Part 2

We broke up and Sally led me through to our station. It wasn’t one of the biggest rooms, but it was packed with furnishings and paintings. She gave me a quick run-down on the furniture and ceramics before the public arrived.

Once they got to us, we were kept busy, telling those who asked about the room and its contents, keeping children from running around and climbing on the furniture, and generally keeping watch so that nothing disappeared. We kept a good eye on those with large bags. The morning went, like lightning, and Sally told me that she was going for lunch.

It was a little quieter, seeing that the public would be crowded into the tearoom. It wasn’t difficult to keep control and she came back to let me go to the kitchen to get a lunch. You can’t savour every mouthful when you only have twenty minutes, and I was nearly back on station with the taste of ham and cheese still on my teeth. I was able to swill my mouth out before I got back.

The afternoon was much the same as the morning, and I was ready for the finish as we nudged the public out. A quick search of the house did find a couple making out in the public toilet, and we let them get tidy before escorting them out. We assembled in the main hall and Derek checked off any problems during the day. I only had the problem that no-one asked me about the pictures, but I kept that to myself.

We then went off to change into normal clothes, for the evening. The girls took it in turns in the showers, while I went to my room, hung the jacket, blouse and slacks, and put the knee-highs and panties in the basket. In my gown and slippers, I went to the showers after I heard the others come back. It was good to sluice away the effort of the day. Back in my room I put a shirt and jeans on, leaving my slippers on, I went off to the kitchen, where I joined the crowd.

Sally declared that I needed a Saturday night out and offered to outfit me. I was about to decline, but the others all agreed that it would be a celebration. We had a quick tea, then went to our rooms. Sally led me to hers, where she held various outfits against me until she was happy. I went back to my room to change into the skirt and blouse, and stockings, that she thrust into my arms and told me to be quick, while adding a handbag. I used the shoes I had been wearing all day, they were still comfortable. Redressed as a girl, I went to her room and knocked. She was just putting on a dress and asked me to zip it for her. Then she sat me at her vanity and gave me a quick make-up. Enough to give the right impression, but not so much I looked as if I was a drag queen.

With the lipstick added to my bag, I allowed them to lead me out into the carpark. Sally said that she wanted to ride with me, and the others got into three cars. I followed them around Derby and into Nottingham where we stopped in a big carpark in front of a dance hall. There, we went in, and everyone got caught up in the music. I wasn’t the best dancer, but loosened up to the stage where I was enjoying myself. I was glad I was in the flats, there was no way I could bounce around in heels. I danced with all of the girls, and a few guys, quaking that they would call me out as a freak.

We didn’t drink a lot, but I was happy when it was decided that we needed to be back at the Hall, as we had another day of work ahead of us. We left the dance hall, a few of the girls getting goodbye kisses from their dance partners. I didn’t know what to think. There I was, a guy in a skirt, out on the town with a bunch of lovely girls. I had forgotten how I was dressed, I was just happy and had enjoyed a night out, for, I think, the first time in my life. Sally dozed off as we went back, and I had to wake her up when we parked. I was leaning over her to give her a nudge when her eyes opened, and she pulled my head down so our lips met. It was nice, it was gentle, and it tasted odd with both of us with the same lipstick on. Would you believe it, my first real kiss and I had to be wearing a skirt and stockings to get it!

She grinned as she got out of the car, I locked it, and we went into the accommodation corridor. At her room, she gave me another kiss, much to the amusement of the other girls, and told me to keep the outfit. When I questioned that, she told me that when I wore it as if it was natural for me, I had earned it. That night, I took off the clothes and hung them away, carefully. I put on my gown and went off to the shower room to empty my bladder and wash the make-up off. Claudette was there and she told me to take a finger full of the cream she was using, as it worked better than soap and water, while leaving the face smoother. When I had done that, she told me that Sally was one-up, so that needed to be redressed. She put her arms around my neck, and we kissed. Was it ever a kiss, I was almost starting to turn blue before our lips parted.

“Wow,” she breathed. “You really are a good kisser. I think that the other girls will all have a go before the season is over. Whatever happens, I want more of this, you cute little Jessie, you.”

That night I took a while to get to sleep, wondering why I was doing this. After the evening in a skirt, being accepted as a girl, it wasn’t all about the job any longer. The working day had been an eye-opener, with a more friendly approach from the public than I had expected.

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, with more families than before. I did have one guy who was carrying the brochure about the Hall. He wanted information about the artworks, wanting to know which ones were worth most. That’s something I wouldn’t talk about and side-tracked him by explaining that they weren’t objects of value, more historical evidence, a snapshot of their time. I took him to a nice scenic picture and explained that he would never recognise the view if he saw it today, but here, on the wall, was how it looked two hundred years ago. I made sure that I remembered his features and described him to Derek during my lunch break. We did have hidden cameras with disc recording. If need be, we could find him on that. Derek thanked me for my diligence.

