[The following Friday]
I had finished making all the parts for the device the previous evening. I caressed the smooth wood like you do a newborn baby. Like all my custom pieces I’d grown to love it despite its primary use. I went to bed satisfied that I had made a piece of furniture and one that I was proud to put my signature on.

My last task was to oil and polish the wood. The linseed oil brought out the grain of the wood. The finest aged English Oak and Ash had been a real pleasure to work with. As I assembled it for the final time, I caressed the wood once again. It had been a long time since I'd built a piece of furniture from scratch, even if it wasn't fine furniture in the classical sense.

Even in the morning light, the sight of the thing gave me the willies even though I’d built it myself.

I covered it up with a dustsheet and got on with cleaning up my workshop. There was fine dust from the sanding just about everywhere, even on my metalworking lathe. That was going to require a different sort of cleaning if the dust was not going to mix with the oil and cutting fluid and end up in a sticky mess that if it was left to dry, it would set hard.

I take great pride in my workshop. Sadly, that could not be said for my home, which was located above the workshop. I generally gave it a good clean once a month, and that's about it. My enthusiasm for making the device had gotten the better of me, and the place was even more untidy than unusual. The last thing I needed was for Jan to want to use the toilet. I made sure that the one at the back of my workshop was clean and sweet-smelling. I'd even made an effort to tidy up my office. I couldn't have a lady thinking that I was a slob.

More than once in the past week, I'd tried to work out what were or weren't my feelings towards Jan. I still wasn't sure but the one thing I did know was that we could work together. That isn't always the case as I'd found out to my cost. That event was the reason that I'd set up on my own. But that was in the past, and this was now.

Jan arrived right on cue as I’d just put the kettle on.

“Hey, Jan. You are just in time for tea, ok?”

“Great. I’ll unpack my bits while you be mother.”

I resisted laughing at her comment. I was the host so playing ‘mother’ was no big deal.

Jan demonstrated the changes she’d made while we drank the tea. As far as I could see, she’d covered all the points I’d considered and a good few more as well.

“I think it is time to see if this all fits into the structure,” I said as I walked towards the device.

With a bit of a flourish, I removed the dust sheet that had been covering it from sight.

Jan let out a small shriek.

“Alex will love this,” she said as she caressed the wood.

“What about it as a thing?”

“Interesting and she’ll want to try it out as soon as she sees it.”

“That’s what it is for, isn’t it? Doing it yourself?” I asked.

Jan just grinned. She reminded me of Alex so much when she did that.

Almost two hours later, we’d installed all the electronics and the mechanical releases and were ready to test the operation.

“I think another mug of tea would be good,” said Jan as we admired our handiwork.

“Good idea.”

I turned away and went to put the kettle on. I also took the opportunity to go to the toilet.

As I washed my hands afterwards, I thought back to how we'd worked together. It was as if we'd been doing it for years. There was no arguing over who did what, we just worked so well. I felt a tinge of sadness when I realised that we may well not get the chance to do it again.

When I returned to the kitchen, I found the kettle boiling and no sign of Jan getting the mugs ready. Then I saw her. She was in the stocks.

I switched off the kettle and went out into the workshop.

"Sorry. I just could not resist it," she said, grinning from ear to ear.

I sighed and shook my head.

“How long?”

"I set it for 10 minutes. I'm gasping for some tea," she replied, still smiling.

I picked up the phone that was being used as a remote control and looked at the display. The countdown timer said 4:23.

“You have just over four minutes more then we’ll see if the release mechanism works as predicted. In the meantime, I’ll make the tea.”

I left her alone and returned to my office. I should have known that Jan would want to get one over on her sister. There was nothing I could do about it. Then I realised I didn’t want to do anything about it. That felt a little odd.

I put those thoughts to one side and made two mugs of tea. While it was brewing, I opened a new packet of Plain Chocolate Digestives. I put everything onto a tray and carried it into the workshop.

