The Gentleman and The Tramps

Then one of the soldiers offered her parents double if he could have her exclusively. Of course they agreed. The soldier winked at her, took her hand, and said gently, "Come with me." Something about him made her think he was better than all the rest. She was right. It was Broncs, and he took her home to his mother. It was a haven of peace and tranquillity that allowed a traumatised young girl to recover some of her equanimity. Sparks loved her, and of course she thought of Broncs as a role model.

Sparks had missed so much school that she didn't have a chance, so ended up emulating her role model and joining the military. She'd found that it suited her down to the ground, and flourished as an electronics expert. As luck would have it, Sparks ended up in Broncs' unit. They made it through some pretty sticky situations together and watched each other's backs. When Broncs' time was up, he decided to set up his own PI business, and asked Sparks to join him.

Kate felt as if her emotions had been put through the wringer. She clung to Sparks and in a rather watery voice said, "If there is anything I can do to help, I really want to. I can't let you do this for me after all you've been through. Please please stay here."

Sparks was stunned that Kate still seemed to care for her after all that she's revealed. "You've already done so much for me. You've been so kind letting me help with Angela. I've never wanted anyone to know what my parents named me, but you and Angela have somehow helped it fade."

"So what is your name?" Kate suddenly realised that Sparks might not want to tell and rushed on. "Oh. I'm so sorry. You don't have to tell."

Sparks smiled. It was the first time Kate had seen a genuine smile apart from with Angela. "It's Angela."

Kate's eyes widened. "Oh God. It must have hurt so much with everyone saying it all the time."

Sparks grinned. "Actually? No. I realised that people called Angela were cared for by their mothers. And that Broncs' mother had cared for me too. So it helped me."

Kate smiled shyly at Sparks. "When you were caring for Angela, your face softened and you lost your hard look. You looked like an angel, so can I call you Angel when the others aren't around?"

Kate was alarmed. Tears started running down Sparks' face. "Oh God. What have I said. I'm so sorry. Please Sparks, ..." Kate flung her arms round her friend, and Sparks clung on to her, huffing and clearing her throat.

"Sorry. I'm just overwhelmed. I've never really had a friend. You're my first. And Angel." Her voice suspended for a moment. "Angel. Well, I'm not."

Kate hugged her tight. "Yes, you are. You are to me." And she pulled back and kissed her.

Suddenly they were both kissing madly, hands roaming, breath shortening. As they pulled away panting, they both looked slightly shocked. Then laughed. Then hugged.

"I think we've both given up on men." Kate whispered.

Much to her own surprise as well as Kate's, Sparks whispered back, "I love you, Kate."

And Sparks discovered that a new mother's breasts are rather tender, but that it doesn't stop a mother shaking and crying out when they come. And Kate discovered that ex-military meant a six pack to die for, but the same explosive reaction to being loved. There were two more things. Kate wept over Sparks' scars. And Sparks convinced her that what she was doing with her ex wouldn't change a thing between them.

In the event, it was the next afternoon that an email arrived at Clean Sweep Productions from the ex expressing interest in the film. He actually had the nerve to request to meet the female leads. Kate was spitting. Sparks came up behind her and hugged her, arms around her waist. Whatever she whispered in her ear worked, and Kate calmed down.

What Broncs wrote in reply shocked us all, despite knowing the strategy. It was a politely worded 'you can't afford us'. He was right, though. Within the hour there was a reply insisting that the film was exactly in his area, he'd stretch his budget, and insisting on a meeting.

"Got him. Easier than I thought. Great work everyone." Broncs was quietly pleased.

When they got back from the meeting the following day, Sparks wasn't with them, and Kate looked worried. Estelle was bubbling though, and told us all about it. They'd completely fooled the ex, and Sparks had gone off to dinner to dangle carrots.

I had a quiet word with Broncs and asked him to talk a bit to Kate about what Sparks was doing and reassure her. Kate looked a lot happier afterwards, and I savoured my reward, a big smacking kiss from Liz.

We were all worried about Sparks, despite Broncs confidence, and stayed up to see she was OK. She arrived back with a big smile on her face.

"Job done, boss." She said to Broncs. "He's meeting me to go over the contract on Saturday. He thinks he's going to get laid." She smiled one of her tight smiles. Then, glancing over to Kate, she looked fierce, "Want me to cut his balls off after he's signed?"

