2 Becoming Dani

“ That is a bit of a shock, I don’t really know what to say. I know that working with the girls that I have picked up some of their habits, but I didn’t think that it was that obvious, and I don’t think that I look and act particularly feminine. I am not sure that I want to do it, I am not a girl, and it is all going to come out sooner or later and then what will happen to me.”

“ This is a wonderful opportunity for you, you said in your interview that you wanted to work with senior people to pick up on their approach to business and how they think, and they don’t come much more senior than Sir Charles. You could learn an awful lot in a short time to help you develop your career. It should only be for a few weeks, and then you can revert back to your normal self, even get your hair cut and wear more obviously masculine clothes. I think that you can get away with it, with a bit of help, the right clothes, makeup and restyled hair, you are about the same size as most of the women you work with, and you should really be able to look the part.”

“ If it all goes wrong is my job here safe, these are difficult times and it will be hard to explain why I left Cunninghams?”

“ If it all goes wrong, and I don’t think it will as I have every confidence in you, it is more likely that my job will be on the line, not yours. Look, this is Friday, you will not be needed by Sir Charles until next Wednesday, we have the whole weekend and a couple of days next week to transform you and train you in all things feminine. I will be willing to help personally, and have you stay at my place, but I think that we will need someone more your own age to help, I am a bit out of touch with the younger styles and attitudes. Is there anybody you know and can trust to help.”

“ I have no family in the area, and even then I don’t think that it would go down too well, I am new to the area so haven’t really built up many close friends. Of the girls I work with, the only one I think will be able to be discreet is Carol Harmsworth, who seem to have started this all off by putting my hair up in a bun, the others really enjoy passing on office gossip. Carol will probably be willing to help.”

Helen called up Carol to join us, and after ensuring that everything was confidential, gave her the full story. I saw Carol’s expression change from disbelief to embarrassment, to amusement and then to serious consideration over what she had been told.

“ I think Ms Cassidy is right, this could work, you have been mistaken for a girl in the pub and cafe and that is without even proper clothes or makeup, and when you are out with us you tend to adopt a voice and way of talking that nearly matches ours and with a bit of coaching could be really passable. I think you should give it a go as Dani and I will be delighted to help. My flatmate, Gemma, is away for a few weeks on a touring holiday around Europe so we should be able to work on transforming Danny into Danielle undisturbed”

“ Ok, the pair of you, take the rest of the day and the start of next week off, I will clear it with your office manager. Here is a company credit card, don’t go mad with it, but get everything you need for Dani to turn up for work on Wednesday, I want to see the pair of you, particularly you Danielle, at my house tomorrow, and we will see what we have to work with.” Here is my address and my phone number if you need to talk more.

We collected our things from our desks and quickly left before there were too many questions.

“ We will go to your flat first to get whatever you think you will need then it is off my flat to do all the basics, and if that looks ok we will see what I have that fits you then we can hit the mall, they are open late tonight.”

Back at Carol’s she quickly took over.

“ Into the shower first, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and remove any body hair where you can reach, I’ll deal with any that is left afterwards. There is one of my bathrobes on the back of the door, just put that on and while you are doing all that, I will sort out something for you to wear.

A half-hour later I came out of the bathroom smelling like a big bowl of flowers from all the scents in the various shampoos and lotions.

“ Next, sit down while i do something with your hair.” She then combed out sections of my hair, fixed it in rollers and give it a spray with setting lotion, While all that was working she started shaping my nails when she suddenly pulled away. “ I see that despite me trying to turn you into a girl, that your body is till reacting as a man’s. Put on these panties and body shaper and tuck yourself out of the way to keep it all under control and we’ll start again.”

Soon I had my eyebrows shaped and, in a mind-boggling sequence of operations, foundation, blusher, eyeliner, mascara and lipstick applied, my hair taken out of the rollers and brushed into style, and from the neck up there was no mistaking that Danny had gone and Dani was now in the room.

“ I have sorted out some things which should fit, the underwear is still new and unused, let’s get you dressed and see how you look.”

I struggled with the bra and the tights, but the short denim skirt and peasant blouse were no problem and were a good fit, particularly after she fitted me with home-made breasts of bags of rice.

“ Go and have a look in the mirror Dani, and see what you think. I was astounded, looking back at me was the image I had seen in photos of my Mum when she was my age. I had to take a deep breath and sit down with the shock..

“ Now we have got you looking the part, you have to start learning how to move and act, flopping down in the chair like that was extremely unfeminine, watch how I do it and copy my actions, be much more graceful and smooth in your movements and brush your skirt under you as you sit. Get up walk across the room and sit down again. Do it again and this time take smaller steps and put one foot in front of the other, don’t waddle with your legs splayed apart, and keeping doing it until I tell you I am happy.”

“Next, one of the delights of being a woman, not, is walking in heels. To start you off Its just a plain pair with 2” chunky heels, the torture of 4”or 5” stilettos can wait until you are used to these. Now practice walking around in them, and keep your back straight and your shoulders back, and push out your chest. Just walk around with me, match your pace, steps, and posture to mine. We are nearly there, get this right and we can get ready for you to face the world.”

After another hour of walking and sitting and getting up again and walking some more, Carol decided that I was becoming more natural and was ready to go out and be seen. Rather than going clothes shopping to the mall, she started me off at the local supermarket, getting in the weekly groceries. To get me to relate to people and practice my voice, rather than just picking stuff off the shelves she made me place orders at the deli and fish counters which went unremarked making me feel more comfortable. Then it was the clothing section where she talked me through the various bra and panty styles and had me select a few sets which I liked and which she thought appropriate, followed by the array of products on the feminine hygiene shelves, both areas of the shop that I previously would have avoided.

“ I can understand teaching me about the underwear, but why do I need to know about sanitary products, I am not going to need them, am I?”

“ As you will find out, women do discuss these matters and occasionally someone in a loo may ask you if you have any spares as they have suddenly come on. You need to get some pads and keep them in your bag, just in case, they are not something to be embarrassed about, they are a fact of life, and living as a woman you need to be able to talk about them and pass opinions as if it is a most natural discussion.”

We stopped at the cafeteria on the way out for a coffee and bun, and again she had me place the order for them. “Don’t pick the whole bun up like that and stuff big chunks into your mouth, it is most unladylike, cut it into smaller pieces and chew them slowly and thoroughly, and pick up your cup by the handle, not wrapping your hand around the body.”

“Have I landed on another planet, is there an end to all these rules and guidelines, my brain is getting fogged.”

“You know the expression ‘Men are from Mars and women are from Venus’, well it’s only partly true, it’s not just different planets it is sometimes a different galaxy, and now we are finished you need to redo your lipstick. Normally I would just do mine sitting here, but until you get more used to it, you will be better going into the Ladies and doing it in front of a mirror.”

“ I don’t think I am ready for that yet, what if somebody reads me as a man in a skirt.”

“ Fat chance of that, you are more feminine than half the women in the shop, walking around in leggings and sloppy jumpers with no makeup and their hair in a mess, just go for it, there has to be a first time, come on with me.”

It was not the ordeal I had expected, when we went in there was no-one else there so I was able to slowly and carefully do my lips, rather than the quick swipe, lip-smack and pout that most women do. Just as I had finished another woman came in on her way to a cubicle, smiled at me saying “ It makes a nice change to see someone your age making an effort to look feminine, too many young women like you are so sloppy nowadays, and only dress up when they are out looking for a man.”

“ I told you Dani, you are perfectly acceptable as you are for casual contact like that, but Helen and I still have a lot of work to do with you before you are fit to spend all day working closely with Sir Charles.” Carol told me as we drove to her home to drop of the groceries. “Lets have a few minutes for you to relax and you can practice walking and sitting a bit more, then we’ll hit the Malls to get you some work outfits, shoes and accessories that you will need for the next few weeks, after all Cunninghams are paying.

To be continued.

3 Lessons in Womanhood

Carol made me change into a formal black skirt and cream blouse. “The outfit you have on was fine for the supermarket, but you are going be looking for more professional business wear, so you need to look the part. It’s not like throwing on a sweatshirt, sweater and trousers to last you all day as a man, you have to learn that as a woman you need to change outfits to suit what you are doing. Let’s get ready, we need to get there in time to find you some outfits before closing time.

Although I had been to the mall many times, I walked in with Carol feeling really nervous, convinced that people would be looking at me questioning whether or not I was a real woman, but before going into any of the shops we just walked around a bit, window shopping, until I was a bit more relaxed.

Pulling me into a jewellers, she insisted that I needed to get my ears pierced, “ No girl over the age of ten does not wear studs or rings nowadays. lets get them done, buy a few sets of casual studs and some fancier drop styles, nothing too fancy but appropriate for work as a professional businesswoman.” It was all a lot easier and less painful than I had expected. I soon left, another step on the way to womanhood, wearing small diamond studs and carrying a bag with another two sets of studs, sleepers, wedding rings, and two teardrop sets. two chain necklaces and two gold pendants.

The beauty counter was next, Carol insisted that her skin tone and mine were completely different and that I needed a complete makeup set of my own. The beauty consultant checked my skin and selected appropriate foundation and blusher along with an eye shadow tray, black and brown mascara, eyeliner, and several shades of lipstick and lipliner, nail polish, moisturiser, night cream, cleansers, cologne and some other products which I did not even recognise. Why I needed so much for what may only be a few weeks was beyond me, but Carol insisted that it was all necessary and that she and Helen would over the weekend take me through how and when to use it all.

“ It looks a lot but you need to find the style and colours that suit you, a lot of the stuff you will not use, but you need to experiment to find which are best in reflecting who you are.”

“ I really think that my style would be to not need any of this.”

‘Don’t talk nonsense, I keep telling you, as far as the world is concerned you are a woman now, get used to it and start thinking like one. We will now start from the inside out, let’s go into M&S and pick out a few bras and pantie sets.”

“ I got some in the supermarket, why do I need more.”

“ Two reasons, firstly you need to have a change for every day, secondly the ones you got are pretty basic and functional, but you need something a bit fancier and more feminine. Believe me, a set of sexy underwear will really keep you in the zone for being a woman.”

I was a bit more comfortable leafing through the underwear racks than I had been in the supermarket, but I still had the feeling of being in forbidden territory and quickly selected a few matching sets that looked ok to me, but Carol was not going to let me get away that easily, we spent almost a half-hour looking at different styles and materials, holding them up to me and asking whether I thought they would suit me. “ Dani, you are now a woman, start acting like one, you have every right to be here inspecting the bras, imagine you have been wearing one all your adult life and are just stocking up with new ones, just relax and immerse yourself in femininity.

Next, while we are here, you need some sleepwear, let’s have a look for the nightdresses and nightshirts.”

“ What do I need them for, nobody will see me when I am in bed, I usually just wear boxers and a tee-shirt.”

“ You will be staying with me until my flatmate gets back, I am not having you wandering around half-undressed, and besides, as I keep saying, you need to be constantly reminded that you are now a woman.”

“ Please can’t I just wear a t-shirt and shorts like I normally do?”

“No you can’t, either take this seriously or it will not work, then we will all be in trouble. I will compromise with you though, get a fancy nightdress, a couple of shortie nightshirts and a top & shorts pyjama set, but that will just be held in reserve in case it all gets too much.”

After leaving M&S laden down with more bags, as we were on the way to look for some suits and dresses for work, Carol noticed a shop with a sign for specialist party wear and dragged me in while she went up to the counter, and came back smiling.

“ You are in luck, i have heard about this shop, it specialises in over-the-top clothes for transvestites and drag queens as well as ordinary fancy dress costumes, and along with all the party costumes it also sells breast forms, those bags of rice are not good enough, you need realistic breasts before you start trying on clothes in the stores. I was soon stripped to the waist, measured and fitted with B-cup forms, which matched the bras that Carol had previously selected for me. She insisted that they were stuck on, so that “they will jiggle about when you are moving, just like natural ones.” Although they were not over big, Carol suggested that Sir Charles had met me with no obvious breasts and suddenly sprouting up to anything bigger would just not seem possible. I was shocked when I saw the price, but she insisted that as I would be working as a woman I needed the most realistic ones they had, and after all, it was all going to be charged to Cunninghams.

She was right though, when we left the shop and headed for the clothes stores the weight and movement were a constant reminder to me to remember all the guidance and instructions she had given me.

We soon had selected several outfits, business suits, day dresses and skirts and Carol dragged me over to the changing rooms. “ Get in there, try on the outfits, and come out wearing each one to let me have a look to see how they fit and hang on you.”

Another threshold for me to cross over, I just hoped that there was not many other people in there, but it was bustling. Many of the people trying stuff on didn’t bother with closing the curtains to the cubicles and I tried not to stare too much. In tune with the others, I just turned my back to the curtain, dropped the skirt I had on, put on the first business suit, and went out to show Carol.

“ That does not suit you, change into the next one and when you come out again bring that with you to go back on the racks.” This went on six or seven times before we eventually found a couple of outfits and skirts that she thought suited me. I was getting a bit embarrassed at all the stuff she was giving back to the sales assistant, but she did not seem to be bothered.

“ Shopping as a women is not just about selecting the first thing that fits you, it is an experience to be enjoyed, you could even leave the shop now without buying anything, say you are going to look elsewhere and may come back, and that will be seen as nothing out of the ordinary. Not much left to do now, just a few business blouses and tops, and some casual stuff for around the house and then it’s off home.”

We arrived back at the house laden down with parcels and bags, and I just flopped into a chair, physically and emotionally exhausted, kicked off my shoes and relaxed.

“ You can’t sit there all night, go and hang your new clothes up, just push Gemma’s clothes to the back of the wardrobe, and move some of her stuff around so that you have a drawer for your undies and things. While you are there, get changed into something casual;, that peasant top you had on earlier, some leggings, and the slippers you got. Take off your tights while you are at it, you’ll soon realise that you don’t want to be wearing them for the rest of the evening. Although you need to make a special effort when you are out, around the flat it’s fine to just be casual.”

“I don’t know what you normally do for meals, probably like most single men you will live on takeaways, but not here, we try to eat home-cooked healthy meals.”

“ That’s a bit sexist, most men can cook nowadays, mainly because you young women have never been properly taught by your mothers who have been too busy with going out to work, I’ll have you know that I can turn out some really quality meals.”

“ You fell into that trap easily, if you are so good, there is the kitchen, you helped me put away the groceries so you know where everything is, surprise me, it’s time you started to pay me back for running around with you all day,”

As I didn’t know her likes and dislikes, I made something fairly universally popular, a fish and seafood lasagne, but not having time to make my normal fresh rosemary and cheese topped focaccia to go with it, i just quickly made and griddled Irish soda farls, with the rosemary mixed in . It was all pretty routine for me, once I got used to my breasts jiggling when I was kneading the dough and binding together the fish prawns and sauce for the filling, and worrying about what it was all doing to my painted fingernails.

To say Carol was amazed and delighted when I served it up and she tasted it is an understatement, her eyes lit up and she burst into a big smile. “That is absolutely delicious, I think that you have found a new role as long as you are living here, I could get used to this, I think this pays for all my attention to you.” We enjoyed the meal which was too much really for just the two of us, so half of it ended up in the freezer for another night.

The same could not be said for the bottle of red wine which we enjoyed with it, so after clearing up and cleaning the kitchen we opened another bottle to keep us going while we sat and watched ‘Sleepless in Seattle’. “Try and understand the Meg Ryan character, watch how she reacts to things, try to see and relate to things from her point of view, I know you are finding this difficult but imagine that you are a woman watching this.”

“ I enjoyed that and I see what you mean about watching it from a female perspective, it was a totally different film from what I remembered last time I watched it. After everything that has gone on today, I am so tired, I think that I am off to my bed now.”

“Hold on a minute Dani, it is not that easy, you cannot just go to your room, throw your clothes off and climb into bed, you have some work to do yet, you have to clean off your makeup. brush out and tie up your hair , it can be hard work being a girl. Go and get changed into one of your nightdresses, keep on the panties as you will be changing into fresh ones in the morning anyway, and come back out so that I can lead you through what is to become your nightly ritual.”

After changing into one of my short nighties, she led me through the stages of makeup removal, cleansing and moisturising and tying up my hair so that it would just brush out into style in the morning without having to go to the bother of rollers or styling wand, and eventually I was allowed to go to bed. I tossed and turned for a long while, my head buzzing with at the things that had happened to me and all the lessons I had been given by Carol today, and trying to find a sleeping position that was comfortable with the new breasts on my chest, but eventually I dropped off to sleep dreaming about my new life as a girl.

To be Continued

4 Helen’s Turn

I woke up in the morning and in a still-half-asleep state couldn’t remember where I was, and I suddenly realised that I was wearing a nightdress and had breasts and began to panic and get confused before it all came back to me. When I had got my mind in gear I decided that I had better get up and dressed, but realised that it was no longer that simple and quick. I thought that I would need to get used to starting the day with a much longer regime.

i put on the makeup, in as far as I remembered a similar fashion to what Carol had done yesterday, brushed out my hair just letting it hang loose around my shoulders, put on fresh underwear, my leggings and a clean top and went out to the kitchen. There was no sign yet of Carol so I put on the coffee machine and started preparing breakfast. Carol had said that she believed in healthy eating so I toasted some oats and almonds, mixed in some raisins, grapes, and banana to make my own version of muesli, and just in case she was hungry made some toast and put out the honey to go with it.

“ Oh, that coffee smells wonderful, just what I need this morning after all that wine last night, and that muesli is just the right thing.” Carol said when she eventually wandered into the kitchen rubbing her eyes.

Breakfast over she gave me a quick look over. “Not too bad with your makeup for a first attempt, but you can’t possible go out like that, the foundation is a bit patchy and needs smoothing in more evenly, far too much blusher it needs to more subtle, your eyeliner is crooked and not even, too much eye-shadow, the lips aren’t too bad though, go and clean it all off and do it again while I tidy up.” She made me do this three times before she was eventually satisfied with my look.

“ Now go and get dressed to go to Helen’s. At the weekend I would normally go casual and just wear slacks and a top, but you need to get used to wearing a skirt so we will go a bit more girly today. Put on that new lemon top and white skirt , plain tights and the white shoes with the kitten heels, they should all go together.” I thought to myself that life is now so complicated, everything needed to coordinate and match, no more just throwing on a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, a sweater and my trainers.

Carol drove us round to Helen’s. I didn’t want to risk having an accident driving my car and having to explain why I looked as I did.

When Helen let us in, she had a long look over me and turned on a big grin. “Oh, my, you certainly look the part Danielle, a lot better than I was expecting, Carol has done an amazing job with you, come and sit down, I’ll get some coffees and you can tell me all about what you got up to yesterday.”

I quickly ran through what we had done from getting prepared and dressed, going to the supermarket and the mall, the meal and getting ready for bed, and when I had finished Helen frowned at me.

“ That was all well and good, but it was just like notes from a memo pad, there was no feeling, no emotion, no expressing what you thought. When women are chatting they are much more expressive and tend to digress onto minor things, you need to be much more personal not like a travel itinerary. Another thing is that women do not just communicate with their mouths, we use facial expressions, hand movements and eye contact, much more than men. Have another go, start again at the beginning.”

I went through it all again trying to include everything she had said, telling her about my worries and concerns of getting discovered as a man, how the shop assistants had related to me, how I felt about Carol pushing and pushing until things were done her way, and how worried I was that working in the office all day in close contact with people would leave me much more exposed than casual chats in the shops.

“ That was ten times better, you put much more of your inner self into describing things. A bit more practice over this weekend with Carol and I and I think you should be ok. Your voice is good, keep the pitch as it is, do not try too hard to go higher, but you need to change some of the intonation a bit, try to sound a bit more sing-song, and soften your accent a little bit, it will all come across as a lot more feminine. You are doing very well, considering that it is only one day since we started this, you are a quick learner and you are almost a natural. are you sure that you have not done anything like this before?”

“ Apart from a couple of times in school plays this is all my first time in skirts. I went to a boys-only school and always got picked for the female roles because I have always been a bit smaller and slimmer than the others, but leaving that aside I have never dressed as a girl.”

“Let’s go out to lunch, I would like to see how you interact with strangers, there is a nice hotel just down the road and they do a decent meal at a reasonable price.”

I put on my coat, picked up my bag and was ready to leave when Helen called me back.

“ Don’t you think that you should check your makeup, particularly your lipstick, it is not just a matter of putting it on the morning and forgetting about it, you need to check it and refresh it regularly, if needed.”

We just walked the short distance to the hotel, and at first I was conscious of the clicking of my heels on the pavement, thinking it was drawing attention to me, but I soon seemed to forget about it, it just blended in with the others, and I was just another girl out with friends and colleagues.

We found quiet table in a window bay, ordered drinks while considering the menu, and when we had all decided on our meals, Helen insisted that it had to be me placing the order and interacting with the waiter. When he had gone I received another lecture. “ I told you earlier, when you are talking to someone, look at them, speak with your eyes and hands as much as with your tongue, and smile. Nobody is going to see through the makeup and hair and look on you as anything other than an attractive young woman. You need to learn to chat, you could have commented on what a lovely place this is, or asked when it was busy and what is the best time to come, anything like that, just make conversation. Besides, that waiter had his eye on you, you could have been a bit friendlier and flirted with him a bit.”

“ Why would I want to do that? Just because I look like this doesn’t mean that I am interested in men.”

“ A bit of a smile and some compliments never does any harm. Just because you are being nice to someone does not necessarily mean that you want to jump into bed with them. It is all part of the role you are playing, not just the obvious clothes, hair and things, but the nuances of interaction between women and men, you don’t want to come across as cold and distant.”

After the meal, instead of going back to Helen’s she drove us to the Mall we had visited yesterday and we walked around window shopping. Don’t just follow us around, if you see something in a window display, stop and have a closer look.”

“But I don’t need anything else, I have more than enough to last me for the time I will be working with Sir Charles.”

“ That doesn’t stop you looking and thinking about maybe getting something similar in the future, as Carol has told you, change your mindset, start thinking and acting as a woman. I know that you have 22 years of memories and programmed reactions to things as a boy and man, but for the next few weeks put them to the back of your mind and become one of us.”

“ It is not as easy as that, if it was the other way round could you simply stop having womanly thoughts and attitudes.”

“ You said before that you were in some plays at school, just think of this as acting, immerse yourself in the character and perform on the stage of real life. Lecture over for now, just enjoy the shopping experience.“

Back at Helen’s we went over what we had done and what I had learned today.

“ You are doing really well Dani, I think that if you keep up with everything you have been doing today, that you will be perfectly acceptable and believable as the woman you now appear to be. Tomorrow I want to work on your role as a PA, what you will be expected to do, how you should react to your colleagues and business situations. It is not easy stepping into someone else’s shoes at any time, and your personal situation will make it even more difficult. Get yourselves back to Carol’s, think about everything I have said today, talk it through with each other and then just relax, and become accustomed to your new life.”

