Cheap Gothic Soap Opera, Part 44

"I'm in trouble?" asked Elizabeth. "But I've only been here for 3 minutes. This place is so strange, so strange."

"Yes you is!" Brunhilda stood up from picking flowers in a way that looked like a short and very plump mushroom had suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. "The master's looking for you, 'e is, and that then there done means you there 'ere is in the troubles!"

Suddenly someone who looked like an egyptian high priest shouted, "THE MASTER IS HERE!"
"So strange, so very strange," Elizabeth whispered under her breath.
"Shhhh!" muttered Brunhilda, "You can't be talkin' in the presence of the Vicar of Gornibas, 'e is."
A gold carriage led by gold horses rolled up to the effigy in the middle of the village square. The vicar and his attendents threw mud on the peasants, all in awed silence, as the carriage door opened. A young man decked in aristocratic regalia walked over to the Vicar and the effigy.

"Why he looks like Gornibas, from Woodsonportownsend. So very incredibly strange."
"Quiet you!" Brunhilda stomped on Elizabeth's foot. Elizabeth shouted in pain, breaking the quiet. All the peasants turned to look at her.
"PUNISHMENT! shouted the Vicar, and Elizabeth was pushed forward towards the open space around the effigy.
"What are you doing?" asked Elizabeth.
"You Have Defamed, Defiled, and Defenestrated THE MASTER!" shouted the Vicar. "HE SHALL DECIDE HOW BEST TO SACRIFICE YOU!"
"Silence," said the young aristocrat to the vicar, with all the force of 3 mid-sized hippos running through an ancient roman tenement block. "She will not be sacrificed." Then, turning to Elizabeth, "Please come step into my carriage."

Elizabeth did so warily. The inside of the carriage was completely velvet. The man said some prayers to the peasants and then got in the carriage too.
"Why did you save me?" asked Elizabeth as soon as the man had sat down.
The man looked at her, amused. "I recognized that you were not a peasant but a full-fledged member of the aristocracy. Surely you would know that?" He spoke with a smooth british accent.
"But why were those people praying to you?"
"It's just a peasant personality cult. Every respected aristocrat has one. Why, you are a strange noblewoman. Whereever are you from?"
"Woodsonportownsend. But that's not important. Who are you?"
"My name is Gornibas Woodson, and I have lived here in Woodsonportownsend every since I was born in 1792. I can't say I have ever seen you around here before."
But Elizabeth was already halfway through her gasp. "So awfully, dearfully, veryfully strange!"
Suddenly the carriage stopped. "The 'orses is dead, guvna!" shouted the driver.
"Oh dear," said Gornibas, "I shall have to get another pair painted."
Elizabeth gasped again...

(OP: Nate, March 8 2007)