Sunday evening, I went home, wearing my normal clothes, and had some time with my folks. When Dawn saw me, she gave a squeal and raced off to her room. When she came back, she showed us a post from Saturday, put up by one of her friends, me with a wall of paintings behind me. I have to say that I looked quite elegant in my uniform. She then asked me why I was wearing a blouse and slacks. Mother laughed and we explained that it was a story and a half, with lack of male uniforms in my size. I didn’t tell them about Saturday night. The odd thing was that it had been sent to my sister with the note ‘A cute guide at the Hall, that looks a lot like Jesse.’ Another damn cute picture of me in the cloud!

On Monday I was out in the garden. I changed into my gardening outfit in the shower room, putting a big hat on, with my hair pulled up into it, and my work boots on my feet. I met the other gardeners, all nice guys. I had the morning on a ride-on mower, working on the lawns close to the hall. In the afternoon, I was given a buggy, with a trailer, and told to do whatever was needed at the Long Walk. The trailer was full of trimmings and weeds when I finished. That was all put into a big compost bin.

Tuesday was much the same. I made sure that I wore good gloves whenever I was gardening, I didn’t want to mess up my nails. I could see a time when I will have to make sure my nails were looking good.

Wednesday, I was on my day off. Sally was also free, so we went into Nottingham, and I bought four packs of panties, two for her and two for me. On her insistence, I also ended up with three bras and a set of cheap fillets. She assured me that they would improve my girl experience. So would the packs of tights that were in the bag. We had lunch and talked about each other. She told me that she had always been unhappy about being short but meeting me had made her realise that she wasn’t that short, for a girl, seeing that we were the same height, and I should have been a good six inches taller.

That afternoon, we went to a salon where we had appointments. I walked out again with my hair trimmed and shaped, my brows shaped, and my ears pierced. I was carrying a bag with my own cosmetics. I was going to have to make sure I worked by myself in the garden. I didn’t look forward to the jibes and jokes about my new look. I needn’t have worried. Back at the Hall I went to see Derek and he gave me a map of the grounds and marked out the lawns and the parts of the garden I would be in charge of. I would be able to do everything without needing to consult the others. So, Thursday and Friday I was able to take a buggy and look over my area of responsibility. I knew that I could plan out a work schedule for the future.

The weekend saw me looking more like a girl, even in the slacks. The other girls were taking bets on which weekend I would end up guiding in a charcoal skirt. As I got more used to the job, I began to notice the public more, talking to the children, helping mothers with babies, and learning to be a good guide. This went on for a few more weeks. I was now comfortable in my role, and in myself. I was boy Jesse during the week, unless Sally and I went out as a couple of girls, and I was girl Jesse all weekend. I had bought some everyday clothes and slept every night in a nightie. The girls didn’t enforce my exclusion from the showers anymore and Derek often said that we were a good group of girls.

One weekend, in September, we had a tour group that changed it all. It was a bus full of art enthusiasts from London. Derek told us that they would be doing Chatsworth in the morning, having lunch in Derby, and visiting us in the afternoon. What he wanted was for me to do a proper tour, with Claudette and Sally working as sheepdogs with the group, to keep them together. The other nine girls would be looking after the normal visitors. I had the inkling that this tour, somehow, was a big thing for Derek.

Annabel got the prize for guessing the weekend I would do the guiding in a skirt. In fact, I was measured and outfitted by my fashion mentor, Sally. We rehemmed a skirt each, using the sewing machines. We both looked good in the proper length skirts, and the target Sunday became something to plan properly. I suggested that a tour may work well if the family and hall history was explained, by using the paintings as a link. Derek said that it was a good idea but for another time. The three of us planned the walk to make sure we picked up all the best pictures without having to go back on ourselves. The tour ended, like all good tours, at the souvenir shop.

On the day of this tour, we did the normal morning procedure, but finished early to have lunch and get ready, with extra care on our make-up. That was another first, for me. We were waiting, by the coach park, when the tour arrived. That’s when I realised that our customers were all top art auctioneers and valuers. There were several I had seen on the TV. A lot of these guys had sent me rejection letters earlier in the year. I was definitely going to show them what they missed out on.

If I had been missing out on getting questioned by the public, today I was kept on my toes. Claudette greeted them, introducing Sally and I, then gave an outline of the buildings’ history and the description of the exterior façade. Once inside I took over to move around the route we had planned. I did notice that Derek was on the edge of the group, along with another man. I worked hard, giving out information, answering questions and trying to keep the tour moving. I noticed that several of them had their phones out, so I tried to keep out of the picture, as much as I could. Claudette and Sally would chip in with details about the architecture and other fittings.

