn't preclude either of them being ruthlessly honest to themselves and everyone and everything about them.

"Thanks a million, dad. That means everything to me. Hey, wait a minute," she added as she could see Helen gesticulating at her, urgently."I've gotta go and help with the dinner.

I'll bring you a sprig of lucky heather from Scotland."

"You just do right by yourself and everyone else, Nicola. That's all I want," came the fond answer.

Only a few miles away, both Trisha and Sally shared that brief period in the day after Sally had come home from work before Trisha was due to go down to the club. Life had become more positive for her as she was blissfully free from the blood freezing anxiety of concealing her condition from Trisha. She had taken to writing down her thoughts when she was feeling at her most positive, snippets of self revelation she had encountered with her therapist. They locked her thoughts in on the fact that the metropolitan police weren't all powerful. Last of all, she remembered that very confident glamorous barrister who expressed so much confidence in them.

She made random notes, even at work and whenever a neighbourhood nosy parker passed by, she guiltily shoved the piece of paper into some convenient receptacle. The fact that she overheard whispered comments about some mysterious boyfriend only amused her. At work, she was this colourless, very private woman who retreated within her shell. She had quite enough on her plate and this was a step up for her when, at one time it had taken all her determination to separate herself from her bed and struggle off to work. The thought of admitting that she was a lesbian and had a female partner had that alienating, distancing effect which was something she could endure. Only when she came to the front door she shared with Trisha, did she change to that other person.

"What sort of day have you had, babes," Trisha asked as Sally came through the door and dumped her handbag down.

"Oh, so so, nothing exciting. It pays me at the end of the month," Sally said without enthusiasm. Trisha said nothing for a second. It had been at the back of her mind to question just why Sally was working in a job that she had little enthusiasm.

"Still, I've got you to come home to at the end of the day, darling," came a much brighter tone of voice and the dark-haired woman veered round with outstretched arms and kissed Trisha full on the lips. The blond haired woman melted eagerly into Sally Anne's arms and the two women gratefully embraced. This must be one of Sally Anne's good days, which she was welcome. On other days, she could still be jittery.

"Mmm, I'd love to take you to bed right now but I've got a club to run. I simply daren't skive off."

"It is your own business, Trisha."

True, she thought, but she was beginning to feel that she was coming to feel more beholden to her assistant Gill, than she liked to be. Trisha knew that her talents were for accounts and the entertainment side of the business. She was gradually taking more and more time off work and delegating more to Gill who accepted the situation uncomplainingly but gracelessly. Nikki took a tougher line with staff than Trisha was prone to do so and nipped any problems in the bud.

"True," Trisha sighed.

"So why don't we both go to the club tonight, babes," Sally Anne said with an enticing edge of confidence." I should seize the chance of a good mood and take advantage of it."

Trisha beamed with pleasure. Even though other women's source of entertainment was her business, she could summon up the feeling that they were going out tonight on the town.

"Babes, that's fantastic of you. I realize you can't stay out till too late and I'll sort you out with a taxi, you know I will."

The brilliant smile that spread across Trisha's face and her solicitous tone of voice warmed Sally up inside and sharpened that edge of confidence. She was beginning, ever so slowly, to respond to feelings of well being that did not come from a chemical source. She clung gratefully to Trisha and buried her face in the other woman's neck and flowing blond hair.

They were upstairs in their bedroom and Sally Anne selected one of her more floaty decorative dresses that she had bought which was a move away from her normally straight cut formal work suits that she favoured. It crossed her mind that this tendency of hers was an unconscious drive for security.

"How do I look, Trisha?' she asked with a small smile on her face.

"You look totally divine, Sally," came the answer without reservation." I must choose an outfit to match it."

The two women carefully applied their makeup and chose the ideal perfume. They were going out tonight and Sally was going to face the scene and achieve one more small victory over herself.

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