The Studio

Chapter 4

…And Breathe

Revision 11

Contents

The Estate

Bands

Laura Interrupted

Rochester Again

The Cameo

Complete

The Farmhouse

Rochester – The Final Hurdle

Budapest

Not Only Phase End

Dilemma

Don’t split your heart 

Between me and her 

Don't shed a tear over what she can't give 

Think about us Just leave her and live 

Take back your heart Don't you want to be free 

Take back your life And stay here with me 

We’ll mend the pain that she’s leaving behind 

Don’t split your heart just trying to be kind 

Heartache will heal and then you will find 

She's not evermore 

Start again And close that sad door

Dave 2025

The Estate

Michelle raised her glass to Lisa “We’ve achieved the impossible!”

“We? It was nearly all you”

“No. I think you actually rescued me. I’m so glad that Damon sent you down to help me. It was getting all on top of me”
 “I don’t think anyone else noticed”
 “And now the Estate. Except, Lisa, I don’t know where to start. With the house, we needed new carpets so I called a carpet fitter. We needed the drive surfaced so I found a guy who built roads. The roof was full of holes so we called in a roofer. We need to sort out the Estate so we call…?”
 “Michelle, I’d rather not call anyone right now because I can’t even describe the problem”

“But I couldn’t describe the problem I had when you phoned me first”
 “No, but you knew what you needed to achieve. I don’t know what the Estate is trying to achieve. But then Michelle, I know very little about the Estate”

Instead they decided that neither of them knew enough about it and headed for the bar to have a few drinks, respond to whichever guys rocked in and try to take the evening off work.

Overall, the estate had been doing increasingly well. But, just when Stuart was thinking that Damon had forgotten all about Ross Cunningham, Adam was proved right. 

He headed to the Studio wondering just how bad this could be. After all, he reasoned with himself, it was quite a few weeks ago now, his real job of running the estate was going well, and there were a number of positive developments that he could bring forward from his monthly report if he needed some diversion to talk about. Juliette had sorted out the immediate issues. Maybe, he convinced himself, he would survive. And, he mused, this incident had actually brought him and Beth a bit closer together again, it being her idea to get Ross to apply in the first place. 

But Damon seemed in better form than Stuart had anticipated. 

“Hey, Stuart. Come in, sit down won't you. Drink?” 

This he thought was a good start. 

“How's it all going?” Damon asked vaguely as he slid a can of IPA across the table

“As far as I'm concerned, everything is going just fine. Unless there's a particular thing you're worried about” 

“No, as you know, I've not been taking a great interest in the estate since you picked up that role” 

Stuart remembered back to when Lady Patricia had left for France. He'd essentially been made redundant as she had no farther interest in the estate, although letting it revert to the wild seemed like a tragic loss of productive farmland. Then Janice had suggested he call Damon, or just drop in on him. Damon was still considering how to run the estate he’d acquired. The house was just a big building that Janice had under control, but a country estate was not something Damon had any experience of – at all, until Stuart reeled off half dozen tasks, including a conservative estimate of net income. 

So how much salary do you want for this? Damon had asked and that was it. Rehired into his old job, but with a larger responsibility and salary.

“No, I think the thing I've been spending most time on is integrating that new bit into the original estate to get the best economies of scale” 

“Ah, yes. That section that includes the Conference Centre…” 

Oh no! mention of the dreaded….

“…Bit of a nuisance about Ross Cunningham” 

“Yes, sorry about that” 

“No matter. May even be for the best. We'll see. You see, the estate has increased in size again, quite apart from the increase following the auction” 

“Oh yes? I couldn't make the auction myself, although I asked Michelle to bid on some plant. That’s worked out well”

“I’d have liked to have been there, but I had to go to Vienna”
 “So you’ve bought a bit more then? Yeah. See, what I don't understand, Damon, is what it is you want all this farmland for, what with you not being that interested in it?” 

“Oh, I’m interested in it, Stuart. Its just that getting the Studio running is a higher priority when I’ve got you to keep the Estate ticking over”

“I’m hoping its more than just ticking over! Profit margin is up considerably since you told me to just get on with it”

“Which is all good and I’m not complaining. But I’m thinking ‘economies of scale’ if we can integrate the whole lot. Not just buying stuff like fertiliser, but selling stuff as well, and best use of people to give them wider more interesting jobs”
 “Yeah. I don’t even know how many we’ve got now, although I’m assuming they all still get paid every week”

“I think that’s what I meant by ticking over. It all continues to operate, but I’m not sure anyone knowns exactly how. But, Stuart, you want to know why I’m buying land – apart from the fact that we live on an island with a finite supply and it will never go down in value. Well, the main objective is to surround the Studio with open space and prevent development. That will provide peace and calm and minimise unexpected noises and interruption and that will aid creativity. That would be completely destroyed if something like a housing estate was to be built within hearing distance. I appreciate that combined-harvesters and even cows can be quite noisy on occasion. But it’s a different kind of noise to a pile-driver, and then construction and then continual ear shattering DIY hand tools and lawn mowers... Hmmm, you don't seem convinced” 

“It's only because I don't really know what you do here. I tend to keep out of the way and just get on” 

“And that's much the way it should be. But would you like to see what goes on here? Of course, you are allowed to say no. Your main interests are in trees and meadows and cows and such like” 

“I agree with all that. But I would like to know more about the Studio. We hear so much rumour from folks in the village it would be nice to have some facts” 

“You said 'we'?” 

“I meant me and my wife Bethany” 

“Perhaps you and Bethany would like to come over for dinner? It would be nice to meet her. I could show you round, and then at the same time, we could pick up on a bit of business as well. It could even involve her. Let Michelle know”.

That evening Stuart got home just as dinner was landing on the table. Being starving, the main task was eating, but he slowed a bit towards the end 

“We've been invited for dinner” he said “don't know if you've got anything planned for tomorrow, or if not then Friday” 

“Really? Who by?” 

“The boss. Damon” 

“What's that for?” 

“It's all a bit vague. We was talking about the estate and he hinted he bought some more land recently. I haven’t even got a handle on what he bought back at the Jed’s Farm auction” 

“Humph! He can't have bought much. It was that young girl in the grey coat that bought near enough everything on sale. Some say it all cost her over one and a half million! One and a half million!”

“Aye, I heard. I heard there were developers there as well. But I'll have to see Michelle about it anyway. Haven't thanked her for buying me that logging truck yet. Just haven’t seen her! Anyhow, he's invited us to take a look around and see what it's all about at the Studio. And have dinner, and then a wee bit of business he said might involve you” 

“Me! All a bit strange” 

“Aye! And you have to wear a dress as well” 

“What for?” 

“It's the rules. All women wear dresses on site” 

“Who says?”

“Damon I guess. Must be some reason for it. One thing about that Damon is he’s always a bit off the wall, but then there turns out to be a very good reason for it”

“Hmmm. I'll have to see how well that flared green one comes up if I give it a good wash and press. S’pose I haven’t got the time to get a new one.” 

Beth was as stunned as anyone seeing the Studio for the first time, and nearly walked straight into Michelle in the hallway because she was looking at the ceiling. Damon met them in Michelle's office and took them for a walk around. They passed the restaurant, and the bar which was just getting into full swing with a decent complement of band members, then down the far staircase to the studios. Damon explained what the route was that bands were taken along to get here.

“Then to support the album and single release, the bands go out on tour” 

“Where do they rehearse that. That can't be in the studio as well?” Beth asked 

“We use an off-site theatre in Gloucester” Damon said as he led them back to the main hall and then down to the converted chapel beyond the West Wing collecting Michelle along the way. 

“But we also have our own facility here which is very useful for Heidi to get her first impression, or Adam or me to check on progress. I can see it being is use almost constantly as we get more bands coming through” 

Beth was in awe “This place just has everything” she said as she climbed the few steps onto the stage. 

“You're not serious?” discouraged Stuart “remember you bunked off your turn at karaoke at Izzie's party” 

“Her sausage rolls were about to catch fire! and anyway this is different” 

Damon joined her on stage 

“What are you going to sing?” 

“Oh no! I can’t really, I was just having a look and dreaming” 

“Stop dreaming, start singing. What do you know most of the words to?” 

“Black Star?” she blurted out getting completely carried away. But Damon knew there was a spare guitar lurking by the fire curtain. He flicked on the amps. 

“Ready?” 

“No! No way!” 

“Why not, there only the 4 of us here. Go on, you know you want to really” 

Damon grabbed the front mic 

“Thanks for being a fabulous audience tonight. For our next track, we'd like to sing Black Star” 

He ran through the intro and counted her in with a head nod. He whispered each line to her as a reminder till the end of the second verse 

“Now it's your dance. It's time for the guitar solo” 

Beth had never danced on a stage in her whole life, but somehow was caught up in the moment. She came in right on cue for verse three and finished the song as Damon closed the show 

“That's all folks. Thankyou and good night” 

“Bow to the audience” he whispered “just needs to be low enough to flash your underwear at the drummer behind you” 

Beth gasped, pulling her skirt suddenly in to her legs and cutting the bow short. Then just as suddenly remembering that there was no drummer. She threw her arms round Damon in pure euphoria and again around Stuart when they left the stage. 

“That was fantastic!” she enthused 

“I agree” 

“And that’s the fourth time I've seen you perform on stage” Michelle said to Damon as they returned to the board room for dinner. 

Dessert had come and gone and Natalia had put a large bowl of mint creams in the middle of the table as she poured coffee. 

“I did say earlier that this would include a bit of business, but hopefully Beth, you'll find it interesting. Stuart, you will definitely find it interesting” 

“Aye, Damon. But y'know that 'may you live in interesting times' is an ancient Chinese curse” 

Michelle powered on the projector 

“It's all right, Beth. It won't take too long” 

“It's ok. I've not been to many presentations, but just before I left the Bank we had one. It was dire. The bloke just put up slide after slide, all just text, and read each one to us like a bunch of five year olds” 

“I can imagine! But Michelle much prefers pictures” 

“That's right, Damon…” she said taking up position beside the screen “... And rather than interesting, I'd like to call this exciting. So far, here at the Studio, we've concentrated on renovating the house and the music aspects to set up the record label. But this is all about the Estate. Earlier, Damon said that the estate had grown slightly. However, Damon, as you may already know, is a master of understatement”

Understatement? Stuart now felt decidedly nervous

“So here is a map…” she started as the first slide came into focus “… You'll recognise the house here at the centre, and next slide is the same, but on a smaller scale. This next slide shows the extent of the house with the garden. That's the bit Sienna looks after. Beth, its mainly flowers with an apple orchard, the big lawns, the lake and the kitchen garden full of herbs. She’s talking about vegetables too next year, and that’s all retained as part of the House rather than part of the Estate. Next slide is the estate as it was when we bought it from Lady Patricia…”

Wow, 4 slides in under a minute, but Michelle was about to slow down

“… Now, this is the extent of the estate after we bought this eastern section. That's where we acquired the Conference Centre as an added bonus that we weren't expecting. And that’s the size the estate was before the auction in July” 

“There's another bonus as well then” said Stuart getting up and drawing a line with his finger on the screen “that part on the far eastern side, that's all part of it too. This line here. Well that isn't a fence. There never has been a fence there and the boundary is right down at river” 

“Oh good” said Michelle “even bigger! Now, Damon was unable to get to the auction because he had to go to Vienna – but before that he signed the papers with Penny, our solicitor, to acquire this section of forest up here to the north.

“Yes” added Damon “it came up for sale and as it bordered our estate, I expressed an interest. However, in talking to the vendor, they also mentioned the issues they have with this next section. Nothing serious, but their interest is in farming, not in timber and certainly not in property. So as an amendment to that sale, we also bought this section here” 

“And that’s in addition to Upper Elfinvale? That’s new to me! Damon, I cant manage it if I don’t know about it!”

“Absolutely, Stuart. That’s why we’re here”

Michelle switched to the next slide showing a major new section of the map now coloured in. 

“As I said, Damon couldn't make the auction” 

“Oh aye, and I never caught up with you to say thankyou for those two tractors and the logger, but I can say that now. And I heard there was some excitement there as well” 

“Yes, the second property lot, Old Jed’s farm, had only two people bidding against each other. One was from the developers who had been informed that it already had planning permission, and the other was from Jed’s family. He was accused right in the middle of bidding of only trying to push the price up as he already owned it and in any case didn't have the money to pay if he was left with the bid. Anyway the auctioneer stopped the bidding to check the details. So they had to start the bidding all over again. And then someone asked about the planning permission, and the auctioneer said that it had definitely been refused. The developer went ballistic and didn’t raise his card when Jed’s family upped the bid. I waited until the hammer was about to come down just to increase the tension before bidding, and they chickened out after that. 

Then there was the Ibden estate. I didn’t even bit till it had got down to the last two”

“You! Of course, I should've guessed. They were all saying in the Belle that some young drop dead gorgeous girl had suddenly jumped in as a new bidder just before the hammer came down and out-bid everyone, and no one knew who she was” 

“Yes, and the next lot was your logger. The auctioneer stopped the bidding to inform me that there were almost no trees on the Ibden Estate. I told them I'd make it my business to plant some” 

Then, after that at the end of the auction there were two other lots. One was this, known as New Mill farm, which we picked up for very little as everyone seemed to be distracted after the Jed’s farm disaster, and that increases our estate to look like this” 

It now became clear why she had reduced the scale on the original map, so that all these boundaries could now be included. 

“The last lot was this boundary here. It's just a fairly random set of fields owned by British Agriland, but gives them more trouble than it's worth working as they do out of somewhere in Leicestershire. That came up as we were discussing Upper Elfinvale and it now makes our external boundary look like this, adding another 12 houses to our Upper Elfinvale count of 65 houses of various types”

“But that must triple the size of the estate already. And we’ve not really got a handle on that property rental rather than just agriculture” 

“It certainly looks like it, Stu. But if that’s so…” said Beth joining in, realising that she actually understood what was going on and, yes, this was interesting and exciting. “… it means that we must be one of the largest landowners in the county. Do you remember those landowners’ association parties that the Colonel used to host before we moved here?” 

Stuart nodded as Damon added “Lady Patricia told me something about those too. There seemed to be a tradition of the largest landowner hosting those. She said it was because they usually had the biggest house and she took great pleasure in describing how much bigger hers was - even if it was falling down” 

“So, there's a fair chance you'd get invited to that sort of thing, Damon” 

“Yes. Well maybe you could go on my behalf” 

Beth gasped at the prospect of being invited to that elite set while Michelle waited patiently at the projector for a break in the comments 

“Nearly finished” she said by way of suggesting she should be allowed to continue 

“Whoa. That's big. That's one major change in size. And Michelle, that whole section at the top, that's up on Farthingbridge Lane isn’t it? So that must all be Furzecombe Farm. Do we know who finally bought that? Was it the developer?” 

“No, it... It was me” 

“Of course it was! Or it wouldn’t be on your map”

“So, there you are” summarised Damon “This is the new estate. As I see it, Stuart, you have three options. One is to run away and hide in a cave, two is to take on the increased estate as estate manager and three is to take some time out to help me recruit an overall manager with you as an assistant manager responsible for the part of the estate of your choice. I'd like you to consider what you would like to do, and get back to me as soon as you've come to a conclusion, but preferably by Monday” 

Annabelle

It was Monday and Damon had invited Annabelle to Gerrards for a less public, quieter environment. She wasn’t engaged to Vince any more but somehow her enthusiasm had escaped and she wasn’t anticipating anything other than work. And Damon had no intention of disappointing her.

“You seem to have Starburst all under control”

She smiled a doubtful smile

“Seem to? Maybe. It’s a small team. They all know the objective and they’re all focussed. Its really running itself. And Gavin is in his element. He was so repressed under the brown-thing and now that he can just get on with whatever without interminable scrutiny he’s just fine-tuning everything. We do discuss it, and he’s not just looking for my agreement, he wants a contribution too”

“Sounds like there’s not so much for you to do”

“Alice prepares the financial update. Andrea is sending us an increasing number of singles and Judi’s in her element with her controversial news program, especially since Gavin extended it out to twenty minutes. Its become a very popular slot with advertisers. But the point is, Damon, its been set up properly. Like a machine – build it properly and it will work properly”

“Yes. And that’s what you’ve done. It’s good – something of a success. But something that’s not working, at least not efficiently, is the Estate”

“Estate?”

“Yes. We’ve got Starburst, and its working well. We’ve got the Studio where the flow of bands is just getting going now that the house is fully operational. And then there’s the Estate. Originally there was some farmland and forest that came with the Studio when I acquired it, but I wanted to buy a buffer zone all around it so that I could control the environment better and retain the ambience in the garden for recovery and inspiration. But I wasn’t able to buy just the bits I wanted, I had to take whatever job lot was for sale that included the bits I wanted. So now we have a big jumble of farms and forests and streams and fishing rights and properties that we rent out. Its expanded rather quickly and I think we’ve all just lost track of it. So with your success in setting up Starburst, and now with some spare time, what about you spend some time sorting out the Estate?”

“Damon! I know less than nothing about forests – or farming”

“Oh, I’m sure you know something. Forests are where trees grow, and farmland is where cows and crops and sheep grow”

“Well yes. I know that much”

“That’s a start. And not knowing much sometimes has advantages. It avoids preconceived misconceptions. Let me know when you can be at the Studio next and I’ll set up a meeting with Stuart”

Annabelle nodded, with an ambivalent ‘ok’. Different, but a wider experience would be good.

That afternoon, Michelle glanced out of the window. The drizzle was seeping out of the sky and the light seemed dim for the time of day. August had disappeared and September was chasing after it. Summer was coming to an end, but that wasn’t all. 

Lisa had been on the phone to Stuart trying to avoid offering to help him, and sighed as she put the phone down

“Michelle, I know we’re all meant to be as helpful as we can, but the help Stuart needs is a full time job for at least two or three people more than just me!”

She tilted her head quizzically for Lisa to continue

“He’s saying that the Estate needs some attention. Ok, not the trees and cows and stuff, but the organisation”
 “Lisa, what he needs is one central office. One single team to handle property rental whether it’s barns or houses or pubs. One sales team for forestry products - wood chipping, logs, timber, fence posts. Another sales team for farm products like beef and milk and wheat”

“Stuart says he wants to create a Farm Shop”

“Maybe he should. But setting up one purchasing team to buy everything would higher on my list. And he needs someone to head all this up – which, Lisa, should not be me”

“What shouldn’t?” she asked, for clarification

“Office manger for the Estate” 

“No. You should stay here. Juliette should do that…” but Gareth had just bundled into the office with some issues about the wood chip supply for the central heating.

Was it that simple? Maybe it was. Reallocate everyone to be part of a specific specialised team, and then hand it all over to Juliette. Maybe it was.

“But Damon…” Juliette found herself saying “…there’s too many loose ends. The scheduling system needs some more work - maybe to refine the template to make it more usable. But in the meantime you said we need to build another studio and more rehearsal rooms. Rosanna can’t do all that all by herself, so that’s still out there. She also wants to do some production as well” 

“Yes. But we’ve been talking to a guy called Oliver. He’s another graduate from her college that she thinks is good enough and they’ll sort out those rooms together. Your new scheduling can’t really be implemented until we get that built. Scheduling the rehearsal rooms and studios is a diary management thing and it needs to be done by the same team as booking the tours because that’s where the complexity comes from. We’ll also need someone to look after the bands when they first arrive, making sure they’ve got accommodation and telling Lynda how many dinners she needs to cook”

“But I’ve still got the Cameo to sort out”

“I know, but there’s not much we can do until Penny has the legal stuff sorted and we actually own it”

 “I guess so. Ok. So now we’re looking at something else as well”

“Yes, Because until one of these resurfaces, the priority is the Estate. And, good news Juliette, its completely different again”

Juliette sighed deeply. These things were still loose ends in her mind, although Damon seemed to be convinced that they’d all tie themselves up without her intervention. But the Estate! These other projects were interesting – and stressful – and short term. But the Estate! Now that’s where I thought I wanted to get to.

 “So! You want me to get involved with the estate?” she asked trying to conceal her excitement

“I expect you know more about this than you realise. This is fairly closely linked in to the local population. We’ve got a lot of people that have transferred from the old owners when we bought property and farms, and they feel a bit in limbo right now. I don’t think they’re in danger of leaving because there’s not many jobs round here, but much longer and they’ll lose any enthusiasm. But they’re all expecting some sort of consolidation and until it happens, they’ll feel unsettled”

“What Michelle thinks is that we need just one team for buying stuff, one team for selling stuff and one team for property, all working together in a central HQ”

“I think she could well be right. But it’s a big job reorganising into that shape and then persuading everyone to work in the new teams. We need some consistency so that everyone gets treated fairly, and we need to get the economies of scale from integrated purchasing…”

But this was all making Juliette’s head hurt

“…. And then we set it all up in a single central office…”

Is that all? She thought looking both perplexed and apprehensive

“… We’ll see how far we get, then when we own the Cameo, we’ll rock on up there and see if its as simple as just installing a manager”

This job sounded huge. It was different to the previous tasks where she had to find out what the problem was before she started fixing it. This was already identified, and looked very much like it could take quite a long time. But then she’d know what sort of things they did and what options might be available for her to select where she might fit in on a more permanent basis.

Later, in the Olde Belle, Liam was only too pleased to talk to her about farming. She didn’t know what she’d need to know about at the next meeting about the Estate, but a significant part of that was farms and even a meagre background knowledge might at least help her to ask sensible questions.

But it sounded like a strange mix of people. Damon, Michelle and Stuart obviously. Herself, to sort it out – whatever that meant. But Jasmine? She knew that Damon did not have a very high opinion of Jasmine, and now she heard from Lisa that Annabelle was going to be there too. Annabelle? From Starburst?

The meeting itself was in the main conference room at the now empty Conference Centre. Michelle made no apology for her intention to repeat the presentation showing the growth of the estate that she gave before because it would remind Stuart and Damon what this was all about, and inform Juliette, Jasmine and Annabelle what the situation was.

“So that’s the land situation” Damon said summarising “But there’s a lot of duplication in running it and that’s a recipe for confusion and inefficiency. So, Annabelle is going to spend some time finding out what the current situation is in each of the different parts and develop a consolidation plan. As part of that, she’ll need some help with what the actual costs and savings are, and I understand, Stuart, that Beth might be available for some temporary finance work on this particular project”
 “Yeah, Damon. She knows ’bit ’bout it already, but doesn’t want a permanent job. She’s doing enough other things as it is. But this would help her understand what I’m dealing with – especially if there’s landowners meetings to go to and there’ll be enough to keep her busy till we get on an even keel. She was Branch Accountant at the Bank before it was taken over and the branches merged, and I think that might be useful to help Annabelle” 

“Juliette, you did a great job of setting up those two conferences that were already booked. But I do hope that you won’t be too disappointed that we won’t be running any more. Quite simply, that is not the business we’re in. We’re in music, and for that we need the House and the garden. And we’re into the Estate because that gives us the quiet buffer zone we want for the musicians. What I’d really like is that the income from the Estate is enough to support the House and that would let us run more mentoring and coaching at the Studio without the successful bands subsidising it.

Once Annabelle has identified the teams and how many people we need to start with, they can relocate to this building which will become the Estate HQ. Juliette, I want you to setup this up so that its ready for everyone to move in as a single admin location. Think about it and I’ll see you in the bar Wednesday evening for your initial reaction – I’m in Edencombe later. Jasmine, you are the only person currently based here, so, following our ethic of looking after our own people first, I’d like you to think carefully about where you think you’d fit in best in this new operation. You should get plenty of opportunity to see the types of things we will be doing because over the next two weeks I’d like you to help Annabelle”

“Is that purely secretarial?”
 “Not necessarily. You know a lot of these people personally and that will be useful to make sure we don’t inadvertently upset anyone and they all feel a bit more confident about the future”

Juliette retreated to the Studio to think. She remembered that she’d mentioned to Stuart about having an office overlooking the meadows and now here was Damon suggesting exactly that. And a date with Damon in the bar as well! Well, maybe not quite that.

Now sitting on the veranda with a cup of tea, she reflected on the meeting. This was her next assignment and it looked very much as though it could become her last. She’d also be in the perfect position to decide which part of it she liked best. The original invitation had frightened her half to death but the meeting had been really interesting. Before that she had no real idea what the Estate actually was. Now she was beginning to understand the nervousness around Liam’s table in the Belle. She’d met Stuart before and he seemed like a nice guy. Although, she figured, if he was dealing with roughneck foresters all day long he couldn’t be all nice. This situation was the result of Michelle spending millions of pounds acquiring everything all around and now she was making sense of the nervousness of the farm workers, like Liam, who were wondering why, and what the impact would be and why they were largely in the dark.

But now she knew that Stuart didn’t have a handle on it all because it kept expanding before he could get to grips with the previous acquisition, and she started to realise what ‘sorting it out’ actually meant. Simple? No?

She’d arranged to meet Stuart at the new HQ, or Conference Centre as she continually called it, and managed to ask all sorts of simple questions that seemed to have complex answers. Despite that, she still managed to come away from it with a much clearer idea in her own head of what was likely to be needed. She’d slipped a word to Liam that there would be a consolidation soon. That word would get round and it would be less of a surprise to everyone. But she emphasised that there would also be quite a few jobs coming up as well. This would take a little longer and so far was very vague and she wasn’t clear if she was looking forward to her next visit to the Belle, or dreading it. 

And Liam. Oh! What of Liam? Her mind drifted off. If she was working here on a more permanent basis he’d want to move their relationship on. He’d hinted at that more than once and not that subtly either. And that meant she’d have to make her mind up. Actually, maybe that would be easier than sorting out the Estate.

The first task would be to work out how to convert the building into offices. Did she need the main meeting room? Could everyone go over to the Studio if they all needed to get together at the same time? Or should she keep the big conference room? Did she need to keep any of the bedrooms? Would that be useful – or maybe just dangerous? and giggled at the thought. 

She moved the projector and screen into the largest of the breakout rooms and tried to envisage how many desks she could get comfortably into the others. Of course it was feasible, but any more progress would have to wait until Annabelle completed her structure chart. She went into each room on the first floor, looking at how many desks she could get into each of them, and decide that what she really needed to do was measure it all. And then she could start to identify suppliers. She’d need desks and chairs, what about getting some headed paper? and phone lines and that would need a switchboard and where would I put that and…. But! I already know someone who’s just completed a job quite like this on a grand manor house not far from here!

Damon’s initial introduction was that he wanted her to be ‘involved’ in this. He’d already said that it would need someone to run it once it was established, and hinted that it might not be Annabelle in the way that it was at Starburst. She’d noticed a slightly sideways glance when he’d mentioned that in the bar, and had even dared that night to think that maybe that job might be coming her way too - if she did a good enough job of setting it up. And if she was going to run it, it would be in her interests to get it right first time.

She’d drawn her plan. She’d photocopied it so that she could draw on it without having to start again from scratch when she changed something major. She had developed some confidence that she had a base to work from when she was given some staff numbers. 

Annabelle was with Stuart when she arrived for the next discussion. They had several huge sheets of paper spread out on the conference room table and they were transferring the list of things that they needed to do into a series of scribbles. This looked very much like Annabelle’s draft of the organisation chart for Starburst, and now it seemed she was doing the same thing here. They drew a lot more wiggly lines to connect everything together, and wrote in the things they'd have to be responsible for and the number of people they thought they might need. 

This was very different for Stuart. He was a practical guy and would probably just have put a dozen people in a room, wired up the phone lines and told them to sort out everything that came in. Annabelle, however, seemed to know what she was doing and each question that Stuart answered led to another squiggly line and sometimes a new box. It was all becoming disturbingly organised. Juliette studied it for a few minutes. Following the Starburst redesign, this was even looking vaguely familiar.

Returning to the conference centre the next day, the squiggly line drawing was still spread out across the tables, and even looked like it might have grown overnight! 

She studied the squiggly lines joining everything together thinking that they should give her some indication of which offices she should put next to each other.

She made a few notes and just writing this down convinced her that she was beginning to actually understand it. From what she now saw, Stuart had randomly listed all the things that needed to be done, and Annabelle had organised them into some semblance of logical order. Now she had the numbers she needed to translate the logic into practicality. The Conference Centre had looked like an impossible basket case on day one. So had this, but she remembered how the conference centre had turned out, and, while this still looked like an unsolved mystery, that gave her the confidence to persevere.

She retreated to the Olde Belle where Rosie had a vodka waiting for her by the time she got to the bar 

“Any news on that Conference Centre?” she opened 

“Yes” admitted Juliette “it's definitely not happening” 

“Oh dear. That is a pity. You put so much work into that. And I did think we had the catering sorted” 

“Yes, Rosie. And thankyou for all your help. but it's not what the company is about. There are two parts to the company - producing music and running the estate. Hotels, Conferences or selling any other kind of hospitality is just not included. That building is going to be used as the head office for the estate. All the property management and forestry and farming” 

“Farming?” joined Alf who was the only other person in the bar. He was a retired farmer who'd lived and worked in the village all his life and seemed to have led the rumours of doom that had spread about Damon buying all the land that came up for sale. 

But Rosie and Alf listened as Juliette described the plan, which clarified it all in her own mind. Following this rehearsal she was looking forward to describing it to Liam and his friends when they showed up later on. 

“So between them, that Damon fella and that blonde in the grey coat have bought near enough everything around here. And if that Damon is into music, what's he wanting farmland for?” 

Alf had the grumpy demeanour of someone who had spent his entire life wrestling with recalcitrant livestock, but seemed genuinely interested to the point of concern and underneath all that, he seemed friendly enough 

“What he wants is to own all the land that surrounds the Studio so that he can retain a quiet, peaceful, rural environment that gives all the musicians the best atmosphere for composing and writing, without the disturbance of construction work or housing estates”

“Is that so! Well he'll have to get a handle on that blonde, because she owns the other half of everything around here”

“I don't think that's an issue. She's called Michelle and she's Damon's personal secretary” 

Alf was speechless, thinking for a few minutes and enough time for Juliette to enjoy her drink in peace.

“So he's going to keep farming?” Alf said eventually, clearly having spent the time considering it 

“Yes, and there’ll be more sharing the big equipment like combined harvesters, and we can put bigger orders in for stuff like fertiliser and get a bulk discount so that we can increase the profitability. That's one of the things that will happen in this new central office” 

“What new central office?” asked Kirsty who had just that moment walked in through the door. 

“The new head quarters that is being set up in the place that was going to be a conference centre but isn't anymore” 

The rest of the crowd arrived in dribs and drabs and Juliette waited till the table was full before finally being persuaded to reveal the plan. They’d heard rumours and the speculation had developed an independent excitement and hope for the possibility of employment without the hour and a half commute into Edencombe. 

The table went quiet as she described the plan. The mere fact that there was a plan and that it was to invest in agriculture was taken as the best news by everyone

“Although, if you’s bringing it all in as one big thing, you might not need so many people?”
 “That’s true, Kirsty. But there will be other opportunities opening up. We’ll be selling a lot more stuff, especially forest products that we don’t do much of at the moment”

“And, Rosie, the more people there is around, the more likely they are to bowl in here after work. And there are likely to be salesmen and clients visiting that might need a pint or two and maybe somewhere to stay overnight too” 

“They'd just stay at that Studio, surely?” 

“I doubt it. The Studio is for musicians, and in any case its filling up quickly. There are over a hundred bedrooms there and I’ve seen the plan for November and they’re nearly all full. Anyone visiting the Estate will have to sort themselves out” 

Juliette quietly considered her plan, leaving plenty of flexibility for the changes that Annabelle would inevitably make almost daily to the squiggly master diagram on the conference room table. But now she thought she understood it. The specifics and the exact numbers would all follow, but the outline was clear. And exactly how many people they’d need would vary depending on the capabilities of the people, so that would change when it all burst into life anyway. What she did have was virtually free reign on the office layout and had set up her own desk in an office on the first floor to get a better view of the stream and the grazing sheep. This, she reminisced was the Conference Centre bedroom where they had realised she had completely overlooked toiletries for the en-suite bathrooms, which, strangely, seemed so very, very long ago.

Her next meeting with Annabelle was more nervous. While Juliette was getting more into it and gaining more confidence, Annabelle was particularly insistent that she understood. Then she spent some time going through the various tasks that she hadn’t finished off, mostly for some very good reason. But why do that at all? It all seemed to Juliette to be in some way rather….. terminal.

James Again

“James! And how is the wonderful Rhiannon?”

Michelle looked startled. She had no idea that he’d had any dealings with KPMG. Maybe this was an old friend from Uni, but Damon had left his phone on speaker so she was about to find out

“As perfect as ever, as I know you appreciate. It was her that told me it would be ok to just phone you and I’m hoping you can help me because so far I’m confused”

“Well, James, she is of course right. What can I help you with?”

“Miss Larchmont. Works at Starburst Radio. That’s something to do with you I’m led to believe”
 “Yes, that’s one of my companies. And I’m assuming your talking about Annabelle”

“That’s right. I hope I’m not giving away too many confidences, but she’s applied to us for a position in our Business Organisation unit”

“Not unreasonable. She did the re-org at Starburst virtually single handed. And she’s just completing the integrated structure for the estate here. We’ve made several large land acquisitions and it all needs to operate as a single unit to get the efficiencies of scale”

“Yes, those are on her CV. But talking to some folks at Starburst, I’m informed that she was actually employed as the receptionist at Eden Radio, which preceded Starburst”

“Yes. I don’t know too much about that for certain. However, Eden Radio was losing money through some sort of fraud. I sorted that out by shutting it down and starting again, but what I heard was that Sir Edwin put her in there to collect enough information to try to figure out where the problem was. Except he ran out of patience and just sold it to me. That company was worth a lot more but at the time he was trying to sell his steel works for over 500 million so he didn’t want to spend any more time on something worth only a couple of percent of that”

“So what was she doing in between these re-orgs of yours?”
 “Running Starburst. Effectively she was Chief Operating Officer, but it was pretty much running itself so I pulled her out to reorganise the estate”
 “How big is the estate, Damon?”

“About 20 thousand acres. A mix of agriculture and forestry”

“That’s big. Very big”

“Yes, and largely unintentional in order to get the bits of land that I actually wanted”

“So what would be next for her in your organisation”
 “I don’t know James, I’d have to ask her where she wants to go. I’ve a feeling she might like a job as a radio presenter at Starburst. She’s hinted at that before. But there’s no more re-organisation to do here”

“And what do you think about her suitability for our consultancy?”

“I’m not familiar with your setup. But if I hired you guys to do this estate re-org for me and she showed up as the consultant, I wouldn’t be disappointed”

Annabelle, however, had already made up her mind about her future. And Damon didn’t figure in it.

She lay awake, calm and thoughtful. I’ve reorganised Eden Radio into Starburst, I’ve moved on from Vince, I’ve setup the structure for the Estate and checked out the workflow in the duplication plant. There’s not much more to do here in Chameleon Media. And Damon has been showing increasingly less interest in me - not that I’ve been encouraging him. It might all be different if I had. No. My discussion with him will be about moving on. I need to get my life back, I need to get a proper job and a career, I need to work somewhere that I’ll meet more people and escape out of this shell I’ve created for myself. 

And sleep was so much easier when the decision had been made.

Bands

Druze in the Garden 

As predicted when they were on his yacht, and as he’d intimated at the Wembley gig, Druze had invited himself and turned up completely unexpectedly. This caused some upset at the gatehouse, but while this was yet something else that Michelle had to contend with, she was really rather pleased. She liked Druze. He’d looked after her so well on his yacht and he didn’t seem to mind expressing his opinion whether it was asked for or not. And that would be refreshing – maybe. Or maybe just depressing if he was as critical as she knew he could be. 

But now, a few days in, he was no trouble at all. Sienna had seen him more than anyone. He’d interrupted her a lot in his first couple of days asking questions about plants and flowers and anything else she was doing. But now he seemed to spend his time in the garden, and sometimes around the wider estate, often with a notebook, and often looking overwhelmed by the whole landscape. Sienna was convinced he was writing his new album. It was more peaceful than the house where there were unexpected interruptions from over exuberant bands returning from their review or sometimes just from the studio.

He sat down on a bench that looked like it was about to collapse and said as much by way of introduction

“I’ve got a new one on order.” she responded apologetically “Should be here by the end of the week” 

Sienna liked talking to him, often amused by his off beat comments, and clearly horticulture wasn’t his specialist subject. A bit, she reflected, like Michelle. 

Keith hadn’t seen Druze for several years, and Rosanna was nearly overwhelmed yet again when he introduced them. Keith was interested in when he was going to produce his next album, but Rosanna was wondering idly where the name came from

“He’s an Ozzie. He gets to have a weird name! Actually, Rosanna, his mum was Ozzie and his dad was Greek. She wanted to call him Andrew and he wanted Andreas. They compromised on calling him both names. Both of them can be contracted to Drew, and since he had two of them, that became Drews, using the s as a plural as well as a possessive in Drews Militia. Then for simplicity, he spelt it with a z”

Rosanna looked at him with a flat smile “Keith, I probably didn’t need to know that”

Both of them were loving their time at the Studio. Rosanna had invited Oliver to help her create the new studio, and Adam had said that he’d be using that to see if Olly was suitable to join them in the production team. She’d borrowed Damon’s Range Rover to visit some suppliers with Crispin and returned with enough equipment to create another four rehearsal rooms.

Adam had finished his Live at Lesser Waterton album and Keith had helped him with the other two. He was very impressed with Heather’s performance on the Chameleons album and was particularly pleased that he’d be credited as co-producer.

Keith was also impressed with the first mix of the Alpha Tyger tracks but Damon was delaying the release until he had his duplication plant fully operational, that no-one else knew about yet.

Seventh Sun

Rosanna had talked before to Damon about Seventh Sun. That’s who she’d been working with when she met Keith and despite all the euphoria of being at the Studio and being included at the centre of it, Rosanna was upset. It wasn’t a huge upset, more of a single thorn in an otherwise perfect rose. Before joining the team she’d put a lot of time and energy and all the money she had into this band. She knew them from college and had made some significant attempts at producing a record that she could distribute, if only to radio stations and hope for some air play. 

Except. Everything she’d done to make this band sound better had been dismissed and erased by Damon. He’d identified the issue straight away and he’d even shown her the evidence in the wave forms of the recording

“It’s a great attempt, and a lot of effort on the mixing desk, but you wont recover it enough. You should simply re-record it”

Yes, but I didn’t have the cost of more studio time after that lousy drummer wasted so much of it. That’s where I went wrong. If they’d got rid of him earlier….

And only then did she find out that Damon was on her side all along. 

She arranged to meet the band in a pub at the Elephant and Castle. Unfamiliar territory for Damon, but Rosanna was buzzing just because they were there at all. Now she knew he’d help her and also, if they weren’t up to it, he’d say so. Still, it would be better to know. The band was up in London playing a few gigs and trying to set up new ones to earn a crust which might be enough for some studio time.

The conversation was yet another step in the right direction. They were intense, focussed and hadn’t had too much to drink. She introduced Damon as someone who could help them with production and they were over the moon, but they also wanted to hear what she’d done to their previous session. There was a lot of background noise and Damon wanted to keep the volume down on the cd player, but the bass player still managed to hear enough 

“Guess that’s the end of the road then - edged out in the final mix” as he got up to leave. Rosanna grabbed his arm, but he shook it off. He wasn’t sulking or getting out of line - just disappointed. 

“Don’t go, buddy” Damon cut in “the band needs you” 

“Doesn’t sound like it…” 

“Listen, there’s a problem with that track, but there’s a quick fix for it” 

Collectively they persuaded him to stay. That said a lot for the band as well. This was the attitude that they needed. Damon explained the situation and why Rosanna had removed that part

“It’s a simple mistake, Jeff. But its easily fixed next time. You just need to make sure there is a next time. What Rosanna did is edit that bass down on the desk. But that means that the track loses its depth. What I’d prefer is that you guys come down to the Studio. Run through the track a few times with the correct tuning, then we’ll recut it. It doesn’t need much and it shouldn’t take much time. Then we’ll see what you guys think about it and what you want to do” 

“That all sounds perfect, dude, but we’re all cleaned out. We’re skint, so we’ll need a few weeks to save up enough for studio time” 

“I understand that. But, to work with me you don’t just need to be among the best. You need the attitude, and I’m seeing you’ve got that right here. Then you need the commitment to succeed. With me you need to get your own butts out of bed and write new material and check out new arrangements. There’s no pressure from me to do it. You do it because you want to. Want to make music, want to get more fans, and want to make more money.

The deal is that you’ve got the talent, you’ve got the material, you’re the guys that are actually up there on stage and behind the mics. Me? What I do is give you studio time and an environment that will help you think and get your act together and get better. I’ll give you financial support, advice on image and stability so that you have the time to get it right, to get the tracks the best they can be and exactly how you want them. And then there’s touring – UK , Europe or world wide. That’s hard to do yourselves. You have to know what’s trending where - Japan, Malaysia or Australia? Or town halls in Europe – what are those venues really like and have you got enough cash to book a few – they need payment up front from people they don’t know. We can do that too. And then, because you’re still doing a lot of the work yourselves, you get a fair percentage and considerably more than if you were with IMD” 

“So… No up-front for signing?”

“No. No up-front. No contractual commitments. You do this because you want to and you do it with me because you realise that’s your best bet. You set your own pressure, not me. But I will give you all the help you want”

He left the final details to Rosanna, but was quietly happy that this bunch could easily break into the charts given the chance. And that’s what Chameleon Media was being set up to do.

Rosanne had never been so nervous in her whole life - or was it just excited. She’d had a studio session with them before and it had gone well. Right up until their drummer had gone off on an impromptu improvisation and didn’t come back before they ran over time. 

Now the line-up was different. He’d been replaced. Damon had met the guys. She had expert advice on hand. She was determined to make it work. 

They’d insisted that if their old van could get them reliably through the London traffic without overheating or dying, then it could make it to the West Country. And all she could do now was wait. 

The phone made her jump. It was Lisa. She’d been watching for them on her monitor - the one she used when Gustav had disappeared somewhere. 

Rosanna went out into the forecourt to meet them and reassure them they were in the right place. 

Inside they looked around but Rosanna’s plan was to take them straight though to the restaurant to get some lunch. 

“I was so doubtful we were in the wrong place. Say Rosanna, this is well awesome. You actually work here?” 

“Yes. And live here. I’ve hardly set foot outside the estate since I got here, except for a short shopping trip. I’ve not got studio booked till tomorrow to give you guys a chance to settle in, but there are well equipped rehearsal rooms if you’d like me to reserve one for you” 

“Wow, Yeah! But Rosie, You said this wouldn’t cost us. Is that right, cos it all looks well expensive and you already know we’re all still skint”

“No Terry. This is what Damon meant by saying he’d give you some financial support. This whole place has no way of charging anyone or taking any money. There are no price lists and no tills”

“What! Even in the bar?”
 “Even in the bar”

Terry looked serious “Guys. We need a plan. Listen up, this is serious. Its gotta be serious just lookin’ round here. Chances like this won’t happen often. We gotta make the most. So wot I think is we chill out till about two. I might take a walk down to that lake - if that’s ok around here, Rosie? Then we setup in one of what did you call it? Rehearsal room?”

“Yes, Terry. The studios here are for recording. Any hanging out, practice, changes and new material all happens somewhere else. In the studio its supposed to be like a live gig so that it doesn’t waste time in front of quarter of a million pounds worth of electronics”

“Ok. So in this rehearsal room, we run through our four tracks maybe a few times. Tighten up. Then we break out. Maybe we take another run after that, then take time this evening to get our heads straight for tomorrow”

“Sounds about right. There aren’t really any rules around here. Its be sensible, that’s all. The lake’s beautiful in the afternoon sunshine. And the swimming pool is great too. There’s swimwear available in the changing rooms. And towels” 

Terry spent longer than he’d thought in the flower gardens and hadn’t made it to the lake. The equipment in the rehearsal room was as good as the studio they’d been in before but now they were headed for the studio where Adam and Keith were playing with the desk. 

“….And guys, you already met Keith de Santis, I think. He’ll be in on this too” 

Terry stopped, just short of the glass door. 

“De Santis? Rosanna, I knew he was Keith. But Keith de Santis!- he’s produced a whole string of number ones. And wait a minute. This place is the Studio, not any old studio, The Studio. And Adam. You’re Adam McNab right? The Chameleon?” 

“Well, yeah. That’s right. This is our place, it’s our Studio” 

“So that boy Damon we met at the Elephant. That must be Damon Lehrer, right? Jeez! My heads gonna explode. I didn’t know we were gonna be in this sort of company” 

“Yeah. Well you won’t be for long if you don’t get your butt in there and lay down some tracks”, but Keith’s ear to ear grin took the edge off the harshness

“One day I’ll understand what’s going on” 

Damon arrived as Rosanna opened the control mic. 

“We’re going to take a run through. Then if we’re all happy with it, we’ll Take 2 for recording. Ok? Take it away” 

Despite their time in the rehearsal room and Rosanna’s warning about wasting electronics time, take one was peppered with interruptions, but they were all for good reason and the guys dropped into the groove. The focus was on being perfect and Damon watched as take 2 progressed as a straight recording. Rosanna was silent. Keith was watching and adjusting the output volume balance, but only to get it normalised. Maybe not the final, but a good indication of what would be possible. The other three tracks flowed more easily now that they all knew what was expected.

Keith played it back through the studio speakers. The guys were critical. Damon was impressed. These guys were perfectionists and that was unusual. 

Take 3 was intense. Damon could see the beads of perspiration bubbling onto foreheads. Lead guitar was almost in a trance as he concentrated on the fading chords before Rosanna called it a wrap and the guys sank down as she played it back. Keith had been tweaking the streams as they came in, but now Rosanna wanted to adjust the balance as Keith watched. 

“We’ve never played it that well before, they enthused. And I’ve never heard it mixed like that either. So what happens now?” 

“Dinner”

Dinner was not as they were expecting. They’d cut their best track. It was good. The band was confident it would be successful if only they could get it distributed and an exhausted meal and a few drinks in the bar were on their menu. 

“Hi. Can I join you?” she said sitting down as they were about to order “I’m Heidi”

She’d been paying particular attention to those five boys as they marched together along the corridor. They looked intense. Not nervous or twitchy, just focussed, and quite smartly dressed although all their clothes seemed loose – loose shirt sleeves, baggy trousers, lightweight fabrics. She’d followed them down to the Studio but held back as Adam greeted them and set the scene. These guys were Seventh Sun and this session was in danger of creating a number one for Chameleon Media. What could possibly be farther removed from financial admin in a provincial radio station? Maybe only being party to selling a company riddled with fraud? 

She’d listened to most of the recording session hidden behind Keith with a set of headphones and now she wanted to discuss their image, but first she wanted to know the rationale behind the baggy-wear.

The guys were exhausted – they’d given it everything. If they failed it wasn’t for want of commitment, but the uninvited arrival of a pretty girl was always welcome. She asked about their background and then about who they thought their target audience was, and finally about the clothes

“Its practicality” said Terry flatly “Its our day clothes as well, but a lot of our gigs, we’re in the corner of a bar in 80 square feet with amps and lights and the sheer exercise in hammering an axe for two hours straight. Often we’re dripping at the end of it and we can’t afford to get everything cleaned or washed every day”

“So given the choice, what would you prefer to wear? What image would you like if money wasn’t the obstacle?”
 “Kimonos”

“Really?”

“No”

Next morning they trooped into Damon’s office and crowded round the screen. This is where Damon had shown Rosanna how sharp that bass guitar was and now the whole band could see exactly what was going on - not just hear it. And as always, it was a revelation. Jeff gazed at the screen. Now he understood. And now he was the most relieved that he’d let them all persuade him to stay.

It hadn’t taken Rosanna very long to persuade the guys that since they were there and since there was an available studio currently doing nothing, they should run through another dozen tracks, speculating that if they were good enough, it might persuade Damon to do an album as well. 

And it looked like Hazel might have her first UK tour.

That evening, Lisa played it to Karen, and Karen agreed. This would be number one. 

This just crystalised the fear that Michelle had been expressing for some time. Number one? Not if there’s only five hundred copies available, and that was the daily output of Max’s duplicator. This finally confirmed it. Yes, he was right to go with Kessler – even if Zurich was now warning that his bank balance was in danger of dropping into a lower interest rate.

Nicola

Nicola had been the supervisor in the admin offices in Upper Elfinvale. Sarah had said she was dependable and reliable and that’s what Damon needed right now.

Juliette confirmed that testing the Duplication systems at Furzedown was going very well, but they were still several days from being ready for production. It would be better not to wait. If IMD even noticed this release, they’d jump to the conclusion that it wasn’t a sustainable solution and it would take them even more by surprise when they released their full scale assault on the charts with what even now they had in the pipeline.

Nicola was currently unemployed not having wanted to transfer to the Edencombe office, preferring instead to hope that a job would materialise in the Brigands Estates office and that Lisa hadn’t forgotten her. The call was met with excited interest. At that point, any job was better than dangling on a string.

“No, Nicki. We haven’t forgotten you, but we’re only just now figuring out how to organise the Estate office” Damon explained “This is something completely different. Sarah recommended you. This task is unlikely to be repeated so you cant count it as permanent employment but it’s well paid because it’s important. It’s a courier job. All you need to do is deliver a small package” 

“It’s not drugs is it?” 

“No, not drugs. Nothing illegal. But it is vitally important. Listen Nicola, It’s worth quarter of a million dollars to the guy you’re delivering it to. It’s worth absolutely nothing to anyone else. And you can watch me pack it. Now, are you interested?” 

But this was two months salary for four days work. And most of that work was sitting on a plane. 

Two days later she called him. Delivery compete, the client played it through, it was all good to go… and Damon could now release it. 

Everyone was excited about this. Lisa was drafted in to help Andrea send out the 500 radio station lots and Damon dropped a copy in to Gavin 

“Play it to death” he said. “I’ve got a really good feeling about this” 

Next morning, it was on Capital and that was it. Max wound his machine up to maximum output as orders started coming through and Andrea bundled into Damon’s office in a panic 

“Damon, we’ll never produce enough….” 

“Just produce as many as you can and get them out to your priority DJs and we’ll live on the publicity and air play for a couple of days”

Michelle quietly confirmed that this is what she had been saying for some time, but Damon was unphased. He had a container from Melbourne arriving at Heathrow freight terminal, and that also confirmed his decision to go with Kessler.