We were nearly within sight of the shop, when we stopped at a picture of Catherine Howard, the Lady D’Aubigny. This was a van Dyck and a very fine portrait. One of the visitors asked me to stand next to the picture and smile. Oh, well, I suppose they wanted their own memory. There was a sudden flurry of flashes and the I got them moving again to the shop, where we thanked them for coming and wished them a good trip home.

The three of us stood together, wondering if it had gone as good as we hoped. Derek came up to us and gave each of us a hug and a “Well done” before telling us to go back to our rooms and relax for a while.

“Then put on something nice. Instead of eating with the others, the three of you have been invited to have dinner in the East Wing.”

Claudette and Sally hugged each other and then drew me into a group hug. I didn’t see the significance of this, straight away, but, on the way back to our rooms, Sally told me that getting an invite to eat with the family was a true compliment. I was instructed to strip completely and meet them in the shower room to start my transformation from a girl guide to a lady.

I padded to the showers, in my dressing gown, wondering what they had planned. I didn’t think, in my wildest dreams, that I would end up in a shower, with two naked girls, having my body shaved with safety razors. I had been doing my lower legs for when we went out, but had never needed to work on anywhere else, as I had never shown much skin. Tonight, Sally told me, she had picked out a dress for me to wear, from her collection, and I had to present as a lady.

With us all shaved, our hairs washed and conditioned twice, and smelling of the most girlish body wash we could find, Claudette worked on Sally and me with the hair dryer and a brush, the Sally did the same for her. I was sent back to my room and instructed to put on a black bra and panty set I had bought on one of our shopping trips but never worn, then go to Sally’s room to be dressed. In my room, I followed orders. The black bra, with the inserts fitted suddenly making me feel more feminine, rather than just presenting an outward appearance. The smoky tights I had never tried before feeling strange on my hair-free legs.
I double checked that I wasn’t sprouting any facial hair and used a new trimmer to clear any nose or ear hairs and left my studs on the vanity before I put the gown on and went to see what Sally had in store for me. I knocked on her door and she opened it, wearing a similar set of underwear to me. I had the sudden thought that this sight was more seductive than being naked in the shower.

She inspected me and declared that I would do. Then we worked, together, to transform us into ladies. It took a long while, and I gained an appreciation of what those stars on TV went through to look so good. The hair was first, teased and sprayed. Our nails were next, with me having my first set of acrylics and a red polish. When I looked at my hands, they didn’t seem to be mine.

Then she sat at her vanity to do her make-up, followed by her working on me. Both of us were looking more dramatic than we had been before. My lips matched my nails and my eyes had been transformed into those of a femme fatale. I went with the flow and didn’t question anything. After all, I had never been invited to dine with a Lord before. I expect that girls get trained in such an occasion, just in case.

The dress was next. She had two that she had chosen. Hers showed a bit more cleavage than mine, but were, in effect, very similar. They were soft, they were shiny, and they were short. I had never shown this much leg before, and she had me sitting and standing until I could do so without showing my crotch. Keeping my legs together was the trick, but the problem was that sliding one stockinged leg against the other was a distraction. I suppose that I would get used to it. The other thing was showing all my arms, however, after the shave, they didn’t look too bad.

The last part of our preparation was the accessories. She gave me bangles for my wrists, a necklace to put on, and a pair of drop earrings. She had a pair of two-inch heels I had worn before on a couple of Saturday evenings, and a spritz of perfume completed the make-over. She took pictures of me, and I used her phone to take pictures of her. With clutch bags that matched the dress, red for her and dark blue for me, we left her room to go and find Claudette.

When we knocked on her door, she was just putting on her necklace and looked fabulous in silver. I wondered if it was all right to be dressed for clubbing when dining with a lord. None of us, though, had tea dresses or long gowns. We may be ladies, but we were still young ladies. The other girls were milling around as we left, and the praise was wonderful to hear. Not praise about our performance, no, but about our looks. That pleases a girl more.

As we walked through the house, our heels clicked on the hard floor, and I could see us pass by in the mirrors. It did look like three young women, dolled up to kill, and there wasn’t a sign of a boy anywhere. If we had looked this good when we went dancing, I expect that the boys would have lined up to be our partners.

At the door to the family apartment, Claudette knocked, and, after a short break, the door was opened by a lady I hadn’t met before, in a short cocktail dress.

“Hello, you wonderful girls,” she said, brightly. “You three have certainly lit a fire under his lordship with your tour, today. He has been at arm’s length since we let the Trust take over. I’m Lady Curzon, by the way, but there’s no titles, tonight. You can, if you want to be formal, call my husband ‘sir’. Now, come on in and have a pre-dinner sherry.”

We followed her to a sitting room, where glasses of sherry had already been poured. We took one each and sipped. It wasn’t bad, just a little too sweet. She rattled on, to put us all at ease. She was telling us how much easier it was after the Trust took over the maintenance of the Hall, as the cost had become prohibitive, when another door opened, and three men joined us. One was Derek, one was the other chap who had watched us, and the third was the guy from weeks ago, who wanted to know about the value of the paintings.

