The former maid, Nellie Barrow, opened her eyes knowing
exactly who she was now and exactly what had happened to her over the past
thirty six hours.
It was impossible not to know. Everything felt different from
the life of poverty she had lived for all her born days, from the differing feel
to her new body; that of the beautiful lady Harriet Neville, younger daughter
to the Earl to the silken sheets surrounding her on the bed.
She hadn’t been deeply asleep. She had been rising up from
deep dreams to wakefulness, and the closer she had come to it, the more real
those dreams had become, the closer to directed thought. Until they had come
together into a pinpoint focus that mirrored the framework they had found themselves
in as she drifted off the night before, lying in this exact position.
That was why she was gazing now still at the little
partially hidden grille beside the tall chest of drawers there. She lay still,
watching it without movement, thinking about what was hidden inside and the terrible
potential it held then gave a quick nervous glace toward the bedroom door as someone
might march in at any second and take back what was concealed.
Surely that was possible. This was the real Lady Harriet’s
bedroom, and though she was presently ensconced within her own father’s body,
that wouldn’t stop her entering if she wished to. On the contrary, She seemed
to be enjoying his greater authority immensely. She was more likely, if
anything, to throw her weight around now.
Nellie had formulated the beginnings of her plan last night
as she fell asleep and allowing Hattie to regain control over what was in there
would ruin everything.
Feeling suddenly extremely ill-at-ease and panicked, she
scrambled out of bed and went down on her knees in front of the grille. She
looked again toward the door.
When would Hattie come to retrieve it? Had she already
considered the risk of leaving it here? Perhaps she had dwelled overnight on
the fact that she had let slip its location to Nellie. Perhaps she would arrive
at any second to take it back.
Nellie’s breathing became elevated.
She questioned herself. Did she still plan to go through
with her scheme? Did she dare? What of the repercussions when she was
inevitably found out? Because she would be. That was all part of it. Being
caught was unavoidable. She could only hope to weather out the following storm.
She opened the grille and reached tentatively in; retrieving
the jewellery box that Hattie had hidden there sometime the day before. She
cracked it open, eyes glittering like a greedy Egyptologist explorer breaking
open one of the ancient tombs.
Just as she’d left it, the powerful pendant that had
effected every magical exchange of identity lay there, ready to do it all
again, or to wreck even further havoc.
It was a fiendish device. Surely it had to be. It had caused
nothing but chaos so far. Nellie felt guilty at the idea of stealing away control
of the thing from its previous owner but on the other hand... on the other
hand, she would be protecting them from potentially worse things to come.
Yes. That was the way she saw it. It was too dangerous an
item to be left in play. It needed to be taken away and given to someone who
could be trusted to keep it safe; to stop it doing further damage.
It was a weak justification that favoured Nellie in its
entirety, but she didn’t allow herself to consider it deeply enough to notice
how self-centred she was being. Nellie, like most every human being, liked to
think of herself as a good person. More than many, she perceived herself as
God-fearing and pious. Having said that, this was just too big an opportunity
to pass up. She couldn’t bear the thought of going back to her life as a maid
or the worse one she had had before that. Becoming Lady Harriet was the best
thing that had ever happened to her. She had to cling on to that and fight to
keep it, no matter the consequences when her scheme was exposed.
The real Lady Hattie, in the Earl’s body, was planning to swap
everybody back that night so she had that much time at least, and that gave her
plenty of time to dispose of the pendant.
She closed up the jewellery box and got back to her feet
with it in her hand.
One things was clear was that she couldn’t leave it here.
She had to carry it with her from now on until she could pass it along to the
right person. If the real Hattie came in to look for it before then then she would
simply have to deal with it. It was better still to have it on her even then.
She went to the wardrobe and opened it up, wondering what to
wear, then paused and smiled to herself. Instead, she went over to the bell
pull and rang it.
Why have a dog and
bark yourself? she thought to herself.
Lady Harriet had a lady’s maid to help her dress. She was
Lady Harriet now. That meant she had the maid.
She grinned, really enjoying the moment.
The more she thought about that, the more she knew she was
doing the right thing. She had to hold on to this new body no matter what, even
if it meant that everyone who had swapped so far got stuck the way they were
forever.