Nicola was buzzing. Her foray down to Australia had been successful, Lisa hadn’t forgotten her, and this little courier task would keep the wolf from her door for another few months. Ok, so it was mainly sitting on a plane, but there was still a certain stress associated with it. Supposing that she’d lost her return ticket, or was that just her tempting doomsday?

Heathrow was a welcome sight as the plane bounced onto the tarmac. It was a shame that she’d seen very little of the country, but the task was to go there, deliver and come back. It wasn’t a holiday. She’d be paid on her return because by then Damon would have confirmation from the Ozzie’s that the correct master had been delivered – not that Damon had any real doubt, just that that was the only thing that could go wrong. 

It was late when her train finally pulled in to Upper Elfinvale Halt and an unusually exhausting short walk home. Phone Damon, she convinced herself. Even if he’s not there, she could say she’d tried. She’d done everything she’d been asked to do, and it was a job well done. But Damon was there, and with an unexpected suggestion.

The next evening saw her waiting at their table in the Eagle’s Ridge for him to arrive. She’d spent quite some time getting ready especially for this and felt if anything overdressed in her local pub. But it had not escaped Damon’s attention, commenting that she looked wonderful as he sat down getting the evening off to an even better start.

“You don’t mind meeting here do you? I need to get to know this place a little better”

“No, not at all. I like it here, even if the chances of someone I know coming in are quite high”

“Oh, you mean people will talk and gossip will prevail?”

“ I wouldn’t mind if it did. I’m bound to be into a barrage of quickfire questions from whoever I meet tomorrow”

“Was there any official announcements?”

“No, not a cheap. I was given all the redundancy cheques to hand out and that was all”

“Why you?”

“ I guess that distributing the mail was an admin task, and that was my job”

“So what else did you do there?”

She described her other responsibilities as Damon listened attentively until their food arrived.

They had more of a personal conversation as they ate. She hadn’t been aware before that he was actually a member of the Chameleons and that revelation made her go rather wobbly. 

“So, Nicki, what sort of job are you looking for now?”
 He handed over a large white envelope. “Two thousand pounds, I think we agreed”

“Sshhh. They’ll wonder what I’ve been up to with you saying that!”

“Or unusually expensive…”
 “Stop it!”

“And in cash. I don’t want you paying tax on it”

“Thankyou” she stuttered, now thankful that she didn’t have to put any weight on her legs for fear of crumbling to the floor 

“Ok, so what sort of job next?”

“What sort of job? Secretarial, clerical, admin – I don’t really want to work in a shop”

“Receptionist? Maybe?”

“Yes, possibly. I hadn’t considered that. There’s no hotels and no big offices or factories around here that would need that. I was hoping that there might be something come up as the Brigands Estate Office expands”
 “And it might. But not for some time. The Estate has expanded far more than Stuart realised, and its taking some effort to put it all together. The maintenance work that your company used to do will largely be passed to the tenants to sort out for themselves, but until we have a plan and a timescale, we wont know who else we need”

“So you’re not taking over any of the staff from the office?”

“No. Sometimes the staff get transferred with the purchase, but in your case they don’t because they’re not employed by the seller”

“Yes. That’s what I said to Trevor, but he just shouted at me”

“Its going to take some time, so no-one will be joining that group in the short term”

This was disappointing. Nicki had been pinning her hopes on that as it was the kind of industry she had experience of. Instead she thanked Damon again for the courier job.

Nicki had had dinner with loads of guys. She knew she was quite attractive and she could be flirty when she tried. But she couldn’t remember feeling this bubbly or excited about any of them. And they’d been dates, not interviews. But this didn’t feel like an interview, and so far it wasn’t, although Damon had warned her that it might feel a bit like one. It was a lot more like a date with a great guy who was really interested in her and kept asking question, about her, her aspirations, her personal life, her work, her background, her expectations – maybe it was more like an interview. Why take all this time just to give her the wages she was owed?

She felt like she was running out of things to say about her work, and paused hoping that she’d answered the last question with enough enthusiasm. Damon got up lifting her glass and shaking it. Did she want another drink? Maybe not, but she didn’t want to appear negative by saying no.

She watched him returning from the bar, and smiled in pure confusion as he passed it to her.

“So, Nicki. One of the main functions of the Estate is to provide an agricultural buffer zone all the way round the Studio to maintain the quiet, rural ambience and atmosphere. The function of the Studio is to record and progress new rock bands and pop groups. So far, we’ve had an increasing trickle of musicians, but that will soon turn into a flood”

 He watched her face light up which encouraged him to continue to explain what the company was about and where this particular job would fit in

“So far, scheduling these bands has been done by my PA, Michelle, but that is unsustainable and we need someone to take it on”

Her heart rate jumped again. This sounded a bit like there might be a job after all

“This is nothing to do with property. This is much more mainstream for us. It’s a bit like a hotel booking system. You need to allocate some rooms for folks that are due to arrive, and make sure the cleaning staff know about it in as much detail as they want. And the catering team. And we may need to be more prescriptive about when people are scheduled into the restaurant. Some times they’re on a short timescale if they’ve got studio time booked and that should take priority. So it not just diary management from people telling you, its you telling them and there’s no doubt about who’s in control. This isn’t a hotel. There are no paying guests so while we can try to accommodate everyone, we don’t have an infinite capacity”

“Sounds great. I’m sure I’d be able to do that”

“But would you want to? Would that job inspire you to get out of bed in the morning? – ok, so I guess that would depend who you were with – but everyone needs to want to be there, otherwise their depression could become contagious. It’s a secretarial job, its integral to the team, but its nothing at all to do with property maintenance”

“So is this about to be advertised? Stuart said that his vacancies in the Estate tend to be filled through recommendation”

“This is similar. The Studio has tried to hire through recommendation, but sometimes the recommendations come from the people applying”

“I’d be really interested in recommending me for this job. Especially if it had a salary with it”

Damon checked his watch.

“Ok Nicki, its been really great talking to you. But I need to get back soon. There’s a couple of people I need to see, preferably before tomorrow…” 

She checked her own watch – 11.15. What? And he’s got another meeting!

“This job is based at the Studio, so I’d like you to have a think. Try to catch up with Lisa tomorrow although I will ask her to call you. Arrange to come down to the Studio to spend some time there seeing how it works and see if you think this is something you’d like to do and if you would fit in with the rest of the team”

And that was that. No kiss goodnight? No ‘Do you fancy coming back to my place?’. Just an offer of a job right out of the blue. So that’s why we were here having dinner – not a date at all! But despite that she could not erase the smile from her face any more than if he’d asked her out again.

That was that vacancy wiped from Michelle’s board. And just in time. Matt from Alpha Tyger was on the line to Damon and was buzzing with excitement

“Damon, Damon, You need to listen to this right now. Ok, its on our old Akai, but its got real potential as a number one if we tightened up just a bit like we know we would down at your place”

Yes, this was interesting. These guys had done a good job - for a home recording. The song was catchy, the lyrics could be taken on several levels depending how you listened to it and the more he thought about it, the more it was worth a chance. And confidence! These guys had only been in a studio once before and they’re thinking they’ll be number one next month. Interesting, because they just might. And if they could take over the number one slot from Seventh Sun…..

In the studio, Adam was more convinced than anyone, and no-one could fail to be impressed by how much these guys were trying to raise their game now that they could see real success lurking only a couple of octaves away. Keith joined in with some suggestions, proving that he too could be a team player. And the excitement was tangible.

Juliette was in the bar that evening and only too pleased to be surrounded by Adam and Damon and a rather crazy Australian.

“We’ve completed the trials” she was saying as Michelle brought over a tray of drinks. The Poles have made some final tweaks, and now they seem happy, so its good-to-go on production volumes. It should ramp up slowly with constant checks to start with, but if they’re ok then the guys are hoping to be back home in Krakow by the weekend”

“Brilliant!” and Juliette finally got the kiss she’d been dreaming of.

Keith looked puzzled

“What’s this? What production volume?”

“Getting the Ozzies to do volume production is unsustainably expensive… “ began Damon

“…So this is the new duplication plant” continued Juliette “We cant expect to storm the charts with 500 copies a day from Max”

“Dup Plant!” gasped Michelle almost silently “A whole, great big, full sized duplication system – producing thousands, maybe millions…” tears specked into the corners of her eyes “Damon?”

Keith looked even more incredulous “Dup Plant. You guys have built your own dup plant? You are joking!”

Michelle shook her head slowly “Keith, it’s the one thing in this whole setup that I ever lost any sleep over. One of the first things Damon ever said to me was ‘trust me’ and remembering that was the only thing that kept me from exploding over this”

“So we record, we mix, we master, we dup and we distribute. Is there anything you guys don’t do?”

“No”

Next day almost everyone invaded Graham. He hurried down from his office as more people arrived uninvited – Juliette, closely followed by Damon and Michelle, then Adam with Keith and Rosanna. Olly with Lisa and Hazel as well. She wanted to see what was involved if one of her touring bands suggested that a new album was needed as a promotion. It was essential to understand the implications.

Angela, the lead operator, fed everything into the machine and … go. Almost immediately she pulled a copy from the output hopper and was visibly relieved when no-one found any faults as it played through the quality control system.

Almost as suddenly, the Tygers were in the charts. The big question was just how many more copies should they press. Andrea had orders flowing in from her network of retailers. More orders were flowing in from Europe and from primary distribution hubs in the Americas and the Far East.

This was heart-stopping for Graham. Production was entirely his responsibility and he’d expected to have a few practice runs first. Now it was live and operational and he’d even heard it being played on Starburst Radio.

The team were busy packaging the output. Angela was running quality checks, The bar at the Studio was fizzing with excitement and Michelle’s ‘production phase’ was well and truly running

“Looks like this could be your next UK tour, Hazel”

Now with this activity, Hazel could see her life becoming so much busier

“Have you seen the charts for North America?” Damon was asking her

“No, Damon. I’ve been concentrating on UK venues. Although Keith is looking to get Saint Urchin out there in a big way”

“Which is great, and needs doing. But I think you should look at setting up a US tour for the Tygers to capitalise of the album sales. Here, phone Huck Carraway….

He handed her a phone number as she stopped in amazement

“Huck Carraway? The saxophonist? What…”

“Yes. He’s a good friend of mine and he’s just finishing a major tour. He’ll help you. He should be able to recommend venues and hotels and internal airlines. Don’t be afraid of taking up his time. He wants to come over here to cut his next album and that would give me the excuse I need not to charge him for it”

Laura Interrupted

With the pace at the Studio now up another gear, this call was something of a surprise. Damon hadn’t expected Laura to be coming back so soon, although Michelle was perfectly confident that she’d got the message right. She’d already adjusted his schedule and now in the late afternoon he was rushing excitedly to the arrivals gate. 

It was busy, as family greeted passengers and taxi drivers looked for anyone who was looking for them. And then there she was. - walking slowly pushing a large loaded trolley and helping an older man who seemed to be in some difficulty. He thought he saw some expectant excitement rippling around her face and watched her dark wavy hair bounce around her shoulders as she looked this way and that before finding him. 

He made his way through the expectant crowd to where she’d stopped and she introduced Ludvig before turning to him with the biggest hug, closing her eyes and letting out a long quiet sigh.

“Damon, you can have no idea how much I missed you” and then in a whisper “I just pray you feel the same way about me”

 Ludvig indeed had difficulty walking and he held on to the trolley for support as Damon took over pushing. They were headed for the train station, but Damon offered to drive them. 

“Damon, your car’s only got two seats!” 

“You can’t have seen the size of the boot in that car. Anything more than a carry on bag and I’d have to leave you here while I took the luggage home! So I’m in the Range Rover instead” 

But there was little other source of humour, and the conversation reverted to small talk.

Damon took hold of her hand as they crossed town after dropping Ludvig at his house but there was a nervousness there, and Damon prepared himself for whatever the bad news was. Maybe the deal was off? Maybe the experiments didn’t work in this new Stateside lab?

He offloaded her case at her flat with the intention of moving straight on to get some dinner somewhere. But now that they were alone, and not constrained by preventing the car from bumping into things, she folded her arms around him, tighter and tighter and tighter until she burst into tears. 

Bad news there must be, but it wasn’t till much later that there was any progress in revealing it.

Damon had been hoping he’d get back to the Studio but now that too was on hold. She’s probably been eating in restaurants every day in the States, but probably not like Pierre’s. Slowly and quietly they ate their main course taking the time to give it the attention it deserved in stark contrast to their first date here which had overflowed with effervescence.

“Ludvig isn’t well” she eventually managed to say “We were in the lab on Monday and he just seemed to lose balance. He grabbed a table to stop himself falling over and I helped him to a chair. But that was it for the day. Tuesday, he had trouble getting up and his vision was blurred. He kept needing to sit down every two minutes. Neither of us made it out of the hotel. I decided I had to get him back here one way or another. We don’t have medical insurance over there, it was too expensive at his age, and we were both in good health when we left!” 

“That’s understandable. And good move to get back while he was still allowed to fly. But surely you can carry on while he recovers? It was him that didn’t know enough to work independently, not you? Or was it you as well?” 

“Yes. I could. But his self-diagnosis is that he doesn’t have very long to live”
 “That might just be looking on the dark side”

“But…” she sighed deeply trying hard to stop herself welling up “…Damon, they’ve put three hundred thousand dollars on the table. Ludvig wants to accept it because that would be enough to pay off his family debts. They’ve all lent him a bit here and there over the years. It might even leave a little over for some sort of retirement for him. But Damon, it’s worth more than that. I know it is. I’m not greedy, you know I’m not greedy, but I don’t want us to get ripped off either. And this deal only appeared suddenly from Leroy when they heard he was ill. It’s the expressions on the faces when I give a presentation to the chemists and the other researchers about it. Even when I restrict it to what is already available, all the body language says it’s worth far more than that. But he says that he knows his health is failing and in the circumstances, they’ll just keep delaying until we cave in”

“Have you explained all this to him?”
 “Yes. But he also says that its his decision. And, Damon, that makes me cross”

“In that case I’d better make sure that there’s no Château Lafite 68 on the table” 

She smiled. Oh my! What a time to remind her of that incident!

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what I can do!”

Damon wasn’t sure either, and gave her a cuddle

“I can understand his position. If he thinks he’s on a short fuse, he doesn’t want to go out with nothing and leave his wife with a mountain of debt as well”

“He did say he’d give me a share – oh Damon! That’s the scenario I was dreading – that I’d have nothing at the end of this either”
 “Although you could get another job”

“Yes. I suppose there is that. But surely some part of the end result should be mine”

But, thought Damon, there could be an alternative which might be better for everyone, but not now, when she’s about to fall asleep

“We could just walk back round to your flat?”

“Its not there any more. If it was, we would have dropped your case there. Its all boarded up and demolition has already started. But we can take a taxi back to your place”

Despondently she unlocked the lab the next day to see what destruction the weeks of neglect had caused. Damon had said he had something planned for Saturday which was set up before he knew she was coming home, so maybe she wouldn’t see him tomorrow either. Maybe she could persuade him for Sunday.

Bratislava 

She phoned Lisa who had been so helpful before, but this time got straight through. 

“I had something planned for Saturday, but, Laura, I’d rather be with you” 

“Could I not join in with whatever it is?” 

“You could. But you might not want to” 

“Damon, I’m pretty flexible. I’ll give most things a go. … unless you don’t want me to?” 

“I know. You’re fabulous. But it would mean sitting on another plane for six or seven hours” 

“Oh, I see. Not my first choice of activities. But if you’re going to invite me, I’m not going to turn it down” 

“Hey ok! But you don’t even know what the plan is” 

“I don’t need to. Its with you, and you know I’ll give most things a go. So what is it and where is it, if there’s a plane involved?” 

He explained the saga of East of Bruges and the way Hazel had extended their tour

“So is that what you do? Is that what your company does? Like pop group management?” 

“Roughly speaking, yes. We’re in the music business. And I was planning to check out how they were doing and how well this venue is working out because it’s one of Hazel’s first solo attempts in Eastern Europe and its not a venue I’m familiar with” 

“Ok wow! I’m definitely up for all that. Where are we going?” 

“Bratislava….I was going to catch the late flight back, but if you’re coming we might just stay till Sunday”

Laura was amazed - yet again. They shuffled out of the concourse to the taxi rank. Damon showed a printed card to the driver that had the name of the venue on it. He’d clearly perfected this technique for avoiding having to try to speak any of the local dialect or revert to sign language. Then they edged their way through the crowd waiting outside and she made sure she didn’t let go of his hand. He presented some kind of ID pass and apologised that no, they didn’t have tickets, but Yan appeared almost immediately with a surprised greeting and a continental kiss for her. 

The venue was old, but in excellent opulent condition as they shared the area reserved for the concert hall owner. He and his family were amazed and delighted to meet Damon, the refreshments were delicious and the music was epic. Laura felt she’d gone quite numb and Denise’s performance was a revelation. So self assured, so melodic, such a natural performer 

“Is that the girl that you knew that you put together with the guys?” 

“Yes. And its all working wonderfully well” 

“I would have thought” she said wistfully “that looking like that, you’d be going out with her” she hazarded, hoping he’d think she was teasing him, while still doing some background fishing 

“Not much point in that. She’s never around. She’s out touring with the band. Hazel’s talking about sending them straight to Malaysia after they finish the current dates. But the way its going, they’d be better off back here” 

“But Damon! I’ve not exactly been resident!” 

“No. But you’re different”

Concert over, Laura checked her watch. Oh wow, another impossibly long day

“I was going to check in with the guys before we go to the hotel. But we’re in the same one as them, so we can have a beer with them when they get back”
 Oh wow! Again! “How cool is that?” And how much longer can a long day get!

They were late up the next morning, but still had time to walk around the city centre squares, the old town and down to the river

“I told you I was just a simple soul who’d love to just go for a quiet walk with you along the river”

Yes. The Danube in an Eastern European capital! and this was magical just holding hands and admiring the architecture.

Landing time was half past five and Damon was aiming to be back in the West Country by nine. They caught up with some small sleep on the flight, and Laura fell back to sleep in the car. 

He looked over at her, there hadn’t really been a plan for today. But maybe a surprise. I’ll take her to the farmhouse. She’s not been there before. And that will be a better day than a fleeting introduction to the Studio. But no, Amy might be there, and that was not something that I want to have to explain to a wound up, tired, stressed out little angel.

Instead, in a dark corner of the Greek restaurant, he held her as tightly as he’d ever held anything, so afraid of letting her go, or losing her even if it was to herself.

“But if Ludvig sells out, its all over. Everything! Everything I’ve worked for! Its not fair! Damon! Its not all his. Its not just up to him!”

“Laura, listen. Listen babe. He’s worried about his health, and how he can pay back his family, especially if he thinks he might not last very long. It doesn’t sound like he’s in any great shape for hard bargaining with Ro Pharma. But you can’t just accept that offer from Rochester. Tomorrow you need to go and see him. If he’s not in the lab, go to his home. Tell him that you need to talk to him because there’s a better offer on the table. Significantly better”

She clutched him quite oblivious to her tears trickling down his neck and inside his shirt

Cue - How Do You Feel by Mystery 

Hope had finally returned and she was miles more excited than she ought to have been as she knocked on Ludvig’s door

“….the thing is, Ludvig, are you going to be happy with your share of the 300k? I don’t want to appear greedy, but at a two thirds one third split, my share is only 100k, and that’s not a great deal for 8 years work. Especially as it’s dollars not even pounds” 

“No. And 200 might not cover my family debt. But Laura, I cant keep the pace. I don’t want to give up any more than you do, but my body is telling me I have to. Laura, I owe my family. They’ve supported the project with generosity. I need to pay them what I owe, and I have to do that before I pass away” 

“I understand, Ludvig…” 

and I’m so sorry for you. But it’s my dream too and you’re not considering what you owe me! What about my share!

“…but there’s an alternative. And its a better offer. Damon will give you that same 300 thousand dollars, just for your share. So you don’t need to split it with me and that would give you at least 100k more so there should be a little left over too. Even if your family is more than 200”
 She maintained her excitement as he mulled it over. It was a good deal

“Its 33% up on the Stateside offer, Ludvig. Damon simply buys your share from you at exactly the number that’s on the table without you having to split that with me…”
 “And then you could carry on”

“Yes, because I still hold my share and I’m still in control. Maybe it will be worth more in the end or maybe not, but that’s a risk he’s prepared to take. Thats way more than we were being offered in Rochester and it would give you something of a retirement as well as paying your family. Ludvig, I do understand that you need to clear your debt. And you need to slow down while you still can. But I don’t want to write it all off when there’s the opportunity to continue. And it’s a much better deal for you than it is from RoPharma” 

Back at Pierre’s, Laura was still buzzing

“Damon, do you have that much money? I mean, this is real isn’t it?”
 “Yes. But Laura, you never can tell just what will happen in the future, and this is purely a business deal. So I want you to go and see Penny. Explain the situation and she will draw up as simple a contract receipt as possible for signature by Ludvig or his wife and that would sign his share over to me. Then get her to draw up a simple one page statement defining the percentages between you and me – could be 50-50. 60-40 30-70. I don’t mind, you decide. That’s not an indicator of anything, its a simple insurance against arguments. Like all contracts, we hope we’ll never need to refer to it. But if we do it will be definitive .

This was more of a defined plan than she’d ever had. See Damon’s solicitor, tidy up the lab and then - oh, do I have to! – go back to Rochester – but with a much clearer direction.

Rochester Again

On the plane she thought about the next stage and how to finish off the loose ends. It already worked over 69% of the time. She had a number of leads on where the other thirty one might be, and experiments to test the theory. Then there was the commercial discussion. As Damon had said, turn down the 300 flat and if that’s a problem for them, he’ll help me take the whole thing somewhere else. RoPharma was Ludvigs preference, but it’s a jolly long way from here, when you could get to Nervatis in Switzerland, do a days work and still be back in time for dinner.

Theo

Meanwhile at the Studio, Rosanna was so infectiously enthusiastic. The others were not short of enthusiasm, but had not mixed it with the impetuosity that she brought. She could get carried away with some of her ideas, but mainly it was constructive and creative, and there was no doubt that she was a major asset to the Studio. She bounced into Damons office without as much a knock 

“Damon, can I invite another band? They're .... “ 

She stopped abruptly now seeing that she'd interrupted some serious train of thought. 

“I'm so sorry! Sorry for interrupting. Was it anything serious? “ 

“Serious Rosanna? Yes, but nothing to do with this side of the business” 

She smiled weakly, suddenly deflated 

“No, I was thinking about contracts specialists and where I’d find one, I need an international pharmaceutical contracts specialist. Annabelle tells me such people exist...” 

“My dad does a lot of international business but I don’t think he does anything in pharma. But he would know about contracts” 

“Really? So maybe he could point me in the right direction if I explained my problem. And yes, if you’re sure they’re good enough” 

Rosanna called him at his office 

“Actually, daddy, my boss Damon wants a word. He’s got a problem and I said you might be able to help him”

Nervously she stayed in the office to listen, not knowing how much daddy would ask and how much Damon would tell him

“Wonderfully. She’s doing wonderfully well. What I suggest is that you get down to a music store and ask for the new single by Seventh Sun, check its position in the charts, then check out who its produced by”
 But after the short chat about Rosanna, it soon became clear that although he would be unable to help directly he could offer a number of potential leads. 

This was a good start, although it took a dozen frustrating phone calls before he ended up in more productive but rather bizarre conversation. It sounded from what the dragon was saying that Goldstein might indeed be able to help, but, to be sure, Damon would have to speak to him. But in order to speak to him, he’d need to open an account at an entry cost of ten thousand dollars. That was non-returnable as it covered Goldstein’s time for assessing whether he could help or not, whereas, Damon reckoned, Goldstein should be paying him for his time explaining it so that Goldstein could then charge him for actually doing the work.

They eventually agreed that Damon would explain his problem in less than five minutes and Mr Goldstein would equally quickly assess if he could help. Progress! Then more progress. Not only did Goldstein understand the issue, but he was positive in all the major aspects that Damon mentioned. And he worked a lot in the States.

Their meeting went rather well. Goldstein was amiable, intense, sharp and experienced in this type of situation. He was also not cheap. To take on the case, even just to fully consider it, Damon would have to open the account that had previously been mentioned and then pay Theo’s day rate plus expenses – like transatlantic flights. But, Theo insisted, it would be a sound investment. 

Simply dropping into the conversation that Theo Goldstein was on the case, would double their offer overnight, without a doubt. 

Theo was going to the States the following week anyway, and the plan was that he’d detour through Rochester and ask as many questions as he needed to. Laura, Damon had told him, is a research physiologist not a negotiator.

“Yes” agreed Theo “A not uncommon situation That’s why you need me”

This time in Rochester, Laura was more settled. The deal with Damon was the same as before – call with the flight details and see if she still feels the same way about him, although she already knew the answer. And she was now doing the project for her and Damon, and it was her, not Ludvig and her, and all of these changes took some getting used to. Not just that, but Ludvig had set up some of the equipment incorrectly and that was giving some of the strange results that he’d then insisted on pursuing. That, she reflected, was another issue. Instead of sticking to the defined problem and the agreed thread of investigation, he’d head off in random directions, tracking down anomalies depending on what the results were, and that was a distraction she didn’t need. Now, however, she could stay focussed right through to a conclusion, and then on to the next logical step. Clearly they worked in very different ways, but only now had she realised that.

But she was on her own, a single girl alone in this alien country. She was checked in at the same inexpensive, down town, down beat hotel as before. This was ok when Ludvig accompanied her, but now felt different with the nights drawing in and no chaperon either! Her solution was to work late each night, leaving only time to catch something to eat before retiring to her room till the morning.

She rattled through the first two of her experiments, finding more issues with the setup and making notes on corrections. But it also supported her realisation of what a slow pace Ludvig had worked at. She was focussed on finding the result of just one question. New issues may arise and need to be considered, but not as a diversion for this line of exploration. Oh my goodness! What a different way of working when she was just on her own. But being on her own made her more aware that taking the bus back to her hotel may not be as safe as she’d like. Not without Ludvig.

One other thing she was not expecting was the phone to ring. She stared at it in horror. Could be Damon? Gone one o’clock in the morning UK time? – probably not. Could be a wrong number – that’s likely. Oh my! I hope its not Leroy, he’s been an even worse nuisance since I got back.

“Hello”

“Hello. Is that Miss Pemberton?”

The English accent sounded refined. Public school maybe, although his schooldays sounded like they’d be twenty years ago

“Yes”

“Laura. May I call you Laura, even though we’ve never been introduced?”
 “Sure. Ok”

“My name in Theo Goldstein. I specialise in helping people such as yourself who may be very good in their particular technical specialism, in this case medical research, but may not have encountered the commercial negotiating table before, along with the tactics that can be employed by large companies which can be formidable”

“Oh. Really. How interesting. But Mr Goldstein, I’m sure you’re very good at your job and would be immense help to me. But I really am working on a shoestring budget and every last penny is going into correcting the equipment setup. Services such as yours are simply not in my budget”

“Fortunately for you, that is not an issue. Are you familiar with the name Damon Lehrer?”

“Yes, he’s my…”

“Good. Because it is Damon that has asked me to contact you and see what, if any, assistance I can offer. He has already opened an account with me which will cover my immediate fee and sufficient time for me to assess how we can best work together. Normally I would express surprise that he has not informed you, but having first hand experience of how difficult you are to contact, no, I’m not surprised”
 “Sorry. The international lines are not connected in the building I work in, and I don’t get back here till late” 

“Which is why I have waited till I am this side of the pond before getting through to you. Laura, can we meet up? Damon agreed that it would be impossible for me to assist if I was not familiar with the subject of your research. I’m a lawyer and negotiator rather than a chemist so I wont be setting up my own lab, but, as a specialist, I do understand the technicalities”

“Did you say that Damon’s already paid for this”

“Yes. Sufficient for a realistic initial assessment which will result in a short report on what I think is in your best interests. What about your hotel lobby tomorrow evening – say 7 o’clock? If you’re not sure which man. I’ll be the fat one”

Which would be obvious because although Americans have a reputation for over eating, this hotel was sufficiently down market for few of the residents to afford to eat enough, never mind too much.

“Hi Theo, and you’re not that fat”

“Thankyou Laura…” he returned with a smile “And I was told you were very attractive. But I wasn’t expecting you to be quite this pretty”

Theo’s report back to Damon was mostly positive. His knowledge of the industry was extensive and he had several case studies to fall back on as indicators of potential value. This was everything Damon was hoping for. She’d need help with the financial side of this and he himself could only base his opinions on common sense and logic rather than inside industry expertise.

The conversation was amiable and productive and Theo paused near the end

“There’s one more thing I feel I ought to mention, Damon. Tell me its none of my business if you like, but the hotel that Laura is staying in is by no means the safest place. Its down town, run down, dark and not the sort of neighbourhood that I personally would choose to walk around in after dark. I know you didn’t contract me for this type of feedback, but she’s such a lovely girl and I’d hate anything to happen to her”

This was serious. Of course! She’d go back to where she and Ludvig were staying. It was cheap and on a direct bus route to the site, but the situation was now very different. Ludvig wasn’t there and the evenings were dark.

Huck Carraway

Laura’s next phone call was even more bizarre than the one from Theo. It was late morning and the girl on the line introduced herself as Myrtle – “….although you can call me Tilly. There’s really no chance you’ll ever have heard of me but you might have heard of my boyfriend, Huck Carraway?”

“The only Huck Carraway I’ve heard of is a saxophone player. And only because I’ve seen the posters all round town”
 “Yeah, that’s him. He’s down at the stadium at the moment checking it out for the gig tonight – by the way, do you want to come? Are you busy tonight? I’ll get you into our VIP box if you can make it?”
 “I don’t know. I’d love to, but I’m a bit confused. I don’t know you or Huck Carraway”

“Yes. Awkward, isn’t it. But he needs to talk to you. Apparently its of some considerable concern, but he thought you might be rather wary of some random guy phoning you. I know I would in your position, so he asked me to call instead. Anyway, he’s going to drive over to your site at lunchtime. I’ll be there too, and then he can explain”

“Tilly, its all rather strange. Are you sure you’ve got the right person. Like, are you sure its me you need to talk to?”
 “Oh my! I hope so. I mean, you are Laura Pemberton? and you have the right sort of accent – not so common in these parts, and you are staying at the Albany Hotel down town? and you answered the direct line phone number I was given”
 “Wow! You know a lot more about me than I do about you”

Tilly looked like the friendliest, bubbliest person Laura had ever met when she greeted her in the reception lobby. They walked out towards her car, but diverted to the convertible parked right behind it to introduce Huck. Twenty minutes later they pulled in through the gates of the Woodcliff Hotel. Laura heard Huck instructing the bellhop not to park the cars too far away as Tilly would need hers in an hour and that Miss Pemberton would need hers soon after that. Odd.

They all sat down to lunch with Laura none the wiser until Huck was half way through his ribeye

“Tilly says she might drag you along to the gig tonight. Hope so. Cos Laura, Damon will for sure string me up if you don’t come. Damon’s a very good friend of mine. We go way back. He’s given me so many hints and tips and even hard cash back in the early days when I was just setting out”
 “Really! But, you’re world famous. You’re playing the stadium here”
 “Yeah, and its near sold out. But listen. Damon’s worried about you. That Albany Hotel is unlikely to stay safe when the local rags discover you’re on your own. I said to Damon you could stay at my house, but its two hours drive south from here and that’s 4 hours a day. So he asked me to find you somewhere else. And that’s why we’re here”
 “Huck, Tilly! Did Damon also say there’s no way I can afford to stay here. Just look at it!”

“Yeah. There’s a lot of high profile folks stay around here. Security is first rate, and that doesn’t suit the attention seekers. Scott rates it too”

“Scott?”
 “Scott Gillespie. Laura, I’ve checked you a room. Its on my account so far, but that’s for a month. If it needs more I’ll pick up the rest when it happens. And that includes everything. And Laura, I wont even be checking the till roll when it comes in. Whatever it is will be a pure fraction of what Damon’s done for me”

“But I can get a bus straight from the Albany, I…”

“Yeah. That’s why I hired you a car. You take that Corvette I was driving”
 “I’m stunned. I know there’s a few dodgy characters around at the Albany. But mainly they’re drunk and harmless”

“Yeah, but when you find the one in that hundred that isn’t harmless it’ll be too late”

“What!”

“Listen, If I was in Damon’s position and Tilly was staying at the Albany, I’d be worried enough to get something changed. Especially if they find out that you’re Damon Lehrer girlfriend. While no one knows who you are, you’re ok. So far there’s nothing to connect you to him, you’re just a visiting friend of Tilly’s”

“But Damon just runs a small startup music company in England!”

“I’d look at it slightly different. His music company has only been going for a few months but already he’s got three UK number one singles, two number one albums and a dozen more in the top thirty. His boys Alpha Tyger are touring 25 States here over the next 6 months and you’ll see his bands in the charts in every country in Europe as well as Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia and pretty much all over the globe already. His band East of Bruges is set to become one of the top five bands in the world”
 “I’ve seen them! Damon took me to Bratislava last weekend to see them”

“So you know how good they are. I was hoping to get Denise to guest over here, but I think they’re headed to the Far East next. But I tell you, if she was able to come over, I’d set up another tour just for that. And if he sends All Seven over here too there’ll be nothin’ else being talked about all across the whole of the United States. That sure will raise his profile”

“Hmmm. I guess I don’t know everything about him yet”
 “Yeah, I know he was wanting to get The Essential to tour here too, Except their singer is only 17 and that causes some issues being under age for almost everything. And Laura, quite apart from all that, we’re talking about Damon Lehrer. The Chameleons were, and in most minds still are, one of the top three bands in the world. That’s as high profile as you get for the hoods around this town”

Chameleon? Wow! That’s how he plays guitar like that. And of course he can afford Chez Pierre, and why, whyever, does he want to go out with me when there are princesses and billionaire’s daughters….

“I guess when you look at it like that…I didn’t realise” she stammered “But I’ve only known him just over three months. You’ll know him much better than me”

“Yeah. Laura, I don’t want to steam-roller you but this really is a safer option. I was thinking that an alternative would be to hire Karlov over there…” 

Laura spun round in the direction of Huck’s nod which seemed to be towards a 6 foot six gorilla shaped man in a dark suit and shades 

“…but I think that would attract too much attention and invite trouble even if he could handle anything that did happen”

“I guess1 when you add it all up, and this really is a most generous offer. Thankyou”

“Damon would do no less if Tilly was in Europe”

“But Huck, Its been a bit of a whirlwind. How long have you known him, Huck? Maybe you can tell me about a mystery”

“Like?”
 “Like. At his apartment he’s got a wardrobe full of dresses – mostly still wrapped with French labels. That’s weird”

Huck nodded “Rachael”

“Wow! So you know about that? Maybe you can tell me about it so’s I don’t embarrass myself? Was she his girlfriend ? Why would she give him up, he’s so wonderful – he’s… he’s everything to me”
 “Yeah. It was about a year ago now and no, not really a girlfriend. Not in the way that Tilly is my girlfriend. He was in France. They just knew each other. But she stole his credit card and ran up just under a million francs on it before she made a mistake and got found out. Bad timing really because Damon was really wound up to start with. It was just after Alex topped himself. That dude was real crazy anyway, it was just a matter of time. I’m surprised Damon kept the whole show together that long”

“Alex?”

“Alessandro Kopf – lead singer with the Chameleons. It was the end of the band that made him start his record label, And believe me, I’ll be headed in his direction to produce my next album – if he thinks I’m good enough”

Ok, so now she knew what she was dealing with! With Ludvig, she was just another resident at the Albany visiting RoPharma. But now she knew who Damon really was she realised just how much of a target she could be, and it all added up to Huck’s plan to install her here making so much sense. 

She felt safe at the Woodcliff. Hucks comment was that this is where celebrities hung out when they were in town and she thought she recognised a few of the names. Which would be good, because if they were more well known, they’d be higher up the target list and she would be left alone in peace to complete her demonstration experiments.

She updated LeRoy with her contact details, making sure that he was aware that she was not expecting to be contacted, and was relieved that he seemed to be rather unsettled by her more from the Albany to such a prestigious alternative.

“My next gigs are in Canada - Ottawa, Toronto then on to Vancouver so me and Tilly wont be around. I’ve extended your hotel till the 19^th  you wont need it that long because you need to be back in time for the British awards on the 18th” 

Wow, yes, the 18^th is ages yet. And no matter. I’m finding my way around now.

She’d taken a few drives out into the wider countryside, but always seemed to prefer thinking of solutions to whatever riddle had presented itself that day. Her spending almost all her time in the lab hadn’t gone unnoticed, and was taken as a mark of dedication, rather than fear of being alone, but it certainly contributed to progress - and all explicitly focussed on proving or disproving a specific point rather than disappearing up tangential blind alleys and down rabbit holes.

The Bands Keep Coming

The Essential

Karen had first heard The Essential about three months ago, but the line-up at the Studio was slightly different to her recollection. This was one of her best bands. The ones she’d been saving up for when the Studio was ready.

Cue - Changing Lives by Mostly Autumn 

Chat in the bar was all amiable. The guys had settled their nerves and were confident that they had the balance they’d been looking for. Hazel had joined them having picked up the hint from Damon that another UK tour may be needed and they were discussing some of their tracks. Earlier, they’d been fooling around on the lawn, kicking a ball around with a few other random people joining in, but now in the bar, they were taking this seriously. Damon had joined them to see how it was going and Hazel seemed to have extracted all the information she was looking for.

“Ok guys… “Damon was saying “…but considering the way that quite a few of your tracks are set up, have you considered a female lead? It would be a more natural way of depicting the boy-girl imagery. I’ve got a couple of people in mind that might fit the bill if you …..”

But he was cut short. Curt had bounced up out of his chair and taken a swing at him. Damon ducked on reflex as Si and Leon grabbed an arm each and bundled Curt backwards out onto the patio.

Damon didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but wasn’t hanging around to find out. He moved away to the bar and was immediately surrounded by the girls that were due in Studio at 9 o’clock the next morning.

Hazel had gone with him just to make sure he wasn’t hurt, but returned to the table to find out what the issue was. This was by no means normal behaviour in this bar.

Leon returned having taken a couple of soft drinks through to the library where Si was keeping Curt under control. Hazel broke the nervous silence asking him which country they’d most like to tour if the UK gigs were successful.

“You think so? I think we took a bit of a dive there. I gotta apologise for Curt. He’s the mildest, most patient guy….”

Damon was back, standing at the side of the table making sure he had a clear exit plan, in case it was needed.
 “That’s ok., Leon. Y’often find that people flip to a polar opposite when they’re pushed too far. I guess I didn’t realise I was pushing him”

“Thanks Damon. He really isn’t like that. But I also know you told us way back in the beginning that attitude was critical”
 “It is. On tour you’ve got to get yourself to that gig, and get on stage because you want to. There’ll be no nanny manager kicking your ass, but its not that hard. Hazel will set everything up like hotels and travel, but only if you want to go. The way it works is that we put that investment in to setting it all up. You guys show up and do the gig. The same as the studio. That’s expensive electronics down there. We set it up. You do the gig, we distribute albums and we all share the result. Working this way, the band can make real money if they put the effort in. But if you screw up you’ll be on your own after that. We can’t afford to have disappointed fans”

“We won’t Damon. I’ve never seen anything like that from him before. This was a one off”
 “Unless someone else says whatever it was I said”

“I guess”

“Damon, I wouldn’t blame you if we were out the door for that. It hardly fits in with the ethics, so maybe an explanation – even if its just an excuse…”

This wasn’t expected to be public, but the option of decamping to a private space would lose the moment.

“We grew up together, Curt, me and Jed – we were at school. We all hung out round each other’s houses just jamming, so we all knew Curt’s sister. She was two years below us. Can’t remember her real name, maybe I never knew it, we always just called her Poppy. Her dream was to be a singer. She’d always be singing and took lead in school concerts and productions. She’s the reason we formed the band. We were round his place and she told us that one day she was going to smash the pop world. I said she’d need an epic voice and she said she already had one of those. Then Curt said she’d need a backing band. Said that would be essential and that’s where we got the name from. She started singing with us and we started getting better and set up a few gigs. We noticed there were a few folks who turned up at whatever pub we were playing and we felt we had to improve and practice and write new stuff so’s we didn’t disappoint – and to get the next gig. We all stayed on at school – we’ve all got As, except Poppy. When we left school, she left too after her GCSEs and we made a few quid in pubs and weddings. We started getting into corporate entertainment, you know, a couple of hours evening stand at a Sales Conference or something.

Cue - Wave on a Soul by Black Noodle Project

Then we got too ambitious. We sent out a few demo tapes and got invited to a sound test. Well, you must know the way this industry works. But we didn’t. And Poppy didn’t……”

Damon lowered his head to his hand and breathed out shaking his head

“Oh no! When was that?” he whispered, suddenly mortified
 “Near 3 months now. But Damon, she never recovered. That’s why we brought Simon in. And that’s why we cant take on a new front girl even though that’s what a lot of out material is set up for because Poppy wrote it”

“Did anyone ever tell you that that was one of my reasons for setting up this whole company? Its to hit that kind of behaviour head on and stamp it out because the best bands have a choice. Where’s Si now?”
 “Talking to Curt. Seeing if there’s any way we can get a new girl in. We know that’s what we need. But he thinks that would be a betrayal on top of everything else she’s been through. It’s a tough one”

Damon let it drop and Adam suggested that they stay on for a few more days to see how everything would develop. But Damon already had an alternative approach, and it was only two days later that Denise was knocking at Poppy’s door in Rochdale. She had Heather with her and the plan was simple. Denise had never been in that situation because she’d only ever been with Chameleon. But Heather had been there and escaped having recognised the signs before it was too late. 

Poppy had never met these girls before and initially was suspicious and nervous. 

“We’re friends of Curt and Leon” opened Denise

“Sorry, but they’re away right now”
 “Yes. They’re at the Studio. That’s where we met them. Its you we came to see”
 “What? All the way up from Somerset?”

She’d never talked about it to anyone, but the fact that Damon had guessed correctly exactly who was responsible encouraged her to expand a bit. 

“Did this happen to you?” she asked in almost a whisper

Denise flashed a look over to Heather but decided to answer first

“No Poppy. I’ve only ever worked with Chameleon. You’d like Damon. He’s the best guy ever and as far away from this kind of thing as you can get. Heather’s experience is a little different”

“Just a bit, Denny! Poppy, I’ve met your man. Yes, at a sound test like you, or at least it was meant to be. Except I’m a bit older than you and I’ve been around a bit longer and I picked up the warning signs. Ok so I didn’t get the contract, but chances are, there never was one”

They talked on with Poppy expanding on the incident with someone of shared experience until her mum came home from work. Poppy broke out to make a pot of tea and introduced her new friends.

“So, do you just, like, hang out at this Studio?”

“No, we’re both singers, like Poppy”

“Yes” said Denise “I’m with a band called East of Bruges. They’re a symphonic metal band from Belgium. We’ve just produced our first album with me on vocals, although this is the fifth album the guys have produced. Its currently number one in the charts in Estonia and Germany and we’re touring the whole of Eastern Europe”

“Oh m’gosh!” gasped Poppy “Heather?”

“I’d love to just hang out at the Studio. Its such a wonderfully inspiring place. But No, I’m… Actually, I’m the new lead singer with the Chameleons after Alex left the band. It was me at the front of that stage on the mini tour. I’m actually the ‘Hat’ in the new album title Top Hat and Tails – Hat – Heather Angela Tinsley”

Poppy’s jaw dropped open. So not just two random girls, but successful artists in their own right – and in the premier league!

“But you’re megastars! And you’ve taken the time out to come all the way up here to see me. No! There must be something else?”
 “No, Poppy. What we think is that you should come with us to the Studio. Meet Damon. And Adam. The whole industry isn’t like IMD. Not any more. It’s the chance to get back with the boys, recreate your career, do what you really want to do and it’ll be as safe as crossing the road. Except, you’d never know that unless we came up here to tell you” 

If it had just been Heather or Denise, they might have given it up as a lost cause, but by encouraging each other like a tag team, and with some encouragement from her mum, she finally agreed to accept the invitation, but only after Heather promised she’d not leave her side – even to go to the loo. 

Back at the Studio, the band were still unsure of the future. They thought that their recording had gone well and they’d chosen one of the tracks as their single. But Damon was delaying the release and Curt could only think the worst. They didn’t have a timescale on their invitation and were amazed and relieved that they were asked to stay. In return, they were making the most of the opportunity trying to recover from their issue. It was such an inspiring place with dedicated rehearsal facilities and an opportunity to get the hang of a real stage, not just the corner of a lounge bar.

Rosanna was pushing them on finalising the tracks for an album, and what others they had that she hadn’t heard yet to complete the set for the stage act. This looked so much like they were on the cusp of success. 

But it was without Poppy and Curt was near breaking again. Hazel sat him down in the bar with a long drink. This wasn’t the job she’d applied for. But she had to play social worker because she’d already put a huge effort into organising the tour. Maybe it would get easier as she got the hang of it, but she also knew it would be a whole lot less successful without Curt. And in any case, she liked Curt and she liked the way he loved his sister.

“Maybe I should leave the band and let the guys do what they know they need to do”

“No, Curt. At least, not yet. Just take a few days and do a bit of composition. Maybe a bit of arrangement on the stuff you weren’t happy with yesterday. I heard some of that in the rehearsal room and I’m really impressed. Adam was too”

“Thanks, Hazel. And I guess you must do, if you’re still organising some gigs. But we need to stop reconsidering the line up and make that decision” 

“But Poppy would still be there in spirit. I mean. She wrote most of the ones you’ve chosen for the album. So she’d be credited on the sleeve”

Curt sighed deeply, shook her mildly by the shoulder and headed for the garden looking for solitary solace.

Denise was staying in the Midlands to catch up with some friends since she was so close, but Heather had cleared the major hurdle. Poppy was in the car with her headed south on the M1 and now all she had to do was keep her from thinking too much about the past and instead look forward to the future. 

Poppy was quiet. No surprises, this must be really hard for her. Scary, and maybe heading back into the lions den. But then why would they go to all that trouble when there would be new girls arriving every day to destroy instead? 

Heather explained the setup at the Studio and described some of the features like the swimming pool and the lake and the way it all worked

“But Poppy, nothing can ever prepare you for actually being there, There’ll be six or seven bands there, so quite a lot of guys. But you wont be under pressure from anyone who has any say whatsoever in your future. What I mean is, if anyone does suggest something, they’re bluffing so tell them to sling their hook.

I guarantee you’ll find it awesome. And remember, there’s no pressure and there’s no lock on the door. You can ask Lisa to get you to the station any time you want to leave”

She’d sat in silence a lot of the way down through Birmingham and past Bristol. Heather was nice. She seemed to be taking all this time out just for her. Or maybe she had another angle on it, like maybe she was trying to impress someone like maybe this Damon guy that everyone went on about as if everyone should know him. But the more Heather talked, the more she wanted to trust her. She was getting some confidence back. Just driving down this motorway showed her that there was a whole big world out here and even if she hadn’t wanted it to, it had carried on without stopping despite her personal trauma. 

The country lanes were interesting too. Back in Rochdale there wasn’t a lot of farmland, and animals consisted of pet gerbils and feral dogs. Then they were there. Stopped at the gatehouse with Poppy near to panic

“You said there was no lock on the door!”

“There isn’t, Poppy. This is to get in, no-one stops you coming out”

She stopped at the crest to let Poppy get her first sight of the Studio and she had been right, it was even more awesome than Poppy had built up to expect even after Denise had described it.

“Oh Heather! Are you joking? How much will it all cost me?”

“Poppy, This is why we need a gatekeeper. Its to check that everyone trying to get in has an invitation and that’s because there’s no charge for anything this side of the gate. Its all free. And he also checks that you’re appropriately dressed. Literally. You need to wear a dress all the time here at the Studio, like I said when you were packing”

Lisa welcomed her, left her case in the office, and took her through to the restaurant to grab a coke to sip slowly on the terrace overlooking the lawn with the view all the way down to the lake.

Hazel joined them to assess whether she should be booking an extra room for their tour that they didn’t know about yet, and Poppy was ok just talking to another friendly face while Heather and Lisa disappeared, promising to return in a few minutes, and Hazel would certainly stay with her until they did. 

Lisa had tracked down Curt and introduced him to Heather as the new lead singer with the Chameleons to give her as much credibility as possible.

“So Curt, what I’ve been trying to do is find a front girl for you, like Damon and the other guys in the band suggested. Shame you don’t want me, but I guess you cant win them all. Of course you don’t need to go this way. I just want you to consider it
 “Heather, I appreciate the effort, and if you’re fronting the Chameleons instead of Alex you’re way too good for us. But in any case, I cant betray Poppy. You know I cant” 

“Look Curt, I understand about Poppy, but maybe she’d want you to be successful with all the songs she’s written. Would she want you to throw the towel in? Ok Curt, plan B. This is my last suggestion. There’s someone on the terrace that I want you to consider. Maybe if she’s areal person rather than just a concept, you might be persuaded. She’s travelled all the way down here from Rochdale on the pure off-chance that there might be a possibility. So, please, at least let me introduce her, even if its just so that I can tell myself I did everything I could” 

“Heather. I know you mean well, but….Heather, I can’t raise her hopes when I already know the answer”

But he accepted her nudge out towards where Lisa was back sipping coke and telling Poppy a bit more about the Studio.

“Poppy!” he shouted, abandoning Heather as he jumped the final steps for an emotional greeting 

“What are you doing here? How did you get here?”

“I told you I was looking for a front girl for you. She asked if she could apply” hazarded Heather, then turned to Poppy

“I know that all the people I mentioned were girls, but can we include Curt in people that we trust to look after you?”

Lisa and Heather left them alone together. Heather was sure they’d come to the right conclusion and went in search of Damon and something alcoholic.

Cue - Excerpt from Lord of the Flies by tRK-Project

That evening, Curt introduced Poppy to everyone. She was in her element being the centre of attraction. She was never far away from one of the girls that had promised to look after her and she started to feel safe again. Damon was convinced this would be a success. He’d not met Poppy before, and he hadn’t heard her sing, but the others in the band believed she was good enough and she seemed to be everything the band needed to be complete – again. And Simon stayed as well.

The next afternoon, she joined Hazel and Rosanna uninvited, sitting down at their table on the terrace. They’d watched her walking slowly on her own all the way from the lake and were thinking that she might be closer to recovery than Curt expected. They chatted quietly for a while and Rosanna told her that the rest of the group had recorded a single. She seemed upset by that, or maybe just disappointed

“But Damon seems reluctant to release it for some reason” 

Poppy hadn’t agreed to anything yet, but confidence was returning. Rosanna scheduled re-recording for Thursday and Hazel was confident enough to confirm another room for the tour dates.