His Lordship came forward and welcomed us to the family apartments. He smiled a lot and I warmed to him, immediately.

“Now, Derek you all know. This chap is our family lawyer and friend, Brian. He was impressed with your take on him, Jesse, when he quizzed you. He told me that you side-tracked him with ease, and he would hate to come up against you in court. Now, this afternoon must have been tiring, so come on into the dining room and take the weight off your feet.”

When we walked through to the dining room, I stopped when I saw a portrait on one wall. His Lordship was looking at me as I gazed in wonder.

“That’s one of my favourites, out of the two hundred or so in the place. You look awed, Jesse.”

“Yes sir. I have seen a photo of it, but the colours of the original are magnificent. I’ve never been this close to a Rubens, before, and Mary Victoria, the Lady Curzon of her time, was a striking woman. Of course, not all women had such long necks in those days, and most portrait painters used it as a way to make the face stand out from the dress. It’s stunning, and I would keep it aside if it were mine.”

“You seem to have a lot of knowledge, for a gardener?”

“I graduated with a degree in Art History, sir, and my thesis was on ‘The Effect of the Grand Tour on English Country Houses’ with special emphasis on those close to Derby.”

“That does explain a lot. Today, even I learned a few things about the house, the art, and the family from listening to the three of you. You were a little hard on the auctioneers, at times.”

“Ah! That was a bit of grudge showing through. Before Derek gave me a job, I had written to a lot of places who handled, or held, art. A lot of those gentlemen had sent me rejection letters, the general reason being that I needed more experience. I ask you, sir, how can you get experience if you don’t get a job on the first rung of the ladder?”

“Exactly right, young lady. My own job has been easy to pick up; I was being trained before I could walk, and going off to school was almost a distraction. My dear wife had to learn it from scratch, when we married, and has done very well.”

We sat down to eat a beautiful meal, with a little wine, and much of the table talk was about today’s tour and the effect it may have for future visitations. With coffee in front of us, Lord Curzon cleared his throat.

“Ladies, Derek told me about your proposal to tell the family and building history by way of a tour. I didn’t think it would work until I saw your presentation today. We have discussed this, before meeting you, and I believe that you girls can pull it off. Derek has agreed to put you in charge of a special tour, done once or twice a day on the weekends we are open, along with days where we have coach groups who have booked. There will be a premium charge to be on the tour, but I think that everyone who takes it will consider it money well spent. I have agreed that we will make some alterations when we close the season. I’ll fund some specialists who will move the pictures around to create the timeline you give us. I expect that we will be ready to have a trial run at our Christmas event. What do you think?”

Marianne Gregory © 2023

Part 3

The three of us sat there, stunned. Derek had a big grin on his face and then he took up the explanation.

“We will want you to do the tour in period dress. We know that this is a bit of an imposition, but it would add to the accuracy of the delivery. You may have noticed a lot of pictures taken, late in the tour, today. I don’t think any of you saw what we saw.”

Here, he showed us a picture, on his phone, of me standing next to the Lady D’Aubigny. I didn’t see the point, but both Claudette and Sally hooted with laughter. It was then pointed out that I was the spitting image of a younger version of the portrait.

“What I want you to do, Jesse, is to write out a story as if you were, indeed, the lady in the picture. The brochure will have a picture we take of you, in a similar dress, in front of the portrait. I am thinking something like “Come and hear history come to life at Kedleston Hall.” We’ll try to have similar dresses for the others. As far as the gardening is concerned, I’ll see if I can employ another man to take over, although your work there has been exemplary. Claudette will be the leader of your group, seeing that she has the extra time and knows the ways you can get things done, and Sally, you can be in charge of the costumes. We’ll free up a room for you to use, we do have a few that are empty.”

“I want to help,” put in Lady Curzon. “This sounds like a fun project that could put us solidly on the map of places to visit. I’ll have a talk to my old pals in the media, when we have something to show them. I think they may be interested.”

I recalled that she had been a local newsreader, once, but gave it up when she married. As I sat there, I was thinking of the pictures, and the historic aspects of the people, coupled with the pictures that each one contributed to the collection. Some were so big, it would be silly to try and move any, but they could be mentioned in earlier or later parts of the tour. This was my big break, where I could use all of my training and knowledge to produce something that would make my future CV something to be proud of. Derek then continued.

“I’m going to get in touch with a few of the bigger art groups, to see if they want to take part in a special tour, before we end the season. You may have to repeat today, but I’m sure that will give you a lot more ideas for the future. By the way, Brian has something he wants to say.”

