Story: Alison’s Attitude Adjustment. Part 1.

by Charles Ryder

Alison Templeman-Davies was woken from her fitful sleep at 6am by the jarring note of her bedside alarm. Without thinking she immediately roused herself and stumbled across to the washbasin in her tiny room. She washed and quickly brushed her teeth. In the one wardrobe that contained all her clothes she extracted the cheap nylon uniform and slipped it over her head. She pulled her one pair of black leather flats from under her bed and pushed her feet into them. She brushed her blonde hair and bound it into a pony tail using an elastic band. She grimaced at herself in the reflection of the cracked little mirror. She pulled and tugged at her black polyester dress but no matter what she did it was still too small and too tight. She checked that the white collar was properly fastened and that the white cuffs of her dress weren’t too grimy. She reached over for her frilly white apron and tied it around her waist in a big bow. The final and most demeaning touch was to pin her little black and white cap to her lacklustre hair. Finally Alison Templeman-Davies, eldest daughter of millionaire businessman Ronald Templeman-Davies, was ready for work.

She scurried down the corridor in order to get to her place in the kitchen by 6.45. There were already five other girls in the huge room. Nobody spoke to her; nobody even paid her the slightest attention. The other servant girls never spoke to her in fact. That was partly because they were uneducated girls from the country but also because they didn’t speak any English. Alison couldn’t converse in Chinese either so their chances for any sort of interaction were limited. Through the clouds of steam she could see her immediate superior, Miss Chang, gesticulating to her. She hurried over to her and bowed as she was required to do.

“Zǎoshang hǎo, zhǔ”

Good morning, mistress.” She tried in her halting Chinese, and bowed again.

The wizened old woman didn’t bother to reply. She simply pointed at the growing mountain of dirty dishes in the sink and clicked her fingers. Alison bowed for a third time and hurried over to the overflowing sink. As she waited for the sink to fill with hot water she couldn’t help but reflect on her situation. She tried very hard not to but sometimes it was just unavoidable. What for example would her friends and family think if they could see her now? The oldest daughter of a very well to do English family being used as a servant? Well a slave if she was to be honest, a slave to a powerful, ruthless Chinese family.  She wasn’t sure but she didn’t think she’d been in this horrible place for six months. In that time she’d lost her liberty and her self-respect. She’d been abused and beaten on a regular basis. It had taken them less than a hundred days to convert her from a privileged schoolgirl to a humble servant. And the reason, she had now come to accept and to regret was her own Western intransigence and arrogance.

The story had started over a year ago when she was in the lower sixth form at her expensive private school. That’s when she had first encountered Yang Mi. The Chinese girl had recently joined the school and was in the year below her. She was extremely pretty, fairly small and petite but beautifully proportioned. Alison had taken an immediate dislike to her. At the time she couldn’t have said why. She knew why now of course. That had been made very clear to her and at quite some length by her new Governess. To her great shame she had conspired with her friends to make the younger girl’s life a misery. She had constantly belittled her and even mocked her accent. She had even gone so far as to steal and destroy the Chinese girl’s homework in order to get her into trouble with her teachers. And although Yang Mi knew all this she never complained or fought back. This only served to encourage Alison into further depths of bullying.

“Owwwww”,

Alison’s reverie was interrupted by a stroke of Miss Chang’s cane across her tight skirt. The girls who noticed all cackled and Miss Chang gabbled furiously in Chinese. Another stroke followed and she hurriedly plunged her hands into the sink and got on with her chore.  That school year had ended in July, by the end of the month she was in Hong Kong working as an intern for a friend of her father. She was really enjoying herself, the work was easy and she enjoyed flirting with everyone, and the money was great. That was until she hailed a taxi outside one of the clubs she regularly frequented. She remembered being half-drunk, she remembered the fumes in the back of the cab, and then she remembered waking up in a strange bed.

