The Secret Garden Chapter 9: The girl in the garden by D.L. Copyright  © 2011 D.L. All Rights Reserved. Inspired by the classic children’s tale by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

After finishing his meal, Richard prepared to spend the afternoon in the garden. Taking his satchel of art materials into his bedroom, he went to his travel trunk.

The trunk appeared to be empty, with all the clothes now hanging in his cupboards. The boy opened the lid and carefully felt his way round the floor of the lined case. Pressing the two hidden buttons, there was a faint click as the false bottom popped out of place. Pulling the panel out of the way revealed the secret compartment below. Taking one of the garments from the covert four-inch section of the trunk, he carefully packed it into the satchel. Richard then sneaked out into the grounds and made his way to the secret garden.

After making sure nobody was looking, he slipped through the door, closing it behind him. Walking down to the summerhouse, he stepped inside the dilapidated building. After brushing the leaves and dust out of the way, he carefully laid his bag down and started to strip naked.

A few minutes later, a shy demure young girl in an attractive pale yellow summer dress stepped from the summerhouse to admire her garden.

The child giggled and stood spinning in the afternoon sunlight, her dress floating up. Coming to a stop, she stood and faced the sun. Closing her eyes and leaning her head backwards, the young woman soaked up the warmth, the cool breeze blowing under the hem of her skirt and tickling her bare legs under the light fabric. The skirt was actually shorter than normally worn and only came down to six inches below the knee, leaving a large amount of leg on show.

Throwing the blanket she had brought with her over a patch of long grass, the girl lay down on her back looking up at the sky.

Simply to be dressed in her feminine clothes again was a great relief for the child. Even though she had only started to wear such clothes less than two years previously, she had always admired the softer side of life.

The transformation from boy to girl had been more than a simple change of clothes. It was as if a door had been unlocked in the boy’s mind, releasing the soul trapped inside.

That first day she didn’t do much other than relax and be herself. This was the first time since her parents died that she truly felt alive. Richard was merely a pale imitation of a boy who once existed, a protective shell round the real personality growing beneath.

During his early years, the boy had been like a caterpillar, knowing he would someday change, but not knowing exactly into what. The accident had triggered him to transform, and he had to wrap himself into a cocoon for protection when the jungle fever swept through the child’s home. The chrysalis was now being broken, and like a beautiful butterfly, the girl hidden within was now starting to break out to face the world in a new form.

Here in the garden, she could once again become herself. The solitude provided by the high stone walls locked out any possibility of discovery. This provided security, but also sadness as she was a very lonely girl. Her existence needed to be kept secret for safety, but it also prevented her from having friends.

The double-edged sword of secrecy acted to provide both happiness and sadness for the child. What she longed for was a friend. However, Lord Headley’s own children had already grown up and left the nest, leaving the young child alone.

She could potentially have walked down to the village, or even as far as the nearest town. However, the sudden appearance of a young girl would arouse suspicion and that was something she wished to avoid.

With the shadows growing across the ground, the girl once again transformed herself into a boy for the return to the manor.

This was the start of a daily routine, which the child would continue for the next few weeks. Each morning, Richard would head outside after breakfast and spend the morning working in the secret garden. Having only limited girls’ clothes, and not wanting them to get dirty, the child kept in boy mode while gardening. After lunch, which was now collected from the kitchen first thing in the morning in a picnic basket, the young person would change into girl mode for the remainder of the afternoon. She would spend the time painting, smelling the roses, and dancing round her garden. Each evening, after reluctantly changing back to male presentation, Richard would head to the house for his evening meal.

Part of the child’s recovery process after the accident was to learn the ancient Indian martial art of Kalarippayattu. As with most martial arts, while principally used as a fighting technique, it can also be used to build strength, the fluid body movements promoting flexibility and fitness. The girl had focused mainly on the dancelike body movements and used them for an exercise routine. She was out of practice, as she couldn’t perform the routines when travelling. Most of the martial art forms had been banned in Imperial India so that rebels couldn’t train and start uprisings. Therefore, while travelling with a British army officer, she thought it unwise to demonstrate such knowledge.

Instead, her recent exercise routine had been limited to walking and running, which although good for fitness, was not as much to her liking. It felt good to get back into a more normal routine. While physically fit, she needed to practice her poise and balance. The child had spent several months exclusively portraying as Richard. In order to avoid being branded effeminate, the young person had been posturing in an overly masculine fashion - something she now needed to reverse and once again become used to presenting her body language in a delicate feminine manner.

The other activity that the child hadn’t done in several months was talk, having enforced a self-imposed vow of silence as a method of protection. Initially trying to maintain two different voices for separate gender presentations, she had found that she could not accurately maintain the division between the two. This was something that frustrated the child greatly considering the youngster’s natural talent at learning languages. Rather than trying to sustain two distinct voices, she instead phased out her usage of her male voice, talking only when necessary while in boy mode.

The deciding factor in becoming silent had occurred shortly before the disease hit the town. Richard had been out walking, and encountered an old woman. She had dropped her basket of vegetables and was struggling to pick them up. Richard had stopped and offered to help her.

The woman immediately thanked him for the offer, but in doing so, she had assumed that it was a young girl talking to her. Due to deteriorating eyesight, it wasn’t until the woman looked closely at the person before her, that she realised she had apparently made a mistake.

Richard had not taken offence at the error, but it did bring to the child’s attention something that had been suspected for a while. Her voice and speech patterns were now feminine, even when attempting to sound like a boy. She knew that with her injuries, her voice was never going to break and would always remain higher in pitch.

Since the death of her parents and friends, she was forced to present full time as a boy. She was genuinely unable to speak for the first few days after being discovered, due to the weakness from the jungle fever. The child believed that the only reason she was able to survive was due to the exceptional level of fitness she had maintained since fighting her way back to health after the accident that had forced her to turn from a boy into a girl.

Now alone in the garden she could practice something she had been unable to do for so long, using her voice. Starting softly at first, scared that she may be overheard, she started to whisper to the plants and animals in the garden. Gradually as the days passed, she was able to increase the volume and length of her speech. Deciding she’d best not risk talking too loudly in case the gardeners walked by outside, the child, dressed as a boy, went on long walks into the surrounding woodland, so that she could exercise her voice more. After nearly a fortnight, she was finally able to sing again at a volume others would consider normal.