The Easter Egg Hunt – III

Since Ben and Joss Beckett took over The Fair Maid and Falcon, they have had to deal with ghosts, gangsters and well dodgy goings-on. Despite that they have their own family of twin daughters and dogs, and a fabulous ‘found family’ of friends. Life seems to be going well when…

I hadn’t realised Ellen was back until she spoke from behind me. “And I’ll go over to yours and deal with the twins’ bedtime. I’ll just tell them you are working late.”
I held out my arms and we hugged. “Thank you, dear.”
Ellen went on soft feet and Sian grinned tautly. “I need to see what Benny has before I can finish putting together a TikTok. Can I sit here and do my homework while I wait?”
“Course you can, lovely. So long as doing this won’t put you in any danger.”
“No. Not if you get Mark onside.”
“Oh, I’m onside all right.”
A deep voice from the doorway made me jump and I whirled to face a rather grim looking Mark.
“When I saw Morgan’s face, I put out some feelers. It smells as if The Fair Maid is being lined up for a spot of extortion and we can’t have that.”
“No we can’t. But even more importantly, we can’t have people bitch-slapping the kids.”
Sian snorted. “No we can’t. But equally we can’t let the gruesome twosome know that Mark is here and in the mood for blood. You know how much they adore him and how good their emotional antennae are. We need to keep them apart this evening, or explain this whole can of worms to two over-intelligent six-year-olds.”
Which was an absolute truth and required a bit of thought. I looked at Mark.
“Where’d you park the Jag?”
“Far corner of the overflow car park away from prying eyes.”
“Good. So Roz and Ali won’t see it. I’ll call Ben and make sure he doesn’t bring them in through the pub and we’ll be laughing.”
I picked up the phone and it pinged before I had chance to make my call. It was Ben.
“Two sleepy people packed into their car seats. We should be home in about thirty minutes.”
“Will you take them straight indoors. I’m a bit hung up with paperwork, but Ellen is there to do bedtime and sit with them until we finish up here.”
“Okay. Can do. I’m putting the phone on speaker now. Say goodnight to mummy, girls. She’s in the office doing busy things, so Ellen is going to put you to bed and read your story tonight.”
“Goodnight mummy.” Two sleepy voices chorused.
“Goodnight my loves.”
Ben ended the call and Mark grinned at me. “Those girls.”
“Haven’t you got enough girls of your own?” Sian giggled.
“You can never have too many girls in your life.” Then he actually blushed. “There may be another one soon. Debs is pregnant. But we have chosen not to be told the gender.”
Both Sian and I hugged him.
“What will Debs say when she finds out you told us?” I teased.
He smiled widely. “It’s okay. I had permission. We called Hannah, last night and told Morgan this afternoon. Other family is allowed now.”
“How did your daughters react?” I asked, knowing how well he and Debs had melded their two families, but also knowing what different characters his Hannah and her Morgan were.
“About how you would expect as you know them well. Hannah laughed until I thought she was going to cry before dropping a bomb on my feet, and Morgan hugged us for all she was worth while she tried not to cry.”
“What was Hannah’s bomb?” It was Sian who asked.
“She and Thomas are trying for a baby themselves. She thought it might have been funny if I had a grandchild older than my youngest child. Debs laughed at my expression, before reminding me that we want more than one between us so it could still be true. The women in my life do have a way of putting me in my place.”
Sian snorted derisively. “Oh yeah. I bet they don’t even dent the machismo.”
I decided to put my foot down before Mark could retort. “You can both behave. Sian stop being cheeky, and Mark please remember that it ill-behoves the Managing Director of Brown Brothers to get into a brangling match with a cocky teenager.”
They both threw me mocking salutes, but they shut up.
I went to the bar and refreshed my sadly warm and flat drink, returning with a coke for Sian, an alcohol-free lager for Mark and beer nuts for us all. Sian applied herself to the creation of a video. We chatted quietly and by the time I heard Ben’s familiar tread Sian was ready to finish her handiwork. Ben came into the office walking very quietly.
“Bloody woman,” he grumbled.
“You shouldn’t be talking about Joss like that.”
Sian’s cheekiness stopped him in his tracks and he slapped his forehead with the flat of his hand.
“You’re dead right there.”
He crossed the room in two strides, wrapping me in his arms and kissing me lightly but with a punch of sensuality.
“What’s pissed on your strawberries marito mio?”
“That bloody bitch. Seems like she makes a career out of stiffing people, and then her back-up boys move in for a bit of extortion and intimidation. The constabulary has had her in their hands several times, but every time the complaint gets dropped and they have to let her go.”
“And we know this because?”
“Because a detective sergeant of our acquaintance was at the drive-through when this arrest occurred. He was rather pleased to think this one might even stick.”
“Oh it will. The burger people aren’t the sort to back down.”
Mark nodded. “But she’ll only get a slapped wrist.”
“Which’ll be better than nothing.”
“And it’ll give her a record,” Mark said with false mildness.
“Good,” Sian bit the word off. “Have you got anything Benny?”
“Yep. Will I Air Drop it to you?”
“Please.”
By the grin on Sian’s face when she looked at what Ben sent, it was precisely what she wanted. Ten minutes later she sat back and flexed her fingers.
“I think that does it. You wanna watch?”
The video lasted approximately ninety seconds, and it cleverly spotlighted what a nasty piece of work we were dealing with, whilst making her look a complete idiot.
Mark grinned. “I particularly like the screaming and swearing.”
“Me too. And it’s all kosher. I think Morgan should see it before I set it running.”
“Good thinking.”
Another ten minutes saw Morgan’s enthusiastic endorsement and Sian outlined her plan of action. It seemed good, and we all nodded, with Mark adding an offer to post on a website set up to allow private security companies to identify idiots. Sian showed him her teeth in a wicked grin.
“Five, four, three, two, one. Boom! Operation ‘don’t fuck with my friends’ is go.”
“Sian. Mind your language please. I don’t want your mum after my blood,” Mark said.
A thought struck me and I waved my hands for attention .
“Sian. Have you ever heard of a website called FAFO?”
Mark and Ben looked bemused, but Sian nodded delightedly.
“Moratorium on language?” she asked.
“While you explain.” That was Stella’s voice from the open door.
“Fuck Around and Find Out is a website where people post clips of eejits getting their comeuppance.”
“Can we post there?”
“If we sign up.”
“Let me do that,” Mark said. “Or, rather, will you do it for me? Because I’m fairly sure even the dimmest muscle will be bright enough not to get on the wrong side of Brown Brothers.”
So it was that a video of a very unpleasant woman went viral and the rest of us went about our business.

There will be more from Joss, Ben and their friends, courtesy of Jane Jago, next week, or you can catch up with their earlier adventures in Who Put Her In and Who Pulled Her Out.