The bar was crowded as Poppy edged in through the door, glancing round, looking for Damon. She headed for a drink, moving slowly, deliberately with a thankful, recovering, now slightly confident smile. 

“Hey, Poppy” one of the guys tried to intercept her, but she returned it with only a vigorous wave of her free hand as she poured a large measure of blackcurrant cordial and only enough dark rum to be able to taste it. 

Then towards Damon. She squeezed past a few more guys and put her glass deliberately on the table beside where he was standing. 

Without a word, she slipped both arms around his neck and leant up for a hug. 

That was unexpected. This was Poppy, the girl who only three days ago was an emotional wreck. He squeezed her gently and she released him 

“You’re feeling better, then?” 

“Damon, I just need to say thank you. It was you that told Heather and Denise to come and find me wasn’t it?”

“Yes. Heather’s been through that same mill. Denise would be able to explain what happens to her when she got together with four guys in a band…” 

“And now I’m here. And the band is getting back together, and I’m beginning to dream about the future again. And the whole world has moved on again”

“In more ways I hadn’t noticed?” 

“Yes. I was in the garden this morning. The flowers, the view, the intrigue of what’s just beyond the next archway and round the next corner. That reminded me so much of me and I thought about some lyrics. I haven’t written anything for months. Not since, well not since you know what. But then a tune came into my head. I ran back here. Ran back! Damon, I haven’t actually run anywhere since school sports day. Not a proper run with my ankles up at bum height. But I got back before I forgot it and wrote it down and then I sat in the library and improved it and finished it and then Rosanna said there was a chance of a few minutes studio because someone has finished early. Kieran backed me on cello as I sang it. I think it’s awesome, but of course I’m biased. And even if it’s not, it’s still a triumph that I actually did it. And it’s all down to you” 

“So maybe you’d like to talk to Curt and the guys about re-recording that single that we haven’t released yet”

She drifted off only to get hijacked by some guys she didn’t know. But she really was both attractive and flirty and Damon hoped she’d learned enough to stay out of trouble.

Leon wasn’t far away. He’d been quite reserved since their first meeting, but now was taking over where Poppy left off. 

“We’re gonna make it, Damon. But, even if we didn’t and we all quit right now, it would be a wicked success. And that’s because, thanks to you, we’ve all got our Poppy back. Curt has got his sister back. Their mum and dad have got their daughter back and we’ve got back the band we always intended to be. We call ourselves The Essential, but it’s only really Poppy that’s essential” 

Damon wanted to make sure that Poppy recovered properly. She was now quite sure that the Studio was a safe place to be and they were all still there the following week

“I finally caught up with that track you wrote. Would you like to release it? Or would that betray Curt?”

“Damon, I cant. You’re right. I’m part of the Essential, not a solo artist”
 “Ok, I have a solo artist in mind. How about I get her to record it, just with Kieran on cello like you did, and credit you as composer? Or, if you prefer, re-record it with the rest of the band. Include Kieran on cello if you want, and we’ll reserve it as a possible second single”

Philamental

Philamental’s first trip to the Studio did not go to plan. There were supposed to be four of them, Barnie on bass, Dom on keyboards, Phil on lead guitar and Janine on vocals, and sometimes mellotron or xylophone. They’d arrived at the station, already nervous about being abandoned at this windswept outpost in the middle of nowhere. Except there were some other people getting off that train too. 

And they seemed to have instrument cases slung over their shoulders too.

Then there was someone else. Someone they knew. Someone who should not have been there. But it seemed that he’d followed them to the station in Birmingham, got his own ticket, and now he was here as well. 

Phil confronted him but he simply smiled his demented grin and said that he was part of the band too and was seriously ragged because they’d tried to leave him behind. But he was interrupted by a loud eastern European voice sounding confused 

“We are supposed to have All Seven, and also four members of Philamental – should be eleven. Did you leave someone on the train? Will they get off here when the train goes back to Edencombe?”

“No, said one of the other girls “We’re not all here. The others have exams on Monday”

Gustav herded them all towards the mini bus, but Colin invited three of them to join him in the Mercedes. And with this level of confusion, Zayne managed to slip in by using the name ‘Chris’ that he’d overheard the girls talking about who couldn’t make it.

Phil was seething, but the ambience of the building persuaded him not to create a public disturbance. Adam double checked the notes and went through the cast list – Lead, bass, keyboards, vocals … “And?”

“Chris. Also on guitar”

So that checked out with the guest list in the gatehouse, except Chris was with the wrong band! 

The pieces of the puzzle put themselves together in the bar that evening

Sabrena had apologised that three of them, including Christabelle, couldn’t make the date due to exams that had been brought forward unexpectedly. The revised plan was that the four of them would show what they were capable of and, hopefully, demonstrate how the other three enhanced the sound. This was different. The invitation from Karen was for the whole band, not a sub-set. But Damon valued the kids education and no less so for girls at this expensive private school in Lincoln, and he felt this showed a level of responsibility rather than a lack of commitment to music. Lisa had confirmed this with Karen, Adam simply accepted the finality of the situation with a laid back shrug, and the four girls settled into a long cool drink on the terrace, panic over. 

The focus of confusion now transferred to Philamental and Adam caught up with Dom hoping for some enlightenment. Yes, he’d admitted. He’s not part of the band, but he thinks he is. Janine was more informative. Ever since her mum had moved in with Zayne’s dad, Zayne had described himself as her brother. And as ‘family’, whatever she did, he would be part of too. Including being in the band.

Adam’s comment to Keith the next morning in the studio was more cryptic “Keep an ear out for that third guitar…”

The first track unfolded rather well. The others all had headphones on and so couldn’t hear that Zayne wasn’t actually playing. He didn’t know that track and stood there like a lemon, confused. Track 2, he joined in. Keith grimaced at Adam, who shrugged and switched him out of his circuit. Six other songs followed, with the third guitar getting worse towards the end. Keith reckoned that he was getting tired and had difficulty keeping up with the tempo

“He’ll never survive on stage” Adam whispered

“He’ll never survive in the studio if I get my hands on him” replied Keith with only minor amusement.

“Overall, the sound isn’t great, guys” Damon opened as they sat down for the review “There are a lot of good points, some excellent guitar work, and some real originality. But there are also some things that really can’t be overlooked. But look on the bright side and take the streams individually. Lets start by taking a look at that lead guitar” suggested Damon as he projected the graph onto the large review screen. He explained the layout and the colours and dissected each stream in some detail before offering some words of encouragement and dimmed the projector before commenting on Zayne

“You guys need to get a wiggle on to get your train. Three things to think about. Having now had some experience of a studio and our stage, do you still want to pursue a career in music? If you do, would you like to work with us, or would you prefer an alternative label that might give you an up front payment if you sign with them? and lastly: You’re current line-up will fail. What, if anything, do you want to do about it. Good luck guys. We’ll be in touch”

Hardly a word was spoken as they caught the train from Upper Elfinvale Halt and then changed to the Birmingham Inter City at Edencombe. Dom and Barnie whispered a little to each other, but Phil was too wound up and relieved in equal measure. This was their big chance and that leach Zayne that Janine had acquired had wrecked their best chance – maybe their only chance. He flashed the odd hate glance at the parasite with its demented grin and wondered how long he’d get for murder while the others could get on with their music careers. It was Philamental. It was his band. And right now it was completely out of his control.

Janine sat in silence. She was seething and dared not say anything at all for fear of losing it and being slung off the train at its next stop.

The silence persisted through New Street Station. Dom and Barnie said they were going to get a bus, but failed to make it past the Slug and Lettuce. 

“C’mon Jan. We’ll get a cab” 

How did that evil vermin manage to always wear a demented leer on his ugly face. But he was already in the taxi before Janine turned sharply and disappeared into a side alley to catch up with Phil. 

“I’m walking home, Phil” she said quietly holding the tears of pure frustration at bay

“We should’ve shopped him in and had him thrown out. Oh grief, Janine. That was our big chance. Surely we can’t have blown it by being nice?”
 “But we’re not done yet, Phil. Or are we? Or maybe just me?”

“Changes to the line-up. That was Damons last question”

It was late when she got home. Her mum wasn’t cross, but said she wasn’t expecting her to be that late and apologised that Zayne had already finished the snack she’d prepared

“That’s ok, mum. I’m not hungry anyway”

“But Zayne said it all went really well”
 “Yeah! It was well awesome. Wow, what a place. And everything was free. Even the bar was free, Awesome. When we going back, Jan?” 

“You vermin! You wrecked our trial. Mum! He’s not part of the band. He shouldn’t have been there! He’s ….”
 “Not so Jan. Family. Where you go, I go”

“And that’s exactly why Phil’s going to cut me from the band”

She fled to the kitchen, pursued by her mum, and tried to explain without breaking down that Zayne was not invited and had almost certainly wrecked their chances. Yes, the Studio was awesome. And free. But it was for invited musicians and Zayne was neither invited or a musician.

“But how did he know about it. He said you’d invited him”
 “No way. He listens in to my phone calls on the extension. I can hear him pick it up. But I didn’t expect this. Mum…Tomorrow, I’m going to take a few things, and stay with a friend of mine. I cant stay around Zayne”

“But Janine, you’re my daughter!”
 “Yes, mum. And he’s not my brother. I’ll stay at Dom’s for a bit. Its ok, he’s got a spare room. It’ll just let me calm down for a few days. Maybe I’ll figure out a way out of this”

Two days later, Phil called round to Dom’s house and was surprised to find her there. She wasn’t out of the band – not yet, but they were still waiting for the Studio to be ‘in touch’. That would have to wait for the following evening.

Janine thought she’d have to try to put the lid on her excitement, but found that all of them were equally buzzing. She sat on the edge of her chair in Dom’s living room as Phil related the latest developments. Rosanna had mixed the tracks leaving Zayne out completely, Keith had remixed the track they all preferred as a single and had distributed it to radio stations. Listen out for its first play! 

“But Phil, we don’t have a contract or anything?”
 “No, we can take ourselves anywhere we want. But we stand a lot better chance being able to say we’ve already got air time”

But better than that, he’d been asked to think about two things if the single proved popular. The first was would they be interested in an agreement to work with the Studio, and the second was would they be interested in an album release and if so what tracks they’d like to suggest were included. Damon had asked if they’d reconsidered their line-up, but hadn’t pushed for a definitive answer.

Ok, so this was only if the single was successful, but Damon clearly had the confidence to spend money on distributing it, and that was enough encouragement for any of them to start celebrating.

But not for long

“What you four doing?” 

Oh no! Where did he come from! 

“We’re discussing our band” opened Barnie carefully. 

They’d all tried to avoid him since they’d got back from the Studio. But now he’d simply walked straight up the garden path, opened the front door and waltzed in unannounced and uninvited. Phil was all for squaring up to him, but a discrete wave from Janine advised against violence 

“Your band? What about me?” 

“It’s nothing to do with you. You’re not in the band” 

“Yeah I am. I’m family with Jan, so anything she’s in, I’m in” 

“No you’re not, you..” 

“I can play third guitar. Nobody says you can’t only have two” 

He picked up Phil’s guitar and crucified four attempts to play a simple sequence

“See!”

“That was just a noise. Zayne, you can’t be in the band because you can’t play. That was proved at the Studio. You must’ve seen it on screen even if Damon didn’t comment. Now give me my guitar back” 

“Sounded good to me” 

“It wasn’t, it was rubbish. You’re not in the band you’re not going to be in the band you’re….” 

But the confrontation was short lived. Zayne grabbed the neck of the guitar in two hands, swung it round and crashed it into the wall, knocking out a large lump of plaster onto the settee. 

“Zayne what’re you doing” wailed Janine in complete disbelief 

“If I’m not in the band, then neither’s he. Can’t be in without a guitar” as he stood there sniggering with his demented grin. 

This was typical Zayne. This was his whole unethical philosophy. If he couldn’t have it or do it, then you won’t have it or do it either, despite the vast difference in ability, attitude, work effort and ambition. Ignoring Janine, the three boys rose together, breaking the stunned silence and moved menacingly towards him. He was a naturally violent creature, but with all three of them homing in with faces of fire and fury, he turned and fled. 

The celebration ended abruptly right then. Janine found the hoover and started clearing the plaster and dust, while Phil picked up the pieces of his guitar. He’d spent hours with that guitar. It was almost his best friend. He’d spent weeks and months working overtime to buy it. It had repaid him by getting him an invitation to the Studio and a single recorded for media release. And here it was. Dead. He held the pieces limply in both hands and had never felt so desolate. He was close to tears, but Janine gave him a hug and cried on his behalf.

The next evening, he met Dom in the pub. Bernie’s usual contribution was to play his heart out and leave the decisions to Phil, and on this occasion they didn’t want Zayne to find out by inviting Janine. It was just safer with the two of them.

The discussion was exclusively about what to do now. They couldn’t even play the pub gig they had set for Saturday, neither did they have the price of a new guitar, even if Dom gave him his entire savings. 

“And we need that cash to get to the studio for the album”

“Ok, Dom. Where do we find a new guitar”

“Ok. We all get down Dylan’s music shop. You and Janine cause a distraction with a violent argument. I’ll grab a guitar and leg it”

“It’s a thought. But if we got nicked our chances would be gone for sure”

“I guess. Ok. What about the pop shop?”
 “Yeah, maybe. Be a lot less expensive. Probably still more than we’ve got. And it might not work. Might be cracked or something”

“Who do we know that actually has the price a new guitar? Doubt if me mam’s got that much at all. ‘course it should be Zayne paying for it. He smashed it. He wont have that much – he’s too stupid”

“Yeah, but I wont be asking him. I don’t want anything that ties us to him in any way”
 “Yeah, ok Phil, there’s someone else we know, and that’s someone who could well make a fair bit out of us if we all get it right, and that’s Damon”

“Well, he aint short of money, but its probably because he doesn’t give it all away”

“Any better ideas? Gotta be worth a try”

“Damon, look, we know you don’t sign anyone up with an advance. But this is exceptional….”
 Phil folded out the tale of woe, surprised that there were no interruptions “We didn’t want to admit all this to you, but its our last resort”
 “Ok, Phil, you’re right, we don’t actually do advances for contracts. Bands work with us on an agreement because they want to and because we all agree that it’s the best bet for everyone. But you guys are going nowhere without a guitar. So what about an agreement. Its verbal, so it shows we trust each other…”

Dom pressed his ear against Phil’s head so that he could hear as well “…You and Dom get into town. When you find a suitable guitar – and that doesn’t mean the most or the least expensive, phone Michelle or Lisa in the office here. She’ll pay for it by credit card, ok”

“Wow, Damon, that’s ace. You sure? Man, we’re lookin’ at several hundred pounds here”

“Dude, are you trying to tell me the price of a decent guitar? – like maybe I don’t know?”
 “Wow – ok. Are you for real? Damon. What’s our part of the deal?”
 “Only one thing Phil. No, two. One is, we’re getting significant airplay from that single, so I want you to seriously consider working with us rather than any other company and let me know in the next couple of days. But Phil, you already know that we don’t do advances. Well, another thing we don’t do bribery, or extortion or any other kind of underhand persuasion such as might affect Janine more than you or Dom. So whatever happens, even if you decide against it, or even if you decide to sign with someone else, I don’t want repaid for the guitar. It’s a gift. Its just another way that I can help good musicians get a foot on the ladder”

The Saturday gig was fuelled by euphoria. Janine sang her heart out in her effort not to be dropped from the band and the emotion overtook her as real tears escaped during the heartbreak tracks. 

Sunday lunchtime they reconvened in a pub that none of them had been to before

“We need a decision. Damon gave me two days and that was on Friday”

“Yeah, but you cant phone him on a Sunday”

“Impression I get is that that studio never sleeps. I reckon it runs 24/7”

“Damon! Hey, Hi. Thought it was a long shot you’d be there, but you gave me two days. Look, we’d be really interested in a contract with you. There’s no doubt we’d rather be with you than with any other label”
 “Ok. What I’d like to do is get that single out on general release straight away to capitalise on the airplay. Then you guys make it down here to finalise an album. We’ve already got most of it, but there’s a few things that Keith picked up on that we should consider re-recording. We should discuss money, but you wont be disappointed. And lastly, at the risk of appearing greedy. You figure out a way to lose that leach Zayne. The mix on all the tracks leaves him out completely. He’s not even mentioned on the sleeve notes. But I’d like you to keep Janine if you can. Your sound really gels well with her voice”

“Deal Damon. We’ll see you on Thursday and there’ll only be 4 of us”

That night they met up to plan, then celebrate. There was no doubt that they were all in agreement. They’d sign with Damon, and Zayne was out.

“Janine, we’re back in business, and the only condition is that we don’t let Damon down”
 “Phil, that wont he hard”

“No? Sure? Ok. I’ll leave that to you. But if I catch him on that Elfinvale train he’ll be leaving it before it gets to the station. He’s not gonna stitch me up a second time. Not now that I owe Damon”

“I thought he’d said he didn’t want repaid?”
 “True. Its not him. He doesn’t want his money back. But he’s put a lot into helping us. Its me and my sense of moral responsibility”

Janine was sure that Zayne would find a way of tailgating them despite their efforts at New Street. She didn’t want Phil to resort to his solution, but only because she wanted to keep Phil out of jail. 

They chatted excitedly about the tracks for the album and which ones they’d already recorded. And if Zayne was on any of them. No, Dom had said. That equipment at the Studio takes each microphone and input separately and they can mix it any way they want from there. That’s what Rosanna was asked to do. They’ll just leave out that channel and it’ll sound the way we expect it to. That’s how Keith could remix it and leave him out completely”

She’d made no mention of the plan as she reached to get her case and horn as they approached Edencombe station and slowly dropped out onto the platform. She nodded quickly to Phil to alert him that Zayne was getting out of the next coach. 

“You are lookin’ at a dead man” breathed Phil quietly

“Come on guys! Quickly now…” she said loudly, almost shouting “..its only two minutes till the Elfinvale train goes!”

Phil checked his watch quickly gathering his case and guitar preparing for a run.

“You sure?” 

Janine gently touched his arm shaking her head but staying silent. But Zayne had heard and was already halfway across the bridge as she herded the others out to the car park and into Colin’s waiting Mercedes. 

Hazel sat in on the update recording session, perched behind Keith with a set of phones on – Oh my goodness, I might even buy a ticket for these guys. Maybe I should set up a gig in Edencombe so that I can go!

“I’m thinking a Western European tour. Opening in England, maybe Nottingham and London, then Germany and all countries west. I think that could stand less chance of Zayne interrupting. But I’ll put him on the excluded list so that security know about him”

That evening, the four of them sat silently counting their lucky stars in the Studio bar

“These guys are awesome – and nothing underhand, no rip-offs and a decent percentage. They’re taking extra steps to protect us from another Zayne attack, and its all without Janine being at any risk either”

“Boys, if you’re talking about Adam or Damon, I’m not sure I want to be safe”

All Seven

Damon was accepting Loretta’s explanation of the logic behind only four of All Seven turning up. The plan seemed to have been thought through rather carefully and she seemed confident that she’d be able to demonstrate how the missing three would enhance the sound. Keith was more than impressed at her technical knowledge of sound, harmonies and harmonics and that alone, in his book, was a good enough reason to give them the benefit of any doubt.

It looked like he was going to be proved right as they called a close to the studio session and adjourned for lunch and maybe a small drink before the review.

“Oh my! That’s awesome” she exclaimed as she caught sight of the projector screen

“What, the sound mix?” asked Damon

“I hope so, but I meant the technology. Where-ever did you get that from?”
 “We built it. I thought of it and described it in enough detail for our geek to program it. Absolutely invaluable”

They listened and watched as the notes all came in near to perfect, and they left with more questions than answers – do you want to pursue music? Would you like to come back with the other three at half term? Or would you prefer to delay everything until after you’re A levels – or any other suggestions that are sensible enough for us to consider.

Damon played through his favourite track with Heidi and Adam. It was catchy, maybe even unique and they all tried to imagine what the full sound would be like with their string quartet meets country rock sound. Karen had said their gigs – and she been to two of them – had been sold out. Ok, so one of them was in a 500 seater church which seemed strangely appropriate while the other was in a cinema with a capacity of fifteen hundred,. 

“All the same” Damon was saying “that’s in Lincoln. Given the right city – maybe Atlanta or Austin? Or somewhere more cosmopolitan like Melbourne, it could do well as a single. And at the moment, they’re probably restricted to recording due to school commitments”

The parents, however, were yet to be convinced. The girls had all bubbled away about how exciting it was and how professional and the level of technology and the focus on attitude as well as aptitude. But would all this be too much of a distraction in their exam years.

The invitation to return to the Studio was met with even more excitement and reluctantly all seven of All Seven were allowed to go - albeit with some stern warnings that this was no substitute for completing their studies.

Keith joined Damon and Adam, for the debrief

“I’ve not heard anything like it. I guess you would either love it or hate it, but even if it’s a two to one split, that still leaves us with a couple of billion people”

Keith was clearly keen to give this a chance. This new recording session with the full sound was something of a revelation being unlike what any of them had imagined, and now Keith had suggested that he send it to Gordon and get a view of where in the world this would be most popular.

Back in Lincoln, the euphoria was tangible, especially among the younger members who had to miss the first session, but this only served to stimulate the concerns amongst the more academic parents.

Loretta phoned Damon to discuss it and now he was sitting surprisingly nervously in his Aston Martin waiting for the electric gates to respond to his arrival.

The house was large by any standards. No, nowhere near as large as the Studio, but at least three times the size of his farmhouse. He parked, not out of place, between the Rolls Royces and Mercedes and was led by the butler to a large drawing room. He knew what he wanted to say – it was a case of how to make the points while avoiding too much disappointment.

The atmosphere was more like a cocktail party than a business meeting. And there were a lot more people here than he had expected. Ok, so there were seven band members, but they came from five families, and that could make as few as seventeen even with all the parents. It looked in here like maybe there was fifty or more!

It was Loretta’s house they were in. She made the introductions, but only to the parents, before apologising that there were quite a number of guests already staying here, and because it was the Damon Lehrer that was joining them, quite a few others had invited themselves. He mingled around talking to as many as he could, and listening to the various perspectives of encouragement until a bell rang announcing that the buffet was available in the next room.

That’s what was needed, as everyone not directly involved migrated to the food.

Now it was Damon’s turn to speak. There was a microphone available, but he chose not to use it. He didn’t want this to resound all around the building and perhaps attract the crowd back in. He opened by describing the school music competition and what his longer term plan was for Megan, explaining that she had been on stage during their mini tour. This was to show that he already had some experience of school age musicians and how he had handled the priorities, emphasising the need to keep everything balanced and in perspective

“Does that mean we’re on hold till after Christabelle’s A levels?” asked Loretta with obvious disappointment

“I would expect so” said Sabrena’s father, with equal disappointment “Especially if rehearsals became a serious drain on your time. And if there were concerts scheduled and tickets sold, it might be forced to take priority”

Damon listened patiently “As I said, I think its about trying to maintain the balance. I think school needs to take priority during term and revision time. But what we could do, is use the recently recorded material to create an EP. We release that and use it to test the market. I think it will do well, and if it does, we could arrange a number of gigs for the Easter holidays. Maybe the first week would be some intense stage rehearsals, then the second week we do three or four gigs, then the third week - you do get three weeks don’t you?- we return back home and revert back to normal schoolgirl mode”

This seemed to meet with general approval with nods from most quarters

“…but, we need to keep an eye on the progress of our schoolwork and reprioritise as necessary, and we need to keep the other eye on commercial viability, and restrict our venues to what is practical”

“Lets be clear…” Damon closed “…we need to keep schoolwork in perspective. I treat it with the utmost importance, and if the plan has to change to focus on the academic, then that is what we will do”

But none of that stopped Hazel from booking the venues, even if they would be undersized.

This was all very encouraging, especially the difference that was made by familiarising these bands with the proper large raised stage in the Old Chapel. it introduced more movement, more dance especially during instrumental solos and taught them how to avoid falling off the edge. 

Now, if only there was an option to introduce a limited audience….

The Cameo

Lisa had picked up the call from Penny, passed the message to Juliette and her reaction was to immediately adjourn to the Olde Belle. At last!

Liam was as sympathetic as he ever was, which was near enough not at all. She looked round from her drink to his ingenuous smile 

“What I need to do is find someone who can point me in the right direction. The existing management is too alcoholic to make any sense and the there’s something not quite right about the operations guy”

“My suggestion, Juliette, is that you stop being so daft, forget the whole thing and find something else to do with your money”

“That, unfortunately, is not one of my options. I guess I’ll just have to advertise for a manager. I mean, there must be a specialised rag for those guys that I could advertise in. Then I just hire someone who sounds like they know what they’re talking about. Or maybe I’ll have another go at Rupert”

“But he’s a loony!”

“You just told me you’d have to be daft to try to run a theatre. He’s a prime candidate!”

As usual, the farmers had to be up early and the party broke up in time for Juliette to get back to the Studio where the bar was still buzzing. Damon was sympathetic to her case suggesting that she ask Lisa if she could recommend a particularly helpful manager from any of the sites she’d visited. But it could wait till tomorrow.

Just one call later and she seemed to have spun full circle

“Gloucestershire? There’s a guy I used to know in London. He was assistant manager somewhere on the East side but he ran the show most of the time. His boss had some serious difficulties. Last known he was living in the wilds of Somerset. Rupert Luscombe his name is. Definitely recommend him. Although he can be pretty eccentric” 

A call to Rosie got his address and after a quick look in the phone book and he was talking to her again

“Hi Rupert. Its Juliette pestering you again” 

“Juliette! Its always interesting talking to a fellow eccentric”

“Ok…” she said deciding to swallow her sensitivity “… I’ve got two options for you. One is you apply for the job as manager of my theatre, or two, you apply for the job of consultant to help me hire a manager for my theatre. And for either of these it would be useful for you to make it up to Gloucester with me in the next couple of days to have a look” 

That was just a possibility but in any case she had to get up to Gloucester to find out just what it was that she’d bought. Maybe Fin would be as helpful as last time.

As feared, Fin was as helpful as before which was about as helpful as Liam. What was it with all the guys she knew? He seemed pleased that the sale had completed, and almost excited that the theatre would be returning to production. But Juliette didn’t have the confidence in him to appoint him as manager. No, she needed him for continuity and for general assistance, but she needed someone more like Rupert to actually be responsible for running it. And maybe a few other people as well.

Samantha 

Samantha heard the rumble behind her and stopped to look round. She'd heard this many times before if it was what she thought it was. Her dad operated a medium sized road roller to earn his crust and she waited for him to catch up. He wasn't supposed to actually drive it along the road, only on new surfaces, but sometimes it was simply more convenient to drive to the next job rather than wait for the transport team to load him onto a truck. 

She kept pace with him as it rumbled along and exchanged a few recent details. She lived with her mum, not him, so conversation tended to be at a superficial level but he asked about her school. She admitted that money was getting very tight and told him that she couldn’t see herself going on to university or college as her GCSEs had been such a struggle. So maybe she should skip A levels as well and just leave and find a job. She was walking along this particular road because she was looking for any opportunities and there were quite a lot of small manufacturing units and warehouses here.

But she also asked him where he was going 

“Just down here on the left. The Cameo theatre. You know, next to that warehouse that was falling down that’s been demolished. We’re surfacing the car park” 

“Car park, dad? What for? Is it ever used any more? There’s no houses and not that many shops around here”

But just listening to herself got her thinking. If they’re sorting the car park, maybe they're reopening it. That would need a car park. 

He turned in through the site entrance and she walked on. There were two cars parked at the side of the theatre, so maybe there was some activity. And if they were opening, maybe there'd be some opportunities. 

On impulse she turned sharp left and pushed on the side door that wasn’t properly closed. 

She'd almost expected there to be a hive of activity inside, with refurbishment in full swing, but instead it appeared deserted. 

Twice, she counted. She'd been here twice before, but not recently. Once, her school put on a play here when she was 12 and the second time, they'd come to watch a play by a guy called Shakespeare as part of their GCSE course but she hadn't understood it. Maybe if it had been in English… 

She moved slowly into the auditorium becoming increasingly aware that she was probably not meant to be here. It was also dawning on her that this was unusually like a scene from a horror movie where the girl was stupid enough to enter a darkened deserted place with unknown dangers and disasters which all pummelled, jostled and interfered with each other as they barged their way through her head fighting for a prominent position only to confronted by ghosts and ghouls and devils and trolls and.... 

“Hi, I'm Damon. And you are?” 

Samantha let out a terrified shriek and spun round without any expectation of what manner of fiend would be lurking there 

“Hey! Calm down babe. Sorry, didn't mean to startle you” 

She swept the cold perspiration from her forehead and tried to slow her gasping rate 

“Do you work here?” asked Damon when he thought she might be in a fit state to answer 

“No. Do you?” 

“Good question. Maybe. But usually not. But the theatre isn't open, so what brings you here?” 

“I... I was looking for someone who worked here” 

“Anyone in particular? Fin?” 

“No. I don't know anyone here. It's just that I'm looking for work” 

“Yes. Not always easy to find” 

“No. And I thought this would be a possibility” 

Despite the darkness she felt him looking at her in a way that expected her to continue 

“They're working on the car park outside. There's not that many shops around here so I thought that maybe there was a plan to reopen the theatre because that would be a reason to rebuild a big car park. And if it's reopening, there might be a job here” 

“Ok. Nothing wrong with your logic. Hi, I'm Damon and while I don't normally work here, I do own it. And yes, it will reopen and yes we will be looking for some staff. As yet, we don't know when or who or anything else. But we can go and see who else is around, if you like” 

“Oh wow! Yes please. I'm Samantha, and you've no idea how relieved I am that you're not an alien from an unknown dimension with twenty fangs and three heads” 

“Me too” he replied surprisingly calmly “... Although I've not checked the mirror recently” 

They found Juliette and Fin in the back corridor trying to break into one of the rooms with the aid of a giant key ring fully populated with every diverse assorted type of key. 

Damon introduced himself to Fin and then introduced Samantha as someone who was job seeking 

“Anything” she replied all too quickly “admin, secretarial. Even cleaning, anything” 

“We expect everyone who works for the company to have a flexible attitude so that's a good start” replied Damon, then continued to Juliette “What's the plan?”

“We're still just exploring. Fin's been here some time but he's never been in these rooms. He's never had the keys before” 

But just then Fin declared success as the door they were leaning on swung open. 

“Ok. You and Fin take a look at what's in there. Samantha, can you take these keys and see if you have any success on the other doors. I'm headed for that office that was being used” 

Was this a job! But now this door has unlocked at only the third attempt. That wasn't what I was expecting, but then I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe to go away and write a letter, or maybe, ‘here's a form. fill it in’. Not just be given something to do! 

The next room was dark. Black dark. Turning on the light showed that there were no windows. There wasn't much in it, except maybe for dust. One more and then I'll try to find someone. 

Damon was with a large man in working overalls when she found him. They seemed to be discussing a shipping container but Damon broke off to ask her 

“Any success ?” 

“Yes. All five. But there's nothing in three of them” 

“Ok. So if there's spare space there, why would we need a shipping container?” 

“Well, it ain't empty - we tried moving it with the small crane but we'll need the 20 tonner” 

“We need to find out what's in there” 

“Aye. Well, I'd like to get it moved by end of week or it'll interrupt the schedule” 

The overalls left and Damon turned to her with a smile 

“What state are these rooms in?” 

“Empty except for a few bits and pieces and a lot of dust” 

“But if you cleaned them out, we could move that stuff whatever it is. But there's no point in moving into a dirty room” 

She nodded and went to find a bucket and mop, a Hoover, a duster, a dustpan and brush or anything else that might help her. 

Well, she had said 'anything' on her verbal job application. And 'anything' is what she was getting. 

It was late that afternoon that she found Damon to ask if he wanted her to come back tomorrow, but right then she noticed the disaster

“Yes, please. If you want to. Sure there's loads more stuff you could help with” 

“Thanks. But I think I'll wear my jeans” he looked quizzically at her as her face started to crumple up 

“I wanted so much to look good in case I got lucky with an interview or something. But I've splashed bleach all over my dress now and I think it's ruined” 

That evening, her mum was sympathetic, but of little other comfort 

“Maybe I could add a few more spots and make it look polka dot” 

“I think it will still look like a black dress splashed with bleach” 

But it was a job, maybe. And they wanted her to go back and there was work to be done. And all that added up to hope.

“Don't you go getting bleach down these jeans” scolded her mother, and Samantha left to get the bus with significantly less enthusiasm.

It lifted as she got to the theatre and was met with a cheery voice

“Hey, you showed up. It's always good when folk show up on day 2. It means they can't think it's all bad” 

And this day was now going to be different as well. Damon and Juliette had found the key to the padlock and revealed that the container was filled with clothes. Stuffed, totally rammed. Probably costumes relating to previous stage productions. 

“So we need to bring them all in” 

“What? Carry them round to the side door and up the stairs. That sounds like tomorrow's work as well” 

“Could we get that crane? The 20 ton one, and lift the whole thing up to the window and unload it from there?”
 “But someone would have to be inside it, and it would swing around a bit and knock lumps out of the wall”

But Damon had found a rope. It was probably an improvised noose at a previous production 

“No, I think we'll bring up the racks. We’ll put them in the room just up from the container. Then Samantha, if you go down and get stuff out. Most of the costumes seem to be on hangers, so you hang the hangers onto this loop. I'll haul it up to the window, unload it and Juliette can hang them on the racks.” 

Which was another different way to spend a morning. 

Lunchtime rolled in and, exhausted and starving, she was looking forward to sitting down, hopefully in a cafe with someone buying her a sandwich. 

But it now seemed Damon had other ideas, and she found herself walking in the direction of the shopping mall. He diverted her in through the door of a small designer boutique. There was a limited range, but they were all beautifully finished and unique designs.

“Oh wow! But Damon, I cant afford any of these”

He ignored the comment. Of course she couldn’t. She was about to start her first job, or maybe go back to school, but he passed her a little black dress that looked beautifully discreet when, on his insistence, she tried it on. And then another that was a wonderful pastel shade and far more sophisticated and expensive than she'd ever had before.

“I know you can’t afford it” said Damon returning to her comment “but I can”

They left with an unbelievable pretty pastel peach dress and an up-market version of her black bleach dress 

“It was my fault, Samantha. I should have thought about that before I suggested that you clean that room. It could easily have waited till one of us was appropriately dressed” 

Maybe this was her pay. But if it was, so far she was earning over a hundred pounds a day. 

Her mum was astounded, wondering rather suspiciously just what sort of work Samantha had found, but she went back the next day as well. Maybe today she'd get some sort of confirmation or something official, or maybe even a hint of some money! 

But no. It was manic in a different direction. The three of them had sat down mid morning with an unusual break for coffee, and tried to think of all the jobs that needed to be done to run the theatre. 

This should have been easy with Fin there or even Rupert, but with neither of them it was mainly Damon who came up with the ideas while Juliette pretended to be a member of the audience, identifying staff jobs as she made her way to her seat, and Samantha tried to write it all down. This wasn’t a Conference Centre, but the solution was the same.

They adjourned to the pub for lunch and being only sixteen it was much to Samantha’s surprise that the vodka and orange she'd dared to ask for actually showed up. 

Donut Day 

Thursday saw her up bright and early. She considered walking to the theatre but then remembered how much physical effort work had been on previous days and took the bus instead. Except she stayed on for an extra two stops so that she could call in to Tesco’s bakery where the donuts should recently be out of the fryer. 

This would be a little extra and maybe swing the balance with Damon. 

Juliette was coming out of the old office into the corridor when Samantha's cheery ‘hi’ startled her. The sky high stack of files she was carrying tumbled from her arms and squirmed across the floor. But no blame was levied and Samantha spent the rest of the morning emptying the old office into the new, bright, light, clean office at the back of the building. She had been hoping that Damon would have had time for an interview, but it now seemed that it was her that was short of time.

But at least the donuts were appreciated, even if they hadn't stopped while they ate them. 

There was also a new guy on site. Juliette had introduced them but Samantha thought he was a bit scary. Damon was wearing chinos and a proper shirt, Juliette had a micro pattern floral dress. The last time she’d seen him there, Fin had been wearing normal faded jeans and tee shirt. She had her pretty peach dress on that Damon had bought her. And Rupert? He was wearing a bright orange ochre three piece suit in a huge chequered pattern with the colours all fading into each other giving a rather fuzzy effect like maybe it had gone rusty. 

But he seemed alert, switched on, friendly and managed to retain a sense of the bizarre even if it fell short of humour. 

They all adjourned to the Highwayman for lunch, bundling into Juliette's little car, Rupert in the front and Samantha and Damon squashed into the back. 

“We could have taken your car as well, Damon!” 

“Yes. But I wouldn't be able to sit in the back with Samantha” which initially flattered her, turning to mild panic on what that really meant. 

“It's a good job Fin isn't here as well. Then it really would get cosy in the back” added Rupert 

“Yes, I'm surprised he isn't in today” 

“Who? Fin? No, Juliette, he was in Tescos first thing when I was buying the donuts” 

“So he's not sick then” 

“No, he was on the checkout. But I didn't talk to him. I was already at a different till before I saw him” 

“I thought I saw in the ledger he was drawing a full time salary here?”

She worked all the next day as well and now at going home time and she was wondering just how to phrase all the questions she wanted to ask. It was Friday. Maybe it was payday.

Damon motioned her to sit down on a chair near to him and asked if she thought she’d like to work there. They talked a bit about the work she'd done, if she thought she’d done well, if she could handle the variety with lots of different things happening all at the same time. And then that only some of this fitted into any of the jobs they'd identified and written down earlier on. 

“Do you think you'd like to come back next week?” 

She nodded “Yes please. But it would be nice to have something official. I mean even if the job’s temporary” 

“Yes, I agree. Because without that, and without details of you and your bank, it's not possible to pay you properly. And we need to sort that out whether you join us or not. But Samantha, over the weekend I want you to think long and hard about one thing. And that is. Do you want to go back to school and get more qualifications, or are you intent on getting a job” 

But Sam clearly looked disappointed as she watched his big clear eyes gently smiling at her 

“I think I've already decided that. But I guess it also depends on how much I actually get paid. Hopefully it might be enough to pay mum some rent and buy my food and maybe have enough left to go out Saturday night” 

He reached into his pocket “look, take forty. You surely can't spend more than that on your Saturday night out. Then we'll sort out getting you paid on Monday when you’ve decided what the more permanent position is” 

Samantha was more than pleased with this, but it only lasted till she got home 

“Sam, I've only just got in. No idea what's for dinner” 

“We could go out. I'll take you the pub for something. That would be a bit of a celebration” 

“That sounds nice. So did you get paid then?” 

“No, not really. But Damon gave me forty pounds” 

“Forty quid! For four days work ! That's not much more than a pound an hour” 

Sam was crestfallen. Mum was now wound up and trying to explain the situation would be too hard. Mum already believed her own version of the truth and changing it without hard evidence would be a lost cause 

“But its still enough to take you out!” 

It had got off to a bad start but now the evening could only improve, and, Samantha realised, it was unlikely that they'd get through more than twenty with her not drinking alcohol under her mother’s beady eye. So there'd be enough left over for more than a couple of coffees at the cafe tomorrow night.

Monday rolled in with as much excitement as ever and almost immediately Damon caught up with her. 

“Are you still interested in working here?” 

“Yes, I thought about it at the weekend. And I thought about going back to school and yes, I'd rather work here. You guys are good fun and its unlikely to get boring with so many different things. But of course I might not be doing all of them” 

“Samantha, there are a number of factors to take into account when you apply for a job. Where the job is and how long it would take to get there each day and how much that would cost is one of them. But the two important ones are what will I really be doing, and who will I be working with. I think the job is general admin and secretarial work. So, answering the phone, and sorting out what the caller wants, filing, keeping the diary up to date with bookings and probably some financial stuff as well. How much of all that may depend on your own capability. We’ll need some other people as well, but as you probably gathered from the discussion last week, we're all relatively unclear on who else we will need. I'm seriously thinking of appointing Rupert as manager here. What do you think?” 

“Me? I don't know him. But he seems quite confident” 

“Do you think you could work for him?” 

“I suppose so. He's a bit weird” 

“Everyone's a bit weird in their own way. But the other point is, me and Juliette will not be working here. Its not that we wouldn’t like it, its just that we have other things to do. We’re here to get this going, and then you and Rupert will be here to make sure it keeps going” 

This wasn't quite the way she'd imagined an interview, they'd had mock interviews in their careers lesson, and none of them was like this. Especially when Damon suggested that they fill in the application form and immediately picked up the phone 

“Lisa. Can you get one of those new employment forms that Penny said we should use and help Samantha fill it in. I'm putting you on speaker” 

The questions were mainly factual – name, address, date of birth.... And it certainly seemed as though the form was being filled in remotely with her answers and the rare prompt from Damon. 

Next morning there was even more progress - at last. Damon had her completed form and asked her to check it as soon as she arrived at the theatre. There was also a draft contract which he explained in some detail. But it was mainly without surprises 

“Chameleon Media?” she questioned reading the letter heading “I thought they produced records?” 

“Yes. That's our main business. I said that me and Juliette have other things to do as well. We want this theatre as a rehearsal stage for the bands but I'm not expecting to use it all the time and there’ll be the possibility of having plays and other entertainment as well” 

“Do you work with those bands! Do you know them all. Like, The Essential?” 

“Yes. I know all those guys” 

Samantha was now overwhelmed “Wow! We play their single on loop at the cafe” 

And that was it. She'd got a job! And - she reminded herself - now she had to do it, and live up to expectations every day. And that seemed to be even more scary. 

“Juliette and me will be off site after today. How do you ....” but the question died. Her face gave away the answer before he'd even asked. 

He looked at her with a frown 

“Rupert will be here” but that didn't seem to help either. Maybe it was a bit much expecting her to dive straight in to the deep end not even knowing what water was. 

“Ok” he conceded before she'd managed to speak “Maybe we need to introduce you to some support” 

A flicker of hope flashed across her face 

“So, would you be more nervous about doing the best you can with Rupert, or driving to Somerset and back with me. And you're wearing a dress so that won’t be a problem” 

“A problem? A problem for what?” 

“Clause 5. We went through that yesterday. You must wear a dress if you visit the Studio” 

“I'm not sure I really understood that bit” 

The drive down was uneventful. Damon talked about the company and the Studio as she asked the questions becoming more intrigued with each answer 

“So it's over 500 years old?” 

“Some of it is, but so much has been built on, replaced or destroyed by wars. And there was a major update back in the 1940s that brought a lot of it up to date - at least for that period in history. And a bit more in the late 60s. 

Samantha, like everyone before her, was overwhelmed by the sight of the Studio. She gazed wide eyed at the ceilings and the staircase and the introduction to Lisa completely failed to bring her back down to earth. 

Her short guided tour took in the studios and the theatre built into the old chapel. They stopped by the drinks fridge in the restaurant and were about to sit down on the terrace when four guys bundled out of the bar with a round of beer and a covert coke that Damon suspected might have rum in it.

“Hi guys” Lisa said quite calmly, but Samantha was speechless. The Essential! Here, in person and coming her way

“Hi Lisa. They let you out your cage today…”

Lisa introduced them as they sat down at the table and Samantha managed to blurt out that she was the secretary at the Cameo that was going to be used as a rehearsal stage

“Wow, Yeah. We heard about that. We want to take advantage of that. Poppy’ll be along in a minute and then maybe we can set some dates. Hazel’s got us out on tour in a couple of weeks and we’d feel more confident if we took that stage for a couple of days”

And now the implications of what Damon had said started to dawn on her. She would probably meet all these chart topping bands when they came to rehearse. Oh my! Now she really did need to succeed.

Damon took her to meet Michelle and then Hazel and Sarah who were involved in scheduling the bands as they worked their way through the Studio and tried to go slowly enough to prevent her becoming overwhelmed, but these were all the people she could call on if she needed help or had any questions.

They stopped at the Highwayman on their way back and now with a delighted vodka and orange Damon went through her contract. It wasn’t complex, and now having been to the Studio, she understood Clause 5

“And” Damon emphasised “If you need to come down to the Studio, phone Lisa or Michelle first so that they can put you on the list at the gatehouse. And you may want to keep a dress at the Cameo so that you don’t need to go home first in case you need to visit, or if you just want to go straight out on the town after work. 

Now, that’s where I want you to sign it, but not yet. I want you to take it home and discuss it with your mum so that she can see what you’re signing up to, although there’s nothing scary in there. Then, if you’ve got any questions, Juliette will be here tomorrow. You won’t get paid till the end of the month, so here’s a hundred pounds. That’ll cover your bus fare and buy a present for your mum to keep her happy until you can make a reasonable contribution next month”

“Oh! Oh! Thankyou. But Damon, do you need me to pay you back for buying me my peach dress?”
 “No. But it would be nice if you wore it when you next visit the Studio, because you look so lovely in it”

“My only concern, Sam, is what kind of work you’ve got yourself into that pays that much! Its very generous for a first job”

“I thought that, mum. But I don’t know what to compare it to. Damon said that last year he took on someone who was on less than ten thousand a year and he thought that was a crying shame. But he did say I’d have to work hard to earn it”

That Friday, she had tea early and ambled down to the café where everyone hung out. She was itching to tell her friends about her new job and that she’d even met the Essential. She wasn’t even worried that they wouldn’t believe her because Leon had grabbed her a copy of their new album from Andrea’s office 

“You’ve got what! Is that new out?” when she suggested that it was played over the sound system

“Not quite. Its not out till next Tuesday. But my new job is with the record company”

Samantha settled in quickly. Not having any experience she got some things wrong, but nothing that couldn’t be corrected when Rupert found out, usually when she was telling him what she’d been doing. He always retained his sense of humour, usually peppered with sarcasm. But Samantha didn’t mind because he always explained things with enormously exaggerated gestures. She was learning and, unlike school, she was learning something useful.

Rupert liked the setup in Gloucester. He liked being back in work, and he liked having full control of the theatre this time, rather than being second in command to an often absent manager. And he liked Samantha even though he knew she thought he was as daft as a box of frogs. To Rupert, that was actually a compliment.

She soon learned that one of the most important things was to keep Sarah up do date with available dates, and on a second visit to the Studio, Sarah and Juliette showed her why that information was an integral part of the overall schedule. 

Now, it could run itself, another piece of the picture was complete. Could Juliette now concentrate on the Estate?

Black Lightening

With Damon spending his time in Gloucester with Juliette, Michelle was holding the fort – no change there!

Lisa was brilliant – oh what a good find! It was so much less than half the job knowing she could rely on her, and Michelle could answer the phone knowing that whatever it was, it would be no problem to them.

“The Studio, Michelle speaking. No, I’m sorry, Damon is off-site at the moment. Perhaps I could help you?”

“Could be. Its Joshua Rockman here. I’m the guitarist with Black Lightening. You may have heard of us? We’re not big in the UK but we’ve not been out of the top twenty in the album charts for four years down here in Canberra. Our contract is coming to an end and we wondered what the potential was of working with Damon and Adam?”

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t come across you guys, but I have been rather busy. Damon is very particular about the bands he takes on. It’s a complex combination of ambition, aptitude and attitude”

“Attitude? That’s interesting. That puts a different perspective on everything….” 

She talked to Joshua for some time with the conversation moving to be about themselves rather than the band or the music industry. She was still chatting when Keith ambled in and she interrupted

“Just a sec, Josh. Someone just came in. I need to find out what this guy wants. In fact, maybe he could help you more than me”

Keith looked perplexed as she continued

“Josh, I think Keith de Santis may be able to help you more than me”

“Did you just say De Santis? Michelle! You’re not telling me he’s there as well are you?”
 “Well …yes”

“Wow, I was wondering where he’d disappeared to”

“Keith – can you have a word with Josh Rockman please. He’s interested in working with us”

“Rocky! Hey. What’s occurring?”

“Keith” Thought you’d disappeared off the face of the planet. But yeah, we’re with the Asia Minor label here in Oz, but we’re through with our commitments to them and they’ve just been taken over by Sony”

“So that’s two good reasons to look for a new label”

“Yeah, that’s what we reckoned, so I thought I’d call Damon and see if there’s any possibilities”

“Damon’s pretty selective on who he signs. Its down to attitude as well as aptitude. That’s mainly to pick winners and minimise bad press. I’m pretty sure you guys would be fine but it’s a long way from home and you guys haven’t hit it big in Europe”
 “Yeah, not yet”
 “Ok, no guarantees, But you could rock on over here. This whole setup is ace for thought and composing. Its quiet, peaceful and inspiring. Its everything that the Melbourne studio isn’t”
 “Are you ok, Keith? You never talked like that before. I thought you were totally fuelled by mayhem and adrenalin?”

“Yeah, but you should come on down here anyway. Damon and Adam will definitely give you a fair hearing. Just be clear, its not all about the music”

And that was the plan. Later that week, a blacked out stretch limo was waiting at the gatehouse. Lisa drove up to meet them and update Gustav’s paperwork and Michelle met them at the door. The band leader was a flamboyant character calling himself Jet. Jet Black. He’d originally called the band Jet Black and the Lightnings, but changed it at the request of their record label. He always wore a flowing black cloak which he swirled continuously for dramatic effect, and this distracted almost everyone from whatever they were meant to be doing.

Damon hadn’t crossed paths with these guys for a number of years but was quite happy inviting yet another world famous band as guests at the Studio. They were concentrating on getting a deal sorted out, and while Jet was leading the discussions, Josh and the others were contributing more than their fair share. 

But the bottom line seemed to clinch it

“How much!”

“Yes” Damon confirmed “Its different here. The good guys are not subsidising the losers. We don’t pay anyone who isn’t worth it. We’re not paying for a nanny to look after you. You get yourself out of the sack because you want to. You bring your own motivation, whether you’re chasing fans, fame, self respect or just money. Look guys. You’re the ones on stage. You get yourself up there. No touring manager to leech profit out of you. Hazel will set up the dates, venues, transport and hotels, but its you guys on stage just like you’d been booked at the Dog and Duck on a Saturday night” 

And that was enough for them to adjourn the meeting in search of Hazel.

