University. Her mother Cynara is a barrister in the
high-profile Human Rights’ chambers of WVB (Wright, Varnes, Bovis). Her father is Jesper Olsson, a big wheel in the museum
world and a specialist in Bronze Age artefacts. Lola complains he has Asperger’s and lacks any capacity for human affection.
Not that it matters much, she will add, since he has deserted her and gone to live in Dubai, leaving the matrimonial bed available
for filling by D’Dora.
It was shortly after Jesper’s departure that Lola failed to turn up to her A-level exams, and so lost her university place.
She could have pleaded illness or stress, but chose not to. She had, she said, discovered that her mother was only waiting
for her to go off to university before her lesbian lover moved in. So she would not go. She was as open about her motives
to her family, teachers, counsellors, interested journalists, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as Scarlet was in discussing with
Louis her motives for marrying him.
‘I see no reason to keep your affair with D’Dora secret,’ she told her mother, when the latter pleaded for privacy. ‘Why,
are you ashamed of being a lesbian? Surely not.’ To which of course there could be no answer. Other than: ‘Why do you suddenly
hate me?’To which Lola, being Lola, replied, ‘Because you are hateful to me.’
A year previously D’Dora Jones, founder of the Lesbian and Gay Sorority, or LGS, a person then unknown to Cynara, had sued
her employers, Pinfold & Daughters, for unfair dismissal, alleging sexual harassment. WVB had taken on the case. P&D manufactured
mountaineering equipment. Its CEO, Allegra Pinfold, alleged incompetence and deliberate absenteeism. D’Dora became headline
news when she said she’d been fired, not for these two failings, which she freely admitted, but claimed they were the result
of Allegra’s sexual advances. Allegra Pinfold counter-claimed that she had been the seduced, not the seducer. D’Dora, thanks
to Cynara’s skilful defence, won, and was awarded half a million pounds in damages.
When the litigants left the Royal Courts of Justice after the verdict, Allegra physically attacked Cynara on the steps, shrieking
that it was a dyke-ist set-up, and that Cynara and D’Dora were in a relationship, which was not initially the case, though
during the four weeks of the court case it had become one. The attack had ended up on YouTube. The media furore had sent the
hits on Cynara’s blog off the scale, greatly increased the number of her WVB clients, firmed up Jesper’s decision to take
an offered Dubai job, and attracted journalists to Lola’s school the week she was due to take her A-levels.
‘Yes, and the dog ate her homework,’ said D’Dora, cuddling Cynara to comfort her, when she brought home the news of her daughter’s
rebellion. ‘More excuses. She spent too much time on computer games and not enough on revision; the reason she didn’t sit
her exams was because she knew she’d fail. Nothing to do with you and me.’
Lola spent a week with friends and came back with large black pupils and hollow eyes and the announcement that she had been
taking hard drugs but what did her mother care?
‘So what are you going to do with your life, Lola?’ asked Cynara, distraught. ‘What about your exams, law school, your future?’
‘You should have thought of that,’ said Lola, ‘before getting rid of my father. I’m getting out of here and you can’t stop
me. I can use my own money.’
And it seemed that she had just handed it all over – some £2,000 accumulated in dribs and drabs since birth – to a charity
called Help the Harmed, which dispatched young people to crisis points worldwide, where they could make a difference. The
charity had booked her up for a three-month stint in Haiti at a Christian camp well away from any voodoo centres, and now
she was waiting for the ticket to arrive. Cynara needn’t worry to look
high-profile Human Rights’ chambers of WVB (Wright, Varnes, Bovis). Her father is Jesper Olsson, a big wheel in the museum
world and a specialist in Bronze Age artefacts. Lola complains he has Asperger’s and lacks any capacity for human affection.
Not that it matters much, she will add, since he has deserted her and gone to live in Dubai, leaving the matrimonial bed available
for filling by D’Dora.
It was shortly after Jesper’s departure that Lola failed to turn up to her A-level exams, and so lost her university place.
She could have pleaded illness or stress, but chose not to. She had, she said, discovered that her mother was only waiting
for her to go off to university before her lesbian lover moved in. So she would not go. She was as open about her motives
to her family, teachers, counsellors, interested journalists, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as Scarlet was in discussing with
Louis her motives for marrying him.
‘I see no reason to keep your affair with D’Dora secret,’ she told her mother, when the latter pleaded for privacy. ‘Why,
are you ashamed of being a lesbian? Surely not.’ To which of course there could be no answer. Other than: ‘Why do you suddenly
hate me?’To which Lola, being Lola, replied, ‘Because you are hateful to me.’
A year previously D’Dora Jones, founder of the Lesbian and Gay Sorority, or LGS, a person then unknown to Cynara, had sued
her employers, Pinfold & Daughters, for unfair dismissal, alleging sexual harassment. WVB had taken on the case. P&D manufactured
mountaineering equipment. Its CEO, Allegra Pinfold, alleged incompetence and deliberate absenteeism. D’Dora became headline
news when she said she’d been fired, not for these two failings, which she freely admitted, but claimed they were the result
of Allegra’s sexual advances. Allegra Pinfold counter-claimed that she had been the seduced, not the seducer. D’Dora, thanks
to Cynara’s skilful defence, won, and was awarded half a million pounds in damages.
When the litigants left the Royal Courts of Justice after the verdict, Allegra physically attacked Cynara on the steps, shrieking
that it was a dyke-ist set-up, and that Cynara and D’Dora were in a relationship, which was not initially the case, though
during the four weeks of the court case it had become one. The attack had ended up on YouTube. The media furore had sent the
hits on Cynara’s blog off the scale, greatly increased the number of her WVB clients, firmed up Jesper’s decision to take
an offered Dubai job, and attracted journalists to Lola’s school the week she was due to take her A-levels.
‘Yes, and the dog ate her homework,’ said D’Dora, cuddling Cynara to comfort her, when she brought home the news of her daughter’s
rebellion. ‘More excuses. She spent too much time on computer games and not enough on revision; the reason she didn’t sit
her exams was because she knew she’d fail. Nothing to do with you and me.’
Lola spent a week with friends and came back with large black pupils and hollow eyes and the announcement that she had been
taking hard drugs but what did her mother care?
‘So what are you going to do with your life, Lola?’ asked Cynara, distraught. ‘What about your exams, law school, your future?’
‘You should have thought of that,’ said Lola, ‘before getting rid of my father. I’m getting out of here and you can’t stop
me. I can use my own money.’
And it seemed that she had just handed it all over – some £2,000 accumulated in dribs and drabs since birth – to a charity
called Help the Harmed, which dispatched young people to crisis points worldwide, where they could make a difference. The
charity had booked her up for a three-month stint in Haiti at a Christian camp well away from any voodoo centres, and now
she was waiting for the ticket to arrive. Cynara needn’t worry to look
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