Story: What Annabella Wants Annabella Gets. Chapter 19.

by Jackie J

Having washed the pots after supper Annie joined Raymond and his father by the fire and started her sewing. Raymond smiled she was in full bloom and he could not wait for the baby to come. Raymond and his father shared a pipe and talked about the fences they had been replacing at the back of the top meadow. A more perfect scene of domestic bliss would be hard to find.

Despite the apparent tranquillity at Rose Cottage Annie had been troubled but kept it to herself. During intimate moments Raymond had naturally asked Annie about her life before coming to Sandowns. She only really knew what the Mistress had told her, the rest, there seemed to be no more. It was of course put down to her illness. There was nothing temporary about the effects of the amnesia Annie suffered, resulting from the brutal drug induced coma Lady Hogarth had subjected her maid to. Whilst she recovered memories of a fictitious past had been wickedly planted in her enfeebled mind. She was an orphan, she knew that, her Mistress had told her, she had been a maid at a large residence, she knew that her Mistress had told her, she had been found wandering and destitute by the Mistress and given employment at Sandowns. She had awoken some nights following fanciful dreams of being in a large mansion, but not as a maid, but more like a young mistress. The dreams had mainly followed visits by the beautiful Miss Annabella who regularly visited her Aunt at Sandowns, but the medicine her Mistress gave her had always calmed her and stopped the nightmares. She wished she could remember more to tell her love, but she could not. Raymond always told her not to worry, he loved her for what she was and who she was, not what had happened in her past. A loving placation of her worries but worry she did.

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Story: What Annabella Wants Annabella Gets. Chapter 18.

By Jackie J

The Constable visited Buckshire manor, the next day, following his trip to Whitegate, telling an amused Lady Hogarth of the Countesses unplanned fate at the hands of the sadistic Governess-Matron at Whitegate prison. His description of what he had witnessed from the viewing rail raised some concerns with Annabella, but these were quickly dispelled by Lady Hogarth.

“Annabella, Constance made her choice, be your maid or spend time in prison, a month you say Constable, at least a month before you can arrange a transfer or even speak with her. How bad can that be, perhaps she will come to her senses, accept a new life here at Buckshire manor being a maid, better than what you have described constable.”

Maud chuckled.

“Gagged you say, sounds painful, and caned, and her lovely hair, shorn like a sheep perfect. You have nothing to reproach yourself constable, this is all of her own doing please keep us informed.”

Sat in what were the Countesses chambers Annabella watched her mother sifting through the Countess’s jewellery selecting pieces that took her fancy. Her brother had paid for all on display after all, not the Countess.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 25-26.

by BigBird74

Dahlia’s evening was short and punctuated only by her evening meal and a visit from her doctor. Her body ached with an unfamiliar exhaustion. Though she was used to exercise, the same could not be said for hard, real work. The few times that evening she had risen from her bed, she had felt a twinge in the small of her back, a sign perhaps of having overdone things a little. Laying on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts and contemplating what had been a highly unusual day. Stretching her spine, she lengthened the arch of her back and ran her hands up and down her svelte figure. Pausing at her belly, she slid her fingertips over her flat stomach.

Closing her eyes, she sunk her fingers in as far as they would go, her taut, muscular stomach providing instant resistance. She felt kind of disappointed: there was no evidence of her earlier, substantial lunch, no bulge, no fatty softness. She pictured how it would feel instead to touch soft flesh layered on wider hips and a fuller belly. The idea sparked heat within her nether regions and she let her mind wander down this formerly forbidden trail.

Story: What Annabella Wants Annabella Gets. Chapter 17.

by Jackie J

The Bishop and Swinney, having left Buckshire manor shortly after the departure of the Constables and their prisoner, Lady Hogarth and Annabella sat with Lord Edmund. Lord Edmund still coming to terms with how Constance had been spirited away by the constables to Whitegate prison.

Annabella smiled.

“You know Edmund, if I suspected you were involved in seeking my demise, to become one of the Countesses maid’s, you would be joining her at Whitegate. I understand how she manipulated you and your performance earlier, well I would be lying if I said I was not impressed, but to business.”

“You will continue with your work for Buckshire manor, much the same as you did for my father the Earl, however, I will expect you to cover all the tenants not just those you had selected. Your allowance will remain unchanged and will remain so. I warn you though, any contact with the Countess and your allowance will cease and I will have no problem in publicising your adulterous relationship with Constance during my father’s illness. The consequences for you which you are well aware on both counts.”

Despite Lord Edmunds explanation, of how the Countess had contrived to have him to her bed, Maud could find no pity or forgiveness for his shameless acts of betrayal of her brother and suspected his adulterous affair had not brought its own pleasures.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 23-24.

by BigBird74

23.

Sooner or later, Dahlia knew there was an important line she would approach and, at that moment, she would have to take a decision whether or not to cross it. A bit like Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, it would mark the moment she took this a step farther than would be ‘advisable’. A game is a game, a controlled experiment in a secluded place another, but this was fast developing into something beyond that, something that may have lasting consequences. She wondered when that Rubicon moment might be? Would she even know when it had happened?

‘Could it be now?’ Dahlia mused as she sat in the cleaners’ room looking down at the food left there for her lunch. She had expected to eat in her room. But when she had returned there earlier, Ms Nechita pounced on her from somewhere close, as though she had been waiting for her.

