When I woke in the morning, Jenny was still asleep and I thought that if I stripped for a shower that there was no way I could sort out the cincher myself, so it was just a quick wash and sprays of deodorant to freshen me up before doing my makeup and hair. I was feeling a bit more relaxed with the cincher, whether it was just a case of my body getting used to it or whether it was actually having a physical effect I didn’t know, but at least it was now at the back of my mind rather than a constant awareness.

I was in the office bright and early, sorting out my priorities for my first day working solo since Sally left, I had learned a lot from her in two days, but I was certain that there must be some things that I had missed. As I was scheduled to be going out of the office with James to visit the Planning Officer, I had dressed in a smart professional skirt suit borrowed from Linda and realised that Jenny was right, the smaller waist that I was now squeezed down to emphasised my hips and bottom, helped by the flesh squeezed down from my waist, and the skirt definitely sat better on me.

I had soon cleared up all the routine stuff, emails and mail, sorting out stuff left over by Sally, which all went int a spare drawer to sort out later. I collected my things together and was all set and waiting when James was ready to go.I was still nervous of meeting new people, the more I met the greater was the chance of someone noticing flaws in my appearance, character, or behaviour. But by the time we arrived at the council offices James’ casual manner, chatting to me as he drove, had settled me down.

The last time I had been in the council offices was when we did a work experience visit before leaving school and it looked like nothing much had changed in the intervening years. It was still a bland soulless clinical modern concrete and glass building, but was now in need of a major redecoration, obviously the high community charges we were all obliged to pay was not being spent on property maintenance. After we signed in, we were given ‘Visitor’ ID badges and soon someone came down to escort us to Andrew Hargreaves’ office. James was welcomed quite heartily but I was given just a cursory handshake and a curt ‘hello’, obviously I was too far down the pecking order to be bothered about, which suited me fine as I didn’t want to be too memorable.

If I had thought that James’ eyes had lingered on my bust-line when he first saw me, it was nothing compared with the unconcealed gaze of Andrew Hargreaves. With that and the obvious way he otherwise ignored me, I instantly formed an opinion of him as a patronising lecher and thought that the women working for him must be constantly being made to feel inferior.

During the meeting I was surprised at the give and take chat between the two of them, obviously petty rules and procedures were for the lower ranks and there always seemed to be a way around obstacles that couldn’t be overcome at the lower levels.

As we were leaving James drew me into the conversation. “ Andrew just to let you know that Jane will be joining us at Ladies Night, Sally won’t be with me this year as she is about to give birth any day now. It will be Janes ,first time at this sort of event, so, if you can ask I’m certain that your Dorothy will make sure that she is not left out of things, it will be good for Jane to get to know some of the ‘movers and shakers’ in the town.”

This seemed to melt Andrew’s coolness towards me a bit and he forced a smile. “I look forward to seeing you there Jane, it is usually a really pleasant night, I’m sure that you will enjoy yourself.” But despite his change in attitude, I still felt that he was not someone I could warm to or trust.

Thursday morning I was still finding my way around the office procedures and the various roles when I was called into John Chisholm’s office.

“ Hi Jane, I hope that you are settling in ok.” He welcomed me with a big smile but soon turned more formal. “I’ve noticed that you have been accessing the accounts files on the network. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you are new here and there is a lot of confidential information in those files. Sally had access to those files because of some of the work she was doing for James, but it should not be necessary for you to do so at the moment. I have arranged for your access to those files to be restricted, as applies to all the other staff except for my team of Maggie and Carl. If you need any information for items of work you are doing for James please ask one of them. There are a few loose ends that Sally was working on for me, I’ll give you a quick briefing and would then appreciate you sorting things out for me.”

I was confused about whether it was my instinct as a reporter, or whether it was just the way things worked in a commercial scenario, but I had nagging doubts for various reasons about almost everyone I had met since starting work at Cartwright’s, and added John to the list, he had been polite about it but it seemed clear to me that once again I had been told to keep my nose out of the affairs of the accounts department.

