Lady Ann's Folly: Chapter Three - Part Two

Burt wasn’t inside the stable or anywhere nearby. Mavis hunted round for him, checking the barn. She walked as far as the gate at the end of the path that led onto the open fields, all the while experiencing a low level of anxiety that at any moment she might be ‘caught’ – exposed for who she really was or worse, trapped somehow in this lower class existence forever. The longer it went on, the more sure she was that she’d made a mistake.

“Oh, where is that idiot? Why the ‘ell can’t I find him?”

She frowned, instantly alarmed to hear what she’d said.

“Why the hell can’t I...”

She shook her head. Maybe she had been mistaken but she was sure she’d caught a slight accent to her speech then. The change in diction was an inevitable part of the change but extremely unsettling, considering the eventual impact of the last transformation.

She put her mind back to that first night she’d spent as Ann. The first sign of an accent change had been during dinner – not long after the switch. By the following morning she had been able to effect the speech completely with some concentration. And she’d been able to write perfectly. The education had been subsumed by then. Though perhaps that had been an immediate thing. She had not been called upon to write until the next morning. Perhaps that talent was part of the transformation her brain underwent. Perhaps she already had only the education of an ignorant country girl.

Mavis shuddered. That was it. She’d had more than enough. She couldn’t stand the tension anymore. She turned back down the path and hurried toward the holiday cottage. The sooner she was back in her proper body, the better.

She passed back under the shade of the trees and quickly reached the side path that led to the cottage’s door. But as she started down it she caught a glimpse of some movement down by the stable that made her pause. She stepped back and looked again.

A moment later, Burt came into view from inside the building, carrying a sack of grain. Mavis watched him heft it up onto his shoulder without any trouble. Her sleeves were rolled up past his elbows and she found herself gazing in admiration at him, and his words from the riverside the day before came back to her.

“I love ye more deeply than you could ever know. I love ye inside and out. I know ow frustrated and trapped ye feel and ow much you want passion and excitement; because I used to be you. And I could give you that passion. You know that, don’t ye?”

She did know that. She knew it keenly. And she did want him. She wanted him so badly.

She looked one more time at the door to the holiday cottage, then she started down toward him.

Burt disappeared round the back of the stable before she was half way there but she didn’t stop walking. She reached where he’d been standing moments earlier and passed round the corner. He still wasn’t visible. Mavis went on following him, coming round behind the stable to where the pig pen was.

Burt was in there, ankle deep in mud, tipping the food in the pig’s long trough while they shuffled about his legs, desperate to get their share. He chuckled to himself to watch them and this brought a smile to Mavis’s lips.

At any moment he would look up and see her and she felt a dreadful panic that he would see through her disguise. She was mortified to imagine how superior he would feel to discover her debasing herself to his level, just to satisfy her sexual urges. Her accent was sure to give her away.

I’m Mavis, she said to herself. I’m Mavis. I’m Mavis. I’m Mavis!

And as she thought it she felt the gentle golden buzzing in the back of her skull that imbued her with confidence.

“Eh up Burt,” she said, and smiled to hear a fairly decent approximation of the correct accent issue forth.

Burt looked round, startled, and their eyes met. It was the first time that they had ever looked at one another while sharing the same step on the social scale and Ann found it profoundly affecting. Burt didn’t know who she really was, obviously. He just saw the was there, registered surprise and then smiled; but she was suddenly really caught in the moment. She was suddenly really playing the part of Mavis. She really was Mavis now as far as he was concerned and knowing that sent a shiver of pleasure down her spine and gently warmed her mind.

“Eh oop our lass,” he replied. “Wot you doin up ere?”

“Er... I wanted to...” She paused. The accent still wasn’t right. She could only hope to speak as little as possible. I’m Mavis Gibbs. I’m the barmaid at the Dog & Pony. Burt is my man. “I wanted a shag, didn’t I?

Burt grinned. “By gum I ain’t sure about that, grand though it’d be. It’s hours off close of day. What if I get caught? This job means the world to me.”

Mavis almost giggled to think that this clodhopper before her had been Lady Ann before her but instead she said, “Go on Burt. Harry isn’t... He ain’t here. We can be done in a... in a jiffy.”

Burt looked about then gave another grin and finished tipping out the sack into the pig trough. “Ahright then. I’m game if you are. Let’s get up there and rut like animals.”

Mavis grinned back at him, all fear and doubt erased from her mind.

This was exactly what she’d wanted. Her dream was about to come true.