Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were very much more of the same, even more different types and tastes. We were all working a lot more efficiently and our pastries and cakes, instead of ending up in the staff quarters, were now making their way into the restaurant for the guests.

After being accepted as Jayne by Mum that was one worry less for me and I got got on with things. The clothes that I was wearing and how I looked were not an issue anymore and I just settled into the routine of putting on my makeup and my clothes as if it was just normal for me.

“Hi girls, what are you doing tonight? It’s my night off, do you fancy going out for a drink?” Helen asked us as we went for breakfast on Wednesday.

“We’ve nothing planned, so why not, it’ll be a change to be with someone about the same age as us. Nothing too wild though, we are working in the main kitchen with Steph for our last couple of days and have an early start in the morning.”

“Ok, sounds good to me too, we’ll just go somewhere local, not too fancy, after all the exotic food here, I quite like something plain and simple for a change

Hugo had given us all the option of continuing in the training kitchen or seeing what life was really like working in a commercial restaurant. Jan and Meg had decided that they needed to get used to the pace and pressures again before going back to their own restaurants. Kelly and I, full of youthful bravado and enthusiasm had decided to give it a go too. The others decided to stay in the training kitchen improving on what they had already been taught.

Working with Stephanie in the main kitchen was a different experience. Whilst she didn’t shout and order us about like the other station chefs did to their staff, she did push us a lot harder than before. As the juniors in the pâtisserie station, we did a lot of the fetching, carrying, and making up the basic doughs and pastries, but we were allowed to do some of the more interesting tasks, filling tartlets, layering and dressing cakes, making up petit-fours. After having previously been taught the traditional skills and methods, she also taught us the shortcuts and techniques that made a commercial kitchen faster and more efficient without reducing the quality of what we produced.

After work there was plenty time for a shower, and to spend time doing our hair and makeup and getting ourselves ready before going to meet Helen, but only after a few selfies that Kelly insisted upon.To save any chance of meeting Rob and Carl again, Helen took us out to a country hotel and pub up on the hills overlooking the racecourse and the Severn Vale, During our meal most of the chat was about the Manor and the people in it, but we did get to know a lot more about each other.

Sitting out on the terrace afterwards, having glasses of wine, watching the sun go down over the distant Welsh hills, the girls started to discuss a lot more personal details, ex-boyfriends, medical histories particularly period problems and other feminine hygiene issues, even some lurid details of sexual encounters. I was amazed at how open and frank they were with each other without any sense of embarrassment. Out in a group with the lads there was no chance of getting so personal with each other, all we ever talked about was sport, cars, beer, and careers, with occasional quick references to nights out with girls, but none of the type of things that Helen and Kelly were sharing.

“What about you Jayne, you have kept fairly quiet for a while, listening to us jabbering on, a good looking girl like you must have lived a bit too.” If the truth was known, as Jay I had led a fairly humdrum life, so fell back on telling a few of the stories that i had overheard Sarah and Chloe telling each other.

“ Oh, you know in my years at school I went out with a few of the boys, a lot of teenage angst and worry, a bit of kissing and fumbled petting, but nothing too heavy. I was actually a bit awkward and slow-growing and not too confident.”

“Most of us were a bit like that, what about later as you matured a bit?”

“University was a bit more fun, as much about social life as education, but it was mainly out and about in groups rather than any serious relationships, most of us had decided to leave anything serious until after we graduated. When I came back home, I found that a lot of my friends from my schooldays had moved away or had already paired up, and with all the early morning starts at the shop late nights out on the town have been few and far between.”

“ You have led too sheltered a life young lady, you need to spread your wings a bit more.” Helen replied bringing a deep blush to my cheeks.

Luckily, Kelly came to my rescue, sensing my embarrassment and changed the subject.

“ OMG, have you seen that old slapper over there, she’s dressed for half her age, and I wear more when I come out of the shower, some people amaze me, they have no taste at all.” That led to a general discussion about clothes and what we all liked to wear. Again drawing on my sisters’ lives i was a lot more comfortable with this conversation, and quite enjoyed the rest of the night.