Jan was testing the solidarity of the locking mechanism. So far, it had refused to let her out.

I looked at the countdown timer again. Thirty seconds.

“Not long to wait,” I said.

Jan just grinned at me.

“You are enjoying this aren’t you?”

“Why shouldn’t I? After all, it isn’t every day that a pretty woman comes into my workshop and locks herself up?”

Jan laughed.

“I see your point.”

“Someone needed to test it for real and you volunteered.”

I looked at the timer.

“Twenty seconds.”

Time dragged by as I watched the time countdown to 0:00.

“Three… Two… One… Zero…”

Then there was silence. I stood up feeling slightly worried about the operation.”

“Wait up to ten seconds,” said Jan confidently.

Sure enough, the words had hardly come out of her mouth when there was a series of clicks from the locks, and she was free.
I lifted the top piece away to allow Jan to stand up. Then I released her legs from the lower part of the device.

“How was it?” I asked as she sat beside me massaging her wrists.

“A bit tight over the wrist and the leg trap dug into my shin. Otherwise, it was fine.”

“Alex did specify the height of the leg trap as you call it. She said that she’d be wearing heels. You aren’t so that’s probably why. As for the wrist being tight, I made it so. It is meant to be tight but not too tight. Alex was most specific about not wanting to be able to get her arms out so I made it for her wrists.”

“Ok. She was always the one to be in heels and as a Dominatrix, it would sort of be expected that she’d want to use them in her domination of her clients.”

“You seem to be saying that you don’t like them?”

Jan glared at me.

“What is it with men and high heels?”

I managed a small laugh.

“It makes you different from us poor sods. To me, they make a statement that says, ‘I’m willing to put my feet through torture to make me stand out from you dullards’.”

Jan didn’t say anything so I carried on.

“Women get so much choice in what you can wear and most women take some pride in their appearance. Isn’t it true that the harshest critic of how a woman looks is another woman? In many animal species, one sex goes all out to attract members of the opposite sex. This is often through extravagant displays of plumage and colour in the mating season. In most of nature, it is the male that shows the colours but with us, many women look down on flamboyant men. Only for a brief period in the time of Prince Regent did the ‘dandies’ rule otherwise the norm is for women to look good.”

“So, we are expected to dress to the nines just to attract a mate?”

“Not really. I’ve known a few women who couldn’t care less about how they looked. The plainer the better as far as they were concerned. I found those women were also pretty dull to be with. They were not stupid. Quite the opposite. Their brain was entirely focused on one thing and that was their work and making the big bucks. At the other end, there are the dumb blondes who have nothing but their looks. In the middle, there are those who like to as you say, dress up to the nines when the occasion demands and look good. Looking good and feeling good about themselves.”

“That puts me in the dullard category then? Gee, thanks.”

“I don’t know. I’ve only seen you in a work environment. The same goes for you with respect to me. For all you know, I might be a drag queen
who goes for the total glam look at the right time and place.”

Jan burst out laughing.
“I really can’t see you as a drag queen.”

“I’m not but I was using it as an example of how we view others based upon our first impressions. I don’t know what you do in your private life and vice-versa.”

Jan was quiet for a few seconds.

“It sounds to me that you would like to go out on a date with me?”

I smiled.

“I would very much like that but not until our business here is concluded.”

“You don’t want to mix business with pleasure I suppose?”

“Something like that. I tried it in the past and I got well and truly burned.”

“From the tone of your voice, it sounds like you came off really bad?”

“How does getting fleeced and made a laughing stock on social media sound?”

“Not good. Social media can be very anti-social.”

“But that is in the past. In the here and now, I need to contact Alex to arrange delivery. Do you know where she lives? Her business card only contained a phone number.”

Jan laughed.

“That’s Alex down to a ‘T’. She has a business dungeon in London, close to Borough Market. However, I would guess that this is for her home which is on Ashdown Forest south of East Grinstead. I’ve never been there but I have a good idea where it is.”

