Fool's Errand

***

Although they had agreed to meet lunchtimes all week, but during the evenings both had work to do or needed to go to bed early because of early starts.

During their lunchtime meetings they found out more and more about each other, that neither drank much, both preferring water with their meals, Mason preferring one beer in the evening, and Lyndsey resorting to an occasional glass of wine. On Tuesday Mason had to finish working on a football programme and get it off to the printers on Wednesday morning; Lyndsey still had to resort to book learning and online exercises to complete the theory side of her surgeon's qualification. Mason suggested a meal at his place for Friday evening, but Lyndsey remembered the Charity Ball.

"Mason, I was originally going to this Charity Ball with Gareth, who bought the tickets, but my father is going to be there because the charity is actually his own foundation, which lots of businesses contribute to. Obviously, with this a April Fool thing, I didn't want to go with Gareth. But all the tickets were sold out long ago, so I'm going as Daddy's guest. You don't mind do you?"

"Of course not. What does the charity do?"

"It provides grants to small children's charities, like local special needs schools that need a new bus or specialist toys, or to parents with disabled children, such as convert the downstairs of a house to be wheelchair friendly, so a disabled child can live at home with their parents, that kind of thing. They have a wonderful record, which has been maintained since my mother gave the Foundation fresh impetus when I was little. This Charity Ball raises thousands and it's the highlight of fundraising through the year."

"Sounds like a worthwhile cause to contribute to. How about coming round to my house for a home-cooked meal on Thursday? I won't keep you late, but you have to eat somewhen, don't you?"

"Yes, I'd love to, so what do you cook?"

"Prepared to tackle pretty well anything, used to have to fall back on all sorts of strange meals in the Army, basically anything we could catch quietly, but my favourite home-cooked meal is Cottage Pie. I can cook enough for four at one time and serve them in individual dishes, covered in grilled cheddar. I can freeze the other two for future meals. Usually I eat one and freeze three. What do you think?"

"My mouth is watering already. Pick me up at 7?"

"Yes. Will do."

***

"Hi Gareth, glad you called me, I wanted to speak you about Friday."

"Oh, the Ball, yeah right babes, when d'yer want me to pick you up?"

"Gareth, it's my Daddy's charity, so he will be obviously be there and will want to see me working the tables to ginger up the bids and donations. I can't have you take me, if I'm supposed to have a brand new boyfriend, so I'm going to attend as Daddy's guest. You will either have to bring someone else or not come at all. All right, Gareth?"

"Yeah, OK, of course, babes, I'll bring someone else. I was actually hoping to see you one evening this week."

"Not during the week, Gareth, got too much training work on at the hospital, and I'm meeting Mason's parents at the weekend, getting ready to introduce him to Daddy the following weekend."

"How did this last weekend go?"

"Good. We went to a football match on Saturday, met some of Mason's friends, and went to the coast for the day on Sunday. We even bumped into one of his old girlfriends."

"Awkward."

"Yes, a little ... Look, I'm just coming up to the sandwich bar where I'm grabbing a quick lunch before starting my afternoon rounds. I'll speak to you before Friday."

"Yeah, babes and we'll make a point of ignoring each other on Friday at the Ball, if our paths happen to cross."

"Sounds a good idea. Bye Gareth."

"Bye babes."

***

"He's married, Boss, but the decree absolute comes into force on Friday. And they've got a kid together."

"Living in a seaside town, right Alex?" Sir Alan grinned, not often he was one up on his security chief.

"Yeah, Boss. Visits her every two Sundays, religious as clockwork. Pretty thing, the baby is, too. Oriental-looking, but cute. The wife is dark Filipino, while her parents is like more pale Chinese looking, besides they's too old to be her real parents."

"Adopted?"

"Yeah, that's what I had figured and checked up on it. That's why she and our guy married, she was being deported because her adoption papers were forged. Apparently it happens a lot over there. She managed to get into the country as a young girl with her family, but when she applied for a passport the paperwork couldn't stand up to the scrutiny."

"So our guy started out doing her a good deed?"

