I woke suddenly…something wet was on my face...I screamed! I brushed the wet thing off of my face and could see Petra standing there, giggling. ‘Petra!’ that’s not funny; it’s not nice to put a cold wet flannel on someone’s face!’   Orphan 25 by Susan Brown

 

Previously...

‘Both Bob and I will make sure that no harm comes to you and if you have any worries at the Home or at school, I want you to promise to come and see us; we are on your side; okay?’

I just nodded. I could feel the truth of what she said in her voice; it was comforting and reassuring and it made me feel a lot better.

‘Right; off to sleep, missy and I’ll see you in the morning.’

She gave me a kiss and settled me down in the bed.

As I cuddled Teddy and felt Sally gently stroke my hair, my eyes began to droop and then shut.

‘Goodnight, love.’

‘Night…Mummy.’

I could hear a small sob as the door shut quietly behind me and it wasn’t until the next day that I realised what I had said.

And now, on with the story…

I woke suddenly…something wet was on my face..I screamed!

I brushed the wet thing off of my face and could see Petra standing there, giggling.

‘Petra!’ that’s not funny; it’s not nice to put a cold wet flannel on someone’s face!’

‘Sorry, I couldn’t help it.’ laughed Petra.

‘Right, just you wait, I’ll get back at you when you least expect it!’

I couldn’t stay serious for long and before we knew it, we were having a pillow fight. Pillows were flying everywhere and it was lucky that Teddy was under the cover as she might have been thrown about too!

‘GIRLS!’

We stopped mid throw and slowly turned around. There was Petra’s mum- Sally standing there, a twin in each arm and looking a bit annoyed.

‘You’ve woken up the twins now. If you want to go riding, I suggest you quieten down and get ready. Oh by the way, in thirty minute’s time, the twins will need feeding and you two will be doing the honours.’

Thirty-five minutes later, a chastened Petra and I were sitting in the kitchen wearing aprons over some riding gear and feeding some unmentionable gloopy stuff to two noisy children.

Approximately fifty percent of the food went into the open mouths of the little angels; the rest was splattered around the kitchen and on our once spotless white aprons.

Mrs Mac was laughing as she made us some porridge; she did not think highly of our feeding skills!

Eventually, nurse came in and rescued us from our torment and we were able to clean ourselves up in the bathroom by the side of the kitchen.

Soon we were tucking into Mrs Mac’s famous porridge. I would like to tell you what it was made of, but I have been sworn to secrecy; but I can tell you that it was great!

After all this excitement, we made our way to the stables. I felt funny wearing the riding gear and the jodhpurs were a bit tight for my liking. The helmet was a tight fit too; perhaps my head was too big!

When we arrived, there were two people, stable girls I think, standing there holding a pair of horses; one I recognised as Suzie, Petra’s horse, the other one looked ginormous and I wondered, with dread if that was my horse.

‘Right Steph,’ said Petra going over to the big horse. ’This is Rainbow, she is a bit big, but she’s as gentle as a lamb.’

‘Hmm.’ I said, not believing a word of it. The beast was huge. I was dwarfed by the humungousness of her. She looked me up and down and I could see that she wasn’t impressed by me.

‘Look Steph, she’s big, I grant you, but she has a sweet temperament and has a heart of gold. Now Sandra and Susan will help you up. You have nothing to worry about.’

Sandra and Susan looked at me without any expression on their faces. Were they hiding something? Was this a killer horse, just waiting to have me on her back before launching off at 110 mph into the far distance and then throwing me off, just for the fun of it? As you can see, my imagination was running wild.

I was given a leg up and in seconds, I was astride the monster. It was a weird feeling being up there, almost in the clouds. It felt like I was on top of a double decker bus, I was so high. Anyway; I was up now and hanging on to the reins rather tightly.

‘See; no problem. Rainbow is a sweetie, isn’t she?’

‘If you say so.’

Rainbow then snorted and I jumped in the saddle. It would be an understatement to say that I was an unhappy bunny. I just wanted to be in a warm dark place away from all this.

‘Don’t be nervous. Sally, walk Rainbow about a bit, would you?’

Sally took the reins from my nerveless fingers and we proceeded to walk around the yard. It was really strange sitting on a horse, feeling my bottom sort of wiggle and bump as she walked around and around. In the end I could see that the horse wasn’t rampant and didn’t want to throw me off. I was reassured by Petra that her slightly slobbering mouth wasn’t a sign of early onset rabies and I gradually, very gradually started to relax and enjoy myself.

