Story: A Betrayal Most Wicked. Chapter 4.

by Jackie J

There was little truth in what Jane had told her long-time rival. The understaffed Parole board in truth cared little for the welfare or future of ex-inmates beyond the mandatory six months, usually spent in a halfway house facility. There were no draconian conditions. Given a sponsor was found and all the forms were filled in correctly the Parole board were happy just to have an address. Jennifer couldn’t work in the financial sector that was true but being a maid? That wasn’t even mentioned on any of the paperwork that was eventually signed off. It was understood Jennifer would be merely staying as a guest at her friend’s house. Jennifer being a housemaid was only mentioned once in passing to the manager at the hostel when Jane visited. 

There would be six-monthly visits to check on the Parolee for a couple of years until they could be signed of as no risk but that was all. All curfew and conditions rarely applied beyond the initial six months period especially with white collar criminals. The non- disclosure agreement, the gagging order that was raised by Microck MD? The company had folded years ago, and any such agreements meant little and were no longer valid.  Jennifer did not know this and trusted what her friend had told her and, held in the seclusion of Brooklands, she was unlikely to ever know any different. 

Weeks passed and Jane was true to her word, the finely dressed executive hardly acknowledging the maid who served her needs. Guests to the home treating the housemaid with no less disdain. Weeks turned to months and Jenny’s laborious routines had become the norm. Miss Albright enjoyed having an obedient ex con for her skivvy never missing an opportunity to ridicule or belittle her. This amused Jane, although she never showed it, watching her housekeeper berate her maid. She remembered the confident Jennifer Robertson holding court issuing her directives at Microck MD in her designer suits, silk blouses and heels, the way she used to flick her long blonde hair off her shoulders. What a contrast, bereft of makeup, her boy like short hair, wearing her plain maid’s uniform and apron. Prison and now the constant harrying of her housekeeper was reducing the proud Jennifer Robertson into a shy nervous and withdrawn shadow of who she had been.  Jenny was becoming a most diligent maid, an obedient maid, a perfect maid, a maid that went about its work without complaint. Questioning Miss Albrights authority or instructions had long passed, and so had the regularity of humiliating spankings that she had endured.

Over a year in service to the Williams, Jenny, her now accepted name, looked long beyond her years it would take a stretch of the imagination to think the beautiful salon pampered Mistress of Brookland’s and its maid were at college together, the same age.

People can adapt, do adapt to their environment, especially with continued forceful encouragement to do so and Jennifer Robertson certainly had. There was little trace of who she once was, not only in body but more importantly in mind. Jenny had little thought of the past and certainly not of unearthing anything related to the fraud that she was convicted of it was as if the whole sorry episode had been washed from her mind. She was just a housemaid and content with her lot, this was her life and her waking thoughts were filled with nothing other than to serve her Mistress.

The world outside of Brooklands continued to turn, Troy and Janes business continued to prosper, and Jane slept easy knowing that the only possible path to the truth behind her delinquency lay in her maid, maid Jenny, a virtual captive who had succumbed to being willingly subjugated and muted to be confined beyond the high walls of Brooklands never to see the light of day.

Dinner parties at Brooklands were a regular event, either clients of, or managers of the business owned by Troy and Jane being regular visitors who often stayed over. This particular night Cloe and her partner were among the guests invited following her recent promotion. Cloe one of many ex Microck MD employees who had migrated to Longshore sureties. It was known with some amusement amongst Longshore sureties’ staff that  Mrs William’s and her husband had the fraudulent Jennifer Robertson an ex Divisional director of Microck MD as their maid and Cloe was anxious, like other employees before her, to see the ex- executive at her duties. Cloe, only a junior starting out her career when the sophisticated Miss Jennifer Robertson strode the corridors of power at Microck MD, was as surprised as everyone else in the company when she admitted, and it  was proved, she was nothing but a common thief.

Jenny, fresh from an admonishment by Miss Albright, having spent the afternoon preparing the evening meal, not that she had done anything particularly wrong, just that Martha enjoyed slapping her maid’s bare backside and of course could do so at will, took the coats from the arriving guests with an accompanying curtsy.  Cloe whispered to her partner walking down the hallway from the door.

“That’s her, the woman I told you about, the one who stole the money. Hard to think she was once a divisional director, quite high up. They have her working here as a maid, good of the Williams to find her a job after what she did. She looks a lot different in that maid’s uniform than the expensive business suit’s she used to wear. And she had such gorgeous long blonde hair! I hardly recognise her now.”

The six diners were served by an attentive maid and Cloe could not help but smirk at what had become of Miss Robertson, what other employees who had visited Brooklands had already told her. Always smartly dressed, Elegant and tall in her heels, hair and makeup perfect, full of confidence. Now, wearing a uniform of service a slight stoop and shuffling gait, her hair cropped no makeup or jewellery and a nervous demeanour, for sure it was true what she had heard she truly was nothing more than a common maid.

Jane, even after the many months she had kept Jennifer trapped at Brooklands, still relished demeaning her old rival at any and every opportunity, especially when guests included ex staff from Microck MD. Jenny was stood by the wall of the dining room her hands clasped across her apron awaiting instruction and Jane smiled at Cloe who was enjoying her roast duck speaking loud enough for her maid to hear.

“So, Cloe what do you think of my maid? No complaints I hope? Hard to think that stood by the wall was once your boss.”

Cloe was a little embarrassed but not overly so, she knew the woman was a thief and had been responsible for the demise of Microck MD. She deserved to be nothing but a maid. It served her right. Looking up from her plate Cloe turned her head and stared at the plain looking maid.

“No Mrs Williams, no complaints at all. In fact if I did not know better I would say she had always been a maid. How could that possibly have been anything else? And a senior executive, my boss. Well who would possibly believe that looking at her?”

Jane smirked staring across the room at her expressionless maid, Miss Albright had sucked the very soul from what was Jennifer Robertson. What stood by the wall was a mind numbed domestic drone fit for one purpose only to serve its betters.

The meal over and the dirty crockery and cutlery removed to the kitchens Jenny stood by the sink washing the pots and pans. The guests and hosts sat by the table with their drinks discussing business and in particular a large upcoming contract. A new company based in Hong Kong looking to make sizeable investments Jane and Troy already counting the commissions they could earn.

Having turned down the beds in the guest rooms and been dismissed by Miss Albright Jenny made her way to her quarters and, after another long and tiring day, was soon asleep on her bunk to await her six o’clock alarm. This was her established life now, any thoughts of being other than a housemaid to Mr and Mrs Williams becoming ever more distant.  

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