"Yeah Boss, but I got the truth out of the horse's mouth. It was all a scam on her part her to have a baby with no strings. She used him because he looked good, with strong genes, but being an old bachelor, she naturally assumed he'd be a pushover. She thought that once she left him he'd fold and let them go, especially as she kept where her parents lived a secret. But this guy is resourceful, smart and won't let go. So he's wearing her down with his persistent desire to be a proper father of the little girl. She never wanted a husband, just her baby which would guarantee that she could stay living here."

"So he was duped but she's not willing to share the baby?"

"Nah, not willing at all. Makes it as difficult as possible for this Lyndsey fella to get access. Says she's not weaned the baby yet, so he can only have her alternate Sundays, and only then only briefly between feeds."

"That's intolerable for any caring father."

"Sure is Boss. And guess what?"

"Tell me."

"Her parents love Mason more than they love their own adopted daughter, says he's getting a raw deal and deserves better. They reckon he's a good man, a really good man they tell me. They already love Miss Lyndsey, too, tells me she can come down anytime she likes, they'd welcome her with open arms. Same attitude as Betty who owns the hotel he stays at, she adores the Lyndsey guy and thought he and Miss Lyndsey make such a lovely couple. Apparently the local weekend guests look forward to seeing the baby Maisie and are hoping the bad weather continues, that way they have to stay indoors."

"I like this place already. So how does this ex-wife live?"

"Hardly at all. She makes greetings cards by hand, some of the examples look OK but ordinary, you know, nothing special. Lyndsey paid to set up a website for her and that is more impressive than the goods they're selling. It's her only income other than what the guy sends her for Maisie. When they married he also set up a little workshop in a Wendbury High Street shop, employing a handful of staff making her designs. She kept it going for a few months after she left him, by putting a manager in, but without her influence, the work went south and she had to cut her loses and close it down before the staff qualified for redundancy payments. She can hardly cope with the baby and make a living at the same time, looks tired and fat, rapidly losing her looks. The parents showed me a painting of their daughter in a swim suit when she first starting showing with the baby; she had the body of a fashion models. Now she's got the body of two models. They still have a joint account and Mason puts in £600 a month for her, which is more than generous, it's all that's keeping her afloat. Her mum's retired but still does about 20 hours agency nursing work a week, and her dad's got three more years to go with the NHS before he retires; they are basic nurses at the local hospital. The house is rented, so what happens when the old man stops working is anyone's guess."

"Sounds like we could make this woman an offer?"

"Yeah, Boss, maybe, she's pretty mercenary and I did give her £300 to get her to talk and forget all about me, as far as our guy is concerned, but if we show our hand too much we might upset Miss Lyndsey."

"You're right, Alex. So, softly softly, eh?"

"Right-oh, Boss, softly softly it is."

Chapter 5

Lyndsey drove over to Mason's place, 25 Sycamore Gardens, using the Sat Nav in her Smart Car. She was expecting a block of apartments, not a short cul-de-sac of well-spaced out semi-detached family houses. She soon worked out where No 25 was. It had a neat lawn in front and a currently leafless deciduous tree in the middle of the lawn. To the right was a long drive leading up to an attached garage, which presumably contained his car. There were lights outside displaying occupancy inside. So she parked in the drive, got out of the car and, grasping her two bottles of sparkling red grape juice, marched up to the front door.

The door swung open as she approached.

"Come straight on in, it's still pretty cold out there."

"Hi Mason, nice house. Had it long?"

"About twenty years in all, but for most of that time it was rented out. I moved in about two years ago, when I got out of the Army."

"Did you live here with Leone?"

"Not at first." he said, "I better explain. Just let me sprinkle the cheese on top and pop these into the oven, then we can relax for a few minutes."

Lyndsey watched as he placed two oval dishes, each with an individual portion of cottage pie, onto a baking sheet and popped it into a hot oven. Two more similar dishes sat on the side cooling until ready to freeze. The kitchen table was set for two, so she sat down at one of the chairs.

"When Leone and I got to know each other over a series of simple dates, the real reason for her computer dating came up. She was adopted by her parents when she was about six years old and was brought over here with them when she was about eight, so she had been here for about 20 years when we met. However, when she was in her early twenties, she tried to get a passport for a holiday in France, but was turned down because her adoption papers were only photocopies. She didn't worry about it at the time, but just before I met her, she started getting letters from immigration threatening her with deportation."

