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"I've set out the uniforms I want you to wear this weekend, Jacqui," Ms. Martin told me while sitting down for her dinner on Friday. "Ask the First Girl to look over everything that you pack to assure you'll have all you'll be needing. Toni is going to pick you up about nine o'clock."

"Yes, mum." What else could I say? She would never listen to my thoughts about this, much less change the plans.

"That should do it," Melissa said as she closed the third case the following morning. I thought I would be taking enough uniforms for a week instead of a weekend when we set the luggage outside in the driveway before going back in to prepare breakfast for our mistress.

Toni arrived just on time. She greeted me then requested Carla.

"Ms. Martin left to go shopping, I believe. Perhaps you'd like to check with Melissa. She would know for sure," I told her.

"It wasn't that important." She glanced about the kitchen as if looking for something."

"Make me a cup of tea, Jacqui." Miss Bauer sat in the breakfast nook, staring at me. I could only obey and moved to start the kettle, before getting a cup and saucer, which I placed on a tray.

"I want you to know something as this weekend starts. You serving this dinner wasn't my idea. Carla convinced Judy Crawford after she'd objected, I don't think that she likes the idea of another woman running her kitchen. Dave didn't go for it at first either, but Carla was able to bring them all around."

She let me stew about that, not saying another word until I curtseyed to place the tea before her.

"Clean those up and meet me at the car," Toni directed after finishing her tea.

My bags were on the backseat when I came outside.

I'd been to the Crawford's house many times before and had met their two daughters: Shelly, seventeen, and Ashley who was two years younger.

"Wow! Mom wasn't kidding when she said we were having a real maid this weekend," Ashley said.

"Hi, Ms Bauer. Is she yours?" Shelly asked while I straightened my uniform after getting out of the car.

"Hi, girls. No, she belongs to your dad's and my boss, Ms. Martin."

"Kewl, I didn't know Carla had a maid."

I didn't anticipate that the girls would be home, but then, where else would they be?

"Shelly, Ashley, this is Jacqui. She'll be our maid for the weekend." Miss Bauer introduced me.

"Now Jacqui has a lot to do for the guests your parents are having over tonight, so try to limit your demands. If both of you are good, I'll see that Jacqui will do your laundry and clean your rooms before she's returned tomorrow." Seeing the slightly nasty smile on Miss Bauer's face made my heart sink.

"I know that you'll want to choose to do that for the girls, won't you Jacqui?" I was trapped.

"Miss Bauer, is Jacqui really Chinese, she sure looks it?" Shelly asked.

"Yes," was her monosyllabic answer.

"Then how did she get so big? Chinese women are short and they have little titties." She blushed and giggled after she said it.

I blushed and giggled too. I wanted to say something funny, but I didn't want them to hear my voice.

"Now leave her alone. As I said, she has a lot to do before tonight."

I carried two of my bags inside, following Toni, who carried the other one. She entered through the kitchen, not even pausing to knock.

"Judy, Dave, we're here," she called out, as she headed up the carpeted stairs.

"Master suite is there, those are the girls' rooms," she pointed out. "That's a linen closet, my room is there and you are in here." She went into a nicely furnished guest room. "We'll share the adjoining bathroom. Leave your door unlocked so I can help you as much as I can.

"Here," she extended her key ring. "Fetch my bags in the trunk and bring them up." After a moment's pause, she said "Please." I did as I was told.

The girls were still outside.

"Are you really going to clean our rooms before you go, Jacqui?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, mum. It will be my pleasure." Saying mum to her didn't even phase me. I remembered how embarrassed I had been the first time I had to address a teenager that way, the night Carla took Melissa and me out to dinner right after I had agreed to her plan to turn me into a maid. Had I been that stupid, or was she just that clever?

Hearing my voice and watching my curtsey gave them giggle fits.

"Hi, Jacqui," Mrs. Crawford greeted. "Thanks for coming. I realize I really do need a professional's help with this." That was encouraging. I hoped I was up to her expectations. I hardly considered myself a professional at this.

"Good mornin' mum. I'm happy to help." She motioned me up the stairs and followed me into Toni's room.

"Hi, Toni. While doing the shopping yesterday, I came to realize how much we still have to do. Thanks for talking Carla into loaning us one of her maids.

"My pleasure. I'm sure your husband has explained how important this dinner is." Toni paused to look at me.