Back at Carols, we changed into casual clothes, leggings and tops, I was glad to get out of the tights and heels, although I had found wearing a skirt quite comfortable. I pulled my hair back out of the way and fixed it in place with one of the hair claws and grips that I had bought when we were out.

“ Are you sure that you are ok with all this Carol, it is taking up all your weekend and it is all a bit weird.”

“ When Helen first mentioned it to me yesterday, I thought it was all a bit far-fetched and impossible, but, despite what Helen picked you up on today, I am starting to just see you as another of my girl friends that I can relax with, you really are becoming natural as Danielle. Gemma is away for a while, let’s just get on with life, and stop constantly reminding me that you are Danny, not Danielle. Besides you are good company and it is a lot better than being stuck here by myself. Are you cooking again Dani, I really enjoyed that meal last night and you are much better at it than I am?”

“ Fine by me, I’ll just pop down to the shops to get some stuff.”

“ Are you just going as you are, will you be all right on your own?”

“As you both keep telling me I look and act the part so I might just as well get used to being just another girl out in the shops, I’ll be fine.” A quick swipe of the lipstick and a brush of my hair, I picked up my bag and left her with a smile on her face.

I was soon back without having had any problems, other than getting chatted up by one of the store assistants on the butcher’s counter and was straight into the kitchen, preparing the rump steak and tossed salad, complete with home-made coleslaw and salad dressing.

“ That was delicious again Dani, where did you learn to cook and prepare stuff like that.”

“ When I moved away from home to go to uni, my Mum insisted that she wasn’t going to have me living for three years on pizza, pot noodle, and takeaway curries like most students, and gave me an intensive course on preparing some delicious healthy options. After my first year, I left the Halls and moved into a flat and I found that enjoyed doing the cooking as well as eating the meals. Between the TV chefs and online recipe sites I soon built up a collection of things that I liked and were not too much bother, and you are now getting the benefit. The little extras like the coleslaw and salad dressing are easy to make, are a lot cheaper than the commercial stuff, and you know what is in them, no additives and e-numbers, and I think that they taste better.”

“ That was really good, you just sit and relax with a glass of wine and I will clear up and wash the dishes. There is nothing decent on TV tonight, have a look at Prime and see if there are any films you fancy.”

After last nights weepy, I chose something a lot lighter, 'Nine to Five’. We both enjoyed the lighter moments but Carol insisted on pointing out the strong character traits of the female leads, she was determined to gently carry on with my brainwashing. It was soon time for bed and without thinking too much about it I changed into my nightie and went through the nightly cleansing routine, before climbing into bed where I quickly went into a deep undisturbed sleep.

to be continued

5 Deeper into Danielle

It was only my second morning as Danielle, but it already just seemed normal to brush out and style my hair , and put on my makeup. I wasn’t sure how casually to be dressed today, so I just went out to the kitchen in my nightie and started preparing breakfast.

“ Good morning sleepyhead, good of you to get up at last.” I joked with Carol when she eventually came through from her room, wearing her pyjama set, “I see you couldn’t be bothered to get properly dressed either.”

“I often just get breakfast like this at the weekend, and it looks like you have no inhibitions about wondering around in front of me in your nightwear either. Give me a coffee, let me wake up properly please, why are you so bright and full of life in the mornings?”

“ Did Helen say anything to you about what we would be up to today, she just said ‘work on my role as a PA.’”

“ She did say to me that she wanted to see the outfit you will be wearing to the office next week, and how will present yourself, but that is all.”

“ Do I need to re-do my makeup and hair in a more business-like style or should I just go as I am.”

“ Spoken like a true girl, you are really adjusting to the role aren’t you. You should be fine as you are, but put some clothes on first. Just dress casual and take your work outfit and make up and hair stuff with us, we will see what Helen has to say before you get changed.” At Carols insistence I again put on a skirt, my mid-thigh denim one, she said that the more I wore one, the more normal it would be to me, and i wouldn’t worry so much about what I was wearing.

Round at Helen’s she took charge again.

“As I said yesterday, we need to get you looking and acting right for work as a PA to a senior executive. Your make up is fine for going out with your friends, but it needs to be a lot more subtle for work. I know that there is an age difference between us, but look at how I have done mine, paler eye shadow, no eyeliner on the lower lids, just a hint of blusher, all much more discreet. Go into the bedroom, clean it all off and start again.

When I came out again she was much happier. “ That’s an awful lot better, much more sophisticated and professional, and you seem to have got the hang of all the necessary techniques.

Let’s see what we can do with your hair, it is long for you as Danny, but there is a limited amount we can do for you as Danielle. After playing about with it or a while she had my hair fixed in what she called a chignon, and Carol called a low bun, gathered at the back just above the top of the neck, coiled into a loose bun. “That’s about right it suits you. You need to be able to do that yourself though, brush it out, I will go through it again, listen to what I am telling you and then you can have a go. You need to learn how to do this yourself, I’m sure that Carol will not want to fix it for you every morning.”

Gathering the hair into a pony tail as a start was easy, but I found it difficult working with my hands behind my head to coil it into a bun, the first few times, when she held a mirror for me to let me see, it looked an absolute mess, with loose strands sticking out all over the place, it looked even worse than the ‘messy bun’ that I normally tied my hair up into. After the fifth attempt Helen was satisfied that I could make myself presentable, at least from the neck up.

“ Show me the outfit that you intend to wear, if I don’t think it appropriate we will have to go out and get you something else.”

I took the suit and blouse out of the hanging carrier bag and held it up against me for her to see.

“ That actually looks fine, you have good taste, or at least Carol has, no need to go shopping, go and put it on and we will see how it fits and hangs on you.

I quickly changed into my two-piece navy skirt suit and azure blouse with matching tie bow, took out my ear studs and put in some small gold hoops, put on my 4” stilettos, checked my hair and makeup and confidently walked back out for inspection.”

“ Dani, you are in your twenties, not your forties, ditch the tie, just go for the blouse with a couple of buttons undone, just to give a hint of cleavage, nothing too showy, but enough to leave no doubt as to your femininity. I would suggest you also change the heels, they are uncomfortable to wear all day at the best of times, particularly if you are not used to them, the chunky heels you had on before are fine. Just change your shoes but keep the rest of the outfit on, you need to get used to how those clothes feel and move when you sit down or stand up and how comfortable you are when you are working.”

For the next hour or so, she had me working at the desk on the computer, drafting emails and letters, correcting my posture and the way I arched my hands when typing. “ Straighten your back, do not lean over the keyboard too much, and Carol hasn’t given you too long nails so you need to let them grow out a bit, but it means that you have to use the flat of your fingers rather than the tips when typing.”

Eventually she was satisfied and told me to change back to the clothes I came in, and brush out my hair loose as it was when I arrived, and we went out for a light lunch.

“ Helen, I haven’t told you what a wonderful cook Dani is, she has been treating me the last two nights, as a thank you why not let her make you your evening meal, I’ll help her with the preparation. The supermarket is just down the road, we’ll get some stuff in. Have you got any particular likes or dislikes.”

“ That’s very kind of you, If you two are cooking I do like a traditional Sunday roast and veg, no particular preferences, surprise me, it will be a nice change to have someone to make it for me and to dine with.”

Before we started on the meal, Helen wanted to see how well I remembered my lessons and had me redo my makeup and hair as if I was going into the office and was pleased that I got it all right first time.

She then gave me an induction as to what my duties would be and how I would be expected to behave. “Just be relaxed and confident. Sir Charles will tell you what he expects of you and what your workload is for the day, he is fairly easy to get on with, you could have a lot worse boss. you shouldn’t have any trouble with him, but be careful around some of the other staff. Some of the senior secretaries will have fancied themselves as his PA and may be a bit put out. Don’t react to them, try and win them over by doing your job correctly and efficiently, but definitely don’t put a lot of trust in them, if they do some work for you check it thoroughly, they will want to see you fail.”

After that Carol and I prepared dinner and we all sat down to enjoy a Tarragon chicken with roast vegetables, followed by a raspberry Eton Mess, using shop bought meringue I had to confess.

After the stresses of learning how to present myself and act, the rest of the evening was very relaxed. For someone in a senior management position, Helen was very outgoing and a lot of fun once she switched off from her work mode, and she changed from being the boss making sure that I didn’t let her down, to being a friend. She even suggested that she was very appreciative of all that Carol had done for me and that she would try to find a more challenging job for her when one came up.

Back at the flat, Carol and I settled down and chatted for an hour before it was time for bed.

“ You have done amazingly well, it has only been a couple of days since you started out as a girl, and you already seem quite content, relaxed and confident in it, you are a natural, you should have been a girl all your life. I would like to think that after all this is over, that you seriously think about how you would like to spend the rest of your life and that Danielle does not just fade away.

“ Don’t get carried away Carol, I am doing this as a great career opportunity, it is not something that I would have chosen, I have never dressed or acted as a girl before, other than in the plays, and have never had any desire to do so either. Yes, I am comfortable, and I seem to be able to carry it all off, but I don’t see it as a long-term change in my lifestyle. you and Helen have really helped me through this and if it all works out I will be forever grateful, but please don’t push me too hard to take it any further. And please, please, please Carol, do not mention anything about this to the women in the office, most of them already treat me as another one of the girls anyway, and knowing about all this would just make my life unbearable. If anyone asks just tell them that I have been sent away on a training course for a couple of weeks, and that you were just asked to help me get packed and get my flat sorted out for when I was away.”

“Ok. anything you say.” she replied with a knowing look on her face.”

Monday and Tuesday was very much more of the same, Carol made a point of getting me out in public in full view, chatting to other girls and women in the shops and cafés, and generally getting me more and more accustomed to just being accepted as the woman i now appeared to be.

After a relaxing evening watching TV, and both of us cleaning shaping and painting our nails and putting my hair in rollers, it was soon time to get ready for bed.

‘You should get ready and have an early night, it is a big day for you tomorrow. To keep you in the mood and set you up for spending the day as a woman, working with women, I suggest that you immerse yourself in femininity and wear your full-length lacy satin nightie, sleep tight.”

To be continued.

6 First Impressions

“Sleep tight” Carol had said, but unfortunately it was not the case. I was feeling so nervous about starting as Sir Charles’ PA, that I tossed and turned all night and only slept fitfully. At least it meant that I was up early in the morning, which was good for two reasons, it would not be quick to get myself ready, and also I would need a lot more time to get to work.

I hardly needed to shave as I still grew only a very light beard and a close shave lasted me at least a week, but I wanted to make sure that there was absolutely no sign. After a quick shower , drying off and powdering, I brushed my hair back into a ponytail and wound it into a chignon as I had been taught yesterday, made myself up and got dressed in my business outfit. It was still too early for Carol, so I just had a quick bowl of muesli, picked up my bag and set off for the train station, I had decided that it was too risky to drive at the moment, looking as I did.

The head office where Sir Charles was based was in Cheapside in the City of London, just behind St Paul’s Cathedral, in the heart of the traditional financial district. It was almost an hours travel to get there, which was something I wasn’t used to, and the journey was even more stressful as the train was crowded which meant everyone was squeezed together quite closely and I was convinced that someone would pick me out as a man in a skirt. Other than the normal hassle and bustle and the occasional ’accidental’ brush of a hand on my bottom or bosom, nothing untoward happened and I arrived at the office, well ahead of the time I was due to be there.

I composed myself at the entrance for a minute or two before going in and walking up to the reception desk.

“ Good morning, i’m Danielle Jenkins, I’m starting to work for Sir Charles Montgomery this morning.”

“Oh yes, we have been expecting you. Sir Charles is not here yet, but you can go up to your office on the eighth floor. You need this pass keycard to get through all the control doors and to use the lift to that floor. Turn right out of the lift, your office is just on the right, there should already be your nameplate on the door. If you have any problems just come back down and I will get someone to take you there. I’m Chloe by the way, nice to meet you. When you get to the office, if there are any problems just buzz down to me, dial 101, and I will get someone to sort things out for you.”

“ Thanks for your help Chloe it is really appreciated.” I thought to myself that there is at least one friendly face here, and reflected on that I was doing the same job as Chloe less than a week ago.

I found my way to the office with no bother and was astonished at the size of it and the quality of the furnishings and the amazing views over the City, but then I was now the PA, even if only temporarily, to one of the most senior figures in financial services. I soon found where everything was and settled myself in.

Sir Charles called me to say that he would not be in until late morning, and that if I went next door to his office, in the top drawer of his desk I would find a report that Margaret, his previous PA, had compiled before she left in a hurry, which he asked me to read through to check that there were no typing errors or anything which I thought strange or questionable. There was also a copy on the computer on my desk, stored in its internal file, not on the linked main company server.

I read it through thoroughly, corrected any basic mistakes and highlighted a few points to discuss with him on his return.

After finishing working on the report I needed a coffee and something to eat as I had only had a rushed breakfast and rang down to Chloe to ask where the staff restaurant was located.”It’s on the floor just below you, it has wonderful views and they make super proper coffee. If you are still on your own, I am going for a break in five minutes, I could see you there if you want a chat.”

When I got there, Chloe had not yet arrived, but I noticed a group of women at one of the tables and went to go over to introduce myself and join them, but they all got up and left as I approached.

Over coffee and a sandwich, Chloe filled me in as to who was who in the organisation and gave me some of the office gossip. Helen had been right, I was not the most popular person for just waltzing in and taking a prestige job, and Chloe warned me who to watch out for. She suggested that it was not just a coincidence that the other group had left as I approached them but that it was a deliberate snub as their noses had been put out of joint by my appointment. Her phone suddenly buzzed and she told me that her stand-in had just texted that Sir Charles had just arrived and that I had better get back to my office.

“Good morning Sir Charles, would you like me to make you a coffee or anything.”

“ That would be good, I’ve been rushing around this morning. Welcome to the office Danielle, I hope you managed to find everything ok. You are looking a lot different from when I saw you in Canterbury, a big improvement, more professional, and if I am allowed to say it nowadays, a lot more attractive.”

“ Thank you for that, I have tried hard over the last few days to improve my image to go with my new responsibilities. Everything is fine, the office is well organised. I managed to have a look at that report for you and there are a couple of things I think you should look at, there were a few typing or grammatical errors which I have marked on the printed copy for you and changed on the computer file, but I suggest that you need to look at the figures on page 10. The company you are proposing to make a major investment in has today been hit with a massive law suit and its share price has gone into free-fall this morning and it not nearly as attractive as an investment as it was last week when the report was compiled.”

“ I’ll have to discuss that with some of my colleagues, thank you for that, I have not had a chance to look at the stock market this morning. As you will be aware, as you have obviously read the report in detail, this is not a matter for Cunninghams, I am a non-executive director on the board of several other companies and this is a matter for one of those, Makepeace Investments. Anything relating to those other companies, and anything that I tell you is particularly sensitive and confidential, I would like you to deal with personally, anything else you can pass any typing over to the general executive secretarial pool downstairs, but make sure to check it carefully before giving it to me for signature. If you wish you can go to lunch now whilst I go over that proposal.”

As it was a nice day, and as the office was in a characterful historic part of the City.I went out for a bit of fresh air in the sun, did a bit of sightseeing and when I returned to the office I stopped for a chat at reception.

“ Hi Chloe, other than the in-house restaurant where is the best place to get something to eat around here.”

There are all the normal chain sandwich shops around but I prefer the little deli just around the corner. If you want a cooked meal, as you are in the financial area, and next to the tourist area around St Paul’s, most of the places are quite pricey, but there is a quaint little backstreet pub ‘The City Arms’ quite near to here which is better value. If you wish I will go with you tomorrow, if we can coordinate lunchtimes.”

“ I look forward to it, I’ll call you when I know what the boss is doing, as I will have to work around what he wants me to do, bye for now.”

Back in the office Sir Charles called me in, he already had a visitor and I was expecting to be asked to make coffee or tea.

“Sit down please Danielle. This is Gareth Makepeace, a fellow director on the board of Makepeace investments. You spotted the problems with that investment proposal before his own extremely highly paid analysts, and we both would like to thank you for that, well done. I wanted Gareth to meet you as he will be calling me occasionally or we will be having meetings together, and it is always nice to put a face to a voice on the telephone. After a few minutes of pleasantries, i went back out to my office, where I sat down and took a deep breath, I couldn’t believe that I had made such a good impression on my first day.

Back at my desk there were a few documents that had been dropped off from the secretaries’ office downstairs that they had prepared for Sir Charles the day before I arrived. I remembered the warnings from Helen and Sir Charles to check them thoroughly before passing them to him for signature and was disappointed to find many basic spelling and grammatical errors, they were obviously very sloppy or they were trying it on with me to try to make me look bad. Buoyed by the good impression I had made with Sir Charles i decided to go down to their office to sort it out and went to see their supervisor Marilyn,who turned out to be one of the ones who had walked out on me in the restaurant.

“ Hi, as I am sure you know, i am Danielle Jenkins, Sir Charles’ temporary PA. I have just received these letters and files that your team have prepared for him and am sorry to say that they will have to be redone, correctly this time. Please sort it out with whoever prepared them and check them yourself before bringing them back up to me. I hope this is not typical of the standard of work in this office, otherwise I will have to speak to HR about organising some further training for your team. If they come back in a much better state, there will be no need to advise Sir Charles of this as I wouldn’t want anyone to get black marks on their next staff appraisal.”

At that I turned on my heels and left, with a grin on may face but feeling the daggers being glared into my back. However it did work and within an hour they all came back absolutely perfect.

At my official leaving time I went into his office to see if Sir Charles wanted me to do anything before I Ieft.

“ No Danielle, everything is fine, you have done enough today, get yourself off home, you have a long journey ahead. I take it that you are coming in by train, there is a company credit credit in the envelope in your desk in your name, get yourself a season ticket, it is a lot cheaper and more convenient, and you deserve a reward after that issue with Makepeace.”

By the time I got back to Carol’s I was absolutely shattered from the travelling and the nervous tension of the first day in the office, and was delighted that Carol had prepared a dinner for us.

“ You look all stressed, go and have a soak in the bath and unwind, put on something casual and we’ll sit down to dinner and you can tell me all about your day.”

I cleaned off my makeup, had a quick soak in the bath, dressed and went to have dinner much more at ease. Carol was right , her cooking skills were not up to mine, but I still enjoyed the lamb casserole and crusty bread, it was filling, nutritious and most of all warm and comforting. After telling Carol all about my day, and her saying that she had been asked at work many times about what had happened to me and had I been fired, we had a general chat for a while and I went off to bed dreaming about my wonderful new career.

The rest of the week went just as well, I soon adjusted to my new role at work, and my new role in life.

Sir Charles gave me challenging tasks to do as well as the more normal PA duties, investigating and reporting on the background and financial details of companies he was interested in as part of his other directorships. There was a team of analysts in the office that dealt with similar reviews for Cunningham Investments, but his other roles needed to be kept apart and confidential. As well as the companies he had asked me to look at, I also reported on a few where I had seen reports on financial websites and which I thought may be of interest. This began to take more and more of my time and he was becoming more and more content with what i was suggesting to him .

I was also becoming more comfortable and natural in my role as Danielle, chatting a lot more to the women in the secretarial pool, although they were a still a bit cool towards me. Chloe was the only really friendly face around and coffee and lunch breaks became regular meetings for us, and I even went shopping with her for a new dress for her weekend nights out, and picked up a couple of new tops for myself.

Carol did give me the option over the weekend of spending some time in Danny mode, but I decided that if I did that it would be more difficult to switch back to Dani again on Monday. To keep me mentally in girl mode, Carol took me clothes shopping with her, asking my opinion of things she was interested in, and just treating me as if I was Gemma her usual flatmate, and when it came around to work again on Monday, it was as if Dani had never been away.

to be continued

7 Discovered

My second week as Sir charles' PA went just as well and I was becoming happy and relaxed in both my professional life at Cunninghams and living as a girl, but this was soon to be completely torn apart.

“ Danielle, please come through to my office now.” Sir Charles shouted for me when I arrived on Friday morning. It was the first time that he had got there before me, and he did not seem in a good mood.

“ I think that it about time that you were honest with me Danielle, or should that in fact be Daniel? What on earth is going on and what are you playing at?”

I was absolutely astounded, embarrassed, and speechless for what seemed like several minutes, but was more probably only a few seconds, while it all sunk in.

“ Come on girl, don’t keep me waiting, I asked you a question”

“ I am sorry Sir Charles, I think I had better leave now.” and I stood up to go.

“ Sit down now, I haven’t asked you to leave, I want you to tell me why you are dressed like that and why you have been deceiving me.” he barked.

“ It all started in the Canterbury office when you mistook me for a girl and had Helen Cassidy offer me the temporary job as your PA. I had originally applied for the vacancy as PA to George Griffiths, and Helen thought that I had a lot to offer in the role. I was hoping to work with a senior executive to give me an insight into the business world and gain some experience to help my future career. The offer of working with you was an amazing opportunity, if you are going to learn from someone, why not learn from the best, and when she told me I jumped at the chance.

I turned it down when I learned that you thought I was a girl and that that was the basis for the offer.However, Helen convinced me that it was too good an opportunity for me and that she thought that I could easily carry off the pretence of working as a female for a couple of weeks. Besides, she was worried that you would be embarrassed when you found out that you had mistaken me for a girl.

With a lot of help from her and from Carol, one of the girls in the Canterbury office, I was turned into Danielle, and I thought that I had done it successfully. I am sorry if I have annoyed or embarrassed you, no such thing was intended.”

“ You have put me in a very awkward situation Danielle, and that is what I will continue to call you for the moment. Whilst you have been working here you have met several of my business associates and I have passed on to them some of your reports. We have all been impressed at the efficient way you have performed in the short time you have been here. You have no doubt seen the TV show ‘The Apprentice’, and I was considering appointing you into that role. I may come across as as being a bit of an elderly cultural dinosaur, but I realise that we are in a changing world and it is no secret that I am looking for a young female protégé to develop into a high-flying senior role in due course, and I have suggested that you may be the one. You come across as an intelligent confident personable and presentable young woman, just the sort I was looking for. I needed to know a lot more about you before I said anything to you, and had someone research your background a bit more deeply, and unfortunately you are not all that you appear to be.”

“ Thank you for what you have just said, I appreciate it all. Unfortunately I cannot meet your requirements, which is a shame as I have enjoyed working with you and would have welcomed the opportunity to be mentored by you. If it will not embarrass you further I am happy to keep working here until Margaret gets back or until you can find a replacement for me.”