"So she wanted a marriage of convenience, and you offered to get her out of a fix?"

"I did. I had no-one else in my life and didn't know or care too much about where our relationship was going, but it seemed a solution at the time. So I offered, she accepted, and we had a quick ceremony. I didn't tell my parents otherwise they would have got the wrong idea."

"And the baby?"

'Ha! Right. Do you want some grape juice? The dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

"Thank you."

"Even after we married," he said as he filled the glasses on the table, "the immigration interviews continued and Leone took in the marriage certificate, but they wanted to know more and more about our relationship, especially as, although we said we were cohabiting, she was still renting a flat and working in an office in Wendbury."

"I thought she trained as a nurse?"

"It was her parents' wish to be a nurse, not hers, she started a course when she was about 18 but soon dropped out and worked in general offices, mostly as a temp, so she has no qualifications. She had this idea of opening a shop making craft greetings cards to order, while manufacturing and shrink wrapping generic ones for retail sales. It was something she had been doing privately online for years. I had attended some web-designing classes ready for demob so I designed a new website for her and helped her get her shop underway with a £10k loan. I looked at a lot of shops and thought she needed a High Street presence. She trained up some housewives and young girls to work in the back of the shop and it seemed to take off, at least at first."

"And that still didn't satisfy immigration?"

"No. We had moved into this house, but not sleeping together as or relationship was, well, we didn't have a relationship. But then she mentioned the baby. Which was a big question. I mean she was an attractive woman, but I didn't feel any spark between us. We were going through the motions dating in case she was being followed and some of her clothes were heat in my room. Basically she was a lodger. Being 30, she started to tell me she wanted a baby, so she asked why not have one with her husband? So, we went for it. At first it was fairly mechanical but then I started to develop feelings, difficult not to, especially when she fell pregnant almost immediately and we started going to prenatal classes together. Immigration backed off, she said, we had the baby, Maisie was small and premature and we couldn't get her home at first. Then, within hours of getting home, she disappeared, leaving me to bond with Maisie; she came home, I went shopping for essential supplies and when I got back they had both gone."

***

"You look gorgeous honey, good enough to eat. How's your new boy taking it, not being able to take his Cinderella to the Ball?" Sir Alan chuckled.

His daughter really did look good in a sky blue and silver shimmery cocktail dress that she looked as though she had been poured into; he thought it brought out the colour of her eyes perfectly, while her blond hair piled up as it was made her neck look poised and graceful, graced with a tiny string of pearls that Sir Alan recognized were once her mother's.

"Oh, he's out running for an hour, then he'll shower and get ready for the weekend; we are visiting his mother for lunch on Sunday. He is also celebrating receiving his Decree absolute on his own by doing some painting."

"Painting?"

"Yes, a small cottage he passes on his round, an old farmhouse now surrounded by new developments. Without the summer bedding and bare rose bushes, it looks quite stark, he says, and been working on it for a few days after his afternoon round. It's all about the prep work with painting he said, once that's done, the painting should be complete by Saturday morning.

"So, the romance is blossoming for both of you is it? I think Gareth will be at the Ball tonight, although I had him moved down the tables well away from us."

"Of course you did, Daddy. I think he is bringing Tabitha Cummings with him, she's his cousin who's boyfriend is laid up with a fractured leg ... accident skiing in Austria, I think. I doubt our paths will cross much tonight."

"Good, he's a creep. Interested in meeting your new man, though, honey. What can you tell me about him?"

"What more do you need to know?" Lyndsey said, as her father guided her into his limo, George his driver holding the door open. "He told me about your goons at the football match."

"Ah, just looking after your best interests, my dear," Sir Alan said, as he settled himself in the seat. "I haven't found out if he can ski yet."

"He can, I think, about three months' military training in Lapland, including sled and huskies work, and he spent some time in Switzerland but not sure what season, so not sure if he has much experience on a couple of splinters going down slippery slopes."

"Unlike Gareth then?" Sir Alan said with a twinkle in his eye. "What else can this new wonder boy do?"

"Aside from taking out two of your guys?"

"They'll be better prepared next time."

"There better not be a 'next time', Daddy."

"I don't like to see you go unprotected."

"Perhaps Mason is all the protection I need."

"We will see. Tell me more about him."

