I sat there for a while getting my thoughts together and decided that I needed to repay their kindness by at least being polite and going to have a chat. As I was still wearing the clothes that I had worn the day before and had spent the night in the supermarket café they were now looking and smelling a bit well-worn I had a quick shower, put-on a fresh skirt and top, fixed my makeup, brushed out my hair and feeling a lot more presentable I was ready to go down and face them, hoping that I would be totally believable as a girl.

They were down in the kitchen/diner and as I walked in Mrs Welbeck came over and gave me a big hug. “You poor girl, Ellie. Carly has told me what little she knows about you, it’s awful that your father seems such a brute and has treated you, your mother, and sister so badly. You are safe here as long as you want. Sit down, I’ll get you a coffee and you can tell me more about what you have suffered.”

“This is difficult for me Mrs Welbeck, I don’t know where to start.”

“Please call me Fiona, Mrs Welbeck is what people call my mother-in-law. I usually find that the best place to start is at the beginning.”

Other than the fact that I was really Ally Taylor, not Ellie Taylor, I told them about the years of mental abuse in my childhood, constantly being berated and humiliated by my father, and the physical and mental abuse my mother suffered at his hands, particularly when he was full of drink, which was quite often.

“It got even worse after Mam and Jemma left, suddenly all the household chores were down to me, and when things weren’t to his satisfaction he slapped me around a little and became even more controlling and abusive, sometimes beating me until I did as he wanted. The final straw was when he tried to rape me, saying that he had his needs and that it was down to me to satisfy them for him since Mam and Jemma had left him. I managed to get away from him and now I’ve ended up here.”

“Oh, you poor poor girl. Have you reported him to the police or Social Services, he deserves to be punished.”

“It would do no good, he has a lot of friends in the police that he plays rugby with and the Social Services are a waste of time, they have far too much to deal with and nobody gets the proper attention. There was no choice but to get away from it all.”

“You are welcome to stay here, I need someone to help keep this place spic and span for unexpected guests, and could always do with another waitress down the café. I’ll give you a small allowance as well as free board and lodging. How does that sound?”

“That’s very kind of you Mrs… sorry Fiona, I’ll be happy to help. As I have said, I have been keeping house and cooking at home for a while now and have a fair idea of what to do.”
“That’s all agreed then, there is nobody else staying here tonight or tomorrow, so in the morning you can come with me to the café, it’s an early start mind, we open for breakfast at 8:00. We all wear a sort of uniform, white blouse and black skirt with plain flat black shoes, Have you anything suitable with you?”

“I’m ok with the skirt and shoes, but only have casual cotton tops not a white blouse.”

“That’s no problem you can have some of mine that I wore when I helped out, they aren’t my personal style and have been in the wardrobe for a while. You may want to hang one up in the bathroom overnight to freshen it up and drop out the creases.” Carly volunteered, glad that she would not have to get up early to go in with her mother.

The rest of the evening, after we helped Fiona prepare dinner, we spent watching TV and casually chatting, mainly with me listening in while Carly and her mam caught up with each other’s lives.

“It’s been a long day and I’m feeling tired, it’s time for my bed.” I said as I rose and bid them goodnight.

“Don’t forget we open at 8:00 in the morning and need to leave here at about 7:30, have a good sleep and make sure that you are ready on time.”

Having not really slept the night before in the supermarket and having tossed and turned most nights before that, worried about Mam and Jemma, I had a welcome long and undisturbed sleep. I was rudely awaked when my phone alarm went off at 6:30, which was when I normally got up to prepare Dad’s breakfast and see him off to work before getting changed for school. I was soon washed made up and dressed ready to join Fiona at the café. As I had been doing when cooking at home, I tied my hair up in a loose high pony tail to keep it off my face and tidy as I would be serving food and found Fiona waiting for me downstairs.

“You look really smart Ellie. I like the way you have done your hair and your makeup is not overdone, exactly the right image.”

When we got to the café, Jenny, the cook, already had the place opened up, the big range warming up, and the food out of the fridge ready to start cooking. Linda, the waitress, was busy dressing the tables, waiting for the the first customer and their orders. There was only time for quick introductions to Jenny and Linda, and for Fiona to run through my duties before we opened up and the first customers started arriving.

I was kept busy for the rest of the morning and was glad when it was time for a break and for me to have something to eat myself between the breakfast rush and the lunchtime trade. By then I was becoming used to being called ‘dear’ or ‘darling’ and dealing with customers as Ellie and just getting on with my work, not really having time to think about my problems and the fact that I was looking and acting like any other girl.

Late afternoon, a police car pulled up and two officers came into the café, causing me to panic, a little worried that they had somehow found out where I was and had come to take me back.