I left, walked straight through my office along to the ‘Ladies’ sat down in a cubicle to gather my thoughts, and unusually for me I had a good cry, I was really disappointed and upset at the way things had turned out and deeply embarrassed about having made a fool of myself. I dried my eyes and freshened up my makeup, I did not want to make matters worse by not presenting myself properly. The rest of the morning passed in a blur, Sir Charles did not call me in for anything and I felt he was deliberately ignoring me.

At lunchtime, I went for a walk around St Paul’s as I was expecting that it would be my last time in the City for a while and was determined to make the most of it.

Back at the office I was soon called in by Sir Charles, and was surprised to see Helen in there with him, and was even more shocked when she gave me a big smile.

“ I have talked through your situation with Ms Cassidy, and must say that I am disappointed that she went along with this harebrained scheme.”

“ Don’t blame her, it was done with the best of intentions, to help me and to save you any embarrassment. I thought that if I could keep it going for a couple of weeks that it would all then just fade away and that you would not be any the wiser.”

“ Just be quiet and listen for a minute, you might look like a woman, but you don’t have to jabber away like one, Ms. Cassidy is not in trouble, and neither are you. As I have said, I have been impressed with how you have carried out your duties, particularly the financial assessments and reports and would like to for you to continue in that role. However I can’t suddenly have you change from Danielle to Daniel, too many people have met you. If you want to continue here it would have to be as Danielle and it would be long-term, at least for the next two years. Arrange for a stand-in for the rest of the afternoon, go and talk it through with Ms. Cassidy and let me know later what you have decided.”

Knowing that it would probably cause more ripples with the secretarial office, I called Chloe and asked her if she would cover for me for a few hours, just general secretarial duties, typing and answering the phone, and she jumped at the opportunity to finally get up to the eighth floor executive suites. While Helen cleared Chloe’s absence with her line manager, I quickly showed her where everything was, left her to it, and went out with Helen to a local wine bar where we could have a chat.

“ It had to happen sometime, I should have realised that he would get you checked out, i’m sorry it all got his far.”

“Don’t blame yourself Helen, I went along with it all, you didn’t force me. What am I supposed to do now? It was ok to go along with pretending to be a girl for a few days, but committing to two years is a different matter. I told you that I have never wanted to even dress up as a girl never mind live permanently as one, and I still feel like that. After two years, I am not sure if I will have changed forever, as you and Carol kept telling me it is all a matter of mindset and two years is a lot of readjustment to wipe out.”

“ What would your family and friends think about it all, if they found out, after all you cannot just disappear off the face of the earth?”

“ My Mum would would probably be ok with it, she is a typical child of the late 60s and 70s, a free spirit, ‘do whatever makes you happy’ type. She will be a lot surprised, but I think she will go along with whatever I want to do. My father died from a heart attack a few years ago, my older sister, Liz, lives in Italy, and we hardly ever see her now, so the family should be ok. I lost touch with all my friends from schooldays when I went to Uni in Canterbury, all my mates from there have gone off working all over the country and I am not likely to see any of them again, and starting a new job I have not really had time to get a new social circle yet. Carol, and of course you, are the closest friends I have at the moment and you two know all about me anyway.”

“ It’s obviously down to you and what you want to do with your life, but what harm would it do, a couple of years is not a long time, and you can decide where it goes from there.”

“ I know that this will sound weird and maybe even childish, but I would really like to get my Mum’s opinion on this before I make a commitment one way or the other, let’s have a break while I give her a call. it will be an awkward conversation, so don’t expect it to be quick.”

“What did she say to you then?” asked Helen when I returned.

“ After she got over the original shock, she was actually very supportive, she even suggested that it would do a lot of men a lot of good to spend some time living as a woman, She compared it to the old days of Conscription and National Service in the forces saying that two years in the army was character-building and didn’t turn men into killers in later life, so why should two years as a woman permanently change my life. She did insist though that she wanted to meet Danielle, and I need to go down to St Leonards this weekend for a visit, She lives on her own, but despite meeting people in her gift shop she does get a bit lonely. Let’s go back to Sir Charles and tell him that I agree to working with him as Danielle for the next two years, subject to anything Mum might say to encourage me to change my mind.”

The meeting with Sir Charles went well, he was actually quite pleased at my decision. “I look forward to having you work with me, although it will take a bit of getting used to for both of us. As much as I can I will treat you as if you are a natural woman and I would expect you to always behave as one. Leave early and get yourself down to see your Mother, your family life is important and I accept that you need to sort that out before any final decision, but in any circumstances I will expect you back here on Monday morning. I am leaving soon , so Chloe can look after things here for the rest of the day”

Back at Carol’s I packed a case for my weekend at Mum’s and decided that I would spend the entire visit as Danielle and so only packed a selection of my women’s clothes and all the other feminine essentials. I changed out of my business suit into a casual skirt and top and cleaned and renewed my makeup, and brushed out my hair into a high ponytail with the sides hanging loose behind my ears, the first time Mum would see me as Danielle I had to look as feminine and authentic as possible.

I waited until Carol came home before leaving, and filled her in on everything that had happened and how I felt about it all. She was very supportive and offered to do everything she could to help if I needed it. She wished me a happy weekend and gave me a long hug and farewell kiss. “ See you Sunday night Sis, take care and don’t worry, your Mum sounds great.” and not really registering what she had called me, I headed off for my next big challenge.

To be continued.

8 Mum meets Danielle

The train journey down to Hastings was pleasant enough, for a Friday evening it was not too crowded as it was after the commuter rush, and I was soon leaving the station and looking for Mum. She was sitting in the concourse looking around for me, and looked straight past me towards the exits from the platform. To see how convincing I was, I walked up to where she was sitting.

“Excuse me is this seat taken, I am expecting to meet someone and they are not here yet?”

“ Me too, I hate waiting in these places, particularly late at night, you get a lot of strange people wandering around, and I feel the cold at my age.”

“ You’re right, they are not the safest places particularly for women. Never mind, we won’t have to hang around much longer now, will we Mum?”

It took her totally by surprise, even though I had told her on the phone that I would be dressed as a woman.

“ Oh, my god, is that you Daniel?”

“ It is Danielle now, but just call me Dani, that way we won’t get confused. Come here, give me a welcome hug and let’s get back home.”

On the way back to the house in St Leonards she did not say much but just kept looking at me in bewilderment, but kept any serious questions until we were in and settled down.

“ You look so much like I did when I was your age, you are really beautiful, you are totally believable as a woman, there was no way I would have recognised you. I would never have guessed that you would have turned out like this, how long have you been dressing as a woman.”

“ It has just been for a couple of weeks, but I have some wonderful friends who have helped me adjust.”

“ Are you going to fully change into a woman then?”

“I told you, this is all just to help my career, I have an excellent opportunity to learn from one of the most senior people in the industry, but because of circumstances it will have to involve living and working as Danielle for some time.” I had just given her a quick outline on the phone , so I now gave her the full story as to how it had all started and how I just got deeper and deeper into it all.

“ Are you happy with doing this, you are not going along with it because you are worried about what will happen to you if you don’t, are you? If you are, just bite the bullet and tell Sir Charles what to do with his job.”

“ Mum, it is not my first choice, I have never had any feelings of wanting to dress as, or become, a woman, despite growing up as a younger brother to Liz and her attempts to get me to play dress-up and doll’s games with her. but it is something I can live with.”

“ Are you comfortable wearing those clothes and using makeup and stuff?”

“ I have worn only women’s clothes for the past few weeks, and have got used to them, they are just clothes, they do not change who I am. Are you comfortable seeing me like this, if it upsets you, I won’t go through with it?”

“ If it makes you happy, I am happy for you, and I look forward to seeing you more often, daughters are more attentive to their mothers than sons! Let’s leave that there for now, get something to eat and chat about everything else that is happening in the world and in our lives.”

At bedtime, I went to my room, changed into my nightie, tied up my hair, and automatically picked up my pack of cleansers and makeup remover and went out to the bathroom to clean up. Mum’s eyes opened wide when she saw me.

“ I know you are dressing as a girl for work, but I didn’t realise that it had gone this far, are you sure that you are not becoming a woman. I thought that you were just wearing a padded bra, but you look like you have breasts now, the way they are moving under your nightie.”

“ Don’t worry, they are not real, but they are pretty good aren’t they, they can be removed but it is easier just to live with them all the time, I have got used to them now. Let me get cleaned up and I will tell you all about it in a few minutes.”

“I am finding all this hard to believe, I don’t mind, it is your life, but it is a lot to take in. Maybe when I have slept on it, I will be able to adjust to it a lot better.”

Saturday morning, I was up early, I knew Mum had to go in to open her shop, so just like at Carols, I went out to the kitchen in just my nightie and started on breakfast.

“ Good morning Danielle, are you coming in to the shop with me today? The more you are with me, the more I am coming to terms with what you are doing, and I will enjoy your company. I am ok when I am busy with customers and at weekends when Sheila comes in to help me, but I get a bit lonely and bored when it is slack and when I am on my own. No need to dress up fancy, just a jumper and jeans or leggings will do, I take it that you still wear something like trousers sometimes.”

Mum owned and ran a small gift shop just off the main shopping street in Hastings, she was never going to make a fortune, but it paid the bills and let her live a comfortable life. I had worked in there with her during the summer holidays from school and university, so knew my way around, and quickly settled in. Mum had planned ahead and given Sheila the weekend off so there would be no awkward questions about me. It was enjoyable working together, when we were not busy we had lots of chat about what she was up to, what had happened in the town since my last visit, and the day passed quickly.

“ Let me tell you something Dani, we haven’t talked so much for ages, one thing that living as a girl has taught you is how to relate to people better. Even with the customers you were a lot more pleasant and relaxed, and you seemed to be enjoying chatting to them, when you worked here before you were a lot more formal and businesslike and came across as a bit cold, femininity is good for you.”

As it was a special occasion, her first time with her new daughter, she told me that she had booked a table in a little Italian trattoria in St Leonards and after work we went home to get cleaned up, changed, and made-up for a night out.

I put my hair up in its messy bun, went a bit heavier than normal with my makeup, and put on one of my nicer dresses, a crimson sleeveless shift with a bit of a plunging neckline, nipped in waist, sitting just over the knees, matching 3” heels, and put in some teardrop earrings, added a gold bracelet and rings and I went out to let Mum have a good look at me.

“ Oh, Dannielle, you are making me cry, you are gorgeous and I will be proud to go out with you as my daughter, put on your coat and pick up your bag, the Trattoria di Napoli is not far away, it is walking distance, if you can manage it in those heels.”

The Trattoria di Napoli was a delightful family run restaurant still owned by the second generation of Neapolitans who had first opened it. It was decked out in swags of the green, white and red colours of Italy, and the yellow and red of Naples, and red candles in old wine bottles in wicker sheaths. The staff were welcoming and friendly and suggested we just went with their dishes of the day, peppered mussels, Impepata di Cozze, as a shared starter, and Ragù con la Tagliatelle as the main course, with Baba Rum to finish, all washed down with a bottle of red Lacryma Christi, all very traditional Neapolitan fare.

We both really enjoyed the night, chatting away all through the meal, my Mum and I relating to each other more than we had done for a long time, the lessons I had received from Carol and Helen in being a lot more demonstrative and more detailed in my conversations worked wonders.

Even on the walk back home along the seafront, and when we sat down to relax with a glass of wine for a while, the chat went on until it was time for bed.

I was up bright and early on the Sunday, and was in the kitchen making breakfast when Mum came into the kitchen.

“ What do you want to do today Dani, have you got time for anything before you have to get back up to Canterbury?”

“ I don’t want to leave it too late, I have things to do to get ready for work tomorrow, wash my hair, do my nails, and things like that. We do have time to have a day out somewhere though. It looks like a pleasant day, how about going up to Rudyard Kipling’s place at Bateman’s and having a look around the house and a walk around the estate, it is years since I have been there.”

“ Wash your hair and do your nails, you are getting more girly and like your sister every time you speak ! That sounds ok to me, but it is quite fresh outside, have you got anything warm for walking around in, I can let you have some of my stuff if you need it.”. Elizabeth and I often used to borrow each others stuff, but I never thought that I would be sharing with you.”

We had a really pleasant day out at Bateman’s, operated by the National Trust, taking in the atmosphere of the great writer Kipling, learning about his time out in India and what inspired his stories, before stopping for light lunch in the on-site cafeteria. Throughout lunch and later walking around the gardens and estate grounds, we caught up with a lot of family gossip, and how Liz was doing over in Naples. Mum told me that going to the Trattoria we were at last night, with its characterful atmosphere and the photos of the city and nearby Vesuvius and Pompeii was what had inspired her to move there. We agreed that when I had got my life sorted out that we would go out there for a visit.

It was soon time to be heading back to Canterbury, so we went back home and I packed up my things and was ready to leave.

“ Thank you so much for coming for the weekend Danielle, and for having the pluck to let me know what you were doing, it must have been hard for you. I have really enjoyed your company. Please do not let it be too long before we do it again. I would like to come up to Canterbury to meet the friends who have been so understanding and helpful to you, even if it just for the day, probably a Sunday, when the shop is closed.”

We had a long hug and a goodbye kiss and when I was leaving I noticed that she had tears in her eyes, and quickly left before she could see that I was starting to cry too.

Late Sunday afternoon the train was not too full, just me and the pleasant young man across the aisle in my carriage who smiled at me when I caught his eye, and passed some of the time chatting with him, none of the heavy commuter traffic that I had to endure on Friday evening, and arrived back at Carol’s quite relaxed and happy.

“ How did it go with your Mum, was she ok with you Dani?”

“ I couldn’t have asked for more, she just accepted me and treated me as if I had always been her daughter, I am sure that she wishes that I had not decided to do this, but she understands my reasons. She wants to come up and meet you and Helen sometime, is that ok with you.”

“ That’s fine, if she needs to stay, one of you will have to sleep on the sofa, unless you are ok sharing the bed, after all a Mother and Daughter should be ok with that. Were the train trips ok.”

“ Friday was a bit busy with all the late commuter traffic, but the journey back was ok, I spent a lot of it chatting with this really friendly pleasant good-looking young man sitting opposite. At first I was a bit worried as we were the only ones in the carriage, I can now understand why women sometimes feel a bit vulnerable alone out at night, but I soon relaxed with him, he was a bit shy but quite charming and cute when he relaxed too.”

“Charming and cute ! A pleasant, good-looking young man ! I know we said that you had to change your mindset and think and act as a girl, but you need to be careful about flirting, you are not nearly ready for that, yet.

“ Thanks for that Carol, it was just friendly chat passing the time with Jason, it was not flirting.”

“ You still have a lot to learn. When an attractive young woman, as you appear to be, chats away to a young man for the best part of an hour, I am sure that Jason would have seen it as a bit flirty. I’m surprised he didn’t ask for your phone number.”

“ As a matter of fact he did, but he didn’t get it, just a polite ‘ Nice to have met you, might see each other around’. Anyway I had better start getting ready for tomorrow, do my hair and nails and get ready for bed, as you keep telling me it can be time-consuming being a girl.

To be continued.

9 My new role

When I arrived at the office on Monday morning, there was a message from Sir Charles on my phone.

“ I will not be in until lunchtime today. I assume that you are taking up my offer, I will agree with you later what it means in relation to terms of appointment etc. As you will be doing more financial reviews and attending meetings with me, you will need somebody to work with you, doing the more routine tasks. Unless you have any objections, Chloe who stood in for you Friday afternoon, appears very capable, sort out with her whether she wants to continue to work up there with you, at least until Margaret gets back.”

“ Chloe can you pop up here for a few minutes, clear it with your manager and tell her that Sir Charles’ PA needs to review some of the work you did on Friday.”

“ What did I do wrong Dani?” she blurted out with a worried look on her face when she came in.

“ Far from it, Sir Charles was quite pleased with what you did., just sit down and relax. The bottom line is that my role will be changing a bit, I will be getting more involved in the business affairs, and we need someone to help with the general secretarial duties for a few weeks. Are you up for it?”

“ You must be joking, you just try and stop me, thank you so much Dani.” she almost screamed as she gave me a big hug.

“ Go and get your personal stuff from downstairs and tidy up whatever it was you were working on. I will call your manager and tell her that Sir Charles wants you to work up here for a while and to get someone else to take over your duties.”

By the time Sir Charles arrived Chloe was settled in, dealing with printing the incoming emails and answering calls. I was called into his office and he ran through what he now expected of me and what my new employment terms would be. I was delighted as my salary was more than doubled and would be topped up with bonuses relating to any financial recommendations I made which made a decent profit. Whilst he would rely on the in-house analysts for any investments made by Cunninghams, I had much more of a free rein in relation to his personal investments and those for his other directorships.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t wait to get back to Carol’s to tell her all my good news.

“ You and Helen were right, this is an amazing opportunity for me, do you fancy going out to celebrate?”

“ I’m up for that, but I have some news for you too, my flatmate Gemma has met up with an old boyfriend on her travels and will be staying in Italy with him for some time and wants to give up the flat. I can’t afford it on my own, so I have three choices, give it up, find a new flatmate and you would have to leave, or you could move in with me and quit your own flat, are you interested?”

“ Of course I am, I can hardly go back to living in my flat looking as I do now, and we get on so well together, that sounds a great idea. That’s two reasons to celebrate, let's get on our glad rags and warpaint and go out on the town.”

As we both had work in the morning we did not celebrate too much, just a meal in a local bistro with a couple of glasses of wine, but it was a great experience for me. It now never really crossed my mind that I was now looking, behaving, and speaking as a woman, and I was just accepted as such by the waiters and barmen in the bistro.

“ Hello Ladies, my friend and I would like to know if you will join us for a drink.” said a tall and quite attractive young man in a soft highland twang. “Don’t worry, this is not a pick-up attempt, it’s just that we have come down here for job interviews and we are getting a bit bored talking to each other all night, it will be much pleasanter chatting to you two pretty lassies.”

Carol gave me a questioning look, obviously a bit interested ,which I returned with a quick nod ,after all she kept telling me that I now had to think as a girl and I was looking forward to seeing how I would get on in the company of men. Callum and Jamie were super company and the time passed quickly and it was soon time to leave.”

“ Well boys, we have enjoyed the evening with you, good luck with your interviews tomorrow.” I said as we made our goodbyes.”

“ No thank you girls, you have helped us relax, I am sure that will help us tomorrow. If we get the jobs we might see you around town.” Callum replied as he gave me a hug and a friendly peck on the cheek. I was not sure how to respond, after all despite everything outside, I was still a man in my head, but I just relaxed and hugged and kissed him back, before we made our way back to the flat.

“You made a good impression there, we were well in and they were a couple of nice fit lads. Another time, if Gemma had still been here instead of you, I think I might have made a date for another night out with Jamie.”

“ Carol, you are a really attractive young woman and obviously have your own feelings and needs, don’t let me hold you back next time, just go for it and let me worry about what I want to do. I have an early morning tomorrow, let’s get cleaned up and ready for bed.”

I had just arrived at work when Sir Charles came in and he gestured at me to follow him into his office.”

“ Dani, that report you compiled last week on ‘Future Entertainment PLC’ looks extremely interesting but is not really the market that Cunninghams normally get involved with and I want to present it to a few of my associates from my other companies. The basic facts are all in the report which I will distribute to them, however I want to back it up with a bit more of a glitzy presentation. Can you knock it up into Powerpoint or whatever the latest presentation format is, I think this is a great opportunity and I really want to sell it to them. Is a couple of days enough time to get it together?”

“I should get it done by tomorrow, but I would need to run it through with you, so see if your people are available Friday or Monday, if that is ok for you.”

The next two days were very intense, as well as changing the presentation format the figures needed a bit of an update to reflect changes in the market prospects, but Thursday lunchtime I was all set up to present it to Sir Charles.

“ Right Dani, introduce it and go through the presentation as if I was the team I am involved with. Don’t just do the basic facts and figures, but emphasise how good an opportunity this is and enthuse about it, sell it to me.”

After the presentation was over, he asked me questions that he would expect his team to come up with and I coped with them quite easily, even when he cast doubts on some of the things I had said.

“ You did that really well Dani, you have done a good job. I would like you to come with me to the meeting, to set it all up, and to fill in some of the details if I get asked some awkward questions. If you don’t mind me saying so, you look like a very efficient formal PA/secretary in your business suit, but that is not how I would like you to be seen on Friday, you are now a bright hope for the future working with me and I would like you to appear a bit more of an individual go-getter. Have a word with Helen Cassidy and see if she and your flatmate can come up with something more appropriate. Run through the presentation with me a couple more times, I want to get myself familiar with it, you know how it is, you do all the work but I get the credit when it all goes well.”

“ Hi Helen, it’s Dani, are you free tonight, I need your help?” I quickly explained what Sir Charles had said and that I needed to get a new outfit for tomorrow.

“ No problem, I have nothing planned. If you prefer I can come up to London and we can do some shopping there, but there are plenty of decent places in Canterbury and that will be easier for Carol.”

Later we all met up in Canterbury and Helen took us to a few of the upmarket specialist shops where she expected to get something suitable.

“My god, Helen,” gasped Carol,” I normally can’t afford to even look in the windows of those shops, never mind go in and buy something.”

“ Look.Dani has to present the right image, a chain shop dress, even the more expensive ones will not be appropriate. Most of the men she is presenting to, and they will all be men, will be wearing hand-cut tailored Saville Row suits and she has to look equally sophisticated. Don’t worry about the cost, it is all going on my company credit card.”

After a couple of hours, and trying on more dresses than I care to remember. I ended up with two
gorgeous dresses, an azure brushed silk, half-sleeve, knee-length, fitted designer label, and one in natural ivory silk sleeveless calf-length, with subtle embossing which caught the light to take away the initial plainness and simplicity. Helen insisted that I had to get matching clutch bags and shoes. To make up for all the help she had given me, Carol was allowed to pick her own favourite for herself. a floating floral summer cocktail dress which absolutely made her night. I just hoped that the investment returns would justify what Carol and I considered to be an excessive cost for it all.

We said thank you and goodnight to Helen and went home to get me ready for tomorrow. Helen had suggested that I needed to be less formal, so rather that wear my hair in its normal bun Carol applied setting lotion and put it up in large rollers which she said would give it soft sexy waves when brushed out in the morning. I can’t say that it was the most comfortable nights sleep, the rollers dug into my head no matter which way I turned.

In the morning, i left in the rollers, did my makeup and had breakfast. Carol got up later and came to help me brush out and style my hair.

“ I had a sleepless night, how you all can sleep in rollers I do not know.”