“Why don’t you get on the phone with your sister while I dismantle this and pack it up? We wouldn’t want some nosy neighbour getting the wrong idea now, would we?”

Jan laughed as she went to find her phone.

I’d just wrapped up the cross member in bubble wrap when Jan returned.

“Monday afternoon after four. She’s texting me the address.”

I thought for a moment.

“I guess that means that you are coming along as well?”

“Why not? I’ll bring my laptop, so if there are any changes, I can do them on the spot. Besides, it has been more than nine months since I saw my sister.”

“You aren’t close then?”

Then I realised that I’d probably put my foot in it.

“Sorry.”

Jan smiled.
“That’s ok. We aren’t close. We had a big falling out about four years ago. We didn’t speak for nearly three years. We aren’t exactly close. As I said before, she moves in a very different world to me. I am not into this Domination business although there are a few people that I’d like to humiliate and not all of them are men.”

I took that last statement as a warning.

[Monday Afternoon, somewhere in Ashdown Forest]
“Oh… that’s the Pooh Sticks bridge!” exclaimed Jan as I did my best to navigate some unfamiliar and very narrow roads in torrential rain.

“There! Turn there!” cried Jan as I went past a turning on the right.

A brief look in the mirror told me that I’d have to find a place to turn around because there was a car on my tail

“I’ll have to find a place to turn around.”

Jan looked at her watch. The clock on the dash of my ancient Citroen van hadn’t worked since I’d bought it some three years before.

“Hurry up. Alex won’t appreciate us being late.”

I chuckled.

“We aren’t her clients. She is our client.”

Jan laughed, but I knew what she meant.

I found a place to pull over and turn around. This time I found the turning onto ‘Roman Road’. I guessed that it was the track of an old Roman Road.

“This is part of the old Roman Road from London to Lewes,” said Jan proudly.

“You know this how?”

“I was intrigued about the address so I spent a little time yesterday looking it up. Did you know that…”

“We are here,” I said as I pulled into the driveway of the house.

Jan remained quiet. She was looking at the building.

“It is a lot larger than I’d imagined.”

“There is a lot of money tied up here and that’s for sure.”

“Par for the course for a wanker,” said Jan.

“Don’t you mean Banker?”

“Wanker is what I meant. Bankers are wankers because they consider me a non-person when it comes to getting a business loan. Even with three years of audited accounts those wankers still said that I don’t qualify.”

I smiled. I knew the sort of problems she’d been through. I’d faced something very similar when I was setting up in business. I’d only got my loan because I sold a set of refurbished chairs to the local bank manager’s wife. Two months later, they closed the branch but I had my loan and I’d paid it off on time but that might not stop them from saying no in the future.

“Yep. Been there done that but it would do our cause a lot of good if you smiled sweetly if we happen to meet your sister’s man.”

“What’s this ‘our cause’ thing?”

“Do you want to get paid or not?”

“Ok. Got you.”

We walked up to the front door and used the large knocker. The sound echoed around inside the house.

A few seconds later, the door swung open and Alex appeared.

She smiled.

“Right on time. Hello Jan.”

“Hello, Alex. This is some pad you have here.”

“It is Gerd’s, but thanks.”

She stepped aside.

“Come on in and I’ll show you where I want the device set up.”

We followed her into the hallway. I guessed that the house was Edwardian with a sprinkling of ‘Art Deco’ thrown in for good measure. The wood-panelled hallway brought back memories of school. The corridor outside the headmaster’s office was just like this.

“I’d like it set up right there,” said Alex pointing to a spot right in the middle of the sitting room.

I asked, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Ok. We’ll bring it all in from my van and get it assembled.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“About half an hour to assemble and do the initial tests.”

“Good,” said Alex.

“I’ll leave you to it. I’ll go and get changed.”