"He can cook, I'll say that. I left the girls drooling over left-over individual cottage pies just as I was leaving tonight. So good, they didn't even have the good grace to wait until I left before they heated them up in the oven. They smell as good as they taste. Not sure, from previous experience, if the meal tonight will come even close."

"We did secure the services of a TV celebrity chef for tonight, he has a camera crew in the kitchen so he can demonstrate how he and his team cope with 300 simultaneous covers. The studio are donating a decent fee to the Foundation, plus repeat fees if the programme gets sold on."

"Perhaps Mason could cook for us if you came round for dinner one night. Are you still with Julie?"

"No, her massage parlour was raided two nights ago ... she was working at the time."

Lyndsey laughed, and had to dab her eyes with a tissue to protect her make-up.

"Why are you laughing? Julie could be in serious trouble."

"It's just that we were discussing Julie's shop the Jade Garden, as Mason recently looked at renting a shop nearby and when Julie was mentioned, we both pretty much expressed the dubious nature of her business at the same time."

"Very astute of you both," Sir Alan laughed, "perhaps I should employ your man as an advisor?"

"You couldn't afford him, Daddy."

"Everyone has his price, my dear."

"But Mason has integrity, and that is priceless, Daddy."

"I look forward to seeing him in a couple of Sunday's time. I might ask him to paint the manor house."

"I already mentioned that, but the size of your mansion, Daddy, I can't see how he'd have the time."

The Charity Ball at the City Hall was a sell-out and everyone who were determined to go made every effort that they attended. The meal was excellent, Lyndsey had to admit, simple but delicious, the celebrity chef had obviously done his homework and ensured that the meal was easy to prepare and serve to perfection. There was a charity auction with lots of prizes up for auction, one of which took her eye, it was a large oil painting of a cottage close to where the hospital stood, as she had jogged past it on a regular basis. The cottage had recently had the exterior redecorated with fresh white paint and the timbers repainted. This painting must have been painted when the state of repair had still to be carried out, and captured every flake of missing paint and moss growing up the walls. She idly wondered if Mason had done the repainting.

"You like this painting, Lyndsey?" her father asked, "I could put in a sealed bid for you if you like."

"No, it doesn't look like that any more, the cottage had been sold and the new owners have had it renovated, taking all the old creeper off, repainting the lime render and cleaning off the old painted timbers, taking them back to a natural oak colour. I expect the painting was hanging up inside the house and the new owners didn't want to be reminded of how bad a state it had it had got into."

"Your new guy didn't paint it did he?" her father asked, admitting, "I found out that he painted houses."

"I was just wondering that myself, but I have no idea. He did say he was painting a couple of afternoons and evenings this week, but I didn't ask exactly where."

"Well, the painting was donated anonymously earlier today. I think it's so good, I might even bid for it myself."

Chapter 6

With this Saturday's match being at home, Lyndsey didn't have to rush around during the morning patient rounds as she had the previous week, and was able to meet Mason at his house for warming home-made minestrone soup before Mason drove them to the ground just before the two o'clock kick off.

"Hey, can you guess who I got a call from today inviting me up to spend this Sunday with the whole family?" Mason grinned as he stirred the pot of delicious-smelling soup.

"Leone!" Lyndsey laughed.

"So, Miss Doctor-Surgeon-Psychiatrist, do you want to tell me what's going on?" Mason asked. "All I have had since the birth of my daughter is the cold shoulder from the whole of my ex-wife's family. Two minutes after you appeared on the scene, Mr and Mrs P were all over me and Leone even showed herself twice briefly in the morning and at lunchtime for the first time in ten and a half months since her disappearing act."

"Psychoanalyst, is the correct term for examining Leone's change of attitude."

"OK, I may have got the name of the science wrong, but you don't seem to be at all surprised by this sudden change of attitude."

"No, not really, Mason, because basically Leone has always used you. At times in the past you were valuable, and once she had secured her right to stay in the UK, and helped set up her business, you retained value because she found you were also good fatherhood material. But once those stepping stones in her ambitions were achieved, then you became virtually valueless to her. In fact, when you pursued both her and Maisie, and refused to give up your child, you became a liability that she hoped you'd go away if made everything difficult for her. Now, suddenly she has realised that your stock has gone back up."