LADY ANN'S FOLLY: Chapter Twelve - Part Five

When the coaches returned from the picnic, Nellie did not go inside Griply Hall with the others.

She was feeling more and more uncomfortable in this charade she was playing, but not because she didn’t like pretending she was Lady Harriet, a member of the quality. No. Being a beautiful titled lady was everything she had ever dreamed of when she was growing up; an impossible dream to be certain.

She had known her looks weren’t up to much before; though certain boys didn’t seem to mind (not that she ever gave them a chance to get up to no good). And her prospects had been minimal at best. Becoming Lady Harriet was an extraordinary dreamlike opportunity.

What she couldn’t stand though was the indetermination. She had no true sense of when this was going to end who how much trouble she might get into if she said and did the things she wanted to do to explore this exciting life she had borrowed. So far she had done little more than hang around quietly feeling totally unsure of herself. She wished she knew exactly how long it was going to go on for so that she could relax and enjoy the time she had.

She walked down the drive a ways and paused in a gap in the hedge, looking out across the fields. The hills rose up to the ridgeline, at the other side of which lay Blacklake where the Earl and Countess’s relatives came from.

She couldn’t have more than another day – she was sure of that – and she was wasting it with all this indecision.

Nellie came to a decision.

She was going to try and make the most of the time she had left in this body. She would kick herself for the rest of her days if she didn’t explore it as much as she could. It would be a terribly wasted opportunity.

She just wished she wasn’t so shy; so afraid to speak up.

It was still hard for her to understand why the real Lady Harriet was doing what she was doing. And she was so convincing as her father! No one could tell that she was really a young woman. She was able to act and sound exactly like a middle aged gentleman. It gave Nellie a little more confidence to think about it. Perhaps with effort she could be as convincing herself.

She wondered if she should approach the Earl; the real Hattie; and ask him what his plans were. But then she didn’t want to pre-empt things and speed up the process of return. She wanted to stay this way as long as she could.

“Pssssst.”

Nellie frowned, looking round. She was sure she heard—

“Pssssst.”

There! She did. She headed toward the sound and was perplexed to see a buxom young woman crouching in the bushes a little further down the path. It was a girl she didn’t recognise but she could tell her class instantly. She was from Griply village. She wasn’t even good enough to be serving staff.

“Hattie,” whispered the girl.

Nellie went a little closer.

Ann shuffled to the edge of her bush, conscious of how ridiculous she looked hunched there, clothed in Mavis’s flesh. “Don’t call the servants. Please.” She said. “I’m begging you.”

Nellie wavered ,unsure whether to hastily withdraw. She reminded herself that she was quality for now, higher in rank than this unseemly girl. She shouldn’t be intimidated by her. “What do you want?” she said.

Ann crept closer. “I know you know about the pendant,” she said.

Nellie’s eyes widened. Could she mean the magical necklace that had allowed the exchange of physical attributes?

“And so you must know that I’m really your sister, Ann.”

Nellie’s mouth fell open slightly. She put her hand to her chest. She couldn’t imagine what to respond. There was nothing of Lady Ann in this dirty girl. Could it even be possible that they had changed places too?

“Mavis has stolen my body. She’s trapped me like this. And now she’s left town on the train. I’m stuck as a barmaid. I hate it. You have to help me Hattie. You have to give me the pendant back.” Ann’s eyes were moistening. She felt so desperate. But at least her sister’s face seemed incredulous rather than conniving. She had worried this was more of her sister’s mischief; that it had been planned somehow. “I know I haven’t always been a good sister,” she continued, “but I do care a lot about you. I’m sorry if I’ve upset you in the past. I just want my body back. I know you have the pendant. Please give it to me.”

Nellie regarded the girl , trying to decide what to do.

If this really was Lady Ann in disguise then there was every chance she would cause trouble until she got her way and got her body back. Nellie was in no hurry for that to happen. But a solution occurred to her suddenly that seemed so perfectly elegant.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Mavis,” she said, as boldly as she could manage, and in response, her voice clicked into an almost perfect simulacrum of the real Hattie’s. “I have never heard anything so preposterous as what you are saying. Of course you aren’t my sister. Look at you.”

“But I am,” said Ann, stepping forward out of the bushes. “It’s me Hattie, really!”

“Don’t touch me!” said Hattie, “or I’ll call for the servants.”

Ann looked worriedly toward the hall and stepped back into cover. “Please,” she whispered. “I need that pendant. Even if you don’t believe that I’m Ann; please fetch that pendant out for me. You know it’s mine.”

Nellie narrowed her eyes, frankly amazed at how confident she was feeling suddenly, and said, “If you’re referring to the little stone pendant with a gold spiral fitting then you can forget about it. Lady Ann took it with her to Nockton Vale and she won’t be returning for some time.”

Ann gaped at her in disbelief and horror, realising what this meant; how much further she would have changed by the time the false Ann returned with it. She would be Mavis through and through by then and almost certainly identifying fully with who she now was.

It was hopeless. It really was hopeless.

Tears started to stream down her cheeks and she fled, weeping.

Nellie watched her go and then turned back to the hall.

She thought about the lie and where the pendant really was: in the Hattie-Earl’s pocket.

She felt a smidgeon of guilt.

Then she started walking back up the drive.

That girl wasn’t her responsibility. It wasn’t her fault what had happened to her.

Her responsibility was to enjoy this chance she had before it was too late. She had to make the most of being a titled lady before it was cruelly snatched away from her again.