RANSVESTIA

looked forward to changing back into trousers out of my skirt-I could return to the hotel. All I had to do now was to get out of the van and find somewhere to change. It was then that the adrenaline surged and my heart thudded in my throat.

Karen had been the occupier of the room when the man stepped through the curtains and it was she who had swept so swiftly about the room after the lightning strike. Over my knees lay my fur coat with my handbag balanced on top. My seat was the red trimmed ivory case containing Karen's-and only Karen's-clothes. Panic stricken I searched for something of Keith's. All I found in my coat pockets were Karen's bits and pieces off the dressing table. I had nothing at all of Keith's. At the hotel there could be nothing at all of Karen's.

Stunned I sat on my case, my mind numb, unable to think sensibly until urgency came to my aid as the van slowed and stopped. We lurched as the men climbed out then the doors were slammed and I heard their footsteps recede. I waited till there was complete silence then cautiously edged my eye to one of the dusty windows in the door.

We were in a short ill-lit side road at the end of which a sign announced that BENBRAE STATION was round the corner to the left. An idea began to glimmer in my mind, I couldn't risk going back to the hotel because I would have to explain how I came to be dressed as a woman when I got there and anyway there was the unbearable prospect of being caught again by that loathsome man. There was no way that as a smartly dressed woman I could go shopping now for a complete outfit of men's clothes and in any case there would be no shops open at half past nine in the evening in a small provincial town. But Benbrae, though small, was an important rail junction and all trains stopped there. And if there was a late train to London I could go back to my falt with a good chance of not being seen. And once there and changed back to Keith again I could decide what to do.

As a part of my changeover from Keith to Karen I always transferred anything which could be appropriate to a woman from pockets to handbag and so I not only had money and my credit cards but I also had my keys. I looked again through the window. There was no one about. I edged open the door, stepped out into the road, put

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