Michael sat for what seemed an age waiting for Pauline to return, stunned by the revelation that Jacqueline, his lover, was now the maid of one of his neighbour’s friends. He had been shown the pictures of Jacqueline’s debauchery, he knew she had been summarily dismissed by the company for that but it just didn’t make sense! Jacqueline, now an actual working maid... And why had she not been in contact with him, what went wrong with their scheme that was going so well? Had Catherine found out about what Jacqueline and he had planned, is that why she is not answering his calls and where is she? Michael’s mind churned sat waiting for Pauline to return nervously sipping on his wine.
At the door Pauline embraced Camille and they lingered over a welcoming kiss, Camille slipped from her coat and giggled seeing Pauline dressed in just her slip.
“No dress this evening then, Pauline?”
Pauline giggled with her friend and smiled realising that Michael’s dress that she had been wearing was now back draped around sweet Michelle sat quivering in the lounge.
Camille pointed to her maid stood by the door.
“What shall I do with this?”
Pauline looked Jackie up and down and smiled at the scheming Miss Jacqueline Frobisher in her maids regalia, her hair now cut short, her face gaunt, her eyes sunken and empty, a good few pounds heavier than when she strode proud and confidently through the offices of Dawson and Laing in her heels and tailored business suits. The harsh treatment and subjugation at the hands of her new masters having stripped the sophisticated Jacqueline Frobisher of all she was and all she could have been along with any self worth that remained to become the timid obedient maid that now stood in the doorway of the Crabtree residence.
“Bring it in. She can serve at table. Just wait here whilst I find a dress to wear. I won’t be a moment”
And she wasn’t: Pauline soon descended the stairs in one of Catherine Lucas’s distinctive fine dresses.
Camille followed Pauline into the kitchen trooping her maid behind her. Catherine looked up forlornly from her final preparation of the starters staring at the beautiful dress that she herself once wore that Miss Crabtree, her mistress, was now wearing, Catherine Lucas, her lifestyle and fine expensive clothes becoming ever a more distant fading memory in the mind of Miss Crabtree’s maid Cathy.
Cathy then looked across at Jackie her once maid and mistress stood meekly by the side of her Mistress, Miss Camille with her head lowered. Jackie back wearing the same dowdy maid’s uniform she had been allocated when she took up the position of maid for the Lucas household.
Pauline inspected the starters and smiled.
“These look very nice Cathy, Miss Camille’s maid will serve table and you will remain in the kitchen until called is that understood?”
Cathy curtsied.
“Yes Miss”
Camille smirked at her maid.
“Stand here girl until you are told to serve dinner.”
Jackie lowered a curtsy and spoke her meek mantra.
“Yes Mistress.”
Pauline and Camille left their maids in the kitchen and returned to the lounge a nervous Michael turning to face them when they entered and Pauline chuckled.
“So Camille, this is my neighbour Catherine Lucas’s husband dressed especially for the evening, he will be joining us for dinner.”
Michael blushed and Camille walked towards a fidgeting uneasy Michael who squirmed smoothing down his dress over his knees.
Pauline joined Camille and smiled.
“Pretty isn’t he I have decided to call him Michelle for this evening now please take a seat Camille Michelle is anxious to know how your maid Jackie is.”
Pauline chuckled.
“Just so we are all on the same page Camille I think I have already explained that Michael, well Michelle, was the lover of your maid Jackie before she came to work for you. Jackie and Michelle had planned to subjugate my neighbour Catherine Lucas, embezzle her wealth and have the poor women for their maid and they almost got away with it, almost.”
Michael stared at Pauline visibly distressed.
“Don’t look so shocked Michelle we know everything, your lover confessed all to me before she took up being a maid full time. Oh yes I knew Miss Jacqueline Frobisher was no maid, she used to be quite a high flyer at your company, a successful business women I understand. Well her days of running your legal department are over she is a maid for real now.”
Michael started to stand a mixture of anger and concern on his face only to be pushed back down on the sofa in a shimmer of his frills.
“You are going nowhere unless it is to prison so you just sit still and listen.”
Michael was panicking and spluttered.
“Look it wasn’t my idea it was Jacqueline, she planned it all. She had me dress up for her; she had photographs of me I had to go along with it.”