"Don't just stand there like an airhead, Jacqui. Start putting all my things away and take a few minutes to get your things in order too, girl." I flushed with shame as she turned back to Mrs. Crawford.

"Tell me the menu and what else you've planned, Judy.

"Listen up, Jacqui."

I stopped unpacking.

"I bought a standing rib roast. Can she cook?"

"Yes. Go on?" Mrs. Crawford outlined the menu for the dinner and the appetizers. It was going to be a five-course meal. I moved to face Toni after Mrs. Crawford went back down stairs

"Mum?" I curtseyed. I didn't like the way she was treating me, but I was more worried about having this party go right. Carla would kill me if it didn't.

"What?" Her face seemed to reflect the concern I felt.

"The downstairs is a mess. You saw it. I saw it. I can just see her saying to her family, 'Leave the house a mess and the maid will attend to it.' There is no possible way I can prepare that meal and clean the house in time. Melissa couldn't even do it and she is good!"

Toni grimaced. "Look, you do this every day; what can I do to help you best? The cleaning?"

I could tell she was really sincere and I'd had a few meals that she’d prepared. If it wasn't microwave ready, you could forget about it being even marginally edible.

"My pinafores are in my gray bag. If you're going to clean, you might want to put one on. I'll get started in the kitchen."

I was still busy in the kitchen, after having thoroughly cleaned it, when Toni came in.

"I'm bushed, but the downstairs is done. How much more do you have to do?"

Her hair was matted from perspiration and her makeup had smeared a little; she must have been working hard. I smiled slightly to myself, glad that she was sharing my ‘experience’.

"I'll be done soon, mum; why don't you run up and take a bath. Be sure to wash your hair; it's soaked with perspiration. I'll be up shortly to help you." She looked at me questioningly then shrugged her shoulders and left.

I entered the bathroom to see how she was doing just as she stood in the tub, fully uncovered. She made no effort to hide her nudity as I held a towel open for her to cover her.

Instead of stepping into it, she took it from my hands and said, "I'll tend to myself. You go get yourself cleaned up, do your face, and dress in your Chinese uniform."

"I'll need your help to do my corset, I'd like a bath too, please?" I emphasized my request with a curtsey.

Despite never having worked a set of laces before, Toni had me naked to my steel belt in a few minutes. She stared at it for a moment, but didn't say anything, merely motioning me to the bathroom.

Once clean, dried and powdered, I slipped on my silk corset liner, got the corset under the steel hip band of my belt and hooked its bust. After smoothing up my stockings, straightening their seams and gartering them, I buckled on the patent ankle straps of my six-inch pumps and went to her room for help lacing my corset down to the twenty inches needed for me to fit into my uniform.

"I must tell you, I'm impressed with you," Toni said as she tugged at my laces. "I never worked so hard. Could you have finished cleaning downstairs?"

"Yes, but no way I could do both. I had all I could do to get things done for dinner. I couldn't have done both, mum."

"Can't you lace your own corset?" she asked as she took out the slack.

"I've learned to do it. It's just, with these nails," I held up my hands for her to see, "it's a lot easier if someone else does it and then I don't have to worry about breaking one," I explained. I had lost so much weight and my waist was so well trained by now, that Toni didn't have to work too hard to get me under twenty inches.

"Need help with anything else?"

"No, thank you mum." She followed me into my room and sat on the bed as I started to do my makeup.

"I want to apologize to you, Jacqui." I turned to look at her.

"Work on your face. I don't mind talking to your back." She twirled her finger directing my attention back to the mirror.

"I was going to make this weekend more than a bit difficult for you - a bit of pay back, I suppose. I was wrong to even think that and I want to tell you I'm sorry."

"You know, Jacqui, you have really changed and I'm not talking about your face and voice either." I just listened and concentrated on gluing my lashes in place. "I mean that you're a different person than the one I used to know. I believed that story that Carla made up about John having a breakdown, everyone did. We'd all seen it coming for months before it happened. I think that you were the only one at the office who didn't see what you were doing to yourself."

"I look at things a lot differently now than I did before, mum."

"Will you stop calling me, 'mum'! Address me as Toni, please?"

"I don't want be argumentative, but when we are with the others, I will continue with 'mum', Toni. I'm just a maid and it would be totally improper if I did otherwise."