“ A girl has to suffer for her beauty, not many of us are natural beauties, we need all the help we can get and just have to get used to it. Anyway, that is why styling wands and brushes are so popular now, when you get the hang of them you can get the same effects without any of the discomfort. Instead of wearing your good dress on the train where it can get creased and dirty, leave it in the hanging bag, wear one of your normal outfits for travelling, put your shoes, bag, some spare tights, and your make-up bag in a trolley suitcase and get changed at work. Put on one of your sexier underwear sets, it will help give you a lot more confidence in your femininity”

All prepared, dressed and packed I set out to the office to face the day’s new challenges.

To be continued

10 Presentation

Sir Charles had left a message for me in my email. ‘I will be in a meeting all morning and you need to get everything ready for the presentation which is to be given in the boardroom of Makepeace Investments at 2:00pm. When you arrive just tell reception that you are to prepare for a presentation to Gareth Makepeace and they will sort you out. No need to take the projectors or screens or anything, they have everything you need, just take your laptop and a dozen copies of your report, I will see you there.’

Late morning I gathered all my belongings, changed into my new blue silk dress, refreshed my make up and brushed out my hair so it was hanging loose in waves and I was ready to go, feeling on top of the world. I was amazed at how I now looked. Only a few weeks before I had been a typical early-twenties lad, a bit shy, a bit small, but now somehow with a bit of makeup, a new hairdo and some decent clothes, I had turned into an attractive stylish young woman. Carol had been right, seeing my lacy underwear set when I changed gave me a lot more confidence in how I looked and made me much more certain that I would be able to carry it all off.

“ Hey Dani girl, you look a million dollars, they are bound to be impressed, go and wow them.” Chloe gushed as I was leaving, “ Show them what us girls can do if they give us half a chance.”

It did not take long to get everything set up in the boardroom of Makepeace’s offices for Sir Charles and do a dry run of the presentation to make sure it all worked ok with their equipment and I was ready to roll, when Gareth Makepeace came in looking a bit uncertain.

“I have just had a message from Charles, he is involved in a big snarl up on the M25 and doesn’t know when he will get here. I suggested that we reschedule for another day, but he stressed that speed is of the essence and would like you to make the presentation, after all he said that you had done the research, written the report, and compiled the presentation, so you probably know more than him what you are talking about. Before I call the others in, are you comfortable with that? I would rather cancel it than have a poor presentation which will reflect badly on Charles and me as well as knock your confidence for the future.”

“ I’m not really sure, I am not mentally prepared to do it, I am not used to lecturing such important City high-fliers.”

“Look here, they are just all normal people, take away their fancy suits and their superior business faces, and they are no better than you or me. Charles said you came across really well on your dummy run to him yesterday. Just imagine that you are doing it just for him again, or remember how you gave the presentation of your final-year dissertation to your classmates and tutors at university and imagine yourself back there. Charles has great confidence in you and I am sure that it will all go well. There has to be a first time for you, this may as well be it, I promise I will not let any of them bite off your head, they are all quite personable really, although on the finance markets they can be quite ruthless. Are you up for it?”

“ Please give me five minutes to compose myself and make myself presentable and then bring them all in.” I quickly escaped to the Ladies, double checked my hair and makeup and that my dress was smooth and wrinkle free before Gareth and his colleagues all came in.

“ Gentlemen, i offer apologies from Sir Charles, there has been a major accident on the M25 and he is caught up in a massive tailback. He has asked that you allow his Executive Assistant, Danielle Jenkins, to act on his behalf. Please be kind to her, she has only had five minutes notice of this, although I am assured that it is all actually her own research and report. Over to you Danielle.”

Taking a deep breath, clearing my throat and scanning my audience who all looked reasonably friendly, I started my presentation.

“ Good afternoon gentlemen, as Mr Makepeace has just said, I apologise for Sir Charles’ absence and hope that you are happy to put up with me instead. Although I cannot claim to have the experience and gravitas that he possesses, I believe he won’t mind me saying, and I am sure that you will agree, that I am a lot more easy-to-look-at presenter than he ever will be.” which raised a bit of a chuckle and nobody seemed to take offence at it.

“Before I go onto the official presentation I will tell you what started this off. I am sure that few of you, if any, are regular readers of celebrity gossip columns. If you did read them you would know that “Future Entertainment PLC’ have a programme-making subsidiary, ‘Media for All’. The gossip columns are linking several big-name stars to appear in a new drama series to be made by MFA, and they are in deep negotiation with at least two of the major streaming services to contract to show the programmes. If some of these negotiations bear fruit, or even only one, they stand to make a lot of money. Even if they don’t, the profile of MFA is going to soar, and their share price will take off too. I will now take you through the financial background and performance figures of FE and MFA and hopefully you can agree that they should be given serious consideration for investment.

A half-hour later after they had all listened intently, I closed the formal presentation and threw it open for further detailed questions, all of which I managed to deal with comfortably, and was just wrapping up when Sir Charles walked in.

“ Gentlemen, i apologise for the deception, but Ms Jenkins deserved the opportunity to present her case herself, and I have been following the discussions on a video link next door. I am sure that you will agree that she has made her case well and confirm that I am prepared to pull together a consortium to take a major stake in FE and invite you to join with me. Please read the formal report with all the background and figures, and let me know. Finally I would like to thank Danielle for standing in at short notice, and I am sure that you will have found it a lot more pleasant presentation than having to stare at an old grizzled curmudgeon like me for a half-hour. Please join Gareth, Danielle, and me for informal discussions, drinks, and a buffet, next door.”

Despite being at least half the age of most of the others I mixed quite well and chatted to most of them and was surprised at how friendly, informal and relaxed they all were, and felt that if I was asked to do something similar again that I could easily cope with it.

When we left and were heading back to our office, Sir Charles asked me how much money I had available, and when I told him that after years at University I was fairly broke he was taken aback a bit.

“ I’ll make you an offer. Shares in FE are going to take off and you deserve to benefit from your work, I will loan you £25,000 to make a personal investment, you can repay it after the share price has taken off. Interest rates are minimal at the moment and I promise you that it will only need to be short-term, so treat it as interest-free. Obviously that is not a major investment in the scale of things and will go under the radar without any hint of insider dealing, but you should make at least a few thousand as profit. That is not a large sum for me, but I am sure that it will help you get a start on the ladder, are you interested? Over the weekend set up an account with one of the online share-trading companies, some of them are excellent and are used to dealing with small investors with very low charges and when your funds are cleared, buy as many shares as you can. By the way, you heard that I watched your presentation on video, well it was recorded. so there it is on a memory card for you with it all on. Perhaps your mother would like to see you in all your glory.”

“Thank you so much Sir Charles, I don’t think that you are a grizzled old curmudgeon at all, in fact I think you are rather sweet.” I replied without thinking, which brought a blush to the cheeks of both of us.

Back in the office, after Sir Charles had left for a meeting with his in-house analysts, Chloe insisted that I tell her all about the presentation and how well it had gone. She thought that Sir Charles had been a bit sneaky to have set me up like that, but said that it showed that the had a lot of confidence in me that I wouldn’t let him down. I got Chloe to take a few photos me all dressed up in my finery, added them onto the memory card, copied everything onto my laptop and posted the card to Mum.

I didn’t want to ruin my expensive dress on the train, so I changed back into the skirt, top, and jacket that I had travelled in that morning, left my hair hanging loose, as I was now getting to like the way it all bounced and moved, and left for the train home. On the way I emailed the photos to Mum and almost immediately got a call back.

“ Oh you look absolutely stunning Danielle, if anything you are even more beautiful than your sister, although she wouldn’t thank me for saying so if she ever found out. Next time you visit you must bring that gorgeous dress for me to see you in it.”

“I’m on the train Mum, I can’t really talk, I will call you later and tell you all about what happened today, but are you still happy with everything that I am doing?”

“ If it is good for your career, and you are happy to keep doing it, get on with it, it is your life, and looking as you do, nobody is going to know any different are they?. Bye darling, speak to you later.”

Back at the flat, after a quick change into leggings and a sloppy jumper and hanging up my dress, I had to go through the story of the whole day for Carol’s benefit and after a takeaway pizza which she had pre-ordered, we sat and watched the video of the presentation together.

“ You were brilliant, you had them in the palm of your hands, I couldn’t have done that. Mind you, I am sure that being lectured by a smart attractive young woman was a bit of a culture-shock for them, but it worked for you. You need to learn how to use your feminine charms and wiles a bit more, they can really help you get your way with men ! Let’s put on a film and just relax with a glass of wine and a bowl of popcorn. It’s been a big day for you, you need to unwind, What do you fancy doing this weekend?”

“ I called my landlord earlier on in the week and agreed to move out by the end of the month, which is next weekend. I told him that I had been transferred up to the Midlands office at short notice and that my sister Liz would be going to the flat to clear out my things and clean up. It has only been a short time since I have been Dani, but I am looking and acting more and more like a girl, and I don’t think that I could quickly switch back just for a day or two. I’ll clear out all my things tomorrow and go back next weekend to tidy up, leave the place clean, and hand in the keys. it will be a big help if you have the time to come with me.”

“ Leaving the place clean and tidy, rather than just moving out and leaving a mess behind, the girl mindset is really taking you over.”

To be continued

11 Moving on

Having checked my bank account first thing and found that Sir Charles had already transferred the money to me, I found an excellent on-line share-dealing service and registered with them. I couldn’t buy any shares until the exchanges opened on Monday anyway, and by then the money transfer to them would have been cleared. I did have a good look around the website anyway, so that I would know what I was doing when it all went live, and checked that there had been no last-minute significant changes in the share price of FE, so none of his associates had jumped the gun and gone ahead on their own yet. There was nothing else I could do so I got myself ready to go back to clear out my old flat.

Even though I had only been in my flat for a few months and did not really know any of the neighbours particularly well, other than nodding a ‘hello’ when passing them on the stairs and lobby, I was determined not to take any risk of being recognised as Danny. Even though it would have been more appropriate to go there in working clothes of t-shirt and jeans, I made the effort to fully make up, style my hair, and put on my denim skirt and a scoop-neck top to ensure that there was no chance of being taken as anything other than a girl, and took the working clothes with me to change into.

It was just as well, as we were opening the door to the flat, Gary who lived next door was just leaving his place.

“ Excuse me, I’ve not seen you here before, do you mind telling me who you are, no offence but you cannot be too careful nowadays.”

“ That’s fine, it’s best to check.” I replied, smiling sweetly at him. “I’m Liz, my brother Danny is leaving here next week and I have come to clear his stuff out and tidy up. If you are around later this afternoon maybe you would like to give us a hand to carry any of the heavy stuff down to the car, if you don’t mind, I will be ever so grateful.”

“Sure, no problem, see you later, just knock on the door when you need me.”

“ That’s what I was saying last night about using your feminine charms, the sweet smile, the sultry voice, the light touch on his elbow, he was ready to do anything for you, you are learning fast girl.” Carol joked with me.

Sorting out Danny’s stuff was not too much bother, it was mainly clothes. Decent clothes that I wanted to keep were put into a suitcase, the rest, which I no longer needed, went into bags to go either in the rubbish skip or to be taken to a charity shop.

I hadn’t really got much furniture, as the kitchen cupboards, equipment, and the bedroom wardrobes were all fitted. The only heavy stuff take was the TV equipment, a small table and a couple of flat-pack chairs which were easily dismantled. There were not a lot of personal items to go with me, I didn’t really believe in clutter or personalisation of the flat. With Carol’s help it all went a lot quicker than I had expected causing me to think that I didn’t really have much to show for my old life. The bags of clothes were all taken down to the car, the TV and bits and pieces of furniture were left by the door and we started on cleaning the place, so there would be no need to come back again. We got the place looking a lot cleaner and better than it had looked when I moved in.

When I called on Gary to deal with the heavy stuff, he was more than pleased to help. I felt a bit guilty, he seemed a decent lad and it was a shame that we had not been better neighbours to each other.

“ It’s a shame that you didn’t visit when Danny was here and that he won’t be back Liz, it would have been nice to have a cute attractive girl around the place.”

Dressed in the jeans and t-shirt and with my hair a bit disheveled from working, I felt anything but attractive, but was glad of the compliment. I thanked him for all his help, gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, took a final look at my flat and Carol and I left for my new home.

Carol was very chatty on the drive back, particularly about how I had said goodbye to Gary, but I was a lot quieter and deep in thought. The last of my life as Danny was over, his clothes were all packed up, his old home was now gone, for the next two years I had to be 100% Dani, even my mother now saw me as a girl.

”Dani, you are turning into a right flirt, first it was ’the cute guy’ on the train, then the goodnight hug for Callum in the pub. calling your boss ‘rather sweet’, fluttering your eyelashes at Gary and giving him a kiss. Are you sure that you have not lived as a girl before?

“ Don’t be daft, one one hand you tell me that I have to change my mindset to think like a girl, on the other hand you make sarcastic remarks when I do, make your mind up.” I snapped back.

“ Even when you lose your temper and control you still sound like a girl, you are definitely becoming Danielle.”

Back in the flat everything calmed down and after I packed all the stuff I had brought from my old flat we decided to go out for a meal.

We had our showers to get rid of the dirt and sweat from all the cleaning and as I was about to start with my makeup I noticed little bit of beard hair coming through and took my razor to the bathroom to clear it off which did not go unnoticed by Carol.

“ Do you think that your face hair will ever be enough to grow a beard when you go back to being a lad?”

“ Not much chance of that! Even if it was, I am not that keen on beards and moustaches anyway, I can’t see myself ever being anything other than clean-shaven. That’s a strange question to ask.”

“ I was just thinking that it might be easier and a lot more realistic for the next couple of years if you had at least your face hair removed. It used to be a lot of bother with electrolysis, but modern laser treatment is very effective and quick and not too expensive, it might be worth considering. You can get your arms and legs done too, but you should be ok with just the occasional waxing for those. I can tell you that it not particularly pleasant but the results are well worth it.”

“ I never thought of that, but then I have never had to before, I’ll have a think about it, but for tonight I will just have a quick go with the razor.”

Sunday was just a relaxing day, we just went for a walk around the city. Since coming to Canterbury I had never really had the time, nor the inclination for that matter, to visit the Cathedral and other tourist targets. However my day out with Mum at Bateman’s had struck a chord with me and I decided that I needed to get out and appreciate the finer things in life a bit more. There was so much to look at that it was impossible to fit everything in, so we made do with the majestic medieval Cathedral with the obligatory visit to the shrine of St Thomas à Becket who had been murdered there as part of a royal power struggle in1170, the cathedral precinct and grounds, and a visit to ‘The Beaney’ a historic multi-cultural Arts Centre, museum and Library. We finished the day with a visit to a fabulous tea shop in the historic city centre which served an amazing cream tea of cakes and sandwiches with a glass of champagne. Although the city gets crowded with tourists, it was a different sort of hustle and bustle to the journey to the office in London and the pressures of work, and we really enjoyed our day out. We decided that there was still a lot more for us to discover in the city.

Later at what was now my home, we settled down and chatted over a glass of wine while watching a film until it was time for bed.

“ I’ve been thinking about what you said about laser treatment on my face, it makes a lot of sense. I know that my face hair is not particularly a problem at the moment, but it could turn into one, do you know anywhere local that can do it.”

“ Gemma and I have had a couple of girly days out in a local spa, just relaxing therapy, skin treatments and stuff like that, but I know they do it. Why don’t you see if you can get us booked in for next weekend. If you think you can survive the pain, why not book a waxing session and some skin treatments for us both as well. Although they will probably have to know your situation, I am sure that it will not be the first time that they have treated a transgender person, your money is as good as anyone-else’s.”

“ I keep telling you that I am not transgender, this is only for a couple of years to help my career, then it will be back to being Daniel again.”

“Whatever you say Dani, whatever you say. !

“ Have you set up your share account yet Dani?” Sir Charles asked when I arrived at the office the next morning.

“ It’s all set up but the money transfers won’t be cleared to allow me to start trading until later today or even tomorrow.”

“ That fits together well, Most of the people you gave your presentation to are in for the deal. There are few legal and financial hoops to go through, but we should be ready to trigger things on Thursday, so the sooner you can get yourself active the better.”

“ Thank you again Sir Charles, it was good of you to give me the chance, I know it is not going to make me a fortune, but to an ex-student with a big loan debt even a few thousand is a windfall.”

“ Down to business, there are a couple of companies that I want you to investigate, a similar job to what you did for FE. They could give you a chance to increase your few thousand profit, let me have the reports by the end of the week please. By the way, it looks like Margaret will be off for a few more weeks, so you are still to be working as my PA as well as your analysis role. It also means that we will need Chloe here for longer as well and should keep her on when Margaret returns. If it is ok with you and her, sort it all out with the HR people to have her transferred up here and agree a salary increase for her, use your discretion.”

“ Chloe have you enjoyed your time working here for the last few days?”

“ Oh yes, I’ve loved it, it is a shame that I will have to go back to the general admin office, I’ve really enjoyed working with you and Sir Charles. he is not nearly as frightening as everyone thinks. I enjoy working with the girls in the office, but the job is not really using what I learned at University, it would be nice to do something a bit more challenging.”

“ You are far over-qualified to be working in the general office, I know that it is not what you want to do, or should be doing long-term, but girls can always fall back on secretarial jobs until something more appropriate turns up. How about if you didn’t have to go back downstairs, would you like a transfer up here? Of course it will mean that we have to do something about increasing your salary as you will now be one of the executive secretaries.” She didn’t say anything at first, but just ran over and gave me a big hug and had tears in her eyes.

“ Ok Chloe, that is enough, that is not very professional, sit yourself down and collect yourself while I have a chat with HR and your former office manager to sort things out.”

Late afternoon, I checked that my trading account had been cleared and put in an order for the shares in FE. It was just before closing time for the Stock Exchange, and, as is common, the share price had a bit of a dip as the ‘day traders’ cleared their books and took what profit they had made. Hopefully when the exchanges opened again in the morning they would pick up from that dip and I would already be into a small profit.

After work Chloe and I went for a quick drink drink in The City Arms to celebrate her new appointment and the significant salary increase she had been given.

“ Thank you so much Dani, I am sure that the decisions were as much yours as Sir Charles’.”

“ That’s ok, you deserved it, and us girls have to stick together don’t we, it is still a man’s world out there and we have to help each other.” After I said it I realised that I had include myself in ’us girls’ without even thinking about it. I was getting much deeper into considering myself as a girl.”

To be continued.

12 Decision time

I booked us a session for the following Saturday at the local spa and arranged for the laser on my face and for body waxing for both of us, along with some oil massage treatments, It was not cheap but Carol assured me that it would be worth it, and it gave me a chance to let her have a bit of a treat in return for all she had done to me.

The rest of the week went very much as planned. On the Friday Sir Charles and his consortium started buying up all the shares in Future Entertainment that they could and it didn’t take long for the grapevine to realise what was happening and the share value went up by almost half. On Sir Charles’ advice I sold on a high and when there was a bit of a dip after the initial rush I bought back in again. Not exactly life-changing but I banked about £6000 and still had the shares, not bad for a weeks work. It meant that I did not feel so bad about the cost of the coming weekend at the Spa.

Determined to get our money’s-worth of all the facilities at the spa as well as the extra treatments paid for, we arrived early just after they opened and I booked us in at reception.

“ Oh, i am so sorry, whoever took the booking has one of you down as transgender, which is obviously not the case, I will have to reallocate your locker area to the female rooms.”

Blushing deeply I told her “That is me and since it is not obvious to you, it won’t be to anyone else
so please just allocate me to the female area, I can’t very well go in the mens changing area like this can I? ”

“ I suppose you are right of course, but I would never have guessed. All I ask is that you are discreet, I don’t want any complaints from other clients.”

“I can assure you, the only people that needs to know, and will know, are whoever are doing the body and bikini waxing and other treatments on me.”

We went to get changed and with the breast forms, and the fact I was now tucking my male parts, in my swimsuit I did not look much different to the other women around the pool where we went to relax with a herbal tea before I was called in for my laser treatment by Becky, the young beautician who was to carry it out.

“ This should be a lot easier and quicker than I was expecting, you don’t have that much to do, I should have time to do your chest and shoulders as well if you want. It was all virtually painless and after a heavy application of a special moisturiser and thanking Becky for being gentle and professional with me, I rejoined Carol, By then all the others had gone off for whatever treatments they were getting so we decided to use the pool for a while as a gentle exercise before getting into the hot tub until it was time for the bit we were both not looking forward to, the waxing.

“ Are you both happy with me doing you together, obviously you will be seeing each other nude at times.” asked Julie, who was a lot pleasanter and younger than we expected, we had thought that it would be a sadistic old battle-axe who enjoyed inflicting pain.

“ Won’t be the first time,” I quipped, “besides there is not that much difference between us now,” which relaxed the tension and brought a smile to her face.”

Without going into detail, it is enough to say that the waxing was not the most enjoyable part of the day, but Julie did a thorough job, the only time she was a bit taken aback was when she did my upper legs and bikini area, it was impossible to stay completely tucked.

We had a light lunch, like most spas it was healthy and vegetarian but it was tasty and did its job, but it was not something I would choose regularly.

The afternoon was the pleasantest part of the day, body massage with essential oils with soothing background music to help us relax, followed by a seaweed face mask, then relaxing around the pool reading magazines and drinking all sorts of vegetable smoothies, before a professional makeover to end the day.

I had never understood the fascination of women with spa days when Mum and Liz went off for the occasional one, but when we left after the day of pampering I must admit that I felt calm and relaxed and extremely feminine.

Since we were all made-up we decided to get dressed up and go out for the night for a decent meal, and gave Helen a call to invite her along so she could see what she had led me to. I put on the ivory silk dress which showed off my newly smoothed and de-fuzzed arms and shoulders, with the matching shoes ,and Carol did my hair in a french braid. I looked a really sophisticated lady about town.

“ You two are looking well, particularly you Dani, I love that dress on you, it suits you. What have you been up to since I last saw you.?

I told her the whole story about the presentation with Sir Charles, moving into Carol’s flat permanently, how we enjoyed ourselves going around Canterbury , and what we had done at the spa.

“ What Dani didn’t tell you is that when we were at her old flat she flirted terribly with the boy next door, she has really learned how to turn on the charm.”

‘That’s not fair, just because I was nice to him and gave him a quick kiss for helping us, Carol is making a big thing of it.”

“ How did you feel at the spa was there any bother with you being transgender”

“ I keep telling Carol and I will say the same to you, I am not transgender, you know how I got into this and why I am doing it! There was no bother really, not even when I was having the body wax, obviously the therapists knew about me but they just got on with their job and chatted away just like they would do with any other woman.”

“ I have a question for you Dani. When you see a woman what do you notice about her first, what would attract you?” asked Helen with a serious look on her face.

“ A pleasant face and a nice smile is a good start.”

“ Keep going.”

“Her figure, her hair, her legs, how she is dressed.”