I was just leaving at the end of the day when I bumped into Angie in reception. “Hi Jane, it’s been a hectic day, do you fancy a quick drink to wind down, since you started we’ve not really had a chance to get to know each other.”

“Good idea, why not, I’m in no particular hurry.”, I quickly replied although I was actually quite keen to get home, but thought that it would do no harm to get any gossip from her.

Over a glass of Chenin blanc in the local wine bar she reinforced most of the opinions I had formed myself or had been told by Sally. She had been given the same warnings as me about the confidentiality of the accounts files and told me not to worry as Chisholm was like that with all the other women too.

“ I hear that you are going with James to the dinner dance next week, it should be fun, Sally always used to enjoy it, although James spent a lot of the time wheeling and dealing with other members and left her to chat with the other wives and partners that had been similarly treated, But that’s men for you, always treating us girls as a useful accessory to charm people that they are trying to impress. I’m new at this and still young, but hopefully things are changing and as I make a career things will get a bit more realistic and we will be considered for our talents rather than looks and personality.”

“ Let’s hope you are right Angie, you seem quite bright and get on with everyone, if you keep your nose clean I am sure that you will get on. Women in the workplace have always seemed to get the less interesting and rewarding roles, but men can’t keep ignoring half the population.”

“ Anyway, that’s enough about me and being on my soapbox, tell me a bit about yourself Jane. Have you always lived and worked in this town?”

Other than my real identity, which was replaced with that of my cousin Jane and the fact that I told her that I was brought up in a village I knew the other side of the county, and leaving aside my time as a reporter, I kept my background as genuine as I could, that way it would be easier to avoid slip-ups. Angie seemed to accept it all and came across as genuinely interested rather than probing. Although I didn’t want to get too involved with any of the staff, I felt comfortable with Angie and in other circumstances she could be a really good friend.

Back home Jenny was already working away in the kitchen preparing dinner and I was glad to sit down, kick off my shoes, which was a delight, pour myself a glass of wine and relax for a while.

“ Everything go ok today Jane?” Jenny asked when she escaped the kitchen for a few minutes.

“ Yes, fine, I am becoming comfortable and relaxed as Jane and everyone seems to accept me, to be honest it is being a lot easier than I expected.”

“Talking of comfortable, how are you getting on with the cincher?”

“ It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but after a while I didn’t really notice, let’s hope it is doing its job and I can soon do without it, but I suppose that it’s a necessary evil.”

“ No chance, at least for a while, we still need to work on giving you a more feminine figure. If you are finding it not to be too uncomfortable it needs tightening in a bit. Go and get changed into something casual and loose and I will see what I can do.”

“ I can’t wait. I’m sure that you are enjoying making me suffer” I said sarcastically as I went off to my room.

“ There you are, that’s another inch from your waist, if you keep up like this, we’ll have to get a smaller one, there’s not much left to go on this one. Keep it on overnight and see what you feel like in the morning” Jenny seemed to be enjoying watching me struggle to breathe easily, even more so when I couldn’t finish my meal, because I felt full quite quickly.

“I’m going out with the girls tomorrow night Jane, we’re meeting for a drink and some of us might go on to a club, are you coming?”

“A drink with you all would be good, but I’m not sure about a club afterwards. I’m not a good dancer at the best of times and as Jane I’m sure that I would look awkward and stiff.”

“Look, you will be expected to have a dance at the do next week, so you need to learn how to move as a girl, it will be good practice. Let’s put on some music now and have a go. Just try and copy what I am doing. For the next hour or so we danced to disco cds she had and we found what I could and couldn’t cope with, particularly swivelling my hips, and managed to to get me fit to dance in public.

“ How are you getting on Jane?” Darren asked me over a coffee in his office in the morning, in the pretence that I was taking notes of a meeting he had been to. “We’ve not had a chance to catch up, I’ve been busy out on site all this week.”

