I was up early the next morning, having left for bed earlier than the others the previous night and not having drunk so much, I expected that it would be a while before anyone else surfaced to join me. As I had expected, Mrs H was already busy in the kitchen.

“ Good morning Louise, did you enjoy yourself last night, it must have been a bit of a change for you?”

“Morning M.. Jane, I trust that you are feeling a bit more rested this morning. I really enjoyed myself, and so did Geoffrey, Mr Marshall, it was a nice change being in there with you all rather than being confined to the kitchen, and it gave me a rare chance to dress up nice. You were all so pleasant to Geoffrey and me, not a case of ‘Upstairs, downstairs’, it was almost as if I was just another one of the house guests.”

“You both deserved it Louise, it was a big occasion for Charles and he wanted all the people that are close to him to be there, but unfortunately it was not possible for William to attend. You and Marshall both excelled yourselves, the food and wine were absolutely delicious.”

“Thank you so much Jane. Since you arrived here the atmosphere in the house has totally changed, it is now much more relaxed and informal, very much more of the 2020s rather than the 1920s, it is a pleasanter place for us all.”

Surprisingly Lizzie was the next to appear. “Good Morning Jane you look bright and breezy this morning, Good Morning you too Mrs H, you and Marshal really mixed in with us all last night, it was something you both deserved for all your hard work. Could I just have a cup of coffee and some toast please , I’m in a bit of a rush this morning.”

“ What’s up Lizzie, what is the emergency?”

“I have to go down to London to sort something out with William, but I should be back early evening in time for dinner, please tell Daddy to give me a call.” she replied rather cryptically, but she didn’t offer any more, and I didn’t push her. After her quick light breakfast she left hurriedly, giving me a hug and a light peck on my cheek as she went.

I left to check on Mum and Jenny, but on the way as I was in the entrance hall the door bell rang. Rather than keep someone waiting, I answered it to find a motorcycle courier offering me a large envelope, addressed to ‘The Rt. Honourable, the Earl of Edenbury.” This was obviously confirmation of his upgrading from a Baron to an Earl, and knowing that he was eagerly awaiting it I went up to his room, knocked on the door and waited until I heard ‘Come in.” before entering.
Charles was sitting up in bed and, as expected, Mum was lying next to him.

“I thought that you might like to see this immediately.” I said as I passed the envelope to him, seeing his eyes light up like a child opening Christmas presents when he saw how it was addressed.

“Thank you so much Jane, I was wondering when this would arrive. Please tell Marshall to put a couple of bottles of fizz on chill, and when we are all up and dressed last nights celebrations will continue.”

“Lizzie has had to rush off to London, something to do with William, she didn’t say what it was about, but expects to get back early evening.”

“Come on you two, get yourselves up, it’s a lovely day out there.” I called through Jenny’s half-open door. “As much as you would like to stay there, I will give you both, particularly Graham, a tour of the garden and grounds so he can get a better idea of what to include in our feature on Bolton Manor and the estate.”

Charles was in an ebullient mood over breakfast telling us all about the contents of the letter, confirmation of his appointment as an Earl, copies of the amended coat of arms to include an Earl’s coronet, and an ‘invitation’, more a request, to attend parliament’s House of Lords for his inauguration, although he would have no rights to sit there passing judgement on changes to the laws of the land.

Before I took them for the tour of the house and estate, Graham phoned the ‘Spotlight’ team ruling them to announce Charles’ good news on that evening’s edition, and I phoned Mike at The Post to put him in the picture too, promising a more detailed report when I knew all the facts and implications.

The three of us went for a tour of the house, most of which Jenny had not seen on her previous visits, before picking up one of the Land Rovers to show them the walled garden, the deer park and the site of The Bolton Centre development. We left Mum and Charles to discuss how the change in status would affect their lives, particularly Mum’s as Charles had been raised in the knowledge of what would be expected of him.

I had been expecting that when we got back Charles would still be on an adrenaline high after his news, but he was sitting quietly in deep thought in his study.

“Is something wrong Charles, have William’s injuries taken a turn for the worse?”

“Far from it, apparently his injuries are healing as well as could be expected, but I can’t say the same for his reputation or his future. Lizzie called while you were out telling me that she left early this morning because she had received a call from William saying that he had been charged with the rape of Charlotte Maltravers, the girl at the party, and that he wanted her to arrange for our family solicitor in London to represent him.”