“Thank you, Derek. Yes, I do want to say that I’ve been interested in ways that we can further the success of the Hall. This sounds good, and I’m certain that it will be fantastic. The thing, for me, is making certain that you stay with us for, at least, two seasons beyond this. With that in mind, His Lordship has agreed to partially fund your salary. You will stay as employees of the Trust, but we will put in something to lift your income. To do that, I’ll be putting together simple contracts that list you as Trust employees who are also permanent members of the family household, along the same lines as the servants that work on this side. That will ensure that you will be insured for any accident, over the top of the Trust policy.”

“We will also give you access to us, on this side,” grinned His Lordship. “I know that you won’t overdo it, but I want to be up to date with everything that goes on. Get this right and our door will always be open.”

When the talk petered out, the three of us made our excuses that it had been a very long day, and one of the servants showed us out. We were still dazed as we walked, slowly, back through the house. Claudette stopped dead as we were in the middle of the main hall.

“Do you realise what this means on our records. We are a special group, to make Kedleston famous. Today was tough, but it was our first outing, and the audience was a hard nut to crack. I have to ask something that they didn’t. Are we all in? It will be another two and a half years, minimum, on a salary that will be more than we earn now, but we won’t know how much until we see the papers.”

Sally thought for a moment, and then hugged us both.

“In! Of course, I’m in. This is going to be huge. We may even get on TV. I’m sure that this time next year, you’ll only have to type Kedleston to find thousands of posts. You’re very quiet Jesse, are you happy with it?”

All of a sudden, the size of the situation fell on me, and I started to cry. They both held me as I stood there sobbing.

“I’m -hic – not sure. What they said – hic – has been my dream – hic – but I always dreamed it happening as – hic - Edward Jamison.”

“So,” whispered Claudette in my ear. “What’s the difference, you still get the best gig in town. What’s so bad about doing it in a long dress?”

“But I’m a boy, dammit!”

“We know, we’ve seen you naked, only today. The thing is, you’re standing there, looking like a hot babe in a short dress. You spend a lot of the week being female, and it shows. I bet you wear the bra and panties under your gardening outfit.”

“Who told you, Are there cameras that show me adjusting the strap when it slips?”

They both dissolved into chuckles, and I found that I had to join in. The spell had been broken and I started to think more clearly.

“All right, already. I’m hooked. Who can knock back working with an aristocrat to tell his family history. So, I’ll be found out as a transvestite, called a queer, ridiculed by all and sundry. All my life I thought that my nickname was taken from a cowboy. I just realised that they called me Jessie because they always thought I was one. My mother wasn’t surprised to see a picture of me on my first day, looking like a girl. She never even asked if I had done it before, just assumed that I was comfortable with it. Look, my parents stay up late, what say we go to my house so I can tell them what’s been offered and show them the new me!”

Sally grinned. “I’m up for that. You’d better fix you face first, or else they’ll think you’re transitioning into a racoon.”

Claudette giggled. “I’ll stay here. I wouldn’t fit into the back of your car. I do have domination of the art world to plan, so that’ll last me until I sleep.”

We went back to the rooms, and I phoned my house, telling Mum that I would be popping in in a little while, as I had some news to tell them. Sally helped me fix my face and we got into the MG. Well, it wasn’t quite as easy as that. I needed extra training in how to get into a low sports car in a short dress by sitting and swivelling. Sally said that getting out was the opposite action but didn’t say that it was best done with a strong guy to pull you to your feet.

At my house, we extracted ourselves from the car and I led her in to meet my parents.

“Mum and Dad, this is Sally. We work together at the Hall, and she’s been very helpful.”

“I see that she’s helped you become a woman,” Mum giggled. “I expect that it is one of her dresses that you have on, they look as if they were bought by the same person. I have to say, Jesse, that you look fantastic, a daughter that I always suspected was inside. That early picture of you in the uniform was the beginning, was it?”

“You’re right Mum, they didn’t have any men’s uniforms in my size. It just went from there. Today I did a special tour, in the regulation skirt, and it went very well.”

“What about you, Sally, are you happy with this change?”

“Oh, yes, Mrs Jamison, we could see that she was Jesse, almost from the day she started. She just went with the flow and is now a very important part of the Hall.”

“Oh,” chipped in Dad. “How so?

“Well, the tour we did today featured Jesse talking about the art collection to a bunch of know-it-all London experts. She knocked them dead, and it was a successful first time for this type of tour. What we didn’t realise was that Lord Curzon was watching the whole thing. You tell them, Jesse.”

Mum told us to sit and sent Dad out to make hot chocolate all round. I explained about the offer we had been given once he had returned. Before he returned, though, Mum asked us about our relationship. It was only then that I realised that we did have a relationship. We had seen each other naked, just today. We had kissed, more than once, and we could be vocal, or silent, in each other’s company and it didn’t matter. With this was going through my head, Sally told her that we were very good friends and that she, for one, hoped that it would be for life.