"Yes, of course," Toni agreed.

"Does it bother you at all?"

"Does what bother me?"

"That Carla forced you to look and behave as a very submissive woman. What hold does she have over you that she could put you in such a degrading status. You're not just a woman, but her maid?" I set down my lipstick brush and turned to face her.

"In the beginning, it appeared to be love," I forced a small smile. Toni shook her head 'no'.

"I see you don't believe me. Ms. Martin did not force me to be Jacqui. Jacqui has been part of me since I was born. I grew up in the wrong body, but I was too afraid of how society would react if I ever let Jacqui out. I think a lot of John's problem was that he could no longer let Jacqui out. He lost trust in everything including me."

"As to my being a maid," I continued, "until recently, I didn’t feel it as degrading at all. It was actually therapeutic. Do you feel degraded by being a secretary, Toni?"

She vigorously shook her head no and said, "But it's different, you used to be the CEO of your own business. Now you’re the maid to that business's new CEO. That's a long way to fall."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Toni, you must understand. Being a maid is how I rescued myself from a thoroughly self-destructive lifestyle. It wasn't just work, I was an alcoholic as well, but I haven't had a drink since I began this," I opened my arms to indicate myself, "last spring."

Now she shrugged her shoulders in agreement, and merely said, "OK."

I could see that she didn't fully believe what I was saying. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, it was a lot to swallow. I just said, "It's a profession and I've worked very hard to be good at what I now do. I don't drink and any threat of a nervous breakdown is long gone."

I really didn’t want to get into it any further with her. Certainly, things were much different since my forced surgeries and nothing could be done to change that. Thank goodness for Kurt, who'd convinced me that dwelling on circumstances beyond my control would only make me depressed. If I was come out of this with my sanity, I needed to think positively. He’d told me that his legal team felt I could win and had provided me with hope that everything would eventually be a lot better and might not take too long at all.

Toni ended it, much to my relief. "Look, I want to continue this, but we're running out of time and I've got to get myself ready." she stood.

"I only need about five more minutes," I said. "If you'd like, I'll help you get ready once I'm done." I turned back to the mirror, resumed putting on my lipstick and did not see her reaction.

I heard her leave then call back from the bathroom, "When you are ready, I think that I'd like your help, Jacqui."

Once I was properly uniformed, I curtseyed to her and reached to remove her robe.

"Do I need to talk you though this?" she asked. "No, I've a better idea. Do what you'd like. Make me pretty for tonight, Jacqui," she giggled. Having put all of her things away earlier, I knew what I'd like to see on Toni. Without hesitation, I started to assemble her ensemble.

Spreading a black thong I had been surprised to find in her lingerie collection, I knelt so she could step into it. She gave me a curious smile when she first saw me open it for her, but giggled and wiggled her ass when I adjusted it through her crotch. Sheer black pantyhose were next, and then a lacy bra.

"What are you doing?" she asked as I readjusted the straps once I'd settled her breasts in its cups.

"I think you'd look a little better if these were a little higher," I answered.

"Mind if we use my makeup tonight. I'm more familiar with it?"

"No, you've free rein," she responded as she seated herself at my makeup table. She hardly ever wore even minimal makeup before, which I'd always considered a mistake.

"Turn around please, I can't do this in the mirror, mum."

Fifteen minutes later, I let her see what I'd achieved with blended eye shadows, eyeliner, mascara, blush and coral lipstick. Her broadening smile indicated that she liked it.

"Remember I said to you that if things didn't work out between you and Carla, you should look me up, Jacqui?" I nodded that I had. "I think I could quickly get used to having you around. I do like what you did."

"Do you think you could afford me, mum?" I teased. "After all you're only a lowly secretary." I smiled to show I was joking. She was an elite executive assistant John had stolen from a large corporation. Still supporting a maid would be a big stretch for her.

"Oh, I have no intention of paying you," she teased back. "You'll like being with me so much you'll pay me to stay." With that, she put her hand firmly over my steel covered crotch and rubbed it a little.

"You know that's not what it used to be," I said, frowning.

"All the better," she replied with a wicked grin. "Now let's get cracking."

She pushed me towards the bedroom door and I went down to the kitchen to check on dinner while Toni finished getting dressed.

"Jacqui, get me a martini, please," Mr. Crawford said as I entered the living room where he was watching a golf match on the TV.

