Royal Flush Ch. 01

Once all the accessories were removed Andrea helped Tamsin out of the outfit. As the lacing was undone Tamsin felt as if she could breathe again and, when the dress was finally removed she stood, naked, flexing her body and enjoying the freedom of movement. Only a few hours ago she would have been shy doing this in front of Andrea but, after what she had been through, she didn't care anymore.

"Oh, and sort that out before tomorrow," Andrea said, pointing at Tamsin's groin.

"What?"

"The fanny fluff," Andrea explained.

"Fanny fluff?"

"Your pubes, dummy. In case you hadn't noticed every single 'slave' in every single picture I've seen has had a full Brazilian. We ought to get you properly waxed but there's not enough time. If you shave yourself tomorrow morning it should be good enough but, for god's sake don't cut yourself. It's the details like that that count."

Tamsin just nodded. This was one more indignity she was going to have to suffer for the sake of this story. Sure, she understood that one of them had to play the submissive but, at that moment, she was overcome with a wave of self pity, a wave of 'why me?' She turned to her clothes which she had left folded on the bed and started to get dressed.

"And, for Pete's sake, make sure you hide your normal clothes tomorrow. I can't see any reason why Lady Mary should come into the bedroom but, if she does, jeans and a gay pride tee shirt dumped all over the bed does not fit with the image."

"Yes, Ma'am," Tamsin replied bitterly.

"And that's another point. Again, if it all goes to plan you'll be gagged for the entire time she's here but, if for some reason you're not, then I can't be doing with all that 'Mistress' bollocks. You'll refer to me as 'Miss'."

"Yes, Miss," Tamsin's tone was hardly any better.

"Look, it wasn't my idea that you should play the submissive, it was Angus's. If you have any problems then I suggest that you take them up with him. In the meanwhile we're stuck doing this together so you might as well make some effort."

Tamsin bit back her response, turned back to the bed and carried on getting dressed. The suggestion that she wasn't making an effort really hurt. Andrea was being so unfair, she wasn't the one suffering the indignities, she wasn't the one with blisters all over her feet, she wasn't the one who was going to have to parade around in that ridiculous outfit. Tamsin could feel herself tearing up at the injustice of it all. She tried to hide this away but, inevitably, Andrea noticed.

"Look, I know I'm riding you hard but you'll thank me tomorrow when you have to do it for real," Andrea said in a rare flash of sympathy. "Just keep your eye on the prize. If we pull this one off... when we pull this one off, we'll hit the big time."

Tamsin looked at Andrea and gave the ghost of a smile.

"Come on, we've done enough for today Time to be heading home," Andrea continued. "We'll meet up back here at nine tomorrow, OK?"

"Yeah, that works for me," Tamsin agreed as she finished getting dressed.

The next morning Tamsin was quaking with nerves as she arrived at the Mayfair flat. She'd spent what had remained of the previous evening having a long, hot bath, followed by as much of a complete makeover as she could manage. Shaving her pubic hair had been awkward and she had ended up sitting on the edge of the bath with her make-up mirror in one hand and a pair of tweezers in the other but, in the end, she had completely depilated her pubic region and was, as the old saying went, as smooth as a baby's bottom. It was a strange feeling and, when she looked at herself in the mirror, felt open and exposed. She was shy enough about her body as it was, this just made things worse. What sort of girl shaved herself down there?

But, if she were shy about being naked in front of a lover, how much worse was she in for today. There was no way she would be able to serve tea wearing that stupid outfit without displaying her all. Indeed, that was the whole point of the thing. She was on the verge of copping out but, as Angus had made quite clear, her job and, effectively, her career, depended on getting this one right. If she was going to be a journalist then she couldn't afford to make a mess of a big break like this one, whatever the cost.

She rang the front door bell, Andrea let her in and they went through to the lounge where Andrea had her notes on Paarl spread out across the coffee table. Tamsin could tell that she had been studying hard and, although Andrea had her 'confident' face on, Tamsin could tell that she was just as nervous.