Alex didn’t wait for either of us to reply. She left us alone and headed up the stairs.

I looked at Jan, who hadn’t said much since the initial hellos.

“Are you ok?”

“Yes. It takes me a while to get used to the idea that Alex is actually talking to me.”

“Then make the most of our time here… unless she decides to ask us to stay the night.”

“I doubt that she will, but we can take it as it comes.”

“There it is all done and tested,” I said as our last test passed.

I looked at my watch.

“Twenty-six minutes.”

“It gets easier the more times you do it,” said Jan.

“Otherwise known as ‘Practice makes Perfect’.”

“Indeed.”

Right on time, Alex reappeared. She’d changed out of her day clothes into something more like what she’d wear when she was working as a Dominatrix.

She was wearing a black latex catsuit, high-heeled boots, black gloves and her head was covered in a lace hood. The only part of her entire body that was exposed was her mouth. Her lips were exquisitely lined in a bright red lip gloss.

“Like it?” said Alex when she saw our expressions.

“Different, certainly different,” I managed to say.

I looked at Jan. She had a look of disbelief on her face.

Alex ignored her sister and said,

“Shall we try this out? It looks just like I imagined.”

I tidied up the packing materials while Jan took Alex through the controls and how to charge the phone and the equipment that was built into the stocks.

I carried a load out to my van and breathed a sigh of relief. There was some tension between the sisters and not a lot of love. At least they weren’t fighting…

When I returned, Jan was telling Alex about the emergency unlock.

“Dial 911 in the app. I tried 999 but around half the time it tried to call the emergency services. It can’t because there is no SIM card in it and as long as you don’t connect it up to your Wi-Fi, it is pretty secure.”

“I think I have got it.”

“If you want to try them out for fit, please go right ahead,” I said.

“Set a short time in the app but loop the phone over your wrist for this test.”

Alex set a lock time of three minutes on the app and then looped the strap of the phone case over her wrist.

We stood back while Alex positioned first her feet and then herself and the top member in place. Then after a bit of juggling, the locks clicked home with a satisfying click. The device emitted a small bleep to signify that it was locked.

“Now try to get out?” I asked.

As much as Alex tried, she was stuck. A big smile appeared on her face as she tried everything she could to escape from the stocks.

There was a satisfying click as it released her after three minutes. Alex released herself from the device looking very pleased indeed.

“This is brilliant. I know a good number of people who’d like one of these. Are you interested?”

I hadn’t thought much about that sort of thing.

“I… I don’t know. It all depends upon Jan here. I couldn’t have done it without her.”

“Well, go away and think about it.”

Alex went over to a desk in the corner of the room. She removed an envelope from a drawer.

“You have done everything I wanted and more. This is a great piece of furniture.”

Her words pleased me no end.

“This is what I think the device is worth. It is a lot more than you quoted. You were very much underselling yourself. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t think big.”

I took the envelope. There was a big wad of cash inside. I almost opened it to count it but stopped myself just in time. It would be slightly rude or even crass not to trust her word.

“Thanks, Alex. We will think about what you said and let you know.”

I started putting away my tools hoping that Jan would take the hint that it was time for us to leave. She did and after saying goodbye, we left Alex alone.

Jan was quite silent for the first part of the journey back to my workshop.

“If you are going to stay quiet for the next two hours then ok but I get the feeling that you are bursting to say something even if it is just a scream?”

Jan let out a fairly stifled scream.

“That woman! Why do I feel like I want to strangle her after just a few minutes in her company? You know that she had nothing on under that… that thing?”

“That thing is a latex catsuit and may well be what she wears when she’s working as a Dominatrix. I’ll say one thing for your sister and that is she knows how to rub you up the wrong way. Whatever there was between you is your business but judging by the thickness of that envelope, we are both going to come out of this on top financially.”

“You can keep her blood money. I’m not a charity case you know!”

