Bab’s New Year’s resolution 49

List of Characters.

Lola Smith Bab’s adopted trans daughter.
Callista Denton (Callie). Transgendered Duchess of Denton.
Margaret Denton (Maggie). Callie’s wife.
Molly Denton Callie’s grandmother
Ellie Denton Callie’s mother.
Bab’s Barbara Smith. Lola’s adoptive ‘Nana’
Olivia Smith Bab’s adopted daughter.
Angela Smith Bab’s newly adopted daughter
Erica Bab’s foster daughter.
Sergeant Bridie Davies Lady Police detective protecting the girls.
Sergeant Brian Davies. Bridie’s twin brother.
Inspector John, Heading up the anti-rape-gang operation.
Gareth Jenkins, Police office trained in firearms and protection.
Belinda Harrington Bab’s university girlfriend.
Aaron Talbot Surgical registrar – married to –
Shirley Talbot Lecturer at Local university.
Mickey Talbot Aaron and Shirley’s oldest son.
Jessica Talbot Aaron & Shirley’s middle daughter.
Bianca Talbot Aaron & Shirley’s youngest daughter.
Henry Denton Callie’s only son.
Charlotte Denton Callie’s only daughter.

Chapter 49.

After touring the house Callie asked Belinda if she wanted to go and see where the pine-martens lived. As a biologist, Belinda was more than keen so the family agreed to have Maggie Denton take Belinda into the large oak woodlands that had now been officially designated an SSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). As they kitted out for a walk through the waist-high, wet bracken and muddy forest pathways Maggie asked Belinda about her hobbies.

“Do you ride Belinda?”

“No. Not really, my older sister was the one for the horses I tended to stay with my academic stuff, hence Cambridge and Lola.”

“Can you ride though?”

“Well, I can mount a horse and stay on, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Well, it would be much easier to go on horseback. We can stick to a walk and that might let us get closer to the martens. They don’t see large four-legged animals as a threat.”

“What? Even when they’re carrying two-legged ones on their backs?”

“Seemingly,” Maggie replied. “I’ve found that they’re much easier to approach on horseback and Ellie reckons so as well.”
“Okay then. I’ll want a nice quiet horse though, nothing skittish.”

“Can do,” Maggie agreed. I’ll take Ellie’s horse and you can borrow my mare, she’s bomb-proof. The children learned to ride on her.”

Having agreed to take the horses, they soon arrived at the edge of the oak and beechwood glade where Maggie simply stopped and sat quietly with her horse while Belinda’s mare simply sidled up to her stable companion and exchanged gentle neck rubs. Within minutes the horses had settled down and the natural silence of the forest returned. It was not long before both girls simultaneously noticed a pair of bright beady eyes watching them from the hole about fifteen feet up the old oak that Maggie had indicated on arrival. Both girls froze while struggling to express their excitement and then to add to their rapture, another pair of eyes joined the first.

“One of the kits I presume.” Belinda whispered as softly as she could.

Maggie nodded then squeezed Belinda’s wrist as she nodded infinitesimally towards a branch even higher up the tree.

“Look. Daddy’s just brought home the bacon. Well, a grey squirrel, that’s for sure. I wonder where he found it.”

“In the forest obviously,” Belinda opined.

“Ah that may not be exactly true,” Maggie informed her. “Pine martens tend to prefer eating grey squirrels to red squirrels and their preferences cause grey squirrels to avoid such forests like the plague. I’ll have to inform the wardens that there seem to be grey squirrels back in Denton Woods.”

“That’ll be bad news for the birdlife,” Belinda added.

“Exactly and we’ve got some pretty rare specimens thanks to the pine martens settled here.”

“Don’t they take the birds as well?”

“Yes but it’s a more balanced predation.”

“Are there any other martens living hereabouts?” Belinda wondered.

“Yes but not on our land. English Nature have got about five dens registered now in this part of Yorkshire and they continually DNA them to check for inbreeding and stuff. It seems that horny young martens will travel from as far as Scotland and even Wales to find a suitable mate. It’s one of our wildlife success stories and it all started here in Denton with Ellie when she found herself to be the Duchess of Denton after Callie’s older brother was killed in Afghanistan.”

“Yes, I was wondering about that.”

“About what?” Margaret asked.

“Well, you staying with Callie after she transitioned. Are you like me, sort of bisexual lesbian?”

Maggie let out a snort.

“Well I’ve never thought of it like that. I loved Callie when we met in college. He was totally obsessed with his trains and he struck me as sweet. Always behaved like a perfect gentleman. His idea of giving me a good time was a trip out on the preservation railway in the cab of his locomotive followed by a greasy cleaning session at the end of the day. Then I found out from Ellie that she and Henry did exactly the same thing when they were courting in college.”

“Yes Ellie spoke of all that. So when did you discover that Callie was tran’s?”

“About six months in. I finally got him into bed and he; or as I discovered that night, she; was wearing panties. She hadn’t expected to be physically hauled into my bed and then groped by me. Bit of a shock for me but I was already out as bisexual so it wasn’t that big an issue. We chatted long and hard into the night and finally concluded that it might just work. It did, and so here we are. Their graces the duchesses of Denton.”

“And with two beautiful children to boot.”

“I presume you’ve frozen some of Lola’s sperm haven’t you?”

“Oh yes, come on it’s getting dark, we’d better make tracks.”

ooo000ooo

Maggie took Belinda back via the moors path so Belinda got a good viewing of the whole estate while learning about the story of the ‘Love stone’ where lovers where supposed to cross paths and seal their bond of love forever.

“Sounds like a typical old country superstition,” Belinda grinned.