“ Specifically what do you mean by figure?”

“ Breasts obviously, they are very noticeable features.”

“ Most women would probably put them in a similar order, except how she is dressed would be further up the list. You are now quite natural now with your makeup, your hair is always well groomed you are getting excellent dress sense, you have a shapely pair of legs particularly now you have been waxed, what you haven’t got right yet is the breasts. The forms you have are quite good, but they still do not look as natural as they should. Over the next two years while you are Danielle you will be in situations like at the spa today or when you need your cleavage to be a bit more exposed, where the forms will not be adequate. Have you thought about getting real ones of your own.?”

“ That’s a bit drastic, I never intended to go that far, besides I am not sure that I want to dose myself with hormones, as there could be other side effects..”

“I understand that , but you could consider surgical augmentation, implants, which could be removed if and when your situation changes. At first they looked even more artificial than your forms, but modern ones look and move much more natural. I know some people that have had it done and they are delighted with the result. If you go through our company doctor he can make the arrangements for you, and the company will be billed, it will all get lost in the company accounts as medical care.”

“ As I said that sounds a bit drastic, even though I am living full-time and working as a woman, I think that is well beyond what I had planned, I need to look into it and have a long think.”

The other thing to think about, and again the company’s doctor can sort it for you, is to get a gender recognition certificate, so you can get your driving licence changed to show you as female with a new photo, meaning you can start using your car again instead of getting taxis and trains everywhere.”

“ I am getting all worked up here, can we change the subject, I promise that I will think about it.”

Helen’s suggestions had my mind buzzing and I did not really enjoy the rest of what should have been a night for celebrations. Later in bed I tossed and turned for most of the night, I couldn’t get the questions out of my thoughts.

Over the next few days, the thought of breast implants was never far from my mind. On one hand Helen was right it would make me even more convincing and natural as a woman, which I had committed to for the next two years. On the other hand it seemed a major step into accepting that this was really a long-term lifestyle change, not just to help my career. However I decided to discuss it with the company’s doctor.

“ Miss Jenkins, you have been very open with me, I assure you that our conversation will be kept confidential. Whether you want to do this is up to you, it is a cosmetic procedure, not really a health matter. As your friend has said, implants are a fairly benign procedure and can be reversed without any major after-effects. You will be uncomfortable for a while but there should be no major problems, you are young and your skin is still very flexible.The only caution I will give is that although the physical effects can be easily reversed, it may be harder to deal with the psychological and emotional side. If you want to go ahead I can refer you to a cosmetic surgeon who can go into all the details and choices with you.”

“I would like you to arrange it please, if I am making this commitment I should do it completely.”

“ While we are here would you also like me to prepare a Gender Recognition Certificate for you, which may help you to deal with any legal documents, like driving licence and passport. Just like the augmentation procedures, this is all reversible and can be changed back in the future if you change your mind?”

“ Yes please, the sooner I am officially classed as female the easier it will be for my mind to accept it.”

Now that I had made the commitments , I was able to concentrate on my job and the rest of my life again, i felt that a cloud had lifted from my head. I called Helen to apologise for snapping at her when she had suggested it and told her that I had made the decision to go ahead, and was now just waiting for the appointment with the surgeon.

“ That’s really good, once you get used to the idea, and to the physical changes, you will soon not even notice and the breasts will became just another part of your body. You really amaze me, you know, how easily you have come to terms with all the changes in your life, you are a really strong person Danielle.”

While all this was going on I had almost forgotten about my investment in FE, and was shocked when I checked in to my account. Following the official announcement of the major investment by Sir Charles and his team, and the confirmation that the major stars had signed contracts on the new drama with options for further series, the shares had almost doubled and were now just bubbling along at the top of their price range. I discussed it with Sir Charles who advised me that he thought there was still a bit more growth to come but that the major change was now over and that if I had any other investment opportunities in mind that it was a good time to sell up and take my money out. Some of the other projects I was working on promised similar gains, so I was able to sell my shares, pay Sir Charles back his loan and still have enough in my trading account for further investments.

I was now beginning to be comfortable with my new life, I was accepted by my friends and colleagues as a woman and was making a name for myself in the industry, as well as beginning to set myself up financially. The only major thing left on the books was my breast augmentation operation, and it was soon confirmed that I was to have a consultation on Thursday, subject to which I would be ‘under the knife’ on the following Friday.

To be continued.

13 The New Me

Life at work and at home continued in such the same manner for the next couple of days, I picked up a few potential investments did a bit of day trading, buying in the morning dip and selling out just before closing, the profits were low but my account was slowly building up and I was getting better at spotting opportunities for myself as well as for Sir Charles.

On Thursday morning, Sir Charles told me he had meetings all day, so I just arranged for Chloe to cover for me when I went for ‘an extended late lunch’ to attend my appointment at the clinic.

Mr Rogers. my surgeon, looked surprised when I went into his consulting room, and even more surprised when I stripped off for an examination.

“ I see why you want the implants, you are almost indistinguishable from a natural woman in your general bone and muscle structure and posture, are you sure that you do not have a hormone imbalance problem which is driving your desire to look more like a woman?”

“ As far as I am aware, there is no medical problem. I have always been a lot shorter and slimmer than my friends and colleagues, but there are a wide range of body types, and I never thought anything of it.”

“ If you say that you are a normal healthy young man, why do you want breast implants?”

“ As you can see, I am living and presenting myself as female full- time at he moment. Whilst my breast forms have given me no problem, they do restrict what I can wear and what activities I can take part in, and natural, or at least natural-looking, breasts would give me a lot more options.”

“ Are you intending to go all the way and fully transition to being, to all intents and purposes, fully female?”

“ Not really, at the moment it is not in my plans, which is why I want to avoid hormone treatment if I can, which is why I have opted for implants. I am told that if ever I change my mind that it is not a major job to reverse things.”

“ Obviously implants will stretch the skin on your chest and if the implants are removed there may be some floppy folds of skin left, but they can easily be sorted out. You seem to have thought this out and know what you are doing,I am prepared to operate on you next Friday, as provisionally agreed. I will take some blood and urine samples from you now, for general tests, but I will also check your hormone levels, as I said there may be a problem there. If you want I can also do a bit of body sculpting, some liposuction on your waist will help to emphasise your new breasts. When you come back for the surgery wear something loose, anything fitted may be a bit irritating”

A week later I took a day as leave and returned for my operation to have my saline implants fitted. The consultant had advised that I have them rather than silicone ones, as they would be softer and more natural, and also allowed their size to be adjusted gradually if my skin could not take the extra stretching comfortably in one hit.

“ Good morning Danielle, your blood tests came back ok and you are fine for surgery, Mary, my nurse, will just get you prepared and bring you through to the operating theatre, and we can have a chat afterwards.”

When I came round in a bed, I was a bit confused, but Mary was standing over me, smiling. “Everything went fine, you will be a bit sore, and itchy, where the procedures have been carried out, but please just lie still for a while and keep your hands away from your breasts. Mr Rogers will be in to see you soon.”

“ It all went well Danielle, as you are young your skin is still very supple and has accepted the implants without any problem, and has pulled in quite well where I did the lipo on your waist. Stay here for a couple of hours to make sure that the anaesthetics have worn off, then you are free to got. Take care not to exert yourself, give the scars time to heal before stretching too much, and wear a firm support bra 24/7 for two weeks, until your body gets used to your breasts. After that you can behave just like any woman would. Changing the subject, your blood tests showed significant differences to what I would consider usual, your male hormone levels are at the bottom end of the normal range and your female hormone level is quite high. Everybody has some hormones of the opposite gender, but the differences are more marked in you, which goes some way you explain your small stature and why you have physically adjusted so easily and convincingly to life as a woman. There is no need to do anything about it now, your body seems to be comfortable with it, but if you decide to continue life as a woman, or go back to life as a man, you may need to consider hormone therapy.”

To be safe, I had arranged for Helen to come up to London, pick me up and drive me back to Canterbury, Mr Rogers had recommended that that I did not travel back on my own in case of any reaction to the anaesthetic or the surgery and to avoid the hustle and bustle of crowded Friday afternoon commuter trains. Back at the flat Helen and Carol insisted on seeing Mr Rogers handiwork before allowing me to go to bed to sleep off all the physical and emotional stresses of the day.

Although I had been using the breast forms for some time, the weight and movement of the inserts felt totally different and when I got out of bed in the morning my posture and balance needed to change. However when I looked in the mirror it was all worth it, not just the breasts, but also the way the lipo on my waist emphasised my figure a lot more, and even made my hips look broader, although he had not done anything there.

I had a quiet weekend, Mr Rogers had advised me not to do anything strenuous so as not to stress the stitches under my breasts, so I spent my time reading and watching TV and doing a bit of cooking. Carol was keen to improve her cooking and was happy to work with me doing the more strenuous stuff, blending the cake mix and kneading the bread and such like while I guided her along the way.

Although still feeling not quite my normal self, I had decided that I was fit to go into work on Monday, but left it until a bit later so that the trains into the city would be less crowded and the trip less physically stressful. As advised I wore a support bra rather than the fancier lacy ones I had now been used to wearing, it was not nearly so feminine but it had a job to do and did hold me comfortably, under the chunky wool top that I had chosen to wear.

“ Welcome back Danielle,” said Sir Charles when I arrived, “ I hope you had a good relaxing weekend, we have a busy schedule this week and I will need you to come with me to some of the meetings I will be attending. Giving you plenty warning, I would like you to come with me to an evening reception Friday with some of my colleagues from my investment group and other business associates of theirs, it’s not too formal but you need something a little more glamorous than your usual office wear. Back to business, I have left the names of two companies on your desk, do your normal research on them and be prepared to give a presentation on your thoughts about them.

Carrying out financial analysis of companies Sir Charles and his associates were considering as investments became the major part of my duties and I was glad that Chloe had settled in well to her role as private secretary to Sir Charles, leaving me free to do the things that interested me more. I was being given more freedom and responsibilities by Sir Charles, who was letting me go by myself to see Gareth Makepeace and present the reports. Doing the reports and knowing what companies Charles and Gareth were following up on, allowed me to look after my own investments. Obviously I was only playing with relatively small amounts, a few thousand pounds at a time, but picking up a profit of a few hundred here and there was building up my account quite nicely.

On Thursday, I went shopping for a new dress for the reception I was going to with Sir Charles, I didn't want to leave it until the last minute in case I was having difficulty finding something suitable. It was in the fourth boutique that I visited that I found the perfect outfit, a white halter-neck knee-length cocktail dress along with matching 4” heels and clutch bag, very sophisticated and classic, but showing off my svelte new figure wonderfully. I had toyed with the idea of going to a salon for a makeover on Friday afternoon, but there was not enough time, so after the office officially closed, I spent the next hour in the Ladies rest room refreshing my hair and make-up and getting changed, ready for my night out.

“ You know what Danielle, you are absolutely beautiful, you make me wish I was thirty years younger.”

“ Don’t be silly Sir Charles, you know who I really am underneath all this finery.”

“ Sorry, please forgive me, I sometimes forget, to me you are now Danielle. I didn’t mean what I said in any inappropriate way, it was just a compliment to you, and you have brought back memories of happier times.”

“ That’s fine let’s just forget it, and thank you for the compliment

“As you may know my wife Emily died three years ago and since then, whenever I have needed a ‘plus-one’, my sister Sarah has accompanied me. However she is getting a bit bored with being left alone when I am off talking business and was glad when I told her you were coming with me instead. she said that you should be able to get yourself involved in any of the business chat without feeling out of it. She also said that, as she has heard me talk so much about you, that she would like to meet you. It will be too late when we finish tonight for you to go back to Canterbury on the train alone, I will be saying in my apartment in Chelsea Harbour, Sarah will be there too, you are welcome to stay the night, we have a spare room if you want it.

“ I had arranged a hotel for the night but if you are sure you don’t mind, I would like to come back with you and meet her.”

“ Ok, cancel the hotel, collect your things together, put them in the car and we will head off to the Dorchester for the evening.”

When we arrived at the reception, I had a quick visit to the Ladies to check my appearance before going in with Sir Charles. To say that I made an impact is an understatement, as I was one of the few young unattached women, a lot of his colleagues were like flies around a honey-pot. At first they were attracted by the opportunity to chat to what they saw as a beautiful charming young lady, but they soon realised that I knew what I was talking about, and I made lot of useful contacts for Sir Charles and for Cunningham Investments.

“Good evening Danielle, you are looking gorgeous tonight and you have impressed a lot of people with your business sense.” said a grinning Gareth Makepeace as he gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “If ever you want to change your job, I think there could be a lot of offers coming your way from this crowd of opportunists, but you stick with Charles, he thinks a lot of you.”

“ Thank you kind Sir.” I said with a blush and an exaggerated Victorian show of modesty. “I am happy where I am.”

“ Let me introduce you to my wife, Fiona, she has heard me talk about you, and is dying to meet you.”

Gareth introduced us, and then left us together to chat for a while. After about half an hour, before he came back to take her off to meet someone else, i knew more about Gareth and Sir Charles than I had learned in all the time I had worked with them. Fiona promised that we would have to get together for lunch sometime as she had enjoyed our time together.

At the end of the evening sir Charles took me back to his place in Chelsea and showed me in to meet his sister Sarah and left us to get to know each other.

“ We meet at last, he has never stopped talking about you since you started working for him.”

“What an amazing place you have here, the views over the marina and the Thames are wonderful.”

“ It is Charles’ apartment really for when he is working in the City, but I use it a lot when I am in town. He also has an estate down in Sussex and spends the weekends there. I normally live down there most of the time and look after the estate for him.”

“ That is really good for you, you two must be close.”

“ Well we are both widowed and, apart from my son and his family, we are the only close family each of us has. What you probably do not know is that his wife Emily and daughter Julie, were killed in a car accident three years ago. He had Julie all set up to work with him, and learn the business from him and when it happened it hit him hard. He had always wanted Julie to take over from him, not just because she was his daughter, but because he honestly feels that the financial industry needs more women at the top levels. I think that he now sees you as a replacement for Julie, not in any untoward manner but as a prospect to fill that role that she would have taken.”

“ Oh dear Sarah, I never realised, i hope you don’t think that I am weedling my way into his affections as a bit of a gold-digger.’

“ Not at all, that is not what I meant. I just wanted to let you know why he is taking such an interest in you, it is not for any salacious purposes, so do not worry if he seems to be a bit pushy and over-keen for your company at times.”

“ No need to worry, he has been the perfect gentleman with me.”

“ I know you were expecting to be in a hotel tonight, and not here, so I assume that you have everything you need, but if you have forgotten anything just ask and I will see what I can sort out for you.”

Sir Charles joined us both for a nightcap to round off the evening and we chatted for a while before I made my way to get ready for bed.

After a really sound nights sleep, I dressed for travelling back to Canterbury in a casual skirt, top, and jacket that I had brought, did my make-up and hair , packed my things, and went for breakfast before getting ready to leave.

“ It has been lovely to meet you Danielle, you must come and visit us in Sussex, at Charter Abbey near Battle, do you know it?”

“ I know the area but not the estate. I was brought up in St Leonards which is not far from there, and my Mum still lives there.”

“ You must bring her over when you come, I’m sure she would be delighted to meet Charles and thank him for the opportunities that you have been given.”

“Thank you so much Sarah and thank you Sir Charles.”

“ Keep the ‘Sir Charles’ for the office and business, on social occasions just ‘Charles’ will do. see you on Monday, enjoy your weekend.”

I arrived back in Canterbury, met up with Carol and as it was such a pleasant day, we went into town, walked around and did a bit of shopping. Over coffee in a quaint medieval half-timbered café, I told her all about the evening out, the people I had met, and my pleasant stay with Sir Charles and Sarah back at his gorgeous apartment overlooking the river at Chelsea.

“ That all sounds like great fun, but you need to be more careful, going back to his flat with a man, even one you know, is fraught with danger for a girl. You have been lucky this time, it seems that it was just a kind friendly gesture by Sir Charles, but it could easily have gone wrong. You still have an awful lot to learn about being a girl. By the way. you are now speaking to Helen’s new private secretary, it seems like we are both on an upward path, let’s hope it all continues.”

To be continued.

14 Nights out

Life continued very much as before for the next few weeks.

Now that my operation scars had healed, I was able to ditch the unflattering special support bras and begin to wear my fancier styles, which not only showed of my new assets better, but emphasised my feelings of femininity. I was beginning to feel much more natural and relaxed as a woman and it showed in my personality and approach in dealing with people and even the women in the secretaries’ office were now at least polite to me, even if still not best friends.

At work Sir Charles was putting more and more responsibility on me, assessing investment opportunities, compiling reports, and making presentations to his business associates. I was becoming accepted as someone worth listening to in my own right rather than just being seen as a mouthpiece for Sir Charles.

My personal investments were doing well helped by some of the inside knowledge of the proposals of Sir Charles and his colleagues, and by the analysis I was able to do myself as I spent more and more time watching the stock market. By astute buying at selling at the right time, picking up 1-2% daily on a regular basis and more than twice that on good days, I had soon doubled my account, and with the much improved salary, I was becoming quite comfortably off.

Carol and I were becoming the best of friends and, as I was now totally comfortable in public, often went out together to the cinema, pubs and clubs together, rather than just hanging around the flat. We were having a drink and chatting in the local pub when I suddenly sensed that someone had approached us.

“ Hi Dani, it’s Jason, you probably don’t remember but we met on the train up from Hastings a few weeks ago. I haven’t seen you around since then, but when I was at the bar and saw you I thought that I would come over to say hello again.”

I was at a bit of a loss as to how to react, but an elbow dig in the ribs from Carol prompted me to reply.

“Of course I remember you Jason, are you on your own or with friends, you are welcome to join us if you want. This is my flatmate Carol, I told you about her and how she had helped me settle in in Canterbury.”

“ And Dani told me all about meeting you on the train.” butted in Carol, “ She said that when it was only you and her in the carriage she was a bit worried at first, but that she was soon relaxed with you and really enjoyed your chat.”

“ I’m waiting for some friends but I am a bit early, so if you let me buy you both another drink I will be glad to join you for a while.” He went off to the bar to get his beer and some white wine for us.

“ Oh Dani, you were right he is cute, and gorgeous, he remembered your name so is obviously interested in you. If we leave tonight without you agreeing a date with him, I will be very surprised, and annoyed with you. It is about time that rather than just appearing to be a girl, that you start reacting like one.”

Once again, Carol was right, Jason was pleasant and chatty, with most of the chat being directed at me rather than Carol and I enjoyed the attention. It was not long before his friends turned up and he got up to leave us to join them, but then turned around to me.

“ The time passed so quickly, I still haven’t really got to know much about you, would you like to come out for a drink sometime?”

I felt another quick dig in the ribs from Carol. “I would love that, how about Saturday evening.” I replied with a sweet smile, and gave him my phone number and address.

A couple of times throughout the evening we noticed Jason and his friends looking over at us and we just smiled back at them. As we got up to leave Jason and one of his friends came over to us.
“ As you don’t really know me, would you like to make it a double-date, Ben here would really like to get to know Carol too?.” A light kick under the table to my ankle and a smile from Carol told me she was interested and we agreed to go out as a foursome. “ See you boys on Saturday” Carol chirped as they left.

“ Next time don’t just wait for me to nudge you. Jason seems to be a nice lad, friendly, good mannered and very cute, and Ben looks very interesting too. Since I have been nursemaiding you, romance in my life has been absolutely zero and I am looking forward to getting it back on track again.”

“ It’s all right for you, you have grown up with boys interested in you and have learned how to react. This is all totally new for me, I am still finding my feet.”

“ Look, Jason sees you as an attractive, pleasant, friendly girl, he will probably be just as much, or even more, nervous than you about this, after all it is up to him to make the running, and you just have to react. It should be fun.”

“ What if it all starts getting a bit heavy, after all there is only so far it can go, which is still probably a lot further than I would be comfortable with.”

“As I said, he seems a nice lad, he will probably have high hopes of more, but his expectations will be nothing beyond a bit of petting and kissing, especially on the first date. Trust me, if you dropped your pants on the first date he would not have a lot of respect for you, and I will not let you get too far away, so if you are uncomfortable let me know and we’ll call it a day.”

The rest of the week passed quickly, Carol never stopped talking about our dates with Jason and Ben and after a bit of early shopping most of Saturday was spent preparing for our night out. A scented bubble bath along with removal of all the stray body hair was followed by a cleansing facial mask, doing each others hair, selecting outfits to wear, and making sure that makeup was flawless. A quick spray of Allure and I was ready and waiting when Ben came to the door to collect us while Jason kept the car running outside. A quick welcoming peck on the cheek and we were all set to go.

“Where are we off to then?” Carol kicked off the conversation.

“ We can just go for a drink if you like, there are plenty of decent riverside pubs nearby, but I have recently been to a fantastic little fish restaurant down by the harbour in Whitstable, if you fancy that and are ok with seafood.” Jason suggested to me.

“ That sounds fun, let’s go, you are in the driving seat.”

We soon arrived at a delightful little restaurant with a pretty multi-pastel-coloured façade in a back street just behind the main promenade. It was quite full and we were lucky to get a table right away, we were told that on Saturday nights a reservation was normally required, but due to a cancellation they were able to fit us in.

When we were settled with a glass of wine, we talked through the menu options.

“Pick anything you fancy girls, but I know that the oysters here are local and fresh and are served with a steak, a bit of ‘surf and turf’.” Ben suggested with a big grin.

Carol give him a bit of a scowl, “ Save your money Ben, Oysters don’t really work you know, that is all a myth.” causing him to blush a little. “I’ll just have the dressed crab, if that is ok.”

We had a delicious meal, it was well worth the travel to get there, the boys were amusing and attentive and when we left we went for a walk on the promenade to the harbour to watch the moon rising over the estuary and its shimmering reflections on the sea, it was all very romantic.

Jason was sitting with his arm around me, and I copied what I could see Carol doing and snuggled in to him and he leaned over to give me a passionate kiss causing me to begin to panic. I didn’t know how to react, obviously I was expected to respond, but this was my first date as a girl, and I was unsure whether I wanted to continue. The decision was taken from me by a scream and squeal from Carol and a cry of pain from Ben when she slapped him hard. “Get your filthy hands off me, I told you before that I didn’t want you to do that. Get off me Ben, you are a selfish pig. Jason take me home but I am not getting in the car with that sex-maniac, he can stay here, either that or you can go off with your friend and Dani and I will make our own way home.”

Fortunately Jason was more of a gentleman than his friend. “ Ben go to a pub, I will take the girls home and come back to pick you up. I don’t want to know what you have done to upset Carol, but you have ruined the night for us all.”

