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!

 
I tried to think of anything apart from the obvious Elephant that my summons to Committee could be for. Something to do with the maypole dancing perhaps or, or, I dunno, something that doesn’t involve me and the post of May Queen directly. It was weird though, all the girls, right down to the Markham twins seemed to giving me funny looks, maybe I’ve grown a second head?

By the time I caught the afternoon bus I was convinced though, and I suppose I was sort of resigned to the idea they wanted me to put on a frock, to keep on the good side of St Swithin and history. If I say no I’ll never hear the end of it, if I say yes – well I might as well sign up as a nun, my life at school won’t be worth living. The Wellow girls were still acting strange, what do they know that I don’t?

Instead of getting off at the Maypole I rang the bell for the stop before which isn’t quite in the village, its there for Wellow House, but it is closer to the village hall. I still wasn’t sure what my response should be if it was the elephant question. Surely though they’ve found some way around the Assize and I’m just wanted to lace ribbons or something, yeah, that’ll be it.

You’ve been to a village hall right? Large room with a stage, kitchen, toilets, the basics are pretty much the same from my experience. Wellow’s example is a fairly typical mid twentieth century example, the hub of village life, everything from the amdram society, scouts, guides, pensioners lunch club, aerobics, you get the idea. It’s also the operating centre for the Coven, aka the Committee who I discovered ensconced in the committee room, well where else would they be?

"Ah Johnny come on in,” my Gran encouraged.

I was aware that the door was closed behind me and that the room was quite full, all seats taken bar one. Well what would you do? I nervously made my way to the chair which faced the rest of the room but sat alone.

"Er here I am, so what do you need me for,” I asked although I was now more sure than ever it wasn’t to dance on the village green.
 

"Your Mum has told you of our predicament?”
"You need a stand in for Amanda as May Queen and I tick all the boxes?”
Gran looked around the gathered Committee members before replying, "Well I suppose that’s the gist of things but its not a stand in we need, its an actual May Queen.”
"So not just for the May Day shindig?”
Aunt Gloria was the one to reply, "The Queen’s duties go far beyond the crowning ceremony.”
"How would that work then? I’m not a girl in case you all forgot, if its not just wearing a frock for one day then, what do you want me to do?”
"We know you aren’t female Johnny but there are precedents, not recently I’ll admit, we’ve gone to some pains to make sure we have sufficient candidates but as your Grandfather would say, shit happens.”
"So these precedents, they were May Queen for what, the whole year?”
"The first time was in sixteen ninety seven, there was an outbreak of plague locally, brought in by a ship into Bawtry. The Queen, Janet Foss, unfortunately succumbed and was replaced by her half brother, Simeon.”
"I thought the plague was in thirteen something?”
"There were smaller, localised outbreaks until the mid seventeen hundreds.”
"So this Simeon was May Queen, I bet that went down well with the locals.”
"It was kept secret, no one beyond the committee knew, they were simpler times, no social media back then.”
"Okay, you said precedents,” I emphasised the plural.
"Nineteen sixteen, poor Mary Forster.”
"Go on.”
"I’ll let you tell it Gloria,” Gran suggested to her sister.
"Mary was over in Sheffield visiting relatives when the Zeppelin raid happened and was badly injured. That was in the September afore her crowning the next spring, she recovered from her injuries but contracted pneumonia and passed away in the January.”
"So who stepped in this time?”
"Her twin brother Archibold Forster.”
The name struck a chord, "As in the farrier?”
"His father actually, it was a bit more difficult to keep things secret but the cover story was that he’d joined up and was in France. With the war still raging at the end of ‘her’ term, she did join up and was even injured not long before the armistice.”

The stories of Simeon and Archibold sounded convincing, I mean, who’d make stuff like that up? But that was then, this is now, people don’t just disappear without people noticing.