“Is seems to have worked for Callie and me,” Maggie observed, “and also for Ellie and Henry except that the train crash took him before his time. Molly and Harry also stayed together until death did them part. Maybe there’s something in it.”

Belinda resolved silently to somehow get her and Lola’s paths to cross by the Love stone. ‘It would do no harm.’ She thought.

When they finally got back to the hall, they found there had been developments.

A text message had come from Olivia in Holland telling Lola of the outcome of the trial and that they were staying in Amsterdam for a week with Inspector John and Bridie as guests of the Dutch police before they were off on their next ordeal in Germany.

“Will you need to go to Germany Lola?” Callie asked as they ate supper that evening.

“Will you be fit to go?” Ellie added.

“I hope so. I’ll have to message Inspector John and see what he says. I really want to be there just to give support to Olivia, Angie and Erica.”

“Well, you’ve got about three weeks then. They’ve got a week in Amsterdam to hear what sentences are passed down, then they have a couple of weeks pre-trial in Colne before the court sits.”

Ellie passed Callie’s phone to Lola to note the details and the younger girl nodded with satisfaction.

“I should be well ready by then.”

“Good,” Callie replied, “you might as well stay with us at Denton Hall until you’re ready to go. I’ll run you down to Birmingham a few times to keep tabs on your Nan.”

“We’ll be going up to college at the end of September,” Belinda warned. “Lola might be able to miss a couple of weeks but my course is more intensive. I have to go up on the first day of term.”

“No problem young lady, you’ve got to see your nan anyway. I’ll drop you off when I’m visiting GCHQ. I believe my American uncle is coming over sometime around then and he’ll be curious to learn about another English branch of the family tree.”

“Is he the one in the CIA?” Lola asked.

“Yes but don’t spread it around. We all know in the family because he came to Maggie’s and my wedding, but he doesn’t spread it around. It’s not an official secret or anything, it’s just that he keeps the information pretty much to himself. Now that’s enough about GCHQ and me,” Callie declared. “Let’s discuss how we’re going to keep you two entertained until Belinda goes back up to Cambridge.”

ooo000ooo

The following fortnight at Denton Hall proved to be idyllic for Lola and Belinda. They visited the pine martens several times for Belinda to indulge her passion for wild British mammals and stopped by at the branch mineral railway were Lola was able to have a go at driving Callie’s steam locomotive after the commercial traffic abated in the evenings. Callie’s son Henry excelled himself while showing the young pair around the estate and even helped instruct Lola in the operation of the steam locomotive.

More importantly he helped Belinda to organise the seemingly accidental encounter between Belinda and Lola at the ‘Love-stone’ by leading Lola along the moorland path on Callie’s stallion while Belinda just happened to be sitting on the stone chatting to Maggie.

On open moorland, voices travel readily and Maggie quickly made herself scarce as they heard Henry and Lola approaching. As Lola continued trotting up the Path, Henry stopped for a wee and told Lola to carry on and he’d catch her up. Then Lola met Belinda seemingly sitting pensively on the love-stone and admiring the view of the Dales..

Thus the pair were technically alone as the traditional superstition required. Naturally they kissed then made their way down to Denton Hall while young Henry re-joined them at the edge of the woods. The tradition had been full-filled.

On five occasions, Lola was able to slip into the hospital and touch bases with Bab’s. Because of her age, Babs’s recovery was slow but sure and to Lola’s immense relief Bab’s was able to stand unaided during Lola’s fifth visit

Inevitably and all too soon, the fortnight at Denton Hall ended. Belinda returned to her Family in preparation for going up to Cambridge University for her second year while Lola and Callie were able to slip over to Germany undetected by the rape-gang and re-join Olivia, Angela and Erica while they attended the pre-hearings.

“How long is this going to take?” Lola asked Erica’s counsel after the first week.

“We have only just got through about a quarter of the charges. It’s not just the number of offences, it’s the number of offenders as well.” The lawyer explained.

“How many are on trial?” Lola pressed.

“Two hundred and fourteen!” Erica sighed as she struggled to contain her tears.

“Bloody hell! This’ll take months” Lola opined.

She squeezed Erica’s shoulders as she felt Erica’s shoulders begin to heave and eventually the tears arrived. The judges looked concernedly towards Erica who waved her hand in a vaguely reassuring manner while hoping to keep the proceeding on track. Then the lady judge paused proceedings momentarily to explain.

“I’m very sorry young lady but European law requires that every charge is recorded and made against the accused. If anything distresses you, you need only say and we’ll wait for you to recompose yourself. Are you happy to continue?”

Erica nodded even as the tears continued to glisten in her eyes. Lola was struggling to get her head around the numbers so she turned and whispered to Erica’s counsel.

“Did all these bastards have a go at her?”

“No,” the counsel replied, “but Erica appears on video recordings where these accused persons were seen. In many instances, she only has to confirm that it is her in the videos and that she can remember the locations. Her testimony, coupled with other evidence that the German police have gathered will enable the courts to determine guilt and reach verdicts.”

“But there’s mountains of evidence!” Lola almost squeaked as she struggled to keep her composure.

“Yes, indeed.” The German counsel concurred as she added with some pride, “our police have been very thorough.”

“Too bloody right!” Olivia whispered from the next row over Lola’s shoulder. “They’ve even got video of Angela in Nottingham that one of the accused took on a sex holiday.”

“I thought sex tourism was mainly Thailand and the Philippines,” Lola replied.

“Didn’t we all.” The counsel nodded as she put her finger to her lips because the judge gave the group a stern look.

Having in effect been told to be quiet, despite having only been whispering, the girls fell silent while the prosecutor droned on and on with the charges.

ooo000ooo