“That’s awful news, is he still in hospital or have the police taken him to the station for questioning?”

“He is still in hospital, He’s not yet fit to be discharged, the police are interviewing him in his room there. However, that’s not the end of the story, they tested his DNA and have found links to several other unresolved cases, 5 cases of rape, one of sexual assault and attempted rape and one of aggravated assault. The aggravated assault was not counted as attempted rape as the victim was ‘a pre-op transexual’ to use the police’s term, when it became apparent to him that she was not as she appeared he gave her such a violent beating that she was in hospital for months and is still not fit to work.”

“Charles, pardon me for saying this but he is worse than an animal. After his beating I had a little bit of sympathy for him, but that has now completely gone, I hope they ‘throw the book’ at him.”

“He is being held on only the one charge in relation to Charlotte Maltravers at the moment, while they review the other cases, get witness statements updated and things like that. I have spoken to my solicitor and he is not holding out much hope for anything but a very long prison sentence when it goes to court. The police want William held in custody when he is fit to leave hospital, probably meaning he’ll go to a prison hospital, but our solicitor is trying to get him released on bail to my charge returning to the Manor although the prospects for that are slim.”

“Trust William to ruin your day, you were in such a good mood this morning and now he has sent you plummeting back to the depths of despair. Let me have a word with my contacts at the local police, The Metropolitan Police and the magistrates are more likely to remand him to your charge here if the local police are willing to officially monitor him.”

I called ACC Joe Riley to see if there was anything that could be done. He was reluctant at first as William had committed no offence on his patch, only down in London, until I told him about the attempted rape of Jenny at Bolton Manor. He suddenly had an excuse to get involved in the case and said that he would speak to the Met. to see if something could be arranged.

Jenny and Graham left for home, actually Jenny’s flat as the pair of them were now sharing, after thanking Charles for a delightful weekend, with Graham promising to get in touch with him soon about the ‘Spotlight’ feature.

Charles was in quite a distant sullen state of mind, so Mum and I left him to his thoughts and went join Mrs H in the kitchen.

“Have you heard the news about William, Louise?”

“Unfortunately I have, that man never ceases to disappoint me.”

“We’re trying to get him released and sent back here to recover from his injuries, after what you have heard are you still prepared to nurse him back to health?”

“If there is any choice I would rather not be in his presence, but when I was working as a nurse I treated people that for various reasons were equally objectionable. If that is what his Lordship wants to do, I am prepared to go along with it.”

When Lizzie returned later Charles’ mood had improved a little and he called Mum and me in to hear what she had found out in London.

“The Met. are in discussions with ACC Riley and it looks like they are willing to release him to the custody of the local team, as long as he is constantly chaperoned, that means having police officers in the house 24/7 when he is mobile again. While he is here the local police want to question us all about the attempted rape of Jenny, and it is likely that he will be charged with that as well as all the others on the list.”

“Let me speak to Jenny,” Mum butted in ”she may not want to go through the trauma again to make a statement and act as a witness at trial.”

“I have only come back for tonight to tell you all face-to-face rather than a phone call, but at the moment I am more useful keeping tabs on things in London. I’m sure that you have lots of questions, let's get some drinks and talk through what this means for all of us, Jenny included.”

The next few days were relatively quiet so I just continued writing ‘Midshipman Armitage which had already covered his adventures in the battles of Copenhagen and the Nile, where his exploits led to his promotion to Captain and command of his own ship. HMS. Lorne. The book was now over half complete, leaving only the involvement of him, his ship, and his crew at Cape Trafalgar, his rewards grants and ennoblement as aa Baron, and his retirement and later family life at Armitage Court.

I was now almost fully recovered from my surgery and, as a break from sitting at my computer writing, I was taking long walks around the estate, often on my own but occasionally with Charles. Being out in the fresh air, deep in thought, and sharing his worries with me he was slowly coming to terms with what William had done. The Met. and the local force had agreed for William to come back to the Manor, until he was fit enough to be taken into custody and remanded to prison in London until his trial.

At the weekend William was brought up in a secure police van, followed by Lizzie in her car, and was escorted to his room where he was handed over to the care of the local force, amongst whom, I was pleased to see, was PC Galton who had been involved with me when my father attacked me.

