Diva in Disguise Chapter 19

After lunch I was engaged in doing the dishes after clearing away. I had been left alone to complete these chores as Madeleine had engaged my co-worker in other duties, a circumstance I found unamusing. After I’d finished, I tossed the dishtowel in the laundry basket and moodily marched upstairs to the maid’s room. I was at an all-time low. That dark cloud threatened to engulf me whichever way I turned.

Wondering what I should do to lift my spirits, one of my mother’s maxims came to mind. “If you want to feel good, better look your best.” Checking in the mirror, I was immediately dissatisfied by what I saw. My mascara was streaky, my lips lacked definition, and my foundation urgently needed refreshing. The state of my fingernails was well below salon standards too. I resolved to treat myself to some ‘me’ time and set about giving both my manicure and my make-up a complete salon makeover. I had nearly done when Consuela tiptoed in.

“Better keep a low profile” she whispered, cautiously. “Madame is not happy!”

“What’s upsetting her now?”

“I guess she is vexed with Karen after their tiff! Despite madame doing all she could to calm her down, that little town tramp has upped and left. Not that I mind, of course.” Her eyes sparkled with glee at the thought. “If she never comes here again it will be too soon for me.”

Engaged in putting the final touches to my lips, I didn’t reply. The maid watched me attentively until I had completed my task to my satisfaction. I straightened up and faced her. “How do I look?”

She nodded approvingly. “You have done that before. Have you ever thought of becoming a model?”

I chose not to enlighten her that my other persona already was one.

Consuela continued thoughtfully. “You’re a strange one. What I don’t understand is why you don’t let it be known what really happened, how you were set up and fed some drug or other. Then you could tell madame where to stick her photos!”

Faced with the direct question, the reason became all too clear to me. “Because I can’t say what exactly happened. The truth is that I don’t know whether Karen and I did anything that night, or not” I concluded sadly. “My guess is that we probably did, and so I feel bad.”

Consuela was short on sympathy. “Why do you believe that? You still fancy that bitch, don’t you?”

I couldn’t deny it. “Perhaps. A little.” In reality, despite all those years of frustrated admiration, being around Karen again had made it a struggle to get her out my head. It was as if I were bewitched by her.

“You’re crazy!”

I reverted to the original subject. “What did Karen and Madeleine fall out over?”

“About you, oddly enough! First, she started yelling that it was high time madame got rid of me. Yup! Poor little ole me! That was because I’d busted in on the pair of you minutes before and put a stop to… whatever it was she was up to. Apparently, it was just when you were weakening. Were you weakening?”

I chose not to reply to that. “Go on” I said.

“Then she said she felt completely humiliated.”

“Humiliated?”

“Don’t keep interrupting, or I’ll lose my thread. She said it was the third time she’d tried and got the brush off, and that there’s a limit to how much rejection a girl can take. Poor Karen!” she exclaimed with irony.

“Then…”

Consuela glared at me.

“Sorry” I mouthed.

“Then, madame tried some more to placate her, but she told her that she could play her mind games with you if she liked, but she was out of here! Then she packed and left.”

I was baffled. What had my so-called ex-sweetheart tried and failed to do? Three times?

“What can she have meant?” I puzzled.

Consuela looked at me scornfully. “Isn’t it obvious? You surely must see that Karen’s been doing her damnedest to have it away with you. For whatever reason. Anyone else would just have screwed her senseless at the first opportunity, but not you!”

I hesitated to point out that her suggested approach couldn’t be quite my style, given the cocktail of hormones that had flooded my body over the years.

The girl pursued her line of reasoning. “I get it. I really do. You want to be able to look the world in the eye and protest your innocence.”

She continued “Anyway, how many times have you turned her down?”

“Well, there was the night after we went to the cocktail bar. Next morning she was really teed off with me for falling asleep on her. That was a narrow escape. Then there was yesterday morning after you had interrupted us, but that’s all.”

“No, it isn’t. Not if she was including to the night you were drugged. What happened between you then?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what happened. Nothing. That’s right. Precisely nothing. You must have been out of it. Again. No wonder that floozy was so mad! Can’t you see what this means?”

“What?”

“It means you can kiss your precious guilty conscience goodbye and run off home to your sweet little wife, innocent as a new-born babe.”

Though I couldn’t be sure of her logic, my sombre mood lifted like there had been a sudden break in the clouds.
“She’s not actually that little. She’s quite tall, really.”

A tremendous feeling of happiness had started to bubble up inside me. The world was a wonderful place. I could even make jokes!

“Aargh! You’re impossible!”

After a few moments of euphoria, however, I frowned. “I’d still like to destroy those photos.” Their existence seemed to be like a ticking bomb with who knows what hidden consequences.

“I guessed that.” Consuela looked mysterious. “Don’t fret. I have a cunning plan.”

Any further confabulation was abruptly prevented by the ringing of a bell.