All five of them were intense but completely blown away by the Studio and it was mid evening before Michelle was in the bar when Josh sidled in. She was sure it was him as she’d asked Damon to point him out. Sure enough he looked like she’d imagined him from his voice and as he described himself on the phone. She would have been there earlier, but for scurrilous rumour that they may be running short of Bacardi – and that would be a disaster. But it also appeared that Lynda had a secret cellar which was rammed to the rafters with things of that nature and the panic was over.

She sat down with Josh to continue their conversation, but soon decided that a walk in the garden would be a better option for avoiding interruptions.

This was so different for her. She’d felt this sort of uncomfortable twinge with Damon. Josh was eight years younger than him, but …. Hazel had just completed setting up a twenty date tour.

“Yes. It’s a bummer. I gotta go. I mean, that’s what we do. Its not just me. Of course guys leave bands and join other ones every day of the month. But I think this could be our last tour, and that really means it’s the last opportunity to make any real money.

Next morning she was a bit more direct with Damon

“Have you signed Black Lightning yet? Because if not, you ought to”

“Why’s that babe?”

“ Because I want to go out with Josh and I cant do that if he’s signed to the opposition”
 “I’ll make sure I’ve got a pen with me for the next time I see Jet”

“Maybe you should go and find him right now”
 “Calm down, babe. We’ve already got an agreement, and Jet will sign for the band later today. But they’re going out on tour and we need to get a new album out to support that. So Jet wanted to get started on that even before they sign. He thinks that would demonstrate the kind of trust and commitment that he thinks we expect.”

Cue - Odysseus by tRK Project

This was so bitter-sweet for Damon. He was pleased that she was finally breaking out of her self imposed exile, but sad that he’d be losing part of her – even if that was what he’d always said she should do. Only now did he realise how much he loved her in a very special way. That wasn’t as a boyfriend, fiancé or husband. Maybe she was really a sister like Emma. He was moving more towards Laura, but losing Michelle was still so desolately sad.

Georgina’s Surprise

While Damon was losing Michelle, Georgina was about to find out how little she knew about Adam.

He met her on the platform at Upper Elfinvale Halt, the only passenger getting off there and a desolate, panicky figure alone on the completely deserted platform in the middle of nowhere. No wonder she was pleased to see him and she clung to his arm as they wandered slowly as far as the bench which served as the al-fresco waiting room. Just sitting down taking in the scenery and the view reinforced the fact that there was no rush to do anything this weekend. 

“I’ve tried to explain a couple of times about the setup here but I still think there’ll be a few surprises this weekend….”

“Like how remote this place actually is!”
 “Yes, and…”

“…Adam, I am expecting to share your room, if that’s what you mean. I don’t expect Damon’s house to have a spare room just for me”

“Of course, I’d love you to share my room and we’ve never been anywhere private or secluded enough before, but Damon’s house does have some spare rooms and Natalia will have certainly allocated one to you. It might be useful if you feel you need your own space on any occasion – maybe to recover from the surprises!”
 “Surprises? Are they all good surprises?” 

“Maybe” 

“Only maybe? But Adam, we've been getting on so well together. I haven’t got any preconceived ideas, so I’m sure we can make everything perfect” 

He produced a CD from his pocket and handed it to her. She looked at it quizzically, reading the titles. 'Saint Urchin!' My favourite band!” 

She read on - “Street Urchin?” 

“Yes, that's the album title” 

“But they haven't got an album. They've only ever produced one single. That’s for sure, because everyone’s talking about what’s next from them, although there’s rumours about an EP” 

“There definitely wont be an EP” 

“How can you be so sure?”
 “Because Damon’s view is that the distribution costs of an EP are the same as an album, so he’d feel we were short-changing the fans by giving them 4 tracks for the price of twelve. The album isn’t out yet and will mainly be promoted in Europe. It'll be released next week straight after the charts are announced. Then after that the next album will be out in three months to coincide with the British tour. That will be called See Urchin”

“And this is for me! But how come you've got it if it's not out yet?” 

“Georgie, that's one of the surprises. I told you I was a sound engineer. Well, I’m the sound engineer in a recording studio and they're on our label”

“So did you work on this album?”
 “Yes. I had quite a lot to do with it, although production is credited to Keith De Santis”
 “Is he your boss?”
 “No, he works for me”

“Oh wow! I don’t think I understand that. And this Natalia you mentioned, is she Damon’s girlfriend?”
 “No. Natalia works for Damon, but she runs the accommodation team”

“Team! A whole team? Not just a cleaner once a week?”

“No. A whole team. I think there’s ten of them full time. Come on. I brought my car along to get back to the Studio”

“I don’t mind walking. Although you said it was quite a distance”

“About 5 miles. 4 in a straight line. And we could walk, and mostly it would be through the woods which would be nice, but there’s so much more I want to show you”

She stopped at the wicket gate that led from the platform to the car park and looked over at him, questioningly. He nodded. She looked around just to check as Adam continued in the direction of the only vehicle. Well, it would be only natural for a guy to detour over and take a closer look. Wow, is this the next surprise. 

“Ferrari?”

“It's actually a Lamborghini. But it has a lot in common with Ferraris” 

She watched the road as the scenery flew past, slightly confused being on the wrong side of the car, and lent over to glance at the speed. They seemed to be going ever so fast, but it was really low, and the dial was only creeping past 40. They slowed as they approached the hairpin bend and surprisingly turned left instead of going round it.

Next was the gatehouse. A minibus was stopped at the barrier as the four occupants talked excitedly with the security guard 

“He's checking the invite list and the dress code, that's all” 

“Dress code?” 

“Yeah. Remember I said wear a skirt or you won't get in?” 

“I just thought that was some random comment from your friend Damon” 

“It is. But he also employs a guy to check it” 

“What! But that's a gypsy style she's wearing. I mean, it's nice, and it suits her, but its nowhere near short or anything” 

“There's no length restriction. That’s not the purpose. Its purely to encourage differentiation, and she is doing a perfect job”

“Ok, so that’s another surprise!”

“You remember I told you that we all lived in a big house….”

But she was still distracted and being left hand drive, she was looking across the car towards him and didn’t notice the house which had come into view on her right. Not until Adam stopped. She continued glancing around, bewildered

“And that’s our house…”

 She spun round in her seat in the direction of the nod… and then back again

“Work, play, live, breath, sleep. Eat, drink, swim - it all happens here. Its all here. No need to go anywhere else”

“You’re joking!”

“No… And that’s why Natalia needs a team of ten, and it does have a spare room if you want one – not that I’m encouraging you”

“So how many rooms has it got?”

“No-one knows. At least 150. Michelle told me that even the carpet fitters who were paid by the room don’t know exactly”

She peered out, down the hill across the sloping meadow to the house, speechless.

“Next surprise” said Adam, as a sheep crossed in front of them 

“What? A sheep? Well I guess we don’t get too many of them wandering around Oxford”

She dropped her small case as she entered the hall. The staircase took her breath away, and the ceiling artwork was making her eyes pop out of her head. She was still mesmerised when she heard a gentle voice beside her

“Awesome, isn’t it? I expect that Adam will look after you perfectly, but this is a daunting sort of place to suddenly find yourself in. Its so easy to get lost or overwhelmed. I’m Michelle and I’m so looking forward to getting to know you. And if there’s anything that you want to know that you don’t want to ask Adam, maybe you need a more girlie perspective, please ask me. I’m seldom very far away and I want to make sure your stay here is as wonderful as the first impressions. Adam, Natalia has allocated room 316. Its a West Wing tower so there’s more stairs, but its got the most fabulous view. But I’ll leave those arrangements up to you”

They made their way back to Adams room and she leaned on the windowsill looking out across the lawn. 

“And a garden to match!”

“Yes. Sienna tells me ….”

“Sienna?”

“She’s the head gardener…”

“Head?”

“Yes. There’s five altogether. I was saying, Sienna thinks that the formal gardens extend to about eighty acres”

“Is that all!!” she exclaimed with only a hint of sarcasm

“No…” he replied as they headed down towards the bar “that includes the big lawn that runs from here down to the lake but then there’s the parkland like beside the driveway and beyond the lake. Then outside that there’s the estate which is mainly farms and forests”

“And your friend Damon – he owns all this??”

“Yes”

“Oh Wow! Who do I upset if I share his room instead – is that Michelle?”

“No. The only person you’d upset would be me. He’s been too busy setting all this up to spend enough time with anyone – not that he’d be short of offers”

“I’ll bet he wouldn’t!”

“Although I did hear a rumour that he was chasing someone in Edencombe when he was setting up the radio station there”

“Does he own that as well!”

“Yeah. He did that while the building here was being refurbished”

“Surprises Adam? I need a drink, or maybe two”

“Best head for the bar”
 “Is it far away? We didn’t pass any pubs on the way from the station”
 “No, it’s the next door after the restaurant”

Several drinks later, Georgina had started to recover. They took a short walk down to the studios where the glow from the pilot lights on the mixing desk was more romantically inviting than spooky, and then back to the bar where Damon was now sitting by the window talking to Saint Urchin. Adam introduced her as his girlfriend and the band was polite enough to interrupt their discussion

“I love your single” she said not knowing how else to open a conversation with pop superstars “And I understand there might be an album?”
 “Yeah, but its dead secret till next week”

She and Adam joined Damon and Michelle outside on the terrace for dinner and a quieter chat. Damon and Michelle were both interested to know a bit more about her, but were equally reticent about resorting to an interrogation. She appreciated that - otherwise it would have felt like she was meeting his parents rather than his best friend. He was so full of surprises – just like he’d said but she hadn’t believed him. He'd mentioned Damons house, but she had no more information than that - except it was in a rural location. Now here, Damon was wonderful. So interested in what she was saying. Adam explained why none of the guys in the bar was drinking very much, and Damon explained why there was no barman, and no price list and a strict dress code. 

“It's not a hotel. You can't phone up and make a reservation. You need to be invited. Then to be successful you don't just need aptitude you need attitude. And that is on constant test while the bands think they’re here purely for the music”

Georgina was having some difficulty preventing herself from melting into a wobbly jelly. Damon was nothing like she’d imagined. She’d expected him to be overweight, pompous and arrogant, owning all this and condescendingly letting his friends stay there. But instead he was asking about her and her work and her family and her little sister and he listened without interrupting and seemed to have all night just for her.

“Wow!” she breathed to Adam later when they were headed off for the night “Your friend Damon is really quite something else. And no girlfriend?”

“No. He’s on a mission. He simply hasn’t had the time, and the success of the company is his only objective”

“Which company? Is this big house a company?”

“Yes. There are two companies here. This house where we all work and live, together with the gardens and the estate is one company and Damon owns that”

“What? All of it. Everything?”

“Yes. Then there’s the recording company for bands like Alpha Tyger and Saint Urchin”

“The Tygers as well!. Adam! Does he own all that as well?”

“No. Damon owns the house and garden and the estate. The recording company is owned 50-50 by him and me”

She stopped dead on the stairs

“I do the actual recording, mixing and arrangement. Damon does, well, I guess, everything else”

“Before, I thought I didn’t understand. Now I know I don’t understand. Adam – Why me? We have such a wonderful time together, but you have all this and me? I have….”
 “Georgie, its quite simple. You and me are both from the same background. We’re the same kind of people. We grew up the same way, with the same values and the same family background and that’s why we get on so well. I don’t get on very well with people who have always had everything, And those that have always had nothing can’t cope with it. I want to go out with you because you are a girl version of me from the same place that we both started. You’re really the girl next door that I never knew. And Georgina, inviting you here, to this lifestyle is the biggest risk of my whole life”

Complete inserted here after Georgina

Complete

This Purple must come after Georgina

 Damon too had retreated to his room. Interesting, he thought. She's quieter and more reserved than he’d expected from Adam. Thought he'd be more into adrenalin and excitement, but it doesn't seem to be her at all. Still, folks change. Even Gordon. Still chasing girls in every country of the world but now with less frantic drama, and seemed to be happy with the same girl for a few days rather than needing a change every night. And him? Michelle was irreplaceable, but she should have so much more living to do. And soon she’d have more than enough money to do anything she wanted. What she really wanted from him was just a bit of spontaneous fun now and again to reassure her that she was still attractive. A full sized emotional relationship would never have lasted and she was only now realising that. It would more likely have blown the whole thing apart, and now the whole world was about to open up in front of her. 

And while Michelle was absolutely gorgeous, Laura was much more like him, and irresistibly attractive – if she came back. 

Assuming, perhaps rashly, that she would his thoughts turned to the farmhouse.

The Farmhouse

Damon had first thought about the farmhouse as he drove back from Heathrow. It would be nice to think that the Studio would be the recording hub and everybody’s home for ever. But it was changing. Adam in Production had expanded to Adam, Keith, Rosanna and Oliver. Scheduling in its various forms had moved from part time Lisa and Michelle to Sarah and Nicki with a bit of Hazel mixed in…. Oh my, how different. As new bands came in and more and more of them, it was more and more like a high turnover motel. It was running – or maybe even galloping, and Damon could see himself moving out especially if Laura still felt the same way about him when she got back. They’d find somewhere to live and the Studio would become just a place of work. It would be nice to stay there, but the evening interruptions would become insufferable and the evening discussions about the company direction would slow down and disappear as the whole organisation stabilised. And Laura. Laura wanted to live in the countryside, but living at the Studio might not be quite what she had in mind.

Deserted and Neglected

She wouldn’t have noticed it because it was elevated above the road, set back at the end of a short steep unmade track and she was paying more attention to the forest as they passed it. But that older farmhouse near the foot of the valley just down from the loose sheep looked decidedly neglected. Not ruined, not derelict, not by a long way. But not lived in either. 

He parked his car in the overgrown gateway and walked up to take a closer look. Less than ten minutes walk down the lane took him to the centre of Roundstone Bridge and the junction where the Framers Arms stood prominently on the far corner. The landlady was friendly, as rural landladies usually were and it didn’t take much encouragement for her to talk at some length about that farmhouse. The owner had passed away and while she wasn’t aware of any suspicious circumstances, he owed some money to other farmers for rents on grazing pastures. The funeral was all but deserted and no-one had come forward to claim the property – or pay the debts. Sir Ralph would know more, she’d said. In the manor up the drive opposite. But he can be a bit feisty if you’re not careful.

Ok, A bit feisty maybe? So drive up and park right outside. Maybe the Aston Martin would make a more suitable first impression. 

A decent tug on the rope set bells off all around the front of the house before a moderately displeased looking older gentleman appeared with a threatening rather than questioning look

“Good Afternoon. I was looking for….”
 “Good grief! Its wine man!”

“I’m sorry?”

“Wine. It is you, I’m sure. Chez Pierre?”

“Yes! I’m sorry. I didn’t recognise you just here out of context”
 “No, you wouldn’t. You probably couldn’t see properly through the haze as it dripped into your eyes. Well, well, well! Come in, Come in, come in! Clemmy! You’ll never guess who just dropped in. Its wine man from Chez Pierre! Now, to what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?” 

Sometimes, reflected Damon, you make the breaks. Sometimes they manage to find you on their own. 

He explained that he had arrived largely by accident and was interested in buying the farmhouse. However, it didn’t sound as simple as it might be and someone in the village had suggested this line of enquiry.

Clemmy retrieved a very interesting bottle from the wine rack and proceeded to pour three glasses as Ralph continued

“Ah! The grazing debt. Damon, its not a lot of money. But of course whether it’s a lot or not depends on how much you’ve got to start with. I never worked out exactly how much it was, and I claimed half the flock when it became clear that no-one was looking after them. Ole Geordie up there on the cliff corner was owed as well. Don’t know how much, but my loss was about five or six thousand. But I’d have had to track down the leads, pay solicitors, probably raise a private summons. That’s all building up towards what I’d get back and that doesn’t include the hassle, and I claimed 70 odd sheep. I suggested to Ole Geordie that he go half with me, but he was more interested in waiting till I’d sorted it out before jumping on the bandwagon. I think that’s what clinched it for me. I called his bluff and just forgot about it. It was probably hardly a couple of grand, nett. Of course, that’s worth a lot more to Ole Geordie, but that’s his problem, and it was all for some pasture that I wasn’t using anyway, so it wasn’t really a loss to me at all. Look, I’ll have a look for you. See if I can find the name and address that I had at the time. Welsh if I remember. Can’t guarantee it’s the right people because I never followed it up, or that they’re still at that place. But its all I’ve got”

Now with Ralph out of the room, Clemmy raised her glass

“All very exciting. We, of course, would be delighted if you moved in as neighbours. But Damon, I really must ask you, what was the outcome? You know, the aftermath of that episode? We were so impressed that you seemed to be taking it in such good spirits”

“We already had a date setup for a couple of days after that in a pub. I turned to the barmaid as she arrived and commanded that under no circumstances should she serve her anything until she agrees not to anoint me with it. Of course the whole bar needed an explanation and of course fell about laughing. But right now, she’s in the States on business”
 “Oh, but you are still together? You looked like such a perfect couple”

“I wont know for sure until she comes back. Life holds no guarantees, Clemmy. But I do hope so”.

Wales

Central Wales was foreign territory. He was ok in France or Germany where he spoke the language, and that extended out to western Africa and eastern Europe. In most other places he could order a beer and say ‘thankyou’, and the locals were often keen to practise their English. But here? It simply felt hostile. Everyone switched to speaking the local dialect as he ordered a sandwich for lunch, and all eyes looked suspicious. He was hoping he might ask enough questions to get some background but gave up before he’d even started.

He found the terrace. Small miners cottages with the front door right on the street and opening straight into the living room. This is the sort of place where the people don’t take the box when they buy a pair of shoes because it would be too big to get in their front room.

Few cars were parked along the street. A number looked abandoned - old shells, all of which had seen better days at least 20 years ago and his brand new Range Rover was distinctly out of place. He parked some distance from number 17 and walked along slowly, sensing that he was attracting some attention from behind the sooty curtains but it would be hemmed with disinterest unless he became a threat by stopping at their house.

The door was opened by a long scowling face 

“Myfanwy McKinley?” 

The reply sounded almost positive, but as he had expected he was unable to understand the words. 

“Do you, by chance, speak English as well as Welsh?” 

Clearly yes, because she had understood enough to call out and Andrew appeared drying his hands. 

“Andrew McKinley? I’d like to….” 

“What d’you want?” 

The voice had a strong Scottish accent and was menacing like maybe they were expecting the rent collector or a magistrates bailiff 

“It could be to your significant advantage” 

“Oh yeah?”

“Its to do with a property you might own”

“I don’t own any property. You got the wrong house”

“Does the name Selwyn Moyse mean anything to you?”

“Maybe”

He looked furtively up and down the street for sign of anyone taking an unnatural interest in the situation

“You’d best come in”

But there was no welcome in this particular valley. No tea. No biscuit. No invitation to sit down.

“Selwyn Moyse. What do you know about him?”

“He used to live in Somerset”

“And how do you know him?”
 “He’s a distant relative. I think. But he could just be a family friend. Not all uncles are blood related” 

He was about to expand, cautiously, but was interrupted by a commotion at the front door. 

A schoolboy bundled in looking decidedly the worse for wear. His shirt sleeve was ripped, his blazer muddy and dusty and a wild black eye was exploding all over the right side of his face. He looked forlornly at Mevi whose look was demanding an explanation 

“They were calling me half cast again. I tried to move on. Let it drop. I walked away. But they just kept on like a chant. Not just half cast but chicken half cast. I said that at least that meant I was 50% better than any of them but they had me surrounded. Dad there was six of them”

Many parents would have rounded on him giving him a hard time about getting into fights and causing trouble, but Mevi simply folded her arms around him even at the risk of getting blood on her faded blouse. 

She spoke something in the local dialect to Andrew, who himself now looked distraught

“Yes, or to the hospital” he said taking a closer look “That’ll badly scar if it’s not sorted proper. But I don’t know we’ve got the cost” 

Damon crossed the room and looked carefully at the wound, saying he’d be back in a minute as he moved to the door. 

Mevi thought maybe he’d just disappear as quickly as he’d come, but a few minutes later he was treating the cuts with antiseptic and steri-strips from the medical kit from his car. A large plaster completed the job, but without a single word being exchanged. 

“You were asking about Selwyn Moyse” Andrew opened without a word of thanks “I used to know someone of that name. But I’ve not heard of him for eight, nine years. No, nearer ten because it was not long after Euan was born. I can’t tell you much about him” 

“But are you related to him?” 

“Remotely, maybe, I guess’ 

‘How remote?’ 

“I think he was Mevi’s grandfather’s cousin” 

“That’s close enough for my purpose” 

“Or maybe not. We’re not being held responsible for whatever trouble he’s got into” 

Damon nodded “That’s ok.. Listen. He passed away about two years ago. Before that he was in a home for a short time at the councils expense. However, he owned a house. He used to live in it by himself and do some farming, mainly sheep. Seems no-one went to the funeral, and the undertakers claimed their expenses back through a court order. That pretty much cleaned out his bank balance. But that house is still there, although, not being lived in its falling into disrepair. No-one had the time or inclination to spend what it would take to find the next of kin….”

“Except you. And you think its us?”
 “Yes”

“So we own that house, right?”

“Yes. But be careful. Before he went into the home he hadn’t paid the rent on the fields he used for grazing. He racked up a sizeable debt and once he was in the home he never revoked the contract so that continued to mount up because the sheep were still there” 

“Aha! That’s it. You’re expecting us to pick up that old debt. Well it aint gonna happen. Its nowt to do with us” 

“No. no. That’s not the point. This house he owned is now falling into disrepair even though all the furnishings and everything are still in there. As the only known kin you could claim that house. The downside is that it would come with responsibility for the debt too”

Andrew looked sideways at him, suspicious. Here was some random guy comes rocking in with a cock and bull story but saying it may be to his advantage. 

“I don’t think we’re interested in all this. It just sounds like complicated trouble. And we’ve got enough trouble here in the valley”

“It’s your choice. But here’s the rest of the deal. No-one was interested in tracking you down just for the debt. But I’m interested in buying that house. It’s unoccupied and deserted and falling into ruin, so I could just register an interest, wait until no one challenges it and then claim it. But that could take a long time and by then it would be completely derelict. Or I could ask you as the next of kin to sell it to me. That could take as little as a two weeks” 

Andrew and Mevi exchanged glances 

“But there’s debt as well on all this” 

“Yes. But if we take all of the costs including the debt and take that away from what I’d pay you for the house there’s be a bit left over. Quite a bit. That would be yours and that’s what would make it worth your while” 

“But there must be other risks. Like if there was more debt than you tell us about” 

“This isn’t going to go public We don’t need to advertise all this. It’s a private deal where you sell an inherited asset as a private transaction. And you sell it lock, stock and barrel so it doesn’t matter to you” 

“So why worry about this debt” 

“Because the only other person who knows about any of this is the guy whose owed some of the money. If he gets his payoff he has no reason to say anything. In any case, his health is failing and he wants a quiet life. An extra few quid would help so he’d not going to be making a fuss one way or the other. Look, Andrew, Mevi, I’ve written this down. Just the numbers because they’re the important bit. The why and wherefor is largely irrelevant. I can leave this with you for a couple of days if you want” 

“So why wouldn’t we just move in to this house of ours?” 

“Because it needs s lot of work and that’s expensive. And if you don’t sell it you might not have the money to pay the debt and the guy who’s owed will start kicking off” 

Andrew glanced down the summary sheet that Damon had prepared and finally got to the bottom line. He looked up quickly and then back to the papers 

“That’s it is it? Is that how much is left over? That’s not just how much it’s worth ….” 

“Yes. That’s the bottom line. That’s what would be in your bank. Listen. Look at it this way. You’re sitting in your front room on a Wednesday afternoon wondering where you can find the bus fare to take your son to the doctor and some dude rocks in offering you a hundred and fifty grand for three signatures and a little co-operation”

“Where’s the risk?”
 “There’s only one. That is that I pull out part way through. That would leave you with the house and you’d have to sell that on the open market to pay off the debts. That would be quite a lot of hassle, but there would still be something left at the end even after you pay legal fees and estate agents for the sale. Might be some tax somewhere as well. That might drop your share back to maybe a hundred and thirty. But still better than a poke in the ear. But I started this and I have every intention of completing it”

Two days later, Damon was back in the valley. The school was pouring out into the street as he approached and he slowed to watch the antics of the various groups of boys pushing and shoving each other and molesting the girls who might even have been enjoying it, who knows.

Euen was easily recognisable from the dressing on his head. He’d crossed the road just ahead of him to walk home alone, hopefully. A pincer movement from a group of six seemed to be closing in on him, three ahead and three behind. But Damon was disinclined to leave the situation to develop.

“Euen! In the car”

Euen had no idea whose car it was, but it was a lifeline and needed no second invitation. 

“It would be worth you throwing your two pennyworth in to your mum and dad. Selling that house on my deal would be enough to move out of here”

“thanks, mister. But me’ ma’s from round here”

“In which case, she needs to sort out her priorities”

Mevi, however, had already decided and had a home made cake on the table waiting for her meeting with Damon. She was hoping he’d have some legal papers for her to sign, and was not disappointed.

Damon now had no reason to delay. He met Len the next day, and while he was supposed to be retiring, Damon reminded him that that was what he’d said last time. 

This was so much easier than the Studio. It was a fraction of the size and far more like the work the tradesmen were used to on normal houses and farm buildings.

Len assessed the work. He wasn’t a surveyor, but he’d been a builder for over forty years and Damon needed work to be done, not just looked at. And with Len’s track record, Damon was confident.

Amy 

The drive had been interesting. Not far, but different. He’d reckoned that if there was a gate from the forest track out onto the moor, then he’d be able to drive straight across that and in through the gate near the lake at the top of the hill above his house, then take the steep path down the side of the stream as a shortcut in a straight line, even if it took three times as long. 

Concentration was needed on the descent. It was steep, un-surfaced, pebbles, gravel, rocks and deep potholes. He was surprised to see someone sitting near the stream on a grassy knoll, but that would have to wait. He had no idea if he’d be able to get out onto the driveway when he reached the bottom, and even less confident about being able to drive back up.

It wasn’t easy. He got out to inspect the options and decided to drive along the bed of the stream before turning out onto the grassy hill that led up to the track on the house side of the bridge. His alternative was to flatten the fence and Eric would be upset as he’d only just finished building it. 

But there was a certain satisfaction in achieving this. Probably pointless, but he’d completed what he’d set out to do, and now he could walk back up the track and find out who his uninvited guest was. 

Facing west, he could see the weather system that was moving in. The sun was shining, but it was already clear that this wouldn’t last much longer. 

She said hi, and stopped writing. 

“You’re going to evict me aren’t you. Ok. I’m going. I know this is really probably part of your garden, but it’s so peaceful I can get so much done. It’s just impossible at home” 

“Is this your normal homework spot?” 

“Yes, I’ve been coming here since the start of term. I came across it quite by accident. I was on the hill looking for somewhere quiet, but I attracted too much attention from the cows, so I cut down by the lake to escape them, and then I guessed the track would lead down to the lane and that would be my shortest way home. And no-one lived in the house anyway, so I thought no one would mind, so long as I didn’t do any damage” 

“I can’t think that you’ll break anything just sitting on the grass. And you’re very decorative. I don’t have any reason to evict you either. I was really just interested in who my visitor was. And to let you know that the storm clouds are headed this way. You might have missed that if you’ve been facing down the valley all this time” 

She turned her head to look over her shoulder and gasped at the state of the sky just as the first raindrops tumbled onto her head. She jumped in surprise letting her books and papers fall onto the grass. Some of them took off on their own inspired by the breeze that had arrived with the rain and she scrambled to retrieve them. Damon managed to collect some pages too but there were also some that had already made it to the stream. He fished them out, shaking off as much water as he could as she looked on in dismay seeing that some of the ink was now running and the prospect of handing this work in was quickly disappearing. 

“Come on, let’s get back to the house before there are any more disasters” 

They hurried as best they could down the steep rutted path, but comprehensively failed to get back before the heavier rain arrived. 

She was nervous about going inside with him and hesitated, all the time watching her homework and books getting wetter. 

“Come on! All that work’s getting soaked”

Damon put the kettle on and lobbed some more logs onto the fire. She started to warm up as she helped him lay her wet work out across the table on sheets of newspaper to soak up some of the moisture. Kidnapping did not seem to be high on his agenda. 

She gazed blankly at it, trying to assess just how much was ruined and slowly coming to the conclusion that it was indeed a disaster. 

“I suppose I could take it in and show it to him to prove I’d done some work, but I can’t expect him to try to decipher it”

She let out a sigh of terminal exasperation and sat down with a bump, only to jump straight back up as she realised that her clothes she’d sat on were all completely soaked through. 

“I guess I’ll just have to stay up all night and rewrite it. Although that in itself will be a nightmare” 

She explained that she lived with her family, father, mother, two brothers and a sister in a small three bedroom cottage in the village. Mostly, there wasn’t enough space for everyone to sit down at the same time, and the table was used to store plates and pans and things when it wasn’t needed for eating at. Finding anywhere that she could try to read her paper and write a new one at the same time would be tricky. Quite apart from the brotherly noise and the tv and her sister wanting her to play games with her, after all she was only eight and that’s what big sisters were for, wasn’t it? 

Damon brought in the tea and asked when her essay was due in, but this provoked unexpected panic. 

“On no! It’s this Friday. And it’s supposed to count towards my term marks and they count towards my assessment. Oooh! Its hard enough without all this as well!”

It was now all too much and she dissolved into tears. Damon studied the drying pages. Some of the words were completely illegible but could possibly be guessed, given a reasonable knowledge of the subject. And this was biology, and Damon still had some memories of his degree course…. 

“Were you intending to return to your perch on the hill tomorrow?” 

She nodded in resignation “If it wasn’t raining. There are some nice flat stones there I use for holding my book down and my page open while I’m making notes” 

Damon continued to read her essay as she continued 

“But now that you’ve moved in here, that’s probably not an option any more” 

“Hmm. I have an idea. Amy, what I think you should do…” 

“How do you know my name?” 

“It’s at the top of your essay. Hopefully you’ll get one mark for that! But what I suggest is that you go home and play games with your sister and unwind, and I will decipher this essay for you. Then tomorrow you can come over and see what progress I’ve managed to make” 

“Really!” 

“Yes. Because I think right now you could do with a little help” 

“But you’d have stuff planned for this evening?” 

“Nothing that I can’t do tomorrow instead” 

But Amy was already upset with too many things jostling each other for her attention and she blindly agreed.

She tapped on the door with some trepidation. Risky. Unknown territory, strange man. Isolated house. But she’d been ok yesterday. And she had to get her essay back whatever state it was in. She checked behind her in case a quick exit was needed.

“Coffee? Or cup of tea?” as she followed nervously towards the kitchen.

He led her through to the dining room and sat down beside her. There on the table was her essay. Some pages looked recognisable. Some looked like they’d been through the washing machine. And next to them were a few pages of typed script. 

“I keyed it in. It’s so much easier to change because you don’t need to keep scoring stuff out and then rewriting whole pages to make it look tidy again. And we’re on a tight timescale now to be finished by Friday. There were a number of bits that I had some trouble with, but where it was completely indecipherable, I had to make it up” 

She looked incredulous “What! Made it up? Does it make any sense?” 

“Well, you did, didn’t you? Although. I think we should go through it, rather than you just hand it in. But a long time ago I did get a degree and I think I still remember some of it” 

“A degree?”

“Yes, Cellular Physiology and I still remember something about it” 

Her incredulous look prompted him to continue “So I changed a couple of things that weren’t quite right, but I’ll tell you about them when we get to those bits” 

It was so comforting going through her work with him and she shuffled closer so that they could share the page better. She’d made a few silly mistakes, which he’d corrected and then a section that he’d added

“When I was reading it, it seemed to jump about. This section explains how you get from here to there so that it flows better”

It did indeed. That would have cost her marks, and this new version just seemed so much more complete and confident.

He knew the subject and she was grateful for the help, but the thought constantly resurged that sooner or later the endless tea, coffee, biscuits and academic assistance would give way to a suggestion that maybe she was wearing too much, or that there was a very comfortable bed they could lie down on together.

She broached the subject carefully with her best friend

“Is he nice? Like, friendly and gentle? Not greasy and slimy like them over there? Amy, I’d just go with it. Could even be a good deal, and you gotta start somewhere aint ya”

She returned to her place by the stream over the weekend and had made it as far as the house on Monday before the rain hit her. In near panic, she tried the door and almost fell into the hallway in her surprise that it was actually open. She called out, but there was no reply. She sat down at the table in the dining room and spread her work out. Oh! This was so much more sensible. Plenty of space, all references open at once, not blowing away into the gorse bushes and a solid surface to write on. 

Damon, however, was elusive. And for the next few days too, and she got to feeling that maybe she’d owe him whatever he asked for by the time he came back because she’d been using his house so much. The weather was turning in and she got to thinking that some things were inevitable. You just had to get used to the idea even if you didn’t like it much to start with.

Two weeks on, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the knock on the door. Damon? But surely not. He wouldn’t knock his own door.

“Afternoon, missy. I got 14 ton of lump stone for ye. Where d’you want it put?”

She stared at him blankly

“Reckon its for re-buildin’ that wall at front. I’ll tip it just inside the gate for ye. That’ll be easy for me. Can ye sign here?”

But lump-stone was only the first of many.

She was looking out through the front window when she recognised Damon in the convertible that pulled in through the gateway. The path rose steeply from there to the front door, giving the house its elevated position, and she met him just outside the front door, like, she reflected later, a dutiful wife.

He cast his eyes and waved his arm in a wide arc around the assembly of deliveries – palettes of roof tiles, block cobblestones, sacks of cement, a stack of construction timber and an entire sand dune

“Been shopping?”

She stood there, agape until he continued “Thanks for looking after all this for me. Work should start tomorrow and take four or five weeks, but I’ve asked all the tradesmen to finish by 4.30 so that there’s peace and quiet for you doing your homework. You don’t want to be out by the stream as the Autumn weather draws in”

He glanced at her papers on the dining room table 

“I was about to rewrite that” she explained “It’s a bit scruffy now with all my changes”
 He powered up the computer. You ought to use this. It will make all the difference in legibility and presentation. It may take a little longer till you get used to typing, but it will save hours of effort when you make any changes”

She watched attentively as he showed her how to use it and felt something of a buzz rather than fear and fright when he slipped his arm round her waist to show her the function of a few keys on the far side of the keyboard

This was great. This was exactly what she needed, and that little cuddle was something of a bonus as well

“There is one thing you could do for me…”

Oh wow. I’ve no idea how I’m going to react if he suggests….

“There’s a couple of pallets of tiles due on Tuesday. If I tell them to deliver after half past four, can you be here to show them where to put them? They’re rather expensive, so I don’t want them just dumped”

She followed him across the back courtyard to the barn for the location for the tiles, then on round the rest of the house as he explained what was going to be done

“But I’m nervous about you being here on your own with all these random workmen, although they should be gone by the time you get here”

But they weren’t gone. Some of them wanted to work till late to take advantage of the fair weather. Her dad was a self employed labourer providing a strong hand to anyone who needed it, and she recognised a few of them as having worked with him. Every day there was more progress and she made a point of making sure that they knew that she’d noticed.

Jack had left school the previous year, having neither the aptitude nor attitude to take farther education, but he’d been in some classes with her and they were still very much on speaking terms if they bumped into each other around the village.

“Jack…” she opened thoughtfully “…that tiling doesn’t look finished to me. Is it supposed to have gaps between them like that?”

She’d tried to sound inquisitive rather than critical and Jack assessed the work

“We’ll sort that tomorrow, Might have to take them off and redo it”

“You won’t break any will you? They’re really expensive”
 “May have to just cover it up”
 “Aw Jack. Damon’s trusting you guys to work on your own without him hassling you. Least you can do is do a proper job”

“Suppose… Else we’ll get you hassling us instead”

Work continued. Old Eric rebuilt the dry stone boundary wall, Word got round amongst the trades that she was there to make sure the work was done properly, and this ‘homework’ of hers was just a smokescreen. Every day she went there after school and soon lost most of her reservations about being on her own with the workmen. It was looking like an equitable deal. She’d supervise the work, and Damon would give her a library to work in.

He dropped in irregularly and she found she was always pleased to see him finding that he was really quite knowledgeable particularly on Chemistry which was her other A-level subject but also on general knowledge of all sorts of things.

Half term was creeping up on her and with it the mock exams. Revision! Reading through her notes and trying to remember some of it – and not easy with the background noise and interruptions at her house.

But one of his irregular visits coincided with the day before her inorganic chemistry mock, and she spent the evening answering his quick fire questions as he worked his way through the index of her text book. 

Now with a few days off, she had every intention of spending most of it at Damon’s house. He explained the controls on the Jacuzzi that she’d seen being built in the barn across the courtyard from the back door, and she took that as a silent invitation to use it, although nervous about wearing so little when the workmen were around.

Not far into the new half-term the work on the house was completing. She answered the door to a quiet elderly man who introduced himself purely as Len and that he’d come round to inspect all the work. He said he’d done a lot of work for Damon at another property of his, and Amy realised that, after all the times she’d met Damon, she knew almost nothing about him. 

The work on the house was now finished, but Damon was still too busy to spend much time there. Being in the bar at the Studio in the evening extended his working day, discussing bands, answering questions and helping the less experienced staff and musicians.

But he made it along to the farmhouse just to make sure it was still ok. He’d reckoned that Amy would have continued to go round there after school because that was the logical sensible option, and sure enough, she was there when he arrived.

But all was not well. She looked up from her position at the dining room table where she was looking at some work rather than doing it as he peeked in offering a cheery “Cup of tea?”

She offered a thin smile, but looked exactly like she’d break down with only the slightest provocation.

Damon put tea, and even biscuit, on hold and sat down beside her

“What’s up babe?”

She stared at him, breathing deeply to try to hold it together

“There’s some problems with family back in Ireland, and…. and we’re all moving back there…”

“What about your coursework, and exams?”
 “What about them. Dad doesn’t have any qualifications. Neither does mum. There’s no sympathy there…”

But that in itself was all too much. Damon folded his arms round her as she tried not to cry. Then he led her through to the library, abandoning the idea of tea, he poured her a large Bacardi and coke and a scotch for himself.

“I’m trying to think of some way I can stay. Len told me that you were having the house redone so that you could live here with your girlfriend. I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean me! So that put an end to me asking if I could stay here. A friend at school has a spare room at her house, and her mum could do with the little extra that renting it out would bring, so long as the lodger wasn’t too much trouble, and that had put her off so far, so that’s a possibility”
 “What’s you dad’s reaction to that?”
 “He’s not completely against it. He’d save on food and everything if I wasn’t staying with him in Ireland, but not so much as to pay my whole rent over here”

“What about you looking after yourself?”
 She shrugged “Mum and dad got married when they were both just a few months older than me. I’m 17. That’s enough. Although I think the world has moved on and England is a different place to County Kerry. Whoa! This is quite strong! What’s in here?”
 “Just enough to calm you down. Now. Have you considered what it is you want to do?”
 “Damon, my whole life, my plan, so much as there was one, was to get my ‘A’s and then hopefully go to Uni. I’d probably have to live on my grant and get a job in a pub in the evening, but it all sounded possible. Damon!...” she said getting agitated “…I resent it! Being pulled out of school by people who have to concept of what social progress is… Damon, I’ve worked for this and there’s only a few months left”
 “Ok, ok. Amy calm down. Lets just explore this a little and see if there’s a solution. Maybe there’s not enough Bacardi in there to cool your emotions, but any more and I think you’d stop thinking straight. So, do you know how much your friend’s mum wants for her room? Would there be any extras? Like electricity, heating or laundry? That is, how much do you need to stay there and could you get a job after school that paid that much?”
 “No”

“What? To all of them…?”
 “No, just I don’t know exactly”

“ok, ok. Now lets just take another sip of your drink and calm down again. So, what sort of work would you consider?”

Her eyes widened in surprise 

“No!” Damon interrupted “…Before you even suggest it!”
 “I wasn’t going to! It’s just the way your question sounded, like, a bit suggestive.…” ok, so maybe this Bacardi was beginning to take effect. She wasn’t after all, a seasoned drinker.
 “Ok. And I do know a girl called Debbie who did exactly that when she took a year out from Uni. But what I meant was waitressing, cooking, cleaning, gardening. Not sure if you’d be ok in a bar at only 17 although you’d be ok collecting glasses”

“Hmm. Maybe not gardening. It’ll be dark come the winter, but anything else…. No, not quite anything else!”

“Ok. Task for this evening is to finish that homework. Task for tomorrow is to find some answers. How much would you need to survive. Not over the top, but it has to be realistic. And is there a realistic chance that your dad would let you stay – even if it was only to save the cost of your food. Then, not tomorrow but the next day, find a year 9 girl called Ellie Fairweather. She’s new this term, and instead of going home, go with her”

Any looked incredulous “Do what? Damon! Oh, ok”

Being a senior sixth former, Amy had quite a few study periods, and that meant that tracking down Ellie was not as onerous as it would be if she was restricted to break times only. Not just that, but Ellie was expecting her.

“Hi. Are you Amy?” she opened as Amy lurked by the Geography door as the class was breaking for lunch

“Yes, are you Ellie. Damon said you were new here. How are you settling in…”

The conversation continued through lunch, with Amy finally asking Ellie about where she lived

“It’s a great big ancient mansion with dozens of rooms. Its a bit like a hotel and some of the staff stay there too. But you cant just rock in because really its more like an Edwardian mansion because you need an invitation just to get through the gate” 

“Damon told me I needed to cost out staying with my friend, so why would he want me to come home with you?”

“That’s not quite the plan. For sure we should meet after school and you should come with me, but we’re not going home. We’re going to Furzecombe”
 “Where?”
 “Furzecombe Farm. Except there’s no farming there any more. Its where the dup plant is, but I’ve never been there before so it’ll be really exciting”
 “Dup Plant? What’s that. And if it’s a plant, why isn’t it farming?”
 “Oh, Amy, I don’t know. I don’t know that much about it. As I said I’ve never been there, but I’m really looking forward to it. Everyone at the Studio got really excited when it opened quite recently. Juliette was on cloud 9, maybe 10! Keith went over there just to prove it really existed! He didn’t believe it cos they’re hugely expensive. I think we need to wait till we get there so I don’t get it all wrong”

As planned, Ellie was waiting for her, but instead of moving with the crowd towards the waiting busses, they walked a short way in the other direction and stopped in a clearer area as Gustav stopped next to them in the large Mercedes. Amy hesitated. What was this. But it cant be suspicious. Damon has already had every chance… and Ellie’s cheery ‘Hi Gustav’ seemed to terminate that train of thought. She smiled apologetically to her friends as she climbed in and was whisked away.

“Hi, Miss Ellie. Good day at school?”
 “Yes thankyou Gustav…”
 “But Miss Ellie, I don’t have your friend here on the invite list, so we’ll have a problem at the gatehouse. You know what Natalia is like with extra people she doesn’t know about”
 “Its no problem. We need to take Amy to Furzedcombe. I’m hoping to take a look round too. I’ve never been there before”

“Furzecombe! Ah, the dup plant. Maybe I could look too. It sounds so strange. Put one in at one end and ten thousand come out the other. I’d like to see that too!”

Inside the barn they all gazed at the anonymous white boxes and listened to the whirring of the machinery from outside on the glass viewing platform. Angela was busy, but she broke off to explain simply that the Studio would make one copy – the master, but to get into he charts they could need half a million and that’s what this machinery did.

Gustav was on a short timescale and whisked Ellie away leaving Amy to discuss employment possibilities with Graham and Damon.

“There’ll be no shortage of things to do, but what I’d like you to concentrate on is picking up the orders from the US West Coast who prefer to phone up during the evening. A lot of these still go through to Andrea and we want to get them coming in here directly. But there’s also an increasing amount of just moving stuff around and re-labelling the shelves”

Amy caught up with Ellie the next day to thank her for her help and to ask a very basic question

“Ok, so that was an Alpha Tyger album that was being duplicated. But where does the original come from?”
 “That comes from the the great big manor house where I live. But its actually a manic recording studio, which is why you cant just rock up and rent a room. There’s always new bands coming and going, and a lot of them are successful, like Saint Urchin”.

This is not a career sector that she’d considered when she decided on Chemistry and Biology A levels. But then neither was working in a bar that she might do at Uni.

Damon intended to make sure that her part time job earned enough for her to pay her own rent, although he’d like her to run a hoover round the farmhouse every now and then as well. This wasn’t expected to last very long. Her exams would be in a few months and then she could work full time through the summer holidays.

So, was that another piece of the puzzle, or just a spare loose end? as Damon sat on the quiet balcony collecting his own thoughts. This particular balcony was the one outside the board room on the first floor overlooking the garden, the lawn and the lake. Oh my! The transformation that Sienna had performed, but he’d have to remember to remind her that it was ok to hire another gardener if she’s planning to re-invent the vegetable garden. 

Annabelle had gone. Not that Damon was complaining. He didn’t want anyone around that didn’t want to be there. Juliette was getting a handle on sorting out the admin side of the Estate. He knew she was leaking information out to Liam about which section was next and what the likely outcome was, and word would soon get back to her if anyone was seriously bent out of shape. And she was getting on ok with Stuart too.

Nicki was increasingly taking over from Michelle in making sure that everyone knew about all the new arrivals and scheduling Gustav and sometimes Colin to collect and deliver people all round the area – to the station, to the Duplication Plant and even to school. And she was keeping Karen under control to make sure that the flow of new bands was something practicable while maintaining Karen’s enthusiasm. Hazel’s first tours had been short and increasingly the bands were coming back, just to go round all over again. That was another source of activity to add to Karen’s. And there was an increasing number of requests and demo tapes arriving unsolicited. They covered the complete spectrum from unsigned bands who were clearly rubbish to established chart toppers whose contract with their record label was coming to an end.

He breathed out, long and slow. The Studio was working. The Estate was making enough profit to pay for it. And it would all only increase.

The Grove

Off the wall challenges were not confined to random schoolgirls. 

As a restaurant, The Grove had been gaining an enviable reputation in its few short months of opening. It served a predominantly British menu, but Francesca had introduced her native Italian influences into almost everything, giving it a rather quirky difference. Hazel particularly liked it, and she tended to get off site more than most for a bit of peace and quiet and non-work conversation with her dinner. It was understandable, although Damon was still disappointed that he’d never been invited.

He ambled into Juliette’s office quietly creeping up behind her and as anticipated she leapt in surprise, recovering into a wide smile as he sat down uninvited.

She confirmed that the outbuildings that the Grove was actually based in were within the Estate boundary, being part of Overbury Manor. The rent was negligible, but Francesca and Amberto had put in a huge amount of work just to stop it from falling down completely. It was only supposed to be temporary, but the longer they stayed the more established they got and the harder it became to consider moving. Now, however, it was rumoured to be closing.

Hazel had been asking who would be responsible for buildings like that, and Lisa had suggested that she talk to Juliette. Damon too thought it would be very sad. He liked to see people succeed when they’d put in a huge effort, although he’d be the first to declare that there’s never any marks for just trying.

He invited Juliette to lunch. She already knew Francesca and introduced them before turning the conversation to the state of the building and the impact on the restaurant. Amberto joined them and then led them over to the taped off section where a large crack had appeared in the stone structure following some particularly persistent flooding. Amberto had decided that it was safe for the time being but Juliette was more concerned. If the building collapsed, she might be partly liable on behalf of the company that owned it and she infected Damon with that increasing nervousness.

With lunch in front of them, their discussion moved on to what, if anything, they could or even should do.

These outbuildings had originally been associated with Overbury Manor, which itself was unoccupied and, Juliette suggested, would itself be falling into disrepair unless they could rent it out fairly soon. Attempts so far had failed as it was too big for most people. Adam had considered moving in to it with Georgina, but abandoned the idea when Damon suggested that he’d have plenty of space for Gordon to stay if he ever ventured out into the outback. Penny had previously checked with the county planning department and a change of use to a small hotel would be no problem. But Damon didn’t want a hotel. He didn’t want to encourage visitors who would then wander about across the farmland and would eventually find the Studio garden and become a nuisance. 

But now that Juliette knew about the crack in the wall she felt obliged to get her surveyor to assess it – it was the professional thing to do and in the best interests of the company. Amberto’s face fell as the verdict was pronounced. At the moment, it appeared to be stable, but that was unlikely to remain the case in the event of farther downpours, and in that case it would almost certainly become unsafe as commercial premises. Francesca was close to tears.

The next afternoon Damon arrived with Lisa just as lunch service was ending. He knew she’d be nervous about accepting an unexpected invitation to drive somewhere with him and Lisa was really invited as chaperone, apart from needing to learn a lot more about the Estate. They left Amberto to finish clearing down and drove Francesca the long way round to approach Overbury Manor from the road rather than trying to navigate the swamp that was supposed to be the meadow that separated them. Francesca failed comprehensively to contain her excitement. From the prospect of their dream crumbling to dust, here was the possibility of expansion into something that had much more potential, was much more exciting and much more permanent.

As in her previous assignments, Juliette didn’t sit about pondering for very long. Her property maintenance teams descended on the Manor that weekend clearing, cleaning and redecorating. This was so much up-market from the barn they would move out of, and Amberto looked on with some trepidation of what the rent would be on such a building. The cost had not been discussed, except for Lisa to tell them not to worry about it, and for Juliette to confirm that if Damon said don’t worry about it, it meant he already had something appropriate in mind.

Gareth had offered assistance from Stuarts forestry teams to clear the driveway and create some woodland pathways, and to provide the physical muscle to move the kitchen equipment and furnishings. And in true Juliette style, it was only a matter of days before Francesca was familiarising herself with the new kitchen layout in this new location. Now as the frenetic activity subsided, Damon invited Sienna to review the result. 

Sienna had looked forward to this lunch date and was pleasantly surprised that it had the least work content of any of her meetings with Damon. He did want her to recover the garden, but not at the expense of delaying work at the Studio. He knew from their discussion about Upper Elfinvale that she would prefer to concentrate on the Studio garden and do that appropriately rather than take on too much and do none of them properly. Instead, she suggested that she contact her previous employers and see how much they would charge to do the job.

Alan answered her call immediately, but it was clear that there was a lot of other activity in his office as well. 

“I could just meet you in the Threshers at six. A pint might help you unwind as well!”

This was different as well. Sienna setting the agenda not only with Damon, but with Alan as well! Where had that shy, reclusive introvert disappeared to?