"Yes, sir." Having mixed him drinks as john numerous times before, I almost forgot myself and started to move for their liquor cabinet. "How do you like it, sir?" He told me his preferences and how his wife liked her cocktail.

"Here you are, sir." I delivered it on a silver tray.

"Sir, how many will there be for dinner?" Though I'd been told the previous weekend, I didn't know whether that included his daughters or not.

"Nine, the girls will be spending the night with their friends. Thanks for my drink." My former friend stared right at the exposed tops of my breasts as he took the glass and didn't take his eyes off them even as he began to sip it.

"One more question, please?" I interrupted, curious to see if he would look up at my face. "What time would you like dinner to be served, sir?"

"Seven will be fine," he said, finally lifting his face away from my chest to look at my face.

"You are a doll, aren't you?" he said, absently, "a real China Doll. How did you learn to speak English so well?"

I really didn't want to discuss anything with him, but didn't know how to avoid it. I stuck to the biography Carla had devised for me. "My mother was Chinese, but my father was Canadian," I said softly, dropping a bob and trying not to sound too squeaky. I didn't volunteer anything else, hoping he would just leave it alone.

"Hmmph," he said, taking in my body once more with his eyes. "With a body like yours, you're crazy to just stay as a maid."

"It's all I know, Sir. Ms. Martin sponsored my coming into this country to be her maid. I have a contract.

"Just crazy," he said again, turning back to the screen.

Obviously having been dismissed, I went to the kitchen; slightly appalled with the way Dave had turned me into an object. There was a lot still to do and I didn't dwell on it. I checked on the oven and started to get to work. As I had planned, I had just enough time to cook the roast.

While Toni had cleaned the entire downstairs of the house, except for kitchen, which I'd done, I had ironed the table linens and polished the silver service in addition to getting all of the food prepared. I silently thanked Melissa for teaching me as much as she had during the previous months.

"How are we doing?" Mrs. Crawford asked when she came into the dining room where I was finishing the table.

"Fine, mum. I've everything under control."

"I certainly hope so." Mrs. Crawford inspected my work carefully then went into her kitchen to check on things there. "Yes. Everything looks good." She opened the china cabinet to remove a small hand bell; which she rang.

"This was a wedding present and I've never had occasion to use it before." She sounded so proud of herself. "When you hear someone ring, come in and attend to them. Otherwise, your place is in the kitchen."

"Oh, I want you to get the door too, when our guests arrive."

"Yes, mum." I curtseyed. With a last glance at the table, she left.

For some reason, I grew very nervous while waiting a half an hour for the door chimes to ring. When they did, I hurried to the door, opened it with a smile and dipped a proper curtsey.

"Good evening. Welcome to the Crawford residence. Please, come in?" When I heard their heavy French accents, I was relieved that I'd not followed through with my earlier thoughts of greeting them in German. I had forgotten that a substantial portion of Swiss spoke French as their first language. Each of the men had presents and I left the room to return with my tray and stood on the side, waiting.

The men, in ties and sports jackets appeared to range in age from their mid-thirties to late forties. Two of their women were roughly their age, but a very attractive blonde with the oldest man seemed young enough to be his daughter. She wore a green velvet cocktail dress over an obviously corseted torso and sandals with six-inch heels. I realized that this was what I must look like when I'm with Kurt, our huge age gap would be very obvious.

The gifts, which included two bottles of wine, were placed on my tray after they had been properly presented to Mrs. Crawford. After opening the box of Swiss chocolates, she told me to place it on a side table.

"Jacqui, attend to our guests refreshments," Toni ordered.

"La soubrette est corsettent, Pierre, the young blonde said to her husband, "Je pense que cinquant-trois centimetres." I did not correct her error of over an inch.

"Elle est tres jolie, Angelique." I smiled, understanding his compliment and she caught it.

"Parlez-vous la francais, soubrette?"

"Qui, Madame, je peu la parle une peau." I curtseyed.

"C'est Mademoiselle, pas la Madame," she corrected. All of the guests smiled and nodded when they heard I could speak a little of their language.

I was kept busy serving drinks and appetizers until it was nearly time to serve the meal. At the same time I tended to the preparations for dinner. Toni occasionally came in to check that everything was going as planned.