Back in our room later, as we were getting changed and cleaned up Kelly was very quiet and deep in thought.

“Helen was a bit direct, but I think she was right, are you still a virgin?”

“The time has never been right, but the last few nights when we have been sharing a bed, I have been thinking a lot about it.”

“In that case let’s do something to sort you out. Take off any of your girls clothes, turn yourself back into Jay, and hurry up about it before I change my mind.”

Lying cuddled in bed in the morning both of us had self-satisfied grins on our faces and I started to stroke her gently.

“For a first time, you did a pretty good job, and the second and third times were even better, now you know what you have been missing out on all these years. But you can stop that now, don’t get any ideas, unfortunately Jay has to go away and let Jayne come back, we have to get ready to go down to the kitchen.”

‘On the way we bumped into Helen. “ You two look like cats that have got the cream, you obviously enjoyed yourselves last night.”

“A really good night Helen, we’ll have to do it again.” Kelly replied giving me a knowing wink.

On Friday, our last day, Hugo presented us all with a certificate to show that we had successfully completed the course, and a copy of a book he had written including a lot of his favourite recipes and the stories behind their origins, and invited us all to a farewell dinner. Unfortunately, Jan and Meg were in a rush to get back to the bright lights of London, and Sue and Laura had long drives home so that just left us two and our golden girls, Pat and Rosie, to get together with Hugo, Stephanie, and Helen.

“Right Jayne, this may be our last girls’ night out together, let’s do it properly and have a bit of glamour and style. i’ll do you hair for you and you can help me with mine, full night-out makeup and wear that sexy blue dress you have with the matching stilettos. They are all definitely going to remember us.”

“Suitably all glammed up we made our way to the restaurant to find the others, and Helen, waiting for us.

“ Sorry to keep you all waiting.” I apologised as we walked in.

“The wait is well worth it, come in and join the other lovely ladies.” Hugo was as charming as ever as he welcomed us both with a kiss on both cheeks. All the girls had made a big effort, it was the first time we had seen Steph in anything other than her kitchen ‘Whites’, Helen was as attractive and well-dressed as ever, even Pat and Sue had done their hair and gone a bit heavier than normal with their makeup, and Hugo was very dapper in his formal dinner jacket and bow-tie.

After an absolutely delicious meal and some quality wine we were sitting talking in the lounge for a while until it was time for Hugo and Steph to leave as they had early starts in the kitchen the next day.

“ I’ve enjoyed your company tonight and working with you four, the others were taking life too seriously, but you all were enthusiastic about what you were doing and were attentive and quick to learn. Rosie and Pat, I doubt that you are interested in a career in catering as you are enjoying your life too much as it is. You young girls have shown a passion for cooking, and above all else, even talent and imagination, a good chef needs to be passionate about their art. If you do not take up pâtisserie as a career, the catering industry will be a lot worse off. If ever you want to come to work with Stephanie and me, or need a reference for somewhere else, just please get in touch with me or Stephanie.”

“ You two seem to have an admirer.” teased Rosie after the others had left. “Do you think that you will be taking this up as a career?”

“You’ve met my mum, and she told you about her shop. I think that my first step will be to stay there, try to expand the range of items on sale, and hopefully grow the business, but it depends on Mum, she may be happy as she is and not want to change things.”

“ Oh, I think you will find that she will be quite open to any suggestions you have, she told us that she was really impressed with what you had prepared when she had tea here the other day, and was looking forward to seeing what you could make in her kitchen.”

“Thank you so much to both of you, you have looked after us for the last two weeks, we really must keep in touch.”

“Well, your Mum has promised to visit us in Chester, so I’m sure that we will. Look after yourselves girls.” Pat said as we hugged and made our goodbyes. I would miss them, they were enjoying their lives, happy and carefree, doing whatever took their fancy.

Back in our room we talked about what we had done and where we expected to go, as we cleaned up ready for bed.

“ This could be our last night together for a while, put Jayne away and let Jay come out to play again.” Kelly teased, and I was only too happy to oblige.

We woke up early to get our packing done and get on our way, and I showered and started to do my hair and make up.