Kate blushed. "You don't have to."

"Honey, I'd make raspberry jam out of him and sell it back to his mother, if it would make you feel better." Her voice was hard, but the look she had for Kate was protective.

It was a sort of throw-away line, but I got the impression that Sparks was deadly serious and would carry it out if Kate so much as winked.

When Liz and I came down the next morning, there was no one else around. Sparks was on the sofa sound asleep with Angela sprawled on top of her. We left them for the kitchen and the allure of coffee and breakfast.

"She's got it bad." I commented. "Do you think Kate is interested enough?"

"Oh she's interested, just not sure yet. I actually think they'll make a go of it." Liz responded. "I have to say I worry about Sparks' past and how Kate will cope or react to it."

"If it upset Broncs, then it must be really bad. I wouldn't want to deny Sparks anything after that, but I share your worry about Kate. She was so strong when she was out on the street though. Maybe we shouldn't worry."

"It's not up to us, is it? All we can do is support them both. I wonder if she's got family?"

"I reckon not. Or if she has, it's part of the problem. Do you think we should talk to Sparks? Try to help?" I didn't think it was a good idea. I didn't think Sparks would go for it anyway, but I needed Liz's reassurance.

"I think that might make things worse, not better. We should try to get to know her better, but no more than that. She'll open up to us when she's ready."

I kissed her. "I love the us." Another kiss. "I love you."

We were rudely interrupted. "Get a room you two." Estelle moaned.

Broncs walked in behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "We could use mine, then we wouldn't see them." He grinned.

Estelle stuck her tongue out at him. "Ew. Why would I use your postage stamp, when I can bathe in my suite?" They both laughed.

"Can I help?" Broncs teased.

"Now who needs a room?" Liz pretended a loud stage whisper.

"Whose for coffee?" I asked to stop the jokey bickering. An overwhelming majority as I expected, so I filled the four mugs I'd already reached down. Liz whipped the warmed croissant out of the oven and added plates and butter.

"Mmmm. I love the way you two do things." Estelle sniffed appreciatively as we all sat round the table.

Sparks came in carrying a gently complaining Angela. I took her so Sparks could fix her milk.

"Kate was exhausted. Angela was awake a lot in the night, so I brought her out to give Kate a chance at some uninterrupted sleep. I'm hoping she'll stay asleep till Angela's second feed." Sparks explained.

"You've got a bit of a thing going with that baby." Broncs commented. "It's so nice to see you with her."

Amazingly the apparently unemotional Sparks' cheeks reddened slightly and she mumbled to herself something that sounded remarkably like, 'And with her Mum.'

I gave Angela back to Sparks, who had her milk ready, and got up to pour Sparks a coffee, adding another plate to the table in front of her as well.

"So, what's happening today?"

A cloud passed over Sparks' face.

"Sparks is going to meet the ex to get his signature." Broncs outlined. "She's also going to spin him a production sob story. If he falls for it, he might give us some immediate cash while he gets the million together. Sparks and Estelle will have to keep tickling him until that is in our bank. I've also got a few things up my sleeve if the sob story doesn't work to get the extra cash. Then we dismantle and, from his point of view, disappear."

"I think Ken had a few ideas about making the disappearance a bit more final." I mentioned.

Broncs looked up sharply.

"Oh." I realised that he thought more final meant disposing of the ex. "Just by sending out formal bankruptcy notices."

Broncs' shoulders relaxed and he gave me a ghost of a smile. "That would have to be done directly by Clean Sweep without mentioning a legal company, especially not Ken's, so that there's no trace."

"He also had the idea that his investment company could sue the ex for their share, or at least threaten to, then agree to drop the suit for a handy sum like a couple of hundred thousand."

"And here was I thinking it was you that was the clever one, Broncs." Liz joked.

"Who do you think taught him?" Broncs grinned. "Isn't he getting the hang of it well." He continued with some satisfaction in his voice.

Later in the morning, Sparks came to find me. "I've got to get ready. Angela is having her morning sleep, but could you listen out for her and get her if she wakes. She'll need to be fed before lunch, so you'll have to wake Kate. I expect she'll be awake anyway." Her face turned wistful. "Say bye to her for me. Tell her I'll miss her while I'm gone."

"No problem, Sparks. I'll tell her you love her." I grinned.

Sparks' face was a picture. Consternation. Yearning. Perhaps even hope?

