LeggingsRoyalescam@60+com

The day had dawned nice and sunny; Leggings drew a deep breath and tried not to worry too much about the evening meet. It was the Ladies Triangle's customary gettogether with the next chapter in the near by town. She felt as did Phyliss the night before that this made the danger more complex with all the extra characters that she might have met before who might actually know her true age. The double Tripod was all to be there. They were going to set the rules for the new game in town. The Royale Varient.

Topsy Tripod had come in with it a few weeks ago, her Mother had told her of the girl she knew of when she was growing up. For a short while she had been fostered in their home and she'd had to be thrown out by her would have been sister. For years the kid had been seen on the romany camps walking around with her Granddad. He'd worked with them. Topsy's family came from Reland, although they had been in RR for so long that the accent was no longer clipped and strong. Most people were unaware of their pyschic background. Leggings was assailled by uncomfortable assocciations with the past, she wondered unhappily if Topsy's Mother had been in the Research Station when she'd been there with the other children. She muddled through a coffee asking herself if she would know the victimm this time around, and what she could do to help if she did.

Phyliss chose that moment to pop her small black head around the door. "Oy!" she said practically, "Are you ready for this?"
Leggings closed her eyes: "No," she muttered, "I think I'll come though!"
"You should do or you'll have Nutty on your back again."A
"She claims she's trying to wake me up." Leggings said humourlessly. "So nastily. Wants me to mindread her. Apparently wants me to put a hook in her brain. If that doesn't work, she's after having me fitted with early gromits."
Phyliss shook her head, "Perhaps you should just say No, and walk away, before it gets any worse."
Leggings sighed, "I can't now. She and her Mum are after someone I might know."

Phyliss looked ill. "They are going to hit her with the Royale Scam, apparently there was some talk about her actually being royal when she was younger."'s
"What's the reRoyale Scam?"
Phyliss said quietly, "They use the older ones for it mostly. The old Tripod call themselves the Quin's Ladies and the older members walk around in two's: asking questions about her mostly. They spread the news that there's a notion that she might indeed be Royal. I've only seen it worked once."
"Blimey! Does it work?"
"Usually the victim gets all confused and starts acting weird, then they call the ambulance and get her taken to the mental hospital. If not the neighbours and the oldies work together to gather information, identity stuff is good. If she really is royal then they don't want her to get anything. It's a scam to end all scams."
"I'd laugh at them!"
"That's easy to say. No way to prove it happens though, the oldies will just say she's round the bend. No one talks to her. It's done all over the place. Everyone's warned not to tell her. She might yet be disappointed!"
"It's cruel. What if she really is a missing royal child?"
"Then they get the money, the house, even the boyfriend. They don't want some old woman to get it all. They want to put one of their friends up there and share it all out. She's just meat as far as the gang's concerned. If she's clever and this is really horrid. They sell off her talent. They especially like author's, first timers with unpublished books, brilliant - plenty of rich kids who want to look clever."
"How do we stop it?"
"I try to keep out of it. I really do. I saw someone try and stop them before. they cut her face down the smile lines and left her with scar tissue on her face. She got depressed and fatter and her face just swelled up between the cuts."
"Bastards!"
"It's woman on woman!" Phyliss said, "A peculiarly bitter hatred. Men truly like women who are nice, and more and more they go for older women - the younger ones are often set skewed!"
I opened the door for her and followed her out to the car. "Do you think she's really royal?"
Phyliss looked at me, "There must be a reason for all this - has to be money doesn't it. This game gets bigger, they pretend that the team is from a university radio show or experiment and follow her around. They ask others to take part. There is no pity. Mostly people do what they are told!"
"Now there ought to be an experiment into that..." I said as we stopped at the deserted parking lot.
"We have a five minute walk from here. We might need it to look innocent before we get in."

I looked up. Oscar Wilde was right, even if you were in the gutter you can still see the stars...