"Is Mr. Crawford going to carve the roast, mum?" I asked.

"I'll check. Otherwise, it's up to you, Jacqui.

"You know you are a big hit with the guests? That blonde wants to take you back home with her."

"That's nice," I smiled. "But my visa doesn’t permit me to leave the country and I doubt Ms. Martin would approve."

"What would you do if she made you an offer you couldn't refuse?" Toni quipped. "Maybe you could just run away with her."

Maybe I could, I mused, wondering how I would feel if I didn't have Kurt to look out for me.

Other than hard work, the evening went well. After things settled down, once I had served coffee, tea and after dinner drinks, I started doing the dishes. Even though they had a dishwasher, just as Carla had, Melissa had forbidden me to ever use one as 'they chip the crystal and scratch the China'. My rubber-gloved hands were immersed in soapy water when I discovered that Angelique was by my side.

"Jacqui, I want you to come home with me when I return to Geneva," she said in French.

"I'm sorry, mum. I can't," I replied without taking my eyes off the dishes.

"I will offer you a contract for eighty-five thousand Swiss francs per year plus your expenses. It is nearly impossible to find good servants in Europe today. The only domestics there are from India, Turkey or other poor nations." Not that I was going to emigrate to Switzerland to be her maid, but I was curious about of her offer.

"What would be my duties, Mademoiselle?" I asked her.

"I want you as my personal maid, other than attending me and serving my guests when I entertain, that would be all. I do a lot of entertaining in my profession," she giggled. I had guessed, apparently correctly, what Angelique really was. "I employ a full staff to keep my chalet clean, do my laundry and perform the maintenance."

"I have commitments here, Mademoiselle, but thank you for your most generous offer." This time I straightened up and turned to face her, careful to keep my wet gloves over the sink.

She smiled at me. "My offer will remain open to you until the end this year." She took a business card from her purse then parted my cheongsam to slip it under my stocking top. "That has my telephone, fax, URL and e-mail addresses. Even if you decide to decline, I would love to hear from you, soubrette."

I went back to washing the dishes. There would be time later to read her card.

When I had finished in the kitchen, it was past ten o'clock and the guests had departed. Toni found me in the dining room putting the silver away.

"You did a good job today. Thank you." She started to help and we soon had finished the last of the chores.

"Come upstairs. We'll get ready for bed." As tired as I was, I didn't refuse.

"Your bed is bigger than the one in my room, we'll sleep here, OK?" Toni had unzipped her black dress and slipped it from her shoulders.

'Just like that', I thought. Toni obviously was intent on winning me over.

"What's this?" Her fingers plucked Angelique's card from my thigh. "Maitresse Angelique? My, my, Jacqui. She offer you a job in her dungeon or what?"

"Angelique did offer me a job, fifty thousand dollars a year plus expenses, but said nothing about any dungeon." I pretended not to have guessed her profession. "How do you figure she is that kind of a girl?"

"It says so right on her card. 'Maitresse Angelique, By appointment only, The Best Dungeons in Switzerland'. Are you thinking of taking her up on her offer?" We were both laughing.

"I don't think so - whips and chains just aren't me.

"Do you think the guy she was with is a client?" I asked.

"Beats me; the way he showed her off, he acted more like her lover. The other two women never talked to her once and their husbands limited their conversation to just polite replies." I turned down the covers once I'd finished in the bathroom.

"Are you wearing your stockings and corset to bed?" she asking, seeing that I still had them on.

"I always sleep in one of my corsets. I thought the stockings might be nice tonight." I smiled at her shyly.

"Might be nice. I never went to bed with anyone wearing them or a corset and steel panties either. Get in and lie on your back," Toni held the covers up for me. "I prefer to be on top." She wasted no time sucking my nipple into her mouth.

Almost two hours later, we lay spooned together. "Anyone ever call you, 'Toni the Tigress'?" I asked as she cupped my breasts, continuing to play with them even though we were both exhausted.

"No. I’ll tell you this though; Toni the Tigress is not letting her little sex kitten go. You can look forward to me getting my claws into you the future, Jacqui," she murmured before falling asleep.

In the morning, Toni had me lick her to a final orgasm before letting me out of my corset to take a bath. I put on a clean day uniform then completed her toilette before we went downstairs to a still quiet household. I made tea and breakfast, for both of us. Toni invited me to sit with her to eat mine.