She explained as best she could what was required “and” she said “don’t bother even turning up if you’re not going to quote me a sensible price”

“Point taken Senny. But it depends on the standard you’re expecting”

“Well, I certainly wont put up with anything substandard, and I don’t want to spend half my time inspecting the work. If that’s the case, I might as well do it myself”

Alan was already familiar with the quality of Sienna’s work. Was she still maintaining that high a standard?

Instead, they agreed that he would visit the Studio. There he would be able to see what she had been doing, and the standard that would be required.

Sienna had got very used to the way that the Studio worked. The building was no longer a surprise. Still as impressive, but that’s just the way it was and no longer did she stop to gaze at the ceilings every time she headed for the bar. Alan, however, had never come across anything like it. He’d nearly recovered from being stopped at the gatehouse when Lisa greeted him as he parked his car and led him through to the terrace

“I’ll go and make sure Sienna knows you’ve arrived, and I’ll ask Adrienne to get coffee for you”

He knew very little about where Sienna had gone to work after she’d left his company. She’d said it was a private house and that she was head gardener, and he leant on the balustrade gazing out across the gently sloping lawn, noticing how well kept the verges and paths were, and the giant flower pots full of colour dotted between the tables. Private house? With at least three waitresses just on this terrace! Five star hotel?

Adrienne, coffee and Sienna all arrived together and they chatted quietly while they finished their drink. Then she opened her photo album and showed him what the garden was like before she started. They walked through the restored sections as far as the orchard, and back via the tennis court. 

“It would be nice if the perennials had name tags, It just looks more professional, and I expect a lot of the customers to the Grove are active gardeners and would be interested”

Alan was dumbstruck, and it certainly seemed like she was indeed head gardener from the comments and questions that interrupted their walk. 

“What I suggest now, Alan, is that we go over to the location and assess the actual task, now that you’ve got an idea of what I’d be expecting. Then we’ll return here for lunch and maybe talk about costs”

He’d always known her as hardly having the confidence to drive anywhere and usually just took her bike, but now she’d turned the key on a brand new Range Rover and a few minutes later they were at the Grove

“We could stay here for lunch. I hear its very good”

“No, Alan. Damon doesn’t want me to discuss costs if Francesca or Amberto might hear”

Alan prepared to go. Lunch was perfect. The setting on the terrace overlooking the lawn and the lake was perfect. Sienna was a revelation and this contract at the Grove was almost like being a part of it all as well.

“The Royal Society would be really interested in this, Sienna. It’s the sort of thing they love to put in the centre spread, you being an ex-student of theirs”

Alan would have relished the thought of being centre spread in The Garden magazine and could not imagine that any other gardener wouldn’t want that as well. Perhaps this trip out to the Grove with her had persuaded him to forget how fragile and nervous Sienna really was but he still took great personal satisfaction in phoning the Society with this suggestion. 

Sienna was all the more surprised when Lisa gave her the message

“That name’s familiar, Lisa. Oh! I know, she’s editor of The Garden”

Sienna was not completely happy about this. She was flattered that her work might be of interest, but she also knew how hard it had been for her to be so assertive with Alan, and she knew it was temporary. Really, she was too reserved to take centre stage. But it would only be polite to return Barbara’s call, but she also wanted to have someone with her when she did. Someone sensible. Michelle? She was always supportive. Except she was infinitely more confident.

The call was friendly. It was nice talking to fellow professionals about garden design rather than to professional musicians about the end result, and a little of that confidence peeked through at just the wrong moment.

It was with serious trepidation that she knocked on Damons office door. Damon too was nervous. He had always known her to be reserved and he’d always tried to be sympathetic to her and understood that not everyone wanted to play centre stage. They’d had innumerable meetings, and some off-site dinners as well, but this time she’d invited Michelle as well! What could that possibly be about?

Ok, so the garden was not open to the public. It was really attached to and surrounding a private residence, but that did not mean it wouldn’t make a spectacular article promoting the work of the Royal Horticultural Society. And after all, it was a specialised magazine, and largely appealed to an up-market audience and being featured didn’t commit them to operating any differently. If Sienna wanted to do this, if she was confident enough to do this, it would give her another element to her cv for when she eventually needed it, and move her another step away from being a hermit.

Lisa, however, found it slightly more fraught. Barbara was used to getting her own way, and very much had a mind of her own. Lisa’s insistence, mild as it was, that clause 5 would be enforced was not going down well. Lisa eventually admitted failure and passed the call to Michelle. She explained it the way she’d explained it so many times, that it was set up for musicians which was their primary focus, and that exceptions would set a dangerous precedent. That was the way it was. The invitation was still open, but the code of conduct could not be compromised.

Barbara wanted to get this article. Chameleon Media was becoming really high profile and that would reflect on them as well. 

“…. But I don’t like being dictated to”

“Barbara!” chided her cameraman flatly “They’ve explained the reasoning, and it doesn’t even have to be unreasonably short. You’re a woman. How hard can it be to wear a skirt?”

The day arrived and the team assembled early for the drive to the West Country. She calmed down in the car, now having been steamrollered into wearing a dress she reflected that it needn’t set a precedent in her own office and, presumably, the other women on site will be similarly dressed. A bit like a wedding. She’d got used to the idea by the time they got to the gatehouse, and here was someone specifically employed to check it!

“No ma-am. Just the invite list check and the dress code”

“Really! And what happens to people who fail to comply”

“They don’t get in – end of story”

This was turning into a series of revelations about an alternative way of life. Totally committed to individualism, equally totally opposed to equality and hard commercial success supporting the ethics. Barbara had failed to recover from this before the ‘house’ came into view. They stopped their car on the crest and stared down across the sheep meadow. Of course they’d all seen country manor houses before – hundreds of them, and interviewed the gardeners and taken thousands of pictures - but seldom before on this scale.

Damon met them outside the front entrance

“Welcome to my home” he opened pointedly, and led them through to the terrace for a pre lunch drink while Lisa, as planned, went to find Sienna. Damon explained the distinction between the garden and the estate, that the garden was a mere eighty acres, while the estate was something over twenty thousand, and yes, he did own all of it, until Sienna arrived

“Oh! I thought that the photographs would be more natural if you were dressed for work”

Sienna was taken aback. She had expected to at least start on a friendly note

“But I am! I thought that Lisa had explained that there were no exceptions to the dress code? Although if I’m due to do any high level pruning, or stretching I do tend to wear something suitably longer”

Of course! Thought Barbara, now deflated. Why didn’t I think of that?

Over lunch, Barbara couldn’t help but notice the other ‘guests’. So neat. So tidy, she found that it actually lifted her spirits to see everyone dressed so nicely. No scruffs, no rips. It very much looked like everyone had paid significant attention to their appearance and the world was a better place for it!

The afternoon was taken up with their walk around, ending in the specialist garden next to the tennis court. This, explained Sienna, was a plantsman’s garden. Everything was named and explained, whereas the rest of the garden was specifically a sensory place for musicians to recover – whether that was from an exhausting tour or a train crash studio session. And again it was just so delightful to see everyone well behaved and smartly dressed to the point that Barbara started to consider if it would be appropriate or even possible in her offices.

“Its all part of the success” Damon was explaining as he invited them to stay for an early dinner “Its an integral part of the company. So many artists have been persuaded to try again after just sitting for a while by the green fountain or overlooking the ha-ha with a fresh apple picked from a tree. Or just sitting in the orchard where the trees grow strong despite the weeds trying to strangle them. So many tracks have been composed here – Druze Lazenby, Yan and Denise from East of Bruges. Its where Poppy from the Essential rediscovered the will to continue.

 And our resident composer, Stephanie, seems to spend her life out here”. 

No-one dressed for dinner as might be expected in a five star hotel – they were already dressed up and Barbara left mid evening with a winning feature page and a dozen unanswered questions about her personal outlook on life.

But the focus had been on Sienna. It was her that was being pushed in to being not so shy. It was her that was credited with creating this masterpiece. And Barbara was thanking her lucky stars that she had agreed to the conditions and visited Sienna’s garden.

Everything is finished

Damon’s dream was complete. Bands were flowing through, impressing the fans and the critics, and giving the press something dynamic to write about. Work on the house was finished. The garden would be awesome when the season came round and the estate was making enough money to sustain everything else. This is what he set out to do and as a bonus, Jason Rheinhart was apoplectic. And now all he had to do was to recognise that the job was finally done.

Yes, it had to settle down – it had to develop its own rhythm and in order to do that it needed to be left alone and not continually changed. Or maybe left alone it would continually change itself. It would evolve, but this also meant he had time to think about the other aspects he wanted to cover with the Studio – coaching, mentoring and helping musicians achieve their full potential, rather than take them exactly as they are and let them sink or swim. This is what he’d done with East of Bruges, now a worldwide success story. And The Essential, and the Tygers. He’d put All Seven in this bag as well, insisting on restraint while they were all still at school. And Philamental – even if it was just a new guitar.

There were also young musicians to encourage – like he had at the school competition. And now maybe there was time to invite Megan and Dawn. At least until something else rocks in.

Young (at heart)

The Studio was buzzing, Adam was on a high and Nicki was having to check the capacity of the House as part of her scheduling. Karen was still finding undiscovered superstars. Their bands were already in all 4 corners of the world and returning to record their next supporting album before Hazel had them back out to a different series of countries. And if that wasn’t enough, recordings of all varieties were arriving unsolicited every day. It was Olly that was taking the initial view of these, mostly writing a few polite comments on why not and returning the sample, and the all important bank balance was pounding off northwards.

That all meant that Damon had more time available to move on to this other something that he had always wanted the Studio to do. 

He’d already called Megan. And spoken to Kim. And now it was Mark’s turn. Mark would know less about all this, but the conversation wasn’t nearly as complicated as Damon had feared. 

Yes, he was the guy who had lent Dawn the Korg, which she still had. And yes, he was the guy who was on stage with young Vicki and also with Megan. Yes, and delivering the bouquet to the lady who had done most the organisation. And now? Damon explained that there would be five of them there. Geoff Blazer, who was the drummer in the band that came second in the competition, and Al and Callum who he probably didn't know because they lived in Leeds, and Megan who Mark said he did know. 

“But there'll also be quite a few other people on site. We'll have anything up to twenty bands staying here, plus the permanent crew. We've not had any trouble yet, but then everyone has been over 18 with a few notable exceptions, and they all knew that if they didn’t behave they'd be on the next train home. Mark, it's just that I don't want to take risks that can be avoided.. And if you were able to stay, Dawn would know you’re there to help her and maybe discuss things with her instead of being on her own. Ok Meg would help, but I still want her to know that she’s still under family control and cant make unilateral decisions. I know she’s sixteen now, but I still don’t think she’s old enough to take these decisions on her own.” 

“Yes, the industry has something of a reputation” 

“Exactly. And while we don't use those tactics, it's not to say some unauthorised character wouldn't suggest something”

Marks next call was to Kim. He hardly knew her, but she was Megan's mum. She might be able to verify Damon’s view and if she was going as well it hardly made sense to take two cars, especially if his wife had arranged to go anywhere that weekend 

“Ok,” she'd agreed “and it also means that the girls will arrive together which I think is a benefit” 

Damon’s plan was simple. Get 4 or 5 excellent young musicians together at the studio and see how interested they are in progressing a career in music, either individually or forming themselves into a band. The theory suggested it would work, but it was really an experiment. This would also help Adam judge just how much help people like that would need to get to the top. 

He had no intention of suggesting they leave school - this was about how to fit it all in assuming that they even wanted to try. 

Blaze was dropped off by his dad the previous afternoon. His evening had been spent talking to the musicians in the bar and trying hard not to drink too much. 

Now Lisa was introducing Callum and Al and they waited with mounting excitement for the girls to arrive. Blaze said he knew the girls from school and that Meg had sung on stage with the Chameleons, which only served to set the bar higher for everyone.

Damon ran through the schedule for the weekend and explained the equipment in the rehearsal room. The first part was to leave them together to get to know each other and hear each other play. What would make the difference was synchronisation and relationships and chemistry. 

“Were you on stage too?” Callum asked Dawn rather pointedly

“Not during the performance. I was part of the stage crew. I flew on ahead to make sure that everything was set up. Like check that the trip switch was set properly”

Megan was letting it pass. This guy’s tone of voice was all wrong and she turned away to twiddle some of the dials on the rack of electronics.

But the chemistry wasn’t limited to the younger contingent

“I’m told that the gardens are unmissable. I think we should take the opportunity while we can, because I don’t know how much we’ll need to be involved later”

The walk out beyond the orchard and down the side of the ha-ha into the sheep meadow was perhaps farther than they were expecting to go but it was a lovely afternoon and such a magical place.

“Its such a beautiful place. D’you know what it feels like to me?”
 She glanced over with an encouraging smile

“It just feels quite like you and me have gone away together for the weekend” 

“Yes” she'd said wistfully “but if that was the case there's some other things we might be doing as well” 

She turned towards him and took his hand swinging his arm high in the air as they walked and the house disappeared behind them. But that was far enough. They didn’t know when they’d be called upon, and staying close to the house was probably expected, but they returned via the lake.

Was that an only slightly disguised invitation? Maybe? And the row out to the island just before dinner had all the hallmarks of an expectant date.

Later that evening, Mark’s thoughts returned to exactly that. He'd taken a bottle of wine up to his room from the bar with a view to inviting her to help him drink it, but had chickened out. Did he really want to push this whole relationship that far this soon? He’d only just met her. Ok, so they’d driven up together but he still didn't know her very well and he knew from experience there was a big difference between flirting and encouragement. 

But that was before the tap on the door. She slipped in quietly, also remembering the conversations earlier. Mark was sitting on the edge of his bed, and she sat down beside him. He looked up in pleasant surprise but her just sitting down so close to him sealed the new perspective on the situation. Surely you can't just go round to a guys room at eleven o’clock at night, sit on his bed with him and not expect something to happen. Maybe it was just a question she had that wouldn't wait till the morning? but he certainly didn't want to disappoint her or make her feel rejected. He’d been encouraging her as well and now that she’d made this effort, it was his responsibility to make it easier for her from here.

“Glass of wine, Kim?” 

“Ooh, yes please. Have you got any? or do we need to go back to the bar?” 

He opened the bottle and poured two large glasses. As they sat back on the bed

“You know, Kim, this is he kind of weekend I'd like to have. I know this place is invitation only, but it's a lovely building and the food is excellent and the staff are great, especially that Adrienne girl in the restaurant. There's so much going on and to see and do. Its all so different and exciting”
 “Yes. I think one of the best things was rowing out across the lake. But Mark, the very best bit of this weekend is just being with someone who wants to be with me” 

“I agree. It's so refreshing being with someone who takes an interest”

This was near perfect. His bedroom relationship with his wife was non-existent - she was as frigid as the Artic and he’d given up banging his head against that particular brick wall. He’d stayed together with her for Dawn’s sake, but that reason wouldn’t last too long, especially if Kim was in a similar position as she explained that Alan was a wild-life photographer and spent his entire life out on the moor trying to catch that elusive epic shot.

“Mark…” she whispered slowly, pressing even more closely “…spending the night together isn’t the same as a full sized affair. It just means we’re having a perfect weekend”

Relaxed, elated and thoughtful she lay awake feeling no guilt whatsoever. Both their partners deserved nothing less and tipping the balance in their own favour was long overdue. Its just that they hadn’t met before, or at least not in such suitable circumstances.

The briefing would be at nine, but it was unlikely that there’d be much scheduled after that except lunch. If Megan was right, the band would be rehearsing all morning. 

But Megan was not right. The plan for the morning was to interrupt the rehearsals with a group discussion involving everyone on how to fit music in with the inevitable school work. The boys had all travelled without adult company, but Al had little hesitation asking advice from Kim. 

Blaze was adamant he wanted to get his A levels, while Callum was all for jacking in school right then and concentrating full time on his guitar. 

Music reconvened after lunch and Kim and Mark headed out towards the walled garden discussing the girls’ musical future. Agreeing wasn’t hard. Both of them felt that the answer was all but obvious, but were concerned that Callum would be pulling them in the opposite direction. He was clearly less academic than the others, but was intense when he concentrated on his guitar. By the time they’d made it as far as the meadow beyond the ha-ha they’d agreed to be positive about Callum, but that his circumstances were different to Dawn and Megan, and that they would be taking a less aggressive timescale, and that moving at Blaze’s even slower pace would not be an issue either. Mark said that he’d suggest this option to Al as well, because he sounded earlier like he was looking for some advice and direction. But Callum was not in the same frame of mind.

And with the important discussions complete, more physical activity could take priority, out of sight of the house, the garden, and everywhere else.

“Grief mum” greeted Megan as they met for dinner “You two look worn out”

“Yes, we set off for a long walk” said Mark
 “Looks like it too!”

Not that we got very far, thought Kim, but then Mark hadn’t said they had.

The discussion over dinner indicated that the decisions were all already made

“Damon, I think there’s a practical difficulty in having the band members living so far apart” Megan was saying trying to disguise the fact that she didn’t like either of the guitarists very much.

“Yes, and we all want to move at different rates. Like Callum wants to get on in there and Blaze wants to back off for two years” added Dawn

Blaze summed it up “Damon, we’re all really grateful for this opportunity, and we cant thank you enough for thinking about us when you decided to set this up. We all want to pursue music as a career and that’s for sure. But not all together because we all want a different fall back option”

“That was one of the anticipated outcomes of this weekend, and that’s ok. Its not terminal at all for any of you. I’ll be back in touch with a more personal approach and discuss individual plans. But don’t any of you feel under any pressure or obligation. If you change your mind, just say so”

The boys went their separate ways, leaving Dawn and Mark, Megan and Kim, Damon and Adam together in the bar.

“What might work, Damon…” started Dawn putting her glass of something alcoholic down on the table “…is Meg and me. Like, she’s on vocals and I’m backing that on keyboard. We could get a bit of percussion or rhythm just from the korg as well. We did a few tracks together when Meg was rehearsing for the tour and it seemed to work then”

“Yes” added Kim “I was at that rehearsal, and they sounded very much together”

“And we live quite close to each other, and the girls are in class together and have a similar view of timescales and priorities” completed Mark, glancing over at Kim to try to assess her silent confirmation

Adam nodded “Yeah. I’m not against that”A6

“Damon…” Megan continued, now nervously “Dawn and me laid down four tracks today…”
 “We did?”

“Yeah. I hit the record button while the guys were discussing guitar tuning. There’ll be a little background noise from the mic, but I think the keyboard was direct input”

The other five stopped in astounded silence which Megan felt obliged to break

“I did try to learn something on that tour, Damon. But I don’t think I’m ready to take over a mixing desk quite yet”

“Adam and me will take a listen. It sounds like a definite possibility”

“Thanks for your support, dad” Dawn said in the car on the way home

“That’s ok honey. I’ve always tried to support you but I don’t want you to lose track of your schoolwork either. Even if this does become very important too”

“I’ll second that” added Kim. Especially as there might be other weekends at the Studio and maybe the odd rehearsal evening”

And Mark smiled back, just at the inference.

Home?

But the Studio was changing. It was buzzing. It was hectic. It was exciting. Damon and Adam were no strangers to enjoying their work, or working 24/7. That’s what had kept them touring and playing every night for twelve years. This was new and it was lucrative. But it was a workplace.

Sienna went so far as to say that being a corporate garden gave it more purpose than just a domestic garden. It had a defined purpose and was integral to the company’s success, not just a pleasant place for occasional visitors - visitors like Lady Patricia, but she wouldn’t be back. Many of the visitors it had helped would return, like Megan and Druze but the balance would be tipped to work not to play. 

There were so many other people working there. Every function was being handled by someone else. Ok, so he was still in control, but if he wasn’t there for whatever reason, it all carried on regardless. Like Starburst Radio. It was a machine like Annabelle had said. Build it properly, start it up and it just works.

The Studio was all work, and, perhaps for the first time ever, Damon wanted more than work. He wanted to take more time in the Farmers Arms, and more time on gentle beach walks with someone special and it would be nice to get out to the States to see Huck or Scott in concert. And while he was staying at the Studio, none of that was going to happen as he’d be expected to solve all the companies problems in the bar every evening.

And the writing was clearly on the wall.

Rochester – The Final Hurdle

It was all change in Rochester as well. The weeks had flown by and it was all going rather well. Without Ludvig going off at a tangent at a pedestrian pace she was able to focus on the percentage success rate and improve the mainline results.

The plan had always been to set up the experiments to demonstrate the 69% success rate that they arrived with, and to involve the FDA to ratify the results, but now Laura was doing rather better than that. She’d made so much progress being pointed in the right direction by Damons logic and not suffering from diversions from Ludvig - and Troy from the FDA was getting unusually excited.

“We’re through for today, Laura, but tomorrow we need to meet with Leroy. You should be there too in case there are any contradictions”

Finally the FDA had finished. The meeting with Leroy had gone on longer than expected. Maybe, she thought, they’re continuing long enough to find something that he actually knows. But he’d insisted that as the primary interface to RoPharma, this meeting was a necessary part of the process.

Troy caught her in the corridor shaking his head and saying what a waste of time that was and that Leroy appeared to know nothing of any value. She nodded, but was too frustrated and annoyed for many words and she knew she’d burst into tears at the slightest provocation. It had been a whirlwind of early starts, late finishing and trying to be in two places at once every moment in between.

“Troy, I did say he was nothing to do with it. He works here, he’s my main contact but he knows nothing about the research”
 “Yeah, I found that out. But he did insist that he should have his say, and that meant we had to listen”

“I understand that, Troy. Thankyou. And you’ve been brilliant…”

The conversation continued with Troy becoming more relaxed

“Its all looking good, Laura. I need to cross check a few details, but I can do that tomorrow. Then I’ll need to get it countersigned, which is more to do with if I’ve followed the process correctly. All you need to do after that is register it and, Laura, you have a winner. This could easily make a global difference to healthcare”

She was too exhausted to be euphoric about the FDA result and drove on autopilot back to the hotel for some late dinner. Tomorrow she’d put the lab on hold and sort out her flights.

Laura had no time for anything the next day and the interruption from Leroy was something she could well have done without

“Looks like the FDA are happy enough” he called as she prepared to leave “Signed off?”

“No. Not yet. Troy has some cross checks to do”
 “No matter. That could be a formality. But my manager needs a commercial discussion”

“Not now, Leroy. I’m whacked. These FDA guys are intense”
 “Come on Laura. Wont take long…”

No, it didn’t take long, and she was relieved to get back to the Woodcliff for lunch

“Would you mind filling in one of our review forms?”

The question took her by surprise. You only got one of those when you checked out, and clearly she looked perplexed

“But that’s at checkout time”

“Well yes, Miss Pemberton. That’s because your account will close immediately after lunch”

“But it was due to run until the 19th “ 

“Today is the 19th “ 

Her jaw dropped open and she scrabbled to read her watch “ It’s the 16^th!”

“I’m sorry ma’am. But it is the 19th”
 “But I need to be back in England for the 18th!”

“Sorry ma’am, maybe next month”

“I can’t have missed it. I cant!”

“Sorry, babe”

“But my things, clothes, they’re all still in my room! I was expecting to stay till tomorrow”
 “The room is still available at the standard rate, if you would like me to assign it for you”

She hadn’t booked a flight, she’d been too busy. And now no hotel!

“Can I use your phone, please”

“Of course”

The results were as she expected. Damon wasn’t in his office. And no flights. “If you came to the airport there might be a cancellation”

What to do! The reality faded slowly into focus in her brain. She’d missed it. She’d missed the awards that Damon was quite insistent that she was back for. And she already knew her card was maxed out. There was no way she could stay. And little to stay for.

The receptionist was helpful and polite, but ultimately commercial, as she returned just ahead of their deadline “If it helps you, we can retain your large case in our secure store for up to two weeks”

She sank onto a nearby settee and tried to think. Never before had she felt so alone, so desolate. She started to cry, but managed to catch herself. Come on girl, think! Crying wont help. Yes, she argued with herself, but I don’t have enough money to extend my room. I’ve got nowhere to stay. I cant even phone Damon and in any case, from what Huck said, I’ve probably blown that as well. And. I need to register, but that wont be until Troy’s gets it signed off and that could be a couple of days. All I’ve got is my plane ticket, fifty five dollars and twenty pounds. Leroy! You slimey devious, lecherous scumbag! Even if I did ask him for help, there’s no telling what price he’d put on it. Quite apart from conceding that in the end he’d won. No! UK. If there’s enough gas in the car to get to the airport, I’d get back to England. And twenty pounds should be enough to get to Somerset, even if I need to get a bus.

The economy class cancellation got her breathing back under control. Next stop would be Heathrow, back in 

England. If all else fails, maybe I could check into a hotel and use their phone to find someone to help me. Maybe. The flight was long, but she slept fitfully if only to try to prevent herself thinking about everything that was going wrong.

Terminal three – wow – at last. She found the station and the time of the next train and enough coins to phone the Studio before her luck ran out.

“Sorry, there’s a lot of noise in the bar just now. Damon? No, not here. I know he was out in the estate with Sienna earlier to look at the flood damage”

“Can you tell Lisa that Laura called. I’m back in the UK and I’m heading for the Studio. But I need to rush to get my train now”

 That was the next obstacle. Would it be running, all the way? There had been an announcement before landing about torrential rain and worse farther West, and now outside she saw it for herself. 

The train made slow progress. There were intermittent announcements about stations that were closed due to power failures, although the logic evaded her. Stop the train, let people out, start the train again. You don’t need platform power for that. These delays annoyed her, but there was nothing she could do.

Edencombe was the end of the line – the Exeter section was flooded, but no matter. This was the change for Upper Elfinvale Halt and that was the target. From there she’d have to walk, but Huck had described how to get to the Studio from there and it didn’t sound complicated. It may be 5 or 6 miles and that would take two hours. And it was raining rather than snowing, at least so far. But two hours would be without fighting against a flood. Oh! But… but nothing! I have no choice! 

The estate was a quagmire and now Damon was rather soggy. He’d made it back in time for lunch, but getting dry was the priority, then make it to the bar to agree the next priority.

“We’re not expecting anyone else today are we?” asked Jasmine as she sat down near to him

“No. Shouldn’t be anyone else till after Christmas, but I doubt they’d get through anyway. The whole country’s flooded. Why?”
 “Because I thought I saw someone on the road as I joined from the Upper Elfy lane. They looked like they had a small case and had stopped in a forest gate. It was a shadowy figure and my little car was already spluttering from going through so many deep puddles. I stopped at the top of the hill and looked back but I couldn’t see them again. Maybe they were going the other way”
 “There’s plenty of ghosts on that road” stirred Adam. “From the days of highwaymen” 

Damon was more concerned. Jasmine wasn’t the most reliable source of anything, but she was clearly confident enough about this to mention it before Lisa finally caught up with him. 

“Damon, the message was that she was going to head on down here, but she had to rush to get her train. She’ll have to walk from the station, but no-one should be walking around outside in this weather”

“Lisa, it wouldn’t be the first time. I’d given up the idea of going back to the farmhouse today. But Jasmine thinks there might be someone out there, and you think that Laura might be trying to get here, crazy as it sounds, so I’ll check out the road to the Station and keep an extra eye open”

“I’d keep it closed, Damon. You don’t want to start seeing double!”

“Damon, I called Great western. There are delays to the Upper Elfy trains leaving Edencombe but they are running so its possible that she’d be on the forest road by now if she was trying to get here. And that message came in this morning. Its about the right timing if she was on the redeye last night”

The Range Rover waded through the river that had escaped from its bed and was now frolicking down both sides of the road. The headlights were bright, but struggling, and the fog-lights simply gave him a better view of the foreground rain. Up ahead, a torrent was pouring from a forest gateway and plummeting over the other side of the road. That looked deep. Not too deep, just deep enough to be wary. Jeez! If its like this tomorrow I’m going to build an ark!

Under the trees the rain appeared to have eased, shielded a bit by the canopy. There were no other routes so unless she headed to Upper Elfinvale instead, she should be here somewhere. Or maybe the train was struggling on the inclines and isn’t here yet or maybe she hadn’t made it that far yet.

But no! What’s that! There is someone there - with a small case as Jasmine had said. Of course it might be a ghost. No wonder Jasmine didn’t want to look too much. This is spooky. The forest was quite scary at the best of times even without a monsoon and the possibility of a figure in the shadows. But there was no doubt that someone was walking towards him. Maybe some homeless vagrant washed out from his hedge that might be grateful for the dry warmth of the barn at the farmhouse. Or….

He stopped. Water flooded into his shoes as he jumped out of the car and ran towards her

“Laura!”

He’d done this before. Torrential rain storms seemed to be a special place for them.

“Laura? What are you doing? Where are you going?”

“Damon?” she whispered weakly as he folded his arms round her “The Studio. I’m going to the Studio to find you. But I might not make it - I’m losing the energy. You might not even want to see me anyway, and now I’ve lost the will”

She cried, hopelessly and inconsolably for a few moments while he held her, still stunned, still in the pouring rain and soaked all the way through to his skin. Then she stopped. Suddenly. 

“I’ve lost everything. I’ve fallen at the very last hurdle on everything I’ve done and now its time to give up. The end of the project was the end for Ludvig, and now it’s the end for me too”

“I don’t think so. Laura never gives up”
 “Except now”

He picked her up clear of the water and placed her shivering body less than gently in the car.

“Laura, just because there’s a rainstorm of biblical proportions does not mean you need to go out for a walk. But we need to get you somewhere warmer, and the sooner the better”

He drove straight round to the back door of the farmhouse, But instead of going into the house as she expected, he swept her up, carrying her across the courtyard through the rain. In here it was still wet, but now it was steamy wet and well over 30 degrees. Without a word, he dropped her with a mighty splash into the Jacuzzi. She screamed in surprise, and then in alarm. This Jacuzzi was set to a rather hot 40 degrees. She surfaced with some panic setting in, suddenly thinking that this must be what a frozen prawn felt like.
 “You need to get that core temperature of yours back up to normal. And this is the best way. I'll bring you a robe for when you get out”
 Despite the warm water, her clothes still felt cold and clingy and she’d taken most of them off by the time he came back a good half hour later. She jumped, startled, not knowing who else, if anyone, was in this strange house.

“I've got a table booked in the Farmers, if you feel like you could eat anything. It would be good if you could. It would help to get some strength back. We’ll try to drive down and hope that the road is still passable”

 
 This was by no means the entrance she would have wanted, but lying back in this hot tub waiting for Damon to come back gave her cause for optimism. Was her despondency more due to her own imagination than Damon’s actions? Huck’s doomsday prediction about the Awards ceremony still hung in her mind, but he’d rescued her – again, and dinner time would give her a chance to explain. And maybe that would be accompanied by pleading, persuasion, begging or even bribery. Or maybe they were already just a business partnership like he had suggested it might become.

She still felt cold. Maybe Huck would be right – he seemed to know Damon quite well, and that made her feel hollow as well as frozen. But for the moment she could just lie back and try to recover and try not to be too despondent, looking for any remnant of hope.

Taking her remaining clothes off let her feel free as her current situation invaded her thoughts. No more the slave to experiments concentrating on whether this new result confirms or contradicts the theory and where it fits into the overall picture, if at all! No more avoiding Leroy’s lecherous leer that made her shrivel up as well as spurring her defensive determination to succeed. Success. Yes that’s what she’d been aiming for. Eight years it had taken and now? Well, now she’d walked away from the whole deal with absolutely nothing. 

Damon returned with a robe slung over his shoulder. He passed her one of the glasses he was carrying and switched all the jets and lights on. 

“Struth ! Looks nearly as wet in there as it is outside” but was there an under current of some hidden sadness concealed by the joviality. She was beginning to thaw out and the temperature between them seemed warm enough. Maybe hope was still alive that he might still be more than a business partner

“Warmed up a bit?”

“Yes. Thankyou”
 “Fit for some of Julie’s cooking?”

“Who?”

“Come on, you’ll never get dried here. We’ll go back to the main house. Not that we’ll stay dry all the way to the pub”

She went to the front bedroom expecting to find some dry clothes in her case, only to find it was almost empty.

“Some stuff was a bit damp” explained Damon “the rest was soaking wet, so it all went in the tumble dryer. The papers in that plastic folder seem to have survived, so they’re laid out in the dining room”

Hmmm – reminiscent of Amy, he thought as he watched her pull a brush through her hair.

“Any more than five yards in the rain, it’ll be a lost cause – but top marks for trying!”

Although that wasn’t entirely encouraging either.

The fire in the Farmers Arms was roaring up the chimney with half a dozen jackets steaming around it. The whole pub was a lot busier than she had expected, as they squeezed through the farmers to get to the bar.

“Brought the weather in with ye, ‘ave ‘e?”

 Laura was surprised at the banter that headed their way, but Damon seemed to know these guys. Talk was about rain and livestock and making contingency plans for rescuing animals if the river flooding increased. But Damon was more concerned about Laura and how she came to be where she was. She was nervous about recounting the tale but he had to know and she had to tell him and then she, or hopefully they, had to work out what to do next. Ok, so she’d created this situation, and Damon’s investment was certainly at risk…. And he’d have to be quite friendly for that reason alone.

But conversation was staccato with constant asides from various farm workers that interrupted them and Damon eventually decided just to give in and join in. The detailed update would have to wait till after the light relief. Laura probably needed light relief more than serious discussions at this point anyway.

So where's Ole Geordie” he called out towards the bar “It's his round” 

This took everyone who could hear by surprise. Ole Geordie’s round? Never was, never will be, but Damon continued in a loudish voice 

“I was just coming into that sharp right just as you start down the hill, you know up by Ole Geordie's farm. I couldn't see much through the rain, and suddenly there's bloomin’ sheep everywhere. I think I missed them all, but I know I took out a piece of the verge. 

“Like hell it is” came the familiar growl of Ole Geordie, picking up on the previous comment

“ ’Course it is” retorted Damon, now returning to the bar. 

A few of the crowd had made space, intrigued that someone, anyone, would dare to take on Ole Geordie. 

“He won't be doing that” started Aaron “Skint. Always skint”

“Skint! Can't be!” responded Damon in a voice that made sure everyone could hear “He's gotta be rolling in it”

Puzzled looks flashed his way, not least from ole Geordie as Damon continued “…..I reckon, we should turn him upside down and shake him. See how much cash pours out of these deep pockets”

More quizzed looks. “Yeah. Like all the money from the fence posts he didn't buy to build the fence he didn't build. And the cost of the wire that wasn't in the fence that he didn't build to keep his sheep off the road and not make passing traffic swerve into the ditch, and then the extra he charged said drivers for pulling them out of the ditch that his stray animals forced them into. No…” Damon concluded”… ole Geordie owes everyone a pint. Is that not so, Geordie?”

Pretty well everyone in the bar was laughing now as Damon pointed Julie in Ole Geordie’s direction to settle for the flow of beer disappearing across the counter
 Craig drained his glass ' best pint I've had all year' – ‘aye and the last ye'l get aff me’ squirmed Ole Geordie.

This had lifted some of the frost that Laura was feeling despite being in from the cold, and the farmers returned to their own talk while she used her remaining concentration to stay awake. 

Cue - Too Late by OMD

“You made it back. I didn’t know you were coming or I’d have come to the airport. But Lisa did a good job of working out which train you’d be on”
 “No, I couldn’t phone you, I….”

But stopped short as he looked over towards her with visible sadness
 “I guess something - or someone - more important took over this time” 

“No Damon, please!. It wasn’t like that. Do you think I’d be walking around in a monsoon if there was any other option?”
 “Quite possibly. Its not the first time”

She glared at him, feeling the hairs on her neck rising

“Don’t you go looking for a bottle of Château Lafite 68. You spilt the last one!”

Maybe he didn’t really deserve to wear that pint that Luke had put down on their table just for somewhere to rest it. She looked for his hand to hold across the table, but it wasn’t there

“Damon, I need to explain….”

“Do you? Maybe its not important any longer….” 

She glanced down. Had that gentle hand appeared at exactly the right time as he waiting quietly for a response….But no. And food had arrived, looking wonderful. In the States with Ludvig, they’d lived on pizzas. Then Damon had taken her to Chez Pierre which was the other end of the culinary scale. In this new hotel that Huck had setup it was very much up-market American buffet. And now after all that, something that resembled home cooking - heaped onto the plate, steaming hot, the lettuce swimming playfully in the gravy…. She was physically tired and emotionally exhausted but this wouldn’t wait.

She took the glass he was passing to her and set it aside

“Damon. Its not the project that’s important. Its what I’ve lost in getting it and so these will have to wait, maybe forever because…. because I know I’m going to cry….”

He stopped eating feeling that it would be inappropriate for the severity of the apocalypse that she was about to reveal. Maybe she’d met someone else or maybe it was just that the experiments were non-conclusive.

“….Ever since I was a student, the project was everything to me. Everything. I never really had any hobbies or relationships. I didn’t go running or learn judo or even just go to the cinema on a Saturday night. I spent all my time figuring out the next piece of the puzzle. Mum and dad said it was like I’d joined a religious cult. They didn’t understand and I started losing contact with them. I haven’t seen them for over three years now. My life was the project and the project was my life. I got to the point where I didn’t know anything else or want anything else. I think Ludvig was the same. In some ways he didn’t want to find the answer because that would mean the end of the project, and maybe that’s what happened to him. He saw the end of the tunnel and that would be the end of his life. But I was different because…. because I met you. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t go to a club hoping to meet someone, or hang out in a micro skirt in a singles bar, but that day changed everything. Suddenly I found I had to concentrate on the project. It wasn’t second nature any more because I was thinking about other things. But you understood. You encouraged me. You even bought out Ludvig so that I could continue and got Huck and Tilly to make sure I was safe and secure. And for what? The only thing you ever asked me for was to be back for your Award. And Damon, I failed. I failed at that one simple task. 

I knew how important it was to you. Huck told me so many times that I needn’t bother coming back at all if I was going to miss it. But Damon, I found the last 9%. It is to do with blood types as you suggested, but its also to do with rotation and orientation. I phoned Troy at the FDA and asked what I should do next. Theo had already primed him that something was happening and that it really was very exciting and all of a sudden three extra guys turned up to do an additional audit. They said it would take two days which was ok. I’d have enough time to get through and get back to England. I explained this to Troy and he was great. Said he couldn’t cut any corners, but would try to keep it in mind. He made his guys work late that night and just winked at me as they left at gone nine o’clock.

I had enough time, until scum-spawn Leroy threw his two cents in and delayed me yet again. I couldn’t call you to explain. My hotel had run out because I wasn’t meant to be there so Huck hadn’t extended it. I ran out of money and my card was maxed. All I had in the world was my return ticket.

The project nearly killed my research partner and I completed it when I should have come back. Damon, I’m so sorry. But I found the last 9 per cent. And now I’m desolately sorry. Sorry for you, for failing you, and sorry for me for…for losing you”

True to her word, Laura was in tears. He reached out and touched her hand. Is that it? Is that all? Or is this just a distraction?

He wiped away some of the tears with his serviette - the appetite that had persuaded her to stay awake a little longer had disappeared. He helped her to the car and poured her into bed. At some point she thought she’d heard him say he’d see her in the morning, but she wasn’t even sure she wanted to wake up ever again, and exhaustion took over.

She sniffed the tempting aroma of morning coffee brewing in the kitchen and ventured downstairs. He’d hinted that he was disappointed, but hadn’t mentioned the awards ceremony at all. It was clear that it had meant a lot to him because of the way he’d introduced it and asked her to go with him and that it was quite high profile, and her missing it was bound to crop up sometime. Huck had built it up as something really quite special to the extent that he’d not extended her hotel beyond that because there was no way she was going to miss it.

 
 “Hi! Laura. How are you this morning? A bit better? I heard some trees coming down during the night. So I'm going to have a drive round and see what the state is.”

“Ok”
 “What? You coming as well?”
 “Yes. I'm not doing anything else”

“Ok. Breakfast first, then head out into the continuing downpour looking for trouble. Except this time we wont be walking”
 “That’ll be a first, I guess”

But it made her feel a little better. He wasn’t openly cross with her, so maybe he wasn’t terminally cross. She still felt that more explanation was needed, but he just seemed to be accepting it because that’s the way it was and somewhere hiding in the shadows there’d be a good reason, if finding that last 9 % wasn’t enough.
 

They drove up towards Ole Geordie's place as far as the landslide that confirmed that the road was stuffed. They tried the valley road from the village, but that was impassable at the hairpin on the hill where so much gravel had poured onto the road that traction was impossible on the steep bend. Next was the main route to town, but they didn't get far there either. A huge beech tree was completely blocking the road, and a young guy was standing looking at it morosely with a chainsaw in his hand.
 Damon took out a rope and tied the top part of the tree onto the car as the young guy made headway through the side branches that were preventing any of it from moving.

“Where's everyone else” Damon asked as they paused 

“Ole Geordie was out with the animals all last night. He says there's loads of sheep struggling in the mud up on the moor, but he can’t get there except on foot, so I guess that’s where he is. So if its that bad there it’ll be worse down the valley” 

 Slowly the trunk shifted and a gap opened enough to get the car through. They packed the gear but only moved around the next bend to the next tree. An hour later and another couple of guys arrived to see if they could get through, but instead decided to attempt the forest track in their tractor to rescue the livestock from the lower lying flooded meadows.
 Back at the Farmers Arms for lunch, Julie’s sandwiches disappeared as quickly as they arrived and Laura was beginning to feel much better as she was included in the general conversation, or maybe because she was the only girl there.

“Ok, so we know where we are with possibilities if we need to go anywhere, but the bottom line is, don’t go! Jacuzzi?” said Damon as they got back to the farmhouse. “Especially for you. You must be soaked through - again! I'm going to get some towels and dry the seats in the car just so we stay dry at least until we get out of the car next time.”
 Laura dropped her coat and then dress beside the pool. She felt better. Wetter, but now she felt safer. Getting soaked wasn’t so bad if you knew you had somewhere warm to go to. And the hope was rising that Damon wasn’t terminally cross with her.

“Sorry” he apologised as he finally arrived “I was stoking up the log fire in the library”

He handed her two glasses to hold before abandoning his robe at the poolside and climbing in. 

“Thought you might like this” he said by way of no explanation.
 She tasted the wine, and then drank a bit more.
 “Wow. Thanks. That's good” and Damon nodded.
 “Yes, it's one of the last bottles in the world of the Château Lafite 68”

She looked quizzical. 

“Yeah, last time you should have been drinking it, you decided it would be better if I was wearing it”
 Laura's heart sank a little. Was he ever going to let her forget that fateful day 5 months ago! But at least there was some humour in his teasing. 

“I remember” she said softly.
 “Yes, old Ralph was over and he reminded me about it. I wanted you to try it and I thought this would be a good opportunity before something else overtakes us”

That sounded rather more ominous! Overtake us? Like what? As if I didn’t know! 

“Ralph?” she questioned
 “Yes. He lives in the manor house at the end of the drive that’s straight across the road from here. He was on the next table to us that evening and he recognised me when I went round there. Then I went over to pay an inherited debt and he told me where I could get this very last bottle”

Ok, but Damon, please tell me about the Awards. O my! Huck told me I needn’t bother coming back if I ever missed them and its killing me. This whole euphoria could end any second when he remembers about them.

“But I still need to tell you about the project?” 

“Of course we’re going to talk about the project. I just thought this might be more comfortable, and a suitable celebration of you finding that last 9% and getting back safely” 

That, at least, sounded encouraging.

She wanted to start at the beginning, but decided that it would take far too long and repeat so much that he already knew. Instead she jumped fast forward to when Troy was on site. This, after all, was the important bit. The bit about why she missed the Awards

“I must have lost track of time, it was so manic. I was trying to get the last 9% written up between the interruptions from Troy’s team, and the frequent curved balls from Leroy. Damon, you’ve no idea how cross I was. I’m sure he thought that he’d finally got to me. I was seething and that was slowing me down…”

She took a deep breathe and tried to slow down

“Huck reminded me so often that I needn’t bother coming back if I missed these awards. He told me how important they were and that you’d be unlikely to forgive me for missing them. After everything you’ve done for me, it was the only thing you ever asked me for... I failed. Damon, I thought about it so hard. I even packed my bag to leave and come home. But I couldn’t, What of the last 8 years? I might never get another chance and I’m responsible for your stake in this as well. What would you really want me to do? I remembered how insistent you were that you could never replace my dream. What would you tell me to do if you were there? Damon, I had to and I wanted to do that for us, not just me. So I stayed. I couldn’t just stop at the very last day. 

Then on top of everything, Leroy set up an impromptu commercial meeting with his manager. He was trying to lead it, presumably to impress his boss but maybe just to cover up how little he actually knew by asking the questions rather than having to answer them. 

I told him that Troy had been really positive and all of a sudden Leroy put an offer of two million dollars on the table almost before I finished the sentence. 

Damon! Two million! Of course I nearly jumped out of my skin. That’s a bit of a step up from 300 thousand. And that would be ten times what I’d have got from Ludvigs deal – assuming he’d even share it. I was trying to think how Theo would react. But I was also thinking back to the response from the chemists I had given so many presentations to and now the response from Troy. All these guys have seen breakthrough treatments before, but they were excited by this. Anyway, I said that all the work was done. There might be some anomalies from the field trial that need to be resolved, but that was a routine process for them, again with strict guidelines from the FDA.

I caught a glimpse of Leroy’s face as he said ‘in that case you’ll have to come back’ but he wasn’t looking at me, just my hemline. He was always leering at me or part of me. He never looked at anything else during those meetings. 

So I said… Oh Damon… maybe I just broke. I said no, I would not be coming back. His manager said that I had to because it was in the contract that I’d help with resolving any issues pre-production. That’s when I saw Leroy start to squirm and now it was my turn. It was finally my turn - to turn the tables on him for his delays, his interference, his putting me in impossible situations like deciding between finishing and getting back for you. I said, no! No, I didn’t have to come back because we didn’t have a contract and never have had and it’s then that I - oh maybe I got carried away by having Leroy suddenly under my thumb, squirming in his chair!

I said that I didn’t have the capacity to put it into production or run a full FDA field trial so I will need to partner with someone. But now that I had a product - emphasis on the ‘I’ - I could make this hugely valuable opportunity available to any pharma company I liked, because I have never been presented with any contract I could sign. And, Leroy, considering your treatment of me over the last four months, you are a very long way down the list. 

Leroy was choking on whatever words he was wanting to say. What I was going to say was that, as a piece of agricultural fertiliser, he ought to hang out on a ranch rather than a Pharma office, but instead I said I was going to catch my plane. And I left before either of them recovered enough to speak.”

Damon poured the final glass each and held them both rather than giving one to her

“So New York’s all finished!”

“No. No, its not. I didn’t get to register it. My card was maxed out on corrections to the lab equipment and the final experiments and the hotel Huck was paying for ended on the 19th. The guy on reception was kind and let me make an international call even though my room had expired. But your office said you were checking out some flooding. I couldn’t stay and I couldn’t call you again. The only thing I could do was come home. I had nowhere to stay and Huck was in Vancouver. So I need to go back early next year to register. But I can’t think they’ll take that 2 million dollars off the table, if we want to accept it”

“Does Theo know about this”
 “Maybe, although I haven’t talked to him. I think Leroy knew Theo was in Portland. Theo knows a lot of the senior guys there so he might have heard. But he doesn’t know Leroy and I haven’t told him”
 “But you’re back now. I couldn’t help thinking that maybe you wouldn’t”

“Damon! There was never any doubt. I was walking all the way to the Studio – that was to find you. I told you before I went to Rochester that I already knew how I’d feel when I got back”

No, its more about whether you still want me..

She was too afraid of the answer to ask, but they finished the wine so close together 

“I guess we need to decide what to do next. Have a think. Maybe we just need to take advice from Theo. But right now, I promised to check back with the Studio – if the phone lines are still up. You stay here as long as you like. Your work may be finished, but mine, unfortunately, isn’t”

“Damon, I’m not finished either. I ought to go back to New York and register even if we go with someone else”

Maybe the only thing that’s finished is us. But she didn’t say that either.

“Yeah, ok” he was saying when she returned to the library “but the guys are too unreliable to be part of the team. Look I understand it's all you ever wanted, but the guys missed studio. What would happen if that was a live gig?. Yea, Helmut is right up to a point, that may be what we should expect with a free bar, but, Jenny, that's the point. Its just the same as if you made it on the scene and you have enough shekels not to care about the bar bill.. And yeah, that is the main reason we do it. Its to find out if you’ve got the self-discipline that would be required out there on the international circuit. So you guys are out, as soon as the transport gets moving again after the rain stops. Ok, so you’re pretty good, but you need a chaperone to make sure you show up and that’s not the way we work. Bands make so much more with us because they do stuff like that themselves instead of paying for parasites”
 He moved on to the next call
 “Hey, Lisa how you doing? So what's the news of the Jack Warrington Band?”
 The calls continued in this vein for the rest of the afternoon. It was still early but Laura was getting hungry. Maybe her tummy was still on Stateside time but she didn't feel brave enough to say anything until eventually Damon took a breather. 

“Must be dinner time soon. I've got a venison hot pot in the oven. Just make some dumplings to go with it. Take about twenty minutes”

“That’s ok..” she said surprisingly brightly “… I can do that. You pick up on some more of these calls and I’ll get it all onto the table” Wow, another step in the right direction.

Dinner was delightful. Laura had finished off the cooking brilliantly and there it was – their first dinner at home together, but Laura was falling asleep even before the dessert was out of the fridge. She was still exhausted, still recovering and now the situation had completely drained her.

Straight after dinner that phone rang again. “Hi Hazel...” And Damon was off again. 

“You’re exhausted” said Damon eventually “you hit the sack any time you like. I've got a load of tracks to evaluate. I've put some new towels in your room”

But instead she curled herself round him on the settee and listened to the music. It was all good, although Damon wasn’t so sure. He explained why some of it was more likely to succeed and why others had no chance although he had an idea that she simply wasn’t listening as slowly she drifted off to sleep.

He lifted her gently and carried her upstairs, settling her into bed like he did for his little sister when he was 10, and returned to the fireside to complete the band reviews with a feeling of repeated de ja vue.

He was watching the relentless rain. There was so much rain out there that even plant life was drowning and he wondered just how the sheep on the moor were coping, and whether rabbits were being flushed out of their burrows, but the next call was not Lisa or Michelle or even Hazel looking for some help on what to do about the UK tours she’d scheduled. It was Theo again and his interruption was significantly more sobering.