"Last minute revision?" Tamsin asked.

"It's all right for you," Andrea replied with a hint of bitterness. "All you've got to do is serve the tea. I've got to talk intelligently about our life in Paarl. We've no real idea what time she's arriving. It could be any time between ten and midday. I guess we had best get into costume."

"Can we leave the shoes until the last possible minute? You should see the state of my feet this morning. The later we leave it, the better I'll be able to walk when I'm serving the tea."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Andrea agreed and, together, they went through to the bedroom to get changed. Tamsin was amazed when Andrea pulled out of the wardrobe a brand new Armani suit.

"Where on earth did you get that?" she asked.

"You're not the only one who needs to be in uniform. I've got to make a good impression. After all, I can't greet her wearing jeans and a tee shirt."

Once again Tamsin felt she was getting the short end of the stick. Much as she wouldn't have wanted the Armani at least it wasn't the stupid maid's outfit but, as ever, Andrea's logic was impeccable. She returned to the task in hand and continued to get undressed. Once they were both changed they put away the clothes they had arrived in and tidied around the bedroom. It wasn't until Andrea was completely convinced that they had done all they could that they returned to the lounge. While they waited, Andrea asked Tamsin to take the notes on Paarl and quiz her to make sure she had committed everything to mind. The tension was almost unbearable and it was hard to stop giggling at the thought of what they were about to do.

It was nigh on eleven o'clock when the phone rang. Andrea looked at Tamsin as if to say 'here we go' and answered the call.

"Ah, Emma, it's Lady Mary here. We'll be with you in five minutes it that's OK."

"Certainly, Lady Mary," Andrea answered and, without even saying goodbye, Lady Mary hung up the phone.

"Quick, she's coming," Andrea said and the two women were near to panic as they rushed to the bedroom and fitted Tamsin with both the shoes and the gag. When everything was in place Andrea took the crop off the wall, lifted the back of Tamsin's skirt and gave her three quick stripes across her backside.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for," Tamsin screamed, or rather she didn't. Gagged as she was, the words were little more than a few strangled grunts. Her backside really hurt and she would have liked to have rubbed it better but the chain between her wrists meant that she couldn't reach.

"Just making it look real," Andrea explained as Tamsin stared at her with anger in her eyes. "Now, come along, she'll be here any moment.

There was just time for one last check round before they returned to the lounge. Even so, they had hardly got there when the door bell rang.

"Change of plan. You answer it," Andrea said.

Tamsin, gagged as she was, could only roll her eyes to express her surprise and incredulity.

"Quick! Think about it. Emma bloody Pearson does not answer her own door. She gets her maid to do it. Come on, now, and, for fuck's sake, look like you're enjoying it."

Tamsin nearly mutinied but, with Lady Mary waiting on the doorstep, this was not the right moment to make a fuss. Bottling back her anger she went to the door of the flat, took two seconds to calm herself and, steeling herself for the ordeal, pinned on a smile and opened the door. The practice was over, this was the real thing.

Tamsin stood back as Lady Mary breezed on it. She was a tall, horsey woman conservatively dressed in a light grey twin-set and pearls. Everything about her spoke of old money. She had the poise and bearing of one who simply expected her every word to be obeyed without question. Tamsin guessed her age to be somewhere in her low forties but anywhere between thirty and fifty was a possibility. She looked Tamsin up and down briefly and, not in the slightest bit fazed by having the door answered by a gagged maid, swept past her into the lobby. Tamsin closed the door behind her and gestured her through to the lounge

"Ah, Lady Mary, so good to see you," Andrea said getting up, out of her chair. "Please, come on through and sit yourself down."

"Emma, darling, delighted to meet you at last. Lucy has told me so much about you, well, bits and pieces, anyway," Lady Mary looked about her. "What a delightful little flat."