"From the look of her, I'd say she loves you too." I said to her quietly. "You have nothing to fear from Liz or me."

Sparks' face cleared. "Thank you. I was the best at poker in my unit, but I can't seem to keep it in with Kate." She mused.

"It's nice to see you smile."

"Nice to see who smile?" Liz walked in. I nodded in Sparks' direction.

Liz walked over to her and gave her a big hug. "Yes, it really is, honey."

Sparks face was a picture. I couldn't decide if she was going to freeze up or cry. In the end she just grunted a sort of thank you and left abruptly.

I was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Liz punched me on the arm. "Poor girl. Cut her a bit of slack. I don't suppose anyone in her short life has ever called her honey, or possibly even hugged her."

"What you don't know is that I'd just effectively told her we didn't mind if she hooked up with Kate. Slight emotional overload. Unless I miss my guess, she's also fretting about going to see the ex and Kate worrying. I'm sure she's terrified that Kate won't be able to put up with her seeing the ex."

"Now I remember why I love you so much, O emotional master." Liz laughed and gave me a hug. I returned it with interest.

Kate did sleep until Angela needed her feed. I passed on Sparks' message, and saw Kate's face fall as she realised she'd missed saying goodbye.

"Are you sure she'll be OK. I'm so worried about her."

I did my best to reassure her, and told her that Liz had given her a big hug. The corners of her mouth did lift at that, despite her concerns.

By the end of the day, Kate was like a cat on hot bricks. Liz and I decided to stay up with her and try to distract her a bit. It was obvious she wouldn't sleep a wink until Sparks was back. It was a long evening. Actually a long night.

Sparks finally came in about three looking dishevelled and tired. Kate rushed up to her and enveloped her in a hug.

Sparks sagged into Kate, and her body relaxed slightly. "I missed you so much. I didn't ... couldn't sleep with him. I hadn't talked to you about it, so I just ..." Her voice cracked.

"Oh baby. Oh God. What did he do to you?"

"S'OK. Nothing. Just heavy petting. He wasn't best pleased that he didn't get laid, but he wasn't bad about it."

Kate kissed her, despite Liz and I being there. Then she went bright red and looked down.

"Are you OK Kate?" Liz asked.

"I'm fine Gran. Thanks." Kate mumbled.

Liz grabbed my hand and we left them to it. We were both convinced that, even with Sparks being exhausted, there would be some pretty heavy duty loving going on.

In the morning, well late morning, Broncs called a council of war. Sparks gave an update on where we were, and it was agreed that Sparks and Estelle needed to seal the deal together. Broncs was going with them, as no businessman would sign a contract with two "bimbos". I could see that Kate was mightily relieved. The bimbos would go first to warm the ex up, then Broncs would turn up and finalise. The idea was that the bimbos would get the extra cash before Broncs came, so a few pre-typed texts were agreed that would make it easy for the girls to give a status to Broncs. It would ruin the extra cash scenario of Broncs came at the wrong moment.

Another period of tense waiting. Finally they rolled in just before midnight. Both girls looked a little rumpled, but all three were smiling.

"Well?" Liz was impatient.

"200,000 and a signed contract." Broncs was brief. "He's supposed to transfer the contract money by Wednesday, but he wants to see the start of the filming. That was how we got the extra 200,000."

Sparks butted in from Kate's arms, "Won't take much to set it up. We've got about half what we need anyway, and the rest we can hire. The only thing that will be a rush is getting a suitable location."

"Um. I had a thought about that. Wasn't there a bit on a boat in the script? Wouldn't it mean less kit because of the cramped space, and it would explain the small number of people involved? I'm pretty sure there's a hire place just down the coast."

"Good plan. Let's get onto it in the morning. We just need to be careful to leave no trace." Broncs added.

Broncs went off first thing in his producer garb to hire the boat. Sparks took Ken, Liz and I to get costumed up, as we didn't want anyone recognising any of us. It would just be the three existing players with Ken, Liz and I doing camera, continuity/makeup and sound respectively, one of the advantages of the boat location. Kate wouldn't be involved. It was too likely that the ex would recognise her voice. Anyway, she had to look after Angela.

We had fun on the boat setting it up until Broncs got a call to say the ex was on the dock. We went back in to pick him up. I almost choked when I saw that he was all dressed up in 'boating' gear. He looked so funny. I could see Liz holding back a laugh. But Broncs was masterly, fawning all over him.

