The Strand-on-the-Green Strongwoman, Chapter Three (standard:drama, 2207 words)
Author: Brian Cross	Added: Aug 10 2026	Views/Reads: 1/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The powerful Maggie Wells is having a bad day, and woe betide anyone who gets in her way.

Chapter Three 

Thursday morning, Maggie made an early start for Stamford. She'd barely
been on speaking terms with Bill during the preceding couple of days, 
but that was fine by her. Maggie had too much on her mind to be getting 
into in-depth arguments with him,  and in any case, her temper would 
not sustain much aggravation. 

The roads were congested until she reached the A1, but then traffic
flowed more freely, and on a fresh but dry day she reached Stamford by 
mid-morning. 

Her first stop would be to check on the location of the Peace Haven Care
Home – a farcical name given the atrocities that had taken place there 
– and whether she was ultimately successful in gaining employment there 
or not, those atrocities would be avenged big time when she got to 
grips with the culprits. 

Community service would be nothing to what she would dish out once she'd
tracked them down. During visits to the library and using their 
computers, she'd managed to establish the names of two of the 
offenders, so that was a start – the other three she'd discover in due 
course. Obviously, working on the inside of the home would give her a 
great advantage, so she'd have to remain patient until the application 
process was complete. Not her strong point, but she had plenty of 
others. Stamford was impressive, cultured and elegant, and it was on a 
hill on the outskirts of town that she located the Peace Haven Care 
Home. Maggie parked up, got out, and took a stroll around the perimeter 
of the three-storey building, getting a feel of the place and its 
surroundings, nothing more at this stage.  To be fair, with its stately 
appearance and commanding views across the meadows, with the lofty 
towers of Burghley House in the distance, it seemed to live up to its 
name. 

However, Maggie knew that from recent events alone, nothing could be
further from the truth. 

Having gained preliminary knowledge of the Peace Haven's location and
surroundings, Maggie's next objective was to drive to Peterborough and 
find accommodation for a couple of nights while assessing affordable 
places to rent. 

Maggie soon discovered that Peterborough was an entirely different place
from Stamford. Okay in parts, damned abysmal in others. The problem was 
that the abysmal parts were more likely to fall into her budget range. 
She booked two nights in an inexpensive lodging house a quarter of a 
mile or so from the centre and set off into town to have her long 
ginger hair shortened. 

Finding a decent-looking hairdresser, she took the plunge – step one in
a whole new change of identity. The hairdresser seemed polite, 
efficient, and talkative, so Maggie took the opportunity to avail 
herself of some knowledge of the city, which areas to look out for when 
renting and which to avoid. Obviously, she could more than look after 
herself in undesirable locations, but the prospect of doing so and 
drawing attention to herself needed avoiding at all costs. 

And so, with her hair cropped uncharacteristically short, Maggie set out
to drive around some of the areas suggested by the hairdresser. After 
settling on an area a couple of miles south of the city, Maggie drove 
to a few estate agents, informed them of her intended move, and said 
she'd be in touch should they have any available and affordable 
properties there. 

She'd already noted that rent in her preferred area was expensive
relative to what she could afford,  but she had an overriding goal that 
had to be accomplished no matter what the cost and needed a 
trouble-free location to help secure it. And so, after spending a 
couple of days in Peterborough accustoming herself to the area, and 
also returning to her prospective workplace in Stamford, Maggie 
returned home on Saturday morning ready for a barrage of questions from 
Bill. 

*** 



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