Pauline laughed.
“Well Michelle, I can assure you that Jacqueline Frobisher’s days of scheming are over and for that matter so are yours. Your lover was successful in part, you will have known that she managed to drain Catherine’s accounts but of course she will have no need of those funds in her new occupation. No doubt you are wondering what happened to your poor wife Catherine after your lover switched roles with her, had her wearing her maids uniforms, disfigured her and stripped her of her wealth? We will come to that later the question now is what to do with you, sweetie?"
Michael knew he was in trouble. Pauline seemed to know everything his lover was now a maid, their scheme was in tatters and now sat in his lingerie and beautiful dress, bewigged and made up he was at the mercy of his neighbour, but what had happened to Catherine? The last he had heard from Jacqueline was that all was on schedule, she had transferred the money from the accounts and had Catherine for her full time maid, what went wrong, how did Pauline Crabtree get involved?
Pauline topped up the wine glasses letting the gravity of Michael’s situation sink in.
“So Michelle you can see my dilemma should I alert the authorities let your company know of your scheme and of course your dalliance with your feminine side? I doubt you would want Jacqueline and yourself to face a lengthy spell in jail, for I am sure that is what will happen if all that you two had planned came out? But perhaps there is another way of resolving this matter.”
“Firstly you must forget about your wife Jacqueline’s plans for her were too well advanced to save her from her fate. She is a maid just like you both planned but she is my maid not yours. But to keep the authorities out of this let us say that she found out about you and Jacqueline took her money and left and why wouldn’t she? Jacqueline having been disgraced and fired from her position at your company decided to hide away becoming a common housemaid. That just leaves you, the house is in your name and you will have your salary and given we can conclude matters this evening no one need ever know about your scheme or pretty Michelle? So how does that sound Michelle?”
Michael gulped on his wine listening to the revelation that his neighbour had taken his wife to be her maid, the women he had seen earlier cleaning the windows in Islamic dress must have been his wife? His lover Jacqueline, what had they done to her to turn her into a working maid? There was no mention of Catherine’s money did these two scheming bitches have that too? What could he do, he had to agree to Pauline’s plan or he would be ruined or worse, the thought of prison not far from his mind. Michael looked at Pauline then at Camille.
“So you wouldn’t say anything, I could carry on as normal”
Pauline stood and smiled.
“That right all I need to know is that you are happy with the arrangements I have described”
Michael stuttered his reply.
“Well yes, it seems I have no alternative, I wouldn’t want Jacqueline to go to prison. But Catherine she said nothing this afternoon when I saw her, what have you done to her? ”
Pauline drained her glass and smirked at Michaels feigned concern for his lover and wife.
“I think it is a little late to worry about Catherine, you planned for her to be a maid and a maid she is and forever will be. Jacqueline Frobisher pretended to be a maid when she came to your house but with some encouragement and training she does not have to pretend anymore, she is a perfect maid now isn’t that right Camille”
Camille sniggered.
“Yes Pauline the poor girl struggled at first but we overcame those failings with some strict discipline but let Michelle judge for himself when is ex lover serves the dinner that his wife is cooking for us this evening.”
Michael’s eyes went wide and his face filled with concern when it was revealed that not only was his wife cooking the meal but his ex lover would be serving it. His wife the vivacious and vain Catherine Lucas and his lover the sophisticated career woman Jacqueline Frobisher both entrapped and reduced to the rank of housemaid’s by his neighbour and her friend Camille.
Pauline laughed seeing Michael’s expression.
“Think yourself lucky it is not you I have wearing a maid’s uniform and serving dinner or is that something you would secretly like Michelle, Michelle the pretty maid it could be arranged”
Michael gulped at the prospect and shyly shook his head.
“No Pauline, please not that. I will do whatever you say.”
Pauline offered more wine to Camille and smiled topping Michael’s glass.
“Good, then we have an accord. Shall we go through for dinner, LADIES?”
Wonderful story, was expecting Michelle becoming a maid too...
ReplyDeleteI, too, was expecting Michael to wind up trapped permanently as Michelle.
DeleteBut perhaps he will, by the end of the story -- entrapped by some further twist of events....
Still an amazing story, can't wait for the next part :)
ReplyDelete