“I know that, but we earned that money. The customer is happy and that is what counts, isn’t it? If they decide to pay us extra then we are we to say no?”

Jan looked at me with daggers in her eyes.

“Ok then. I’ll pay you what we agreed and keep the rest on account for you should you change your mind.”

I could see that Jan wasn’t happy just by the way she was clenching her fists. I shut up and go on with driving. It had come on to rain and the next two hours were not going to be pleasant.

My estimate of two hours turned into nearly three with the delays on the M25 and M4. It was still chucking it down when we arrived at my workshop in south Oxfordshire. Neither of us said anything as we unloaded the van. I hated to end things like this but Jan was clearly not in a talkative mood.

We said our goodbyes and I left it at that. I just wanted to head upstairs and chill out for the evening.

I’d hardly set foot on the stairs when there was a banging on my workshop door.

Jan was standing there looking very bedraggled. The rain seemed even heavier than before.

“My car won’t start,” she exclaimed.

“Come on in out of that rain.”

She gladly came into the dry workshop.

“I’ll get my coat and take a look. What happened?”

“The engine sort of ran but it was like it was only firing on one or two cylinders out of four.”

“That sounds like the distributor.”

I put on my coat, grabbed a flashlight and her keys and disappeared into the blackness. It was times like these that I regretted not getting around to fitting an exterior light. I had one in a box somewhere in my store cupboard but… I could complain until I was blue in the face but it was not going to help me now.

I opened up the bonnet of her car and peered inside. It took me a few seconds to locate the distributor and only one more second to see what was the probable cause of the misfiring. There was a crack right up one side of the distributor cap. Her car was very old. So old that it had points on the ignition rather than electronic controls. Any dampness that got inside could stop it from working.

I unclipped the cap and looked at the rotor arm. There were clear signs of arcing which wasn’t good, not good at all.
After removing the four plug leads, I closed the bonnet and headed back into my workshop. Jan was sitting on a chair looking very sorry for herself.

“I’ve found the problem. Look?”

I showed her the crack and the rotor arm.

“Can you fix it?”

“I can do a temporary fix but it looks like you will have to stay the night.”

“Why?”

“I need to glue the crack shut. The only glue I have that will do this job takes at least six hours to harden even then, it is only a temporary repair. You need a new distributor cap and rotor arm and probably plug leads as well. The ones I saw looked pretty ropey if you ask me.”

Her shoulders sagged.

“Is there nothing you can do that will get me home? Can’t you just tape it together?”

“There is one thing, but I would not guarantee it to work very well. Remember, this is part of the engine and it gets hot. Unless it is a fire-resistant tape, it will just smoulder and could even catch fire. I could try putting a jubilee clip around it but the sides of the cap, are as you can see tapered so it will slip within a few minutes once the vibration from the engine starts to work.”

I smiled.

“I have a spare room. It is at least dry here and I have plenty of food. I made a big pot of Chilli yesterday. There is more than enough for both of us.”

“I don’t want to impose on you?”

“You are not imposing on me. I’m inviting you to stay, get out of those wet clothes and have something to eat.”

After a few seconds, she replied.

“Oh, very well. I accept.”

I smiled and led her through my office and up the stairs into my home.

“The spare room is there. I’ll sort out some bedding and some dry clothes for you,” I said as I showed her around.

“Here’s the kitchen.”

“Wow! This is very unexpected. It is gorgeous.”

“I made all the cupboards and drawers myself.”

“This sort of quality would cost a packet if you bought it from a shop.”

“I know and most of that would be mass-produced and made from Chipboard or MDF. This is all solid well matured and sustainable English Ash and reclaimed Oak. All the new timber came from within ten miles of here.”

“This is a work of art.”

“Hardly.”

Then I changed the subject.

“Do you know you are dripping all over my nice clean floor?”

Jan looked down at the growing puddle around her feet.

“Sorry.”