There was a stony silence in the car all the way back, Jason dropped us off and drove away to pick up Ben, and Carol and I went back into the flat, where she just sat there crying.

“ What on earth was all that about Carol, I thought that you fancied him and you seemed to be getting on well together.”

“ Men ! They are all the same. We were just having a bit of a petting session, kissing, a bit of fondling of my breasts, his hand stroking my thigh, you must know what I mean, but then he put his fingers into my panties and started to touch me up, that is when I freaked out.”

“ Ok I understand, but you need to calm down, what he did was wrong but you could have just slapped him down, you went off into a red mist, I thought that you were going crazy.”

“ What you don’t know, and not many other people do either, is that I was sexually assaulted and raped two years ago, and it just brought it all back for me.”

“ Oh, I am so sorry, come here and let me give you a hug to comfort you and to let you know that you now have a friend that understands why you reacted like that.”

“ After a few minutes, she was able to speak again. “I have been out and have been intimate with boys since then and I still have feelings for them as long as they are gentle and go at my pace, but Ben was too eager and pushy, I had moved his hand away a few times but that last time he just pulled me towards him and pushed my hand forcibly away, I just panicked.”

“ Look, it is just the two of us here now Carol, you are safe, let me get you a drink and we can talk more about it.”

“ Just remember what happened tonight Dani, be very careful, there are a lot of men out there that you can’t trust.”

She still seemed in a very high emotional state and I didn’t think it was the right time to remind her that I was still a boy and that I had been living with her for a few weeks and that she had never felt unsafe with me, even when we were walking around in skimpy nightclothes. Later, when she had vented all her contempt for the behaviour of Ben in particular, but boys in general too, she calmed down, we cleaned up and got ready for bed and went off to our rooms. I could hear her still sobbing but felt it better just to leave her alone.

I woke with a start the next morning, feeling an arm over my chest and a body spooned into my back and slowly turned around to see Carol asleep in my bed with me, quietly got up without disturbing her, and went to the kitchen for a coffee and to try to collect my thoughts. About an hour later she came into the kitchen looking a lot calmer and happier.

‘Sorry about last night, you seemed to be getting on so well with Jason, and when we came home I was bitching about men and how they couldn’t be trusted. I was so wound up that I totally forgot that you are still a man and probably still think like one, but you had the decency not to start an argument with me. When I went to bed I couldn’t sleep thinking about what Ben had tried to do and needed the comfort of a hug and a warm body next to mine and I honestly at times just totally blank out who you really are and just see you as one of my girl friends that I can discuss my problems with, i hope you don’t mind.”

“ Come here and we ‘ll have a hug, and let’s forget all about yesterday, pretend it was all just a bad dream. If it helps just keep thinking of me as a girl and treating me and talking to me as if I was Gemma.”

“ Girls together eh, Dani, you are a really good friend.”

To be continued

15 Party time

I thought that Carol needed to get out and about with people again before she started moping about Ben, and sitting around the house in her nightwear all day. She was still not really in the mood, but I talked her into getting dressed and going for a wander in town. Like most days, particularly Saturdays and Sundays, the city centre was bustling with tourists and shoppers and getting her out and about in the crowds was really therapeutic for her. We escaped the crowds for a while in Greyfriars Botanical Garden wandering around admiring the colourful wide range of plants and shrubs, and by the time we got home Carol was almost back to her normal bubbly self.

Back in the office on Monday morning, I noticed that Chloe had decorated the area around her desk with a small Christmas tree and a couple of decorations.

“ You are getting into the spirit of things early, aren’t you Chloe. Mind, don’t go too mad with the decorations, remember that you are in the gateway to the office of the company chairman, not in the general office, you need to keep it professional. What you have done is fine but keep it at that .”

“ It’s only a couple of weeks to Christmas, I’m just trying to get into the mood. It’s the company Christmas party on Friday, evening, will you be going?”

“ Oh, I don’t know, nobody mentioned it, but then you are probably the only one who would remind me, the women downstairs are still keeping me at a distance. I’m new here, what is the format ?”

“ Just the normal sort of company do, free booze, free food, a bit of music and dancing, everybody getting too drunk and making fools of themselves, all typical really except it is going to be in one of the old guildhalls just along the road, all very historic and grand.”

“ I’m not sure if it is my thing really, besides it will be difficult to get home to Canterbury and I am not sure that I would want to do that late evening so I would have to book into a hotel, it would be awfully expensive just for a few free drinks.”

“ I think that you should go, if you don’t the coven downstairs will only bitch about you being too high and mighty to mix with them. If you want, you could stay the night in the spare room at mine, we live in town, I am sure that Mum wouldn’t mind. I’ve told her all about you and how you helped me to get to work up here, so I’m sure she will be pleased to meet you.”

“ That’s very kind Chloe, thank you so much, why not, it should be fun.”

Back at the flat, I told Carol what I would be doing, and asked if she would be ok on her own overnight, as she was still a bit withdrawn.

“ Don’t be silly, of course I will be ok, I just had a bit of a wobble at the weekend, you go and enjoy yourself. Besides it is the Canterbury office do on Friday too, so I will be going there with a few of the girls I worked with from the general office.”

The rest of the week was very busy and there wasn’t much time for anything other than work. By the time Friday came around I was tired and not really in the mood for the party, but I had agreed to go with Chloe. We went back to her home to get changed and ready, and I was made really welcome by her Mum who was ever so grateful for the help I had given Chloe. I had a quick shower to freshen up, styled my hair in party curls as I was now getting quite comfortable using a heated styling brush, nighttime glam makeup applied , slipped into my ivory silk dress and heels and I was ready to go, feeling more in the spirit for the party.

We got a taxi to the guildhall, handed in our coats, a quick trip to the Ladies to ensure everything was still perfect and we walked into the main hall. Most people had arrived and the party was already in full swing, and by the look of some of the staff we had a lot of catching up to do with the free drinks. We looked around for a table to base ourselves, received some frosty stares when we approached the girls from the executive secretaries’ office and decided to go past them and join some of the younger girls that Chloe had worked with in the general office who were much friendlier. Despite my original reservations we were having a good time, the drinks were flowing, the buffet food was excellent, Chloe’s friends were all easy to get on with, and we were all enjoying ourselves dancing and chatting. I was glad that Chloe had talked me into coming.

Later in the evening I was in the corridor on my way to the Ladies when I saw that there were a couple having problems in one of the corners. Mike ,one of the middle-aged analysts, had a young women pinned in a corner and she was struggling to get away from him, blatantly not interested in his attentions. Partly due to the macho chivalry that was still within me and partly due to remembering how Carol had been affected by the assault on her, I decided to intervene.

“ Mike, don’t you think that you had better go back to the bar with your colleagues before you do something that you will regret, if you don’t go now I will report you for sexual harassment and you will be out on your ear.”

“ Who the hell do you think you are, I was just being friendly?”

“ Don’t worry about me, I am just one of the girls looking out for a friend. I told you, go now and we’ll forget about this, and just because the booze is free doesn’t mean that you have to keep drinking, sober up and go home.”

He staggered away, muttering to himself “ Bloody stuck-up bitch, I was just having a bit of fun.”

I saw that the girl was Anne, one of the younger ones in the secretaries’ office and one of the few that was polite and reasonably friendly to me. She pulled herself together, straightened her dress and fluffed her hair, to compose herself.

“ Thank you ever so much Dani, I just came out of the Ladies and he was standing in the corridor, he just grabbed me, wanting ‘a Christmas kiss’, but them he started groping me and I couldn’t get away. it was just as well that you came when you did, I’m really grateful. It’s not true what the others say about you, I think that you are really nice.”

“No need to thank me Anne, any other girl would have done the same for you, we have to stick together and look after each other don’t we. I need to go into the Ladies why don’t you go in again as well, compose yourself, tidy yourself up and forget all about Mike. He was just too drunk, and if he remembers in the morning he will regret it.

A few minutes later, we came out together and walked back to the main room to the groups we were with. Not long after Anne came over to join us. “ Do you mind if I join with you all, they are all a bit stuffy and quiet over there, you lot seem to be having a much better time.”

For a company ‘do’ it was all good fun, the crowd I was with were all young and looking for a good time and I enjoyed being with them, but it was soon time to leave and to head back to Chloe’s. A change into my nightie and a quick cleanse of my make up and I just flopped into bed and slept all the way through into mid-morning. In consideration of Chloe’s mum, rather than just going out in my nightie and dressing gown as I normally would, I did my hair and makeup, put on a skirt and top and went to the kitchen to find her Mum sitting there with coffee and toast. I joined her , the toast was just the sort of light breakfast I could face after last nights excesses.

“ Good morning sleepyhead, did you have a good time last night, Chloe has still not appeared this morning.”

“ Thank you so much Mrs Marshall for putting me up, it saved a boring night in a bland room in a city hotel, I really appreciate it. I need to be getting back home, if it ok with you I will just pack up and get off, no need to wake Chloe, I will see her on Monday.”

Back at the flat Carol was looking a bit delicate after her night out, so we just sat and chatted and drank coffee all day. She had a good time too, even having a bit of a necking session with one of the accountants who treated her gently and helped restore a bit of her faith in men. I told her about Anne being groped and how I had to rescue her.

“Did you really say ‘Any other girl would have done the same for you, we have to stick together and look after each other don’t we’.”

“ I didn’t think about it it just seemed to be the right thing to say, and besides, that is how I felt. After learning about your experiences, i just felt a lot more in tune with her worries and understood her feelings and could empathise with them.”

“ Oh Dani, you really are becoming one of the sisterhood, let me give you a hug.”

I arrived at the office on Monday morning to find a big bouquet of flowers in a vase on my desk. along with a gift note ‘Thank you so much for what you did for Anne on Friday. sorry about the way we have all treated you, we were wrong to misjudge you, I hope you can forgive us. Love Marilyn and the girls in the office. x’.

I immediately phoned Marilyn. “Thank you so much for the flowers, I really appreciate them, but I really did nothing to deserve them, I was just there when another girl needed a bit of help.”

“ Anne told us what you did for her, but she wouldn’t tell us who it was that was groping her, saying it’s best to forget all about it.”

“ Let sleeping dogs lie Marilyn, it was just somebody a bit drunk and losing their inhibitions, no need for him to lose his job as well.” At least some good had come out of it all, I didn’t think that I would get any more trouble from downstairs.

One morning after a long successful business discussion with Sir Charles he smiled at me, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“Have you any plans for Christmas Dani?“

“ I was just going down to my Mum’s for all the holiday week, My flatmate Carol will be going down with me as her folks are on a Christmas anniversary cruise. It should be a quiet few days, but at least it will be a family atmosphere. What about you?”

“ That is why I am asking, I will be going down to Charter Abbey and just having a quiet time with Sarah. It is a big house and it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit with just the two of us. As you know, I have lost my family and Sarah’s son and family are now living in New York, so we rattle around in the house a bit. Sarah suggested that as you would probably be down in St Leonards it would be nice if you could join us for a few days, obviously that includes your Mum and your friend. It will be a chance for us all to meet and a couple of young people in the place will liven it up a bit.”

“ That is so kind of you, Sarah invited me to visit that time in your Chelsea flat but I have not had the opportunity since then. I would love to come, but I have to check with Mum and Carol first. No disrespect but it could be a bit intimidating for them, staying in a country mansion and estate.”

“ I understand, but make sure that they know it will be a stay with Charles and Sarah, none of that ‘Sir Charles’ palaver, it will be mainly just casual, but we always like to dress a bit more formally for the Christmas dinner. Call them and let me know.”

“Mum, have you ordered your turkey yet and got the rest of the stuff in?”

“No I was planning that for this weekend, please don’t tell me that you are not coming.”

“ Far from it, but I have a big surprise for you, Sir Charles and has sister have invited us all to stay at Charter Abbey for Christmas Day and Boxing day, longer if we all want to, do you fancy it ?”

“ You are joking, of course I am up for it, it would have been delightful to spend the time with you and Carol, but it will be better being with a couple of people my own age as well. It is not going to be all formal and stuffy is it, you know me, I am a bit of a free spirit ?”

“ No, it will be mostly casual, but you need something reasonably dressy for Christmas dinner. Have a rummage through your wardrobe and see what you have got. If you have nothing suitable, go out and buy something, I’m paying, my Christmas gift to you.”

“ Carol, change of plans, we won’t be staying at Mum’s for Christmas.”

“ That’s a shame, I was really looking forward to it and to meeting your Mum.”

“ It’s better than that, how about a couple of days in a big country house in its own estate ?”

“ Sounds super, have you won the lottery or something ?”

“ My boss Charles and his sister Sarah have invited us all round for a few days, you happy with that.”

“ Just try and stop me. Charles? Do you mean Sir Charles? On my god, the girls in the office will be so jealous.”

“ Keep it to yourself Carol, if they find out I think jealousy will make your life uncomfortable. He has said that we are there as his friends, so there is to be no ‘Sir Charles’ he is just Charles, someone we know and are staying with, just like anybody else, don’t worry he doesn’t bite.”

Christmas Eve Carol and I travelled down to St Leonards and spent the night with Mum. At first I, and how my life had changed, was the main topic of conversation. Mum soon turned the attention onto Carol to find out more about her, and we had a pleasant relaxing evening just all getting to know each other better.

We had a girly night, cleansing with face masks, painting our nails and setting and putting our hair in rollers before an early night to make sure that we were all fresh for our stay at the Abbey.

To be continued

16 Surprise Revelations

We were all up bright and early to get ourselves ready for Christmas Day at the Abbey with Charles and Sarah. After a quick light breakfast of toast and coffee to keep us going until the main dinner of the day, We brushed out our hair, made sure our makeup was perfect, packed our bags for the overnight stay, and got dressed ready to go.

Carol looked so attractive and sophisticated in the summer cocktail dress Helen and I had bought her on our first shopping trip together, and I settled for the Azure silk dress that I had worn for my first presentation. I hoped that we had interpreted Charles’ version of ‘a bit formal’ correctly and that we were not overdressed, or even underdressed.

Mum surprised and delighted us when she came out of her room wearing a strappy bright scarlet calf-length figure-hugging evening dress, she looked absolutely stunning.

“ Oh my god Mum, that is amazing it really suits you, it is a long time since I have seen you looking so beautiful.”

“ Well, I wasn’t going to be outshone by you two was I. I’m glad you like the dress, you haven’t heard yet what it cost. It is many years since I have had a really good excuse to dress up all glamorous and I thought I would make the most of it. Are we all ready to go now ?”

It was a short trip up to Charter Abbey. The long sweeping drive up to the house from the gated estate entrance was so impressive with an avenue of willows either side, which although they were a bit bare and not in their summer glory were still amazing. We arrived at the mansion with its mirrored Georgian façade and were beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all.

We did not even have to go up to the door, Charles must have been waiting for us, and, a true gentleman, he opened the car doors and helped us out.

“ Welcome to the Abbey Ladies, you are all looking gorgeous, I needed have bothered about decorations in the house, you three are enough. Let’s get in, it is too cold to be standing out here.”

Once inside he took our coats and then led us through an enormous split level hall with a sweeping staircase into what he called his Drawing Room. I was surprised to see not just Sarah, but Helen too.

“ Let me make the introductions, some of you already know each other. My sister Sarah, Helen, who works with us, Dani’s mum, Samantha I believe, Carol, a good friend to Dani, and last but not least, Dani who you all already know, oh and I am Charles. That’s the formalities over, let's have a Christmas toast and get to know each other, Merry Christmas everybody.”

We all broke into little groups chatting and I found myself with Helen.

“Delighted to see you here Helen, I didn’t know you’re coming.”

‘ I was at a meeting in Canterbury the other day with Charles and he told me you were coming down here and asked if I hadn’t anything planned would I like to join the party as we all know each other except for your Mum. I must say that I can see where you get your looks from, your mum is so attractive.”

“ She doesn’t get out too often and jumped at the opportunity to glam up a bit. She seems to be getting on with Charles, I thought that she might be a bit overawed by him, but they are chatting away quite happily.” Sarah was playing the hostess with Carol who still seemed a bit fazed by it all, but was beginning to relax.

Ok Ladies, I’ll show you to your rooms and you can unpack and whatever. Dinner will be ready in about three quarters-of-an-hour, is that ok Sarah?”

The bedrooms were all magnificent, large windows, high embossed ceilings, fancy cornices, sophisticated William Morris print wallpaper, and quality antique furniture, it was a different world to the modern flat-pack trappings of our flat.

I was the first one back downstairs and went out to the kitchen to see if Sarah needed any help.

“Thanks for offering Dani, but everything is under control and should soon be ready. The table is all set, but it just needs the wine put out. The claret and the burgundy need decanting, but just open the bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and leave them on the table, the desert wines and port can just stay on the side table for the moment. Come back in, help by putting the vegetables in the tureens and give me a hand getting the turkey onto the carving plate to cool a little. Charles likes to play the head of the household by carving it at the table. When people start coming down again put the smoked salmon, paté, and toast, on the table and they can serve themselves. Charles may have asked you to dress a bit formally, but that is where it all ends, there is no standing on ceremony at the table.”

It was too large a table for just the six of us with him at the head, so Charles sat us all on the long sides of the table with him in the centre, Mum in the ‘Guest of Honour’ place to his right, Helen to his left, Sarah opposite him, me on her left and Carol on her right, a small intimate gathering where we could all talk to each other. After the light starter of salmon and paté, Charles made a big show of carrying in the turkey and carving it at the table while I helped Sarah bring in the vegetables. Later he also made a spectacle of bringing in the Christmas pudding with the brandy flaming on the top. He was obviously enjoying himself as the genial host and kept us all amused with anecdotes of his life, even referring to the five of us as his harem.

We sat down for an hour or so, with glasses of wine, or in his case brandy, to relax and chat more and it was all very jolly and merry. Afterwards Sarah offered to take us for a tour of the estate to get a bit of fresh air and to walk off some of the excesses of dinner. Helen, Carol and I put on our coats and joined her, leaving Mum and Charles in deep conversation together. It was a beautiful estate, formal gardens immediately outside the house, with manicured lawns drifting off into woodlands and a carp lake beyond.

“ This is an amazing place Sarah.” I told her, “ it must be so enjoyable living in such beautiful surroundings.”

“ It wasn’t always like this, when Charles bought it 25 years ago as a home for him Emily and Julie, it was a bit run down and neglected, but he got it at a very good price and spent quite a lot of money doing it up. It was a happy family home until Emily and Julie died, when my David and I moved in with him.It hasn’t been the same since. I try to keep it as a pleasant place for him to come back to and unwind at weekends, but it is not the same without a lot of people in the house. He is really enjoying it today with you all here, I know you three all work together with him, but he really looks on you, particularly you and Helen, as friends not just employees. Thank you for coming to make our Christmas a pleasure again, I haven’t seen him so relaxed and happy for a long long time.”

“ He does seem a lot more relaxed than he is at the office. He is getting on very well with Mum too, they always seem to be deep in conversation. It is as good for her as for him, she doesn’t get out much as she is on her own, so it is a wonderful change for her, thank you so much much for inviting us all.”

None of us had any need to rush back to our normal lives, so we stayed at the Abbey all the way through the week to see in the New Year. I had to take Mum back home to get some extra clothes as she had only brought things for the two days we originally intended to stay, Carol and I were ok as we had packed a full weeks worth in our cases for the stay at Mums.

“ I’m glad I have got you on your own, there is something I need to tell you.” she said as we were driving back to St Leonards. “ Charles and I are almost the same age, so we started reminiscing about life in the 70s and 80s, and it turned out that we had both been to the Glastonbury Festival in 1990 for the weekend and we had actually met each other there, well more than just met, but we will come to that in a minute. Charles was there with some friends for what was a sort of Stag weekend before he married Emily. I was engaged to your Dad at the time, but went there with some friends for a bit of an excitement before we all settled down. Well, the two gangs of us got together, and I ended up spending a lot of the days, and nights, with Chad as I knew him. a bit of last fling for us before we both got married.”

“ Mum, do I really need to know about this, it’s not a normal conversation between a mother and her son, or daughter, whatever.”

“ Dani, your generation did not invent sex you know, we were both adults and knew what we were doing. Anyway, a couple of months later I found out that I was pregnant and the following March Elizabeth came along. At the time we just assumed that she was your Dad’s child. However now I have seen Chad again, and his sister, I can see some resemblance between her and them, and without looking up all the dates, I think that she might be Chad’s child.”

“ Have you told him, you seem to have been having some very serious conversations? ”

“ Not as such, but he knows about her and when she was born, he’s not daft, I am sure that he must have his suspicions.”

“ Are going to take this any further, and are you going to say anything to Liz? ”

“ Not for the moment, I need to think it through, it could open a real can of worms.”

We collected what bits and pieces she needed and went back to join the others. for the rest of our stay, every time I saw Charles and her talking together my mind was in turmoil. Could I really be some sort of relation to him, I am not even sure whether there is a word for a half-sister’s father? Would working with him be any different, would I always be looking at him and comparing him to my sister?

Other than the big shock from my Mum, it had been an amazing week and a total change from the way we normally lived. Charles and Sarah had been wonderful, generous, hosts and we left with invitations for us all to meet up again soon. It was time to get back to reality, we dropped Mum off at home and Carol and I made our way back to Canterbury to get sorted out for work.

“ That was fantastic Dani, I am so glad that Charles and Sarah invited me too, I have never been in a place like that, except as a visitor to National Trust properties, but the atmosphere of a family home is totally different. I’ll never forget it.”

“ I don’t think it will be the last time you go there Carol.” I said cryptically, “ Don’t forget, do not tell anyone where you have really been, just say you stayed with Mum and me in St Leonards, and remember it is ‘Sir Charles’ if you ever talk to him at Cunninghams.”

“ I forgot to mention it to you Dani, you’ll never guess who I met at the office party.”

“ Go on then you seem eager to tell me, and you have a smile on your face.”

“ Remember Callum and Jamie that we met in the Pub? Well, Jamie is now working at Cunningham’s in the IT department, and we have arranged to have a night out.”

“ That’s great, he seemed to be a nice lad. What about his friend Callum? ” I replied, rather too quickly and eagerly.”

“ Don’t worry, he is around too, he also got a job with us as an analyst. You sound like you want to make it another double-date.”

“ I would love to, but are you sure that you are ok, you know what happened with Ben? ”

“ I’ve calmed down a bit. Ben was a pig, but I can’t treat all men as the same, there are a lot of nice ones out there, it is just a matter of finding them.

Back in the office, when we had cleared the backlog that had built up over the holiday break, Sir Charles called me into his office, “and bring in some tea and biscuits with you, I want to have a chat.”