"So what you are saying is, you want me to be the May Queen for like the whole year? If I did agree what about my exams, and I’m due to go to sixth form college in September and what about people in the village? Everyone knows me and that Mum has two sons.”
"Mark my words Johnny, we know this isn’t ideal, that you’ll need to make some sacrifices, we’ll be behind you every step and we’ll do everything in our power to keep the whole thing under wraps,” Gran told me.
"Why couldn’t I just be the May King?, easy peasy then.”
"We did consider that kiddo,” Mum put in, "But the whole covenant refers to the Queen, which, by definition, at least appears to be female.”
"Do I get anything out of this?” hey, I’m a teenager okay.
"That will depend very much on you, it’s not a paid post, not in the traditional way but incumbents usually gain something from the experience,” Aunt Gloria noted.

I looked around the room at the rest of the Committee, of course I know them all, its a small place it would be hard not to. Dr Sherwood our GP, Anne Parsons is some sort of lawyer, the headmistress of the village school, Mrs Johnson, of the others there were two farmers wives, a teacher at Wellow House, a nurse and a couple of, what Dad calls women of leisure. Wellow May Queens do not become crack heads on Middleton Lodge.

"Do I get time to think this over?”
"Not much I’m afraid,” Gran told me, "We’ll need to know tomorrow at the latest.”
"If I say yes, and that’s a big if, when would this all start?”
"Straight away, there’s no time to lose, its only two weeks to May Day. Now go home with your Mum, think about what we’ve told you, ask of you, sleep on it and let us know your decision.”
"Just one more question,”
"Go ahead,” Gran allowed.
"What will my name be, you can’t exactly have Queen Johnny can you?”
Grans face broke into a smile, "That would be entirely up to you.”
 

Mum and I left the village hall and started the short walk home to The Red Lion.

"So what do you think?” Mum enquired.
"I’m not sure to be honest, before I got there I thought it was just dressing up for the one day, a frock and a wig, joke’s on Johnny for a few days and I was up for that. Not super happy but I was ready to go along with it but what’re you’re all asking is several leaps on from that.”
"We know kiddo, we didn’t get to this point without exhausting our options elsewhere.”
"If I decide no, what then?”
"Good question, I’ve no idea but seriously kiddo, don’t let that influence your decision.”
"Do Jake and Dad know about this?”
"Not yet, clearly they’ll have to know something if you do say yes but its better that as few people as possible are in the loop.”
"Some of the girls were giving me strange looks earlier.”
"Just the girls?”
"Only the villagers, do you think they know something?”
"What sort of looks?” Mum asked.
"I dunno, like they were weighing me up maybe?”
"I’ll let the Committee know, maybe its some sort of intuition.”
"Whatever, it was a bit weird.”

We walked down through The Maypole’s car park before crossing Newark Road and I couldn’t help but look over at the Maypole itself on the green proper, currently surrounded by scaffolding ahead of a fresh lick of paint to be applied by a working party of male villagers tomorrow. Yeah, the men of the parish think they are in charge but the wise ones know better.
 

After dinner, I was excused my usual bar duties, Mum insisting I needed to ‘revise’, we both knew she really meant think the current proposition over. But time on my hands was not a great help and I went to bed with a head full of questions and very few answers. Not that I could sleep, who could?

I went over what I’d been told, what I knew, on repeat, the stories of Simeon and Archie, the wording of the Assize. Then thoughts strayed to just how The Committee could make this work and just how I could be made into a believable May Queen, not just for a day but for a year. Okay, I’ll admit I’m not exactly a jock but I have started to shave, well once a month and I most definitely don’t have the curves that all the girls in my year at school seem keen to flaunt at anything in trousers.

My head came up with ever more bizarre ideas on how this would go down. I’m not stupid, I’ve heard about trans people but that’s not me, I don’t want to change sex, gender, whatever you call it. No this is just a temporary gig and, I realised, The Committee seemed to be confident that the whole charade will be possible, will work.

 
© Maddy Bell 04.08.2025