"Oh, this, this isn't mine, it's just a pied-a-terre until we get ourselves sorted. Most of our stuff is still in transit or in store somewhere down in Southampton. Moving is such an awful nuisance and doing business in SA is a frantic bore, nowadays. We're stuck while the lawyers do whatever it is that lawyers do so I'm renting here in the interim."

"Oh, I do understand," Lady Mary gushed. "One hears simply dreadful things from SA nowadays. It used to be such a beautiful country but, since the blacks took over, it's going to rack and ruin. Why I heard the other day about...

Tamsin, watching from her station in the corner, was, once again, horrified by the open racism that Lady Mary expressed. However, it played well to their back story and Andrea was able to go along with it.

"Can I offer you tea?" Andrea asked after Lady Mary had got herself settled. "Earl Grey? Darjeeling? Lapsang Souchong, maybe?"

"Darjeeling would be splendid, darling," Lady Mary replied.

Andrea clicked her fingers at Tamsin who went off to the kitchen to make the tea. Now she was glad of all the practice they had put in yesterday. Even with the acute throbbing that was coming from where the shoes pinched her toes, she was able to walk as if she had been doing this forever. She boiled the kettle, found the right tea caddy, filled the milk jug, sliced a lemon and checked that the sugar bowl had sufficient lumps of sugar and the relevant tongs. Then she put a selection of petit-fours on a plate and, bracing herself, took the whole lot through to the lounge.

"How do you take your tea," Andrea asked as Tamsin put the tray down on the coffee table.

"Milk, no sugar, if you'd be so kind."

As Tamsin poured out the tea she was forced to lean over and she was aware that Lady Mary had leant back in her chair and was quite openly craning round so as to be able to get a good view of the backs of her legs. Swallowing back the rising gall Tamsin realised that this was where she really had to play her part. She was no longer Tamsin, she wasn't even Susan Ward, she was Emma Pearson's maid and she would have to play the part to the hilt. However distasteful it might be to her, if Lady Mary wanted to look at her backside then that was she she would get so, as she sorted the tea tray, she stayed bent over, making sure that Lady Mary got the view she was after.

"I see you're a believer in... err.. domestic discipline," Lady Mary said after a while. "Do you mind if I take a closer look?"

"Be my guest," Andrea replied.

Lady Mary reached out and ran her fingers across the red lines the crop had made. This made Tamsin shiver and the cup she was pouring rattled in its saucer. Trying her best to ignore the hand fondling her buttocks she concentrated on the task in hand before glancing up at Andrea who slipped her a sly wink.

"These stripes look recent," Lady Mary commented.

"Yes, just this morning I needed to remind her of her duties," Andrea replied. "Nothing special, just enough to prevent any slackness."

"Oh, I do understand. Staff can be such a problem if you don't keep them in their place. It's not just straightforward disobedience, attitude is so important as well."

"I couldn't agree more. If you let standards slip for just one moment, well, if you give them an inch then they take a mile," Andrea agreed.

"Mind you, I do find that Popsy, that's my personal maid, will sometimes be naughty simply as a ploy to get my attention. Why, sometimes it's as if they want to be punished. Do you find that with your staff?"

All this while, Lady Mary's fingers had continued to play with Tamsin's backside and, by now, had slipped between her thighs. Tamsin was, once again, glad of all the practice that she and Andrea had gone through the day before. Feeling this woman's hand groping between her thighs made her feel ill and, more than anything, she wanted to turn round and tell this awful person to keep her hands to herself. However, despite the revulsion, she knew that she was expected to play along with the 'want to be punished' line so she pushed back and, as she did so, she felt Lady Mary's fingers push inside her. That was almost the last straw. She bit down on the gag and concentrated hard on the tea pot simply to stop herself turning around and smacking the bitch.