It had been agreed that William would be confined to his room, with no visitors allowed other than family and Mrs H, and that a police constable would always be on duty outside the door to his room. He was not happy with the arrangements, but when he had a go at Lizzie and Charles for agreeing to the conditions, he was bluntly told that if he preferred he could be sent back and transferred to a prison hospital. Whenever Mrs H went into his room to tend to his injuries, she insisted that she was always accompanied by the police officer on duty, although William was seriously incapacitated she didn’t trust him to not be violent.

Recently there had been a happy relaxed atmosphere at the Manor, but since his arrival and the previous build up to it, the mood was much more sombre, his presence was always the ‘elephant in the room’.

DC Cummings interviewed us all, especially Jenny, about the attempted rape of her, and after taking the witness statements from Lizzie and I, it was added to the charges against him for when he would face trial.

Bringing back the memories of that night was not pleasant for Jenny, so to try to cheer her up I rang around and arranged a night out with the girls. I hadn’t seen Babs, Susie, and Linda for months, not really since my first TV report so there was a lot of catching up for me to do. I was still not sure about driving since the operation, so Jenny drove me into town and we all met up at The Nags Head, where the others were already waiting for us.

Babs waved over to Tom at the bar to brink over another bottle of wine, as they had already almost finished the one on the table.

“Good to see you all again, you haven’t been in for ages, as I said before it is a pleasant change to see five lovely bubbly young ladies in here instead of the old grumps I usually have to serve. Enjoy your wine girls.”

“ He definitely had his eye on you there Jane, and you’ve got no excuse now not to follow up with him.” Susie teased me.

“I’m sure that Jennie has told you that I am in a relationship with Lizzie Bolton, unfortunately Tom does not fit into my plans.”

“ Come of it Jane, now you have all the right bits, why not give it a go, you never know, you might enjoy a man inside you.”

“ Anyway, even if I was interested, I am out of action at the moment, I have just started my first period.”

“Really? Jenny said that you had all the internal organs but I didn’t think that they would be in full working order. That is one of the few downsides to being a woman Jane, just think that you have another 20 years or so to suffer, welcome to womanhood.” Linda grinned as she patted me on the arm.

Although they had previously talked freely in front of me they were now even more open, discussing all their various ‘female problems’, and asking about my relationship with Lizzie, before wanting to know all about working on Spotlight, and how the court case was progressing. They were surprised and shocked when Jenny told them all about William and what he had done.”

“Do you want to know what I think,” snapped Babs, “when the evil bastard goes to trial they should just turn him over to the anti-rape protesters outside the court, he would never be in a position to do it again after they finished with him.”

“Can we change the subject girls? I brought Jenny out so that she could talk and think about normal things, she has suffered enough from William without dragging it all up again.”

After that the conversation just turned to the normal gossip and catch up about what everyone had been doing lately and we had a really pleasant night, with me promising to meet up with them all again soon. I stayed the night at Jenny’s flat in her spare room before Graham offered to drive me back to the Manor in the morning.

“You’re lucky Jane, I had planned to meet up with Charles and you to discuss the feature on Bolton Manor. I need to pick up Fizz as she will be working with you on the script, is that ok?”

We all had a brief meeting with Charles to agree roughly what was proposed and get his agreement, then the three of us went back to the room I was using as my office to plan things out in more detail. When we had a fair idea of what we would be covering, Fizz told me about another couple of exposés she had been working on and asked if I was ready to go back to the studio to work on them with her.

The first was that people living near a local landfill site were suffering from various respiratory problems that they blamed on excessive fumes drifting towards their homes due to inadequate controls at the site. The second was in relation to blatant breaches of Health & Safety regulations at a town centre construction site that had led to loose materials falling from high level and killing two people walking by below. Although both were being investigated by the relevant authorities there was still a lot of human interest information that Fizz had pulled together that gave enough scope for further programmes.

Due to further incidents becoming exposed, the corruption court case was put back for a further two months, which gave me the opportunity to get involved with Fizz’s projects and I was now feeling fit enough to take part, so I took a break from ‘Midshipman Armitage’ for a few weeks while the programmes were pulled together, filmed and broadcast. This also got me away from the Manor and the disruptive influence of William.

William’s broken arm had healed well enough for his cast to be removed enabling him to hobble around on crutches and he was allowed to walk around the house, but not outside and always accompanied by a police escort. As best as I could I kept out of his way, he was still surly and offensive and had no remorse for the things he was alleged to have done. He insisted that it was all consensual and that he had never forced himself on anyone, until I reminded him that Lizzie and I were witnesses to his assault on Jenny, and that he was wasting his time, and mine, trying to convince me otherwise. Soon the casts on his legs were removed too, which unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, meant that he was being taken back into custody in London, The atmosphere in the Manor changed overnight after he left and even Charles was getting back to his ‘life and soul of the party’ manner.