"Are you happy, Jacqui?" she asked.

That was a simple question, but I had to be careful. I couldn't let her know that I planned to escape Carla's clutches as soon as possible. "Reasonably. I'm a lot happier actually than I was in my old job, as surprising as that may sound.

"Why do you think I should be surprised about that? I'm not. Yesterday, despite working your cute ass off and being ignored by almost everyone, I watched you smile more than in the previous four years that I've known you, put together.

"You really seemed happy to be serving the dinner. Despite the fact that the guests directed all their compliments to Judy. Everyone must have known that you’d done all the work and should have gotten the credit for it.

"Tell me something." Toni paused to meet my eyes, "Would you have tried to fuck me in bed, if you weren't all locked up?"

"That’s no longer possible," I stated flatly.

"What do you mean?" she replied, obviously not understanding. "That thing has got to be a real pain in your crotch. I don't understand why Carla keeps it locked on."

"I'm not going there," I forced myself to smile. "Let me tell you what I was thinking last night.

"I wanted to make love to you as another woman and for you to do the same with me. You're a terrific lover and last night I came as close to coming as I have in five months. It was great even if I didn't have an orgasm. I loved it when you did."

The click of Mrs. Crawford's shoes as she approached the kitchen stopped our conversation. I cleared the table.

"Good morning, mum. Would you like coffee?"

"Yes, thank you." she sat in the chair I'd just left.

"How do you think everything went last night, Toni?"

I was ignored again as they began to discuss the guests. Being thought invisible really bothered me at times.

It was past noon when Toni found me cleaning Shelly's bedroom.

"I just looked in the other room, you are really amazing! I was just teasing you about having to clean for the girls."

"Sheezh, now that I'm nearly done, you tell me!" I teased her and I continued to make up the bed with fresh linens. "I should be finished with the laundry in about half an hour, but I'll need a couple of hours to iron their clothes."

"What's this about laundry and ironing?" Mrs. Crawford stuck her head in the doorway and gasped loudly.

"Oh my god! Her shocked expression matched her surprised tone of voice. "You didn't have to do all this, Jacqui."

"You hired a maid for the weekend. Ms. Martin would have been very upset if I had just idled away my time, mum." I smiled, amused by the shocked look on her face.

"No, but..." That was all she could manage.

Mr. Crawford was engrossed in football on the television as Toni and I passed through, heading for the basement. I stopped and curtseyed, but he acted as if he didn't see me and probably had not. Before going to the laundry room, I poured him a beer, filled a bowl with nuts and delivered these on a tray.

"Thanks, dear." He looked up and visibly jumped. "A ... Thank you, Jacqui. I thought you were my wife."

"What? Flirting with the maid?" Mrs. Crawford joked as she descended the stairs. "She's only been here a day, too.

"Dave, next commercial, take a minute to go look what she did in the girls' rooms. You won't recognize their caves." She smiled at me.

"Thank you, Jacqui."

"My pleasure, mum." I curtseyed then continued to the laundry room. Toni had already started folding their clothes.

"Those are Ashley's. That's her basket on your right." I moved to the shelves where I'd seen the iron then plugged it in.

"Were you serious about helping, it's not necessary, Toni? That's what I'm here for."

"Yes, I was serious. Besides, you were here to do dinner last night and that was all. I never intended for you to clean their house and do the dirty laundry. I got you into this and I'll help you finish." I went upstairs and brought back the iron that was in the pantry.

"In the car yesterday, I was teasing you about making you clean my apartment. I want to make it clear that I was joking." Toni told me.

"I really don't mind if you arrange it with Ms. Martin. It will give me an opportunity to get out of the house, for a change." Then I had an idea. "Why don't you see if you can get her to give you the key to my chastity belt as well?" I giggled.

"I think I will," she said. "And I think I know how to convince her to give it to me as well."

As we worked together, ironing the clothes, we talked like old friends, which I guess we were. Toni began to ask me some of the questions I'd asked of Melissa about her outlook on her career. As I answered them, with a combination of Melissa's own statements and my own new perspectives, I realized how much I had changed.

"You know, Jacqui, watching you last night, working with you today and now listening to you, I think I'm falling in love with you. I never thought I could say that to another girl. Last night, when I climbed on top of you, I was still thinking that I wasn't doing it with another woman and that made it OK. Before falling asleep, I realized I wasn't in bed with a guy at all, despite what you have under that horrid chastity belt." Toni took a deep breath.