“Hi Glen, hi Bob, usual is it?” Linda greeted them with a warm smile.

“Thanks Linda we always get a warm welcome and a nice smile here, that’s why we keep coming back for our break. Just coffees and toasted teacakes today, and throw in a scone and jam too.” Glen replied giving Linda a cheeky pat on her backside.

“You know Glen, I could get you arrested for that.” She said playfully.

“You know you couldn’t do that, you’d miss our happy smiling faces and banter and you would be miserable all day.”

“Do you think so? I’ll send Ellie over with your coffee while I sort out the rest of the order.” she left them with an exaggerated sway of her hips as she walked back to the counter.

“Ellie, two Lattes for our friends in blue over there, and be extra nice to them, they are regulars and are good tippers.”

“There you are officers, your teacakes and scones will be a few minutes.”

“No need for ‘officers’, I’m Glen, this is Bob, we’ve not seen you here before and you are…?”

“It’s Ellie, I’ve just started here today.”

“It’s good that there is now a pleasant pretty young waitress again, it’s not been the same since Carly moved away, Linda’s ok but she can be a bit feisty sometimes.” Bob joined in the chat, causing my cheeks to flush a little, I just smiled and left to deal with another customer.

As they got up to leave later Bob called me over. “Is Fi about we need to have a word with her.”

“What can I do for you boys today?” Fiona greeted them as she left the kitchen and walked over to them.

“This bit is official Fi, so ‘officers’ might be more appropriate than ‘boys’.”

“In that case Mrs Welbeck might be better too.” She replied with a smile showing that she was only playing with them.

“We’ve been asked to keep a lookout for a young boy Alistair or Ally Taylor, fifteen getting on sixteen, long hair, quite slim and short. He assaulted his father who needed medical treatment in hospital, and trashed the house before running off, can you keep an eye out for him? His father is really worried that he might come to some harm, we are spreading the word as a favour to some friends of his in their local force.”

Back at Ivy Lodge later after the café closed, Fiona ushered Ellie into her office and closed the door.

“When Glen told me about the runaway boy, the colour drained from your face and you couldn’t wait to get back into the kitchen. What do you know about all this?”

I couldn’t speak, I was so confused and upset and just sat staring at her.

“It’s all lies, he was trying to rape me and I just defended myself rather than assaulting him, and as for being concerned about my welfare, all he wants is for me to go back to looking after all his needs, and I mean ALL his needs.”

“Ok Ellie, or Ally, whichever, calm down, your secret is safe with me. Now I know who you are, do you want to get some boy’s’ clothes and clean off the makeup.”

“To be honest I’ve been wearing girls’ clothes and makeup almost all the time since Mam and Jemma left and I’ve got used to them now. As long as people are looking for Ally, it might be best if I stay as Ellie.”

I told her the full story about my father treating me like a girl after Mam and Jemma left insisting that I wear skirts or dresses and makeup and do all the ‘woman’s work’ around the house. Things got even worse leading up to the attempted rape. Somehow I disabled him with a sharp kick in the groin and stamping on him there again before making my escape, and he has people convinced that I assaulted him.

“That is appalling, the beast deserves to be locked up and the key thrown away, not getting his friends in the police to drag you back to that life.”

“Now you know the truth do you want me to leave?”

“Don’t be silly Ellie, and note the name I just called you, as far as i'm concerned that is who you are, I told you when you arrived that you are welcome to stay as long as you need. You don’t have to stay as Ellie all the time, but it will help you to stay in character if you do, changing back and forth to Ally will only get confusing for both of us. Nobody else needs to know, not even Carly, but it would be nice if you could trust her too.”

“She’s only here for a couple more days, let’s leave her until next time she is home, I should be a lot more settled and comfortable by then.”

“So, is Ellie here to stay?”

“For the time being yes, until I can get something sorted out with my family.”

“Don’t worry about being discovered, you still have a few rough edges in the way you look and behave, but then none of us is perfect. You worked in the café all day, mixed well and confidently with all the customers, with Linda and Jenny, nobody saw you as anything other than a pleasant young and attractive girl. Keep it up and you will have no problems, even Glen and Bob were a bit flirty with you. If you ever feel that you need to talk to the police, I’ve known those two for years and they are as honest and trustworthy as they come.”

Carly went back to college after a few days, in one way I was sorry to see her leave she had become a good friend, but I was glad that I didn’t have to be so careful about what I said or did around the Lodge.

For the next two weeks I was kept busy in the café and preparing the B&B rooms for guests, adjusting to life in public as a girl. Mondays and Fridays were the busiest times for the café with people travelling away for the weekend or returning to work, whereas the B&B was usually fullest over the weekend, so it all fitted together quite nicely, leaving midweek as the days to not work, relax and explore the area.