Theo knew Troy from many of his previous cases and had spoken to him a number of times about Laura’s research. He also knew that they both had to respect their client confidentiality and so Theo was reading carefully between the lines. Laura had not managed to register, yes, she’d said that, but the plan was to do that early new year. Ok, so it was common knowledge that you had 10 days from the completion of the audit. What was not so well known is that it was calendar days, not working days and that Troy’s section of the FDA closed down over Christmas and New Year. 

So that meant….. 

He poured himself another gin. And phoned Michelle.
 At least the phone line wasn’t waterlogged.
 “Hey Michelle. I need you to do something for me please. It's not work, well not your work anyway”
 “Ok” she said. “Not that I’m busy or anything”
 “Oh yes?”
 “You won’t believe how manic it is down here. We've got everyone who should have gone home but couldn’t, and some people who managed to get here that we couldn't cancel because they were already on their way, and The Jenny and Jack Warrington stuff and, if the weather ever recovers, we'll have a shed load more. And of course a complete reschedule. Deep joy! So what light relief are you offering me?”
 “I need to get Laura to New York asap. Like yesterday if possible. Can you find Hazel. She’s booked hundreds of flights in the last month - I don’t know if she can call in any favours…”

 It was nowhere near getting light the next morning when Damon dropped himself gently onto the edge of her bed. He shook her shoulder gently and put the cup of coffee on the bedside table. She opened an eye and blinked as she felt his hand on her arm. But much to her disappointment, he didn't seem to be slipping her nighty down.
 “Wakey, wakey!”
 She blinked herself awake.
 “What's going on, are we going somewhere?”
 “Not we. Just you”
 “You need to be out in half an hour, less if possible”
 She sat up quickly.

“Go? Where?”
 “New York. You only have 10 days from audit and the FDA shuts down from Christmas to New Year”

“What!”

“That’s what Theo told me yesterday evening. And he’s been right so far. You go have a shower. I'll pack for you”
 She dripped back into the bedroom after the fastest shower ever. As wet as yesterday and the day before, but much, much warmer
 “Your overnight case is still a bit drowned but everything from it is on the bed here and you’ve got this one instead. Your papers are all dry and mainly unharmed”

He showed her what he'd collected for her - underwear, two dresses, two pairs of shoes, make up bag…. 

“You dry your hair as I explain this. You can't take a large case, you won't have time at the other end to collect it. You're on the 9.35 from Heathrow. You should be down town at the FDA by 4.30 their time. I understand they're open till six on a Monday. You'll be met by Capital Cabs. The jockey will have a sign saying just ‘Laura’. He'll have a burgundy red jacket.
 Then you're checked in to the Central Plaza, which I think is at the park end of 42nd.
 He handed her a small plastic bag. There's about three hundred dollars in there. It's my float for the next time I need to get across the pond at short notice. Take your card. I'll clear the balance when their offices open at 8. And if you need anything, phone me at the Studio. Ask Michelle or Lisa. They’re usually more contactable than me and one or other of them should be in the office”
 “Aren’t you coming too?”
 “No. I can’t. Hazel has booked at least a hundred flights in the last week alone but even she could only find one ticket. And anyway, its your gig and you know what you’re doing. You’ll need to take the Range Rover and use the moor road up past Ole Geordies. Yes, it’s the most difficult in normal conditions, but they’ve had to clear it to get to the open moor to rescue the stock and its the only road that’s open out of the village. The Studio’s in melt down with the weather chaos, but I might try to get back there in the Aston later on. Or maybe I could hi-jack Luke’s Massey Ferguson.”

He left her to finish getting dressed and returned with a piece of toast. 

“Not much breakfast, but you can pick up something once you’re checked in. T3. Your tickets will be at the American Airlines desk. Come on get a wiggle on”

Laura eased the big 4x4 past the landslides and finally drew breath as she cruised up the motorway with the rain easing as she drove East. The weather had discouraged most of the traffic, and those that were left seemed as though they all had somewhere to go. She fell in behind a 5 series in a hurry and made good time as he cleared the road for her.

 Heathrow was familiar territory even if the shuttle from the Elephant car park was slower than she expected. She’d even remembered where the AA reception was and as always there was no one waiting there.
 “….and the check-in is the last desk on the left” 

Laura looked at her quizzically. The other girl nodded. She didn’t have time to question it. Last desk on left, and there was no-one there either – unlike the others where the queue snaked across the departures hall. At last she caught breath looking around the departure lounge. She found a seat that must have been farthest away from the gate and had time to catch her breathe at last before joining the back of the queue as it shuffled towards the tunnel. Only when she was stopped at the cabin door and was directed to the left did she think to check her boarding pass. First class! She checked her ticket. Wow! If only Hazel had booked all my flights!

 Burgundy man was as efficient as expected with a large red sign held high above his head and clearly visible from the entire concourse. Down town in a hurry, but the FDA building was still open and nowhere near as scary as she had anticipated. Troy was in the office and came down to see her. She apologised for being three days late knowing that he’d taken a lot of trouble to fast track this through his boss. 

“That just leaves the registration admin. The fee is two thousand five hundred dollars. If you just take this to the front desk and that's the final bit. Make sure she signs it as paid just here, otherwise it might be declared invalid if it gets inspected. And good luck, because this is the most exciting thing I’ve seen come through here, like, ever”
 He left her with a friendly smile as he handed her the certificates. Tentatively she presented her credit card with her hand visibly shaking. Damon said he was going to clear it down. If he hasn't, it really would be a final hour failure. “Are you ok?” asked the girl at the desk “You feeling faint?”
 “I'm fine” she thought quickly, “just not used to spending this much money”
 “Me neither” she replied “Most I spend is twenty bucks on new shoes, and that's a treat!”
 But the card went through and suddenly Laura found herself on the sidewalk of 42nd street holding the stamped piece of paper. Is this what eight years work looks like?
 ‘Oh my goodness’ as she gulped in air in disbelief as she made her way through the business crowds. This is surreal!
 She found the Central Plaza and checked in with the added bonus of a message pulled from a pigeon hole. It was hand written, presumable from a phone call.

Oh dear! I do hope he’s not too cross with me. 

But Theo wasn’t cross with anyone. It was all the same to him and he’d play with the cards he was dealt on the day. The message said that Raymond Wisenski was interested in meeting her. He was the Vice President responsible for the new products section Leroy worked in, and was even prepared to travel to New York city. Theo recommended that they take this opportunity, ‘since she was in town anyway’.

Unable to get hold of Laura, Theo had phoned Damon. He was quite prepared to take Laura’s research to every pharma company in the world. After all, he was being paid by the day. But Damon asked him about alternative production partners and the news, as always, was the good and the bad. The good was it was perfectly feasible, the bad – that they would likely be looking for Laura to set up a test laboratory just like she did in Rochester. It would be much simpler to reach a deal in New York. The situation may well have changed because Leroy will have been asked to explain why he couldn’t get the deal completed when it would have cost them a fraction of what they had now put on the table. And then he’d be asked to explain why Laura had walked away from the whole thing citing him as being the cause. That could go to the board, who then might want to ask Leroy some embarrassing questions. If Laura’s action was part of a strategy to raise the bar, then it was brave, bordering on foolhardy, and also quite likely to succeed. But Theo’s view was that it was neither bravery or strategic, purely emotional.

He finally got through to Laura with confirmation while she was having dinner, as the bellhop brought the message straight in to her. She gazed at it in more disbelief. So! VP now, not Leroy. She’d heard of Wisenski - he was the guy who’d originally phoned Ludvig, but this really was different. Not just a replacement for Leroy, but travelling to see her at her convenience! Of course if Leroy was there as well, she might well land up getting arrested. But this had all the signs of telling her to up the deal. This is signed off now. Its ready for its life sized field trial. Delaying this was Leroy’s weapon all along. No, not maybe - definitely up the deal. Damon had said earlier that if it was signed off we could take in anywhere in the world. He seemed ok with the idea of going to Nervatis instead. Or Astra UK.

Oh my! Its all back to good old high speed excitement. Just when I could do with some quiet thinking time.

Again, here was someone asking if she was all right. ‘Yes, thank you’ and slipped him a ten dollar bill. New York was full of people concerned about her health.
 The rest of dinner was a daze, the bar was a haze. Some dude was suggesting he showed her a good time in 'noo yoik', but wasn't too drunk to take no for an answer. Adrenalin kept her awake until late but she was up early enough to check out a few shops and still be back in plenty of time. She changed into her shorter dress and headed for the foyer.
 

Theo was already in the bar, talking to someone she assumed was Ray and her confidence seemed to be returning as she approached the table.
  “Thought here was as good a place as any for the meeting” he said as he introduced them and ordered up more coffee

“Thanks for travelling down here” she opened, taking the lead
 “We meet at last” said Ray “I know quite some about this project. It's fascinating. I first spoke to Ludvig about it four years ago and I know its moved on apace since then, but I'm not up to date on exactly where we got to”
 He was sounding nervous, like maybe he was spooked by her previous walkout, but Laura picked up the cue. This was her chance to bring Theo up to date, but so far, Ray hadn’t mentioned the contract position…
 “Following the last technical meeting with Marcel, I identified a potential solution to the missing 9%....”

“9? I thought it was 31?”

“No, the success percentage went up to 91 four weeks ago following some revisions to the experiments paying more detailed attention to the molecular orientation…”

She explained the detail, but sensed that it was going a bit beyond them, after all, Theo was a lawyer and Ray was really an accountant, so the details of the experimental physiology were not really their thing. But she continued, just to give them the confidence that at least she knew what she was talking about. 

“And…” she concluded “….the hypothesis translated perfectly into results”

Theo looked at her questioningly. She smiled 

“Well, it would, wouldn’t it. If the whole hypothesis was correct then you’d expect it all to fit neatly together. It all worked really well”
 “And the FDA were in as well, weren’t they?” prompted Theo

“Yes. They’d already taken a brief preliminary of the original 69% success rate that we started with when Ray first invited us, so I gave them the results for the next 22%, which I’d developed since then. I had already collated that although I made it clear that there was still 9% outstanding. However, over the last two weeks I solved that. So, while they were auditing the test results for the first two parts, I was writing up the final 9%. So, by the time they had a spare minute, they were able to verify that as well. To be honest, they’ve been wonderfully helpful”

Theo and Ray both leaned forward expectantly

“So we've got a 100% product?” 

She nodded. 

“And it's all signed off?”

“For field trials…”
 “And...” hinted Ray knowing what answer he was hoping for
 She smile again and nodded
 “And registered”

Theo fell back in his chair “Oh my word! That’s huge”
 “So” said Ray, with mounting enthusiasm, “we’re good to go on volume production”
 Laura shook her head. She was beginning to think maybe she looked like the legendary smiling assassin, and if she didn’t maybe she ought to.
 “We don't have a contract” she said slowly and deliberately.
 “No? Why not? That's what Leroy was doing”.

The smiling assassin shook her head again “That may be what he was meant to be doing, but what that slime-spawn was actually doing as a full time job was trying to blackmail me into going to bed with him, introducing delays to use as coercion until I gave in”

Ray looked suddenly panicky as she continued
 “I've never seen a production contract. I saw a holding document on the first 69% to prevent me signing with someone else without talking to you guys first, or something like that, but even that was never signed. So, I don't have a contract. Or more to the point, you don't have a contract”

“But we‘ve paid a holding deposit. Three hundred thousand dollars”

“That may have been the sum on the holding contract that was never signed, but I’ve not seen anything. Not a brass cent. Theo, you’re not holding out three hundred Gs in lieu of your fee are you?” she asked almost frivolously. 

Theo looked shocked at the mere accusation and Ray looked genuinely forlorn “But I signed that off two months ago for Leroy to issue…”
 “I already told you what his full time occupation was. And in pursuing that, anything that looked like it could be progress was withheld for use as ‘incentives’ ”
 “But we can continue the discussion despite that, can we not Laura?” interjected Theo.

Laura sat back, hesitating. Theo was right. Starting from scratch with Nervatis would be a pain. Plus a number of the chemists she talked to probably knew enough to set up their own lab, and it wasn’t patented, even if it was registered – so a discussion right now might be the answer as Theo continued

“Laura, a few weeks back Ray and I discussed what a potential deal would look like for likely percentages”
 “Bearing in mind” joined Ray “that this product will take substantial sales from some of our existing products”
 “Quite so” dismissed Theo, “but in principal we were talking about a number somewhere between 18 and 20 million plus 3 to 4 cents a sheet on production”

What! How much! And what’s this? A royalty on production volumes? That’s the first I’ve heard of that
 “And what do you think we should add to that now we have a 100% product?” asked Laura on autopilot. How much? That’s huge. Its way off the scale of anything I can even visualise…

“And then I’d expect a premium for it being audited. And, not just that, but its registered” 

“Fair points. All of them” conceded Ray “Its quite a bit more valuable now, in its completed state”

“Being 100, it saves you having to pick up continuing research and it substantially reduces your risk in dispersal. Its audited. Its registered. The FDA have approved it for full scale field trial” summarised Theo

“ And ….” paused Laura “its sellable anywhere in the world” 

“Now, lets not let this run away with us. We…. Oh no, we don’t even have a holding contract!”

“Correct. But even if we did, it would only commit me to talking to you guys first, it wouldn’t be preventative”

“But Leroy has been on this for…..” wailed Ray

“I think that scum-spawn has finally shot himself in the foot. We would have had if he’d presented me with something I could sign, rather than spending his time inventing delays and trying to stick his nose up my skirt. Perhaps you’d be kind enough to remind him that he has comprehensively failed at both his assigned and his self appointed objectives”

“Ok, ok” said Ray “I take it you’re not a fan of Leroy but for my part, I still want to progress a deal”

“Me too!” she responded in a much more congenial voice “But what I want is a deal we’re all happy with. I don't want you, or in fact me, to feel we've been short changed. That way we can work together in the future without us continually thinking back to that ‘if I got a better deal’ nagging at the back of our minds”
 “And” said Theo, “None of us want the discussion to go on for months”

“Good grief no” said Ray.

“It wont” said Laura with finality “I’m through with unnecessary delays. Ray, my life has been a nightmare since day one with unnecessary delays and alternative agendas. That’s why I walked out of the previous meeting, so there won’t be any more”

“What I want to do is get into production. We’ve all got personal collateral tied up in this” 

The table went quiet, but Ray broke first 

“I do appreciate that the product has moved on since our original discussions. Theo?”
 “It's a tough one” replied Theo as he saw Laura was considering it. “And there’s the balance between up front and ongoing, because right now we've no real idea how good the uptake will be.... So I can't really say what an extra sheet cent translates to”
 Laura turned to Theo, but found that she was shaking her head and maybe it was intentional. Ooh, I wish Damon was here. Or maybe just that brief thought of Damon reminded her that they might already be a lost cause. Theo looked like he was thinking. Laura was also thinking. How do you do this? This is not something they cover in a biology degree course

“Sorry guys, I was just thinking – Ray, you were saying that your top number on a previous discussion was twenty. Presumably that was for the original 69%. Surely now….”

“I agree, Laura. It ought to be more – but how much more? Theo? What would you be happy with?”

“Ray, I’d like to think we could agree somewhere between 40 and 45. Its 100% and FDA approved now. Its tough, like you said and there are unknown risks in the commercial acceptance, and you still need to build a manufacturing facility”

Ray nodded, retaining a poker face
 “Laura” he started slowly and quietly turning away from Theo to talk to her more directly “Its hard for me to disguise my disappointment that there is no agreement at all between us at this late stage. An issue of this nature should have been escalated to me as it arose. However, this is internal to my division and in no way reflects on you or your research. From what I hear of your discussions with the technical team like Marcel, you’ve always just told it like it is. You’ve never overstated it and if anything have concentrated on the negatives, which is understandable because that’s what needed the attention. You’ve tried to understand our side of the partnership as well being both open and honest. That attitude is very refreshing, so I’d like to continue in that vein. I’m in general agreement on the value. Obviously, I’d prefer the lower end of that, in the same way that I expect that you would prefer the upper end. But, like you, I want a deal we can both work with. I’ve been caught out before by disgruntled suppliers making things deliberately difficult”

She nodded “Ok…” as a cue to continue as he sighed and smiled briefly

“Laura, my personal signoff limit is 45 million. More than that I need board approval. So what I suggest is that we agree on 43. That way its not suspiciously near my limit and avoids the risk of going over due to currency fluctuations or some other external force which would make life very difficult for me. And it avoids the risks and delays of going to the Board. That might sound less than Theo was suggesting, but I’ll raise the sheet price to 6 cents which also shares the risk. I think that’s a good deal for you, and I can work with that as well”

She looked over to Theo. That was a huge sum, it was incomprehensible. But she didn’t want delays. She didn’t want to go round the loop all over again with Astra UK or whoever
 “Your decision. But if we’re all happy with it, it cuts out a protracted discussion where the price could go up - or down”

Yes, and as Ray says, it avoids going to the board which could raise a whole raft of additional questions
 What other option have I got? The deal’s on the table, the advice from the expert is to go with it. And as Ray said, an amicable deal was worth far more than a couple of bucks ripped off.
 She found herself nodding. “If your life is easier with the Board at 43, and you’re happy with 43, lets do 43”

Ray twitched up, pleasantly surprised that she should again be seeing things from his perspective. He was expecting at least a nominal push towards his limit.
 “I'm quite interested in not falling out with everyone” she explained “That might be strange in business at this level, but,... I'm a biologist not a hard-nosed businesswoman or a heavyweight wrestler who's going to wring every last cent out of anyone. Yes?”

She glanced at Theo. If he felt that this was unreasonable, he would have said something
 “Happy to go with it Ray?”

“Laura?”

Theo nodded to her
 “Yes”

“Sure? asked Ray

“Yes”
 Theo raised a smile and produced the papers he’d prepared, passing Ray his Mont Blanc for the signature
 “This is the wording we agreed” he said to Ray. And then to Laura, “there's a lot of legal stuff in there but nothing scary. The only clarification is that the sheet payment is on production, which can be verified, not on sales which is too variable. Its also possible that this might be supplied at a lower cost to certain third world governments as a goodwill gesture invented by marketing”

“Although, if that were the case. I might like to contribute too”

 Discussion over, ink dry, copy in handbag, heart in mouth. Oh my goodness! What have I just done?
 “I think a little drink would be in order” suggested Theo as he called the waiter for a wine list. Anything you fancy?” he inquired rhetorically. Laura looked up

“Do you have a Château Lafite 68?” 

The waiter was taken aback. “I would doubt that” he said “I seem to recall we opened the last bottle two Christmases ago. But I will check for you”
 “It's a pity that more of the team can't be here to share the conclusion” said Ray carelessly “which we would have done in the office”
 Laura's face turned to fire
 “Ray, maybe I should have asked this before we signed, but in the event that I visit the site again, could I possibly have a different primary contact? I really don’t want to be pushed into making life deliberately difficult for you”
 Ray looked shocked again and Theo attempted to change the subject
 “Something special about that wine?” he asked
 “Yes”, she said slowly and then increasingly sadly “About 6 months ago I was in a restaurant with a guy. His name was Damon. We'd only just met and didn't know each other very well. What he didn't realise was how wound up I already was about so many different conflicts. Unfortunately, these included the one he was telling me was plain obvious. Anyway, I kinda lost it. I picked up the wine bottle from the table and emptied it over his head. I later found out that Sir Ralph Sunderland was in the restaurant at the time, and he said Damon had simply got up bemoaning that it was a Château Lafite 68. Never mind his Gucci suit had got ruined”
 “So, was that the end of that?” 

She smiled a wry smile. “No, I couldn’t get hold of him the next day. Some issue at work had blown up out of proportion, but I heard he was going to be in a certain bar so I summoned up enough courage to go down there. It was a basement bar, and he noticed me as I was going down the stairs. He started rushing around, telling people to drink up, finish this glass. It's for your own good, in your own interest and so on. I got there just as he was finishing off two glasses of champagne on the next table which were nothing to do with his party at all. I just stood there dead nervous, and everyone was staring at me.
 Stand right there he said. And repeat after me and what I had to promise was that I would not pour Château Lafite over anyone's head, at least not that night.
 Everyone burst out laughing, but they weren't laughing at me it was just one huge joke. And the barmaid was already refilling everyone’s glass and everyone got back to their drinks and conversations. He turned to the couple on the next table who were looking on in total disbelief, and asked if it was a special occasion, drinking champagne in an east side basement.
 Yes said the guy. We just got engaged said the girl. Yeah, about twenty minutes ago and that was our celebration you just finished.
 My friend called to the barmaid and asked her to get the special bottle of vintage Tattinger that he knew was hidden away behind the bar. He poured out a little for me to try, and we shared a glass. Try this instead he said to the couple. So they tried it and were blown away. It was wonderful. We're having this at the wedding she exclaimed. Damon frowned at her. ‘How many guests’ he'd asked, about 80 maybe 100 not sure yet. Haven't done the planning.
 Ok he said, if it's 100, at one glass each, he paused for a second doing the maths, it'll cost just less than 8 grand. Well they nearly fell off their chairs. They'd planned a budget for the whole wedding would be about 10gs.
 So, the guy said, this glass I'm drinking now is about 80 quid!
 Damon smiled, nodded, turning away. Enjoy. It's on my tab. I’ll leave the rest of the bottle for you to help your celebration..
 That's the kind of guy he was”
 Theo looked puzzled “Was? But you’re still with Damon, aren’t you?”

“Theo. I don’t know. Maybe not. All he ever asked me for was to be back in the UK for a special industry occasion. Leroy found out about this and right at the last minute demanded an interview with the FDA even though everyone knew he wouldn’t be able to contribute anything. But he did know it would delay me and I’d miss that promise to be back. It was the only thing he’d ever asked me for and it was very important to Damon. But I failed and that’s why I think it may all be over now. And its all due to that slimebag Leroy. He said on more than one occasion that there would never be a deal unless I spent the night with him. And yes, I turned him down on every single occasion. But I failed in the only thing Damon had ever asked me for because I couldn’t cut the FDA audit short. I just couldn’t. Not after everything else. So maybe Leroy has actually won in the end if I’ve lost Damon” 

She paused to take a deep breath and blinked her eyes

“Ok, so we now have a deal and it's a lot of money it's more than any ordinary biologist should ever expect. But, but … I'd tear that contract up right now if it meant I could get back together with him. Before Ludvig and I came out here first, I debated whether to stay with him, or complete the research. I was adventurous enough to think I could do both. Guys, I think I got that decision wrong”

 She turned her head away in an effort to deflect the inevitable tears welling in her eyes as the two men sat there stunned by the personal honesty of the background. Theo slipped an arm round her in a rare demonstration of empathy and Laura broke the silence after a short pause.

“But let's not end on a low note, and I know, you’re not supposed to cry at business meetings”
 “Well”, said Theo moving the meeting up beat. “It's certainly the case that you shouldn't lose track of your friends and family, although different people might put different numerical values on it. But its hard to put a price on friendship”
 “I never thought about it” said Ray, suddenly more serious “I just tend to assume that my wife will be there. I never considered an alternative”
 

The waiter turned up with a bottle. “Sorry Ma’am, I was right about the 68, but I do have a 72 if that would be of interest”

Laura nodded “Why not...”

Laura moved the conversation on by asking ray about his family and the mood moved more up-beat.
 “So when are you going back?” asked Theo in the following lull and the conversation moved on while they drank the wine and discussed the best airline to fly with. Ray rose from his chair as he finished his glass. “I gotta go” he announced “I suspect my wife might want to see me a least a few minutes this year”

“Are you all right?” asked Theo almost suspiciously

“Yes, Yes I’m fine. But a little thing you said triggered that I ought to” 

He held his hand out to Laura “I’m happy with this deal. I hope you are too” he smiled “Laura, it's a real pleasure working with you. And I'll get the payment to you by the end of next week. I want to get it into this calendar year”
 “Thankyou Ray. I’m much happier with the deal now that I found the last 9 percent because that finished the research job. Now it feels complete”
 “And a lot more money”
 “Yes, but you’ve got a lot less risk knowing it all works. And distribution will be so much easier instead of having various exceptions”

“Yes. I'm sure we'll be in touch when we get into production”.
 “I don’t know if there are any loose ends left, but we’re still on speaking terms, so we should be able to sort them out if there are”

“If only all my suppliers were as understanding”

 “Are you flying back, Theo?”
 “No, I’m going back to Portland. Monica is flying out to meet me there for New Year”

She reached over and gave him a kiss on the cheek “Thanks Theo. Thanks for everything”
 “Of course, you could join me in Portland and I’ll divert Monica to Atlanta or even Fort Lauderdale”

“Don’t you start!”

Trouble in Tallin 

But while everything was going well in the States, disaster had struck in Eastern Europe. At the Studio, Hazel thought she had considered all eventualities and the extra gigs that she’d organised for East of Bruges were going wonderfully well. She sometimes retired to her room early to listen to classical music and maybe read a book to wind down. Talking about work all evening in the bar as well as working flat out all day was often just too much for her, now that the pace had ramped up. She loved her job, but starting at around 8 or 8.3o and continuing through until dinner at 7 was usually enough to put her plans in place. She was organised enough to get most things done by leaving messages although some calls at odd hours were necessary if they were to distant time zones.

But this evening was different. She was in an unprecedented panic as she bundled into the bar looking for Damon. He calmed her down with a hug and led her through to the library where it was quieter. 

There had been an accident in Tallin during the gig. It sounded serious. There were injuries to the band and she didn’t even know how to cancel their next concert in Helsinki the next evening.

“Denise is very shaken up but I don’t think she’s injured apart from that, and Yan will phone later when he has an update”

“Ok. Lets get you calmed down first. There’s not much we can do until we find out how bad it really is. You’re welcome to come and sit with Adam and me. We were discussing next week, but we can talk about you instead. Of course, he’ll want you to sit on his knee, cos he’s like that and it is a bit crowded”

Yes, she thought, I know that. She liked Adam – who didn’t? – but he was too fickle for her. She actually preferred Damon, but Damon was even more unavailable, but sitting beside him would be comforting.

“Maybe if I sit next to you instead you just put your arm round me and I’d take up less space”

Yan phoned, and the call found Damon. Tallin was two hours ahead of Somerset and most people were still in the bar, meaning that arrangements could be made provisionally that night with confirmation in the morning after some overnight thought.

Her efforts to book flights had never before failed so dismally. Ok, so todays effort was for todays flight, and usually her bookings were for weeks in advance. But at least Damon wasn’t in a flap - yet.

“Find Michelle. Get her to call Hannah”

She listened with disbelief to the conversation

“Julian is already booked for today, but in any case he’d have to stop to refuel in The Netherlands and then in Sweden. He may not even have enough flight hours in a day to get there before tonight. But….”

Hannah’s solution also bounced Kieran into unchartered territory as he found himself being driven by Michelle at a generous pace to catch a plane from Bristol airport.

He’d met the band before, but there would be no real time for rehearsal,

Touring with a band was exactly what he’d said he didn’t want to do. But flying by private jet for a single gig hardly qualified. He knew Denise, and the band was gaining an enviable reputation. Damon had already said that they should make it fun for the audience to make up for the changed line-up and it all became clearer an hour before curtain up when Damon called the guys together for a quick briefing. 

The house lights dimmed, the stage lighting came up fading red into purple and green all around and they flew into their first number with the reduced line-up. Denise waited for the applause to subside before moving forward on the stage and introducing an interpreter. The house went quiet as she explained that, although she respected that most Finns spoke excellent English, she wanted to do everything she could to make sure everyone completely understood what was going on.

“Last night, towards the end of our concert in Tallin, there was an accident. A large section of the overhead lighting gantry collapsed onto the stage, injuring two of our players” she paused every few words for interpretation and now for the nervous silence.

“The casualties were Olan, our lead guitarist, and our guest cello player who was a local Estonian who should have been joining us here. I’m sure you have all been looking forward to this evening, and we want to do everything we can so that you are not disappointed. What you can count on is that Chameleon Media will always do its best for its fans. So tonight we have Kieran O’Donnel joining us. Kieran is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist based at our studios in England. He flew in this afternoon and there hasn’t been much time for rehearsal so please be patient with him – Kieran O’Donnel!!…”

She waved a wide arm towards him as he picked up a ukelele and started to run through a few bars until Denise tapped the mic. He stopped, she turned to him with an exaggerated shake of her head. He put down the ukelele as a ripple ran through the audience and instead picked up a flute and started into an Irish jig tapping his foot loudly on the stage. This time there was a little more laughter as the audience started to realise this may be part of the show. Then an alto sax, walking slowly across the front of the stage blasting out some hard core jazz – not what this audience was expecting - while Yan and Denise pretended to have an argument gesticulating in Kieran’s direction, but there was still laughter rumbling around the auditorium as the band started the next number 

“Like I said, there hasn’t been much time for rehearsal. He’ll be great when he finds the right instrument. But our guitarist Olan was injured as well. Kieran does play guitar as well, but even he can’t play two instruments at the same time. So tonight to complete the line-up for you – by direct flight from England, in a rare on-stage appearance, we have none other than….Damon Lehrer from the Chameleons!!!….”

Damon leapt onto the stage rattling out some complex riffs. He’d never played on-stage with Yan before, but he’d been on stage with Denise at Emma’s party, and Denise knew it was up to her to keep it together. She introduced the next number which was one of the standards that they were expected to play and the audience settled down. But only as far as 12 bars in when Kieran started marching across the back of the stage pouring out a contrary rhythm wrapped up in a bright copper jumbo sousaphone. The audience fell about as he marched back across the front of the stage with Denise chasing him waving a microphone stand. She untangled him from the brass instrument hardly able to keep a straight face herself and Yan presented him with the cello. Kieran sat towards the side of the stage with his music stand, watching, and came in right on cue on the next track with the cello solo. He’d done this before. His original band played heavy metal with him on cello, but here with Denise on vocals rather than a growling dervish, it all sounded so wonderfully sophisticated. Damon didn’t know all these tracks, but Serrgio was experienced enough and calm enough to integrate Damon’s improvisation into a seamless performance.

The show closed with more noise than they’d had all tour. 

It was a two edged sword for Yan. He thought they’d been doing very well indeed. But this altered show, with its revised line-up led him to think that they hadn’t been doing as well as he’d thought.

“No, Yan…” Damon persuaded him back at the hotel for the debrief “…A lot of these fans were expecting cancellation, or at least a reduced playlist. The extra applause was a result of the gap between the expectation and the result”

Return from Rochester - Final

Over at JFK, the probable new scenario that Laura had talked herself into was bubbling to the front of her brain. The British Airways desk was clear as she approached with her open ticket, not daring to think of how long it would be before she would be in the air. But getting back to England would be a huge relief. Just getting on a plane would give her time to think.
 “Next flight with us would be 5 o'clock tomorrow afternoon” she said helpfully. Laura's face said no before she could speak. 

“Ok, would you like me to try some other operators? Ok, TWA seem to have a space at midday tomorrow. Or would you be interested in a business class seat at all?”

She nodded,

“In which case American have a seat on their overnight flight at 18.50 this evening”

She nodded again

“Do you need to check any baggage?”

“No. I’m travelling light this time. Where do I...”

“That's ok. I can issue from here. I assume it's a credit card?”
 “Yes” she continued as payment went through “We transfer passengers all the time to balance flights. Check in is over there. Just round from South West. Have a nice day”

So now would be a good time to find a table, maybe with some food, a small G & T and a serious think about the future, or at least the bit I have any control over.

The café was moderately empty, the coffee was good and the burger was standard Stateside size. American Rock was the program on that giant TV screen on the wall at the far end. Somewhere in between the news flashes, airport announcements and adverts the program was about all that was happening in the music scene up and down the East Coast.

Laura’s interest in music was in listening to it, and by no means all of it, rather than learning about it, but as a background it filled in the gap. She was too tired to think constructively, and gazed at it mindlessly and, up to a point, it might distract her mind from her disaster with Damon.

There was a lot of music that wasn’t quite to her taste, and interviews with mindless cretans trying to string more than two words together. She was largely ignoring it all, letting it float over her until a distinctly British accent caught her ear. The interview was with a guy called Matt from a band called Alpha Tyger that she was sure she’d heard of, but without being able to remember when. Apparently they had just started a tour of the US and were looking forward to another 30 States over the next 6 months. Of course! Huck had mentioned that!

“….Your rise up the charts has been nothing short of meteoric”
 “Yeah. We’ve been real lucky. And we really appreciate the interest from you guys over here”

“And you’re the first Stateside success from the new Chameleon label. Can you tell us a bit about that?”

“Yeah, well, The whole setup is like something I’ve never seen before. You’re not on your own. There’s a huge amount of experience and advice on how to get things right. Keith De-Santis is on production and you don’t get better than that. Adam and Damon are just fantastic and there’s depth to it as well. Its not just superficial like ‘that’s ok, stick it on the album’. Its why they like it, why its good, how to improve it so it’ll make the chart. We’ve been trying to break out for five years but those guys are so sharp they pick up on every little thing and that’s what makes the difference in tightening up the band. The whole show operates out of a huge country house, its absolutely massive – like, man, the place is 600 years old, and the acoustics are awesome. I’ll tell you what, these guys bring a level of intelligence into music, and I’ve not seen much of that before”

“Matt its great talking to you, and good luck with the tour. I’m hoping I can catch up with you guys again in Buffallo in a couple of months and I’m really looking forward to seeing how its all going for you. And after the break folks, and still on the theme of the Chameleons, we’ve got the interview that I managed to get with Damon Lehrer at the UK Music Awards last week. Don’t go away”.

What! Damon – on New York TV?

The adverts only increased her anticipation and then there he was. Oh my! Her heart sank to an all time low. And that’s where I was meant to be. Oh! Red carpet! So high profile, so public so….. So who.. Who is that! Who is that holding his hand on stage in front of 400 people and a nationwide tv camera. But….but…That was meant to be me…!

“… but before we get to Damon, and for no better reason than she’s prettier than him – by a very long way - lets see if we can get an introduction. Hi Damon. Congratulations on the award which is hugely deserved, but before we get to that I’m sure our viewers will be more than interested in who it is that’s lucky enough to share this prestigious event with you, which is something of a surprise to all of us”
 “Thanks Ricki. You know how much I love talking to you on air. So, Ricki Valentine from CBS Video News, this is Michelle Hanley. Michelle – Ricki from CBS”

“Delighted to meet you, Michelle. Are you in the music business?”
 “Oh, yes absolutely. But not on the performing side. I’ve been with Damon in setting up the Studio since it began, way back in April”
 “So can you tell us how you know Damon.? Did you know him before that?”

“No. He was looking for a secretary to help him with the whole thing, and I just happened to be in the same pub as him”

“There’s a bit more to it than that!” interjected Damon

“But I cant tell him about that!”
 “Why not? It’s a master stroke”

Ricki’s grin spread across from ear to ear as he realised that he’d accidentally stumbled across a valuable exclusive interview as she related the story of how she got the job, and went on to describe how it was that Damon found out when they were on Druze’s yacht. The way she described it generated a huge amount of laughter from the audience, and she had to interrupt herself several times to let the noise die down

“…and you’ve been with Damon since then?”
 “Absolutely! Who wouldn’t? The guy is very nearly perfect!”

“Only nearly?”
 “Mmm Except that….”

But the broadcast was interrupted by the announcement that Laura’s flight was boarding. She grabbed her case and fled to the departure gate, only to find that the queue had hardly started moving.

But Michelle had gone to the awards instead of her. And she’d been with him since April. In a panic she grabbed the phone and dialled the Studio as she kept her other eye on the queue

“Damon? Sorry babe – he’s gone … Helsinki …ith …azel”

Except, some of the words were lost to background noise from the concourse and she still had the picture of Michelle in her mind.

But… I wasn’t there. I was checking my 9% for the FDA and instead, he took Michelle. Michelle. Who is every guy’s dream girl who told the whole world that he was perfect. What! And now he’s in Finland with her, as she joined the moving queue. She’d hardly caught her breath before she was approached by a steward.

“Miss Pemberton?” Laura nodded.. Oh my! What next?

“Would you like to come with me please. We'd like to upgrade you to first class, if that's ok with you. Courtesy of American Airlines”

She followed obediently as he parted the queue to walk down the middle. So often had she seen other passengers walk to the front of the queue like this, and had always wondered what the big deal was in getting on early. It just meant you were sitting on the plane longer. But she could also see the jealousy in a number of eyes at her special treatment.

 “Would you like a drink while we’re waiting for flight clearance?”

“I'd like a gin and tonic please, unless you happen to have a Château Lafite 68. It's a dark Rothschild?”
 “I'm afraid not ma'am. G and T coming up”
 “Whoa, yo-ho!” exclaimed the plus size American “Now there a wine. Excellent, one of the very best, but a rare sight these days”
 “Sadly so” replied Laura, without wanting to appear too familiar.
 “I guess you're going home to England?”
 “I guess so. Except” she said softly “I'm not sure where home is any more”
 “Yah” said the portly gentleman accepting what looked like a half pint of scotch from the stewardess. “Yo now, I get like that quite a lot. Get around the world on so many flights, I hardly know where home is. Y’know, my definition is wherever I hang my hat - that's my home. It means that wherever I am, I can treat it like home, and it can feel like home. But y’know I still know really it aint home, which is sad. I just don't think of it that way too often. 

You got someone at home? Yeah? Should get him a decent whisky. They sell one on board here. Its called The Munro. Single malt. Its from an island called Skye. He'll appreciate it.” 

 It was late - Eastern Standard Time – but an early wakening GMT and breakfast was served, the fat American was having trouble waking up and a bottle of Munro was stowed in her case. You never know, it might help, and at least it’ll show him that I thought about him. That I’d tried. But she was already thinking that the first breakfast was one too many.

She’d tried, but as she’d heard Damon say about the music industry, there are no prizes for trying. The only thing that counts is succeeding. And now she tried to reflect sensibly to try to find at least a single vestige of hope. Damon had still been friendly. He’d hardly mentioned her missing the Awards. But he'd spent a long time on the phone, all to female callers. Everyone he worked with seemed to be female – Lisa, Steffi, and there was Juliette that on her suggestion he hadn’t fired. And mention of Amy and Natalia as well. And of course, Michelle, oh my, she’s super film-star pretty, and now everyone would connect Damon with her. In the music industry he’d be surrounded by pretty girls all of which had more time to spend with him than her, at least until now... But! He had financed this latest trip, yet again. And he paid off her credit card. And she was now in a position to make a bit more commitment and….and what? But even without an interest in her, he had to do all these things anyway because he had 300 thousand dollars at risk. Maybe this was just the business relationship that he said they might end up in. After all, technically he owned half of the deal because that’s how she’d defined their shares after buying out Ludvig. 

But the panic that this gave her convinced her not to believe it. She moved her watch onto landing time and dozed fitfully till the seat belt signs lit up.

“Passport!” Demanded the zombie at immigration. He studied the visa pages. “Crossed the Atlantic quite a lot then! How long are you over in England for?”
 “Sorry?”
 “Will you be returning to the States in less than three months?”

“Maybe” she retorted incredulously “I may have to go back. I don’t know yet”

“May have to. So you may be here more than three months?”

“Quite possibly. I live here. I'm coming home”
 “So you do not have a return ticket to the US”
 “No. Not yet. It depends if there are any complications so my business in the States might not be finished.”
 “And what sort of business is that?”
 “I'm a research biologist. I was visiting a pharmaceutical company”
 “And you're going home? What address? …. That's not the address on your passport”.
 Laura thought quickly. Why did these guys need to be so pig awkward?
 “No. It's my business address. I'm going there first. Then I'll go back to my place after that”.

 He drilled her solemnly with a poker straight face.
 “Look”, said Laura, “I don't know what the problem is. I’ve come back home now. Look, this is my car park ticket. My car is in the Elephant”

He glared at her and folded her passport 

“Next!”

 She stopped just inside the gate to let her heart rate recover. The guy behind her had come straight through despite speaking with a distinctly foreign accent and looking decidedly African
 “No baby” he said approaching her “I don't know what that was about either. Sometimes these guys just pick on someone cos they’re havin’ a bad day”
 “I suppose so” she sighed “But it's not what you need after a night flight”
 “Good for me though. I think you were his quota of bad ass for the day”
 “Thanks” she said, rather grateful for the distraction, and that someone was taking an interest.
 “You going home too?” she asked. 

“No way. My home is in Ghana. Got destroyed by rebels four months ago. Folks over here are friendly so I guess this is my home now”
 “Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Oh, l mean about your place in Ghana”
 “Yea baby. Doubt I'll even be able to re-enter the country. Course all my family is still out there. Sometimes you wonder if they'll go after them instead. But no. I'll just find somewhere here, put down some new roots. Maybe even find some new family”

 Laura felt this was getting too heavy.
 She flashed him a false smile “Good luck with it. I hope you manage to find a new home” realising that she had no more idea than him of what the future looked like.

Back in the car she continued the train of thought. The car, yes his car. The car he needed to get to the Studio but he’d given to her instead. Everything would be great. She’d find some way to make up for that Award Ceremony and she had all the time in the world now to concentrate on that. Except he was in Finland with Michelle. And after that he’d be at work with Michelle.

The ticket worked in the exit machine – the first good sign. She pulled over at a service station and got some money from a hole in the wall on her card. There was a stress attached to travelling without any money in your purse. Now she felt better. No – not better, just slightly less distraught. She looked for a phone, then remembered there was one in the car and decided to make some progress, especially when she remembered that she was tired and concentration was needed.
 It took ages for anyone to answer, and eventually it was Lisa who picked up.
 “Hi, Lisa, it's Laura”`

“Really! I wondered who it might be ringing from Damon’s car since he’s here”

“Oh, he’s back from Helsinki?”
 “Yes. Only one gig. Olan was more shaken up than badly injured, mainly his neck and left leg, and he says he doesn’t play the guitar with his left leg – or his neck”

That made no sense whatsoever to Laura, and now was not the time for complex explanations.
 “I'm on my way back now. I was going to head for the farmhouse to give Damon his car back”
 “That's good because we've still got a lot of standing water on the roads around here, he’s been using the Aston but it isn't the best for wading through streams”
 “Should get there around lunchtime, all being well”

“In which case, he’ll likely be in the Farmers”
 
 Laura now felt distractedly depressed. Michelle has to be the most attractive girl she ever saw. If that was the competition what chance did any other girl have? And this could be difficult if he was having lunch with her or even someone else. It brought tears to her eyes, and she pressed on the accelerator to get back sooner. But surely Lisa would have said something. After all, she pointed her in this direction. She remembered back to what Huck had said about how important those awards were, and having now had a glimpse of them on the TV she could see why. It all just reinforced what she’d said to Ray only yesterday - in hindsight, she'd can that lousy contract if she could only get back with Damon. She felt the tears rolling down her face as she drove on through the traffic. But it didn't matter. No one was watching. And it wouldn't matter even if there was.
 Diversion? What? More delay, more concentration now. This was a road she hadn't driven on but she knew there were some evil bends on it. Hopefully they’ll have cleared the gravel from the hairpin bend. But at least she was familiar with the car. And there it was. Cross the narrow stone hump-backed bridge, and there was the Farmers Arms.

It reminded her just how much she disliked roller coasters - a combination of reaching the next unknown far too suddenly and an overdose of adrenalin.

The previous time she’d been in this pub, she’d nearly drowned just getting from the car, but now, it was cold – much colder than New York. But the rain seemed to have stopped, and that was a bonus. 

It was busy and Damon was at the bar as she crept in nervously, looking around to see who he was with. She walked over, slowly not daring to think what sort of reception she’d get. But Damon was on his own and broke into an ever increasing smile as she stood, quivering, facing him. Slowly she reached out, slipping her arms round him. 

“Damon..” she whispered through the residual tears “Please tell me we’re more than just business partners”

This was too public a place for a kiss and she wasn’t expecting one, but equally she wasn’t expecting the bear hug that lifted her completely off the floor. Julie was distracted as he turned her to sit down at a reserved table with her large glass of wine and a pint of local falling down juice,
 “That's booked for lunch” reproached Julie, “can’t you read the sign!”
 “Hmmm lunch” said Damon completely ignoring the criticism “Laura, when did you last eat? On the plane?
 Julie, since this tables already set for lunch do you think you could rustle up a couple of ham egg and chips while we're here”.
 “Damon” she scolded “Sometimes I think you just haven't got a home go to! On the tab?”

But Laura wasn’t convinced, even if it seemed to be pointed in the right direction
 “I take it, it all went well? I had a call from Theo”
 “Oh!” was all Laura managed to say becoming even farther deflated – again. She’d worked herself up into believing that she’d lost Damon to Michelle, and her hope of recovery was the deal she’d signed – it was for both of them!

“Did he tell you all about it?”

“No, no. He told me very little but if there had been major problems I’m sure he’d have mentioned it. Actually, he called to remind me about something. But it was something I already knew”
 “The bill?” joked Laura, surprising herself that she was able to raise even this level of humour.
 “Yes and that. Did you get there in time for Registration?”

But food arrived and the talk continued about food and the restaurant in her New York hotel. She desperately wanted to tell him about the deal, but now she thought Theo had told him first it lacked some of the importance and had lost any force as a weapon against Michelle. The priority now was to keep the conversation going until….. until some random farmer interrupted with some irrational irrelevance. “No” she said politely “I've been in New York”

“America?”
 “Yes, that New York. But I got everything done that I needed to, so I came I back again”
 That seemed to quieten the farm hand, but time was nearly up and Julie was gesturing that the folks that had just come in were the diners who had booked that table.
 Normally, explained Damon, she doesn't let anyone sit at booked tables because of the difficulty of moving them on when the diners turn up. But I think she knows I'll move on when needed, and it's good to be able to just pop in” 

“No she doesn't!” risked Laura, “She just thinks your cute”
 “Are you turfing us out then” jested Damon, 

“Yes, and it's not raining”

“Shock!”

“Its snowing”

Cue - Excerpt from Lord of the Flies by tRK Project

Laura and Damon looked at each other. Then out of the window. Then, together, they turned to look at the bar instead. Maybe another drink. 

Two high stools at the bar were vacant as stockmen cleared out to check that the sheep weren’t trapped in freezing mud having just rescued them from drowning, and the whole bar become quieter.

“So what did Theo say?” she probed with more disappointment than she intended
 “Theo? Oh, he was just reminding me of something”
 “Something important?”
 “Yes. Important enough for him to phone me transatlantic from an airport payphone. But I already knew”

“He didn't tell you about the deal?”
 “Deal? I thought you were only going to register. Did you make a deal?”
 “Yes, I registered on Monday straight after I arrived like you told me to, and then I got a call from Theo who set up a meeting with Ray Wisenski the next day. He’s the VP”
 “Oh my goodness! So you went back to Rochester?”

“No. But I should’ve. My big case is still there. The Hotel said they’d store it for me”

“We’ll see if we can get Huck to collect it”

“Maybe. But he lives two hours away and his tour wasn’t going back that way”

But this distraction was in danger of derailing the main discussion yet again and she turned it back

“No. Ray came all the way down to New York. I was hoping he’d improve his offer because I didn’t really want to set up a whole new trial with some other company. Oh Damon, I wish you'd been there. I didn't know what to do, but Ray came up with a new number. Theo had been talking to him about potential values. I updated him that it was now 100% and registered and cleared for Field Trial… I asked Theo for his advice. He said it's complicated. No one knows how the new product will take off.. I think maybe I made too many side attacks on Leroy, but Ray was really nice. I think we might have got a little more, but Ray was very keen to complete the deal. He suggested that delays and going to his board for approval could introduce new risks. I told him that I wanted something we were both happy with, but I missed out talking to you about it. You’ve done so much for me. Bailing out Ludvig, financing the extra trips, and everything. And it is half yours”

“Woah Laura. Well done. Are you happy with it”

Her face fell. “Happy with it?” she said sadly “No” she whispered

“Oh, honey. After all that, was it not what you were expecting. Maybe that’s why Theo didn’t tell me about it, although I’d assumed he was just short of change. It can’t have been much lower or you’d have told him to poke it like before and we’d point Theo in the direction of Nervatis. There must be something else?”

The door flew open and a group of about 8 bundled in, pushing and squeezing through the doorway to get out of the snow

“Grief! Its lethal out there. Its all freezing on the road. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a loony up on the lane driving a whole flock of sheep this way – I think he’s gonna bring them in here to warm up!”

“If that Ole Geordie even tries that, I’ll be tanning his hide, so I will!

“Maybe we should try to get back to the farmhouse before it gets worse”
 “You found a home to go to yet?” called Julie.
 “I don’t know where my home is any more” retorted Laura

“Home is where the heart is” confided Julie.

Outside, whole drifts of snow were falling from the sky. It was freezing, but that meant that the snow stayed frozen and wasn’t quite as wet. They slipped across the forecourt towards the car and decided before they got there that it would be safer to walk

 “What about you” asked Laura wistfully “where do you call home?”
 “Me? The Studio maybe. Maybe the farmhouse. Home is where you go when your head has dropped off or the world has fallen apart. It's where you feel safe. It's where you want the sun to come up tomorrow even if the outside world is burning to destruction”
 “Really? I didn't think these things happened in your life”

“Oh they do, my whole business depends on me being right. Hire the right people, choose the right artists, define the right tours, release the right singles at the right time. So far it's all worked. But sometimes I get it wrong, and that comes as a shock cos I usually get it right. That's why the band was successful. And that’s why the business is successful. But that doesn’t make me successful”
 That was sad, and so unexpected – Damon was always so up-beat - and they walked on a little in silence. 

But the flock of sheep had now arrived, pushing past them on both sides

“I’d herd them all into the Farmers Arms, Geordie. Julie’s bound to give you at least a pint for getting them all out again”

Laura laughed – maybe the first time in days or even weeks, even though she was separated from Damon by an endless sea of wool until they eventually squelched up the drive and through the hall.
 He lobbed a couple of logs into the embers of the fire and she dripped in front of it as he poured two glasses.

“Oh Laura, I’m so sorry about the deal. Was it that bad? Surely that two million was still on the table?”

“Its not the deal, Damon. Its what I’ve lost in getting it. I stayed to complete the project; I stayed to get the FDA signoff and in doing that, I missed the Awards. That was the only thing you ever asked me to do for you, after everything you’ve done for me, it was the only single thing - and I failed. Yes, the FDA was more important and instead you took Michelle. Michelle - who is every guy’s dream and thinks you’re perfect, and then you took her to Helsinki. 

