Story: Maid Jenny and Her Mistress. Chapter 6.

by Jackie J

Having been served breakfast then attended during her morning bath and helped to dress by her maid, without a word of what had occurred in the kitchens following her return from Meadow Hall, Jenny smiled at Marianne whilst she read through the letter she had composed to be sent to Mrs Catherine Wilberforce accepting her invitation to attend her annual garden festival.

“Perfect Jenny. Just perfect. We must get this in the post without delay.”

Marianne watched an extremely meek maid Lucy enter the parlour to serve tea, curtsy, and then retreat back to the kitchens.

Marianne chuckled.

“Your maid looks rather glum this morning. What is wrong with her?”

Marianne laughed but not without a degree of veiled concern, when Jenny explained about the previous evening when she returned to Long Lawns.

“In front of you? My goodness! What is happening to this woman? We may have to seek help for her when this is over. Don’t worry about the ball gown. I appreciate the gesture, but trust me, you would look good in sack cloth."

Jenny blushed at the complement then frowned at the mention of this being over, this being a life that she was not ready to relinquish.

“Marianne, remember when we joked about Lucy and what she gets up to? You know, like last night, perhaps if we had done what we joked about it would not have got this bad. You said at the time it would be a fitting punishment for her. I think we should do it.”

Marianne sat back in her chair and sipped on her tea looking at Jenny contemplating what she was suggesting. This was her friend Lucinda. Could she really do this to her? At the outset of Lucinda’s scheme Marianne had never contemplated the effect Lucinda’s stupidity to take on the role of a house maid would have on her. Yes, during the early days, making her conform to Lucinda’s own rules regarding the maid of Long Lawns was fun, especially when she meekly complied even signing a maid’s agreement in her own name. 

The revelation of the effect Jenny’s chastisement, humiliation and spanking had on her was the time she had thought to conduct her own social experiment: considering if a maid could become a lady then why not a lady to become a maid? Would this be a step too far? Would the insidious emotional torment be too much? Would she revolt at the implied shame and all her work with Jenny be for nothing? Or, would it reduce Lucinda’s self-worth even lower, perhaps beyond redemption? Would it really be possible to exhibit and parade Lucinda Lancaster to be no more than a common maid, to display maid Lucy alongside her Mistress, her former maid Jenny, now Miss Jenny Osborn, the cousin of Lucinda Lancaster? The prospect sent a tingle of excitement comfortingly rippling through her. Why not? Indeed, why not?

Marianne placed her cup and saucer down onto the low table and smiled.

“Very well, Jenny. You will have your way. I have an idea. I will call at the convent on my way back to Meadow Hall.”

“Now, young lady. If you are to attend Catherine’s garden festival, we better find some suitable books for you to read. Probably unlikely, I know, but do you draw or paint?"

Jenny stood to pull the call cord for her maid to clear the tea pot and cups, her mind back to her childhood pressing and drawing wild flowers.

“Yes, a little. It is some time ago but yes I can draw and paint.”

When Lucy entered to retrieve the used crockery, Marianne gave her a concerned look.

“I believe you have been a very naughty girl, Lucy. Very naughty. Your Mistress is not pleased with you, not pleased at all. You are to receive further punishment for what you have done. You have let me down, you have let your Mistress down and most of all have let yourself down.”

Lucy curtsied. She was truly sorry for burning her Mistress's beautiful gown but knew better than to offer excuses or try to explain.

“Yes, Mrs Sunderland.”

Lucy gathered the tea things onto her tray and headed for the sanctuary of the kitchen. She had much to do that day: the laundry, scrubbing out the rear yard, beating the rugs and carpets and preparing the provisions lists for the week, along with meals and general cleaning.

Marianne and Jenny retired to the library to study and sketch plants and flowers in preparation for Jenny’s attendance at Catherine Frobisher’s garden festival.

Marianne had some things to collect from town and take back to her home but would return for dinner to quiz Jenny on what she had learned about shrubs and border plants and inspect her sketches.

Whilst Jenny studied, her mind was distracted with thoughts that her good life would come to an end. Everything was in Marianne’s hands: when she decides to call a halt to this, it would be over and Jenny would have no say in that. Marianne had intimated earlier about recuperation for her friend even though she had been the one who had encouraged Jenny to treat her the way she had, made her like she was. Marianne had developed and continued to develop her into a lady but it had become obvious, although Marianne had not actually shared her intent with Jenny, that through the willing cooperation of Jenny, Marianne was no less engaged in developing her friend Lucinda Lancaster into a common house maid.