Everything was going smoothly, too smoothly, until one Wednesday after I had been giving the Lodge a good clean, Fiona came back home looking upset in an agitated state.

“Your father came into the café today, someone suggested to him that you left town on a bus heading in this direction and he’s calling at all the stops on the way showing photos of you, obviously as Ally, and asking if anyone has seen you. Naturally I played dumb but he was obviously becoming frustrated at getting nowhere and he became quite pushy bad-tempered and foul-mouthed. He ranted on about women and how they never appreciated how hard their man worked for them and when he eventually found what he called ‘his bitches of wife and daughter and their feeble excuse for a son’ they would suffer for what they had put him through. I was really worried that he was going to take out his frustration on me, but he left slamming the door behind him. I can easily visualise him taking it further and mistreating you all.

However, although you are now quite convincing as Ellie, perhaps because I know the truth, I could see similarities between you and the photos, although it would not be obvious to anyone else. I think that you need to change your image so that nobody else makes a link. Nothing too drastic, a change of hairstyle and colour, with different makeup, would all make a deal of difference and you would be unrecognisable. What do you think?”

“When my father gets a notion in his mind, he can be so stubborn he’s not going to give up. If you think that it could alter me that much let’s get it done, the less I look like Ally the better.”

The next day I prepared to spend most of the afternoon in a salon that Fiona often visited.

“This is my new assistant Ellie, she has just left school and is a bit of a frump to be out in the big adult world, she’d like a totally different image, can you work your magic with her Lorraine?”

“Hmm, let me think, is a bit punky too far out for you to have her in the café.”

“OK but not too extreme, I’ll leave you to it, give me a ring when she is ready to be collected.”

When I was ready to leave the salon, my hair had been tinted from a dark, almost black, brown to a light golden auburn with pale pink sun-streaks, trimmed to collar-length, styled with loose soft curls which despite all the work looked like it needed a good brush. My makeup was a lot more vivid with much heavier eye-liner drawn in a cat’s eye upturned at the outer corners, pale mauve shadow on the lids and with eyelash extensions heavily coated with mascara, my nails had been fitted with acrylic extensions, coloured, along with my lips, to match the lilac eye shadow. The upside was that I now looked in no way similar to my previous image and even less so to Ally, the downside was that I was much more noticeable and memorable.

Lorraine gave Fiona a call to come and collect me, and ten minutes later she arrived, walked straight past me to ask Lorraine where I was. She pointed over to where I was sitting, Fiona turned looked past me then stopped and did a double take.

“Ellie? My god, you look so different, I recognised the clothes you have on before I realised that it was you. I know that I told Lorraine to give you a change of image, but I never thought that she would go this far. I’m not complaining, I love the look, I just wish I was 20-odd years younger and could carry off a look like that.”

“That style is easily manageable, a quick brush each morning and it will look as good as new, if you have any problems Ellie, give me a call for another appointment.” Lorraine told me as we left.

Back at the Lodge, there was a parcel on the doorstep , Fiona picked it up saying “I’ve a surprise for you, it’s part of your new image, let’s get inside, get the kettle on for a coffee and open it up.”

We were sitting at the kitchen breakfast bar when she opened the parcel and plonked two large lumps of skin-toned gel on the bar.

“Before your makeover I thought that you still looked like a young schoolgirl, and as part of your new image I thought it would be better if you looked a bit more mature. Those enhancers have done the job to get you used to having breasts, but these are a couple of cup sizes bigger and will give you a much more prominent bust-line making you look older, as well as leaving no doubt that you are a girl. Take off your top and bra and I will fix them on for you.”

“Fix them on?”

“Of course, they will be much more realistic looking If they are glued on, and to all intents and purposes will move as you walk around, almost as if they were natural. Although they will be stuck on, they can be removed if you want, but it will help you to get used to them if you just leave them in place all the time.”

“I suppose that you are right, the less I have any resemblance to Ally, the less likely that I will be recognised, let’s do it.”

“Five minutes later I stood up feeling the weight of the breasts pulling on my skin, looking down at the big lumps on my chest.”

‘Obviously those junior bras you have been wearing will no longer fit and support you properly, you are now about the same size as Carly, I’ll get one of her’s from upstairs. Rather than a plain cotton one like I had been wearing, she came back with a fancy mauve lacy one. That will do until we can get you measured up and some of your own in the right size, let’s get it on, you will feel a lot more comfortable with a bit of support.

“Are you sure that these are the right size for me, they feel and look enormous?”