“Ok, now slow down a bit. I guess you must have seen the interview where she said I was nearly perfect? Do you remember what she said after that?”
 “No, I missed that. My flight was boarding”

Her voice tailed off even though her tears were fading 

 “Laura, she said ‘Nearly. Nearly perfect’ and its ‘nearly’ because I’m more than ten years too old. She was actually taking the rind, but no-one else would know that. She’s been my PA since I started to create the Studio. Not long after she joined she was doing so well that I told her that she’d be perfect if she was 10 years older, and it’s a reference to that”

“What? And she looked so fabulous at the interview”

“I’m certain. And yes, she did look fabulous at the Awards, but then, she looks quite like that most days”

He slipped his arms around her pulling her in closer

“And Finland? Yes, I flew to Helsinki, but that was with Hazel, not Michelle. Kieran came too. We had a major issue out there. The lighting gantry fell on one of our bands while they were on stage. It was one of the extra dates Hazel had set up and she felt responsible. The bands guitarist was injured, but I know these guys and we’d just finished recording their next album so I knew some of the songs they’d be playing. It made sense for me to get on out there and fill the gap for that evening rather than cancel the gig. So I flew over to replace the guitarist, Kieran came too to replace the cellist and Hazel came to sort any organisational issues and then go on to Tallin to see the venue management about the accident. Laura, I work in an industry that’s over-populated by pretty girls, but there’s much more to it than that. And that’s what Theo phoned me for. He wanted to remind me that I'd worked tirelessly to earn that award. It has some industry kudos and is a short silver cup that attracts dust on a mantelpiece. It wouldn't even be a talking point because no one outside the industry would know what it was or why you might get one…”

“Yes, you’ve got your award and you’ve got Michelle. And me? Me? All I’m left with is a contract and all I want to do is give that contract to Michelle in exchange for the only man I’ve ever loved - the only man I’ll ever love”

He held her gently as she clung onto him desperately dissolving into desolation.

“But Laura, listen. That’s what Theo phoned me for. It was nothing to do with the project. It was to remind me was that I was in terminal danger of losing the sweetest, loveliest, most perfect girl in the whole world because of a short silver cup. Laura, that’s why I haven’t said anything about it, because you are so much more important”

Laura tried wiping her eyes but to no avail. This new round of information was not sinking in . She was emotionally drained and had no energy left for raising hopes. 

Damon reached around her to pick up the two glasses and she took only a few sips

“You were about to tell me about the deal? I didn’t know you’d done a deal as well. You’ve worked so hard for it, surely its all been worthwhile after all the trauma. But I’ll happily give you my half if that would make up enough for you to open your lab”

“No, I’ll have enough without it. And I don’t want you to because that’s one thing that could keep us together, even if its just as business partners. But like I told Theo yesterday, I’d give it all up if it meant I could stay with you”

“Laura, you don’t have to. I want us to be so much more than just business partners. Because…because, I couldn’t do that. Seeing you only to discuss finance and personnel and research would simply break me. I’d give you my half just to avoid that because I want us to be so much more. And if we can’t be so much more, I don’t want you at all. Don’t you remember before you went back to Rochester, after Ludvig threw the towel in, we talked about the future. We talked about us, and living together in the countryside, and how much we’d both try and make that work after you got back”
 “Yes, and the Awards and how important that was to you” 

“The Awards seemed so important then. But sometimes you have to reassess your priorities”
 “I know. I said that to Theo. I should never have gone to Rochester. I should have stayed here with you. I’ve replayed that so often. And most times I figured I’d made the wrong call”

“No. No you haven’t. I said I’d give you anything that money can buy, but I couldn’t replace your dream. I had to give you your dream, so that had to come first. And if I’d been there, I’d have told you to stay. Now you’ve got your deal and you’re back in the UK and we can both make more time for each other – if you still want to?”

“Still want to! Damon, I want you more than anything else in the world, more than everything else in the world”

The hug and the kiss was in danger of turning into something far more serious, but they both decided to put that on hold for later.

“Laura, we’re both still half drowned and hardly thawing out again. You take the glasses and turn up the jets on the Jacuzzi and I’ll get a new bottle to celebrate whatever deal you made”

But instead she just threw her arms round his neck as they just stood still shivering with tears running down both their faces.

Now finally warming up, Damon was determined to discuss the deal. There were other things he wanted to do with her in that Jacuzzi, but the deal was important to her and he needed to make sure that she knew it was important to him as well.

“So come on, Laura. This deal is the finale. You said it would be enough to start your lab. It must have made that two million dollars. Or seven figures at least?”

Laura smiled and shook her head. Damon looked disappointed. “Not seven? Did they find a flaw somewhere? Do you need to revisit it?”
 She shook her head again, and then beamed at him

 “8” she announced with all the excitement that had been dormant in her “But that is dollars. And…”

“And that definitely demands another drink?” as he reached for the bottle and poured another glass as she continued 

“Yes. And….And 6 cents a sheet on production, although I’ve no idea how big a sheet is”

She described the meeting with Ray and Theo getting more excited as she continued 

“….Theo and Ray were discussing numbers and largely I was just listening. I couldn’t have done this without him. Ray wanted a deal we were both happy with and explained that there would be a risk and a delay in going to his Board. He preferred to keep within his personal signoff because that would make his life so much easier. It was lower than Theo thought the maximum could be, and Ray agreed. But he upped the sheet rate to compensate and we agreed on… Damon, we agreed on 43 million. 43 million dollars”

 Theo thought that was fair so I just said ‘yes’. That resulted in complete silence so I said, I thought you guys liked girls just to say ‘yes’ and they both broke into a laugh. Theo put the papers on the table with a rather nice Mont Blanc pen and that’s it. We signed. At 43. Damon, 43 million dollars – that’s 21 and a bit each. And some sort of royalty on production volumes”

She turned to him with tears steaming down her face “Only 8 weeks ago my fair share was a hundred thousand which would have been nice and help me survive while a found another job. But equally, it might have been nothing at all! Now its over 21 million. I don’t even understand numbers that big”

She leant over onto him, silently reflecting 

“Are we really getting back together?”
 “Oh Laura, I so much hope so. Except for the fact that we’ve never been away. I mean, I know you’ve been in New York, but that’s a different dimension”

“Maybe….” she asked more hesitatingly “maybe I could borrow a bit of your home, Even if its only for a few days, because I might need to rebuild my world too”

“Laura. Of course you can. I always hoped you would, I guess I assumed you wanted to when we’d talked about it. And Laura, that’s why I renovated this house. It was for you.”

She closed her eyes taking a short time-out to let that sink in and make sure she’d overcome her tears

“I bought you a present on the way back” she said more brightly

“Is that a Christmas present?”
 “Christmas?”

“Yes. Tomorrow. You know, its traditionally on the 25th”

She jumped causing a huge wave all round the pool

“But I haven’t got as much as a turkey – and everywhere will be closed now. I cant believe I forgot all about it”

“Its easy to lose track of days when you’re flying overnight. So maybe it’s a good day to introduce you to the Studio. You could meet some of the names you know like Michelle and Lisa, and Hazel. I think Keith will still be there, he was claiming to be flood-bound but I think that’s just an excuse. He could make it back to London if he tried. After all, you did. And there’ll be plenty of Christmas dinner there too tomorrow. I’ll call Lynda and tell her to expect us”

“Lynda? Another of the girls in your life!”

“Lynda looks after catering”

“You mean, she’s the cook?”
 “I think she’d prefer if you called her ‘Catering manager’”

“Catering Manager! How many people are staying at your house for Christmas?”
 “I really couldn’t say. Might be 40. Could be as many as 50. Only Adrienne would know for sure”

“Adrienne?”
 “She keeps track of which rooms are clean so that Nicki can allocate them as part of her scheduling!”

“Two more girls to add to the list!”
 “Yes, they both work for our Accommodation Manager, Natalia” he added with a smile, just winding her up

She cleared the fog from the window, only to see the snow still tumbling down and they returned to the Jacuzzi

“Ok, Maybe we just stay here tonight and head for the Studio tomorrow. Unless, with this new financial independence you’re thinking about moving on?”

“Oh Damon, You could not be more wrong!”

He described the Studio and the setup and why they needed an entire team on catering and another on accommodation and that the girls sometimes moved from one to the other just to confuse everyone and about then they both realised that they’d had far too much to drink and migrated back to the log fire collapsing down onto the settee. The pub, before lunch, and after lunch and by the fire and in the Jacuzzi and …..she leant her head over onto his shoulder - and fell asleep. Damon finished his drink, and then hers and then he too fell asleep. Sometime in the early hours he had picked her up without waking her, carried her upstairs and rolled her into bed. De ja vue indeed, he remembered through the alcoholic haze.
 

Breakfast was magical for Laura. Just waking up and finding Damon and having a piece of toast in the kitchen – Their kitchen. Maybe that was running rather too fast, but the more she replayed the previous day’s events, the more hope she managed to build. Damon had rebuilt this farmhouse for them, to be together.

The snow had been intermittent overnight but showed no signs of thawing. 

“Are we really going to the Studio? Are we staying there? Because I’ve just unpacked my case”

“But that’s good. It shows you might be thinking of staying”

“I think I said I bought you a present…” 

“…even though you forgot it was Christmas”

“Yes” she said, handing him the bag and taking the teasing in good spirits.

He handed her the jewellery box, wrapped in green paper and tied with red bows. She unwrapped it, guessing it was some kind of necklace from the box shape, oh! Or maybe it would be a pen, maybe like Theo’s to remind her to send a postcard if she couldn’t phone. But no

“Blue! I love sapphires! They’re not real are they? They can’t all be real” 

“I thought it would go with that special blue dress of yours that you wore on our first date. And I’m so pleased its back out again today. And yes, they’re all real. It started as one large stone, but the goldsmith made a tiny little mistake and the whole thing shattered. So he built the pieces into this necklace which I think is better than a single large stone on a gold chain. And for us Laura, I think its even more appropriate”

Laura to the Studio

They heaved another sack of rock-salt into the back of the Range Rover and set off for another adventure. Wow! Another big day. But big for a whole lot of different reasons.

He slowed on their way down the hill and she looked over quizzically

“I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you and your project and getting yourself a deal where Ludvig bailed out”
 “Thankyou, but it was you that was so understanding and had so many ideas, and you that financed it and hired Theo and that’s what raised the game. But Damon, can you tell me something about the Studio? I was distracted yesterday and we were well into the second bottle on top of being in the pub”
 “You mean you weren’t listening” he grinned
 “Yes, I was listening, I just wasn’t hearing” 

“I’m sure you’ll just take it as it comes, and after the rollercoaster of the last few months, maybe it wont be such a huge surprise”
 “Its a big country mansion, I think that’s what Huck told me. How big is it”
 “Big. Actually, its enormous. We maxed at using about a hundred of the bedrooms. Not these last two weeks due to the weather and the run down to Christmas, but earlier this month we were”

100! Laura had seen big country houses before, but, like Ellie before her, they were always cordoned off. 

They’d struggled through the snow, and having taken longer than expected, were just in time to catch everyone crowding into the bar for a pre-lunch drink.

Natalia had taken over the kitchen to give Lynda Christmas day with her own family, but everyone joined in together like one big happy family rather than the traditional country house. The bands who were staying all knew that they were still on some kind of attitude trial and Natalia was almost overwhelmed by the offers of assistance from people who in a traditional situation were really the ‘guests’. She’d moved the tables together in the restaurant so that there were just two long ones down the middle, like she would expect with her extended family in Hungary. Laura was only too pleased to take her turn at serving, walking round the outside of the table with half a dozen other people she didn’t know filling up plates rather than trying to pass every dish to everyone else. And that let Natalia and the kitchen team join the meal as well – just like a family Christmas.

This was just a continuation of the frenetic surprises for Laura. Back together with Damon, the Country House, the sentry on guard at the gatehouse, the frescos, the dinner layout as one huge big happy family, and now presents for everyone from round the tree in the library. Nor did it stop there as everyone migrated back to the bar with Lisa handing out drinks even before they were asked for.

Damon had been expecting a reduced cast over the holiday, but the weather had been the perfect excuse for quite a few bands to decide to stay there rather than go home, and the bar after lunch in the late afternoon was buzzing even more than it usually did in the evening. Laura looked out, mesmerised by the blanket of snow smoothly covering the lawn all the way from the patio outside the bar to the lakeside at the foot of the gentle hill a hundred yards away.

Adam lifted the mic, and dimmed the lights

“Hey guys!”

The noise died down

“Hey guys. For everyone who has not just landed from mars, you’ll have noticed that we have an absolutely drop dead gorgeous new addition to the team. Laura, can you come up here a minute please” 

Laura turned from her euphoria by the patio doors at the mention of her name as a gap open up and Adam took her hand pulling her up onto the dais 

“Now you’re name’s Laura? Right?”

“Yes, that’s right” she said not quite appreciating the situation.

“Would you move a bit closer please?”
 “Is that for the microphone?”
 “No, it just because I like being really close to beautiful girls. And you’re Damon’s girlfriend?”

“Yes” she said slightly more hesitantly. She’d never quite agreed that term with him but he’d invited her here so it seemed ok

“This is quite an event at the Studio. You see, Damon has never made time for a girlfriend before. He’s been so busy setting everything up to be such a wonderful inspiring place for everyone else that he hasn’t had any time left over for himself. But now meeting you like this I can fully understand why he’s made an exception. This is your first visit to the Studio – what do you think?”

“I think its awesome – I’ve never been anywhere quite like this. Its so…”

“big?”

“Yes, its big all right. But its also so… something… imposing… enchanting. Its big but its not oppressive. Yes – everyone is so friendly, and smartly dressed, so polite. Its simply so civilised, and such a quiet ambience – except in the bar here, it’s fantastic. I could never imagine a place like this ever existing”

“I think that right now its exactly as we envisioned it so I’m real glad you like it. Huck liked it too when he was over. You know Huck Carraway, don’t you? And maybe that’s a slight American accent I’m detecting?”

“Yes, I met Huck while I was over there. He and Tilly popped over to make sure I was ok. And I went to his gig in Rochester with Tilly”

“I guess the thing that confuses me, and Keith as well, is that our paths have not crossed before. Someone as lovely as you should be difficult to miss. So where have you been hiding?”

“Mostly, I’ve been living in Edencombe”

“Ok, so you’re from this part of the country?”
 “Yes, although I went to Birmingham Uni, then came back”

“So… Do you front a band?”

“Sorry Adam. But I’m not actually in music. I mean, I like music, but just listening to it. I never learned to play any instrument and I certainly can’t sing” 

“Ok. That solves that riddle. But you do work. I heard that it was business that took you over to the States recently?”
 “Oh yes, it was. I’ve spent most of the last three months in Rochester, in up-state New York. Maybe some of the accent rubbed off on me. It was so, so stressful, very fraught. And that makes it extra special for me being here where it is wonderfully quite the opposite. The last few months have been something of a frantic rollercoaster”
 “Everyone else here is involved with the Studio either running it, like Natalia, or as musicians. But if you’re not connected to the industry, Laura, what is it you do? You can tell from the silence that everyone is dying to know”

“I’m a research biologist” 

Adam nearly dropped the microphone “A what!?” 

“I’m a research biologist. More specifically, in zoological pharmacology”

“Wow!.. But that figures! Y’all may not know that Damon got a first in cellular physiology at Durham before we all switched to concentrate on the band” 

Adam paused and the silence deepened “ok, so...zoo-pharma! I’m kinda guessing here, but that sounds like you’re studying some kind of living creatures with a view to discovering some new medical treatment?”

“Exactly that. I’m studying a certain type of animal which is almost never attacked by viruses – and I’ve now isolated their secret so that it can be applied to human medicine”

He turned to the crowded bar

“She thinks this studio is fantastic, but that – that is what I call awesome. So how’s it going? Have you just started? How far have you got?”
 “Its fabulous. And actually, I’ve just finished. My last trip to New York was to officially register it with the FDA – that’s the guys who approve new medicines over there - and I’ve signed a contract with an international pharmaceutical company to manufacture it. Ok, for American legislation its going through field trial first, but from a research perspective its effectively finished” 

“But you presumably didn’t do this overnight! How long were you working on it? Was it a big team?”
 “Its taken just over eight years. The team was just two up until a couple of months ago when my research partner bailed out due to ill health leaving me to complete the project on my own. But Damon has been wonderfully supportive. He’s done everything he possibly could. But its likely to change the way we all treat viral infections world wide”
 “But that will affect millions of people. Save them from disease and suffering especially in Africa and Asia”
 “Yes. I hope so. The manufacturer is likely to make the street price affordable, especially to third world governments and I’ve said I’d contribute to that as well”

“Wow! No wonder Damon’s in love with you!”

“Is he?”

“I’m speechless. If that wasn’t the last thing I was expecting, I don’t know what was. Laura, thankyou for telling us something about yourself. We’re all delighted to meet you and hope we’ll see a lot more of you around and about the Studio. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce Laura to you. I’m sure you’ll make her welcome after y’all get yourselves another drink to recover from the shock. And Laura, having a girlfriend like you is just the sort of Christmas present Damon deserves”

The volume returned on the mixer, the lights came up and Adam killed the mic. He led her back towards the bar as the background noise recovered.

“I just guessed Damon had met you on the circuit” he said almost apologetically

“No problem” she said “This is the first opportunity we’ve had to get down here. But this place – wow! Its really something else and he may have been afraid I’d fall in love with the whole setup”

“Like most people who visit here. You’ve no idea of the number of bands who come down here for a couple of days and find an excuse to stay a fortnight. Like all of these guys are supposed to be with their mums and dads for Christmas” 

“I can understand that. It really is magical, although I’ve not seen all of it yet. The garden is something special too, I’m led to believe”
 “Yes, certainly. A major triumph for Sienna. The lake is breath-taking too”

The banter was jovial all round the bar. It seemed that people got to know each other very quickly. She knew that most of these people had only been around for a week or maybe two, but hadn’t known each other before that. But they all looked like they’d been here forever. She stopped to talk for a few minutes. Yes, they seemed to know each other pretty well, but she was nervous about saying anything controversial. After all, she was the new girl on the block and she felt her relationship with Damon was still too fragile. 

Lisa eventually found her. She introduced herself as she pushed though the room with a cheery “Hi, I’m Lisa. I work in the office with Michellle and we’ve spoken loads on the phone. Its great to meet you at last. There’s always an electric excitement here when it gets busy. And everyone knew Adam was intending to introduce you so I think everyone on site is actually rammed in here”

Lisa was so infectiously friendly that she asked her about Hazel and before she knew it she’d been introduced and had accepted an invitation to walk down to the lake the next morning whether it was raining, snowing or howling a gale. 

It just seemed to be the way things worked. Just think of something you want to do. And invite someone else along to make sure you actually do it.

It was some time before Damon returned, slipping his hands round her waist from behind. She turned slowly to face him trying hard not to loosen his squeeze

“Hi. Is Adam looking after you?”

He kissed her quickly “No. He’s been doing his best to embarrass me. But its ok now you’re back. So long as you’ve not been with Michelle all this time” 

Damon was taken aback. “Michelle? Why Michelle, particularly?”

Laura looked straight at him “Because she is your PA and she is the most sexy girl I’ve ever seen” 

Damon ignored the inference. “Yes, She’s cute. And invaluable. And falling in love with Joshua. But why fill your office with uglies when you can have Michelle? Aemon’s been looking at the company’s numbers. Michelle thinks we should call an end of phase simply to reset all the clocks and start counting properly now that all the pieces are in place and the machine is finally working. But quite apart from that, Laura, I know we’re meant to be having fun and this is serious, but, where is Ray paying your money to?”
 “Just my account. But I will give you your half. Promise I will!”

“No, no Laura. If he pays it to your bank in England the tax man will half-inch half of it before you even see it. Laura, he needs to pay it into my Swiss account. Then after New Year we’ll get out to Zurich and get your own account opened and transfer it in there until you figure out what you want to do. We can’t let the taxman have it when there’s an alternative. Especially if you might need some Swiss equipment”

 Laura’s next few days at the Studio were equally magical and, although she still felt she hadn’t seen all of it yet, Monday found them back at the farmhouse. There were several bands on site that still needed some kind of attention, and while Damon was leaving the practical side of it to Adam and Keith, he felt he hadn’t been doing his fair share recently. 

“So, now that you’ve decided to stay for a few days, do you have anything in mind for this evening.”

“I hadn’t thought about it”
 “Ok, So now you’re back in the UK and the pressure is off, you should take an evening to do exactly what you want to”

“Me?”

“Yes, You. You’re not tied down to the lab schedule any more. Its like you’re off the leash and can run as wild as you want”

“Ok” she said vaguely now that her mind was racing again

“And if it involves me at all, give me a call, Ok? Have a think. I’ve got a few bands I need to have a serious conversation with”

She interrupted him two hours later and Damon was pleased and relieved to hear that the plan for the evening included him, at least for dinner.

 
 But Laura had more in mind than just dinner. This was the opportunity she had been praying for to really get back together. She borrowed the Aston Martin that he’d left behind and struggled into Edencombe for a better selection of ingredients, and a new dress. She was now thinking far more positively. Those few days at the Studio meeting everyone seemed to have brought her closer to Damon. The Studio was ideal for recovery, whatever it might be you needed to recover from, and its not just some random acquaintance that would lend you an Aston Martin, is it? And now an evening of her own design.

Damon had finished by 6.30 like he’d said

“Slave’s here” he called from the hall “Remember, this is your evening and I’ll just fit in where I’m told, if at all”

She poured a couple a long drinks

“Damon, you’ve been so understanding over the last six months while I put my research ahead of everything else, even you”

“Laura. I encouraged you from the beginning and you have to appreciate how valuable a contribution your new treatment will be, and that’s to everybody. I just hope you think that I’ve supported it as much as I could. I did think about flying out there, but Laura, I’d only have distracted you”

“Damon, you did way, way more than I ever could have expected. And now I’ve taken you at your word, and I’ve set up this evening for just how I want it to be. Not how I thing you’d like me to set it up although maybe I’ll get the chance to do that one day as well, but just for me, the way I want it”

“That’s good. We’ve not really had much time together, so, its good. And even better if it includes me”

“Of course it does! So dinner starts at 7. Its nearly all there. I just need a few minutes final preparation. Do you want to sit in the dining room?”

“If that’s what’s on your plan, that’s what I’ll do”

He sat down noting that the table was already beautifully set for two, she’d dimmed the light, set the candles and found some slow paced music that he’d been reviewing. These guys were good! Maybe he should check out their progress. Or rename them the ‘Romantic Dinner Specials’. Well, this is off to a good start, just ahead of the sweet seafood aroma drifting in through the doorway as Laura served the lobster and crab starter 

“I was planning simple home cooking, but then looking for the ingredients, I decided that this would be more appropriate. Of course, I didn’t actually catch it and prepare it. I had some help with that from a factory kitchen somewhere in the depths of the Waitrose organisation, and to some extent it represents the future”

Represents the future? Ok. A good excuse to keep the conversation focussed on the future, rather than the project or the past or these bands I was supposed to develop an opinion of yesterday. But it was lovely, especially as it had been prepared by such a lovely hostess.

Next up was the lasagne “Now” she said “this is more the old me. I’m still very much the same old me underneath everything else and I’m hoping and praying that its good enough”

“Laura, the old you is consistently perfect and this is ace” he replied “You know the last time I actually saw a lasagne, it was made by the most gorgeous girl in the world and tasted just as wonderful”

They poured another glass and talked on. Damon told her about building the extras into the house, like the Jacuzzi and all the work that Eric had been doing, and largely kept off the subject of the Studio. Laura told him so many stories about Rochester. Some made reference to Leroy, and Ludvig but the wine and earlier gin were loosening them both up a bit

“I’ve been a good girl” she said eventually “Although goodness knows, the deal would have been so much earlier if I hadn’t”

“But you’ve got your personal integrity to live with. And not just that, Leroy made everything go on so long that you found the lost 30% and sorted the FDA so the deal was bigger”

“Are you trying to persuade me that he really did me a favour?!”

“No, I’m suggesting that the thing that actually made it all go on long enough was you continually rejecting him”

“I had thought” she said eventually “that if we finished dinner early, then we'd walk down to the pub. But then, we might just stay here” 

“Well, there's still time to run down for a couple, if that's what you prefer” 

“We haven't had dessert yet” and disappeared back into the kitchen 

“Pudding is a fresh fruit salad. Its all soft fruit because by this point in the meal I don't want to be crunching my way through apples and under-ripe pears, even though that might be healthier. I think over the last 3 months I've kept healthy and kept my weight down just through the sheer pace. I’ve come to the conclusion that adrenaline is very good at burning calories. Everything needed to be done yesterday and there was always so much more to do. But now, I think I'll have to take a bit more care”

He cleared the empty plates away, and followed her hemline as it bounced and waved back from the kitchen. 

“I think we just need to keep active” 

Her eyes lit up as she returned “Anything in particular in mind?” 

“Walking down to the pub, maybe?” 

She sat down next to him instead of opposite him across the table so that they could be closer together and poured another glass as she added the clotted cream to the raspberries.

“Have you thought anything of what you want to do next, you know, with all that money?” 

“I was thinking a bit about that on the plane. It hasn't really sunk in yet, and it's far too big an amount for me to understand what is possible. I know it's more money than I could ever spend, but it must surely be enough to open a research centre of my own to give young graduates a real opportunity to find something important” 

“Like you did” 

“Yes, but it was Ludvig that paved the way. It was his idea in the first place, even if it did morph later on . He took me on, and, well, you know the rest” 

“Do you hear from him?” 

“No. But I want to find out how he's doing. I’m fairly sure your buyout money would have covered the loans from his family because otherwise he wouldn’t have been considering accepting the Rochester offer, but I don’t know if he's got anything else. I was wondering if he had enough left over to retire comfortably? Maybe I should give him some of the result. Well, some of my half anyway. It doesn't seem fair that he had to bail out only a few months before we got to the end”

Although, she thought, everything moved so much more quickly when she was on her own. Maybe he’d got to the point that he didn’t want to find the whole solution because that would spell the end of the project, a bit like she felt before she met Damon

“How much were you thinking?” he interrupted her thoughts

“I don't know. Enough for him to retire comfortably. But I don't know how much that needs to be. Half a million! More? Less? A hundred thousand! I've no idea. I've no idea what costs are in Hungary” 

“We'll have to find out. But whatever it is it comes from both halves, not just one” 

“Oh, Damon, that’s so kind”

“But don’t feel you have to go over the top. He’s the guy who wanted to sell out at 300k and leave you needing a new job”

“I guess so. Its scary looking back at that and what nearly happened”
 “But Laura. I don't need that money. Not unless you want me to buy you a private jet or a super yacht, but I agree, we should make sure he’s ok. So what's next on your perfect evening?” 

“Have we still got time for the pub? I wanted to squeeze that in somewhere, because I think that’s part of living in a village like this, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what I want us to do”

“You sure?”
 “Yes” she repeated when Damon resurrected the question “What I want is to live in this farmhouse with you here in the village” as Amy brought their drinks over to them

“Oh! You’re working here as well, now?”
 “Yes. I’m working for Graham on three evenings, then here for two and concentrating my homework into the other two. But if I’m really organised, I can get everything done in my study periods, and that could even give me an evening off”

“Well, if you do have a spare hour or two, you’re very welcome to run a hoover round the farmhouse for a small consideration, And Amy, when you get to revision, I’ll be happy to run through your text book index with you like before. Don’t be shy about asking”

“Yes. She’s doing her A levels but was supervising some of the work at the farmhouse, while she used the library for her work. But the story’s a bit longer than that”

“What subject are you doing?” asked Laura quietly, just to break into the conversation

“Chemistry and Biology”

“I’m sure I could help you too, if you wanted? I’m a research biologist”

“Oh my! Thankyou so much. Damons been ever so kind and helpful. And now you as well!”

“Another of the pretty girls in your life!”

Laura shook her head. This wasn’t all bad. All these girls, but he still wants to spend time with me….

The lounge bar was quieter now and warm and surprisingly intimate, and Damon returned to the subject of Ludvig

“Do you remember Natalia? She heads up our Accommodation team at the Studio but was covering for Lynda on Christmas day. She’s from Hungary. Maybe we could get some ideas from her?” 

“And” he continued after she’d got another round in “that big barn to the right of the gate at the farmhouse

could well be converted to a lab” 

“What I think…” she slurred “…is that the plan says its time we staggered home” 

where she lost no time in heading for the drinks cabinet 

“No! Oh sorry, should have said. I don't want you to sit on the settee. I want you to sit in the big armchair by the fire” 

He aimed two new logs at it. Strange, but no matter. The evening had been perfect so far, so stick with it. But why was it that he completely dissolved the minute she came back in?

Carefully she handed him a glass - and then sat down. On his lap. With an arm round his neck for stability 

“What I'd really like, sometime soon, is to go to Budapest and see Ludvig, and then I think I might work out how much a research centre would cost to set up.” 

“Like a business plan?” 

“Yes, and maybe Ludvig could be a part time visiting expert” 

“There's thousands of possibilities. It needs some focussed attention to narrow it down. But not now” 

They'd nearly finished their drink - again, and Damon was considering how to get another one while being sat on. And also, he rather liked her sitting on him. He tried wriggling a bit to make her lose balance so that she grabbed his neck more and they played for a few minutes before moving on to more adventurous activity. 

Largely undressed, Laura got up from the chair breathlessly holding her dress in front of her. 

“I need to get dressed” she said.
 “Really? You don't have to” said Damon speculatively.
 “Oh yes I do” she said firmly. Her eyes twinkling at him “Part of the fun is getting each other undressed and we can't do that if I'm not wearing anything”

Her voice sank with more sadness than she meant “Now it's nearly the end of my perfect evening and to finish it perfectly, I want you to do something for me”

He looked at her for some expansion

“Take me to bed”

Laura’s Account

Laura had already been dreaming a new dream. She’d done some initial estimates and looked at the cost of the technical equipment she’d need although she still had the lab in Edencombe. That was too far to travel each day and she had been looking for something closer to the farmhouse, and then rejecting everything because it was too remote for any likely researchers to get to.

By contrast, Damon had a definite plan with the objective of getting Laura’s Swiss account set up. Ray had transferred the money as promised and he was acutely aware that he had all Laura’s money in his account and that she’d had it transferred there without any hesitation whatsoever. It was now his obligation to schedule their trip to Zurich and set up her account. But this concentrated focus on money rekindled her memory of how she came so very close to ending up with nothing if Ludvig had sold out as he had intended and used all the money to pay his family debts. She grabbed Damon’s arm as the terror of this thought overtook her

“We’re not going to Budapest are we?”

Damon was puzzled. There hadn’t been a plan to go straight to Hungary, but….

“I wasn’t planning to, not straight away, but we can if you really want to”
 “No, no Damon I don’t. I was just checking. It has been known for you to set up a surprise or two for me”

“I was hoping to talk to Natalia before we went so that we have some idea of what sort of cost we should consider”

She breathed a sigh of relief. She simply wasn’t in the right frame of mind to give a lot of money to someone who would have stitched her up and left her with nothing. What would her life be like if that had happened?

Laura’s Family

Instead, she was standing in the gently falling snow in the street outside the Credit Suisse offices in Zurich with everything she wanted.

Back together with Damon, enough money to establish her laboratory and enough left over to fund several researchers for several years. And that was a dream worth working for.

But that wasn’t her only dream. Her other new dream was building a new life with Damon, and she had even hinted that it might even extend to a family as well. Initially, she thought she could pursue her research and keep Damon as well. Then she so devastatingly decided she’d failed. Except that was the only thing she’d got wrong. She’d succeeded at doing everything and now she was thinking the same thing again. But this time she’d get her priorities right. 

This thought of family led her thoughts back to her mum and dad. They’d never actually fallen out, they hadn’t parted company after an almighty row. Its just that they couldn’t understand how she could get so wrapped up in a single thing. It was difficult to explain and in order to avoid the arguments, they’d drifted apart with longer and longer between visits. Now, maybe, she might be able to repair that damage. 

Nervously she bit her bottom lip as the phone rang. No idea what reception she'd get. But she had to try anyway. Eight, ten rings. Maybe she's out. Maybe just in the loo, or in the kitchen mixing dough, or… 

“Hello” 

She paused, now even more nervous. 

“Hello..” Helen repeated

“ Mum? Hi. It's me, Laura” 

“Oh my goodness! Laura. How are you?” and then more urgently “Where are you?” 

“Mum, I’m good. How about you?” 

Which was a fair question having not spoken to her in over two years. The last time did not go particularly well. She'd tried, or so she'd thought, but her dad was so convinced that her research was actually some sort of euphemism for an indescribable obsession – maybe a religious cult - that had taken over her life and corrupted her mind. 

But this was more upbeat. She kept off the subject of her work and concentrated on her mum, and her dad and somehow got side-tracked into a distant cousin that had died recently, before returning to the subjects closer to home, like her mums house and the street she lived in and some neighbours that Laura might remember, and her mum’s work.

So far, so good, and it resulted in an invitation to tea the next day, or, Helen had offered, the day after if she was busy. This conversation on the phone had been upbeat, maybe even excited and Laura was thrilled that she might be able to reconnect with them again. 

Daniel was altogether more reserved. Helen had told him they would have a guest joining them but he had been interrupted by something else in his office during the call and hadn't been paying enough attention. He'd parked his briefcase in the hall and migrated with interest to the living room having seen the Range Rover parked right outside. He was speculating that it might be one of the neighbours or a visiting colleague at Helen's work who was at a loose end, but certainly not... 

“Good grief! Laura!”

“Hi daddy” 

She gave him a hug hoping to emulate yesterday's success, although it was only nominally returned. 

Helen had gone to quite some trouble to create a special meal and the frost lifted a bit as they brought her up to date on recent events. 

The conversation continued and the atmosphere was mellowing right up until she mentioned Damon, becoming more bubbly saying they’d met six months ago and had clicked in almost perfectly together. Helen picked up on how excited she seemed to have become just talking about him, but Dan was more circumspect 

“So, is he another member of your obsession?”

 “No, daddy. He's in music” 

“Music? Like in a band or a rock group or something?”

“He used to be a guitarist. I've heard him play, once. He's awesome. But he's moved on from that now”

“Oh, I see. Not just a guitarist, but a has-been guitarist. They're all drugs and mayhem that lot!” 

“That's a bit harsh, daddy! He started his own record label last year” 

“Well, that's one way to make sure you can get a contract” 

“He's not just recording himself. He's got lots of bands signed up, and some are becoming very successful!” 

She managed to prevent the whole evening spiralling into a tailspin and even managed to maintain the enthusiasm that persuaded Helen that they should accept her invitation to meet him. Dan was less than convinced, but Helen had said that if he was that much against it, she’d go on her own and report back on just how spaced out this guy was. Either way, the diary was set for the following Friday. 

The Grove was the chosen venue. It had moved a little up market now that it was in the Manor house rather than the barn, but was more local and more homely than Pierre’s. 

Helen and Dan were there first. Laura arrived saying she'd just spoken to Damon and he would be about ten minutes 

“So if he's that close by why is he late?” 

“Daddy, he's coming down from Edencombe. And he wont be late. He'll be right on time. Its us that's early” 

“So how come you spoke to him if he’s already on his way”
 “He’s got a phone in his car. The same as is in the Range Rover. Although sometimes its quite hard to hear if he’s got the roof down”

Dan was quiet. Car phones had been discussed at his recent team meeting, but his manager had rejected the idea as being too expensive. Reluctantly Dan had agreed. Yes it would be difficult to justify the costs, but here was this Damon fella with not just one car-phone, but one in each of his cars. And he was also in a position to lend one of his expensive cars to Laura.

“That's him now!” she exclaimed as she saw him drive up to the main entrance 

“So now he'll spend half an hour finding somewhere to park that isn’t knee deep in mud”

This did not bode well. If daddy had already decided to be negative, it could be a lost cause before it even started.

 “I doubt it. He'll probably park right outside”

“Right outside? What’s he driving? A vintage MG?”

“No, daddy. Its a new Aston Martin”

This took Dan by surprise, but not as much as when Damon appeared, walking gently through the archway darting his eyes around the room before heading for their table. He looked so alert and unhurried and certainly not slouching along like a spaced out hippie. Helen had already decided – he just looked, simply, so nice!

“Is he American? That's the New York Times he’s holding?” 

She introduced her parents and he sat down opposite Dan at the square table. 

“No trouble parking? Thought you’d be all the way over in the overflow” 

“No. it’s right outside the front door. I left the roof down so that the guy on the door can have a better look round, but he’s promised to give me a shout if it starts raining. But Helen, Daniel delighted to meet you both. How was your journey? Have you had to come very far?”

“No problem. Its not so far. About 10 miles the other side of Farthingbridge. How about you”

“Busy on the M3, but it all kept moving. Had to hurry a bit to get here on time though”
 “I thought you were just coming down from Edencombe?”

“That was the plan. But the UK chemicals supplier phoned Adam with a 20 per cent cost reduction. He’s in studio all day, so I went up to Guildford to meet them. Its significantly less than we’re paying from Poland”
 “So can you switch? Or dual supply?” asked Dan, now thinking that Damon may not be entirely mayhem

“I could, on either of these, Daniel, but its more complicated than that. Record production is a cut-throat business. The uk guys could just be enticing me to switch, and then they’ll fail to supply just when I need it most on a surprise hit album. And I wont be able to go back to the Poles if I disappoint them”

“So what’s the plan?” asked Laura with some concern

“I turned it down. I need continuity of supply more than I need a short term discount. And the Poles take our CDs for eastern Europe back in their truck as far as Krakow, and that’s something we can build on too. East of Bruges have sold over 100 000 albums in Estonia alone. The entire population is only about a million. I’m thinking we might do a JV with them to distribute to the far east as well as eastern Europe. But, hey, enough of my business issues. Do you both work? Or are you lucky enough to lead a life of leisure?”

Damon listened, prompting rather than interrupting - but only the way he usually did. Dan was taken aback, maybe he would have to re-consider as they moved on to discuss the menu. There were some interesting combinations as specials, and Damon considered this more appropriate with its Italian influence rather than the pure French Pierre’s.

“What’s with the NYT?” 

“Oh, yeah. Thought I’d bring it along. This is really interesting…”
 “Does that mean ‘complicated’?”

“Quite possibly, Laura, especially for your mum and dad who wont have the background. But… you remember Ricki, the guy doing the interview at the Music Awards who was more interested in Michelle than me? Well, the Tygers are in Pittsburgh and he’s written some stuff about them as he said he would, but there’s a lot more to it than that. I run a music company and one of my bands, the Alpha Tygers, is over in the States right now”

Laura explained who the Tygers were, what the interview was and that she was meant to be at that event 

“What! The UK Music Awards?£ exclaimed Daniel with some undisguised disbelief

“Yes, I was being awarded an insignificant silver cup for Outstanding Services to the industry, except, Laura got held up in New York so at short notice I took my PA instead. This was unexpected and the media pounce on anything surprising like cat on mouse. Still, it gives them some gossip and that’s what they thrive on. Anyway, the Tygers are taking the whole place by storm everywhere they play and Hazel, my Tour Controller, is adding some extra dates due to popular demand. So just to compound the impact I’ve added another new sensation called Saint Urchin to rock up as a surprise bonus at the Rochester gig. 

“Rochester?” interrupted Laura

“Yes. You see, Theo – who is a business colleague of ours - was talking to Ray Wisenski – who is a business colleague of Laura’s in New York State. My name came up in conversation and Theo mentioned that he thought that the Tygers were on my label. So he phoned me to check. Anyway, he then told me that Ray’s grandchildren are huge fans of Saint Urchin, so I got Hazel to add a Rochester date to the Tyger’s tour with the Urchins as a surprise guest appearance, and I’ve sent him 4 tickets in a VIP box. So that should be worth a favour or two if you need to go out there again. Anyway, Ricki was saying he wanted to get some space on the front page because it’s all got to the point of being national news rather than specialist music section stuff. So I told him I was thinking about sending the Essential over there too, just to wind him up, which he said was just awesome and could I reserve him an interview with Poppy”

“I’ve heard of these bands. Personally, I’m more into jazz but the Essential and Saint Urchin seem to be on the radio all day long in our warehouse”
 “They’re both on my label, Daniel. But its the Alpha Tygers who are leading the charge into the US. Its really quite exciting. But, and this is the important bit, Ricki couldn’t get the front page he wanted because its all taken up with news of some new virus treatment that’s producing spectacular results from its field trials. Apparently it’s been developed by an independent British lab, but manufacture will be by Rochester Pharmaceutical in up-state New York” 

Laura went white “What!” and Helen took hold of her arm in panic as she noticed. Damon passed them the newspaper and they scanned the first few lines before passing it to Dan. 

“Daddy….” she said so slowly, unbelieving “…That’s my project. Late last year I completed the research so I registered it with the FDA, then I sold out to RoPharma. I couldn’t manufacture it in volume. Or distribute it worldwide. They’re set up to do all that. And Ray Wisenski that Damon was just talking about, he’s the VP in charge of research that I did the deal with. And Theo, that Damon also mentioned, he was the consultant lawyer that we hired to help with the negotiation” 

“But it says here it will ‘revolutionise medical science in the third world’ and ‘relieve untold suffering globally” 

“That’s right. We don’t have too many issues in this country. Just a bit of flu sometimes. But in hot climates, they can really suffer” 

“I gave Ricki a little inside knowledge to pass on to his colleague for a follow-up article, but I also put him in touch with Ray. I think it’s more up to him how much information he wants to release, but I expect he’ll take the publicity” 

Dan was stunned into silence. He’d clearly misjudged Laura’s project. And had hardly given Damon a fair chance either. Not that Damon knew that. 

But Laura didn’t want her project to dominate the conversation. It was too controversial and she was happy to bank whatever progress had been made as Damon asked Helen about her work. But she was more interested in how many bands Damon had signed to his label 

“About 45 right now. Some of them are active here in the uk, some are only active in Europe or the Far East” 

“And the United States?” 

“Yes. The States is a different market. Its difficult to break into it, and you certainly cant assume that a popular band here will be accepted over there too. I want the Tygers to pave the way and hopefully they’ll make it easier for others to follow. That’s why I’m sending The Essential and Saint Urchin out there as surprise guest appearances. We’re not actively recruiting in the States, because we’ve got enough to keep us busy over here, but that doesn’t stop folks sending us demo tapes. There’s also quite a number of top bands that want to move to our label. Our business model means they make significantly more money with us”

“Really? Anyone I might have heard of, or are they all too modern for me?”

“I think that Black Lightening are significant”

“They’re Australian, aren’t they?”

“They work out of Canberra, but four of the five are Kiwis. But there’s also a number of American musicians interested in joining us as well, like Scott Gillespie” 

“Oh my goodness!”

This seemed to be winning Daniel’s attention, and that was a small move in the right direction

“And Huck Carraway” added Laura “Damon, Did you talk to him yet?” 

“Huck Carraway? The saxophonist?” interrupted Dan continuing his interest in the conversation “I’m a big fan of his. Did you mean he was coming to the UK?” 

“Kind of…” replied Laura vaguely “He mentioned it to me”

Daniel looked confused – again “He what?”

“When I was over in Rochester talking to RoPharma last November. He came over to make sure I was ok and Tilly insisted on dragging me to his gig when he was at the stadium there. I was quite keen to go anyway having met him. He’s a really nice guy. He wants to record his next album at Damon’s studios. Actually, I think he was wanting me to put in a good word for him”

“You? Put in a good word for him?”

“Mmm. With Damon”

“And I’ve no issue with that. It’s just a matter of fitting him in with everything else. I’ll drop it into Sarah’s in-tray and let her schedule it in. But I’d like him to come. And if he does, we might set up a few dates here to promote him this side of the pond. I’d also like to see Tilly’s face when she sees the Studio” 

Helen and Dan both looked quizzical – yet again

“Tilly’s Huck’s girlfriend. If you shook up a can of Pepsi it would never be as bubbly as her. And she’s 100% American. We established the Studio in an old English country mansion. It started life as an Abbey over 600 years ago. That’s what’s so good about the acoustics, but she will certainly never have seen anything like it before”

The ambience improved throughout the meal and it became clear to Laura that much of this had been orchestrated to make the best impression on her parents. Surely that wasn’t just for her benefit? Maybe, given a few weeks, they might invite them to the farmhouse for dinner. But first she wanted to settle in herself - except Ray had invited her to go back to Rochester to help them fast-track the Production set up following the Field Trials publicity.

She’d been rash enough to set up the date for that dinner before she left, but was also concerned that Damon wanted Ralph and Clemmy to join them, and that surely would blow their minds. This time, she’d be back on time no matter what. This time she’d have her ticket booked. This time she’d be in control.

She checked in at the Woodcliffe and hired another Corvette. At her request, Damon extended the VIP box invitation to the RoPharma chairman, but it was left to Laura to explain the connections and then introduce Saint Urchin to everyone during the interval. It was a fabulous evening. The younger members of the party were over the moon to be so privileged, while the older members were caught up in the excitement of the atmosphere. 

There were more pre -production issues than she was expecting, but soon realised that they were to do with scaling up the operation rather than any inherent problems with her research, and solutions were equally plentiful. She’d only seen Leroy a couple of times on site, but managed to avoid him on both occasions. She was surprised that he was still employed, but this time she felt that she held the high cards.

The Field Trial still had some months to run, but due to its high profile it needed top level approval to continue. Leroy had joined the meeting and sat down just as it was starting. Laura interrupted.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I was under the impression that production details are restricted and should be confined to those who need to know” 

“That is correct….”
 “…in which case there is no point in him being here…” as she pointed a straight finger at Leroy”… He knows nothing of the detail, even less of the concepts and will have nothing whatsoever to contribute to production”

Ray picked up on the inference, as the secretary turned to check the invitation list. The Chairman was sitting next to Ray and now leant across him to Laura

“Excuse me Ray. Laura, Am I missing something?”

“Only that I will not attend any meetings that include that superfluous buffoon. That concession was part of the final commercial discussion, although for reasons of politeness, it was not written into the contract”

“I don’t remember seeing your name in the invite list, Leroy” said the Chairman loudly, causing the secretary to stop checking

“Maybe I’m in the wrong meeting, sir” as he hightailed out.

Laura smiled. She didn’t consider herself vengeful, but some retaliation was deserved. She was in control now, and Leroy would know about it. Although she also resolved to comprehensively ignore his very existence in all circumstances – and leave exactly on time.

Patricia Returns

Meanwhile, at the studio, musicians continued to arrive with high expectations, some of which were met. Not long after she’d arrived, Mary-Ann had realised that ‘attitude’ would be key to getting her band the break they were so wonderfully close to achieving and so desperately wanted. Adam had said that they weren’t quite there yet, but they’d been invited to extend their stay and while this was a huge step in the right direction, she was running out of clean clothes and had popped into the office for the mundane purpose of asking about laundry.

Lisa gave her a standard laundry bag but was now finding one of the special labels that should go with it. She picked up the phone as it rang, but it took her a few moments to realise why she was having trouble understanding

“Struth! Its all in French!” 

Mary-Ann saw this both as a chance to help Lisa and to exhibit the attitude which she knew was on trial, and she pounced on the opportunity. Her French wasn’t perfect, but good enough to take over from Lisa and discover the details of the issue, scribbling some notes onto the pad on Lisa’s desk, while she found the tag.

“I’d going to find Damon and explain this to him. I’m assuming that it relates to a relative of Damon’s, if that’s ok with you?”

“Sure. You know what its about – I don’t!”

For speed, maty-Ann had made her notes in French as Chantelle chattered on and only now talking to Damon was she translating and paraphrasing them. This was impressive. Nothing to do with music, but everything to do with attitude.

“Its all too sad. And its all too soon, Mary-Ann. I wasn’t expecting this for another couple of years”

Getting that message through to Patricia in Yeovil was equally convoluted. She’d invited a few girls from her class around with a plan of watching a movie and munching popcorn. But the plan had somehow morphed into practising various make-up techniques on each other, often with hilarious results.

“Sorry, yes, she’s here, but she can’t get to the phone right now because she’s being painted. Can I get her to call back? or a message maybe?”
 “Ok. Sounds like you’re all having fun. I hope this doesn’t spoil it. Ask her to call me back. Doesn’t matter how late, I’ll be in the bar till one anyway”

“Who was it?”
 “A guy calling himself Damon Lehrer”
 “That name sounds familiar from somewhere”

“That’s because its the name of the guitarist in the Chameleons, that’s why”

“But you actually know him, don’t you Trish” said Susan, calmly stirring up the chatter, invoking the expected disbelief. But the impact on Trisha was more like a typhoon

“Damon? What did he want? It must be important – why else would he phone me?”
 “Whoever he was, he said he didn’t want to spoil your evening as you were having so much fun”

Most of the girls had a ten o’clock curfew, so it was only Susan and Nessa who lived only a few doors away on her street that were with her when she phoned Damon. 

Susan’s original assumption had been that nothing more would be heard of this rock star after she’d checked out the Bentley for him, but then he’d invited them to his gig, and now he was back on the line again.

Trish returned to the living room, but with a faraway look on her face

“Something wrong?”
 “Viscount Albert’s passed away”

“Viscount? Like Lord or Sir or something” asked Nessa
 “Yes”

“What’s that got to do with you? You don’t know him, do you?”

“Yes. He owned the Bentley that mum and me drove back from the south of France”

“Bentley! What?”
 “Yes, I wrote it all in my holiday essay, but no-one except Susie believed me”

“Yeah, because….”
 “But it was all true. And I was going to go down and see them in the summer. But now Lady Mowlsbury is coming back to England for the funeral. Maybe she’ll invite me anyway. Its such a cool place. I think I should go to the funeral”

“Maybe you could go by helicopter again?” 

“Helicopter! Whyever would you think that!” demanded Nessa, not having recovered from the first shock

“Because we did last time we were invited somewhere. Except that was a gig way over near Ipswich”

“Ness…” asked Trisha “…how likely is it that my dad would buy me a two hundred and fifty pound dress?”
 “A what! About as likely as my dad, and that is not at all!”

Trisha returned a few minutes later with her shimmering marbled sea-green evening gown over her arm. The price was still stamped onto the designers label and she showed it to her. 