“You are not allowed in there. That room is for patients only. You are cleaner,” she exclaimed. Dahlia searched her face to see if she could determine whether or not she was serious. Did she really not know I was a patient here? Confused I nodded, agreeing with her. “You have lunch now. Make the most of it. I will come find you in half an hour”, she barked at me, clearly not wanting to waste a moment longer on me than was needed.

As I wandered back along the corridor, I turned to see if she was watching me. As if to emphasise that there was no entering the room, she turned the key on the door locking it shut, making a scene of placing the key in her top pocket.

Story: What Annabella Wants Annabella Gets. Chapter 16.

by Jackie J

The intruders left the Countesses chambers making their way to the parlour with only Annabella left in the room.

Constance glared at Annabella pulling a sheet around herself.

“Annabella for goodness sake what is going on why are they here the Bishop? the Constable, our family solicitor that grubby worm of a man Swinney? Allowing them to come up into my chambers like they did? And you, I thought you were staying in London, why are you back at Buckshire?”

Annabella needed to keep her composure; the guidance given to her by her mother making sure she did.

“Look, Constance some things need resolving, that is why I am back, and they are here. I never considered you would be entertaining your lover; this is shameless behaviour.”

Annabella turned to Lord Edmund who was buttoning his shirt.

“You Edmund, my father not long to his grave and you here in his home doing this, it is despicable.”

Lord Edmund having been instructed to do exactly has he had by Annabella and Lady Hogarth looked awkward now sliding into his boots and knew his script.

“Annabella I am so sorry you have found us like this, Constance, your mother, was meant to tell, you don’t understand.”

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 21-22.

by BigBird74

21.

The rippling electricity that filled her body made Dahlia breathe in short, shallow breaths. She peered left and right down to opposite ends of the corridor. From her brief tour of the house, Dahlia could tell that her room was situated in one of two wings. She stepped from the room a little further, still nervous of being ‘seen’ in this dress.

Just as her nerves were starting to jangle, she could hear the clip of heels on the solid wooden flooring, approaching her from behind. She spun around to see a woman approaching her. This being an old house, the corridors were dimly lit with only a little natural light let in through the small windows. Dahlia froze. She did not recognise the woman and, for a moment, debated in her head whether or not to duck back into her room. But that would look terribly odd!

“Petra?” The woman asked in an alien accent. “I am looking for Petra.” Dahlia’s fingers twitched. She was still holding the name tag and decided now was the time to lift it into place.

“That….. that is me,” she answered with little thought as she pinned the badge to the lapel of her dowdy dress. She was still mildly drowsy from the aftereffects of the tablets and her mind was not at its sharpest.

“Hmm. You were not quite what I expected,” the woman replied, surveying Dahlia intimately, her dark brown eyes scanning her face and body. The two of them stood beside a window, the daylight revealing the older woman’s worn, dark features. “I am Ms Nechita. I am the head of cleaning for the clinic.” She paused, still weighing Dahlia up. “I understand that you are here for ‘training’ and induction.” Her voice betrayed a slight measure of disbelief, as though, in spite of Dahlia’s drab uniform and name tag, she was somehow talking to the wrong person.

Story: What Annabella Wants Annabella Gets. Chapter 15.

by Jackie J

Poor and wretched as their lives in truth were, Raymond and Annie could not be happier. Annie, the most competent of maids, was now seldom scolded by Lady Hogarth’s housekeeper Mrs Scripts. Since Annie’s illness Mrs Scripts had seen a change in her maid, hard to put her finger on but Annie just seemed more settled, she put this in the main down to her romance with Raymond. When Annie’s pregnancy became apparent the housekeeper thought her Mistress would have the poor girl out on the streets.  A pregnancy out of wedlock was bad enough but keeping a maid with child was seldom the case if ever. 

Strangely Lady Hogarth however seemed pleased for Annie and Raymond and there was no question of her maid being dismissed. Annie now living in Raymond and his father’s cottage, A walkable distance from the manor, and Annie was always punctual to attend to her duties. Having returned from the local village, with the parcel she had collected for her Mistress at the blacksmiths, Mrs Scripts smiled watching and listening to Annie sat with Gwen at the kitchen table sipping on their mugs of tea discussing the days rota. Annie had taught Gwen much and, whilst not up to the standard of Annie, Gwen had become a much more competent and confidant maid. What made Mrs Scripts smile, listening to her two maids chattering, was the vocabulary of Annie and how she spoke, it had changed considerably since her arrival at Sandowns, more so since her illness. It was obvious to Mrs Scripts, that in her previous employment, the poor girl must have been forced to act quite refined for her Mistress or Master, using big words and talking like she did. With no such conditions a Sandowns she had reverted to her obviously more natural way of speaking, no big words and losing that refined accent, which had stopped the teasing she suffered when she arrived.

Emily, Annabella, of course had not travelled to London has she had told the Countess, she was back at Sandowns with her mother. Annie was always pleased when Miss Annabella visited Sandowns and served tea for her Mistress and guest. Annie stared at Miss Annabella sat in her lovely dress, her flowing golden hair hanging on her shoulders, she was beautiful. There was something about Miss Annabella, Annie felt there was a bond between them, she did not know what it was, and the dreams she had of actually being Miss Annabella no longer haunted her, although those dreams had been so lucid. Annie had never mentioned those dreams to anyone and thankfully for Annie, since her illness, that fantasy and the dreams were now over.