The visit to the local convent had gone well. Marianne was not overtly religious but supported the many fund-raising events held at the convent. Mother superior, Sister Agnes, was most concerned with what Mrs Sunderland had told her about the Long Lawns maid and had agreed enthusiastically to confront what she suspected to be the obvious possession of the poor woman. Marianne, Sister Agnes and three other nuns prayed together before Marianne departed.

In preparation for Sister Agnes’s agreed visit to Long Lawns, Marianne called Lucy to the study.

Lucy entered and curtsied

“Mrs Sunderland?”

Marianne offered a soft smile. Was this really her friend Lucinda, the Mistress of Long Lawns? Many pounds heavier since her agreement to be the maid at Long Lawns and it showed: not her swelled hips, ass and lost waist cloaked and hidden within her baggy shapeless black uniform, but in her face - her plump cheeks, quite rosy beneath her floppy cap, her short black hair hardly showing. The weight gain coupled with her constant weariness from her mind-numbing labours aged the once pretty and delicate Lucinda Lancaster well beyond her years. Six months into her contrived reversed role at Long Lawns the once smart sophisticated Lucinda Lancaster was outwardly hardly recognisable as the woman she used to be.

“Take a seat, Lucy. We need to talk.”

Lucy sat and Marianne started to spin her Machiavellian web of deceit. 

“Lucy, I am not going to question why you find your chastisement and punishment by your Mistress, or me for that matter, so arousing, but I do worry for you, I really do.  I have asked Sister Agnes from the local convent to come and speak with you, help you. Miss Osborne is doing so well developing into the lady that Lucinda Lancaster wished her to be. We all have our part to play in Miss Osborne’s continued development and we must all work to this end, mustn’t we?

Lucy silently nodded her agreement.

“Good, now when Sister Agnes comes to speak with you, I am sure that maid Lucy will accept her godly words. Remember, she will be here to help you.”

Whilst Sister Agnes had met Lucinda Lancaster fleetingly at charity events, Marianne was confident the meek mentally and physically transformed Lucinda Lancaster would be accepted to be no other than whom she now portrayed, maid Lucy, the housemaid of Long Lawns.

On arrival at Long Lawns, Sister Agnes was greeted by Marianne who introduced her to Miss Osborne. Jenny, convincingly confident in her role, explained the embarrassing problem with her maid.  Sister Agnes listened to Jenny, confirming what Marianne had previously told her, shaking her head at the revelations.

“Ladies, I suggest first that we pray for guidance. Please join me.”

Rising from their knees, Jenny pulled the call cord to summon her maid before the three of them retook their seats.

Lucy entered the parlour and curtsied.

“Mistress?”

Jenny stood.

“Lucy, this is Sister Agnes from the convent. She is here to speak with you.”

Sister Agnes stared sympathetically at the maid before standing from her chair and approaching Lucy, placing her hand on her lowered head.

“May the spirit of the Lord dwell within you this day and always.”

Sister Agnes turned to Jenny and Marianne.

“Please leave us now.”

Marianne and Jenny left the parlour and Sister Agnes told Lucy to lower to her knees.

Lucinda Lancaster was not religious but Lucy sank nervously to her knees without question looking up at the stern-faced nun stood above her. The Lord’s Prayer had been ingrained in her whilst a child and she recited this prayer under the guidance of Sister Agnes.

Sister Agnes was no threat. She was here at Long Lawns to help her, wasn’t she?

Lucy felt at ease to talk freely and openly of her feelings and Sister Agnes showed little if any emotion whilst Lucy told her of the strange feelings that ravaged her whist being berated and punished by her Mistress. Sister Agnes was somewhat confused and concerned with the suddenness that these perverse cravings overtook this poor maid. Lucy had obviously been a maid for many years why only in the last four months had she debased herself and openly in front of her Mistress? Mrs Sunderland had been right to seek her help for this poor woman. This situation had all the hall marks of a possession. The devil was in this child and that needed to be contained and removed.

More prayer and blessings followed before Sister Agnes, looking directly into Lucy’s eyes, spoke softly.

“So, my child, I can help you but before we continue, is there something you need to tell me? Anything else you wish to unburden to me to confess? I sense you have other worries on your mind.”

