Chapter 1
“You’ve got to know when to fold, know when to hold, know when to walk away, know when to run.”
They might not have been the exact words of the song, but they were running on repeat in my mind. I wasn’t in a good place, right now, and I think it was all of my own doing, although I didn’t know why.
I had a good job, earned decent money, lived in a reasonable apartment, and had just the one vice. That was my love of playing poker. I had learned how to play in university and had made enough money to avoid having to get a part-time job. I was born at the beginning of the new century, into a modestly middle-class family. My father was a doctor, and my mother was a teacher’s aide. I was the youngest of four, an unlikely surprise at their age, and my being somewhat of a runt could have been blamed on their aging bodies.
It meant that I was in my teens as they both retired, so was left to my own devices most of the time. They called me ‘Surp’ at home, short for surprise, or maybe surplus, but had christened me Jackson, my father liking the works of Jackson Pollock, the painter.
They sold up as soon as I was out of the house and moved to some place in Spain. They sent me postcards for a while, and then they dried up. They didn’t attend my graduation ceremony, and I had totally lost contact with my sisters.
I had done well at school, especially in maths, and had gone to university to study statistics. It was the maths and probabilities that attracted me to poker when I was taken to a Friday night game by a couple of my fellow students. They came to regret introducing me to the game as I generally took money off them. I had a good memory for number series, so could guestimate the likely hands of my playing partners. I never cheated, and even allowed my opponents to win smaller pots by discarding my hand.
I was head-hunted straight out of university, slotting into a seat at a stock broking firm in the City. It was interesting, for a few years, but then became a little predictable. That was what I was there for, after all. I spiced up my life with the poker games that were played on the Friday evening, sometimes going until sun-up on Saturday.
The company that I worked for was privately owned. The owner had a title and a place in the House of Lords. He had several properties around the country, along with a model wife and four children that I knew of. His three sons worked in the company, while his daughter was a well-known socialite. My apartment was part of my package, a peppercorn rental in one of his buildings. It was walking distance to the office, and I used Uber for anything else.
My social life wasn’t restricted to the poker games, although long sessions would mess up Saturdays. I was a film fanatic, especially the old ‘musicals’. I had a small collection, and often spent Sundays at various markets, looking for good DVDs to expand that collection. I had spent time with girls, usually at social events after work, but was keeping single, as the idea of being responsible was not part of my mindset. I supposed that I would settle down, one day, but that day had not happened yet, as I had not met the girl who made me feel that it was the right time.
It was late in March when I arrived at our usual venue for the poker games. It was the home of one of the sons of the company owner. He was a good guy to know and had a big house with plenty of room for his family, as well as a big garage with a rumpus room above it. The games night usually started with two or three tables, many leaving to go home before midnight.
On that particular evening, I sat with a few of my friends from the company, with the son on another table. As the evening wore on, I gained a little, with my opponents declaring that there was something they had to do. I watched the other games until there was a vacant seat. In the early hours, we were down to one table of six players. A few regulars, the house owner, me, and a guy who was obviously a friend of the host. After a few hands, the regulars made their farewells and left, leaving the three of us. We agreed on one more hand before calling it a night.
I had a good hand, and the bets rose, until the host threw his hand in and said goodnight, just leaving me and the stranger. No matter what I bet, the more he raised, and my instinct was that there was no way he could beat me, from my estimates of the cards. The guy had brought his girlfriend with him, and she had spent the evening talking with the other women until they had left. The guy looked at me.
“My girl will get us a drink each, so one can toast the winner. Then, I will call for a show, as it’s time for me to leave.”
I nodded, and the girl poured out two shots, going to give him his. She was bringing me mine as we showed our cards. I looked at his winning hand and just said, “Impossible”
His cards included two that really shouldn’t have been there. He smiled.
“That’s what I hoped you would say.”
At that moment, the glass was put in front of me, and I felt something prick my neck. After that, things went black.
Which brings me to where I am, now. I thought that I was likely in a van, stretched out on a mattress, by the smell. I was on my front, my ankles lightly constricted, and my hands behind my back. When I felt around, I realised that I was in handcuffs, but the ones you use for playful sex, with a fur cover to limit any marks. I had something in my mouth, and there was a bag over my head. That’s when the words of the song started in my brain, in an attempt to calm my panic.
When I had calmed my breathing, I listened as the vehicle drove on. There was very little traffic noise, not unusual in most places after midnight, but unusual in the City. I stayed still for a while, and then tested the handcuffs to see if I could release myself. That’s when a hand pulled the bag up from my neck and I felt the prick once more, plunging me back into darkness.
The next time I woke up, I was stretched out on a big settee. I groaned and sat up, suddenly realising that I was naked, except for a towelling dressing gown. I heard a movement from behind me and the guy I had been playing with walked into my line of sight.
“There’s water in the glass on the table, Jackson. Put your knees together, you’re flashing your tackle to the world. I’ll go and tell your host that you’re awake. Don’t even think of leaving the room.”
He left me alone in the room and I took a drink from the glass. It was like nectar after what I had been through. I looked around. The room screamed money. Even to my untrained eye, the furnishings had to be expensive. The ornaments and the pictures, if they were real, would have allowed me to live until I reached pension age.
The door opened and my boss’s daughter walked in, sitting on a chair opposite me, as I clenched my knees so that I didn’t flash.
“Good morning, Jackson. I’m glad you could grace us with your presence.”
“Did I have a choice?”
“You do have a point. The thing is that I’m going to offer you a job, but it will change your life for ever.”
“You could have just made the offer without abducting me.”
“I agree, but that would have made you privy to facts that we don’t want made public. Silvester tells me that you are a very good poker player.”
“At least I don’t cheat. I don’t know how he did it, but there were two cards in his hand that shouldn’t have been there.”
“You’re right! And that’s why you were brought here. Silvester has been trained by the best card players around in cheating. He is my head of security at the casino I own. He would not have brought you here if you had just accepted his winning hand as just that. You said one of the magic words that proved that you’re the one I need.”
“What about my job with your father, I can’t just jump ship. I have a contract.”
“My father knows about my problem and is good with you helping us out. As far as the office goes, there’ll be a new person at your desk, and anyone asking will be told that you have been relocated to somewhere else.”
“What if I don’t want to help you? Will I be out of a job?”
“If you refuse to help, Jackson, you will cease to exist.”
I sat there, stunned. Did I just hear he tell me that I would be killed if I didn’t agree to whatever she was offering?
“You would have me killed?”
“Not exactly. If you agree to help, you will undergo certain changes, then do the job that you have been brought to do, then will be paid well and given the choice of career paths. If you don’t agree, you will undergo the same changes and then shipped to a place where you will be sold. One way you have wealth and a new life, the other way and you will suffer a short, but horrible, existence.”
“Not much of a choice, as far as I can see.”
“It’s not meant to be. Will you agree, or will I call Silvester to come and restrain you, again. If you don’t agree, that’s a situation that you’ll come to take as usual.”
“Can you tell me what the job is, first. Is it something that I can do?”
“The job is in my casino. It will need you to be as good as you usually are with counting cards and estimating the hands of other players. We have a problem with some gamblers who have been trained as well as Silvester, and we can’t pin them down, even with overhead cameras. With you signalling the hand that is wrong, we can go through the footage to see how they do it. They are very, very, good.”
“So, why all this rigmarole to abduct me?”
“Have you ever been in a casino, Jackson? The croupiers in the best places are all women. My casino is known as ‘Bunnies’ and all the waitresses are in playboy bunny costumes. The croupiers are all well-dressed models. That’s the changes we want to make with you. You have the brain to do the job, and already have the body to make it possible. When we let you work in the casino, you’ll walk, talk, and act like a proper lady, and be good enough to get into modelling if you wanted to.”
“If I don’t agree?”
“Then we turn you into a woman, as before, but just leave you good enough to be a sex slave and sell you to an overseas trader. Agree, and you’ll be looked upon as attractive and kissable, keeping your life savings and a good wage. Otherwise, you just never get heard of again.”
“What’s to stop me just going along with it and then making a run for it?”
“Good question. Part of the cosmetic surgery will include breast implants. Within those will be enough explosive to kill you, with a receiver and a button battery with a year or so life. By the time the battery runs out, you will be so happy with your new life that you won’t be a problem.”
I sat for a moment, looking at the beautiful woman with such an evil brain. Or was it just business to her? I thought it through, with my lack of future thinking coming to haunt me. If I agreed, I would become a female, to all intents, and she had promised me that I would look the part. One way, I would still be the controller of my actions, the other was almost too bad to contemplate.