Thirty minutes later I found myself following Petra and Suzie on Rainbow. It was true, Rainbow was nice and she didn’t put a foot or is that a hoof, wrong. I was enjoying myself. Admittedly, my bottom was getting a bit sore, but this was a small price to pay for seeing the lovely countryside on the back of a big friendly horse. Teddy, whose head was sticking out of a rucksack on my back, was obviously enjoying things too! All in all, I was glad that I had agreed to do this and I was very pleased with myself.

We went down the side of fields, through some woods, followed a babbling brook and finally turned back towards the house and stables. We spoke about lots of things on that magical journey. It was amazing that all the time we were on Petra’s land; it was all so big. I had to ask…

‘Petra; if your family is so rich, why don’t you go to some horrendously expensive school like other gels?’

‘Gels?’

‘You know…all posh, nose in the air types , dripping with diamonds and stuff like that.’

‘Yuk! No thanks. Mummy and Daddy did say I could go to Rodean, but that would mean living away from home and anyway, our school is top notch.’

‘Oh.’

‘It’s not only that, if I was away, I would miss my family too much. I love them all…even the twins…bless their little cotton socks.’

We arrived at the stable and with some help from the stable girls I managed to get off Rainbow. I went around to the front of the horse.

‘Thank you Rainbow, for the lovely ride.’

She nuzzled up to me and I could see that I had been totally mistaken in my opinion of her; she was a little…sorry, big sweetie!

‘I’ll bring you a lump of sugar or an apple next time.’

I swear that she winked at me!

Petra got off of Suzie and after thanking the stable girls, we walked back…rather stiffly and bow legged on my part to the house.

As we walked in the house, Sally was there.

‘Hello, girls, had a nice ride?’

‘Yes Mummy, it was great.’

‘Thank you for letting me go, Sally.’

‘That’s all right, dear. I hope you can come back lots of times. Now; I remember the first time I went on a horse, I was as stiff as anything. You should go upstairs and get out of your riding gear and have a long soak in the bath.’

‘That sounds great!’ I said with enthusiasm.

As I lay back in the bath; the warm water and bubbles relaxing me and making my aches and pains go away, I reflected on my lovely morning. I could easily get used to all this! Petra had a lovely house and grounds. She was a wonderful person and her parents were so nice. I blushed again at the thought of what I had said last night to Sally. I did hope she wasn’t too upset on my calling her Mummy when I was a bit sleepy! That got me thinking and then I shook my head and thought of other things…

All too soon, the water started to cool and I stated to get a bit wrinkly. I reluctantly got up out of the slightly warm water and grabbed a towel. I pulled the plug out and then dried myself off. Once I was reasonably dry, I went back into my bedroom. I wasn’t sure what to wear and went over to my case. I found a nice white cotton long sleeved blouse and dark blue pleated skirt. After putting on some white cotton panties, I finished dressing and then found my black sandals. In moments I was done. A quick brush of my hair and there I was as pretty as a picture; well I thought so anyway!

I met Petra in the hall.

‘Hi, Steph I was just coming to see if you were ready. Let’s go down to the kitchen and see if we can nab a sandwich.’

‘Yes, I could eat a horse…oops, sorry!’

We looked at each other and just started giggling.

We were still at it as we arrived at the kitchen.

Mrs Mac was there doing something with pastry. She had a smut of flour on her nose and that set us off again.

She just shook her head and mumbled something about ‘silly girls’ and carried on.

We found some sandwiches on a table by the side and we picked some up, put them on a plate, took a couple of cokes out of the fridge and went out again.

We went onto the lawn and sat down on the lush green grass. We had calmed down a bit by then and were able to eat and drink without choking ourselves.

I looked at Petra as she munched on her sandwich.

‘Thanks for letter me come.’

‘Thank you! It’s nice to have a friend that I can share things with. Do you think that you will always be a girl now?’

I thought for a bit.

‘It’s all happened so suddenly. I worry that I am not quite right in the head…but yes; I love it and if I can, I want stay as a girl and grow up to be one; though it’s a bit difficult to be a girl when every time I use the toilet I see that I don’t have the right stuff down below.’

‘That can be sorted out. There are places you can go and have an operation.’

‘I know, but it’s probably expensive and you probably have to go through hoops to be allowed to change.’

‘Yes; it is hard…anyway, lets not worry about that now; want a game of tennis?’

I remembered seeing the grass court on our travels.

‘Yes, that would be great; I have a match with Tamsin coming up. I need all the practice I can!’

The rest of the day was lovely. We played tennis and although Petra was good, I was better and I began to have hopes that I wouldn’t disgrace myself on my up and coming grudge match!

That evening, we had dinner in the huge dining room again. It was a repeat of the previous night. I was wearing a bit of a posh white frock, borrowed from Petra and had a white ribbon in my hair to match I felt very feminine and loved the feel of the smooth fabric against my skin.

