I hope you have enjoyed the story of Josh and Katrina, and all the people that got entangled around their tale of love.
All the towns named in this tale are actual places that can be found around Britain, and who knows, maybe some of the people are real too.
*
Laughing at the toast John had just made, Josh looked across at Kat. She looked so beautiful, her long black hair up in a French twist, the soft cream dress off setting her lovely clear skin, the bouquet of white and red roses laying on the pub table, matching the white rose in his jacket lapel.
It had been three months since the trial, and since then so much had happened. Good things.
He and Katrina had been living together; getting to know each other, learning what each other was really like. At night he was there to hold her when she had her nightmares. Bad dreams that sometimes took her back to the time with Alexei, but these were getting fewer and the work with the rape councillor was helping her to come to terms with her past.
She had started work recently as a receptionist for Chris Gerard at his Solicitors office, who was sitting laughing along with the others in the pub were it all started. It was where he and Kat had met almost a year ago when she was running from Konstantin and the men, bumping into him, knocking him over and changing his life, and where they were holding their wedding lunch.
John sat down, his toast over and the small group of friends called for a speech from the Groom. The small ceremony at the Registry Office in Newark had been low key, with John, Chris and his wife, Phil Amery and his, John's cousin, and Kats Counsellor attending. People they trusted, and who had been there when they were needed, at a time in their lives when good people who took risks to help two lost souls to come through and survive.
Clearing his throat, Josh stood up and stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets, his tie was pulled loose, his shirt collar undone, his short hair as usual slightly messy, his face flushed with a little too much beer and pleasure. Kat smiled to herself, so proud of her new husband, thinking to herself that he was just the nicest man she had ever met, and that she was the happiest woman alive.
"Unaccustomed as I am to making a speech, I will keep this short and sweet." Turning and looking down towards Kat sitting next to him he stopped for a short pause, "Kat and I consider ourselves the luckiest people in the world. We have you all to thank for so much." Looking around at each of the faces around the table in the pub, the remains of the wedding meal on the polished surface along with the half drunk glasses of beer and wine he continued, "Each of you were there when we needed you, each of you have helped us without a second thought, without asking for anything in return, and with amazing courage, and for this we thank you, and count you as our closest friends." Picking up his pint he watched as Kat stood, holding her glass of wine up, and he said, "To the best of friends and the best of times."
"Hear, hear." John's cousin shouted before he drank down the rest of his glass of red wine, his podgy cheeks flushed crimson, his grey hair standing on end, the bottle of wine sitting almost empty in front of him.
Sitting down Josh placed his arm around his wife's shoulder, kissing her ear and whispering, "Have I told you how beautiful you look?"
Placing her hand on his thigh, she smiled at him, "Yes, only a hundred times today."
"Kat, you know I'm the luckiest man in the world. I love you, and I promise to make you happy and look after you for the rest of your life."
Leaning over she placed a kiss on his lips, "I know, my brave hero, I love you too."
*
Konstantin sat in his cell, his large frame dwarfing the small space, contemplating his future. Twelve years. They had given him twelve years, medium security. His solicitor explained that with good behaviour and the way that the British system worked that meant he would be out in six, and with time served, five and a half.
Not too bad. He could survive that, and he had already been approached by the top dog in here to join his team as a bodyguard. The man was a famous drug dealer doing a long stretch of twenty, and needed protection from some of the hard nuts who fancied themselves. Well he could make some good connections in here ready for when he finally got out.
And when he got out he was going to find that little bitch that testified at his trial and finish what he had been sent out by Alexei to do.
Let her enjoy her next six years, but when he was out he was going to get her and show her that he, Konstantin Ballinovitch never forgot or forgave.
*
The young Polish girl sat rocking in the chair as she stared out the large window at the lawn outside, the high wall in the distance that surrounded the large building was topped with barbed wire, and the windows had grills on the outside, but she didn't see any of this. Lost inside her own mind she rocked, her arms wrapped around her small frame, her lank brown hair unbrushed and dull, her clothes drab and hanging off her, uncaring.
The nurse watched as she moved back and forth in the chair, lost inside herself, her mind and spirit crushed by those five days of captivity, pain and fear. Unable to move forward with her life, she sat in the day ward of the Home for the Criminally Insane, a murderer as well as a victim, trapped in a twilight world.
*
At the bar, John leant waiting to be served, buying the next round. The insurance had finally been paid out on the arson attack of his home and business, and the job that Phil Amery had managed to put him and Josh forward for with Pat Cleary and the OSCE had started last month. It was work he enjoyed and felt that he would make a difference helping others, interesting and enjoyable, and working with Josh, both of them getting back their self respect and rebuilding their lives. Happy for his friend and the way things were turning out he looked around at the newly married couple as they sat, Josh's arm protectively around his new wife's shoulders, a big smile on the grooms face as Chris was telling everyone a story about one of his clients. It was about a transvestite who had been arrested shoplifting who was claiming wrongful identification whilst wearing a tight short dress, high heels and cheap blond wig and at six foot five and built like a brickhouse wall, wrongful identification was highly unlikely.
Suddenly he felt someone slide in next to him at the bar, and turning to see who it was he was greeted by a shy smile from Kats rape councillor, a woman of about thirty five with short red hair, freckles and light blue eyes.
"Hi."
"Hi, enjoying yourself?"
"Yes, it's so satisfying to see one of my ladies getting on and enjoying their lives."
"I didn't catch your name?"
"Tracy. Tracy Ross."