“Are you certain that I’ll pass as a woman?”
“With the treatment you’ll get, there’ll be no question.”
“What about my apartment?”
“Being cleaned out as we speak. Everything of yours will go into storage, and you will get access when we have completed the job. I will warn you that the job may take a while to complete, as it can only operate when the customers are in. Some don’t turn up for months. It may be some years before we know that we’ve caught them all, with you working at what you like best, playing cards and making money, even if it is for the house. I pay my girls well, and you’ll get a bonus for each one you flag. As front-of-house, you even get a clothing allowance.”
I took another sip of water, turning the pros and cons over in my mind. Whatever I said, I was going to be operated on to turn me into a woman. I thought about that. Did it fill me with disgust? Did it fill me with dread? When I realised that I wasn’t that stressed about it, I knew why I had been so reticent about going steady and getting married. I knew I wasn’t gay, but also knew that taking a woman to bed wasn’t front of mind as it was with others I worked with. I looked her in the eyes.
“I’ll do it, on condition that I’m told about every step as we move forward. None of this knocking me out anymore.”
“Good! Silvester will take you to your room. Tomorrow, you will be taken to a private clinic. The procedure starts with a lot of tests and some injections. The operations start in about a month. In that time, you will spend your time getting used to female clothing and getting lessons in how to act. Your voice will be female, but you will need to know how to talk to other women as if you were born to it.”
She stood and went to the door, opening it to let Silvester in.
“Jackson is on the payroll, Silvester. Treat him with kid gloves from now on.”
She left us and Silvester came over to me.
“Come along, Jack, you have a room to get some proper sleep in. A tray will be brought to you with a meal, seeing that you probably haven’t eaten for twenty-four hours. It’s Sunday morning, so we’ll get you a breakfast.”
He took my arm and guided me through the house and upstairs to a bedroom.
“There’s an ensuite bathroom, and some PJs on the bed. They’re a bit softer than you’re used to, but we want you to start the changes early. There’ll be a meal brought up in thirty minutes, enough time for you to have a shower. The door will be locked, and the window has been secured shut. Sorry about that, but we aren’t taking any chances.”
I went into the bathroom and had a pee, then had a shower, shaving my stubble under the water. Dried, I put the PJs on, and he was right. They were women’s and satin, feeling cool and slippery on my skin. I had just put the dressing gown on when there was a knock on the door and Silvester brought in a tray, leaving it on a table. He left me and I tucked in.
When I had cleared the plates, I started to feel weary. It had been a stressful time, but I wondered if some of the meal had contained a sedative. I took the gown off and got into a very comfortable bed, drifting off to sleep.
I woke and went to the toilet, with the sun shining through the window. I didn’t feel that I had slept twenty-four hours, so it must still be Sunday afternoon. The tray had gone. I sat in bed and noticed a book on the bedside table. It was a copy of ‘How to be a woman’, by Caitlin Moran. It was something that I would never have considered opening, but I fluffed up the pillows and started reading.
It was an entertaining read, and I learned a lot about a teenage girl and her moving to womanhood. It wasn’t for transgender, so much, but I thought that it was the start of my reading for the foreseeable future. I was over halfway through when there was a knock on the door and Silvester brought in a tray.
“Your Sunday dinner, Jaquie. It also has something to help you sleep. We will move you in the morning, after breakfast. It will give you time to finish the book. Bon Appetit.”
He was gone before I could think of anything to say. I ate the meal and then laid in bed to finish the book. The sedative must have been a lot weaker, as I had time to put the book down, go to the toilet, brush my teeth and get back into the bed. Before I went to sleep, I realised that my book reading had opened my eyes to what a girl thinks, and it was vaguely pleasant.
I was awake early, showered and shaved, and was wearing a clean gown when the breakfast was brought in.
“Good morning, Jaquie Doe. When you’ve finished this, clean your teeth and be wearing just the gown. I’ll come for you in an hour. You will be taken from here in an ambulance, on a stretcher.”
I ate the breakfast, went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I just had the gown on when he came back and took my arm, leading me back down the stairs and out towards the back of the house to a boot room. There, a guy in scrubs waited with a stretcher on wheels. I was helped up on to it and was then strapped in. Silvester then put a hood on me, and I felt myself being wheeled outside and into an ambulance.
The trip included a lot of countryside, as I could hear birds and smell odd odours. We arrived at the clinic and must have gone into a large garage, as the sound became echoed. It was odd how your senses can utilise the ones that still have access to the world. The hood was removed and the guy with the scrubs unloaded me, pushing the stretcher into a reception area.
A doctor, from the stethoscope, looked down at me, a clipboard in his hand.
“Jacquline Doe? In for a complete sex change as a private patient?”
“Yes.”
“Right. You will be taken up to your room. The rest of the day will be tests and measurements. For the next few weeks there will be some training, as well as some minor surgeries. We start you on hormones as soon as we get the blood results, so we know what dose to give.” I was wheeled to the room, where I was released from the straps and allowed to sit on the bed. It didn’t take long before I gave blood, and urine, with an attractive nurse called Pauline, who said that she would be my day nurse.
After that, I had my first hospital food, which wasn’t that bad, then taken to another room. There, I had to stand, naked, on a revolving platform as I was measured by light beams. The operator told me that it was to show the surgeons where to take fat from me, and where they could put it back to enhance my general shape.
Redressed in the gown, I was then taken to the training room, where a severe woman instructed me in walking, having to walk a line and altering my posture for a couple of hours. Back in the room, I was given tea, as well as my first hormone injections. The evening was spent in bed, watching a chick flick, and wearing a nightie.
That was the start of the first weeks there. Over the first week, I was taken to a room where they used electrolysis to remove all my body hair, and then what little facial hair I had, including some of my eyebrows and a lot of nasal and ear hairs. I spent my days wearing an assortment of shift dresses and shoes that I was told were ballet flats. The walking exercises now included me doing them with a book on my head, so I didn’t look down as I walked the line. My evenings were a succession of chick flicks and how-to films on make-up and hair care. My own hair, already longish, was growing quickly as my body absorbed the injections I had been given.
The second week started with me on the operating table, undergoing liposuction. It ended with me back on the table to be given my new breasts. When I was able to stand, I was surprised by the weight of them, but thought that it could be from the explosives that I had been told they contained.
It was after this operation that I was introduced to bra wearing, and all the different types that I could choose from. My dresses now reflected the bra choice, and my footwear was slowly being changed to more fashionable styles. The third week had me speechless after a small alteration to my vocal chords, followed by a number of cosmetic changes to my facial features. The fourth week started with me having some of my own fats added to my hips and bum and ended with me back in the theatre for the big one.
By this time, I was so steeped in hormones and training that it didn’t matter to me that I was about to lose the ‘outer’ and get an ‘inner’. I was living as they decreed that I would live. I was becoming Jaquie, and every time I looked in a mirror. It was Jaquie that looked back. I had absorbed the lessons and now walked and talked as a woman. I could sit, stand, make small talk, and could now understand why women were so open to each other. I could admit things to Pauline that I would have never admitted in my dreams.
After the big operation, I was confined to bed for a few days. After that, I was wheeled about in a chair, with places to put the bags that were fed from tubes coming out of my body. It was another week before the tubes were removed and I was allowed to have a shower. That was the most fantastic feeling that I had ever had, especially when I rubbed a certain part of me with the flannel. It was a sudden feeling that made me gasp. I was also feeling odd when I washed my new breasts. Now, I had three places that made me tingle from just a touch.
I was in the clinic for another three weeks, with further training in feminine hygiene and the care and attention of my new part. Now I could wear anything, the skirts got shorter, the tops were more revealing, the underwear was skimpier, until I reached my limit of modesty. I had built a good wardrobe of clothing that worked for me, as well as having advanced training in make-up until I could do it almost in my sleep and look good. It was in the last week that I was taken to an in-house salon and given a new hairdo and some studs in my ears. Then, a photographer came in and I had to pose for him, with many changes and different faces.
The following Monday, Silvester came to collect me, and I moved to the next part of my new life. Instead of being restrained and unable to see where I was going, he, and I, sat in the back of a Bentley, with a chauffeur driving, and my luggage in the back. I was taken to a large country house in South London. As we drove through the imposing gates, he squeezed my arm.
“Welcome to your home for a while, Jacquie. You have a month of more training and then you start working for a living.”
