LADY ANN'S FOLLY: Chapter Six - Part Six

Ann stood up in the midst of the bushes at the side of the drive and pushed through, angrily quickly, eager to move fast enough o confront the imposter before anyone else came out of the house. At present only the coach driver was a witness but anyone else could appear at any time.

The moment she hit the surface of the drive, coming fully into view, Mavis saw her and looked in her direction, the smile falling off her face as though it had been slapped off.

“You!” cried Ann. “I want to talk to you!” She hurried round the coach and climbed the steps.

Mavis stepped back with some nervousness. They were both about the same height but Ann was fuller figured now and seeing the movement it suddenly occurred to her that she would likely best the other girl if it came to the point of a physical brawl. The thought should have pleased her but it appalled her instead; proof surely that her lower instincts were shying already toward those of the lower orders.

“What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Ann. “You were supposed to wait in the holiday cottage!”

“Hattie found me,” replied Mavis. “What was I supposed to do? I had to go along with her and pretend I was really you.”

This tore some of the momentum away from Ann and she faltered. “Really? She believed you – even though you were tied up?”

“Of course,” said Mavis. “I’ve always been able to lie my way out’ve anything.”

Ann scrutinised her suspiciously, unsure if she were lying now. Mavis’s accent was still laced with Yorkshire but it was clear some changes had already occurred, just as they had by now in the original switch. If anything those changes seemed a little further along than they had then and the fact of that sickened Ann.

“Well,” she said. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now. As long as Hattie doesn’t suspect then we’re okay. She got the pendant off me earlier but she can’t know what it does. All you have to do is go in there and ask her for it. Then come out and find me and we can change back. I could meet you in the holiday cottage again.”

Mavis didn’t reply right away and the silence between them deepened. As it did so, the anxiety Ann had felt in the bushes came seeping back, scratching up her neck and into her head.

“You’ll still get the money I promised you,” she added hastily. “And more.” Another silence. “Much more. I can make you a rich woman. You could buy your own pub rather than working in one for your father.”

“Really?” asked Mavis.

“Yes. Of course. I could see to it that you’d never want for anything again. I give my word. Only… change us back… please.”

It was only a little word, please, but as it slipped from her lips, Ann got a sudden and complete realisation of how little power she now possessed. How craven that word seemed; how much like a beg.

And in the silence that followed a change came over Mavis’s expression behind her Ann-eyes as she clearly recognised the colossal shift in power and status for herself.

The disquiet flared in Ann’s heart, becoming an icy fire that chilled every limb from the centre outwards.

And Mavis slowly smiled, the smile becoming so broad that it distorted her features maliciously, altering her mien until it was almost diabolical. “So, just to be certain I understand,” she said. “You’d like me to give up the life of a beautiful and rich heiress who’s about to marry one of the richest men in Great Britain, to become a peasant girl… who you’ll pay off with trinkets you can afford to throw away. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Please,” uttered Ann again, knowing it now for the beg that it was. “Please Mavis. I’ll do anything; give anything. Please.”

Mavis sneered at her. “Call me Ann.”

“What?”

“Call me Ann if you want to persuade me to produce the magical pendant.” 

Ann shuddered, shaking her head.

“Well you can’t be that desperate then, can you,” said Mavis.

“Please… Ann…”

“Lady Ann,” interjected Mavis with a chuckle.

Ann swallowed. “Lady Ann… Please trade places with me again. I’ll give you anything you want.”

Mavis laughed. “I already have everything I want you stupid girl. Don’t you know that?” She let out a long and nasty cackle incongruous with her new shape. “Don’t you know that I’ll never give this life up now that I’ve got it? Never!”

Ann’s head felt like it might split open, such was the pressure closing in on her from all sides. “No,” she cried. “You’ve got to. Please! For God’s sake!”

“You wasted your chance when you had it,” said Mavis. “You had all this and you threw it away, just for the chance for sex with Burt! I never heard of anything so stupid in all my born days. And you really think I’d go back? That’s the height of stupidity! I’ll never ever go back and there’s nothing you can do to make me.”

Ann stared back at this nasty girl, corrupting her lovely face with its tawdry selfishness and spite and her hands closed again into fists. A sudden palpable hatred swelled up and overcame her, knocking her rigid. Then an impulse followed it for action and she stepped forward abruptly, eyes glazing over with fury.

“What the devil’s going on out here?”

Both Ann and Mavis stopped what they were doing and looked toward the voice and Ann’s mouth fell agape as she saw her fiancé, Richard, standing in the open doorway to Griply Hall, his came gripped firmly in hand.