“ I hope that you and Carol enjoyed yourselves at the Abbey, Sarah and I really enjoyed your company, it was a change having some younger faces around again. Your Mum has told me that you know about us meeting all those years ago at Glastonbury. I have been doing a lot of thinking about that, and have realised that one the reasons I related to you when we first met is that you reminded me of her, you look so much like she did at your age. I obviously didn’t realise all this until I met your Mum on Christmas Eve and saw the two of you together, but somewhere in my subconscious a link must have been forming.

I know that we are not related by blood, or in any legal way, but this is all too much of a coincidence to brush aside, as far as you and your Mum are concerned I now see you both as part of my extended family, in fact, apart from Sarah and her son, my only family. Feel free to come up to the Abbey anytime you are back home in St Leonards, and if you need a bed for the night in town, the Chelsea apartment is always available, you just have to ask.”

“ We had a super time, we are all so grateful. I promise that Mum and I will visit.”

To be continued

17 Unexpected Developments

After all the excitement of Christmas and the New Year, and the revelation by Mum of her previous relationship with ‘Chad’ as she liked to call him, life settled down for a while. Margaret had decided not to return, apparently she had been left a significant legacy by her mother, and along with her own savings, her mother’s house, and her own property, she was comfortably off and decided that she no longer needed the stress of work . As I was now working virtually full-time on financial assessments, it meant that Chloe was now taking on the traditional role of a PA, working more directly with Sir Charles, instead of through me, rather than just basic secretarial duties, which had become more challenging for her and a better use of her time at university.

“ Dani, Sir Charles has asked me to come with him and you to tomorrows meeting at Makepeace, mainly to take notes instead of him going through it with me afterwards. I have obviously seen Mr Makepeace when he has visited here but have not really met him and talked to him, what is he like.”

“ You’ll have no trouble with Gareth, he is easy to get on with. When I did that first presentation he told me that the people we were presenting to ‘are all normal people, take away their fancy suits and their superior business faces, and they are no better than you or me.’, just remember that and you will be ok.”

At Makepeace’s, we were joined by Gareth and two of his senior analysts, James , a middle-aged very formal and severe looking type, and Harry, who despite his responsible role, was still in his twenties, with a pleasant smile, a twinkle in his eye, and a weathered tan giving the impression that he had just returned from a skiing holiday. James, gave a general introduction to a proposal they had for Sir Charles, and passed over to Harry who gave the detailed report. His voice was a bit sing-song betraying his west-country roots, but had a pleasing lilt to it which kept our attention, even through the more intense parts of his report.

After the formal meeting we stood around in groups generally chatting, Sir Charles and Gareth, James and me, and Harry and Chloe, before we returned to the office, where Sir Charles went off to an in-house meeting leaving Chloe and me to pull together the minutes of the meeting.

“ You settled in quite well Chloe, that wasn’t too bad was it?”

“ As you said, they may be in responsible positions but they are really just the same as everyone else underneath it all.”

‘ You and Harry seemed to get on well, the pair of you chatted amongst yourselves, while the rest of us mixed a bit.”

‘ Harry was ok, he really made me relaxed, we had a good chat, and he has asked me out for a drink and meal, but I don’t know whether to go or not. Is it good to mix business and personal relationships?”

“ What harm can it do, he is good-looking and seemed very pleasant and charming, if he had asked me, I would definitely have said yes. The job he is doing, he is not going to be short of money, he is a good catch, go for it girl, but remember no pillow-talk letting out Sir Charles. confidential stuff.”

“ It’s only a dinner date, it will probably not get any further than that.” Chloe replied, giving me a gentle punch on the arm.

I decided that at the weekend, I would drive down to visit Mum, and asked Sir Charles if it would be ok to visit Sarah and him.”

“ I believe that it is already arranged, Sarah and Samantha have met up a few times recently and seem as thick as thieves. I don’t think that you and I have any say in the matter.”

Unlike when we were there at Christmas , this was a much more casual affair, just jeans and jumpers and with my hair tied back in a pony tail. Again Charles and Mum seemed to be deep in conversation so Sarah took me out into the garden for a walk.

When we came back they were sitting together on a sofa, surprisingly holding hands and looking nervous.

“ Sit down Dani, Chad and I have something to tell you which might come as a bit of a shock.”.

Taking a deep breath she continued. “I told you that when Chad and I met all those years ago that we had a bit of a wild weekend. Well it appears that Elizabeth is his daughter, not your Dad’s. Sarah and I collected hair samples and had them all DNA tested and there is no doubt.”

“ Oh my God, have you told Liz?”

“ Not yet, it is not something I want to do over the phone, I am going over to Naples to tell her, will you come with me.”

“ That is a massive shock, you and Dad always seemed so happy together.”

“ We were, this was not cheating on your Dad, this was before we were married and was just a holiday romance amidst all the excitement of the Glastonbury festival. There was no reason to doubt that she was your Dad’s daughter, until recently when I met Chad again.”

“ This is all going to blow her mind, not only will she be meeting me as her sister Danielle, but you will be telling her that we are not really full sisters, or sister and brother, whatever.”

“ Will you come with me, it will make it a lot easier?”

“ Of course, when do you want to go.”

“ I want to go soon before I have second thoughts about it, I want to book a flight for Monday. I will get Sheila to mind the shop for a few days.”

“ Don’t worry about work, Chloe can keep the place ticking over for a few days, she has settled in really well.” Charles interrupted, “ after all, we are sort of family now.”

“ Mum, can we go out for a walk and talk, I want to collect my thoughts, it is all a bit of a shock.”

“ What would Dad think if he was still alive, Mum, it would break his heart?” I asked when we were alone.

“ Your Dad had no reason to doubt that Elizabeth was his daughter, he couldn’t have loved her more. I don’t know how he would have reacted, obviously very disappointed, but even if he had known that Chad was her biological father, he was still her Dad. He was the one who picked her up if she was crying, brushed away her tears many times, played with her, took her on holiday, those things will never change.”

“ Ok , I’ll come to Naples with you, but we have to tell her about me before we go, two shocks in one day would send her into all sorts of emotional states.”

“Arrange the flights Dani and you give her a call. Just keep the conversation about your situation, don’t mention about Chad.”

“ It was an awkward call to Liz, explaining how I had now come to be Dani. Partway through the conversation I changed my voice from Danny’s to Dani’s and most of the long chat was two sisters talking, rather than a brother and sister

The Alitalia flight from London Heathrow to Naples was smooth and pleasant and the final run-in to Naples gave us amazing views to the awe-inspiring crater and slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Getting through passport control and retrieving our luggage in baggage handling was no problem and I was quite relaxed and ready to meet my sister for the first time as Dani.

I decided to treat Liz the same way I had treated Mum the first time in Hastings, told Mum to wait for a few minutes and went out into the Arrivals concourse. I walked straight past her and she just looked past me to the gate searching for Mum and I.

I turned around and asked her“ Excuse me, do you speak English.”

“ Yes, how can I help?”

“ You can start by giving your sister a hug, It is so long since we have seen each other.”

“ What the……., is that you Danny? I would never have recognised you, let’s have a good look at you.”

“ We can’t talk here Liz, let’s get Mum, go back to yours, and we can have a long talk to tell you all about what has happened.”

The short drive out to her seafront apartment in Torre del Greco, outside the main city was the worst part of our journey. Everything I had heard about Italian drivers turned out to be true, they must drive with one hand permanently on the horn and with their feet jumping between the brake and the accelerator pedals. Despite that, Liz got us back to her flat without incident and we settled down with a fresh coffee to soothe our nerves. She had a lovely spacious apartment looking out over the bay of Naples to the Islands of Ischia and Procida in the distance.

“This is an amazing apartment Liz, you are lucky to be living here.”

“ Never mind all the social niceties, they can wait, let me have a good look at you, and you can tell me again all about how you have changed. When you called I didn’t really believe you could make it work, but even when you spoke to me at the airport, I thought you were just another girl needing a bit of help, you are so natural and convincing.” For the next hour, I gave her all the details of my job, sharing the flat with Carol and the various boys I had met and she was enthralled with it all.

“ We can talk about that again later, what about you, how is life treating you?”

“ I’m thinking of coming back to England. I have broken up with Gian Lucca, he has regularly been playing around with other women and I have had enough. It is handy that he has moved out, at least I won’t have to explain why I have a sister that I have never mentioned to him.”

“In many ways,” Mum interrupted, “the fact that we are on our own makes what I am about to say a bit easier. You have been told that Dani has been working as an executive assistant to Sir Charles Montgomery a wealthy financier. Well, it turned out that he lives not far from me and he invited Dani and I and a few others to visit him and his sister for Christmas to try to fill their house and make it a jollier place. We discovered that I knew him a long time ago when we met at Glastonbury in the summer of 1989, and we had a bit of a sort of holiday romance.”

“ Don’t tell me that you have found a rich ex-boyfriend with lots of money, you lucky old thing.”

“ Let’s have less of the’ old thing’ ElizabethIt’s a bit more more than that. We have checked, and he is your biological father. This was before I married, and I settled down with your Dad, and eventually you two. We had a good life together, and I soon forgot all about Chad, as I new him. That is, until we met up again at Christmas."

“You have got me all confused, what am I supposed to think, a lot of my life has been a lie.”

“ Don’t take it like that, your Dad will always be your Dad, he was the one who raised you and loved you. This doesn’t change any of that or take anything from your memory of him. If you want to , Charles would like to meet you sometime.”

“ This is all a bit much, I need to think about it. Drop it for the next few days, let me get to know my new sister and we will see how I feel when you fly back.”

The next few days, we made the most of our time in Naples, wandering the narrow back streets with their lively fresh fish and local food market stalls, visiting the historic squares, cathedral and palace, the fantastic restaurants and ice-cream parlours, and, the icing on the cake, the amazing ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was a visit full of memories to take back, particularly as Liz was intending to come home and it was unlikely we would ever be back again. It had not taken Liz long to accept me as her sister, especially when she saw me in my bra and panties while we were changing, and by the time it came for Mum and I to leave, Danny was almost forgotten.

Liz was intending to clear things up in Naples and return to St Leonards in about a month, by when she would have decided what she wanted to do about Sir Charles, so Mum and I had a few busy weekends getting the house all cleaned and freshened up for her return. Working and spending so much time with her, we became really close, much more than when I had been Danny. We often went up to the Abbey, where Mum and Charles were spending more and more time together, leaving Sarah and me to really get to know each other.

With all this going on, Carol and I did not have a lot of time with each other, and she was spending more time with Jamie, I was hoping that things would develop a lot further. Carol had been a good friend to me, and I wanted her to be happy. I went on double-dates with them, and with Callum, but whilst I got on well with him, I had no deep feelings for him, I was still not comfortable thinking about relationships, and sex, with men. We decided that we would always be good friends but nothing more, I didn’t want to tell him about who I really was, and that I was still physically male.

One Friday night Carol came home early from a date with Jamie, and had obviously been crying, from the puffiness and smeared makeup on her eyes.

“ What’s the matter Carol, have you had a row, or is this another of your panic attacks?”

“ Jamie is a lovely lad, and did nothing wrong, it is just that when we having a bit of heavy petting, I suddenly had a vision of that night with Ben and the time I was attacked and molested, and I just couldn’t continue, I am not sure if I will ever be comfortable with men again.”

“ Never mind, come here, have a hug and we will get you calmed down.”

After a while cuddled together and talking about how she felt awful about running away from Jamie, she suddenly pulled me closer and gave me a passionate full kiss on the lips, and for the first time since all this started I felt a stirring in my loins. “ Oh, Dani, why cannot it always be like this, just the two of us, we know where we are with each other.” We continued in a passionate embrace until she took my hand and led me to her bedroom.

To be continued.

18 Twists and Turns

I woke the next morning, once again feeling the warmth of a body snuggled into my back, and with Carol’s arm around my waist, only this time I was not surprised , alarmed or concerned. Our intense kiss the previous night had developed into a night of passion and all the pent up emotions and frustrations of both of us were released as we slowly and gently made love, the sisterly friendship between us was now on a different level. I slowly turned around to see a smiling Carol, gave her a hug and a quick kiss and got out of bed to make a coffee to fully wake us up.

We stayed in bed for another hour, repeating the exertions of last night, before getting up to face the day and the realities of our new relationship.

Despite the return of some of my masculinity, I was still living as Dani and prepared myself as what was now usual, full makeup, styling my hair and putting on a clean top and skirt, and made breakfast for both of us.

“ I don’t know what happened to trigger all that off last night,” said Carol as we sat with our coffee. “After my panic attack with Jamie, you were so calming and understanding and I just felt at ease and comfortable with you.”

“ Don’t worry, I think that I was ready for it all too. We get on so well together that it was bound to happen sooner or later, let’s not look back, let’s just plan for the future together. I just hope that you don’t think that I took advantage of you being in an emotional state.”

“ Don’t be daft it was me that made all the running remember, I needed the release from my bad memories.”

Over the next few months, other than the facts that I dressed as a girl and had breasts, our friendship grew into a fairly normal partner relationship. Carol become much more at ease when we were making love and the traumas of her past were totally forgotten, or at least locked away in the back of her mind.

At work the way Sir Charles and I treated each other had also changed. Whilst he was still professionally my boss, there was a much closer personal relationship between us developing into him having an almost paternal interest in me. He encouraged me to take greater risks, following my instincts more rather than just relying on factual assessments. and I was becoming much more comfortable in the world of high finance.

“Dani, Can you book a table for two for lunch at the ‘Galvin La Chapelle’?”

“ You must really be out to impress someone, that is Michelin starred and I have heard that it is delightful and the food is amazing.

“I’m glad you approve as you are coming with me, there are a couple of things I need to talk to you about, Chloe can look after the office for a couple of hours. She knows how to get in touch if anything urgent comes up.”

Over lunch and wine, we generally chatted about Charter Abbey and office politics and I got the impression that he was holding back and seemed a bit on edge, but sitting with an after-dinner brandy he opened up.

“There a few things we need to discuss, in a way they are interrelated but cover totally different scenarios.

For the past 30-odd years I have worked in the highly-charged atmosphere of the world of finance and now feel that it is time that I eased off and took a back seat, over the next two years I want to gradually withdraw from day-to-day involvement in the business. However my finances are very complicated and I can’t just walk away from them. I need somebody I can trust, both personally and with business acumen, to take over and look after things for me.

In relation to my personal investments I have set up a holding company, Montgomery Dependents Trust, to manage them for me and am looking for a CEO to run it and make sure that I can live in comfort for the rest of my life and tat my family will be well looks after when I am gone. The job is yours if you want it, do you think that you could handle it?”

I almost choked on my brandy and couldn’t speak for few moments. “That is a bit of a shock, I was not expecting that. Although I have hoped to have a successful career this has come very early for me, you have barely known me less than 12 months. Are you sure that I have the experience and expertise that is needed.”

“ In that short time, you have proved yourself more than capable, and I will still be looking over your shoulder as it is my money you will be managing, I have no worries on that score.

Secondly, Cunningham Investments will need both a Chairman to look after the shareholders interests, ie my interests as I am the principal shareholder, and a CEO to run the company on a day-to-day basis. I have discussed this with Gareth Makepeace who has agreed to take on the role of Non-executive Chairman, but he has one condition, he wants to appoint his choice as CEO. No need to look too disappointed, because he has chosen you. We also considered appointing Sarah’s son, David, keeping it all within the close family, but Gareth much preferred you, and besides, David and his family are settled in New York.”

I was still almost speechless with the surprise of it all, but managed to croak “I’ll be delighted, but let’s talk a bit more about it later, after I have had time to take it all in.”

“That’s the business side of things, but there are also a few personal discussions we need to have too. Your Mum and I have been spending a lot of time together and are getting on really well. I feel like an awkward teenager here, but do you think that she would be interested in developing our relationship further and maybe get married. Of course that would make you my step-daughter, and effectively you and Liz would become my new family. Obviously I will have to change my will, as the only living relatives David and Sarah were due to inherit everything, but obviously I will now have to make provision for your Mum, Elizabeth, and you. What do you think?”

“ Wow, you certainly know how to drop bombshells on people. It all seems to be too good to be true. I am flattered at the business opportunities and delighted for you and Mum, but need a bit of time for it all to sink in. I suggest that you wait a bit longer before you make any announcements just in case you have any second thoughts. I’m sure that Mum will be delighted to ‘develop your relationship further”, but please try to approach her in a less formal business manner, be the old charmer that I know you can be.

Since it seems to be the day for making announcements, Carol and I are no longer just sharing a flat, we are now in a relationship and will probably be life partners too.”

”i’m confused, does that mean that you are going revert to being male?”

“ No rush for that, we are happy as we are. I made a commitment to you to work as Danielle for two years and I will stick to that. At the end of that, I will decide what I am going to do that will work well for Carol and and will also be acceptable to you and Cunningham Investments.”

“ Far be it from me to give you advice, but you do seem settled as Dani, are accepted by everybody, and are making a successful career, why change?”

“ As I said when I started working with you, I never had any inclinations to dress or act as, or pretend to be, a girl, but it is a role that I have slowly developed into. I am comfortable just jogging along as I am for the moment, and there are times when I really enjoy this life, but there are other times when I wonder if I am doing the right thing. Before my intimate relationship with Carol started I never questioned what I have been doing, but since then I have been thinking about whether this is how I want to spend the rest of my life.”

“ What does Carol think. She must be as confused as you are. you need to sit down with her and talk it through properly. Whatever you decide to do, it makes no difference to the offers I have just made, the positions are still yours for the taking.”

“ Thanks for everything Charles, I’ll have a long think about everything you have said today and talk it over with Carol and I’ll let you know soon. Meantime, you need to go and have a proper chat with Mum.”

For the rest of the day and on the train journey home, my mind was in turmoil, I had really just been taking each day at a time, but I was now in a position where I had to make long-term decisions .

“ Carol, we need to have a serious talk. Charles has offered me some unbelievable opportunities that will ensure that you and I will live comfortably for the rest of our lives, but I’m sure that he would prefer me to stay as Danielle to carry them out. What do you think about me committing to continue living as a woman, could you live with it? If you would prefer me to go back to being Daniel, that is fine, and we will just have to face up to any consequences.”

“ Look Dani, I didn’t know you all that well as Daniel, you were just one of my work colleagues, but I have really got to know and like you as Danielle, to me that is who I see when I think of you. At times it is better to have you as my girl friend that I can talk to about my problems, at other times I prefer your manly moral strength. I am happy for you to just continue as you are, but if you prefer to go back to being Daniel, I will still love you and want to be with you, I think that all my demons about being with a man have now gone. I am not sure that I would want you to go all the way to being physically female though, I have grown to look forward to our times in bed. Tell me about the offers Charles has made to you.”

A few days later I was in a meeting with Sir Charles, having agreed to accept his amazing offers of CEO of Montgomery Dependents Trust and Cunningham investments, talking through how we would actually set things u , when we were interrupted by Chloe coming in to the office.

“ There is a Jack Mitchell, who says that he is from ‘The Square Mile’ wanting to see you both. He does not have an appointment and won’t tell me what it is about, but insists that if you give him a few minutes that you will think it worthwhile. Will you see him or should I tell him that it is not convenient?”

“ Give us a couple of minutes then show him in Chloe, but if I don’t call you within five minutes, get security to come up and show him out.”

“ What is ‘The Square Mile' Sir Charles.”

“ It is a networking news sheet that is distributed around the financial services community, telling us all who is on the up and who is on the way out. In reality it is not much better than a gossip magazine, but I would like to hear what he has to say.

Mr Mitchell, you have interrupted an important meeting, quickly tell me what this is all about.”

“ Thank you Sir Charles and Danielle. I have been hearing a lot of good reports of how well Danielle has been doing in her time with you and have done a quick investigation into her background, with a view to writing a short article about her as a rising star in the financial services industry. However I have discovered that she is not all she seems to be, as I am sure you understand. I would still like to write the piece but want to put a different slant on it.”

“ Chloe, hold that call I asked you to make.” Sir Charles barked into the phone.

Realising that I was deeply embarrassed and at a loss for words, Sir Charles took control of our side of the discussion

“ What do you mean?” He asked calmly but warily.

“ The article was going to be the normal background and achievements type of thing, but now there is a much bigger story. Rather than just exposing Danielle for what she really is, I would like to write it in a positive way to stress the inclusive and forward thinking attitude of Cunninghams towards diversity in the workplace. “

“ Is there any way you can drop this, it will be deeply embarrassing for Danielle.”

“ I could, I am not threatening you or trying to blackmail you or anything like that. However I think it is a story that should be told. There are too many criticisms of our industry and the mysogynistic laddish culture that abounds, slowly women and racial minorities are at least knocking on the glass ceiling if not breaking through it and I think the same progress needs to be made for transgender people of all shades of the spectrum.”

“ Hold on there.” I interrupted. “ I am not a flag-waver for the TG community, this is just a personal private issue for me, I don’t want to be seen as a Joan-of-Arc figure leading the battle for TG rights, I just want to be me and get on with my life.”

“ It is up to you. If you agree I promise that the tone of the article will be very sympathetic and supportive and that you will have a veto on any aspect that you think is too intrusive.”

“And if we don’t agree?” Sir Charles jumped in quickly.

“ There will just be a short paragraph about how Danielle is making an impact in the industry and how she as a woman she is ploughing a furrow for others to follow, there will be no direct reference to her lifestyle issues.”

“ Thank you for not acting like a lot of your profession Mr Mitchell and threatening lurid exposés. I am sure that Danielle would like to think about how it impacts on her personal life, and I need to speak to my executive colleagues to agree what Cunningham’s attitude will officially be. We will let you know within a few days.”

To be continued.

19 Coming Out

After Jack Mitchell had left us, we sat in silence, deep in thought, for a few minutes, before I looked at him and broke into a smile.

“ We both know that it was going to be impossible to keep this a secret for ever, at the end of my two years I am going to have to make a decision about where my life is going. At the moment, all the people I care about know all about me, with the possible exceptions of Chloe and Gareth Makepeace, anybody else can think what they like. If we let him write his article in a sympathetic manner, I might be the talk of the office for a while and get the occasional snide comments, but I will soon be yesterday’s news. I am reasonably well liked and I think most people will accept me. I also think that even if he writes a basic brief article that is the fallback position, someone else, a lot more unscrupulous will pick up on the story dig a bit further and turn it into a lurid exposé .I think a sympathetic and forward thinking article by Mitchell may well be the best choice. If you and your senior people think that it will seriously affect the standing of the firm, one way or the other, I can live with whatever decision you make.”

“ That’s extremely brave of you Dani, and you are probably correct in your assessment, I’m sure that most people in your situation would just want to crawl under a rock and hide. I will speak in confidence to my colleagues and, with your permission, to Gareth, and see what reaction I get. Mitchell might be right, it could be a positive thing to say that we are supporting diversity across all racial and gender spectra. If it will not be too embarrassing, can I suggest that you also discuss it with Chloe, she and you know and trust each other well enough to get an honest reaction from her.”

