May Queen Book 1 by Maddy Bell Copyright© 2024 Madeline Bell One day your life is just, well life, the next has Daisy in it!

It was close on twenty minutes later before my parent found me in the back kitchen picking at my plate of lasagne.

"Kettle’s boiled.”
"Thank’s, did you not want chips with that?”
"Not really hungry.”
"It’s no problem,” Mum insisted.
"Fine,” I allowed, more from reflex than desire.
"Think I’ll join you, your Dad and brother’ll eat later.”
"Whatever,” I allowed, "So what d’ya want to talk about?”
"Straight to the point as usual,” she observed having set the air frier going for the chips.

I gave a shrug, "If its about Manda I don’t wanna know.”
"Its not about Amanda, well not directly,” Mum started.
"It either is or isn’t,” I pointed out.
She poured herself a cup of tea before going on, "You know Amanda was going to be this year’s May Queen? Of course you know, it’s not exactly a secret.”
"She’s not even cold yet,” I snapped.
"I know, we know, but its caused us a bit of a dilemma, you know how big a thing the May Queen is for the village.”
"Can’t you just pick someone else or get Sarah to do it again?”
"If only it was that simple.”
"Oh come on, there are loads of girls in the village.” well there always seems to be anyhow, I think they outnumber boys by about two to one.
"Do you know how the Queen is selected?” Mum queried.
"Don’t the Coven vote on it or something?”
"The Committee have a blind ballot of all the eligible girls, sometimes there can be several rounds before a clear winner is elected.”
"So just promote whoever came second,” I suggested.
"That would be our usual approach, there is precedent, Amanda isn’t the first girl to become ineligible.”

The frier beeped, distracting Mum for a couple of minutes as she plated up the chips.

"So who came second?” I asked out of curiosity.
"Well that’s just it kiddo, no one came second or third or fourth, Amanda was the only candidate this year.”
"But there are loads of girls in the village,” I reiterated.
"Not that qualify this year.” She paused before going on in a more businesslike tone. "How many village kids are in your year at school?”
"Just me and Mand.”
"How do girls qualify for May Queen?”

I felt that I was missing something, maybe I’m gonna be privy to some great secret. "Live in the village?”
"Its a bit more involved than that kiddo, so what else do you think?”
I wracked my brain, "They have to be sixteen?”
"You’re getting there but at this rate we’ll be here all night, according to the Assize of Wellow, the May Queen must, and I quote, be of Wellow blood, unsullied, unpromised and of their fifteenth summer.”
"Really?”
"Really, that’s how its been done since twelve thirty four,” Mum stated.
"Surely there must’ve been times when they couldn’t find some one?”
"Thirteen forty nine.”
"You’re kidding me, so what happened, pestilence and crop failure?” I scoffed.
"Nope, a girl from Retford was made Queen, Jemima Scrawbottom, the pestilence was the Black Death and crops failed as there was no one to gather them.”
"But the Black Death was everywhere, we did it in History last year, you can hardly blame it on not having the right May Queen.”
"Different times kiddo, but that was the last time a non qualified incumbent was made Queen.”
"So the coven think the Black Death will return without the right May Queen?”
"Don’t be daft, the Committee aren’t stupid but they, we, don’t want to be the ones to break a near seven hundred year run.”
"I can see how that might suck,” I allowed reluctantly. "So where do I come in, searching the parish records or something?”
Mum had a strange look on her face, "Erm, not quite, there is a sort of loophole which the Committee have proposed.”
"Loophole?” I queried with a little unease.
 

"Now you have to be honest with me Johnny, I think I know the answers but before we get ahead of ourselves I have to ask.”
"Ask what?”
"Well weather you qualify for the post of Queen.”
"Duh, I’m a boy,” I needlessly pointed out, "Queens are female.”
"Come on kiddo, humour me,” Mum persisted.
"Okay, whatever, can’t see how it would help though.”
"Where were you born?”
"Upstairs or so you’ve told me, next?”
"Are you engaged to be married?”
"Mu-um, I’m fifteen.”
"I’ll take that as a no then and we know you aren’t sixteen until June which just leaves the biggy, are you still a virgin?”
"Mu-um!” I complained.
"I’m serious Johnny, I know what its like at your age, peer pressure and so on.”
I let out a sigh, "No I’ve never had sex, I mean, who’d want to do it with me?”
"You’d be surprised kiddo but I’m glad you haven’t.”
"So what’s the crack then?”
"Well, on the plus side you qualify as a prospective May Queen.”
"Which isn’t gonna happen right? I suppose there’s a down side?”
"There is, you qualify as a prospective May Queen and I need to talk to the Committee.”
"What about me?”
"You need to finish your tea and get revising, its only a few weeks to your GCSE’s.”
 

Of course, the conversation with Mum raised more questions than it answered. Being of the male persuasion I’d never really thought about the whole May Queen selection process or that incumbents had to meet some very specific conditions to be elected to the post. What else don’t I know?

I’ll admit, very little actual revision took place that evening as I played everything over in my head. I still couldn’t see how me ticking the relevant boxes would make any difference, after all, by definition the Queen has to be a girl. But what else do I know about the Wellow May Queens?

I started a list;
1) Of Wellow blood
2) A virgin
3) Unpromised
4) fifteen years old

But what else, well apart from all being girls that is. I wracked my brains, the only thing that came to mind was that the Village Committee had all been May Queen including Mum. What else links them then? Are they all related? Probably I allowed, I mean Wellow isn’t the biggest place on the planet but apart from Jane Farmer and her sister Gloria none of the others were that closely related.

Okay, to put that in context, Mum is Jane’s daughter and Amanda’s Mum was Queen the year before Mand was born. We did something about viable populations in Biology, if I remember right you need five hundred people to avoid inbreeding which handily is about Wellow’s population and of course quite a few of them aren’t Wellow born. Can you qualify if your parents aren’t from Wellow? Have to ask Mum about that.

What else then? Looks? Blue eyes? Nah, last year’s Queen, Sarah Greene, is no beauty and I know for a fact that Amanda had green eyes, same as me. Something else then. I was so preoccupied that Jake had to fetch me down to help with the nightly clean up.
 

Friday arrived, bright and perky, can it be almost a whole school week since the accident? I still couldn’t think about Manda without getting a bit of a lump in my throat but it was getting better. After Wednesday’s chat with Mum I had been expecting another yesterday but nothing was said so I guess I was fretting over nothing there, they must’ve got things sorted.

"Johnny?” Mum called from the bar as I unlatched the front door, "Can I have a word?”
"I’m running late, can it wait?”
"Very quick, can you go to the village hall straight from school tonight, its about what we talked about the other night.”

Ot oh, that doesn’t sound good.

"I guess so, that it?”
"That’s it, go on, you don’t want to miss the bus, see you later.”
"Bye Mum.”

 
© Maddy Bell 04.08.2025