"You ever think of having sex with a guy?" She seemed hesitant as she asked that.

"Yes, but not like I think you are asking me." Her look questioned me to expand on what I had said.

"John thought that having sex with another man was repulsive. I'm Jacqui, not John. Jacqui's a girl. By the way, I'm a girl, not a woman." I giggled. "I think there's a difference."

"Well," Toni said, "you certainly look like you're only about twenty-one. Your surgeon must be brilliant."

"So, what does Jacqui think about having sex with a guy? Just tell me if it's none of my business. Have you had sex with Kurt?"

"We've kissed and fondled - petted, if that word is still in use. My chastity belt assures my behavior down there. You found that out yourself last night. Kurt hasn't been in me."

"Is that because you won't let him?" Her question caused me to laugh again.

"Nope. After his prostrate surgery, Kurt's impotent as they come and has no physical need or desire." I shrugged. "It's a moot point, but if he'd wanted me to, I would have satisfied him.

"You mean you would have let him in your back door?" Toni asked.

I suddenly realized that she didn't know that I'd had SRS. I didn't know how to react and my confusion must have shown on my face.

Toni picked it up instantly and stared at me waiting for me to say something. When I didn't, she did.

"You mean…" She gasped. "You've had the surgery?" she blurted out, once she had caught her breath. She immediately covered her mouth with her hand as if her hand could stop her mouth before it said anything else, but … it didn't work. She couldn't contain herself.

"I had no idea! When? How?"

"Shush," I said to her, putting my finger to her lips. Once she had calmed down, I went on. "It was done right after the plastic surgery. I thought I was going in for some minor changes, so it wouldn't be so easy for people to see that I was John. This is how I came out. Carla did it."

"Oh my god! John are you okay?"

"It's Jacqui, Toni. Yes, I'm okay. I refuse to allow my life to be ruined over this. I am and will be Jacqui. I will live a good life. I've spent all the time I ever intend to mourning about what happened to me. That's water over the dam."

"Oh hell, let's finish this up and get out of here."

We only had a little bit left to do and finished it quickly.

"Okay, that's the last of the ironing," I placed the last of Ashley's blouses on a hanger, unplugged the irons and folded up the ironing boards. Together, we carried the clothesbaskets up to their rooms. Mrs. Crawford followed us after we went through.

"Just put them on the floor, they can put everything away when they get home." Then she giggled. "Or not, they usually just pull stuff out of their laundry baskets without ever putting it away." She blushed a little at that revelation.

Mrs. Crawford opened her purse and handed each of us one hundred dollars. I debated presenting some stupid, polite argument, 'I can't accept this, mum.' I was a maid, a minimum wage servant. She was offering me nearly a week’s take-home pay.

"Thank you, mum," I curtseyed and tucked the bills under my stocking top as there are no pockets in any of my uniforms. Toni placed her money on top of mine.

"Keep that safe for me, Jacqui," she smiled. I knew that Toni had no intention of asking me to return the money she’d placed in on my thigh.

"Judy, if there's no further need for Jacqui here, I'll take her back home."

"No, she did a fine job.

"Thank you, Jacqui." I went to change into a clean uniform, pack our bags, and then load the car. Toni came out after I'd carried the last of our luggage to her car.

"Here," I accepted the heavy and full shopping bag with my hands.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Your supper. I noticed that you were kept so busy last night that you never took a break and went without your supper. When I mentioned that and commented on how hard you'd worked to Dave and Judy. Dave insisted you take all the leftovers. Enjoy your own feast tonight."

"Melissa and I can eat for a week with all this. Thanks." I had wrapped everything up in aluminum foil or placed it in baggies, so I knew what was in the bag.

Toni came inside the house when we returned. While I put all of my things up in the maids' quarters, she went to talk with Ms. Martin. They were still chatting by the pool when I curtseyed to them there.

"Toni has told me that you did a fine job last night, Jacqui. I'm pleased. I'll be leaving shortly and not require you further this evening."

"Yes, mum. Thank you mum" I curtseyed, said a polite good-bye to Toni and went to the maid’s quarters.

Melissa wasn't home, and I gratefully lay down to rest.

End of Part VIII