Lucinda Lancaster was slowly being buried beneath and absorbed within her self-inflicted persona of Maid Lucy. She had previously, albeit in passing, met with the mother superior from the local convent, who now only recognised her to be maid Lucy, not the Mistress of Long Lawns.  Sister Agnes was outwardly considerate and kindly. Surely, Lucinda Lancaster would break clear of the invisible shackles she had so willingly slipped into, shackles that were binding her into the service of her once maid. Confess now, tell this kind lady what was truly happening, that this was all a deception. What about the uncontrollable urges she had just confessed to? Better it was a common maid, how could Lucinda Lancaster possibly admit to such disgraceful self-debasement?

Sister Agnes offered a weak smile.

“Well, my child, what else burdens you?” 

Lucy looked up from her knees into the questioning eyes, offering her salvation and emancipation, a return to a life growing more distant by the day. Speak now, tell her, tell her everything. But Miss Osborne is doing so well... It would ruin everything!

Lucy lowered her head.

“Nothing, Holy Sister. Nothing. I must learn to be a better maid.”

Sister Agnes looked down on the poor kneeling maid. She must help her exercise the demons within her.

“Stay there, child. I will call your Mistress and Mrs Sunderland.”

Jenny and Marianne entered the parlour and Jenny smirked seeing her once Mistress knelt submissively, her head lowered at the feet of Sister Agnes. Lucinda had missed her chance to end this pretence and her confessor, convinced of her possession, would unknowingly draw the last vestiges of Lucinda Lancaster from the humble maid at her feet and secure Miss Osborn’s unquestioned position, that of Mistress of Long Lawns.

Marianne spoke.

“Well, Sister, what can we do?”

Sister Agnes put a gentle hand on the maid’s head.

“You have done well to call me Mrs Sunderland and hopefully not too late. This poor wretch must return with me to the convent. I have no doubt that Lucy is possessed and the evil must be purged from her. The devil has many tricks but with prayer and confinement at the convent the sisters and I will not be fooled and your maid will be returned no longer a bride of Satan.”

Jenny and Marianne looked at each other, then at a bemused looking Lucy, then back at Sister Agnes. Marianne needed to save her friend from such an ordeal of Sister Agnes’s proposed exorcism in the confines of the convent. Marianne had joked with Jenny about the application of a chastity device, known to be worn by nuns at the convent, but what Sister Agnes was proposing... This was something else it was getting out of hand.

Jenny having contained her amusement forced a look of convincing concern and spoke before Marianne could intervene.

“Well, Sister, if that is what must be done to free my maid of this infliction then you have my blessing to proceed.”

By complete coincidence a cold breeze wafted into the room from an open window and Sister Agnes grabbed Lucy by her arm and roughly raised her to her feet.

“We must leave. You are not safe here.”

Marianne stared dumbstruck at her friend being marched from the room by a zealous Sister Agnes. The main door to the residence closed. Lucinda Lancaster was gone, given over into the clutches of the local convent for her purification.

Marianne stared at Jenny in disbelief.

“Jenny, what have you done? Agreeing to that? Who knows what they will do to Lucinda at the convent?”

Jenny smirked.  

“Lucinda? Lucinda? Remember, Marianne, my cousin is travelling abroad, the mother superior of St Catherine’s Convent has taken my maid Lucy to purge her of her perverse pleasures, why would you think to mention my cousin?”

Jenny chuckled.

“I am sure my cousin would be truly mortified if she knew how this maid had been behaving in such a wanton fashion. You brought Sister Agnes here, Marianne, and she is obviously convinced my maid is possessed. Are you telling me you are happy seeing Lucy diddling with herself each time she is punished? Are you? ”

Marianne sat, a little surprised at Jenny’s assertiveness, but she had taught her to be so, hadn’t she?

“No, of course not, but that if, what if Lucin.., sorry I mean Lucy breaks down and tells Sister Agnes who she really is?”

Jenny smiled.

“Really, why did she not do that before, just now whilst Sister Agnes spoke with her? Remember what Sister Agnes said, the devil has many tricks, I doubt the Mother Superior of St Catherine’s Convent or her Nun’s will believe a word of such nonsense if she hears it!”

Marianne shrugged her shoulders and relived her tension with a giggle.

“Well, what is done is done. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.”

Jenny walked to the parlour door.

“Shall we continue with the sketching of the primroses I am working on then, Marianne?”

Marianne stood and smiled.

“Yes, yes of course.”

Subscribe to Lady2Maid Blog Newsletter