Marianne Gregory © 2024
Chapter 2
When we stopped outside the front door, a uniformed man came out and opened the car door for me. I exited, as I had been instructed, without flashing my panties, and stood waiting for Silvester to escort me inside. The driver opened the boot, and he started pulling my bags out.
Silvester took my arm and led me inside. There was a reception hall, with stairs in front of me, and a door either side. On had a sign ‘Bunnies’ over it, while the other had ‘The Warren Restaurant’. I was led upstairs and along a corridor. He opened a door.
“This will be your room, Jacquie. It is well set out for relaxing, but more suited for preparing yourself for work. The wardrobe already has your outfits, and there is an ensuite. The driver and doorman will bring your bags up while I show you around. The casino is open, and your dress is good enough for a visitor.”
He firstly took me to the control room over the casino, where I was introduced to the watchers of a bank of screens. There was a speaker with general sounds from the casino. Then he took me to a room that was set up with the various tables used for different card games.
“Before you start on the floor, we will teach you how to play all the card games, so that you can stand in at any table. We will also teach you how to properly cheat, so that you may sense when things are happening. Not everyone is as good as our main problems.”
As he showed me the restaurant and the casino, he carried on telling me how I would be working. We didn’t interact with any of the staff on duty, but I could tell that they were watching us. Most of the men were looking at me, though, something that I was finding hard to accept. When I had been told that I would look good enough to be a model, I really hadn’t believed it. The thing was that every time I looked at my reflection in a mirror, I was constantly amazed at how good I looked. Too good to have ever gone out with the old Jackson, no matter how rich he had become.
Off the casino, there was a bar, toilets, and a door marked ‘Staff Only’. Through that door was a short corridor with a door either side, marked ‘M’ and ‘F’. He opened the ‘F’ door for me so I could see the restroom, with tea and coffee machine and a fridge.
“You get a rest break after every session on a table. You’re out there for an hour, and in here for fifteen minutes. There are toilets through that door, and the other door leads to a room with lockers so that you can store your own supplies. The third door opens to steps to the control room. If you need to talk to me, I can come down without being seen. There is a staff dining room off the restaurant where everyone has meals. All the croupiers live in-house, in rooms upstairs. The waitresses are from the local district and have their own toilets and changing room. Now we show you to the lady of the house.”
He led me back to the entrance hall and knocked on a door to one side. When he heard the command to enter, he ushered me in. The daughter was sitting behind a large desk, with a view to the outside. She would have seen me arrive. She stood and came to give me a hug and we air-kissed.
“Jacqueline, darling! My word, you’re better than everyone told me you would be. I’m almost jealous of that figure. You look lovely, and you wear the clothes as if you had been born in them. Now, sit down and we’ll talk.”
She led me to a pair of armchairs with a small table between them. On the way, she picked up an envelope from her desk. When we were seated, she handed me the envelope.
“We need to get this out of the way, first. In the envelope, you will find a birth certificate, passport, life story, and employment papers for Jacqueline Angeline Kennedy. They will all stand examination. A bank account has been opened in your name, with a small salary being added to it for the time you were in hospital. Your termination payment from father’s company has been paid into that account. Now, we will need you to log into your old account and transfer the contents to the new one. That will make you the mistress of your own destiny.”
She waved to Silvester, who brought over a laptop and fired it up. I opened my banking website and logged in, trying not to show my surprise at how much I was now worth. She handed me my old phone, turned on, and I did a transfer to empty the account, using the new account details. I got a message on the phone, asking me to verify my identity, which I did, then was asked if I wanted to close the account. When I typed Yes as the reply, it sent me a code number to put into the transfer. After that, it only took a few seconds for Jacquie Kennedy to be much better off.
“I hope that you’re happy with that, Jacquie. The laptop is yours to use. The house wi-fi and phone service goes through a server which is monitored, so any odd traffic will be questioned. It’s more to monitor smartphone traffic in the casino. You can’t get an outside line without going through our system. Some have tried to use phones to pass on the cards other players are holding. The chargers and other things are in your room. The phone is now in your new name.”
“Thank you for that. I won’t abuse the system. Silvester has told me that I will have more training before I go full-time. There are other card games where my skill could be used, I just haven’t used it for anything but poker.”
“You will be adept at all the games we play before you start. You will not be put on the roulette wheels unless there is a real problem with croupiers. I only have a couple of rules for the girls to follow. One is that there are no relationships with the other staff or customers in the gaming room, other than social friendliness; and the other is that everyone refers to me as ‘Mistress’. This place and my social life are separate. I don’t frequent the casino in working hours, but I might dine in the restaurant. That all right with you?”
“Yes, Mistress, perfectly clear and understandable. I knew of you before all this, but never knew that you were anything but a popular socialite. I have worked with your brothers, and I found them all good guys.”
“Right! Silvester will take you back to your room. You will be able to freshen up and then get some lunch in the staff dining room. This afternoon, he will take you to your first training session and introduce you to your teachers. I doubt that I’ll see much of you after today, so good luck and good hunting.”
We stood and she hugged me again. I picked up the laptop, phone, and the package, and followed Silvester from the room. Upstairs, he left me to my own devices. I freshened up, put the contents of my bags in the wardrobe and drawers, and changed my dress. I checked the batteries on both the laptop and phone, then turned the phone off and put it in a drawer.
I sat on the bed and had a think about what I had just learned. It looked as if I was now free to roam at will but needed to be familiar with the whole building first. There was a knock on the door, and I opened it to find Silvester.
“I will escort you to lunch, Jacquie. Remember that here you are just Jacquie, a new hiring. I’ll introduce you to the team leader for the croupiers. Sandra will take you through the initial familiarisation and will be your go-to person if you have any problems. I’ll come to the dining room after you’ve eaten to take you up to see your teachers. After that, I will return to my normal duties, and you won’t see me unless you’ve identified a cheater.”
In the staff dining room, he introduced me to Sandra, and then left us.
“Well, Jacquie. Welcome to Bunnies. I gather that you will be added to our croupier numbers when you’ve had some more training.”
“I will be, Sandra. I need to brush up on the other games. I’ve specialised on poker. I believe that I need to get up to speed with Blackjack, its variations, Baccarat, Texas Holdem. And a couple of others. I’ve played blackjack as a youngster, at home, and we just called it Twenty-one.”
“We are an up-market establishment, so we play Vingt et Un, and you will have to know all the likely numbers in French. Otherwise, it’s pretty easy if everyone behaves.”
We had our lunch and agreed to meet in the casino after my classes. She told me which dress to wear and the level of make-up to fit in. She would take me around to watch the games and get used to the atmosphere.
Silvester came to collect me and took me upstairs to the training room. I was getting the hang of the layout, by now, and would be able to find my way to my room. He introduced me to Chuck and Arnie, two Americans who were to teach me how to cheat. After Silvester had left, Chuck sat me at a plain table and we played some hands of three, four, and five card poker. I found that I hadn’t lost my skills. We had been playing for about thirty minutes, with our piles of matches largely unchanged, when Arnie dropped out of character for a second.
“Stop right there. Arnie, you’ve just cheated but I didn’t see what you did.”
They looked at each other. Chuck smiled.
“Sil told us you were good, but that was amazing. What do you think happened?”
“If you show me your hand, Arnie, I’ll tell you.”
Arnie laid his cards on the table.
“You have exchanged something for that Jack of Diamonds, to give you three of a kind. That card should still be in the pack, and probably is, if we look for it.”
After that, the three of us got on like a house on fire. They started showing me how the change was made, and variations. They schooled me so that I could do it as easily as them, as long as I had long sleeves. When we finished the session, I went for dinner and then back to my room to change.
When I met Sandra in the casino, she showed me around, and we watched some of the games. Most of them were easy to pick up, and I was looking forward to playing them. It was different to how I had played before. Here, I would be the dealer, or banker, for every game, which helped me in card counting. As we moved around, I looked for the camera positions, but didn’t see them. I asked Sandra and she said that they were hidden in the chandeliers and the air-conditioning outlets.
She told me that if I had any problems when I was working, I would have a hidden microphone and just needed to press a button on the tiny unit and tell the control room who I was and the nature of the problem. When I was at a table, the other players would be numbered from left to right, so I could just report number three was a problem, and the guys upstairs would zoom in on that person, then inform security.
As my two weeks of training continued, I became the card sharp from heaven, and surprised my teachers more than once with my card counting skills, as well as my instinct for reading changes in body language. They tried their best, but I was able to pick them eighty percent of the time, which they agreed would make me a secret weapon on the gambling floor.