“That’s where we girls have the advantage over you, for us it all happens gradually and we have time to get used to the changes, but you have been thrown in at the deep end. Don’t worry, you will soon get used to them and forget all about them, they will become as much part of your body now as any other part. With the extra weight on your chest you are stooping forward, you look like you are trying to hide the fact that you have breasts. Don’t be ashamed or worried about what they look like, put your shoulders back, puff out your chest and be proud of your new assets. With a bit of luck you should now get a lot more tips in the café, particularly from the truckers and male reps that come in, they all appreciate a well-endowed girl. Go for a walk around the garden or down into the village, get used to the weight and movement on your chest. When you go into work tomorrow, you’ll just have to behave as if your breasts have always been there, and get on with serving the customers without being conscious of them.”

Fiona was right, at first I felt embarrassed at the constant sway and rise and fall of the breasts, worrying that they were so noticeable, but soon realised looking around that I was no different to every other woman and girl I passed on my walk, it was now just another part of my life as Ellie.

“How is the bra, does it feel comfortable? You’ll be amazed at how many of us women have never been properly measured up and wear bras that are totally unsuitable, the wrong band size or cup size, not giving proper support or being too tight and pinching the flesh. If that seems ok for you, rather than buy new ones just see if Carly has left any more that you like.”

I was a bit self-conscious going into work in the morning, but Linda and Jenny gushed over my new look.

“Oh, I love your new image, if I was just 10 years younger I could go for that.”

“That’s a super hairstyle, it looks so easy to manage, I might try something like that, only without the pink streaks.”

“Now you’re letting your puppies loose instead of hiding them, undo the next two buttons on your blouse, show a bit more flesh and cleavage, you’ve got it girl, flaunt it.”

It all helped me to relax and just get on with serving the customers as if I was no different to before. As Fiona had suggested, with my bigger breasts staining the cloth of the blouse a bit more, and with a perkier attitude to go with my new look, the tip box looked a lot fuller than usual and at the end of the day we were all extremely happy with our little bonus.

A police car pulled up at the front of the café and Glen and Bob came in for the usual coffee and cake break. They spotted me and took a few minutes to realise who I was, only finally being sure when I went over to take their order.

“Hi guys, what can I do for you today?”

“ Don’t ask leading questions like that Ellie, we are both happily married men.” Glen quickly replied with a cheeky grin, causing my cheeks to blush as I realised what he meant.

“Behave yourself Glen.” I said as I leaned over the table to give them a better view of my cleavage. “That’s not considered very PC nowadays, apart from anything else I am far too young for you.” causing Bob to burst out laughing. I took their order and went back to the counter, making sure that they had a good view of my exaggerated hip sway as I walked.”

“You’ll be ok with those two flirting like that, they are ok and just having a bit of a laugh, but don’t play it up so much with other customers, particularly younger ones, you might cause a bit of bother.” Linda gave me a bit of motherly advice.

As they were leaving Bob suddenly stopped. “I almost forgot to tell you something. Remember a few weeks ago we asked about a missing boy, Ally Taylor, he’s still not been found but we are not looking too hard for him anymore. His father got too drunk down at the Rugby club and started mouthing off about how his family had all left him and that if he ever got them back he would let them know who was the master of the house and knock some sense into them, particularly ‘his bitch of a wife and the little wimp that he was ashamed to call his son’. He was taken in to the station to sober up, but still kept ranting about what he was going to do to them. Soon it all came out about how he had abused his family and he is currently in custody charged with domestic and child abuse and threatening behaviour. If we ever find his wife daughter or son, there is no way that he will ever be allowed to get in touch with them or live with them again.”

Fiona came over as they were telling us all this. “You need to have words with his local police and keep him locked up. He was in here the other day, mouthing off and making all sorts of threats, I was worried that he was going to have a go at me, a vile unpleasant man.”

“I doubt that he will come back but if he does, call us immediately. It seems that someone took offence at what he had been doing to his family and gave him a dose of his own medicine and he ended up in hospital again, Even his friends in the local force are not looking too hard for who gave him a severe beating, although they are fairly certain that it was some of the guys from the rugby club. They are a weird lot, they think nothing of knocking seven bells hell out of each other on the pitch, but don’t take kindly to anyone being violent off the pitch particularly abusing women and children. If any of the family ever come in here give us a call. Love the new look by the way Ellie, it suits you.”

We were exceptionally busy for the rest of the day and I didn’t get a chance to really talk to Fiona, so over dinner that evening, we talked about what Bob had said and I told her that it had taken a heavy weight off my mind.

“So now that it seems like that you have nothing to worry about from your father anymore, there is no need for you to stay disguised. If you want to become Ally again, you are still more than welcome to stay here, I’ve got used to having you around.”

“To be honest I have got used to being Ellie, and it would be a shame to waste all the money you have spent on me for the makeover and my boobs, if it’s ok with you, I’ll just stay as Ellie for the moment until I get things clear in my mind.”

To be continued.