Lizzie was spending much more time at the Manor now, only going down to London occasionally to deal with personal and business matters and to check on William. We were spending a lot more time together, more often than not sharing a bed exploring my new body and different ways to enjoy intimacy..

Mum had finally divorced my father, despite him contesting it as he suggested that there was still scope for a reconciliation. However it was a fairly clear cut decision from the court, no doubt helped by a very experienced and expensive lawyer friend of Charles. Now she was legally free, Mum and Charles planned a big celebration party to officially announce their engagement and the re-instatement of the Earlship to his fellow aristocrats and the ‘great and the good’ of the area. Lizzie and I considered making it a double celebration, but decided that Mum and Charles deserved their time in the limelight, they had both had some difficult times and this was to be their chance to purge a lot of their old demons, we would have plenty of opportunities for our own celebrations later.

Whilst Charles had a wide social circle of friends and acquaintances that he wished to invite, our side of the guest list was quite sparse, there was only Mum, me, Jenny and now Graham, and Mum’s widowed sister Mary. To balance things up we added Babs, Susie and Linda, Caroline and her husband Martin, Darren and James Cartwright, and Mike, my editor, all of whom knew about my previous life and how it had been changed, and who could be relied upon not to mention anything indiscreet. Charles trimmed his list to roughly the same numbers so as not to overwhelm Mum’s ‘side’ of the gathering and they arranged a cocktail party at the Manor with canapés and finger food, rather than a more formal event. It was to be a big enough gathering that people could mingle and chat without overcrowding the dining room, and still have a lively but cosy party atmosphere.

Charles and Mum mingled with all the gusts chatting while we all enjoyed the food and drink constantly supplied by Mrs H and Marshall in all his fancy livery once again. Mostly people kept in groups that they knew, but Lizzie and I played the part of hostesses, introducing people to those they had not met before. Halfway through the evening Marshall banged the dinner gong to get everyone’s attention. “Ladies and Gentlemen, pray silence for his Lordship, the Rt. Honourable the Earl of Edenbury, who would like to say a few words.”

“Welcome friends, old and new. Since Cressida died I have been a bit withdrawn from the world, but that has changed since I was introduced to my wonderful wife-to-be Ellen by her lovely daughter Jane who have both freshened up a lot of my life again, and given me reasons to look forward rather than backwards. I am now glad to see many of you again and hope that it will not be so long until the next time. I also wish to thank my beautiful daughter Elizabeth who worked tirelessly to get the title of Earl restored to the family for which I will be eternally grateful and delighted with the knowledge that one day she will be the Countess following me in charge of this wonderful estate. Thank you all so much for coming to enjoy this moment with me. That is the end of the formalities, please enjoy yourselves for the rest of the evening.”

I quietly ushered away Caroline and the girls to show them around the house and they were all as amazed and awestruck as I had been on my first visit. “Let’s get this evening out of the way, sometime soon I want you all to come back to meet Lizzie properly and get to know her. I know that I introduced you all to her, but that’s just the start, when we get married and eventually take over the house, you will all be welcome guests whenever you wish, you have all helped me became the person I now am and I owe you all. Now let’s get back to the party.”

Eventually the party broke up and guests started drifting off. It had been a strange mix of people from all levels of the social scale, but after initially keeping to their own groups they all gradually found surprising new friends and contacts. Graham had a particularly successful night being introduced to and charming several of the owners of potential houses for his documentary series and getting their agreement. Darren and James were inundated with requests for more information about how the Bolton Centre scheme was progressing and agreed on a meeting with Mike who wanted re-energise the flagging story of the corruption scandal,. Lizzie and I were the subject of a lot of whispered gossip about exactly what our relationship was, but generally I was accepted by Charles’ friends. Darren and James took the girls, who were still buzzing with excitement at the splendour of the night, back to town to their homes and the Manor was again calm and quiet.

The families, Mum and Charles, Jenny and Graham, and Lizzie and I settled down for a wind-down drink to relax. With William being down in London on remand, and those involved in the corruption case mainly in custody or under strict bail condition, our personal relationships having become more settled and my gender confusion now resolved, we were all looking forward to a more settled time, Life was looking rosy again.

To be continued.