A few minutes later, Lizzie parked the MGB behind the old fieldstone and wood carriage house at Annie's family's small estate. She removed her kitbag from the passenger seat of the car and went over to a drawer in the old workman's desk and retrieved a key. There was a small folded note under the old-fashioned iron key. L, go in the side door and take the back servant's steps to the top floor and wait in my rooms. A.

Lizzie smiled wryly and quietly and stealthily followed the instructions. In her exquisite red gown, she was not exactly dressed as a ninja but did the best she could to remain quiet and unseen. She unlocked the door and quietly padded up the narrow winding staircase to the back hallway and then to Annie's small suite of rooms. She opened the door and reached for the familiar light switch, Lizzie had been in this room many times over the last ten years or so. She looked around and saw a Post-it note on the small fridge. It read Eat Me. Lizzie smiled at her friend's thoughtfulness as she took off the terribly expensive dress, dropped it to the floor in a heap, and changed into the worn sweats from her bug out bag. Her blood pressure and anger had both subsided and she was in much better humor as she munched on cold pizza from the fridge and sipped on a half-liter can of Heineken. She contemplated the next few steps of her plan. So far all was going well but she knew from her readings of world history that no plan ever survives first contact with battle.

Two hours later as Lizzie was still considering her options and packing her duffel, two vehicles pulled up to the manor house. She could hear voices and then ten minutes later Annie rapped on the door and opened it. She was greeted by much more relaxed young Duchess. Lizzie gestured to the fridge. "Thanks for the snack and pint Annie, I didn't exactly get to eat at the party."

Annie smiled at her friend. "Just doing my part of the plan, your mother did put on quite a spread, however."

Lizzie shook her head and smiled. "How did the rest of the party go after my epic meltdown?" Annie started to remove her jewelry and accouterments as she described the scene. "Yes you put on a very memorable performance, I'm afraid I'm sure you'll be the talk of the town by next week."

"Good. Exactly as I wanted. I hope that Edward and his family are okay with the way things went down as they say on those American cop shows."

Annie slid out of her elegant outfit and stood in her underwear for a moment before finding an oversize T-shirt and comfortable pajama bottoms. She then carefully hung up her dress in the large walk-in closet. "To answer your question about Edward, yes I think he's fine. They talked quietly in the corner and seemed to have come to some sort of agreement. They left after about an hour or so. Do you want to talk about it?"

Lizzie shook her head. "No, I'm afraid I can't. We'll just hope that Edward was not hurt too much by this whole sad episode."

Annie looked down to the fine Tabriz rug and to Lizzie's gown which still lay in a pile. She picked up the expensive dress and smiled at her blonde friend. "You really did look quite smashing in this L."

Lizzie gave her an indifferent shrug. "Keep it."

Annie shook rolled her eyes in disbelief and smiled. "Thanks for the compliment, but I'm afraid I have not been this size since I was thirteen, I'll have it cleaned and get it back to your closet. My prediction is that the next time you wear it we will all get a good laugh at the memory."

Lizzie smiled thinly and whispered. "I certainly hope so."

Annie looked up at the ornate French stomach clock on the mantel above the fireplace. "It's half of 11, if you are going to go through with this, we'd best get on with it. We have to leave for the station in less than five hours."

Lizzie shrugged again. "Too late to turn back now, that horse has left the barn and the bridge has burned down behind me or some such metaphor."

Annie gestured to the en-suite and the two young women walked in together. When Annie's family house had been built in the 1870s it had no indoor plumbing. Her bathroom had been added just after the turn of the previous century. When her father had made a senior 747 Captain, her parents had decided that country living was best for Annie and her older brother. As the youngest, she was given the first choice of rooms on the third floor. The then nine-year-old and her mother supervised the remodeling of the old English washroom into a glorious en-suite up to European standards. Annie pulled a comfortable leather stool from under the table at the makeup station. "Have a seat and we'll begin, this is your last chance to back out!"

Lizzie answered with a firm resolve on her face. She took off her T-shirt and stared into the mirror. A topless girl with a determined smile stared back at her. Annie took a white cotton towel and draped it over Lizzie's bare shoulders. "Liz, I have to admit it, I've always been a bit jealous of your figure, your breasts are perfect."

Lizzie turned around to face her friend. "Anne, not this again. You are beautiful and don't you forget it."

Annie smiled. "Thanks for being a good friend, but my boobs and hips are too..."

Lizzie gripped the taller girl's hand. "The word you're looking for is stunning!"