At first she thought she was in hospital, perhaps she’d had an accident? Her head was certainly banging, perhaps she’d just drunk too much? The truth was far more prosaic; she’d been kidnapped and abducted! Even faced with the evidence she could hardly believe it. She remembered thinking that this was the twenty first century after all, not the nineteenth! But that disbelief soon vanished in the cold harsh light of reality. After a day of recuperation she was taken, struggling and cursing, to a beautiful and ornate room. There an elaborately dressed woman looked her up and down.

“You are Alison Templeman-Davies?” even her impeccable English struggled with Alison’s first name.

“Who the fuck are you? I demand that you let me go, my father will have you all killed! Do you know who he is? Do you know who you’re messing with?”

Alison could remember what she said word for word. Even now she felt faint at what she’d done, although clearly she didn’t realise it at the time. She remembered the woman’s reaction as well, no more than a faint, derisive smile and an imperceptible raising of her exquisite eyebrows.

“I can see from your behaviour that you are indeed she. I have been warned by my mistress what to expect.”

“Your mistress? Who the hell is your mistress and what does she want with me?”

“My mistress is Yang Xe; she has requested that you be acquired as a gift for her daughter. Her husband, my master, has organised that request and here you are.”

“What are you talking about? You can’t acquire people!”

“And yet here you are.”

Alison turned and made ready to flee this insanity. Behind her were two very large women, each carried a stick. That was her first ever taste of corporal punishment. While one of the women grabbed her, the second simply laid into her with her wicked cane. She squealed and fought but the women were far too strong. She received several stinging blows and ended up with her party dress virtually torn from her body.  And that was just the beginning.

Once the dishes were washed, dried and carefully stacked away she was allowed some soggy noodles and some tea as her breakfast. That was another part of her captivity that she found very hard. She was barely fed enough and she was constantly hungry. She wasn’t used to that at all. She was quite a big girl, much taller than any Chinese woman. She did have a tendency towards plumpness as well, although she didn’t like to admit it. She certainly wasn’t plump now though, far from it. Her lack of food and her unaccustomed physical labouring had given her a much more attractive physique. Once 8.30 came around she made her obedience to Miss Chang and when back to her room. Back in the cupboard she retrieved her other set of clothes.  She stripped off her maid uniform and hung it up tidily, she was allowed to wash it twice a week and this wasn’t one of those days.

Her other set of clothes was her true source of humiliation. Admittedly her maid uniform was demeaning but her other uniform was a school uniform. And not any old school uniform, but the actual uniform from her former school. Well, the junior version of it anyway. Quickly she pulled on the white ankle socks and navy blue knickers that were now her only form of underwear. Next a white long-sleeved shirt and a neatly knotted red and white striped junior school tie. Then a simple grey gymslip that reached to mid-thigh and finally her hair was tied in two pigtails with red and white ribbon. She pulled on her black shoes and then reached into the cupboard for the red blazer which she hastily buttoned up. Minutes later she tapped gently on a wooden door and entered the room. Bizarrely it was laid out in much the same way as she remembered from her school days, the desks, the pictures on the wall, even a globe on the teacher’s desk.

The essential difference was that the stern looking young woman behind the teacher’s desk was Chinese. This was Miss Zhao, the same Miss Zhao she had so grievously insulted in her first day of captivity. Alison hurried to stand too attention in front of her before bowing deeply from the waist, At first this situation had completely mystified her, were these people insane? Quickly however she had learned the error of her ways. The humiliating uniform, the lessons, even Miss Zhao herself began to make absolute sense. As her new Governess was constantly reminding her, she was extremely lucky. She had done an innocent person harm and now she was been given the opportunity to right that wrong. For the first couple of weeks she had been shocked to discover that the house she was incarcerated in belonged to the father of her blameless victim, Yang Mi. She had denied the accusation of course, which she now accepted was a mistake. Every time she refused to accept her responsibility she was taken to the central courtyard and beaten. She was stripped naked, forced into a pillory and simply thrashed by the two muscular cane-wielding women.