We were still talking when Dawn came home. She immediately pulled out her phone and demanded that I stand so she could take pictures. That became a photo shoot, with me between my parents, with Sally with our arms around each other’s waist, and it became more than enough to bury me. She then proceeded to do just that, sending them out to her friends with the tag of ‘Jesse, she has finally come out, doesn’t she look cute!’ Not more cute pictures of me in the cloud. When I groaned, she scrolled through her phone and showed Sally the pictures of me as Cinderella, and we all had a good laugh.

That done, it was time to go back to the Hall, with Mum telling me that she has to have a shopping trip with me, on my day off, Wednesday. We made a time that I would pick her up. This was all happening so fast. I was overloaded and gave Sally the car keys to drive us back. She had driven it a few times when we were out on our days off. It was a good job I did, as we were pulled over by the police. They wanted to know who we were, and where we were going. They looked at her licence and breathalysed her, while I just sat there and smiled. When they asked who the car belonged to, she told them it was Edward Jamison, her boyfriend, who was at the Hall tonight, while she, and her friend Jesse, had been visiting his parents. They wished us well and let us go.

“Whew, Sally. I don’t know what I would have done if I had to show my licence, they would have probably called for a van to take me off to the asylum.”

“Don’t be silly, this is a new world. There’s lots of girls like you around, even regulars on TV. If you go to some clubs, in the bigger cities, you’ll see hordes of transvestites, shemales or drag queens. You’re not the only one in the world, but you are probably the only one who is a genius, funny, cute, and lovable.”

“Thanks for that, I think. I love you too.”

“That’s good,” she said as she pulled to the side of the road. “Now kiss me and say that.”

So, I did.

Next morning, I was out on the mower, singing as I mowed up and down. I had never been so happy in my life. For the first time, I hadn’t pulled my hair up into the hat, and it flowed down behind me. The hi-vis overalls were unbuttoned enough to see my bra, if you looked closely, and I was wearing make-up. It was a good day to be alive. That afternoon, I went to see Derek, to ask him what the procedure was to put me down as transgender and to make sure that the contracts that were to be signed were in the name of Jesse Jamison.

Tuesday, we had two coach tours, and I did my duty in the skirt and with my new face. Claudette told us that we had two rooms that she had found, next to each other. They had previously been second kitchens, and already had big workbenches and big dining tables. All we had to do was give them a clean. When Sally and I saw them, we pretended to punch her, as a bit of a clean took us all of three weeks, in the evenings. I was the one, though, that had the job of removing all of the spider webs, and their owners.

On the Wednesday, I wore the skirt and top that I had gone to the first dance in. Mum got in, and directed me to Nottingham, where we parked in the city car park, then walked for hours, shopped for hours, drank coffee, ate cake, and laughed a lot. I went back to the Hall with a lot of bags and a closeness to my mother that would have never been possible before I truly became Jesse. I put my shopping away with care. I now had more skirts and tops, a couple of dresses and, thankfully, shoes that fitted properly, up to three-inch heels.

That evening, at dinner, I wore one of the new outfits, along with a pair of new hoops in my ears and was hugged by each and every girl in the crew, Sally being the last one in line, capping it off with a long kiss that brought applause. Claudette took the opportunity to tell the others the whole story about the future ‘special’ tour, and what was in store for the winter break. She then announced that one of the rooms we would be cleaning would be the girls’ retreat, as she had found a store of old armchairs.

Derek chipped in with a TV, something we had been without, using laptops in our rooms to watch. I offered to donate an urn, so we could have hot water, and one of the others said she knew where there was a store with cups and mugs. So, over the next few weeks, the retreat was created, somewhere where we could relax, together, in the evenings. As it was right next door to where we would be organising the tour, it would be inevitable that we would have a stream of visitors, wanting to help.

Lady C sent over a copy of the family tree. We pored over it, with a list of the portraits, and I was able to put together a narrative, telling the story of the family, along with things they had brought into the Hall. Some of the paintings were part of the Trust collection, so had no relevance to the story, so they would be left in place. Some evenings, we would be wandering the rooms we knew so well, working out what needed to be moved. The whole group got involved with this, and, by the end of the season, we had a list for the break, with it being quite doable.

We did another two special tours before the end of the season. One was for a selected group of Trust property managers, augmented by most of the other girls. That was the first one we did in period costume. The three of us were helped into the dresses that Sally had made, with a bit of help. I felt like a proper lady as I floated around the grand rooms. For these tours we didn’t wear our name badges.

The other was really funny. It was a group of students from the University, some I had known while I was there. They were joined by a group of teachers, including a couple of professors that had taught me. The fact that none of them recognised me, with one professor asking Derek where he had found the young lady with the brilliant knowledge, was a bonus. I was now Jesse, and damn proud of it!

When we closed for the season, Derek hosted a meal in the Hall dining room. All of us girls, the gardeners, including my replacement, a very fit young man who had caught the eye of more than one of our group, some Trust people, and the family. It was a lovely meal, with a few kind words on how we had all helped make it a successful summer, after a couple of bad years of lockdowns and lack of crowds.