"Thank you, my lovely size-two friend."

With that, Annie picked up a new pair of professional hairdresser scissors. "Okay, I am now officially an expert in this. We'll start in the back and move our way around."

As Annie started cutting Lizzie's long blonde hair she asked. "Expert?"

"Yes, I watched a YouTube video this afternoon."

Annie cut a finger's worth at a time and gently placed the nearly foot-long hair in a nearby shoebox. Lizzie sadly looked at the contents. "To the children's cancer ward when you get a chance right?"

Annie murmured in the affirmative. "I promise. Hopefully, a small bit of good will come from this."

Lizzie shrugged as her friend cut away. "Anything else you can share from the aftermath of the party?"

"Your mum went into damage control mode. She bandied about phrases like teen girl, just a misunderstanding and I'm sure we'll sort it out in the morning."

Lizzie shook her head. "I'm 20 now, or has she forgotten? Anyway, when I don't come home, she'll come here looking for me sooner or later."

Still diligently cutting, Annie smiled wryly. "I shall be ready. I have been going over my lines all evening."

Annie finished her first round of the semi-professional haircut and roughed up Lizzie's now much shorter hair. "What do you think L?"

Lizzie ran her hand through her now short blonde hair. "Ghastly, which makes it perfect. Shorten it a bit more here and here, make sure to keep everything uneven and we'll go to the next step."

When Annie was done, Lizzie stood up and carefully removed the towel from her shoulders trying not to get any more hair on the black and white penny tile floor. Annie laughed as she took the towel and dropped it unceremoniously to the floor. "Don't worry, I'll clean up tomorrow. Okay next, your hair needs to be thoroughly wet for phase two of the operation."

Lizzie stepped over to the large walk-in shower and turned on the hot water. "May as well shower now. Might be a couple of days before I get another chance."

The billowing steam showed that the water was hot, Lizzie stripped off her sweatpants and underwear. As she stepped into the luxurious shower she looked over her shoulder at Annie. "A, if you make one comment about my bum."

Annie sighed. "Well okay I won't then...but if I did it would be magnificent."

Lizzie rolled her eyes, adjusted the temperature of the water, closed the glass door, and began soaping up. As she finished washing her now very short hair, Annie reached into the shower and handed her a clear bottle. "Wash this in and let it set for five minutes and then rinse it out and then I'll do the rest."

"Right then."

Lizzie opened the bottle of clear fluid and wrinkled her nose at the smell. "Are you sure that this stuff is not toxic?"

"No, but the label does say to keep your eyes closed."

Lizzie followed the instructions and then turned her head out of the water which she let run down her back to keep warm. Annie tapped on her phone and the two of them waited. After five minutes, Annie's phone beeped. "Okay, times up. Rinse out one more time and I'll do the rest."

Lizzie complied, turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Annie handed her a full-length Egyptian cotton robe. Lizzie vigorously dried her hair and gladly took the comfortable spa garment from her friend. Annie was diligently studying the directions on the hair dye package. She nodded to herself and put on the included Nitrile gloves. Lizzie sat down at the makeup table as Annie put another towel over her shoulders. "Okay L, here comes medium brown; say goodbye to blonde for a while."

Annie carefully poured an ounce or so of hair dye into her gloved palm and started to rub it in. Annie rubbed, poured, and repeated. After two full applications, she stood back, gestured into the well-lit mirror. "Looks good to me. What do you think Lizzie, will this work?"

The former light blonde now medium brunette turned her head to the left and then to the right and nodded. "Yeah, Anne. This is perfect, thank you. What next?"

"We're almost done. Wait twenty minutes and then get back into the shower rinse out one more time and then we're off to bed. We'll be lucky to get two and a half hours of sleep before we have to go. I'll see you in a few minutes; the timer on my phone is set again."

Annie left the room and Lizzie sat quietly thinking until the phone beeped again. Lizzie stood up, took off the long white robe, and stepped into the shower one more time. As the water quickly warmed up again she thought to herself: There is no way I am missing that train.

As she was rinsing the last of the foul-smelling remnants of the dye out of her hair, Annie came in and cleaned up the worst of the used towels, empty bottles, and hair care products and shouted over the noise of the water to Lizzie. "See you in a couple. I'll warm up the bed."

Lizzie finished her second shower of the night a few minutes later and dried off again. She dropped the robe into the hamper and walked naked into her best friend's bedroom. She turned off the last of the lights and slid into the king-sized bed and put her arm around the warm girl. Both of them were asleep within two minutes.