"Oh, you look so good. How about we cut you into a scene. I think in those clothes you'd look good with the two girls. Now how about a bikini shot?"

We could see the ex drooling. If we didnt' know that the girls didn't have bikinis, we would ahve been spitting ourselves.

"Oh, wait a minute. It would spoil the look if you were formal and the girls were beach. Let's go with the semi-formal look." Broncs raised his voice. "Girls! Let's have you in your costumes for scene six. Five minutes."

His voice and manner grated horribly, but was perfect for his role. Liz, Ken and I scurried around looking busy. In reality everything was already set up, but the ex didn't know that. Also, having cut him into the scene, a lot of it would be ad-libbed. Again Broncs, Liz and Sparks had come up with a brilliant scene where the lover and the wife were confronting each other. Only with the ex in it, the husband would be there too. It was going to be interesting.

When the scene was set, the ex and Estelle were on deck, but there was no sign of Sparks. As Broncs yelled "Action." Sparks came barrelling up the ladder screaming abuse at the ex.

"You b***y b***d. How could you do this to me?" And gave him a slap across the face.

I think he was surprised as the rest of us. One thing I know was that his head must have been ringing. It wasn't a stage slap. Sparks had delivered it with all of her considerable strength and technique. His head had jerked round and there was a huge red palm print on his cheek.

Then Estelle joined in. "You didn't tell me you were married." Another slap on the other side of his face. "If you don't get rid of her now, I'm leaving."

Not quite as effective as Sparks, but good for an untrained operator! The ex was looking most upset.

"No, don't leave." The ex turned towards Estelle, and actually looked as if he meant it.

"Why the hell shouldn't she leave. If she doesn't leave I will. Get rid of her." Sparks was on form.

"No don't leave." The ex turned back to Sparks in confusion.

I could see that all of us were trying not to laugh at the situation. Estelle and Sparks were looking at each other.

"Well, if he won't do it, then we will." And they joined hands on one side, and both their other hands came up to slap both sides of his face at once. They turned on their heels and disappeared into the cabin.

"Cut!" Yelled Broncs. He walked up to the ex and pumped his hand saying, "Wow. That was really good. How about we film another scene with the two of them?"

"I ... er ... I think I'll give it a miss and leave it to the professionals." He looked completely shell shocked.

"Fine. Fine." Broncs turned to us. "Is that in the can, or do we need another take?"

"Could you take me back to the dock before you do another take? I think you'll need a professional for the role. I'm not cut out for it."

After we'd dropped him off, we couldn't stop laughing. "Sparks, Estelle, you were fantastic. What a shot."

"Hope he's nursing a headache for the rest of the day. I hit him hard enough." Sparks grumbled.

We packed up and took the boat and equipment back before going home to take off our costumes. Then we had to start on the bankruptcy letter and the letter suing the ex from the investment company. Ken had some examples from the office, so it wasn't too hard. The bankruptcy one was to go out as soon as the money had been deposited and removed from the Clean Sweep account. The suing letter would go out a day later.

It seemed all we had to do was wait, and continue answering other Clean Sweep correspondence in the negative. Offers of staff and equipment we just ignored. I was amazed at the amount of junk mail.

Finally, at a nail-biting 1630 the money arrived in the Clean Sweep account. There was then a series of transfers which would make the money untraceable before it was deposited in an account at Ken's firm for Kate that Ken was going to manage for her.

The bankruptcy letter went out. It was followed by a flurry of emails and phone calls from the ex. Ken had told us how they would be handled by bankruptcy administrators. Basically, 'We have no information and are investigating. We won't know anything for several months.'

The next day the suing letter went. Again a flurry of emails and calls. This time was more fun, as we all got to talk indignantly about being the second investor and misled by the ex. After 48 hours, we finally allowed the ex to speak with "the boss", and Ken got on the line. It was a masterly lesson in negotiation. He started at a million plus a million damages, and finally managed to make the ex feel he had a wonderful deal settling for 250,000 rather than going to court without a leg to stand on.

That arrived in the investment company bank account the next day, and followed a similar tortuous route to an account in Ken's firm. From there he would distribute shares to all of us after paying any other expenses. We didn't think there would be any other expenses, as the 200,000 the girls had conned out of the ex would do all of that.