This punishment continued only until blubbering and begging she accepted that she had mistreated the young Chinese girl. She was then brought back in to Miss Zhao’s charge. Miss Zhao explained that unlike most enemies of the influential Yang clan she wouldn’t be simply executed in the central courtyard. She, Alison Templeman-Davies, had a chance to turn her life around. Miss Zhao earnestly requested that she should consider that option. That was when her new life had begun. Alison was now both kitchen maid at the Yang house and pupil to Miss Zhao. Between 6 and 9 she worked in the kitchen, from 9 to 3 she was a pupil in the classroom, and from 3 to 6 she worked wherever she was required to work. Miss Zhao explained to her that in order to turn her life around she would have to be re-educated. In Alison’s case that would involve being returned to her early school days where her previous teachers had quite clearly failed her. Miss Zhao, who it transpired had tutored Yang Mi, was to be her new Governess. She would endeavour to help Alison reassess her life.

And so it turned out. Alison was shocked and humiliated to be given an actual version of her junior school uniform. Junior rather than senior explained Miss Zhao because Alison’s behaviour didn’t warrant the senior version. It only took a few strokes of the cane for Alison to accept this situation. Miss Zhao was an extremely traditional sort of teacher. She simply demanded punctuality, politeness, and obedience. Alison had come to accept that Miss Zhao had only treated her harshly in the first weeks because she cared about her and it was for her own good. Her classroom diary for that period made several references to it,

“Today Miss Zhao caned me for disobedience. She required that I removed my own knickers and then present myself across her desk. She was good enough to award me six strokes because of my continual defiance in questioning her decisions. I deserved the punishment, and although it made me cry I accept that it will make me a better person.”

“Today I was caned across my hands by Miss Zhao, three strokes across each palm. The fault was entirely mine. I neglected to tie my own tie correctly. I am grateful to Miss Zhao for correcting my failure. I will endeavour not to repeat the offence.”

To reinforce the lesson she was required to wear a sign hung around her neck with a single word on it in Chinese, ‘disobedient’ perhaps, or ‘arrogant’, or maybe ‘rude’. All served to remind her, and everyone else, of her transgressions. When she sat alone on her lunch break or lesson break she was pointed to and giggled at by the other household servants. She had come to accept that this was good for her. She continually needed to be reminded of her arrogance and intransigence. As part of her self-appraisal she was encouraged to write letters of apology to various people. Chief among those was Yang Mi of course.

My esteemed mistress,

I now realise my treatment of you was most irregular. I accept that I must atone for my sins. I am currently working under the tutelage of my new Governess, Miss Zhao. Together we are endeavouring to improve my behaviour.

Your Servant,

Alison Templeman-Davies.

She was also required to write to Yang Mi’s mother,

Madame Yang,

Once again I am writing to you to apologise most profusely for my unacceptable behaviour regarding your daughter. I accept that I am a bully and that my character is in need of thorough reformation. My dear Governess, Miss Zhao has humbly requested that you might inform her of any particular punishment that you think may improve my attitude.

Your wretched servant,

Alison Templeman-Davies.

And several letters to Miss Zhao,

My Superior Governess,

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to help in my re-education. I realise that I am a poor pupil, unworthy of your time and patience. Nevertheless I intend to work as hard as possible in order to demonstrate my commitment to improving my own miserable character.-

Your Obedient Pupil,

Alison Templeman-Davies.

This lifestyle carried on for several weeks until on one morning there was buzz in the air. Alison noticed that the servants were even more intense in their duties. She had reported as usual to the kitchen but had been led by the hand to the classroom. There she was told the news that she had been dreading. Later that morning her mistress, Yang Mi, was on her way to the house accompanied by her mother. Alison was to be bathed and dressed and readied for the occasion. One of the maids led her to a beautifully appointed bathroom where she was carefully washed. Then she was taken to a fine bedroom where her junior school uniform, freshly laundered and ironed, was laid out for her. Once again the same maid dressed her with the utmost attention to detail. Finally a second maid attended to her makeup and tied her hair into two blonde pigtails with ribbons that matched her carefully knotted tie.

Stood at attention in the classroom, Alison could feel her knees trembling.

Subscribe to Lady2Maid Blog Newsletter