“At that time their were about eleven francs to the pound, so with sales tax, that 3000 francs is near enough two hundred and fifty pounds. And the Lady I stayed with was Lady Patricia Mowlsbury and its her husband that has passed away. Its sad, but not unexpected. He wasn’t well when I was there, just pushing him along the riverside path in his wheelchair, while he told me all about the wars he’d survived. But we had loads of fun pretending to avoid the crossfire from the orange grove on one side and the lemon trees on the other. And now she’s coming back to England and Damon says I can go over to the Studio and meet up with her again”
 “Studio, Trish?”
 “Yes, that’s what Damon’s doing now. He’s not touring after Alex left the band and he’s set up his own recording company instead. Bands like The Essential and Saint Urchin are on his label. They might even be there”

“Trisha, babe, I think you’re getting carried away again”

“And Alpha Tyger”

Cue - Beauty and the Least by Mystery

But coming back indeed she was. The funeral would be in Sussex where Albert’s family was from, but she certainly wasn’t intending to miss out on seeing what impact Damon had had on her house!

This had happened sooner than he had anticipated, but Michelle was used to events flying in unexpectedly from left field. Everything would simply reshuffle into a different priority sequence. And that meant delaying the ‘end of year’ that would reset everything financial and start accounting properly now that the Studio was settling down.

Trish opted to forego the funeral. It was a school day, and its not as if he was close family. Instead she’d go over to the Studio for the weekend which she had wanted to see anyway and meet Lady Patricia there.

But she wasn’t going by helicopter. She was going by train and had to be at the station at 8 o’clock on Saturday morning to get over to Upper Elfinvale Halt where someone would meet her. This too was all new. She’d never had the need to take an inter-city train before, and then this quaint branch line up from Edencombe that headed straight up into the hills, only to spill her out onto a windswept platform in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There were 4 other people getting off that train and all of them seemed to be either lost or confused, and all of them had some sort of musical instrument. A strong eastern European accent was calling some names and those lucky enough to be invited poured themselves into the waiting Mercedes leaving her as the only one left. 

“Hi! I was expecting someone to meet me here, but I guess its not you” she opened as she got to the narrow pedestrian gate into the car park.

“What name?”
 “Patricia”

“Ah yes! You are on my list at the gatehouse, but you will need to wait for Lisa”
 This didn’t make any sense whatsoever but waiting didn’t take long as the Range Rover purred in and Gustav loaded the excess luggage into it.

Last year with Damon, left-field surprises had been common, and here again was something unexpected. Lisa was a sleight frame of a girl, shaped by being downtrodden, starved and neglected when she was younger and now looking on the slim side of thin. Quite apart from looking hardly older than Trish herself. 

Lisa asked how she knew Damon and Trish was still explaining when they stopped at the gatehouse. 

Gatehouse! Was this some kind of military installation?

Gustav waved them through, and as usual Lisa slowed for the first view of the Studio

“Oh wow! Its huge. Its about a hundred times bigger than the Château!”

“Château?”

And she was back in history lecture mode telling Lisa all about it.

Damon joined them just as they were ordering coffee on the terrace. He hadn’t been in the habit of meeting her with a kiss like he did with Michelle, Lisa and even Heather, but that, he thought, might change seeing now the emerging young lady completely at home in this manor house environment and that floaty cream dress and medium heels in stark contrast to the dressed-down school kid he’d first met. But he took her on a short tour around the house while she told him the few things she’d been up to, and then was content for him to leave her on her own by the terrace balustrade.

Looking down across the lawn towards the lake she was awe struck. Now she could appreciate the tranquillity and understand why Lady Patricia had liked the Château so much. It was so much like home. Or more correctly Damon explained, the Château was more like this house would have been as Lady Patricia remembered it thirty years ago before it started falling into disrepair. She wandered alone through the garden. It was beautifully new and something she could never have imagined. It reminded her of the first time she heard Damon playing Chopin on the grand piano at the Château and again she wondered how she’d 

ever managed to miss out on things like this right up until now. She sat by the big green fountain completely mesmerised by the lifestyle that people actually living here must have. These must be the same people that could afford to stay at the Château, but at least for the weekend, that would include her.

Back at the house she found Lisa quietly pouring another coffee in the restaurant

“You must be a very special girl to Damon” she opened

“Me! Not as special as you. You get to work here”
 “Yes, but you’re the reason that Damon hired the chopper to fly to Lesser Waterton”

“I guess so. But I still don’t know what I did to deserve it. On the whole, I was just an unexpected nuisance Were you there too?”
 “Yes. But I didn’t fly in for the gig. I was the local girl hired as beer runner for the evening”

“Is that why Damon had that gig over there, because he knew you and you lived there?”

“No, Patricia. I’m simply not that special. I just got lucky that night”

A7

Cue - Kiss the Mountain by Auri

Lady Patricia arrived late afternoon with her son, Quentin, his wife Camilla and Giselle acting as chauffeuse. She’d driven Lady Patricia up from Carcassonne and was now piloting the left hand drive Jaguar around English country lanes. She hadn’t known to slow at the crest for their first view of the house, and now Lady Patricia was taking her time to walk along the front of the building. 

The entire West Wing was unbricked, the annexe windows were new and the original magnificent entrance had been reinstated to its previous grandeur. Just across the resurfaced driveway, the park-land that drifted up towards the crest and the gatehouse had happily munching sheep scattered across it and the whole façade was fresh and inviting.

Inside, she floated into Damon who had come to find her, but was now held by his arm and dragged along as she gazed upwards. The enormous chandelier was now fully populated with lights, the staircase banisters were shining and polished, the carpets were all deep, soft and clean and so much of it reminded her of the house when she herself was a little girl.

They drifted out through the dining room onto the terrace and she leaned on the balustrade looking with some disbelief across the lawn to the lake, now cleared of invasive reeds and with someone rowing their way to the island.

Michelle had been showing the others around – the restaurant, the bar, the swimming pool and then up to their rooms with directions of how to get out to the terrace where she expected Damon would be with Lady Patricia.

More introductions were needed as Adam arrived, then Michelle, while Lisa went to look for her Patricia who she seemed to have lost. 

“It is an astounding achievement. It is truly amazing. I would never have had the energy to get all this done”

“Michelle’s entire life for the last year has gone into this. She’s been so wonderfully focussed on it. Perhaps you’d like to tell Patricia about the renovation work…” suggested Damon

“Oh, I’d love to, unless you’d like to see the garden. Its absolutely wonderful”
 “Thankyou, and I’m sure you’re right from what I can see even from here, but I really couldn’t walk that far – even just as far as the walled garden. Has the rose garden been cleared too?”
 “Oh, yes. Its virtually all been renovated and I think Sienna has kept as many of the original plants as she could…”
 “… except for the brambles on the path beyond the ha ha that runs down to the farm” added Michelle. “I think I helped her to kill them all one afternoon”.

More coffee arrived with a little curtsey to her ladyship 

“Adrienne, Sienna said she’d be in the greenhouse this afternoon. Would you do me a huge favour please and see if you can find her and get her to bring that buggy of hers round if its not too muddy inside. I’m sure Patricia would like a short tour before dinner. And in the meantime, Michelle will tell you some of the highlights about the renovation”

And Michelle had no shortage of enthusiasm as she recalled the carpet man getting the dimensions all wrong and the initial discussions about the driveway and finding the way into the West Wing and the Hungarians… and so many other incidents that impressed Lady Patricia.

“Not too fast, Sienna. Patricia really is quite fragile” as, wide eyed like a child, Lady Patricia climbed aboard this novel method of transport for the first ever motorised tour of the garden.

“What form of address would you prefer, your ladyship?” opened Sienna as she headed slowly for the walled garden

Patricia looked round in surprise. Everything so far had been overwhelming and she’d completely forgotten about the traditional protocols

“Its just that some of the stately homes I’ve worked in I’ve had to be quite careful, being a member of the Outdoor Staff”

“But everyone here is on instant first name terms and there doesn’t seem to be any distinction. Its hard to tell who’s staff and who’s not!”
 “I think that may be because Damon considers everyone to be on the staff side really. We all work here. Its just we have different jobs”
 “Oh, When in Rome, Sienna. I think I ought to adapt to the circumstances that prevail”

“Thankyou, Patricia, we do all try to operate as one team, but I expect its very different from when you lived here”

“So, does that mean that you are part of Damons music business as well?”
 “Definitely, Patricia. My job is to provide a sensory place for inspiration for new music and recovery from an exhausting tour or a disappointing studio session. And all that contributes directly to the company’s success” 

They drove around slowly as Sienna explained what she’d done to update the garden as well as clearing the weeds and dead plants and giving the water features and fountains a new lease of life. They headed down to the far end of the orchard and Sienna stopped to open the gate

“Oh Sienna, I don’t think we’re allowed into the forest from here. Is that gate new?”

“Yes. Most of the gates around the garden have been replaced, and its ok to cut through here. We can use the forest track to get down to the farm, then across the river and back towards the bridge at the end of the lake because Damon has bought all this farmland all the way to the road which is miles away”

Patricia was completely taken aback
 “But whyever would he do that? It always took long enough to walk round the garden as it is. Is that not big enough for him?”

“It acts like a quiet buffer zone all around the Studio. It helps it to be peaceful if its kept for agriculture rather than housing estates or something which is much more noisy” 

Patricia gasped in excitement as they splashed through the wide ford to return along the side of the river, over the stone bridge and round to the greenhouse. She got out to walk amongst the rows upon rows of flowerpots of seedlings all patiently waiting to be planted out

“Oh my, Sienna. This greenhouse has not seen this level of activity for at least thirty years”

“Yes, that’s what Clive suggested when he was replacing the glass. I want to grow some tropical fruit at the far end, but here the intention is to grow enough vegetable plants to supply Lynda in the kitchen”

“Lynda? What happened to Janice? I’m sure I saw Colin earlier on as I was coming in”

“Colin does some part time chauffeur work for Damon, but he and Janice are both retired now. Natalia or Michelle will know exactly, but I think there may be as many as eighty people staying here at the moment. As it all ramped up, it was all too much for her. And its not as if its all over after dinner. I’ve been in the bar at one a.m. and its showing no signs of slowing down”

“Oh my! I expect it will have to do that without my company”

Meanwhile, Trish had been side-tracked by the soon-to-be-chart-topping rock bands that were in the bar that afternoon. She was due to have dinner with Lady Patricia and assumed that Damon would be there, but wasn’t sure who else would join them.

She changed into the marbled sea-green gown that Damon had bought her for her first introduction to the Château restaurant and wafted along the corridor to the top of the main staircase. If she hadn’t spent time at the Château, this would be completely overwhelming. This house, and the estate that Lisa had described as surrounding it, and the garden were all part of the alternative universe that she was introduced to in France. It wasn’t just fifty miles down a motorway, it was a million miles away from the her mum and dad’s three bedroom semi on a residential estate that she’d lived in all her life. But none of the residents here was from an aristocratic background, and now she started to think about how she too could become part of this, and was still thinking about it when she realised she was last for dinner. De ja vue, Trish!

“Are you practising being fashionably late?” asked Damon as everyone else chuckled. But apart from a smile in his direction she ignored the criticism and instead bent down to give Lady Patricia a hug

“I’m so sorry about Albert”

“Thankyou, Patricia, but really it was for the best. He’d been getting increasingly weaker and latterly was in a lot of pain, although he seldom complained. We all have to go sooner or later and I certainly intend to make the most of what I have left”

Interested and confused eyes settled on her a she took her place

“And how is it you know my mother?”
 “Oh, sorry, I met her at the Château near Carcassonne. I was staying there for a few days and looked after Albert on a number of occasions to give Giselle a break”

which Damon considered was a factual reply and actually rather well considered

“And, may I add, a more delightful young lady I have seldom met. I’m so glad that Damon invited you this weekend. However, the absence of formality here could give rise to more confusion as it did, on occasion, in France, Miss Patricia”

“No, Patricia. My friends at school have started calling me Trish, so I think that could be the solution here too”

They adjourned to the veranda but Camilla had yet again managed to lose Quentin. Damon was beginning to think that this might be deliberate as he poured her another drink and had no difficulty in persuading her to migrate with him to the less populated terrace. She was really quite pretty despite being well into middle age, but deep furrows across her forehead showed she was not without her troubles.

She explained that Quentin would like his mother to move to New Zealand, but her concern was that as a traditional member of the aristocracy, she would expect everything to be done for her and she didn’t see herself taking eagerly to the role of servant. 

“But I expect that you’re quite keen on moving her out of the Château. It must be costing you a fortune!”

“Yes it is. And no, not really. I said I’d make sure she was comfortable for as long as she cared to survive, and the French Château was perfect. However, without Albert it’s a different story. I do think that she’d like to move to Aukland, but I also understand that a major imposition such as her is something you could well do without”

It was at lunch the next day that Patricia’s future became the subject of conversation again. Quentin and Trish thought that her moving to New Zealand was a great idea. The topic had surfaced at dinner the night before but was promptly dropped because everyone agreed that she’d be unable to fly.

But Damon wanted to continue his theme of doing whatever was best for her

“Yes, I agree Patricia, take off and landing can put unnatural stresses on the body, so if flying is out, what about sailing? Giselle, you were very keen on sailing before you moved to the Château, weren’t you? I expect you’re a bit out of practice now but I’m sure you could get back up to speed with a few refresher lessons on the lake. Then a couple of months should see you in New Zealand if we got you a 45 foot sloop”

All eyes had turned to Damon as silence pervaded the air. Was he serious? Surely not!

“Damon. While I appreciate that the concept is innovative and would in theory achieve the result, I really cant see me surviving two months on a yacht any more than take off and landing in a 747”

But Camilla wasn’t convinced. There was more to it than that. This was clearly a crazy idea, eloquently introduced so that the next idea, only slightly less crazy would look realistic by comparison. Was that the kind of guy Damon was?

“And why would that be?” Damon countered “Is it just that the boat is too small? Much bigger and Giselle would need a crew to help her – I suppose we could stretch to a 64?”

Trish burst out laughing “Oh dear, Damon, I don’t think you’re on the right lines at all!”
 “Hmm. But much bigger than that they get seriously expensive - not that that’s a dead stop. A very good friend of mine, a guy called Druze Lazenby, who leads the Druze Militia band, lives on a 70 foot cruiser in the Mediterranean and it cost over 18 million. Maybe I could persuade him to take you down there”
 “Damon, At the risk of repeating Trish’s point, I can not see this going the right way”

“Ok, but Patricia you do want to go? And Quentin, you do want her to come don’t you? Patricia, I think we could get you a place on the edge of Lake Taupo so that you can retain some independence. It would be quieter than the city and there’d be lots of different things going on, cafes to go to and sailors to flirt with so that you don’t get bored. And if Giselle captained the yacht, she’d be there too to handle any medical emergencies. It really does seem like an attractive solution”

“It sounds it Damon…” added Trish “But even on a larger yacht, it would simply bounce around too much out in the open ocean. And if Druze Lazenby is anything like his reputation, Giselle wouldn’t have much time for Patricia” 

Camilla looked around the table. This really did sound like a wind up, but it must be leading somewhere unexpected, surely.
 “Well if it was a much larger boat, she’d have to share it with a lot of other people”
 “I can’t see that being a show stopper” said Trish “Patricia was quite sociable when I was at the chateau” Although Camilla was hoping that this encouragement wasn’t leading straight towards the serfdom she was fearing as discussion bounced around the table.

“Ok…” rejoined Damon leaning forward on his chair. 

Oh yes! thought Camilla. Now we’re going to hear the real solution

“…later this month, there’s a round the world cruise leaving Southampton here in the UK. The liner has a capacity of 4000 passengers. But it drops in at Marseilles in the south of France, and it also pops into Wellington about six weeks later. And that should be big enough not to rock around too much. There would be plenty of entertainment on board and Giselle, you could go too, to make sure Patricia’s ok. In the meantime we find a suitable apartment hotel on the lakeside so that Giselle can go sailing sometimes”

Camilla pushed back in her chair. ‘Retain independence’ - which is why she should not stay with them. Not because I didn’t want her to! And a cruise liner rather than an aeroplane. And bring her assistant with her too. And stay far enough away …

She looked across the table from Damon with a nervous look of anticipation to Patricia who had acquired the most wonderous smile with specs of tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

“Then Giselle, we’d get you a nice little BMW convertible or something so that you could show Patricia some of the countryside and drive her up to Quentin and Camilla’s when she’s invited” 

“Oh Damon…Yes please”

“Unless of course, Giselle, you’d rather fly back and then drive the Jaguar down through Italy and Albania and Turkey and Iran and Pakistan and India and down to Singapore before finding a ferry to Australia– There’s probably not many French registered Jaguars in New Zealand, so it would be quite unique”

But by then everyone had started laughing at yet another ludicrous concept

“Or we could just give it to Chantelle after she drives you to Marseilles”

Yes! And move on to the next crazy idea without too much discussion so that it would be accepted by default.

“Oh, and Trish. You might like to consider how far out of line you and Susan could get if you were let loose in New Zealand for a couple of weeks in the summer – assuming that your dad leaves your cage open”

That night in the bar Camilla found Damon again and draped herself around his neck “I really need to say the very biggest thankyou. I had no idea how I was going to escape from that. It was like facing impending apocalypse. This plan really has saved my whole life and I was just want to make sure that you know just how thankful I am. Maybe you could make it down to Aukland sometime as well?”

“Quite probably. There are a lot of people that I want to introduce Laura to in different parts of the world, so NZ could easily be on the itinerary”

“Laura?...” 

Damon nodded “She’s in the States on business right now, but should be back in a few days”

“And now I know who the luckiest girl in the world is”

Damon knew he’d never have predicted when this would happen, but this was probably the final piece of this particular puzzle. He was sure that Camilla would help to find a suitable apartment so that she retained her independence – Camilla that is, not Patricia. She’d stay in New Zealand for the duration and it would probably be a whole lot less expensive than the Château. And thankfully it all happened while Laura was visiting RoPharma and he didn’t have to replay that whole episode for her, as well.

Budapest

It was some time before Laura considered Ludvig again.

Damon, as he had said he would, had talked to Natalia, who in turn had suggested calling Uncle Rojey who would have a far better idea than her. 

They were in the Jacuzzi where they seemed to have most of their serious conversations – or more accurately, frivolous conversations about serious subjects, that somehow ended up with a feasibly sensible plan

“I don’t see it as a big deal” he was saying “ok, so it’s a few hundred thousand dollars that we could keep for ourselves. But, Laura, if RoPharma had put half a million dollars on the table rather than 300k, I’d have bought Ludvig out for that much instead”

Time had moved on and while Damon agreed that helping Ludvig was a kind gesture, Laura couldn’t forget that he would have quite happily used her share as well and left her with virtually nothing to show for her eight years of work and needing to find another job. Maybe she would have helped him in this way, but the issue was the way he had made that decision unilaterally. Instead, Damon had rescued her with an agreed commercial deal, and then put in a significant effort to help her get the end result – not least by hiring Theo. Ludvig would never have done anything like that, preferring instead to rely on the honesty and integrity of RoPharma. Clearly he’d been oblivious to Leroy’s tactics. She was still vacillating between helping him, which she knew she could well afford, and leaving him with only Damon’s buyout money which she increasingly felt is all he deserved.

But she still didn’t know if he had anything else to fall back on for his retirement, and he had worked on it for eight years as well. With some reservations, she agreed that it would be best to stick to the original plan and that at least would close the issue.

This was going to be more of a road trip holiday than a chore they needed to do. Summer was on the horizon, especially in southern Europe and now would be a good time to take her on that long drive he’d promised her so very long ago. 

 A check on Hazel’s world map gave him an instant view of where there might be a good gig along the way because that would affect the route plan, but he’d already decided that with an early start they could make Heidelberg for their first overnight stop. This is where the band had got their first big deal with a residency in a popular central bar and Damon was interested to see what it was like 12 years later and to introduce her to some of the history. The last time he’d been in Germany he’d been on his own and in a hurry to get back after Patricia had finally signed the house over to him. This time was much more relaxed, more time, no particular hurry and sitting next to the most wonderful girl in the world. This was going to be their first holiday together and the first holiday either of them had had for over ten years. 

Budapest came into sight two days later, but slouching at a waterside café held more interest than finding Ludvig. She had an address for him, but had a vague recollection that it might only be a mailing address and the plan slowly evolved that they’d wonder down the riverside until they found a restaurant with a classical pianist as the background music and have a long dinner. Then tomorrow they’d check out that address, and if that failed they’d head for the university where they were more likely to find a new lead and maybe even someone who spoke good English or even just passible German.

The secretary in the ground floor admin office was gazing soullessly out of the window as the car mumbled to a stop right outside. She raised her head and then quickly took a second look. Convertibles were not common, and she’d never seen one like this before. They discovered that she spoke reasonable German and Damon watched her imagination running free as she studied the car from every angle. This was a rare sight indeed, and in return, she checked her files and phoned Ludvig. The conversation seemed to go on for much longer than they expected and eventually she turned to Damon and asked if he’d like to speak directly to Ludvig. He gave the phone to Laura and suddenly he was able to understand what was going on. Which was just as well as it involved lunch.

Ludvig looked in much better health than when they’d last seen him and was still recovering from the shock of them unexpectedly turning up. He was even more surprised when Laura explained why they’d come. He said he was not particularly short of money, although there were some things he’d like to do that he wouldn’t be able to afford – like visiting the Great Barrier Reef. Damon thought that this was a shame when Laura was able to do anything she thought she wanted to. Laura’s view, however, was that this showed that he didn’t really need to be so mean about her share of the 300k in the first place, and that made her cross again.

Now her revised plan was to finish lunch, pay the bill and then leave Budapest behind along with everything it contained. Damon, however, viewed it from a different angle. He didn’t want Laura to keep looking back to this day thinking she should have done more. They’d come this far and it had been a delightful trip so far and not finishing the job seemed a bit of a loose end. 

Lunch over, it was time to go. Damon wrote out a cheque and passed it to Ludvig. 

“Keep it. Its from both of us. If you really don’t want it, don’t cash it, but it will time out in three months. I’m sure Mrs Ludvig would love to see the Sydney Opera House as well”

Laura was quiet in the car, reflecting on that decision

“Thankyou for doing that. I’m still not sure if I really wanted to, but maybe that’s because I’m still annoyed with him. So, how much did you give him?”
 “200k. Dollars. Laura, he was really quite determined not to accept anything, but I think that may just have been pride. And you cant possibly spend more than that going to Australia, even if you take in the Great Wall of China on the way”

Sadly, Dubrovnik was off the agenda. Damon remembered taking the band there some years ago. It was not considered safe even then. The conflict appeared to be concentrated around certain internal boundaries rather than the coast, but at that time they’d headed for the Romanian border under cover of darkness straight after their gig.

She loosened her seat belt just a little. Just enough to let her slide across to the right hand side of her seat and rest her head on his shoulder as they cruised towards the Austrian border. Yes, she thought, that made his share up to half a million. He might think that she’d sold out for a million dollars. That was enough, and certainly more than he deserved. And the rest? Did he deserve a share of the final product? No! He was prepared o sell out at 300k. He could have suggested that she continue on her own and retain his percentage as a sleeping partner. But no, he wanted to sell out and she persuaded him just to sell. And no. He would not be invited as a guest expert to her new lab.

Cue - We Are Not Alone by Huis

Austria was wonderfully slow. There was no hurry to do anything except be together. 

The high Alps made her feel even more light headed and the local wine made her feel very much like a candidate for spontaneous levitation. It could not be more perfect but she still wasn’t in the right frame of mind to think commercially about her laboratory, drifting instead into thinking about Damon and their future together. She was now convinced that he did want her, that he had forgiven her and that he included her in his future.

There were flower meadows to walk through along precipitous hillside paths and village square cafes to sit and watch other tourists rush by. He remembered that the band left England to take a year out, but didn’t return for another twelve years, and now he was with Laura and they were taking a few days out and maybe they should just stay there and not return for a year- or maybe two.

But no. If they were going to take a long holiday it would be organised properly without leaving anyone in the lurch. The task was to have some time together, oh, and briefly see Ludvig. And now it was time to go home. At least, Laura reflected pensively, this time I know where home is and we’re going there together.

At the Studio, everything was running smoothly. There was a whole stack of band reviews to do and an even bigger stack of unsolicited recordings that Olly had suggested might have potential. 

He ran through a pile of them with him, finding that they largely agreed on the good the bad and the ugly, and suggested that Olly should develop more confidence in his own judgement. But, he cautioned, bear in mind that they were not in the business of backing losers or building bands up with invitations only to crash them to the ground. He would be well advised to err on the side of missing one chart-topper at the expense of saving several others from destruction through disappointment – which was completely the opposite of the way that IMD worked.

Not Only Phase End

Like Damon had hinted on Christmas Day and again at the New Year party, Aemon had been preparing to reset all the accounts. It wasn’t so much what the numbers were because they hadn’t actually set any targets. It was more, ‘what should be included?’ and ‘what should be left out and counted next time instead’. There was still money left over from their initial reserve, but Aemon suggested that the whole of their initial investment should be treated like a loan and returned to them from the company profits - as should the cost of the equipment at Furzecombe Farm. 

Transfers were continually coming in from recent gigs and Aemon was worrying about how much of each tour to accrue, and whether to include all the costs, and whether to count all the income and anticipated income from a hit single because it had been produced in the period they were talking about.

Damon, however, preferred a simpler solution. Pick a day Aemon. That morning, we’ll transfer out everything that you think should be treated as a loan, and then check what’s left in the Credit Suisse account. From that, we’ll subtract what was there when we previously checked last September at the end of what Michelle called the Setup Phase, and whatever is left, is what we’ve made in the meantime. Anything not included, whether its income or needs to be paid goes into the next period.

It was now six months on from Michelle’s ‘end of setup ‘phase’ declaration and the studio was settling into some kind of a rhythm. Karen had opened her floodgate and had been scheduling in all the bands she had identified over the previous four months. The Studio was more frenetic than ever, but rather than renovation work and recruitment it was due the new arrivals continually adding to the excitement. 

All four studios were in production and Rosanna and Oliver were building another 4 rehearsal rooms when they had a few spare moments. Olly was becoming more useful behind the mixing desk creating the first cut that gave the bands a clear indication of where to concentrate their efforts to impress Adam and Damon. 

Hazel was fully occupied despite hugely improving her efficiency. Now she was confident with the Tygers touring the States, and the Tallin disaster was more a memory of the recovery – and telling Evie that Damon had flown her to Finland by private jet to sort out the problem! There were no recriminations. Something had gone wrong and everyone pulled together to sort it out. Now, that was being part of a proper team!

She’d developed a template and a format so that Sarah could fill one envelope for each day of the tour that contained all their tickets and confirmations and even a certain amount of local currency to buy coffee and ice-cream. Yan had taken a particular interest in this and had returned dozens of useful comments so that she could fine-tune it and now she was so much more in control. 

Damon congratulated himself for persevering with both the girls in that team. Sarah was spending most of her time on the phone, and much of that was waiting for connection to the right people. But it meant that Hazel could concentrate more and only talk when there was the right person to talk to. 

Everyone at the Studio seemed to know where they fitted in and what they were supposed to be doing and the flow that Michelle had talked about was actually working – from Karen in the backstreets of Sheffield to Hazel sending previously unknown bands out to the theatres and stadiums of the worlds major cities. 

Not everyone was perfect, but that wasn’t a problem so long as they were prepared to listen, to understand, to improve and had the perseverance and determination to succeed. And all that was culminating in the increasing rate that profit was flowing in. The graph was encouraging as it showed just how much of that was from recent months, and that was a good indication for the future. 

Finally it was Aemon’s chosen day. The day that Damon and Adam would discover just how successful this business actually was. Andrea and Hazel had leapt into overdrive to finalise as much as possible and Michelle found that her entire day was disappearing as she helped Damon calculate the staff bonuses. They’d never worked to a financial plant, but were quite confident that the income had been exceeding the expenditure. Hazel had been making sure of that in her initial calculations, and Damon knew what the costs were for distributing the singles and albums. 

Adam had been concerned that the cost of operating the house would be so huge it would wipe out the rest of the profit, but income from the Estate was covering the cost of the house. Which also meant that Damon could expand its use into mentoring and encouraging younger artists, like Dawn and Megan, without the successful bands that had worked so hard subsidising it.

He’d called the various teams together one at a time - like all the domestic staff. This was unusual and they whispered nervously to each other.

Damon thanked them all for being such a wonderful assistance to the many bands and individuals who had stayed there. Their efforts, he said, had made the expected major contribution to the company’s overall position

“So, due to our current and increasing success the company will be giving each of you a bonus. The bonus will be equal to three months pay, I do hope that that encourages you to put in as much effort over the next few months so that we can do it all over again”

But, at least in the short term, it had the opposite effect as everyone chatted excitedly about what they would spend the unexpected windfall on.

Adam talked to the Production team and Damon extended the event out to the Estate where Stuart’s guys spontaneously decided to make it bonus day at the Olde Belle where the celebration was expected to escalate into the night. Georgina would be included due to her job at the Duplication Plant, quite apart from still being Adam’s girlfriend. Damon had invited Laura as well, but she had diverted to the swimming pool till after the formalities which were more company specific.

Now it was time to complete the job. Michelle too had been full on all day helping to process the payments and fielding questions – like, would this be an annual event? - no, it depends entirely on company success …

Now she slumped onto the settee beside him in his office. She knew that everyone else had been given their bonus and she was looking forward to how it would affect her. She remembered back to September. Damon had spoken positively, but the company had not actually made any money. The renovation had only just completed and the ramp up in activity had been necessarily curtailed until then. That was the reason for calling it ‘phase end’ - so that they could restart with the ‘Production Phase’ as Michelle called it. Back then, Damon had called everyone together in the bar and explained the situation – then announced that he was giving everyone on the payroll a thousand pounds just to get the new phase off on the right foot. Her salary was nearly four times what it had been in the accounts office and she stayed rent free at the Studio with free food and drinks. And she remembered that she was on a three percent bonus. Really, she should have had nothing to complain about.

The number of people on site had slowly crept up one by one as she marked off all the vacancies on her progress board, and she’d organised all these bonus transfers, but now she was deflated. Maybe that was the downside of working on the payroll - you knew what everyone else was getting and she had now worked out that three percent of her salary was hardly a quarter of what Natalia had been given. But Natalia’s was a gift from Damon and Adam because the company was doing so well, so maybe she’d get a gift as well. And her salary was huge compared to Natalia’s, so she had the benefit of some certainly, while Natalia had the excitement of the surprise.

Her bonus had been agreed on Druze Lazenby's yacht, she knew it was dependant on the company making some profit, and a thousand pounds was better than a poke in the ear, but not a patch on some others. Oh Michelle, stop being so jealously disappointed! she told herself. Its not like you! Get a grip and make the most of the current party atmosphere, like you always do – except this time.

They were now 6 months into production and the pace of throughput had increased out of all proportion. Karen had been sending bands down at an increasing rate, and Damon had agreed to Rosanna inviting some as well. More had come through on invitation from Adam after sending him tapes and home demos that they’d recorded and the studios were constantly buzzing. 

She reflected on just how high some bonuses were. Like Steffi, probably her best friend at the Studio, had got nearly six months salary as a bonus, although she’d said there were other bits in there relating to her specific work that would confuse any comparisons. Lisa's was four months salary and this proved that the company was making money and so Michelle had convinced herself that her bonus ought to materialise this time. Oh, yes, even if it was only her 3%. That would be about a thousand pounds, much the same as when the company hadn’t made anything at all last September. Great! – not.

Yes, the inequity was playing on loop inside her head - I cant believe that Damon would stich me up like that. Not that I’m greedy. And I don’t need the money – there’s nothing I want to buy. And its all been such good fun and I’ve done so many things that I didn’t even know I was capable of. Its just…. just that it doesn’t sound fair that Adrienne who’s been here four months as a chamber maid and waitress gets 3 times as much bonus as me.

Damon hauled a couple of Pepsis from the fridge and landed back on the settee beside her. Now she'd find out. 

“Michelle. Unlike last September, the company has actually made some money…”

“I should hope so as we’ve just given away over a quarter of a million in bonuses!”

“Damon, Oh Michelle, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but Damon, can you come through to the bar. There's something special about to happen” 

“Lisa! Can’t it wait?” 

“Oh Damon, please. The girls have really worked hard on this and it's all their own idea, and they’re really excited” 

“Come on” conceded Michelle admitting defeat and hauling him up to a vertical position. She didn’t want to know about her thousand pounds anyway.

The bar was rammed and the crowd parted to let him though. But only as far as a small table with a huge cake. Round, and decorated to look like a vinyl record with a flag saying Number One on it. And a caption that read Happy Birthday Chameleon Media. 

The domestic staff burst into song and spontaneously the rest of the bar joined in. Damon hadn’t intended this to be the company’s birthday, but now presented with the idea, it did seem appropriate as Natalia stood up on a chair and the applause subsided

“I know I can speak for everyone on thanking Damon and Michelle for giving us all such a lovely place to work, really good salaries and now an unexpected wonderful bonus. Thankyou from everyone here” 

And that was it. Short, sweet and in perfect English from the resident Hungarian chemist. Damon cut the first slice and Lisa took over to make sure everyone got one as Michelle edged her way through to the impromptu barman. She’d already drunk half her glass by the time she’d edged back to Damon, sitting down uninvited on his lap as free chairs were non existent. 

She slipped an arm round his neck to prevent falling off. 

“I've never seen it this busy!” 

“I’d like to see Adam’s face when you tell him we need a bigger bar!” 

“I think everyone is here to celebrate their bonus” 

“Yes. By not spending any of it” she said failing to erase the irony in her voice. 

“Oh Michelle! Look at it. This is what we've been aiming for. This is what the vision was all about. A whole bar-full of happy musicians and a houseful of support staff just desperate to help us make music, have fun, make money and make the industry a better place to be” 

“You're right. This is it. This is the dream come true” as tears speckled briefly in the corners of her eyes

“Ok” began Damon right next to her ear so that she and no one else would hear “so the final task for today is Michelle's bonus, although I might just prefer to nibble this ear for a few minutes”

“Damon! It tickles. And we need more chairs so that I don’t risk getting skinned alive if Laura walks in”

“She wouldn’t do that. She likes you a lot. She wouldn’t mind, and I still need to be near enough your ear for you to hear. You remember when we were on Druze’s yacht that we agreed you would get 3%. Now, in September we hadn't made any money so it didn't happen and I gave you just the thousand pounds that everyone got. This time we’re doing rather better” 

Damon reeled off the overall income, the overall expenditure on stuff for Graham, hiring venues, operating tours, regular salaries and the agreed percentages to the bands themselves. He explained why the operating expenses for the House are being paid from income from the Estate and how it avoided some UK tax by keeping more of the overseas music business revenue in Switzerland.

“So, Michelle, Aemon paid back the initial investment to Adam and me, and paid back to me the cost of the equipment at Furzecombe. That, according to Aemon, clears the company of its major and long term debts which he says is a good thing to do. So once all these things are done, the increase in the company bank balance in Zurich is 14.9. You get 3%, So working that out its 44.7 divided by a hundred so that’s point 447” 

Michelle frowned at him. She wasn’t sure she’d kept the pace against the background hubbub and had been unable to guess the words she’d missed

“Point 447? Point 447 what?” 

“Pounds, Michelle. Fortunately Credit Suisse have done all the currency conversions for us” 

“Pounds, Damon? You cant have point 447 of a pound! That’s about 45p. Two 20 p-s two 2p coins and all but a slice cut off the side of a 1 pence piece” 

“Michelle, you surely can’t have lost the plot. Let's start again. The company income….” 

“Yes, I got that bit, 14.9. But Damon, that's in millions” 

“That’s right, babe, the whole equation is in millions. That's why you get point 447. Adam gets about seven, I get about seven, bonuses to the rest of the staff take out about point 3 and you get point 447” 

“Million! You mean four hundred and forty seven thousand pounds?” 

“That’s right” 

“For me” 

“Yes” 

“447. Are you sure?” 

“Yes. Michelle! You get 3%. That's what we agreed when we discussed it on Druze’s yacht. I know 3 doesn't sound like a lot, and me and Adam get a bit more than that, and last time it was nothing, but we knew it would take time to ramp up. That’s only 6 months and most of it in the last six weeks and includes paying off the company debt. On that basis you could easily get ten times that next Christmas” 

“Oh my. Damon, 447 thou…. Damon, I'm sorry but….”

Cue – Save Me Once Again by The Rasmus

Quietly she let go of his neck and slipped through the crowd to the corridor meandering in something of a quandary around the various people obstacles and out towards the hallway. 

The domestics all had three months wages. And Heidi and Hazel had both got nearly six months salary as their bonus. Even Lisa had got four months. But even everyone else’s bonus added together wasn't as much as what she'd got. 

Tears welled in her eyes for the first time since - since. Since who knows? Not when her best friend slept with her boyfriend, not when her dad gave her room to his girlfriend before she’d even moved out, nor when she felt rejected by everyone even Dafter her evening at the Crown.

Steffi nudged Lisa as Michelle drifted out towards the garden

“Do you think she’s all right?”

“Not sure… but I'm not going to leave her on her own…” 

Laura was returning from the swimming pool expecting that the formal announcements would be finished by now, but diverted to walk beside her. 

They were nearly at the garden before she spoke gently

“Michelle, of course you don't have to tell me, and I cant imagine that I’d ever guess what’s gone wrong, but I just want to make sure you know I’m here to listen if you want me to and to make sure you’re not all by yourself if something has really upset you”

She turned, oddly surprised by this offer of kindness. Meanwhile, Steffi and Lisa were trying to remain inconspicuous, and only caught up when they all got to the big green marble fountain. Lisa was desperate to help, to do something, anything, but had very little experience to work from. Steffi slipped her arm around Michelle's shoulder as they sat down on the new bench just outside splashing range. 

Michelle broke the silence several minutes later “Are you happy with your bonus, Steffi?”

“Oh, Michelle! It was huge. But Damon always said I'd get something extra if one of my songs made the top ten. And I've got four there right now, so that’s a major contribution. Its unbelievable” 

“What about you, Lisa. Are you happy with yours?” 

“Michelle, its more money than I've ever had in my whole life. Or in fact ever dreamed of having! And the domestics are all over the moon with theirs. That's why they're all in the bar!” 

“That’s nice” 

“What did you get? Was it not as expected?” asked Steffi slowly and carefully thinking she may just have discovered Michelle's grief. She’d not known her to be disillusioned before and was hoping she’d sounded sensitive enough

“Steffi, Before I met Damon, I was earning less than ten thousand pounds a year in an accounts office…”

“But, Michelle, you’re on a lot more than that now, aren’t you. I thought it might even be as high as forty thousand. That’s huge”

“Yes. And I get my 3% bonus”

“Three!” demanded Steffi, getting suddenly agitated. Now I can understand why she's disappointed in it. And quite frankly, I agree. 

“Three percent! Michelle. But you do everything. This whole place would stop if it wasn't for you. Ok everyone’s important, like Heidi and Andrea and Hazel with all her tours, but you do all the co-ordination in the background so well that no-one needs to worry about it. …”
 “… and Michelle, you helped build this place…” cut in Lisa “I know what it was like when I arrived. It was awesome what you were doing on your own....” 

“… but 3 per cent! Even if you were on 40 grand that would still only be 1200 pounds, Even the doms got several thousand! That can’t possibly be right”

“Lisa! Steffi. It's great that you’re supporting me like this, but its not the money. Back in September I told Damon that we’d finished the Setup Phase and we were in the Production Phase. I thought that it was the end of an era. 

Then in October we finished the recruitment when Aemon joined us to do the finances. I thought that was the end of the era. I’d marked off all the tasks on my boards as complete and then we could move into production. Damon always said that there would be a lot of money in this if we got it right. And there is. Damon said to me in the bar just now that this was it, this is what we both dreamed about, all these smiling people enjoying themselves in the bar, the euphoria because they’re all making more money than they ever expected from something they love doing. That was the dream that Damon persuaded Adam to believe in, and the dream that he gave to me. That’s what we were aiming for. Everything we’ve done was done because it was necessary to achieve this. This is what was impossible. The first day I was here and Adam said ‘and this is the bar’ I nearly choked looking round at the bare walls of an empty room with a dozen beer bottles strewn on the floor. I thought these two guys were crazy, plain bonkers and I said so. Adam said ‘maybe we are, but its you that needs certifying because you want to join us’. But they’re not. This is exactly what that crazy impossible dream looked like and creating it has taken over my entire life…And now its over… Everything is transformed, the bar, the studios, the pool, the garden, the bedrooms and even the West Wing is alive again after fifty years just like sleeping beauty– everything, and now its all, all over and its so horribly sad”

Steffi was quiet. Lisa was quiet. It was Laura that whispered into the silence

“So this bonus really is the end of the phase, is that it, Michelle?” she asked softly taking hold of Michelle’s hand and turning carefully towards her.

“Yes. This bonus really is the end of the era. The end of something I’ve worked so hard for, dreamt about, thought about so much that it woke me up in the night. Its taken over my life, it is my life, and now… its finished. Laura, its all over!”

“But Michelle, I can so relate to that!”

“Really?”
 “Yes. I worked with my research partner for 8 years, progressing, but slowly. After I met Damon everything went so much faster and then we got our invitation from RoPharma. Ludvig could now see the end in sight. He could see success. This is what we’d been working towards for over 8 years, but, Michelle, that would be the end. He wanted to think that it was the interminable commercial meetings that destroyed his health, but I think it was seeing the end of the road. He didn’t want it to end because his life was the project and the project was his life and to him, they would all end together”

Michelle nodded “Yes, And I'm due to go to the Crown on Friday. It's the pub in Edencombe where our scene used to hang out. I was intending to spend a big part of my bonus just buying drinks for all my old friends. But I don’t think I’ll even go now because the era has already ended, and all that has ended with it. And they’re only good time freeloaders anyway. Cleaning down my progress boards wasn’t the end. The end is that we’re all making money because that was really the end goal. That was the real objective. It wasn’t to have fun. Or to help struggling musicians. Or to restore a crumbling ancient Abbey. It was to make money. And its achieved”

Now they began to understand as Michelle continued

“And 3 % Lisa. Yes, we agreed that when we were on Druze’s yacht”
 “Yacht?”
 “Yes, Druze usually lives on a yacht in the Med, and that was the first time I met him. It was one of the many many highlights. Druze was feeling depressed, and the builders here were making a song of it, so the three of us flew down to Cannes. Adam, Damon and me. That was the first flight I'd ever been on, and the second. Then we had to take a speed boat out to the yacht which was moored way off shore. First time in a speed boat. And then I thought maybe I'd only been brought along to, you know, amuse Druze. Not that it mattered. But it was nothing like that - he was fabulous. Taught me how to ride a jet ski, and I nearly managed water skiing, and the restaurant for dinner was just fantastic. But this whole event today is about adding up the company numbers and seeing what’s left in the bank. Lisa, Steffi, your bonus is a gift from Damon that I think you’re very pleased with but maybe didn’t expect. But my bonus isn’t like that. I was told a long time ago how much it would be”

“But you still ought to get more than 1200 pounds. More than the doms, at least!”

Michelle nodded slowly “Yes, Steffi. And I agree with your arithmetic, but you’re starting in the wrong place. After everything else is paid for, absolutely everything, there’s just less than 15 million pounds more in the bank than when we last counted it up last September and three percent of that is about 447 thousand. And that’s what I get. 3%”

“How much!” gasped Steffi “Oh wow. So now it's me that's missing out on the problem? Michelle, that’s nearly half a million pounds” 

“Half a million!” gasped Lisa “I didn’t know anyone got paid that much anywhere!”

“Damon always told me there would be a lot of money in it if we got it right. But, Lisa, Druze’s yacht cost him 18 million. Now, he’s 31 and he bought it two years ago, so even if he started his band when he was 17 that would be he’d earned a million and a half each year till he was 29 just for that, never mind anything else he spent, like food. So Lisa, people do earn that much and some of them are people you know. Steffi, it's life changing. That's enough money to fly down to Cannes to see Druze every month, and get out to Philadelphia and meet up with Huck, and so much more. But it really is the end of everything I’ve worked so hard towards, and that’s what’s so sad” 

“Oh Michelle, I agree so much. As soon as RoPharma heard that Ludvig was ill, they made an offer to buy the project from us. I knew it was worth far more than that, so with Damon’s help I turned it down. I couldn’t just give it away. That would have been an unnatural end to something that was my whole life”

“So what are you going to do now?”
 “I don’t know. I’ve not got a plan. I don’t have a job. There isn’t a production phase for me, only for RoPharma now that they’ve built the production line. But Michelle, you’ve got a production phase. Bands flowing in and through the studios and out on tour, and singles and albums getting pressed by the million. Its not the same dream, it’s a new one but it could be equally exciting”

“I guess so, Laura. And I’m not ungrateful. But everything was so perfect that I don’t want anything to change”

“Exactly like Ludvig”

Michelle lifted her head slowly with almost a smile. 

“Yes. I guess the setup really is finished. Now it needs to work. But its everybody else that will make it work, not me. and that’s what’s different” 

“Michelle, everything changes. It all just evolves around you even if you don’t want it to” whispered Laura “Coming to terms with reality isn’t always easy. But you should have more time for yourself. Damon said you’ve been working at least 16 hours a day and haven’t had a day off since you started”

“Yes, Laura, there’s been so many things I thought I’d want to do. Phoning Druze to make sure he’s there and flying down to see him sounds so exciting when you know you don’t have the time to do it. And, Lisa, you’ve taken over from me looking after Damon’s diary and Lynda and Natalia can figure out looking after the house. The Estate needs a lot of attention, but Juliette seems to have a handle on that and its all about people so it has to be done at the right pace. And now I’m feeling at something of a loose end. Redundant?”

“Michelle. Maybe the end of an era isn’t such a bad thing. It just makes it time for a new era with the added satisfaction and confidence of having achieved everything you set out to do” 

Laura let Steffi and Lisa hold her hands as they led her back into the bar. They were her friends. She, herself, was just someone that Michelle knew.

“I’m ok” she whispered to Damon when they finally made it back through the crowd to the bar. He folded her up in his arms in a rare public show of affection

“Michelle, you’ve done so well. You’ve been unbelievable. Together we achieved everything we set out to do”
 “I know. And that’s what’s so sad. If we’d failed, we’d be able to carry on”

“Yes” agreed Laura as she arrived just behind the others “She’s following in Ludvig’s footsteps”
 “So now we can start a new era. Maybe one that doesn’t take us 24 hours a day”

He released his hug and slipped his arm round Laura instead

“The first task will be figuring out just what the next phase actually is”

“Its Production, Damon. Its bands flowing through our Studio machine without us needing to change the way it works for every single one of them. Of course they’re all unique, but they should be treated the same way. Its like Laura’s medicine. She doesn’t need to modify it for each person, even though everyone is different”

With Damon back at work at the Studio the next day, she pinched the Range Rover and went back to see her parents for the evening. That was part of her future too, and she knew that Damon would be up to his neck in just whatever Michelle’s new phase was.

The machine was running itself and that was what he’d set out to do, but now in the bar with that success all around he felt hollow. He’d put his heart and soul into this and it had cleaned him out. There was nothing left now except an empty shell. 

He’d given everything to everyone else, and while he appreciated the thankyous, that was all he was getting. No one was doing any more than saying thankyou and possibly feeling grateful. He felt it wasn’t enough, but what else did he actually want? He felt redundant, like it didn’t actually need him any more. Hazel had put her finger on it with her previous employer – senior management sticking their unnecessary oar in so that things went wrong and that gave them something to sort out which justified their existence. He didn’t want to be greedy but after everything, he’d been left out. Adam’s comment to Georgina ‘but he wouldn’t be short of offers’ played through his head uninvited – How wrong could his best friend be! Michelle had felt redundant too, but was coming to accept that he had been right about them and was now looking forward to her anticipated freedom backed by enough money and even enough time to do anything she wanted. He knew she was still interested in Joshua, but Hazel had sent him out on tour. Still, he’d be back and maybe he’d be part of her future. Everyone else had a future here, even Adam, but not him. He’d organised it so well that there was nothing left for him to do.

He looked round the bar, glancing between the assorted band members. Adam was with Georgina, but who else did he recognise in the sea of unknown faces – Steffi – but she was a songwriter and spent her evenings flitting from one band to the next discussing musical arrangements. Heidi – back in some sort of on-off relationship with her long term boyfriend from Edencombe. Juliette – probably going to get serious with her Liam. And if she was happy with Liam, she didn’t need a guy like him. Sarah – rescued from her toxic work relationship with Trevor. Hazel was talking to Olly, but it was about a band. They weren’t an item, but that was because Olly made his own fun with the ever changing cast of female band members and Hazel didn’t want to be in any relationship with anyone after she’d been ripped off so comprehensively by Achmed. Damon had given her a new focus in setting up the tours with as much international travel as she could handle, but apart from an early days kiss on the old stone river bridge she’d not shown any real interest in him. And, he reflected, the same could be said for all the others. Lisa? Lisa was great. She worked really hard and had taken over from Michelle so well as more of a personal secretary while Michelle concentrated on keeping everything running smoothly. He knew that Lisa was eternally grateful for everything he’d done for her and felt that she owed him so much. There had been quite a number of times when he’d had the opportunity to invite her to spend the night with him. But where would that have gone? An impossible atmosphere in the office and maybe she’d feel that the debt was now paid and she wouldn’t have to work so hard. But it was scant compensation knowing he was right about avoiding that situation.

Instead he could look forward to having dinner with Laura’s parents and inviting Ralph and Clemmy as well. Or taking Laura up to meet his parents, and Diane and Sophie?

Cue - Profession of Violence by UFO 

This was his new life – the Life after Rachael was just the recovery. This was life after Alex. Life after the band. 

Everyone else was getting high on euphoria, and thanking Damon for it, but would it be nice if they were just a little more inclusive? He could stand at the side of the room and listen to comments about how one or other person owed so much to him – but it was all about him, not to him. Or if the girls were just a little more flirty? Actually, maybe not. He’d only have to turn them down like Lisa, and that was just unkind – like an invite to a band that they knew wouldn’t make it.

Michelle was right. This is what they’d set out to do. This is the dream he’d infected her with. It had been contagious and this was the new life that it was his mission to create. But all life comes to an end, sooner or later. Was now the time to start another new life? This time in a large old farmhouse with a pub within walking distance without having to build it. Michelle would handle all the daily issues and keep everything running smoothly. And him? Maybe next time he’d get it right. Maybe the end result of his next new life would actually include him. Was his next phase entitled ‘Laura’? Was that the life after the Studio?

He drained his glass and slipped out silently, driving back to the farmhouse. Was there life after the Studio? Laura should be back later but until then at least he’d be alone on his own rather than being alone in a crowd.

End of And Breathe

….

End of The Studio Chapter 4

…And Breathe

This is the end of

The Studio