After that, the uniforms all went off to be properly cleaned and repaired, the jeans and sweaters came out, and we set to work cleaning the place. With scaffolding and a scissor lift in, we swept all the accumulated webs out from the high places and started moving the pictures around. The Rubens came out into the main hall and, by the time we had everything cleaned, it certainly looked different. It was a bit like listening to a CD. You get to know which song comes next, and then you hear it on shuffle, and it all sounds new.

It was then that we set to preparing for the short Christmas Season. While we had the scaffold in place, we added some tinsel around. The biggest job was in the Great Kitchen Restaurant, which was totally made over for the Christmas festivities. The gardeners brought in some Christmas trees, scattered around, and the place was really different. All the while, we had visitors in the grounds, taking part in the Winter Walks, and the Restaurant and shop remained open, now with winter stocks.

At the end of November, we presented our first run-through of the new tour, to an audience of the other girls, the gardeners, the family, staff, and some Trust guys. It went well, as we had done it several times already, in the evenings with no-one around. At the final portrait, I stood next to my likeness, and thanked everyone for listening, the Claudette and Sally joined me. This would be the final part, so that the customers could get pictures of the four of us. Yes, the four, I felt that the Lady D’Aubigny was with us, applauding every snippet that we imparted. We had rehung her portrait so that, when I stood in front, her head and shoulders were visible over my head. We had signed our new contracts, giving us a little more income but a lot more certainty.

The brochure had been printed, with me in the middle and the others on either side. There was even postcards ready to be sold in the shop. Over the whole process, the three of us had become friendly with the restaurant and shop staff, all of them sure that we’ll bring them more customers.

The beginning of December had us all back into full customer mode. The Winter Walks continued, and the house was open over four-day weekends. Starting on the first of December, the Advent trail was open, and the restaurant and shop stayed open. We had Breakfast with Santa, in the restaurant, and us girls acted as waitresses and general security. The hardest was making sure that the children didn’t run off into the hall. It was easier with the Teatime with Santa meals, as most of the children were getting tired by then.

In the middle of the month, we had a choral group one evening, so we acted as usherettes. In all, it was a lovely time. Derek had organised a pre-Christmas Christmas dinner, for us and our families. It was set down for the Saturday of the last weekend before Christmas, and we were to present our tour for them. The invites went out, and my parents replied, listing all three of my sisters and the two husbands, plus two of my younger sisters’ friends. They were to arrive before three, to view the house, have the tour, spend up big in the shop, and then pig out at the dinner.

The other girls were working, looking after our guests as they all arrived. At four, they were gathered at the starting point and the three of us came out in our dresses. I could see my family with phones flashing away. We started the tour and amazed the crowd with our knowledge. Well, we must have done well as I saw only four of them slink off during the event. When we arrived at the last portrait and said thank you, it was a barrage of flashes. I’m sure that my family bought enough postcards to give us a profit on the day.

After being mobbed by our relatives, the three of us went off to change into something suitable for dinner, then came out to help the others as they took turns to change out of the uniforms. By six, we had everyone in the restaurant and sitting down, with all of us girls in party dresses. The gardeners scrubbed up well, and they had a number of relatives with them. There was a general feeling of disappointment among the girls when we saw our fit young man had a wife and child with him.

I was at a table with my family, and answered all the questions from the two sisters that hadn’t seen my new self. One of the husbands was quite nasty, referring to me as ‘he’, until Dad admonished him. The general thought was that the tour we had put on would look good on TV. When the coffees had come around, the Curzon’s came in and he gave a speech about how well we had all done over the year, and how he was looking forward to the next summer season, when the tour they had seen would be a special ‘premium’ event. Before they left, I saw Lady C stop by Claudette, and then Sally, before arriving at our table. She said hello to everyone and congratulated my parents on having such beautiful, and intelligent, daughters. She then asked me to come to the hall on the Monday of the second week of January. She said there would be a bunch of her friends who wanted to film our tour.

I wished her a Merry Christmas and stood to give her a thank you hug for all her help. That took the smirk off my brother-in-law’s face, I can tell you. I could see Dawn about to burst, but Dad tapped his teaspoon on his cup and gave her such a look, she kept quiet. Her two pals were beside themselves, as well. When we finished, our families left us. We had another two days of visitors before the Hall was closed and we could go home for a holiday.

During the previous week, Sally had asked me for some money, saying she had seen something that we could give each other for Christmas. Tuesday morning, I packed up the MG as she packed up her car. She gave me a box, marked ‘Sally’ then we wished each other a Merry Christmas and gave each other the present. They were pendants in a Ying and Yang format, which snapped together, hers was the Ying, while I was Yang. We kissed and then she said that she had used left-over money to buy Claudette a pendant, which turned out to be a smaller, but complete Ying and Yang one, when we had given it to her. We had a group hug, said that we would meet up again in the second week of January, then left the Hall for our holiday.