By the time I started at a table of my own, I knew all the other staff, had eaten with most of them, and had become friendly with the bunnies who lived off-site. I had met quite a few of the regulars, mainly from a higher society than the previous me had been used to, but now, as a good-looking woman, I seemed to have transcended normal boundaries. It was as if they actually wanted to talk to me.
It became work, moving to different tables and different card games during the evening, and taking the breaks as they came up. It wasn’t usual for the croupier to throw in a hand, so my game play was forced into a new level of skill. Some customers walked away with more than they came with, but it was usually other player’s money.
My first cheater was almost funny. A group of finance traders came in, after a good day on the money market. They had been on the booze before they arrived and were quite entertaining. I was running a five-card poker table and two of them took seats as they came vacant. They played like some of the guys that I used to play with, hoping for a lucky hand.
Then one of them changed his body language. It had happened while I was involved with a player away from him. I was certain that he had substituted a card. I put my hand on the table and reached for a bottle of water, taking a sip. Under cover of dabbing my lips, I activated the microphone.
“Jacquie on table seven, my number four has changed, can you look at the video of the last few minutes?”
We continued to play, and the guy won the pot, which was a reasonable one. When I saw his cards, I could see that there was an ace that I was sure was still in the pack. As he laid his cards on the table, two of our security guys came up behind him and asked, firmly, if he could come with them for a little talk. When he wanted to take the chips, he was told that we would look after them for him.
As he was taken away, I collected all the cards from the table and dropped them in a bin at my feet, taking his winnings and putting it to one side. His friend gathered his remaining chips and left. Another two players joined us, and we carried on with a new pack. When I was in my break, Sandra came in and told me that the CCTV had clearly seen him take a card and put it under his shirt, coming out with the ace.
At the next change, I retrieved the bin with the cards for the cleaners to work through and make up new packs. The chips were split, fifty-fifty, between me and the house, with my share as a bonus next payday. The lad had been confronted with the evidence, photographed, and blacklisted from casinos across the country. The odd ace was added to a tally board in the control room with my name at the top.
It hadn’t been a big catch but was a catch all the same. My next one was a few weeks later, on a Saturday night. There must have been a convention in the city, as we were full of studious-looking men who talked about climate change as they played. One of them was a card counter and I did my best to negate his plays. It made him reckless, so he resorted to his less-preferred method, sleight of hand.
I could see him building up to it, so warned the control room to watch him. He was very good, and I didn’t pick up a change in body language, but the camera saw him extract a card from his sleeve when he discarded a card. The security was right behind him. When I looked at the discard, he had used suncream, from his face, to stick the second card to the first. He complained, loudly, when asked to join security in another room, but a quick frisk discovered a plastic card holder strapped to his arm. We did have metal detectors to catch someone coming in with contraptions, but the plastic had got through.
I was later told that he had been under suspicion at other establishments, but never caught in the act. His King was added to my tally. It was after that when Sandra told me that we were having a girl’s trip to see a show in the city. It was to be a Tuesday, one of our quieter nights, and was paid for by the casino as a small bonus for a good job. There were four of us, that evening, all dressed to kill, taken to the theatre in the house Roller. In the interval, we were all in the bar, having a drink, when we were approached by a bunch of dapper men, who insisted on buying us drinks. Sandra agreed on our behalf, and I found myself talking to an assistant to a Parliament Minister. He was very nice. I had become well used to talking with men, by now, but this was altogether different, as he didn’t know what I did for a living, just that I was pretty enough to stand close to.
We went back to see the second half, and I spent much of the time thinking about my present feelings. I hadn’t tested my new plumbing, just dilated as instructed. Now, as I sat there, I realised that I was moist down there, and that I could picture his eyes as he looked into mine. It was a very new experience, and one that made me aware of my new status. When I thought about it more, I realised that all of my training had been about acting like a natural woman, but none had addressed the feelings that I may have after the operations.
When the show had ended, we found our new friends waiting for us in the foyer. They suggested that we all go to a night club that they knew, for some dancing. Once again, Sandra led us into temptation, and I followed her lead. At the night club, the guys were known, and we were given a couple of tables. I insisted that I wanted to stay on lemonade, as I didn’t know what my level of resistance was to alcohol these days.
So, I was perfectly sober as I danced with Fraser, enjoying every touch and the pressure of his hand on my back. He followed my lead and kept off the hard stuff as well, so, we were both fully aware of what we were doing when he kissed me during a slow dance. I had a sudden feeling of helplessness in his arms, as if my very being was to be at his command. If he had asked me, I would have dropped to the floor and let him have his way with me. I must have shuddered, as he pulled his face away.
“Are you all right, sweetheart? If you felt a chill, we can go back to the table.”
“I’m all right, Fraser. It’s just that I feel like the Sleeping Beauty and your kiss has woken me up to the real world.”
“What a fantastic thing to say! I’ve never had a girl say that to me before. Though, there haven’t been many girls I’ve kissed. What with study and work, tonight is a bit of an odd break. Can we see if you’re fully awake?”
We kissed again, and every part of me was sensitive. I could feel my clothes on me, his arm around me, the sudden hardening of my nipples, the dampness in my panties, and the pressure of his lips against mine, with just a hint of his tongue. Unfortunately, Sandra picked exactly that time to tap me on the arm.
“I’ve called the car to pick us up from here. We do have work tomorrow. If you can put that man back in the water, we need to go and freshen up first.”
We all went to the rest room to freshen up. The guys were sad to see us go, but not as sad as I felt. I exchanged phone numbers with Fraser. He knew where we worked, because one of the other girls had told her partner. We made our way towards the entrance, with Fraser holding my hand. Outside, the Roller pulled up and he kissed me again before he allowed me to get in. As we pulled away from the kerb, he gave me a sad little wave.
Back at the casino, I went to bed with my biggest dilator and had the strongest orgasm of my life before going off to sleep, wondering if this happened to real girls. Two evenings later, he was sitting at my table with his eyes on my every move. I stayed professional and friendly as I worked. When I was relieved, he walked away from the table and asked me if we could go out together, one evening. I told him that I would let him know when after I had spoken to my supervisor.
In the rest room, I saw Sandra and asked her about my having another evening off.
“Of course you get time off, Jacquie. Are you telling me that you haven’t taken your days off?”
“No, last night was the first time I’ve been out of the casino since I started.”
“Tell your guy to come back in a couple of days. I’ll have this sorted out by then. You’ve been here around two months, so you should have close to a week of days off to take.”
When I went back to work, I told Fraser that I had some time owing, but would be able to let him know if he came back in a few days. He nodded and went off to the roulette table, to try and win back the money I had taken off him.
The following afternoon, Sandra told me that from now, I was to have one day off a week, and that I could ask for my owed days when I wanted but could only take two days off in any one week, as long as they were weekdays.
When I saw Fraser, I told him this and he asked me to see if I could have the Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week, and that he would pick me up at the casino entrance at ten on Tuesday morning. I asked Sandra and she said it was all right. When I told Fraser that I was good to go, he smiled.
“When I pick you up, make sure that you have your passport and an overnight bag.”
He refused to say any more, and I did have to get back to work. I spent the rest of the shift thinking about his words. Did he intend to get me into bed? The more I thought about it, the more I knew that if he wanted me, then I was his to take.
The days passed slowly until I woke up on Tuesday morning, had breakfast and showered. I had packed an overnight bag with the essentials. I had nightwear and a couple of changes of outfits. At ten, I was at the front door when a Jaguar pulled up and Fraser got out to take my bag from me. He opened the passenger door and gave me a little kiss as I passed him. We drove into the city and to the Eurostar station, going through passport control and onto the train. By lunchtime, we were sitting in a café in Paris, in the sunshine, with the Eiffel Tower in front of us.
They say that Paris is the City for Lovers, and that evening, in our hotel room, we became lovers. The next day, we visited the Louvre and took the train back to London in the evening. We spent Wednesday night in his apartment, and he took me back to the casino for ten on Thursday morning. It was a different Jacquie who kissed him as he gave me my bag. I wasn’t an imitation woman any longer. His love had aroused my desires and I wanted more.
Marianne Gregory © 2024
Chapter 3
I settled back into a routine. Every two weeks, I took the extra day to get together with Fraser. I had almost forgotten being abducted and forced into this life. To be honest, it didn’t matter to me how I became Jacquie, as I was enjoying my work. I was very good for the house, as all of my winnings were for the house, and I won a lot.