“No problem. Why don’t you head for the shower? I’ll find some clothes for you to wear. I’ll put them on the floor outside the door in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, John. Sorry about the floor.”

“Don’t mention it again, ok or I’ll get you to clean it next time.”

“Understood.”

I left her to take a shower while I searched my room for clothes.

There are two wardrobes in my bedroom. One was a no-go zone. I checked that it was locked and the key was safely out of sight. That left my stuff. I stood gazing at all my clothes for several minutes before I had an idea.

I dug down the back of my bottom drawer and bingo! I pulled out a set of PJs that I’d been given on my only flight in First Class. I’d been upgraded from Club on my last trip to Sydney to see… Georgina. I thought back to those heady days when I thought that I was in love with her only for her to up sticks and move to some god-forsaken fly-infested hell hole in the middle of New South Wales. I’d been so emotional that I’d booked the next flight I could to Sydney. I lucked out big time when I found that she’d been made a total fool of me. Georgina had been engaged to a sheep farmer all the time. She’d taken me for a huge sucker which had hurt me to my core.

My one bit of comfort on the whole trip was when I found that I’d been upgraded to First Class for the return flight and that included complimentary PJs. They’d been sitting there in a drawer all this time now; they had a use. I added a clean sweatshirt to the pile plus the complimentary slippers from the same flight and left them outside the bathroom door.

“There are some clothes here for you.”

I didn’t get an answer but the sound of the shower probably drowned out my voice.

My next job was to make up the bed in the spare room. When I’d done that, I put out a drying horse for her clothes. I felt good that I’d cleared out the room over the weekend. To my shame, I’d used it as a bit of a dump ever since I’d done my kitchen and that was almost two years ago.

The chilli I’d made the previous day was warming on the stove. The microwave rice was ready to cook and the table was set. All that was missing was a bottle of wine. My wine rack was almost empty. One solitary bottle of Chilean Merlot was sitting there saying ‘Drink me!’. I couldn’t resist any longer. It had to be drunk.

Jan appeared looking a lot more relaxed than she’d been when we left her sisters.

“Something smells good.”

“Don’t praise it until you have tasted it,” I warned.

“Thanks for the clothes. I hung mine up

“Is that glass for me?”

“It is. We deserve a treat. Do you want to know how much money was in that envelope?”

Jan thought for a moment

“A grand?”

I shook my head.

“Two and a half. Add on the deposit that’s three thousand pounds. If I give you a grand, we both will make a fairly decent profit. What do you think?”

Jan didn’t answer straight away.

After a nod of her head, she said,

“Ok. Sounds good.”

“Right,” I said as I stood up.

“I’ll put the microwave on. I’m not very good at cooking rice. It seems no matter what I do, it always sticks to the pan.”

Jan laughed.

“Microwave rice is fine by me.”

I dished up and hoped for the best.

Jan didn’t throw her plate in the air and dash for lots of water. I considered that a bit of a success.

“That’s a bit hot.”

“Sorry. I got the chillies from a neighbour in return for repairing one of his chairs. They do have a bit of a kick.”

Jan didn’t say much but persevered with the bowl until it was nearly clean.

“Sorry. I can’t manage the rest. It is just too hot.”

“That’s fine. I know now not to put so many seeds in next time.”

Jan didn’t reply so I added.

“The good news is that I have plenty of Yoghurt in the fridge.”

I gave her a pot of plain yoghurt to cool her mouth. That earned me a big smile.

I cleared the dishes away when we’d finished and made us some tea. While I was waiting for it to brew, I asked,

“Are you interested in making some more stocks? If we charge two thousand five hundred each, there will be close to a thousand for you.”

“Are you sure it is that much?”

“Yes, I am sure. How about it? Do we have a deal?”

Jan didn’t answer right away. After a bit, she said,

“I could do with the money all right. But…”

“You aren’t sure about having to cut in your sister on the deal?”

“Something like that but I don’t see any alternative, do you?”

[to be continued]