“ I’ve not got very far at the moment, to be honest there are very few that I have ruled out. I have assumed that you and James have nothing to gain and a lot to lose by leaking information. I can’t warm to Charles, he holds back a lot, Maggie is too ambitious and pushy, i don’t trust her at all. Carl I’ve almost ruled out, he is too much of a plodder, and lacks imagination. Jo and Liz seem ok although, both are struggling financially a bit, but seem genuine. Becky seems only interested in developing her sex life, rumour has it that she plays the field a lot and could easily let things slip in a bit of pillow talk. Angie is not yet disillusioned enough or driven enough to get involved in anything shady, I am using her to keep me in the loop of office gossip, most people seem to like her and chat to her, and I’ve not met Bill yet.”

“Those seem fair character assessments. How are you adjusting to life as Jane?”

“Really, it has been a lot easier than I was expecting, the clothes and things are incidentals they do not take a lot of getting used to, I am becoming comfortable with the personality side too. I’ve always been at ease with women, as you know a lot of my youth was spent in the company of Jenny and her friends because most of you boys wanted nothing to do with me. The other girls are quite accepting of me as I am at the moment, in fact we are all going out together tonight for a drinking and a dance.”

“Susie told me, she said that she and the other girls have really taken to the new you and that you are fun to be with and a good addition to their group, I reckon that they will be disappointed when all this is over, I think that they may even prefer you as Jane. Anyway enjoy yourself tonight.”

Later at home I spent a lot more time than I normally would getting ready, it was no longer just a quick shower, towel dry my hair and give it a brush, grab the nearest set of clean clothes and get out of the door. After the shower and patting myself dry there was moisturising and powdering, selecting a fancy set of clean undies, a good half-hour makeup routine and another half-hour restyling my hair from its daytime business bob, before slipping into my red sheath dress and matching heels. I was definitely into red, to match my vibrant hair colour and the bubbly personality I was trying to present. I would never complain again about waiting for my sister and her friends getting ready to go out.

We all met in a town-centre music bar and spent the next two hours chatting and talking about what had happened since we last met and were having a pleasant night out.They wanted to know everything about the people I was working with and how I was getting on with them. When I told them about the lecherous looks from Hargreaves, they all just giggled, “Get used to it Jane, it’s a fact of life, you’ll find as a girl that you are judged more on your looks than on your talents.”

“Jane have you seen that tall blond guy int the fancy shirt and those ever so tight pants over at the bar with his friends, he keeps giving you the eye, you could be in there.“

“I’m not looking to ‘be in there’ remember.” I replied blushing and giggling just like the other girls often did. “It wouldn’t be fair to lead him on would it. Anyway, isn’t it about time we were off to the club?” We collected our things, Susie went off to meet Darren but the rest of us went along the road to a disco club.

At first we were all dancing together as a group and the lessons Jenny had given me paid off, I was soon following the style and movement of the others and really enjoying myself. However it wasn’t long before our group caught the attention of a group of lads looking to get to know us. Most of the dances were quite lively and not at all intimate, but the dj occasionally put on a slow number to give everyone a chance for a clinch and smooch.

The first time I was with someone I was uncomfortable and embarrassed and not really sure about how to react, but after a while I was more used to it and actually enjoyed the close contact and the company, but made sure that it was only for one or two dances. However towards the end of the night; the blond lad who had been eyeing me up in the bar came over and asked me to dance. I felt a nudge in my back and turned to see Babs smiling and mouthing ’go for it girl, enjoy yourself’, and thought ‘what harm can it do?’

Jeremy, or Jez as he preferred to be called, was great company, a good dancer, amusing and charming, and I was having a good time with him. For the final dance of the night the dj put on a really slow number, giving Jez the chance to pull me in close, nuzzle my neck and generally have a smooching session.The intimacy did not do a lot for me, despite how comfortable I was with the other girls and how I fitted in well and almost felt like a girl with them, I was not prepared for going any further, although from the bulge I could feel in Jez’s trousers he was obviously hoping for more.

“ Can I see you again Jane?” He asked holding my hand as he led me back to the table where the girls were sitting waiting for me.

“Thanks Jez, it would be nice but I am not looking for dates at the moment I have got too many issues I need to deal with first.” I tried to let him down gently, he was a nice lad, and he walked back to his friends looking very disappointed.