One Saturday, Sandra told me that we would have a visit from a group of Saudi men, in town on diplomatic business. She said that one of them was one of the problems, as he bet big, and won a lot of money from the house, but wouldn’t tell me which one. That evening, I was held back until they had sat at a poker table. I was sent to relieve the croupier and we opened a fresh pack of cards.
Tonight, I was equipped with a pair of contact lenses that allowed me to see a dot on the cards under the extra bulb in the chandelier. The casino was prepared for this visit, and there were extra security men on hand. The Saudi bodyguards had not been happy to surrender their weapons at the metal detector, but we expected that they may have non-ferrous weapons as well.
The situation was further complicated with Fraser present, as part of a diplomatic group, including his Minister. The games went my way for a while, with the Saudis getting more and more agitated. One of them, one of the lesser members, wasn’t happy, and I could feel his anger at not winning. I asked the control to target him, then, a hand or two later, realised that he could be a lightning rod for one of the others.
One of the leading Saudis was looking too comfortable, not like someone who had lost thousands over the last half-hour. I asked control to reset their observations on him and waited for the switch. It happened a few hands later, which I had calculated had given him a good hand. He looked at his companion, then gave a sigh. The angry one threw his hand in and left the table. When I looked at the cards around the table, the Saudi had one without the dot.
I didn’t even have to report it, as a group of security men were approaching the table. When they asked the Saudi to come with them, he complained loudly, with a few of the bodyguards pulling out ceramic knives. Our group had tasers, which they used, and the room descended into chaos. I, and all the croupiers, had been trained in such a situation and guarded the current pot, telling the rest of our players that the hand had been cancelled. I gathered up all the marked cards and put them into a bin.
Fraser, and his Minister, were there to attempt to calm the diplomatic situation, but the evidence was plain. Our cameras had captured the moment that the Saudi had swapped cards, giving himself a winning ace. With the robes that he wore, it was easy for him to have a plastic card holder under them.
The upshot of the evening was that the Minister called the PM, to explain the situation, and the Saudi was flown home the following morning, with his entry to the country cancelled for a very long time. He was accompanied by his accomplice, with the others in his party claiming that they were not aware of the cheating, but just thought that he was a lucky guy.
It took about twenty minutes for the room to settle down, with my table taken over by one of the other girls and I was given the rest of the evening off. I had done my job, and it reminded me of the contract that I had agreed to. I wasn’t going to be free until all of the cheaters were banished.
The ace was added to my trophy board, and I got a bonus next payday. When Fraser came in a couple of nights later, he told me that the particular Saudi had been a thorn in the side of his peers, so suffered the fate of thieves in his country. I hoped that he was left-handed, as it was all he had now. The next time I had the evening off, Fraser took me to dinner in a restaurant with a band and asked me if I could leave the casino and live with him.
So much for romance, but I suppose that getting married wasn’t as popular as it used to be. I told him that I was sorry but had entered into a long-term contract with the casino. He wanted to know why, so I told him that I was very sensitive to body language, and that I could pick card cheats as they wound up to do the deed.
“So, you warned the house about that Saudi?”
“Yes, we do have very sophisticated surveillance, but a good cheat makes very small movements. All I do is warn the watchers who to concentrate on at my table. I’ve only picked three since I’ve worked there, and the Saudi was the biggest one I’ve warned about.”
“What do your spider senses tell you about me?”
“That you’re better than any other actor in the world, or else you do love me. Before we go any further with our relationship, there is one thing you have to know. I’m unable to have children.”
After that, I watched his eyes. There was a moment of surprise, then sadness, then acceptance.
“Thank you for telling me. Fortunately, my parents live in Scotland, so I’m not being pestered to produce grandchildren. We could always adopt, that way we can get one that suits our lifestyle.”
“Oh! Come on! An off-the-shelf brainiac who wants to go into politics! I’d rather have a sporty girl who can play for Chelsea.”
He laughed and then led me out to the dance floor where we held each other as tightly as we ever did, swapping likely careers of our adopted child between kisses. We went back to his apartment where we made wonderful love, with him not using his usual condom. For me, it made a lot of difference, and I was a bit noisy.
It was getting towards Christmas, and I was told that I would be on duty during the festive season but would get two weeks holiday in early January. When I told Fraser, he said that he would apply for some leave, as the House wasn’t sitting until later in the year. He asked me if I could arrange a table for Christmas lunch in the casino dining room.
This far out, that was easy to do, so I booked a table for four, as he had asked. In the period leading up to Christmas, I picked out two more, low-level, cheaters and wondered if the other bigger fish were avoiding us. I asked Sandra, and she told me that she was only warned close to a visit, if we knew that the person of interest was in town. Our security followed the activities of the known problems, as well as the society pages for likely events that would attract them to the city.
I was working at a baccarat table on Christmas day when I saw Fraser with a couple. They looked old enough to be his parents and my heart sank. Fancy bringing your parents to meet your girlfriend while she was working as a croupier. He gave me a wink, but didn’t come close, leaving the room just before the end of my stint. I had asked for an extended lunch, and it had been approved.
I went and freshened up, then girded my loins to meet my guests. I walked into ‘The Warren’ and saw them sitting at the table, with drinks already served. As I joined them, Fraser stood up and gave me a hug and a kiss.
“This is Jacquie Kennedy, my true love. Jacquie, these are my parents. My father is Lord Gordon Ashworth, and my mother is Geraldine.”
“Hello, Lord and Lady Ashworth. Welcome to the Bunnies Casino. I apologise for my having to work on Christmas day, and I do have to go back into the gaming room in an hour. I hope that’s only a lemonade at my place.”
His father stood and took my hand.
“It is, Jacquie. I was surprised when my son told me where we would be eating today, telling me that his girlfriend was working. I wondered if he had taken up with a waitress, but I recall seeing you at one of the tables and was taken by your beauty.”
“Thank you, kind sir. I work as a croupier, a specialist in card games. Are you down from Scotland?”
His mother was the one to answer as the two men had a short battle at who would help me sit.
“Fraser had mentioned a steady girlfriend, and we came down to see who had taken his heart. I must say that I never thought that he would be dating someone who worked in a casino. I had always thought that a man in his position would have found a career woman.”
“So, Lady Ashworth. What part of my job do you consider as not being a career? I was recruited into this job from a city position as a statistician. I’m here because I can predict probabilities in card games, as well as being good enough to have been a competition player. I have an Honours Degree in statistics and earn more than most office staff.”
“Mother! Jacquie is one of the best croupiers in the country. I saw, myself, when she exposed that Saudi prince a couple of months ago. You would have read about him being expelled from the country. I was in that room, next door, when he, and his security detail, pulled out knives in a public place. It was bedlam, and took me, and my office, some weeks to paper over the cracks in our friendship with the Saudi administration.”
“I’m sorry, Jacquie. I wasn’t trying to put you down. It just seemed such an odd place for you two to have met.”
“We actually met at a theatre in the city. I was there with a few other girls on a night off.”
The waitress came around with the menu and we ordered our lunches. After that, the discussion became more normal, with me finding out that his Lordship was a retiree from a city broking firm, so we started talking about markets and trends for a while, until Fraser and his mother had to interrupt. I made do with the turkey main course and had to bow out of the pudding and custard, saying that I had enjoyed meeting them but had to get ready for my next session at a table. We all stood, and I was hugged by all three of them, then left them to their desserts and brandies.
A little later, they came in and the two men sat at my table. They stayed until I was relieved, with Fraser losing a little, and his father winning a bit. He must have been a keen player in his younger days, drawn to it in the same way I was. There was a sparkle in his eyes as he stood up when I was relieved.
“Jacquie. I’ve played a lot of poker in my day, and you’re up there with the best of them.”
Fraser had gone off to find his mother, so I took a chance.
“You’re a good player as well, sir. I did see you wishing you could have replaced a card or two, though. Did you cheat a bit when you were younger?”
He looked angry, then laughed.
“My goodness, girl. No wonder you’re here. If you could see through me so easily, the house is safe. You’re right, I did cheat, at times, especially when I was playing guys from an opposing company. I’m glad that you hadn’t been born then. Don’t tell my son. He stands to gain my title when I die, and you are a wonderful girl to be a Lady in a few years. I’m happy that we met and will welcome you to the castle when you visit in a week or so.”
“I thought that Fraser was taking me somewhere sunny.”