“ What are you doing Jay, after today, you don’t have to pretend to be Jayne anymore.?”

“We still have to check out, and that has to be as Jayne. Besides, with one thing and another I never got round to going to the launderette with my clothes, so I will stay as Jayne until I get home.”

“ In that case I will give you a lift back, it is not far out of my way, and the company will make the drive pass a lot quicker.”

Helen was on reception, so we handed in our keys and gave her good-bye hugs.” You have to come back and visit soon for another night out, I’ve enjoyed you being here, I’m sure that Hugo won’t mind if I find you a spare room.”

It was pleasant drive back, most of it on country roads rather than speeding up the motorway and we were soon home.

“Thanks so much for everything you have done for me Kelly. Let’s have a few days to settle in again and sort things out, then I will call you to arrange to meet up, that is if you want to.”

“Don’t be daft, of course I want to. Will I be seeing you as Jay or Jayne, I don’t mind either way?”

“That’s one of the things that I need to sort out.”

Back in the house, I unpacked my case and put everything away, It was strange seeing all my new girls’ clothes hanging in the wardrobe or sitting in the drawers alongside Jay’s stuff, but I didn’t feel like throwing anything away.

After putting all my laundry in to wash, and putting a casserole into the slow-cooker, I got ready to go into the shop. The girls had all seen my photo and no doubt Mum had told them about visiting me at the Manor, so I thought that they should at least get the chance to see me as Jayne. I changed into a clean skirt and blouse, raided Chloe’s wardrobe for a smart jacket, freshened up my makeup and was as ready as I would ever be to face them.

I stood outside the shop for a few minutes thinking about how I was going to greet them all, and
decided to see how long it would take for someone to recognise me. There were no customers in the shop, so Carol and Jean were chatting while keeping an eye on me as I browsed the counters.

“Can we help, is there anything in particular that you are looking for?” Jean asked after a few minutes.”

“Yes, i’m admiring all these lovely-looking cakes and pastries, trying to choose. Are they all made in the shop or do you buy them in.”

“Everything you see, except the meats for the sandwich fillings, are made here, by the owner, Kathy, and Jennie.”

“Is it possible to have a word with her please?” I continued, still unrecognised by them.

A few minutes later Mum came out, her eyes lit up, and she rushed over to give me a hug.

“Girls, I would like you to meet Jayne, it looks like she will be working with us now.”

There was a loud shriek from Carol and a sharp intake of breath by Jean, time seemed to stand still for a while, before they both rushed over to greet me.

“Wow, just look at you, your mum told us that you were convincing as a girl, but we weren’t expecting this, you look amazing.”

“I would never have guessed it was you, you could have been standing there all afternoon chatting to us and I still would have been none the wiser.”

“ Will we be seeing more of Jayne?”

“ Wait and see, I just thought that you should at least have the chance to see me like this.”

“ Right, that’s enough girls, let’s back to work, it looks like we have customers coming in. Are you coming through to the kitchen Jayne?”

“What can I do to help Mum?”

“Just about everything is already done, Jenny and I are just finishing decorating a couple of birthday cakes and that’s it. I would be nice if you could make up some of your delicious cakes that you made at the manor as samples for the girls to show what we can now offer.”

“I’ll just go down to the shops and get a few ingredients that you don’t normally stock and then I will see what I can do.”

Back in the kitchen I went through the same conversations with Jenny as I had with the others, put on an apron, clipped my hair back, and got started. By the time that Mum and Jenny had iced and decorated their cakes, I had already made up and baked my favourite, the Rehruecken, a Nusstorte, and batches of Punschkrapfen and Gugelhupf .

( https://www.aluxurytravelblog.com/2017/03/21/9-of-the-best-a... )

I packed 5 boxes for us all to take home and laid a sample plate to try in the shop after we closed the doors. We got the kitchen all cleaned up I went behind the counter to serve them and gave the girls a sampling session before they left.

“OMG, they are gorgeous, are we going to start selling them.” Carol said between mouthfuls of cake, “they’ll just walk of the shelves.”,

“You better ask the boss, but I am happy to give it a go. Take the boxes home, see what your families like and we’’ll try their favourites on Monday.”