“Mistress wants me. Or she might want you… or both of us. We’d better go. If it’s what I think it is, well… just trust me and play along.”

Baffled by her air of mystery, I followed my fellow conspirator down and into the drawing room.

As it turned out we had been summoned so that Madeleine could inform us what the rest of the day held.

When she had done, we were dismissed summarily from her presence. In the hallway, my co-worker gestured to me to remain and turned to re-enter the room.

“Will madame want me this evening?” she asked, pulling the door to behind her.

I heard “Yes Consuela…” before the door closed but the rest of Madeleine’s answer was lost to me.

I was wild with curiosity to know what was going forward. The maid emerged a few minutes later. She looked pleased with herself.

I enquired “What was that all about?” as calmly as I could.

“Oh, you’re the lucky one, it seems.” That was all she said, and there was a trace of irony in her manner which was not reassuring. She could not be drawn to elucidate further.

I had to exercise patience until early evening when Consuela declared. “It’s time we were getting ready.”

Ready for what?

She took me up to her room and opening her closet, retrieved a bundle of clothing. Carefully she laid the garments out on the bed. Their intended purpose was not immediately obvious to the eye.

It was high time to dispel her pervading air of secrecy. “You need to fill me in on what you’re planning if you want me on board” I stipulated.

“Okay, I’ll give you some background, but it’s better if you don’t know everything, otherwise you may not react naturally. You will have to trust me.”

“Okay” I hesitated, my doubts very little diminished.

“Mistress likes to indulge in dramatic little games. Their quirky but I don’t mind going along with her. It’s kinda fun and nobody gets hurt… not much anyway!”

Not much!

“Have you seen the Samson and Deliliah movie, the one with Hedy Lamarr?”

It was one of my parent’s favourites, so I knew the film intimately. I reckoned that the woman being in charge was the part that appealed to Mom.

An urgent doubt sprang to my mind. “Does this involve cutting hair?” I asked anxiously. “Because I like mine the way it is… really…”

Consuela dismissed my fears on that score with a patronising smile and a shake of the head. “It’s all about costumes. This is what I will be wearing.”

On closer inspection, set out on the bed in front of me was a skirt, of sorts. A metal girdle to be fastened low around the hips with clasps and two lengths of silk which hung front and back formed the entirety of the thing. There was also a metal bra which relied on two strategically placed wisps of silk to provide a minimum of modesty. There was also a quantity of trinkets. Once I made out what the outfit was made up of, I was thankful it wouldn’t be mine!

I stared at the odd collection arrayed there, intrigued. When I looked up it was to see that Consuela had already stripped to her underwear. Without any hesitation she removed her pantyhose and briefs before my eyes.

Grinning broadly at the shocked expression on my face, she reached behind her to unfasten her bra. As it fell away, I averted my eyes just in time.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you like my boobs?” My companion actually sounded hurt. “There not so big but I’ve always considered them rather shapely!”

“They’re… they’re very nice” I stammered looking back at her awkwardly, only to see that Consuela was shaking with silent mirth.

“Just kidding! It’s so easy to yank your chain.” She started to dress herself in the outfit on the bed. “You need to learn to lighten up, you know. Can you fasten these clasps please?”

When we had done getting her dressed, the maid resembled some kind of hareem girl.

I was startled to notice a significant omission, “Don’t you get to wear panties?” I questioned.

“’Fraid not! Exciting eh!”

Turning to the remaining items, the girl took a heavy metal necklace with a ring in it and fastened it around her neck.
“This one’s just for show. My mistress likes to feel I’m under her total control!”

I took a deep breath. “Okay… I think.”

Next, she clipped some thick metal cuffs on her wrists.

“What are those for?” I asked as casually as I could.

For answer she beckoned me to follow and led the way into the room I knew so well and which I’d come to dislike so much.

Seeing the look on my face Consuela laughed. “Don’t fret so! I’ll show you how they work.”

The girl attached a pair of armlets to my wrists also. Then, “Lie on the bed. It’s all right. Go on!”

Unless I bailed completely, there was no option but to trust her. When I had stretched out as instructed, my co-worker knelt over me. Her bare legs straddled my thigh, setting off a tingling down below. The proximity of the girl’s half-clad body distracted my attention. Before I knew it, she had slipped loops of the stout ties which were attached to the bedposts over my ankles, and then clipped another tie to first one and then the other of the wrist clasps.

“See how clever they are! So simple, but you can’t make any resistance, can you?”

I couldn’t disagree. That didn’t make me feel an awful lot better.

“Don’t look so unhappy!” She ticked my ribs unmercifully, leaving me gasping for breath.

“Oh, the things I could do to you, now I’ve got you like this” she crowed. “You are completely at my mercy. But…we mustn’t keep mistress waiting. I’ll tell her we’re ready for her, shall I?”

I could only look my disbelief. What was she thinking?

“Consuela!”