“Didn’t he tell you? The bad lad. We have you pencilled in for a week, then I think he has other plans. He’s a chip off the old block. I used to make plans on the run and only tell others at the last moment. I met Geraldine that way. I had planned a group trip to the Maldives, and she was the only one that turned up at the airport. It did turn out for the best.”
I gave them all a hug and kissed both men on the cheek before going off to the rest rooms. When I came out, they were gone. Fraser came back in the evening, taking a seat at my table. When I was relieved, we spoke for a few minutes.
“Darling, I’m sorry that I surprised you with my parents. They popped into town unannounced.”
“So unannounced that you asked me to book a table for four, so we had more room to put our side plates?”
“Ah! All right, I thought that they may come south, so made a contingency plan. You were a hit with them, especially my father. Mother was a bit more reticent. I think that she would have preferred that I was seeing somebody from the society pages.”
“That’s all right. Maybe we can bond better when we’re all rattling around the family castle. At least I know to pack something warm, and not just for sunny climes.”
“Father told you about that, did he? It won’t be too bad, my darling. Just a week to see our future home, should I take on the reins when he passes. That won’t be for many years yet. After that, we have a booking to the Maldives for a week.”
“He mentioned the Maldives as well, is this you as being a ‘chip off the old block’?”
He laughed and then we kissed so that I could have a break. It was during the few days before New Year that I caught my next cheater, and it was a very strange experience, indeed.
We had just moved into the evening sessions when a couple came in and looked around. She was in evening dress, with a huge bangle on her right wrist, a large-faced watch on the left. He was in a suit, so I guessed that they may have come in before, or after, a dinner engagement. There were a couple of spare seats at my table, and he took his coat off and hung it on the chair before he sat down. Under the coat, he wore a wonderful brocade waistcoat, tight enough that he didn’t have any space to hide anything.
As I dealt the first hand, he rolled up his sleeves. Now, this is something that fires all sorts of alarm bells in my head. Either, he was a professional gambler, used to showing that there was, indeed, nothing up his sleeve, or it was a double bluff, and he had another way of cheating.
We played for about forty minutes before I started to get how he was winning more than he lost. At one point, he looked away to see where his partner had gone, and I could see a little through one lens. He was wearing plain glass spectacles. His partner had a bit of a routine. She was wandering around, looking at other tables and the roulette, but brought him a drink about every ten minutes. I pressed my comms button and asked the control guys to get Silvester to meet me in the rest room on my next break.
When I entered the rest room, Silvester was sitting on a sofa.
“What’s the problem, Jacquie?”
“The guy with the waistcoat at my table, is he on the cheater list?”
“No, he isn’t. That’s Jedidiah Humbolt. He’s a professional in town for the big poker competition after the New Year. I believe that there’s over a million to the winner. Don’t tell me he’s cheating! There’s no way he could conceal anything unless he was a magician.”
“I’ll tell you what I think, then you can run with it if you want. When I was young, a friend and I both had a toy which our fathers had when they were children. They were aviator goggles with a speaker built into the headband. There was also a small two-way with a range of about fifty feet. We would be out on our bikes, and he would speak to me on the radio. I think that Jedidiah has a similar set-up in his glasses. They’re plain glass, by the way. It won’t be a speaker, but the frames are chunky enough to hide a receiver, with a speaker that could just vibrate against the bone.”
“Who is telling him what other players have?”
“The girlfriend has a chunky bangle on her wrist, and she seems to touch her hair or face a lot. She brings him a drink and then wanders off, usually around the table at a safe distance. She may be wearing magnifying contacts, as she tends to stay away from larger objects. All she needs to do is tell him who has the best hand at the table, and he’s professional enough to work with that. The radio must be very low power, and probably they use random changing frequencies that are linked. If I were you, I would keep a camera and directional microphone on her and, if I’m right, she’ll be recorded telling him who to watch out for.”
He put his hand to the bud in his ear.
“Brendan, did you get that?”
He listened and then looked at me.
“If you’re right, it’s going to blow holes in the professional scene. You go up to the control room and help Brendon catch anything on tape. I’ll check you off with Sandra and watch the proceedings from a distance.”
I went up to the control room through the door in the restroom, with Silvester sliding out into the gaming area. Upstairs, Brendan got me to zoom in on the items that I thought were radios. With the girlfriend, we designated the bracelet as the target, and linked a directional microphone to it. We watched as the play continued, one screen showing the bangle, one showing him at the table, and the radio receiver on a roaming monitor.
I was starting to think that I was crazy when she went and bought him a lemonade, then took it to him at the table.
“How is it going, darling?”
“Good, my sweet. Clear as a bell. Just a little while longer and we’ll call it a successful evening. A million quid, here we come!”
The hand was being dealt as she straightened up. She walked away from the table before she made a circuit. She lifted her right hand to her face and the microphone picked up her words, clear as day.
“Two to your right. Pair of nines and pair of queens.”
At the same time, the radio gave out a mash of static. I was watching him, and he gave no sign of hearing that, but started playing the guy to his right, until they were the only two betting. Brendan was talking to Silvester and Silvester told him to make sure he had everything on tape. The man left the table with his chips, and nothing was done to stop him. Silvester came up to the control room and made sure we had the evidence.
“Right, Jacquie. That was some catch. We won’t take him in, as the only money he took away was off other players that we have the proof for. What will happen, is that I’ll take this evidence to the organisers of the competition and leave it to them to catch him in full view of his fellow competitors. I saw nothing amiss from the ground, but the video and audio is damning. I would say that they were testing the equipment here, thinking that if they can get away with it in such a monitored room, it will be uncatchable at the competition. Be ready for a trip to the city before you take your holiday.”
I went back on duty after the next break, doing what I did best. I thought about what had happened and realised that him being arrested during the competition will have him blackballed for life. I smiled as I dealt the cards. Some days, the hand you get isn’t the one you expected.
On the Saturday morning, I was in a Range Rover with Silvester, heading for Windsor, where the organiser of the poker competition lived. In the meantime, I had researched Humbolt, finding out that he was a regular competition player, earning a lot but never taking away the big prize. Obviously, this time was to be his big payday.
When we were invited into the house, Silvester introduced me as the casino’s secret weapon, and asked Chuck, the organiser, to forget that I existed after this meeting. We sat in his office, and I related the evening that we had discovered the cunning plan. Silvester had the video and audio on a USB and Chuck watched it several times.
“This is taking things to a whole new level, Sil. If this type of cheating gets well known, we would have to install some expensive security tricks. Just the use of multi-frequency radio is not something I thought we’d ever see.”
“We didn’t stop him leaving, just so we could bring you this evidence. Now you know what he’s going to do, you can take some precautions, such as removing all non-players from the room.”
“That won’t do. It would spoil the ‘family atmosphere’ that separates a competition from outright gambling. How does the woman see the cards from that distance?”
“We think that she is wearing contacts with a magnifying lens. You can see that she never goes near anything and is always moving away from other people. It’s a problem that he has no need to cheat in the usual way, just by knowing the best hand is enough.”
“Leave it with me. Thank you, Jacquie, for discovering this plan. I wonder if I can organise an accident that causes her to need some aid from our paramedics, then discover her contacts and the radio. It will need to look natural. Then, we can talk to him and see what’s hidden in those glasses frames.”
On the way back to the casino, Silvester took me to lunch at one of the best hotels. It was a place that the old Jack had wondered about, never thinking that he would have been sitting at a table, wearing a good dress and being bought lunch by a nice man. Even the toilets had gold-plated taps.
The following week, after the New Year celebrations, Fraser picked me up and we loaded my bags into the car. He had been to the casino to see the New Year in with me, and I had managed to wheedle the details of our holiday out of him so I could pack the right outfits.
He took me to his apartment, where we made love before having lunch. He left the car in the garage, and we had a taxi to the station, where we boarded a train to take us to Edinburgh. His father picked us up and drove us to the family castle. I say ‘castle’, but it turned out to be a large Georgian house, set in twenty acres of woodland, and tastefully refurbished with all modern conveniences. It was near Kinross, north of Edinburgh.
We were shown to a room with a big bed, and then went down to the library to sit with Gordon and talk about the festive season just past. Before dinner, Fraser took me on a tour of the house, and I fell madly in love with it. My preconceptions of a cold and draughty stone edifice were knocked down by the elegance, the comfort, and the central heating.
Marianne Gregory © 2024
I apologise to all my readers for treating my heroine so badly. I didn’t think that the method of feminisation was any worse than others on the website, but I must have written a character who is real enough to feel sorry for. I promise to be kinder to the cast of my stories in future.