Telling Chloe that we needed to have a serious confidential discussion, we left the office and found a bench in the parkland behind St. Paul’s where we were out of earshot of anyone but the most casual passers-by.

“ I have something I need to tell you about myself Chloe, i have been trying to think of a gentle way of saying this, but I can’t, so I will just come out with it. I am not who I seem to be, I am not really Danielle, I am really a man called Daniel.”

Chloe just sat there in total shock for a while before she could speak.

“ No way, I don’t understand, I have seen you when you have been changing your clothes, you are as female and feminine as anyone I know.”

“It’s true Chloe, this started off as a temporary pretence, but it all just snowballed. Let me tell you how I have got here.”

I went through my whole journey from first meeting Sir Charles, the temporary role becoming semi-permanent, and how I had adjusted to life as a woman.

“ Why are you telling me all this, and why now? I would never have found out, you are one of the most attractive and feminine women I know. If you must continue like this nobody would ever guess.”

“ That is the problem, somebody has guessed and they want to write an article about me for the local news sheet.” I explained all about Jack Mitchell and his proposal to write a positive account of my experiences and the supportive attitude of Cunninghams, and what Sir Charles and I were considering to do about it.

“ I will understand if you feel uncomfortable working and socialising with me, but I am still me, I would like to still be your friend and to have you working next to me. What do you think?”

“ I am still trying to get my head around it all, but I have only ever known you as Danielle and you have been kind and friendly to me, I don’t see why that should change, although I will be a bit more careful about changing my clothes in front of you.”

“Thank you Chloe, I really appreciate your understanding and friendship. Obviously this is between you and me at the moment, please don’t mention it to anyone else in the office, but if you need to talk it through with someone to get your head straight, your mum should be ok, she seems a kind and tolerant person. Do you feel ok to go back to the office now, or do you want to spend a bit more time alone to think things through?”

“You go back, I’ll be with you in a bit.”

When I got back to the office, there was a note from Sir Charles. ‘I’m in a meeting with the Director of HR and our Commercial Director to discuss your situation, I may be a while. If you can concentrate, just get on with your work, if your mind is wandering just leave things until later’.

Twenty minutes later Chloe returned, came over to me and gave me a big hug. “Nothing has changed Dani, you are still the same person you were this morning before all this came out, no matter what happens you will aways be my friend, and you will aways be Danielle to me”

As Sir Charles was unlikely to return soon, Chloe made some coffees and we sat down and talked a lot more. She was more interested in the details of how I felt, and about how hard in was adjusting to being a woman,, mainly out of inquisitiveness rather than critical questioning.

“ How do you think it will go down with the staff if we go ahead and let it all become public?”

“ Who knows? There will be some that are supportive and understanding, there will be a few who are antagonistic and even nasty, but I think most will be curious and tolerant. I don’t think you will have any problem with the executive secretaries’ office, you still have a lot of ‘brownie points’ from what you did for Anne at the Christmas party, and the girls in the general office that we were there with all thought that you were good fun and easy to get on with and quite like you. You will be the talk of the office for a while, but they will soon settle down, move onto something or someone else to gossip about, and you will again just be Dani, Sir Charles’ Executive Assistant.”

“ Thank you so much Chloe, I was worried that it would be too much of a shock for you and that you would be unable to work with me.”

“ Don’t be daft this is the 21st century, every time you open one of the tabloid newspapers, there is a story about someone being somewhere on the LGBT rainbow, attitudes are changing, most just get on with their lives as they want to live them.”

We were interrupted by a call from Sir Charles. “How did it go with Chloe?”

“ No problems there, she is very understanding and supportive, and thinks that any problems with other staff will be five-minute wonders.”

“ That’s good. If we can’t persuade Mitchell to drop the story, we are convinced that we can put a positive spin on all this. A lot of the finance houses actually make a point of stressing their commitment to gender and racial equality and their policies are widely accepted. We could just be the first to include gender diversity into the mix, not just as bland words on corporate policy statements but by demonstrating actual cases. Believe me, you are not the only one with secrets in the closet. I am going to see Gareth to see how he reacts and will let you know later.”

Sir Charles came back from his discussions with Gareth, just as I was about to leave the office for home.

“ Are you in a rush Dani? Gareth would like to have a talk with you. He was astounded when I told him about you, but was quite supportive of you and how we propose to go forward. There is something that he wants to discuss with you though before we go ahead. Are you happy to go along to his office, I will give him a call to let him know you are coming while you are getting there?”

Feeling a bit unsure as to what was coming, I walked into his office 10 minutes later.

“ Hello again Dani, don’t worry , I am not going to have a go at you, in fact quite the opposite, but there is something I need to tell you. Charles has related how you came to be in this situation and I am amazed at how well you have adjusted and have carried it off, you are very lucky. One of Fiona’s brothers was transgender, and kept it all well in the closet until he was discovered and given the option to stop it all or leave the family forever. He chose to live his life as a woman and was going through transition, but did not have the support network that you have, Fiona tried to get the family to relent, but her parents were adamant and would not let her make contact. Eventually the constant rejection and name-calling became too much and he killed himself by jumping off a bridge into the Thames.

If you intend to continue in your role at Cunninghams you have to be prepared for losing friends, being the talk of the office, snide remarks and disgusted looks. You are a strong character to get where you are, but are you strong enough to face up to everybody?”

“ I am comfortable in myself ,and the people that are important to me accept what I am doing. I have committed to Sir Charles to continue for the two years I agreed to and unless circumstances change I will see it out. I have no intention until then of going back to my former life or taking things further and go through transition. I hope that I will be allowed by the people I work with and have business relationships with to continue as I am. If people want to talk about me behind my back i can live with that, but if anyone is particularly nasty or things become difficult for me and for Cunninghams I will deal with that when it happens.”

“ That is good to know. The offer of being the CEO of Cunninghams, under my chairmanship, still stands, but if you think that it will be too high profile I would rather know now so that we can prepare an alternative appointment.”

“It sounds like you and Sir Charles are giving me the responsibility of making the decision as to whether we carry on as before. Unless there is a major backlash when ’The Square Mile’ article is published, I can live with any personal embarrassment and would like to continue as we have planned.”

“ That is what I wanted to hear. How do you feel about celebrating by going for a meal with me? Fiona is in town and I can ask her to join us. I am sure that she will have a lot of questions and opinions that I would be too reserved to voice, and now is as good a time as any to face your first test of public opinion, I’ll give her a call.”

I went to make myself presentable and phoned Charles to arrange to stay overnight in Chelsea rather than travel back to Canterbury late at night while Gareth talked to Fiona, and I rang Carol to let her know what I was doing. We soon made our way to the restaurant where we had agreed to meet but when we walked in and I saw Fiona, I nearly walked out again. This was all happening too quickly and I felt a bit steamrollered, but she didn’t give me any choice by coming straight over and giving me a big hug.

“ Oh Dani, I have so much respect for what you are going through, I just wish my brother had been as fortunate and well-supported as you. I just didn’t believe it when Gareth told me, you are just so natural as a woman. However, let’s forget about all that for a while and just sit and have a nice meal, but we must meet up for a proper talk, there is so much I want to ask you.”

I was amazed that I had been so readily accepted by Gareth and Fiona, I had been worried that they would have felt cheated and deceived. However they were totally unperturbed by it all and for the rest of the evening we just chatted about people we all knew and what was going on in the world and we were able to enjoy a delicious meal without constant references to my situation.

They dropped me off at the Chelsea flat, luckily Charles had given me a key to use as required. I kicked off my shoes and sat down with a bottle of wine from the chiller and went through all the events of the day. This had all started off innocently with me masquerading as Dani for a couple of weeks, but now it appeared that everyone accepted me as a woman and my life was being mapped out for me. I was really worried that I was not in control anymore.

Although it was late, I phoned Carol again and we had a long deep discussion about it all, the gist of which was that it was up to me, but she wanted Dani as her partner with Danny as a ‘friend with benefits’.

The next morning I called Jack Mitchell and asked him to come in to speak with Sir Charles and me.

“ Good morning Mr Mitchell,” I confidently led the discussion, “We are quite happy for you to write your article, however there are some conditions.

#1 The completed article is to be subject to vetting by me and will not be published without any alterations that I request.
#2 You work with our commercial director and legal department to incorporate the company’s slant on our corporate policies on diversity and inclusion.
#3 The article is not to include any lewd or salacious comments on my personal circumstances, or personal relationships.

These conditions are non-negotiable, do you agree?”

“ There is nothing there that I would not have expected. I am not writing for one of the ‘Red Top’ daily newspaper scandal sheets, my market is to keep the industry up-to-date with what is happening, and who to watch out for, and your story will show a significant shift in corporate policies. I was anticipating your comments and have almost completed the article, it should be finished and included in the next issue, which is due to be out at the end of next week. Thank you.”

“ You did well.” said Sir Charles, after Mitchell had left, “ I couldn’t have handled it better myself. Let’s see what he comes up with.”

In the week before ‘The Square Mile’ article was published I met up with Fiona for lunch a couple of times, she was trying to get answers as to why her brother turned out as transgender and why people could not accept him for what he was, but I was not able to help her a lot. I explained that although I was comfortable in what I was doing, that it had not been driven by any deep-seated desires to be female like her brother had felt. As to why I had been accepted by most people whereas her brother had suffered nothing but rejection, I had to leave it for others to judge, maybe it was just a question of confidence in who I really was deep-down that allowed me to to just treat people as I always had.

On the Friday that ‘The Square Mile’ was published I did not go into the office, we felt it better if my colleagues had a few days for their emotions to get under control rather than me being in their face to deal with any immediate reactions. As it happened, the article was well-written, factual and positive for both myself and for Cunninghams.

‘ The changing face of the industry

A bright new rising star has come through the ranks at Cunningham Investments, that many of you will have already heard about or have come into contact with. Danielle Jenkins, by her business acumen, and pleasant but steely personality has impressed a lot of the industry leaders and has a rosy future in front of her.

However what you will not know is the personal struggle that she has lived with for the last year while she has been making a name for herself. Danielle is actually male, Daniel , and took on a new life to get experience in our industry. Cunninghams were not initially aware of her situation, but were so impressed with her talent and personality that when they discovered the truth they allowed her to continue.
………… ………… ………..…… ……………… …………………… ……………… ……………… …………… …… …………… ………… … … ………… …………… …………… …………… …………… … …… …………… … …………… ……………… ……. .………… …… ………… …… … …………… … ……………… … ……… ……… … …… …… ………… ………… …… … …..
The company has issued a statement stressing that their diversity policies are now some of the most forward thinking, and that people will in future be appointed or promoted purely on their ability and merit, and that race, gender or sexuality will not be considered when assessing candidates.
………… ………… ………..…… ……………… …………………… ……………… ……………… …………… …… …………… ………… … … ………… …………… …………… …………… …………… … …… …………… … …………… ……………… ……. .………… …… ………… …… … …………… … ……………… … ……… ……… … …… …… ………… ………… …… … …..
I am sure that you all wish Danielle future success and that you will continue to be impressed with her work and enjoy meeting her ’

It was a very favourable article for both the company and for me, and it was now a case of seeing what reaction it would get.

To be continued.

20 Life Goes On

Over the weekend, I had a phone conversation with Chloe.

“ How did it all go down on Friday? I assume that I was the talk of the office?”

‘When the article came out, HR issued an email to all the staff, with a copy of it, along with a statement of company policy, reminding everyone that bullying and discrimination would not be tolerated, not just when directed at you Dani, but equally applying to any member of staff. Most of the morning, people were huddled in groups talking, but whenever I approached they tended to break up, obviously I am being seen as part of the deception and too closely linked to you.”

“Will it be sensible to come in on Monday or do people need a bit more time to get their heads around it all?” I asked warily.

“ It calmed down a bit in the afternoon and people just got on with their work. You’re going to have to come in sometime, Monday should be as good as any other time.”

“ How about you Chloe, are you still ok with it all, I wouldn’t want you to be too embarrassed by being seen with me?”

“ I had a good chat with mum and she told me just to get on with things, you have done nothing wrong, and she likes you and what you have done for me, and she thinks that you make a lovely girl. If people want to talk about me and suggest that I must be a bit gay myself to put up with it, I will just smile and think of my times with Harry.”

“ That’s my girl ! See you Monday. I will call you from outside the offices, just to make sure that nothing has changed, I don’t want any unpleasant scenes.”

Carol and I invited Helen round for Sunday lunch. I wanted to know how the company grapevine, particularly senior staff, had reacted.

“First thing, there were a flurry of emails and calls asking for clarification of the policy and in particular, what penalties would be applied to anyone breaking the anti-discrimination policies. I just reminded them that policies were already in place for racial and gender discrimination and the the zero-tolerance policy would apply in the same way. I was surprised that later on I had several enquiries from people wanting to ‘come out of the closet’ and seeking reassurance that their careers would not be harmed. It looks as if, whether you like it or not, you are a flag-bearer for the LGBT community in the organisation.”

“ So do you think Helen that it will do no harm to the standing of Cunninghams in the industry?”

“ Far from it, two or three other major players, including your friends at Makepeace, have already stated that their policies are going to be upgraded too. Anyhow, don’t worry, things will soon sort themselves out. How about you two, are you personally comfortable that you are now ‘out’.”

‘It’s a strange coincidence but in a way it lifts a cloud from us, our relationship is a lot stronger now.”

When Helen had left, Carol sat me down to have ‘a serious conversation’.
.
“ You told Helen that our relationship is a lot stronger now, but it going to get even stronger, I’m pregnant, we are expecting a baby in 6 months time. I have been meaning to tell you for a while, but with everything that has happened it never seemed to be the right moment.”

“ That’s brilliant, but you should have told me sooner. How we will sort all this out will have to be determined, but I couldn’t be happier. Have you told your Mum and Dad and do they know about me?”

“ They know all about you, and have been asking to meet you. They are a bit confused, but as long as I am happy, they are happy too.”

“Let’s go and see them now. We’ll see how they react to meeting me and then decide whether to tell them about the baby or leave it for another time.”

It was a strange first meeting, her Mum and Dad didn’t know at first how to treat me, but the longer we sat talking and having tea with them, the more they just accepted me as a close friend
and future partner for Carol. They were delighted, if a bit confused, when we told them about the baby, obviously wondering if I was still capable of fathering a child, but we assured them that it was all a perfectly natural and usual process and that the baby would really be Carol’s and mine.

By the time we left, they had been convinced that Carol and I were happy together, and were looking forward to a future with each other and with our family Even though it is not unusual for couples to have children now without getting married we had decided that it was something that we wanted to do, and Carol and her mum were soon deep in wedding planning.

When we were back in the flat I phoned Mum to tell her the news about the baby and she was as excited and pleased as Carol’s parents had been.

“ That is wonderful, i have got fed up waiting for Elizabeth to have a child, you have beaten her to it, I am so happy for you both. Charles has told me about the article in the news sheet, I hope that it hasn’t upset you too much.”

“ Far from it, it is actually a big relief in a way, I’m told that it hasn’t gone down too badly at the office, but I’ll find out tomorrow when I go in. Has Charles also told you about the job offers he has made to me? They are really exciting and should set us up financially for life and they have come at the right time for Carol and I. We will try to get down there sometime next week to talk about it all properly, but I thought that you should know right away about the baby.”

“ Ok see, you then, now put Carol on, I want to have a good long woman-to-woman chat with her.”

Monday morning, I was walking down Cheapside to the office and saw a crowd outside the entrance to Cunningham’s and approached a policeman who was watching what was happening.

“ What’s going on officer?”

“ There are two groups there, one lot protesting about the employment at senior level of a transgender woman, and the other lot supporting the company and calling for equal opportunities for all. They are all waiting for her to arrive for work.”

Rather than face the crowds and feed the antagonism of each group for the other I decided to phone up to Chloe.

“ Chloe, there are people outside the main entrance waiting for me to arrive, can you go to the back fire escape door and open it to let me in please.”

I was quickly let in and we made our way up to the office, where I went in to see Sir Charles.

“Sorry about the rat-pack out front, I managed to avoid them on the way in.”

“ Somebody is down there now telling them that you won’t be in until this has all died down, don’t worry, they will all go and find something else to make a scene about. Just get on with your work and forget about them.”

Our office was a lot busier than normal, people popping in any any pretext just to get a look at me, although they had been working alongside me for a year or so, more out of curiosity rather than anything else, However by lunchtime the freak-show was over and things returned to normal with people were treating me like they had been doing, although I was getting looked over for any flaws by the women, and even getting some admiring looks, particularly at my breasts, by the men.

Over the next few days, apart from a few jokey comments, which didn’t offend me, I was virtually ignored by most people and allowed to get on with my jobs.

Carol and I went down to see Mum on the Saturday, mainly to take about the baby, but also to keep her up to date with my going public.

“I am so happy for you both, and am really looking forward to my first grandchild, he or she is going to be spoiled rotten. Have you decided yet what you are going to do about raising the child? Are you going to be a conventional ‘Mother and Father ‘ couple or a ‘two mummies’ family?”

“ There is no rush to decide that, we have another 6 months before the birth, and plenty time after that before the baby recognises the difference. A lot could happen in the next 18 months or so, we are just playing it by ear for the moment. Besides, there is the wedding to arrange and go through first.”

“The same question arises there too. Will you marry as ‘Husband and Wife’ or as ‘Wife and Wife’ ?”

“That is a difficult one, legally I am now considered to be Danielle and female. I can’t keep changing back-and-forth to suit what I am doing.”

I was expecting the protestors and campaigners to be out in force again on the Monday morning, which is when they had been told I would be returning to work, but was pleasantly surprised that when i arrived there was nobody there. The weather was bad, cold, wet, and windy which helped a lot, along with the fact that there had been a major anti-government protest over the weekend which diverted people away from my situation. It seemed that the major public interest in me had gone and I would be left to carry on with my life.

There were a few minor comments in the financial sections of the daily newspapers about Cunninghams new policies, but they were more interested in that than in me as a person, so I had escaped the eagle-eyes of the more salacious press.

Carol and I had made two decisions, three if you include buying matching diamond and sapphire engagement rings.

We were organising our wedding as a low-key affair, family and close friends only, as we would be getting married as a same-sex couple and the more people that were invited would just mean a higher risk of a scene of some sort, particularly when tongues were loosened after a few drinks .

We also decided that when “baby” arrived, the birth certificate would not include the father’ details, as I was still legally female, and it would be too complicated to change back for the registration. I had been told that the name could always be added later if we needed to.

The plans were thrown into confusion when we were on a visit with mum to Charter Abbey.

“ Charles and I have decided that we have re-kindled our love for each other and that we will be getting wed too. If it will not take the gloss away from your big day, we would like to make it a double ceremony.” Mum announced with a really smug smile.

I looked at Carol and she winked at me and turned to Mum. “ I’m so happy for you, you deserve each other after everything you have been through in later life. I have one condition though, you are not allowed to be outshine me with your dress selection, or with a more dazzling appearance.”

“ I could never do that darling, it is to be your big day, Charles and I have both had our fancy weddings many years ago, we will just be the supporting act for you.”

At that, it was time for a big group hug, although Charles was not as enthusiastic about that as us girls, who were much more used to such things. He was more enthusiastic about celebrating by opening up a couple of bottles of vintage Veuve Cliquot Champagne, one Rosé brut and one traditional Brut, which he had already put into ice buckets to chill.

We all agreed that the ceremonies would be held at the Abbey, in about three months time, if we could get the registrars agreed, which would hopefully be before Carol ‘showed’ too much.

For the next few weeks, Charles and I were sidelined as the womenfolk busied themselves with the wedding planning. Life at Cunninghams continued as normal, although Charles was now involving me more in company strategy and financial matters with a view to slowly taking over some of his responsibilities. As well as the financial support from Charles, my own personal investments had grown considerably, and although the weddings were to be for a small intimate group only, money and cost was not an issue and no expense was spared.

We had agreed on the wedding parties which was difficult with the limited group of people that would be attending.

Carol and I would be married first with Liz as my supporter in the ‘best man’ role, and Helen as Carol’s Maid of honour. Carol’s Dad was to walk her down the aisle.

Then it was to be a bit of musical chairs as I took over to ‘give away’ my Mum, with Liz as her Maid of Honour and David, who had flown over from New York, as Charles’ best man.

We found out that the law did not allow us to have the legal registration carried out at the Abbey, as it was not licensed for weddings, and could not be without it becoming a regular venue open to others. Nor could it be held in the local church as they did not recognise same-sex partnerships, so we arranged to go to the local registry office, just the four of us, acting as each others witnesses, before going back to get ready for the social ceremony.

Charles and Sarah had arranged for a wedding gazebo to be built in the garden at the Abbey, decorated in white silk swags and flower garlands and with the registrar joining us to repeat the formal vows in front of our guests. It was only a small intimate gathering, Charles and Mum, Carol and me, David and his wife Emily, Liz, Helen, Chloe and Harry, Gareth and Fiona, Sheila mum’s friend and colleague, mum’s sister Joan and brother Jack, and a handful of close business colleagues of us all.

Carol was gorgeous in a traditional white wedding dress and veil, I was less conventional in an ivory silk skirt suit, there was no way I would want to compete, it was probably a bigger event for Carol than me, something like most girls she had been thinking about for many years. Liz, as my ‘best man’ was striking in a lilac fitted lace trimmed dress that was to double up as her Maid of Honour outfit for Mum. After exchanging our vows and making our commitments we walked to the back of the gathering to be replaced by Mum and Charles.

Liz and I joined Mum to walk her down the aisle where Charles and David were nervously waiting.
The whole event was repeated for them, but this time the registrar added ‘ I now pronounce you husband and wife’.

The caterers had been setting up the Abbey’s main dining room for our receptions while the ceremonies were being conducted and the photographs taken in the gardens and by the lake.

Organising the seating and the after-dinner speeches was was complicated and unconventional as some of us had dual roles, me as the groom to Carol and ‘father of the bride’ to Mum, Liz as my ‘best man’ and ‘Maid of Honour to Mum. However as it was only a small gathering we kept it as informal and relaxed as possible , and it all went off without any hitches.

Eventually the party broke up, the guests who were not staying overnight all left for home, and Carol and I retired to our suite.

I had a few moments to myself while Carol changed out of her wedding dress and sat there thinking about how my life had changed in the last year or so.

I had gone from being a lonely boy in a small flat, to being a vibrant popular woman,married to a woman I loved and respected with a child on the way, looking forward to a happy life together in a mansion on a country estate, with a successful career, and some very good friends. Life could not be better, I just wondered what the future would hold.

THE END