“OMG Jane, you say you are new to this, but you just turned away the fittest looking lad in here tonight.“ Babs joked with me.

Over a glass of wine to unwind back at the flat Jenny wanted to know if I had enjoyed my night out.

“It was good fun, I had super time thanks to you and the girls.“

You seemed to be having fun dancing with the lads, particularly with Jez at the end of the night

“ Jenny, you and the girls sometimes seem to forget who I really am, I am not interested in any relationships at the moment, particularly with boys.”

“If that’s the case you could always try a night out with a girl, it’s quite fashionable nowadays.”

“ Change the subject Jen, I told you I am not interested. Let’s finish our wine and go to bed, we have to go shopping tomorrow.”

Despite what I had said to Jenny about not being interested in boys, I slept fitfully, with thoughts of dancing with Jez and in particular the feeling of his arousal, playing on my mind. I was too easily drifting from a dress-up disguise to actually beginning to act and think as a female. I needed to get this investigation sorted quickly before it permanently affected me.

“ Are you not ready yet?” Jenny pestered me as I picked up my bag and coat to go out. “”We are supposed to be meeting Linda in town in a quarter of an hour, we’re going to be keeping her waiting.”

“ It’ll make up for all the times you and the others have kept me waiting while you have been getting ready to go out.”

We must have been in at least seven or eight shops, picking dresses off racks and holding them up against me, trying them on and rejecting them as not being a good fit or the wrong colour, before going back to the second one we had visited. It was a choice between a full-length prom dress, with lace bodice and half-sleeves, gathered under the bust and flaring out to the floor, in either cerise or a pale coral. Both fitted well but the jury of Jenny and Linda decided that the coral suited me better with my pale skin and ginger hair colour. Of course, they insisted that I needed shoes and a clutch bag to go with it, but we chose cerise for those to give some contrast colour.

“You will look absolutely gorgeous, I wish I could afford get an outfit like that, but the chain stores are more my market.“ Linda said wistfully as she had a final look before we took everything over to the shop assistant to ring it all up and bag things.

“Go and choose something then Linda, my treat, or at least my treat using the Cunningham's credit card.”

She ended up with a mid-length cocktail dress in bright blue which matched the colour of her eyes and which was totally her, it was a lot more fitted than mine, but then she had the natural figure to show it off, mine was still being worked on by the damn corset.

Totally exhausted physically and mentally from traipsing around the shops, we stopped in a bistro in the shopping centre for a coffee and a light lunch, but to be honest I was more glad for a chance to sit down and relax than any need for refreshment. I was just getting to relax when I felt a touch on my arm and looked up directly into the eyes of Jez who I had met at the club last night.

“ Hi girls, you seem to have been having a busy time this morning judging from the collection of bags next to your chairs. Did you all enjoy yourselves last night.”

“It was a good night and we all had a lot of fun, particularly Jane.especially later after she had met you.” Linda cheekily replied, getting a glare from me to not go there, but I remained stonily silent, and gave a pleading look to Jenny.

“Nice to see you again Jez, but we have to be off now, you know how it is when us girls start shopping.” She quickly jumped in having taken my hint, picking up the bags and rising from the chair to go, and I didn’t hesitate to follow.

“Maybe, I’ll see you all around sometime.” He hopefully said as he left.

“ Linda, please never do that to me again, I told you that I am not interested and it wouldn’t be fair to lead him on that I was.” I snapped at Linda when we were away from him.

“ Don’t be silly Jane, a bit of flirting never does any harm and it doesn’t usually mean anything, it’s just a bit of fun for us girls seeing how far we can manipulate a boy that’s interested in us. For the moment you are living as a girl, learn to behave like one.” She snapped in reply, not backing down at all.

I was glad to get home and see Linda going away, I didn’t want to get into a row with her, but I was not going to let her push me into something I didn’t want to do. And a relationship was the last thing on my mind.

“ Take no notice of Linda, she is just having a bit of fun with you, but she is partly right, a pleasant smile and a quick hug would not have done any harm and would probably have brightened Jez’s day” Jenny tried to calm me down, just relax and go with the flow.

To be continued