Here is the Happy Ending!
Chapter 4
During that night, while Fraser and I were snuggled together under the blankets, another blanket descended on the countryside. When I pulled the curtains aside, all I could see was white snow. We were too old for snowballs or tobogganing, so it was to be inside entertainment for a while.
Gordon was keen to play cards, but his wife begged off, saying that she had some sewing to do. The three of us sat in the library with our single malts and a box of matches each. We played five-card poker with rotating dealers. I could see that Gordon was competitive and had his best game at the fore. I decided that, if he cheated, I would show how it’s done.
It took about a dozen hands before I saw him drop a card on his lap as we finished. Two hands later, he swapped it with a card from his hand and ended with three kings. When it was my turn to deal, I shuffled until I saw an ace on the bottom and slid it up my sleeve for later. Two hands after that, I shuffled again and secreted another ace.
At the end of our betting, I won the pile of matches with my three aces. Gordon snorted.
“Lucky hand that!”
“About as lucky as your three kings, Gordon. Do you still have the other card on your lap?”
He looked angry, but then smiled.
“When did you pick that up?”
“When you did it. I stayed quiet and did a little cheating of my own.”
“You mean that you swapped cards? I never saw you do that.”
“That’s because I’m a professional, Gordon, not an amateur. And no, I’m not going to tell you how it was done. How about we agree not to be so eager to win, and just have fun. You may get to win some of your matches back, though I can’t guarantee that.”
Fraser was looking at us, concern on his face.
“Dad, have you been cheating in a friendly game?”
Gordon reached down and pulled up a low number card.
“Sorry son, but old habits die hard. This was how I bought my first motorcycle.”
“What about you, darling? I never saw you do anything out of the ordinary.”
I pulled two cards from my sleeve and laid them with the rest of the pack.
“Now we have a full pack, again, what say we just have a drink and play for fun.”
We played for fun, moving to twenty-one for a while to do something different. I could see Gordon fighting his urge to cheat, with it abating after a while. I think the amount of whiskey he had drunk had helped. When we had enough, we refilled the matchboxes and went to the kitchen for sandwiches.
In the afternoon, Fraser and I covered our bodies in woollen sweaters and Barbour coats. We went outside and I pulled my scarf up to cover my face. The garden was lovely, and we walked to the boundary, where there was a view of Loch Leven and the old castle on an island. In the crisp, clear air, it was really beautiful. We stood with a large oak sheltering us from the breeze and pulled our scarves down to have a kiss.
“This is a wonderful place, darling. Home for a wonderful family. I’m so glad you brought me here.”
“I’m happy that you came, my love. I know that I was out of line when I asked you to come and live with me. It must be this traditional setting, but I know that we can’t be together until your contract expires. Will you marry me then, and be the lady of the house after I inherit?”
“I’ll say a provisional yes, now. Provisional because I have another eighteen months on my contract, and the casino does have the opportunity to ask me to stay on after that. That gives plenty of time for us to cement our relationship, or to find that there’s things that come between us. You must know, with your diplomatic experience, that things happen out of the blue.”
Inwardly, I cringed. There was no contract, but I guessed that the batteries in my boobs might have run down by then. Hopefully, we may have caught all the cheaters that I had been hired to do. We stood, the mist of our breath hanging in the air, kissing and thinking about our inner wishes. I knew that I loved this man, but there was always a possibility of him falling for another woman. One that could give him babies and who lived in a social strata that would please his mother. As a statistician, one takes in all the variables.
We had a lovely time in Scotland. We went into Edinburgh to a show and did some shopping. I stood on the castle battlements and looked out on the city, stood beside the Forth and gazed at the most beautiful bridge built at the time, and Gordon tried to teach me how to play golf at St. Andrews. That was fun, as you could see where the orange balls we were using had gone by the tracks on the frosty grass. I was hopeless, and it wasn’t because I was a woman. I had no power in my swing, even when I got it right, afraid that I might dislodge something in my boobs.
The Maldives were idyllic, and much quieter. We swam in a warm sea, made love on the cooler nights, and were just us, together. I learned more about Fraser and his plans for the future, his career path, and the things that made him hard. The last allowed me to lead our time in bed, especially when the first time hadn’t given me an orgasm. We bought rings for each other at the airport shops, no flashy diamonds, but nicely decorated gold bands to show our love for each other.
Back at the casino, I was waylaid by Silvester, who wanted to tell me how the competition had panned out. He had been there when a ‘disorientated attendant’ had crashed into the girl, knocking her to the ground. Over her protestations, the organisers insisted that she be checked by paramedics. When they shone a torch into her eyes, they discovered the magnifying contacts. That led to the rest of her things being examined, so discovering the oversize bangle.
He laughed when he told me that when Humbolt was taken from the table, he protested loudly that he never cheats. Of course, when his glasses were examined, the receiver and tiny speaker were seen. He was booted out of the competition, forfeiting his entry and any winnings. There was a blacklist notice sent to all the poker competitions with details of his plan.
“We were never spoken about as discovering his cheating, which we’re happy with. Mistress has authorised a special bonus for you. We won’t add anything to your scoreboard, Jacquie, but you have our sincere thanks for your observational skills. We should be able to wrap up most of the others on our list, this year. They tend to arrive in town for the spring and summer.”
“That will be nice. Will I be able to leave, then. I had a week in Scotland with Fraser and his parents, and he wants me to become the next Lady Ashworth. If I’m here for more than a year, he may get away.”
“We’ll see what we can do. It will be all down to the cheaters coming into your clutches. Mistress is very happy with you, and happy that you’ve stayed serene after the way we treated you.”
We settled back into a routine leading up to spring and the new season of horse racing, theatres, fashion shows and society weddings. For some weeks, I was allowed two days off before it got busy, so would stay overnight with Fraser. One time, when he picked me up, Gordon was with him.
“Dad is going into hospital this afternoon and should be out by Friday.”
“It’s nothing important, Jacquie. Just some tests and a bit of a probe. I’ll last another fifty years.”
“I’m sure that you’re right, Gordon. Did Geraldine come south with you?”
“No, she had some committee thing to attend. They all want you on board when you have a title. Load of bunkum, as far as I’m concerned.”
We went for lunch, then dropped Gordon off at the hospital before spending a few hours catching up with our horizontal jogging. Fraser had to work on the next day, so I went into Parliament with him, taking the tour before meeting him in the dining room. It was amazing how many of the members and assistants I had met over a card table, with many being very friendly.
Fraser was looking uncomfortable, and, after the fifth person to say hello, he asked me how I met all of these men.
“Your mother said that she would rather you had fallen for a girl from a better social strata. What she doesn’t understand is that every night I spend in the casino is as social as any society ball. On top of your proposal, I have had at least six others. Three that I remember were from European princes. I have spent time with a lot of men who your mother would never have guessed, many so security minded that the social papers would not have even known they were in the country. I have spoken to hundreds of well-connected men and women since I’ve been at the casino, and I’m likely to be speaking to hundreds more before I walk away to be yours, and yours alone.”
“I’m sorry that the little green man emerged for a moment. There have been some in this room that would never have even noted my existence until you have been sitting with me. I expect that some may even ask how we’re sitting here, having lunch together.”
“Just tell them that we’re engaged, and that they may get an invitation to the wedding, if they’re lucky.”
He had to work for the rest of the day, so I took a taxi to the main boutique street and used my credit card a few times. I had checked my account this morning and had a good bit that I could spend. I did buy a very sexy nightie for Fraser to ogle at. He didn’t get back to the apartment until after ten, and the sight of me watching the television in the nightie took his mind off his empty stomach. We had a snack around midnight.
The next time he picked me up, he was quiet. On the way into the city, I asked him what the problem was.
“It’s father. That session in the hospital found bowel cancer which has spread to other parts. He’s upbeat, and didn’t tell me what they said, but I guess that he may only have a few years left. I’ve always considered him unstoppable. It made me think a lot about mortality and the need to live every minute as if it’s you last.”
“We will live every minute, darling. If he has an idea of his likely death, we’ll have to get married so that he can see us in the church, and he can kiss the bride.”
“That will take some organising. I have a sister in Australia, married to a grazier. She’ll have to be given enough time to come back. There are other aunts and uncles all over the place. The more I think of it, the more I want to elope.”