Petra had on a lovely pink satin dress with net underskirt. Sally was wearing a little black dress covered up a bit by her apron and was very pretty. Bob wore a suit and tie and was quite smart and handsome. It was all very formal but somehow nice. The twins of course wore sort of all in one baby grow things and soon added to that by having dinner all over themselves!

The meal was roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and lots of lovely thick gravy. It all melted in my mouth and made me feel rather full up when I had finished. Somehow though, I found room for a knickerbocker glory of gigantic proportions for afters!

After dinner, we went to say thank you to Cook and then went into the sitting room to watch some TV. We watched Catweazle then Sally and Bob came in with the twins. We said goodnight to the little loves and then settled down to watch Department S.

All too soon it was time for bed and after saying goodnight and having an nice cuddle from Sally and Bob, we went up to bed.

As we stood outside my door, Petra looked up and down and then whispered, see you after all the lights are out.’

She ran off down the corridor to her room and I went into mine. I had forgotten all about the midnight feast!

I got undressed, washed my face, cleaned my teeth and put on my satin nightie. Then I jumped into bed and picked up Teddy. She looked worn out from her adventure on Rainbow so after kissing her goodnight and laying her down on her pillow, I picked up a book that I had found earlier in the library and opened it. It was The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer about some girls in a boarding school in Austria. It was fun to read and I loved the characters; mind you, I was a bit tired and somehow, I fell asleep…

When I woke up, it was light! I looked at the clock on the mantelpiece and saw that it was 7.30; I had missed the midnight feast! I supposed the same thing had happened to Petra.

I rubbed my eyes and got up. Feeling the need to go, I went into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet. After wiping myself clean and washing my hands, I noticed my flannel. With an evil grin, I wet the flannel and then went to find my victim!

I opened my bedroom door and peaked out. All clear, so I shut my door quietly and crept down the corridor. I recognised Petra’s door…I couldn’t miss it, it had ‘Petra’s Bedroom…Private…keep out, or else!’ on it.

Holding my breath, I quietly turned the knob and opened the door. It creaked slightly and I gasped a bit; had she heard? I stopped to listen and giggled quietly as I heard a slight snore coming from the inside.

In seconds I was in the bedroom and shutting the door as quietly as possible behind me.

It wasn’t too dark in the room and I could see the bed over on the far side of the room.

I crept over and then saw her face. Her mouth was open and hair was partially covering her eyes. She looked so peaceful there and I sort of hesitated and then I remembered what she did to me the previous morning and I just plopped the wet flannel on her unsuspecting face.

‘Ooooooooooooooooow! Ooooooooooh’

Petra had woken up.

She looked around and then saw me.

‘Oh, I’ll get you for that.’ She said as she jumped out of bed and chased me around the room with the flannel in her hand.

In seconds we were having a tickle fight and didn’t stop until we heard a cough.

Breathing heavily, we stopped torturing each other and looked breathlessly at the doorway.

‘Well, you girls have done it again.’ said Bob, still in his jim jams. ‘Hear that?’

In the distance, we could hear the sounds of the twins crying in tandem.

‘Sorry Daddy.’

‘Sorry Bob.’

‘You will be. When you are dressed, you will both put an apron on and feed the twins again.’

‘Oh Daddy, you know how yuckie the twins are at breakfast!’

‘Don’t ‘oh Daddy’ me, young lady. You did the crime so you do the time, as they say in prison circles.’

‘Yes Daddy,’ said Petra, sighing.

‘Yes D…Bob.’ said I correcting myself.

And so we found ourselves a little later feeding the twins and trying not to get milky Farley’s Rusks in our hair.

Sally and Bob were trying their hardest not to laugh and we were not amused as we couldn’t eat our bacon and eggs until the twins had finished throwing their breakfast about.

We had just finished with the twins and were tucking in to our breakfast when we heard the telephone ring in the distance.

A few moments later a man who looked like Jeeves the butler, butled in and spoke into Bob’s ear.

Bob got up and just said, ‘excuse me.’ as he left the room.

We carried on eating and making plans for the day. It had been agreed that I would go back to the home early on Monday morning so that I could change into my uniform, so I had another day here. Perhaps we could have a midnight feast tonight!

I was drinking my orange juice as Bob came back in; he had a frown on his face.

‘Sally, girls, we have a bit of a problem.’

We all stopped what we were doing and looked up.

‘Stephanie; that was Matron. All hell has broken loose at the Orphanage. It appears that someone is kicking up a stink that you are staying there under false pretences, pretending to be a girl. The powers that be have decided that you are to move to the Boys Orphanage in the next county. They want you back straight away.’

As I looked at him, my heart started pounding and I felt faint…my worst nightmare had happened.

To be continued…

Please leave comments as Teddy reads all correspondence.