"It's the lack of self control I find most exasperating," Andrea said. "It was the same with the dogs I used to breed. They're only really happy when their under the control of a firm mistress. Once you start pandering to them, once you start letting their needs come before yours, you end up with the tail wagging the dog and it all ends in tears."

"You're so right, I couldn't agree more." Lady Mary agreed. For a few moments more she continued to play but, as Tamsin had her ankles hobbled, her legs weren't far enough apart to allow Lady Mary proper access and, after a while, she grew bored.

"You may continue to serve the tea," Andrea said once Lady Mary had finished.

Tamsin stood up again and passed round the tea cups and handed out the petit-fours. This done, she went back to her place in the corner of the room.

"Yes, it's very pleasing to see you have your staff so well trained. And that brings me to the point of my visit. I think Lucy may have let slip that I run a sort of club. We like to arrange little soirées. Just us girls, a few old school chums from Roedean and Cheltenham, all top drawer, of course. It gives us a chance to relax together and share mutual interests. We're always on the lookout for new blood, as long, of course, as the applicant is suitable. Judging by the way you have this one trained, you'd fit right in. Maybe you would like to join us?"

"It's very kind of you to offer," Andrea replied. "Being so new to England we've yet to find the right social circle, people of our sort who share the same interests. Back in Paarl we rather kept ourselves to ourselves but there was always Lucy, and, of course, the Dawsons so we never lacked for company. Now we all seem to be scattered to the four winds."

"Dawson...," Lady Mary thought for a moment. "I'm not sure I know them but then my circle were based more in the Durban area. Are they still out there?"

"Yes, they're braving it out. Poor Jack has all his money tied up in the farm and selling is so hard now that things have changed. Now, can I offer you some more tea, or another of the petit-fours?"

"Oh, I shouldn't but... well, if you insist."

Andrea gestured at Tamsin who came on over and started to refresh the cups. With all the subtlety of a five year old Lady Mary dropped her spoon and, when Tamsin bent over to pick it up, Lady Mary 'accidentally' kicked it under the coffee table so that Tamsin had to get down on her hands and knees to retrieve it.

"Sometimes, at our soirées... well, there are those who like to share and those who are less keen," Lady Mary mused, her eyes firmly fixed on Tamsin's backside.

"I was always taught to share my toys," Andrea said with a laugh.

It was almost an hour later that Lady Mary finally went. She drank two more cups of tea, and it was quite obvious that this had far more about having Tamsin bend over than having anything to do with thirst. This, of course, meant that she had to visit 'the little girl's room' and, having done so, asked to be shown round 'this darling little flat'. This was precisely what they had expected and their careful preparations were bearing fruit. Lady Mary was particularly taken with the crop, tawse and paddle decorating the bedroom. With her inspection completed she asked for the Dawson's phone number on the excuse that she had a friend going out that way.

At last it seemed like she had seen enough. Lady Mary picked up her handbag and announced that she had to go as she had a luncheon appointment.

"Emma, my dear, thank you so much for the tea. It's been simply super to meet you and I'm so looking forward to seeing much more of you in the future. I'll have to have a quick chat among the rest of the girls but that's a mere formality. I'll be back in touch as soon as I can and let you know the about the next soiree."

And, with that, she was gone.

"God, what a ghastly woman," Tamsin said as soon as the gag was removed.

"Yeah, but she fell for it hook, line and sinker. Having you in role as my maid was the killer. She took one look at that tush of yours and she was lost. Do you see now why I had to mark you with the crop?"

"I guess so. I just wish you'd have warned me," Tamsin retorted.

"No you don't. It's like taking off a band-aid. It hurts less if you're not expecting it. It certainly got her attention. She couldn't keep her hands off you."

"You don't have to remind me. Ugh! I can still feel her hand groping around my... ugh!" Tamsin shuddered. "I know, I know, keep my eye on the prize and all that but this story had better be worthwhile. I'm paying a big enough price for it. Now, give me a hand getting out of this crap and then I'm off for a long, hot shower."