“Don’t even think that! It would be terrible to snub your parents like that. Your mother and I will see that everything that needs to be done, is done. All that you will need to do is book the cars and the honeymoon. I’m sure that Gordon will be still going strong for a few years more.”
We had a restrained day before he started to get his spark back. I stayed upbeat for him and didn’t press him for more when he rolled on his side after just one session of lovemaking. The next morning, he seemed much better.
The year rolled on, and the casino got busy with tourists and seasonal regulars. During spring, I had success with two significent cheaters, adding another two cards to my scoreboard. Fraser and I were part of ministerial parties at the big mid-week race meetings, with me able to shift my time off. He was being given more responsibility, and I was being included in invitations to events. I had to lay it all out for Silvester, and he was happy to give me some leeway. He told me that there were just two pests left to exterminate, and, when I had ticked them off, I would be able to spread my wings until the end of the year.
So, I became the socialite that his mother wanted, and she started to thaw towards me. It was the end of June when I noticed a guy at my table who gave off the wrong vibes. He was very intense, watching me to gauge my own skills. Two hands later, one of the other players left and his place was taken by another one that I immediately took a dislike to. This one was loud-mouthed and obviously knew the first one I had noted, seeing the looks they gave each other, as well as the derogatory remarks that they quietly exchanged.
I asked the control room to watch them both, just in case. A few hands later, the loudmouth made a play so audacious I was immediately suspicious. The quiet one took out the hand. It was then that I realised that they were speaking in code, telling each other the cards they had. Nobody came down from control, and, when it came time for my relief, Sandra came by to tell me to carry on another session.
By the end of the session, I needed a pee and to give my feet a rest. That’s when a large contingent of security guys took both players away. I was relieved and went off to the rest room. I was having a cup of coffee when Silvester came through the door to the control room.
“Well done there, Jacquie. We never knew how they did it, but with you keeping them in some sort of line, they started repeating comments. We recorded every word, and we eventually managed to relate the comments to the hands they were holding. They haven’t been working together for very long. When they were working alone, they did the usual card swap, but were both very good at it. So good that I doubt that you saw them do it tonight, while deflecting your attention with their banter. We have it all on record, though.”
“They swapped?”
“A few times. As I said, they are both very good. It took us looking at the vision in slow motion to pick it up. No bad thoughts about your skills, it was your inner sense that picked them out in the first place. They both have skills in disguise, and you could have passed them in the street tomorrow and not recognised them.”
“That’s a relief! I would have been mortified at missing the swap, otherwise. Is that the full list ticked off?”
“It is. If you do weekends and holiday times, you can take more time during the week. Get that Fraser to marry you and be the wife of a possible future Prime Minister. You’ll need all the time you can get once he starts campaigning. We’ll have a discussion and see if we can let you go before Christmas.”
That made me stop and think.
“If I am put into the spotlight, will the back story that you supplied hold up?”
“I’ll talk it over with Mistress. We may have to pad it out a bit more and you’ll have to revise your story. You’ve been worth all the expense that went into your alterations, and you really have turned out to be an attractive and sociable woman. I would hate to see your previous history exposed. That would be very bad for us.”
For the rest of the summer, I worked weekends and the long weekends, with a drop in pay, but it was worth it to spend more time with Fraser, even going up to Scotland on my own to spend some time at Kinross. Eventually, his mother came to accept me for who I was, and, together, we looked after Gordon, now in some pain and starting to lose his grip on reality.
I talked it over with Geraldine and Fraser, and we organised a wedding in Kinross, so that Gordon could be there to see it. His mother and I wrote out the invitations, and his sister came over from Australia to stay with us at the house. We walked down the aisle on a Monday at the beginning of September, had a very short honeymoon as he had to work, and I had to go back to the casino on the Friday.
I don’t know how much Gordon took in, but he did smile a lot on the day. It was the end of November when Fraser inherited the title. I was allowed to leave the casino and go to Scotland to help Geraldine recover from her grief. She decided to go to Australia to be with her daughter for a while. Fraser took leave without pay in the middle of December but retained his contacts with the party.
We settled in as Lord and Lady Ashworth, with a constant stream of visitors from local groups, keen to recruit us for various causes. We let them all know that we would think about them once we had reorganised our lives. We had a quiet festive season, retaining the cook and a couple of girls, but trimmed the estate as we were young enough to look after ourselves. The gardener retired, so we organised a firm to come in every couple of weeks to keep things tidy.
The next election was a year away, so Fraser started attending party meetings to get his feet under the table. We kept the city apartment, as we expected to need it once the election campaigns got into full swing. In the spring, Fraser went back to work, and we went and stayed in it for the foreseeable future.
Silvester had sent me a text to tell me that my ‘paperwork was ready to pick up’. I took an Uber to the casino. It was odd to be just visiting. When he met me in the reception hall, he took me to see Mistress. She gave me a hug and told me that I had performed well, and that she would be happy to donate towards Fraser’s campaign or host a reception in the casino.
She congratulated me on my wedding, and gave me an envelope, which she told me not to open until I was back in Scotland. I stayed in my old room for a few days, revising my new and improved back story. When I thought that I had it right, Silvester grilled me as if he was a journalist and I really had to think on my feet.
They had put together my history which wasn’t that far removed from real life, but with me born as a hermaphrodite. I now had a birth certificate and school certificate, as well as a new degree in my new name, all obtained through their lawyers after they had put a name change through. If asked the truth, I was to admit to having corrective surgery at a late age. I even had the hospital records of my actual procedures to prove it.
The certificates and the envelope went into a file folder and everything else was shredded. I went back to the apartment to start a new job as Fraser’s campaign organiser. He would be standing in the electorate where the apartment was and had lived there for more than five years.
My sensitivity to body language stood us in good stead, as I was able to pick the ‘helpers’ who weren’t going to help; the supporters who only want to have a hold over the new Member, and the good ones who were keen to help without their own agendas.
On the night that the votes were counted, Fraser won the seat. He was, however, in the opposition for this term. Even the Minister that he had worked for had lost his position. The title that he had inherited wasn’t one that put him into the Lords, so he was able to dream about the Prime Ministership, as they all do.
He was given the post of the Shadow Minister in the same area where he had been an assistant, and we settled into a new routine. When the House was sitting, we were in the city, and when it wasn’t we would relax in Scotland. I found myself at the sort of social events that would have pleased his mother, now meeting a lot of my old customers in a different setting, including my old boss and his sons. They didn’t recognise me, but Mistress and I would sit out some of the dancing, while our husbands were busy talking shop. Sometimes, I had the feeling that she was waiting for me to say something, but she never pushed it. I wondered if she wanted me to ask about the casino but I knew not to mention it in public.
As his star started to rise, I was helping Fraser until he was allocated a Personal Assistant, rather than a young ministerial assistant. I then started being asked to join committees. I sat on a few, mainly ones that pushed for more equality for women.
Over the years, we became a couple who were invited to more and more events. I had met the King and other royals, I had danced with the princes who had offered me their hand in marriage, and Fraser became more and more a man who was slated for better things.
After a second term in opposition, he was elected by the party to be the leader. That’s when the searchlight of the media was turned on us. As the youngest leader in history, with a beautiful wife, the Ashworth’s were spoken about as the ‘New Kennedy Dynasty’. That really made me smile.
I had been asked questions on several occasions but was asked to sit in a studio for a national current affairs show. They wanted an in-depth interview. For the first time in years, I looked for the file with my papers in, meaning to sit quietly and remember my story. I knew that my parents, and my sisters, would never recognise me, and was never going to give my ‘dead name’ on the show.
When I found the file, the envelope was still there, unopened. I opened it and pulled out a card. It had been professionally printed, and the only word on the front was ‘Gotcha’ in large red letters. Inside was a picture of a pair of breasts, looking perky. Over the picture was handwritten - ‘To Jacqueline Kennedy, with thanks from the staff at Bunnies’.
Under the picture was written – ‘No bombs in the boobs. Enjoy them without worry’.
I sat down on the nearest chair and started laughing so hard that there were tears in my eyes. It was a good job that Fraser wasn’t home. I poured myself a stiff drink and raised my glass in a toast to Mistress and Silvester, who had me living in fear with one of the best bluffs I’d ever seen.
At the party after the next election, when I had been catapulted into the position of being the wife of the Prime Minister and likely to be moving to Number Ten, I saw Mistress and gave her a hug.
“I finally opened your card.”
“What did you think?”
“That you’re wasted as a society icon, you would have made a hell of a gambler!”
Marianne Gregory © 2024