“Can I just say,” said Jenny as she was leaving, “ I for one don’t care whether you want to work as Jayne or Jay, or how you are dressed, if you bake like that I am happy to work with you.” which was echoed by the others.

“What do you think?” Mum asked over dinner,” Is Jayne with us for a while or is Jay back for good.”

“The girls seemed happy enough, so I might just stay as Jayne for a while and see how it goes, if you are sure that you don’t mind.”

“ To be honest I am more concerned about what you are going to do in the shop. When your sisters were here It was good to have a boy about the place, but now they have left I do miss some of the girl-talk I used to have with them, and it will be nice to have you around as Jayne. You do what you want.”

“ If Jayne is here for a while, i need to get a few more clothes and things, I really only bought enough for a couple of weeks, do you fancy going shopping tomorrow?”

“We could do, but I have a better idea. Chloe’s stuff has just sat in the wardrobe and dresser since she left a couple of years ago, why not have a look through its see what you like and what fits, I’m sure that there will be plenty there for you because she was forever coming home with new outfits.”

“Ok we’ll have a go at that tomorrow, let’s open another bottle of wine and I’ll tell you all about what i got up to at the the manor , and what I would like to try in the shop.”

Sunday was spent swapping Chloe’s clothes into my wardrobe and chest of drawers and boxing up most of my stuff that I wouldn’t need for a while, Mum really enjoyed the fashion show as I tried on various outfits to see what suited me, I ended up with enough clothes to last me for months, even found unopened packs of panties and bras which would come in useful, and various pieces of jewellery to finish things off. Giving up on Jayne was going to be difficult, I was getting too comfortable living as a girl, it had only been two weeks but already was taking over my life.

Monday morning, once the girls got over the surprise of seeing me turn up as Jayne, it soon settled into the routine of a normal day. All of the cakes and pastries I had made on Saturday were the favourite of somebody, and I was given the option of preparing whatever took my fancy.

I thought that the fancy sweet pastries would be better sellers after lunch, so I started making a selection of savoury items for lunch, leaving the cakes and sweet pasties until after they were all done . Mum and Jenny usually prepared all our traditional fare, pasties, sausage rolls, cheese turnovers, chicken pies, so I concentrated on different more unusual continental pastries, Krapfen, Krautstrudel, Bladl, Zwiebelkuchen from Germany and Austria, Empanadas and Cocarrois from Spain, and Polpettone and Mpanate from Italy. most of these as well as being different are vegetarian and with a bit of trial and error could even be vegan, so opening up a new market for us. To encourage people to try something new I made up sample plates so people could ‘try before you buy’.

When I had finished all my baking, I left early, as it had been a tiring day, went home had a shower, cleaned off all my makeup and changed into leggings and a cotton top to relax for a while before starting to prepare dinner for when Mum got back.

“How did my goodies sell today Mum?”

“A bit slow to start with but they picked up and everything was sold. in particular, your veggie stuff was well liked, and we even have some orders for a lot more tomorrow, some people were disappointed that there was nothing left.”

“What did the girls think or did they not get a chance to give them a try?”

“There was nothing left on the counters, but Jean and Carol did try the samples, you may even have coaxed them into trying more veggie stuff.”

“How do you think it went today with three of us working in the kitchen?”

“ It got a bit chaotic at times, getting in each others way and not enough space to lay things out easily.”

“I agree, I’ve been thinking it may be easier if I work from home and ferry the goods in to you. I think we should give it a try tomorrow and see how it goes, but if things keeping selling as well as today, we might have to look for another shop to sell my stuff and leave you to do what you always have done.”

“Funny you should mention that. Jack, the butcher next door is retiring soon and is looking to pass on his lease. If you are still interested by the end of the week, we’ll have a chat with him and see what deal we can get.”

As the week went on it became obvious that we couldn’t cope as we were, the shop was getting far too busy, working in the kitchen at home was contravening Health and Safety and Public Health guidelines, and sales of my pastries were soaring, meaning that I was working longer and longer hours to keep up with demand and was shattered at the end of the day.

