LADY ANN'S FOLLY: Chapter Six - Part Two

Hattie walked back inside through the kitchen and further through the servant areas until she reached the main hall.

There she stopped, her movement failing without decision, her thoughts stealing the momentum to fuel themselves. But even her thoughts were weak and scattered. She remained there for a long time, her brain ticking at a low level, in a state not far from dreaming.

Then she reached into the fold of her dress where she had secreted the pendant in its handkerchief wrapping and lifted it up. She folded back the layers of curled fabric until the trinket itself was visible. It was a delicate little thing with its intricately spiralling gold setting, a feminine counterpoint to the carved pebble that formed the main teardrop section of the necklace.

Hattie raised her other hand to touch it but stopped herself before she made contact, asking herself three words in sudden flutter of fear-tinged emotion.

Do I believe?

Did she really believe it possessed magical properties? That it could exchange the life of one person for another?

Was Mavis, the local barmaid, really in possession of her sister’s body?

Was Ann trapped in the body of Mavis?

Was that even Ann? Or was it Burt? Was her real sister nothing more now than the bumbling idiot stable hand who mucked out the horses and dug ditches; who fed the pigs and did manual labour all across the estate?

Yes. Hattie did believe all those things, despite all her twenty years of mundane life. She believed it all. And that meant that she possessed the power now. Only she could choose to release the others from their fleshly prisons and she could choose to transform others… or even herself.

It was idiotic to consider such a thing, bearing in mind the fate of her sister, but the very idea of governing such enchantment and not using it seemed equally preposterous.

How would it feel… to become another person? In a mirror it would be their face looking back at her instead of her own. She would have their name; their voice. She would be treated by all as though she were really them.

Idiotic, yes; but also incredibly delightful. The most spectacular adventure.

But she wasn’t a fool. Oh no. Not like Ann. Ann had always been the impulsive one. She had been the planner. She didn’t do anything lightly. And this pendant would give her the power to really change things around.

She grinned and went closer with her other hand to touch it. Still she refrained, afraid that it would affect her somehow. Could the charm transform her if someone else wasn’t present? She didn’t think so.

It was exciting to think that she didn’t really know its limitations but might recklessly touch it anyway. But she calmed herself. She wasn’t her sister. She wasn’t impulsive.

She lowered her fingers to it and touched the cool stone, half expecting some bright light or electrical charge, some blinding insight. But there was nothing. Or perhaps… a brief subtle tingle. Nothing more. It was… disappointing.

She took it in her hand properly and examined it from all sides. What had Mavis said? That it required to be touched by two people at the same time for an exchange of bodies to occur.

Two people…

But what two people? And would she dare to involve herself in a trade?

And how would she protect herself from losing control as the other practitioners had?

Hattie sat on the bottom of the stairs and propped her cheeks on her fists, the pendant dangling from her right hand.

Such incredible power and now she suddenly found herself in possession of it, she really wasn’t sure what to do – how to use it – who to use it on. But what she did know was that she was tired of the abuse she’d suffered for so long as the youngest daughter of the Neville family. She had been mistreated her whole life by her sister; by her mother and father. It had been far worse since the debacle with Burt’s trial but really her life had been awful for as long as she could remember and she was tired of it.

After being disrespected for so long; dismissed on a daily basis by everyone around her; she was determined to finally do something to get the respect she deserved.

And the people who had made her feel this way deserved to be punished too. She was glad that Ann was trapped as Mavis… or Burt – whoever she was now. She could stay that way for another day or two at least until she’d well and truly learned her lesson.

Hattie was angry and sullen; vindictive, yes; but she wasn’t wicked. She had no intention of trapping anyone in her family in another life forever. She wasn’t crazed. But for a while? Until they had well and truly learned their lesson? That was something she was coming round to seeing as the perfect solution for her lifetime of resentment.

Yes.

She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do or how she was going to do it, but she did know exactly who she wasn’t to pay for their crimes. All she had to do now was watch and wait until an opportunity presented itself and inspiration struck. When that time came, she was going to take full advantage of it and enjoy every single minute of her revenge.