We decided to take over Jack’s shop, reorganise and redecorate it and open it as a separate continental bakery. For tax and legal reasons Mum didn’t want to take on the lease in her name, and legally Jayne did not exist and had no bank account or financial records to cope with credit checks, so we were at a bit of a loss as to how to go forward.

I needed a bit of a break so I decided to call up Kelly to arrange a night out.

“ Hi Kelly, it’s Jayne.”

“ I was wondering if you were ever going to call, and whether it would be as Jay or Jayne.”

“ It’s still Jayne for the moment, in fact it is beginning to just feel normal. Let’s get together for a drink and I’ll tell you what I have been up to.”

“Ok, see you later.”

After wearing drab casual clothes for work and for lounging around in the house, I enjoyed getting ready to meet Kelly again. I was getting better at styling my hair using tongs and a wand and was now getting a lot more adept at it, and soon had it looking ready for a night out. At work because of the hot atmosphere in the kitchen my makeup was minimal, so I spent a lot of time creating the full evening look that Kelly had taught me before getting dressed up in my best bra and pantie set, my blue sheath dress and heels and a white bolero jacket that I had borrowed from Chloe’s wardrobe. I spent a few minutes examining myself in a mirror and was really pleased with myself at how feminine and attractive I looked. I was just about to leave when Mum arrived home.

“Oh, you are looking gorgeous tonight, as I keep saying, you remind me so much of Chloe, where are you off to?

“I’m meeting up with Kelly, it will be lovely to see her again.”

“Enjoy you night out and take care, and don’t forget that you are much more vulnerable as Jayne than you ever were as Jay.” she warned me as I left.

“Wow Jayne, you have really taken to being a girl haven’t you? You are looking gorgeous, you put me to shade.”

“I could never do that, and I learnt from the best. Anyway, enough of mutual compliments, what have you been up to lately?”

‘Not a lot to be honest, as you know I am on a casual zero-hours contract, and they haven’t called me in this week which means no wages, I really need to find something else more permanent.”

“Brilliant, how do you fancy coming to work with me?” I told her all about how the pastries sales had taken off and that I was seriously overworked and that she would be a godsend if she joined up with me. “Obviously we can go into this as partners, unless you are happy to be an hourly-paid employee. I want to see the business grow and take off and it would be fantastic if you benefited from that as well as me.”

“I can’t put any money into this, I live day-to-day.”

“We’ll sort something out, share-options or something like that, it won’t be a problem.”

“Brilliant, you’re on, give me a hug partner.”

“I know that it is not too far to travel, but if you want, you can move in with Mum and me, we have spare rooms, you can give up your flat and save a lot of money, and we can also spend a lot more time together.”

After that business was forgotten and we were just like any other couple of friends on a night out, generally gossiping and learning more about each other and our families.

The next day, Sunday, Kelly moved some of her stuff in, leaving a lot in her flat which she was keeping on until she saw how it was working out between us, personally and in the kitchen.

It was now a lot easier with the two of us working together. We both had a go at everything, but I concentrated more on the pastries and Kelly on the cakes, and with one of us keeping things going while the other ferried stuff over to the shop the whole thing flowed a lot more smoothly.

On Saturday, Mum was home early and went straight upstairs. A while later she came down , all dressed up for a night out. She didn’t normally bother too much but she had made a special effort with her hair and makeup and was wearing her best dress.

“You’re looking very attractive tonight, i haven’t seen you all glammed up for ages, are you going anywhere special?”

“When I ask where you are going out to you never answer me, so I will do the same, let’s just say that I am meeting up with a friend for dinner and a drink. I might be bringing my friend back, so get the place tidy and smarten yourselves up a bit.” Mum smiled as you closed the front door behind her.

Wondering what she was up to, we did as we were told, gave the house a tidy up and dusting, and changed out of our casual leisure-wear outfits into skirts and blouses and freshened up our makeup, ready for her return.

We heard voices and the door opening, she was obviously with someone, but were totally surprised at who came in with her.

“ Hello girls, it is good to see you both again.” Hugo said as he came over and gave us both a hug. We need to have a talk.”