Marianne Gregory © 2023

Part 4

It was odd to be back in my old room. It had, of course, been undergoing a change over the months, the wardrobe now filled with my summer clothes, giving room for the winter things at the Hall. I had brought enough winter things to see me through the holiday. The four of us had Christmas Day at home, me giving my parents and sister their gifts. I had been to the shops on the way home from the Hall and had them gift wrapped in the shop. I wasn’t fully girl, just yet.

Dawn was much more friendly, now. I could tell that life had been a lark for her before, but seeing me, the younger one, holding my audience in the palm of my hand, and then hugging Lady C as a friend, had brought it home to her that she was wasting her life. She had a job in the local fast-food joint, as did her friends, and had realised that spinning one’s wheels only produces smoke. She certainly didn’t have the aptitude to do guiding, but I knew that the shop had a reasonable turn-over of staff, and I said I’d see if a vacancy was likely.

Between Christmas and New Year, I had a strange experience, one that made me think about the road I was now travelling. I was in Derby and went into a chemists to get some foundation. While there, I added a blusher and a bright pink lipstick that was sitting on the shelf crying “Buy Me”. When I went to pay for them, I was surprised to recognise the guy behind the counter. He put my things in a bag, gave me the receipt from the card reader, and then said, “Happy New Year, Madam.”

Feeling wicked, I said, “And a Happy New Year to you, too, Terry.”

“You know me? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“Of course, you have, Terry, you sat next to me in Maths for three years in High School. You were one of the few that didn’t call me Jesse.”

“Edward, but you can’t be! He was a bit, well, foppish, but you’re beautiful.”

I waved the bag he had just given me.

“The secret is all in here, dear boy. I didn’t become beautiful, I just learned how to fake it. You do realise that if your little brother is still spotty, you have the answers here, in your shop.”

“He isn’t as spotty as he used to be. I’ll have to tell him that I’ve spoken to you. I’ll start from the top. Happy New Year, Jesse, will you go to the pictures with me, Saturday night?”

“You know, Terry, I think I will. Meet you at the Odeon Luxe foyer, say seven? You can book it.”

Saturday night, I drove into Derby and parked at the Meteor Centre, by the entrance of the cinema. As I walked in, I checked out my reflection in the windows. Jersey dress that clinged to my body, stockings, three-inch heels, hoops in the ears, my Yang pendant, and new rings that I had been given for Christmas; topped off with a thigh-length jacket and a shoulder bag, I felt every inch the woman I looked like. Goodness knows, it had taken me three hours to look like this.

Terry was waiting for me and hugged me when we met. He had tickets for a show that started at half-past eight, and a booking in the restaurant for seven. As far as I was concerned, he was well ahead on points. He took my hand and led me to the restaurant, where we were shown our seats. He couldn’t take his eyes off me as we perused the menu, then ordered a meal and drinks. The drinks came out, a beer for him and white wine for me. We clinked the glasses and he smiled.

“Jesse, you know that I know who you were. You’re not that person, now, and I want you to know that I have forgotten the previous you, forever. Back then, I admired you for the way you took the wind out of the bully’s sails by acting as if the nickname was a badge of honour. All I see now is a wonderful woman who I want to know better.”

“Terry, I’m happy that you think this way. This is the first date I’ve had with a guy, and I thank you for asking me out.”

Over the meal I found out that the chemist shop was his family business, and he found out what I was doing with myself. There was a lot to catch up on, we hadn’t seen each other for a good four or five years. He had always been friendly to me, in school. And hadn’t followed the example of the bullies. His little brother, Tommy, had been a year behind us, and quite a good artist. When we went into the cinema, I found that we had a mini settee, with side tables, and that he had organised a snack near the end of the film. It was a neutral movie, neither male nor female oriented, but halfway in between as well as being funny.

About a two-thirds of the way through, he put his arm around my shoulder, and I suddenly felt very comfortable. During a romantic scene, I turned my head as he turned his, and we kissed. It was nothing like kissing Sally. This was a firm and very nice kiss. It was a kiss that told me that I would like some more, so we kissed again. I knew that he knew he was kissing someone who had been a boy, but, to me, there was no doubt. I was a girl in my twenties, and I was kissing a guy, also in his twenties, and I liked it, a lot.

When we walked out, his arm around my waist, he said that he would get a taxi, so I said that my car was in the carpark. We walked to it, and he stood there with a big grin on his face.

“You’re a girl of many surprises, Jesse. That is a glorious car.”

“You should have seen it when we got it. It took me and Dad four years to get it looking like this.”

“You restored it yourself? Wow, it’s a great job.”

“Want to drive it?”

“Do I ever!”

He opened the passenger door for me and held my hand as I lowered myself into the seat. After he had closed the door, he got in and started it, easing us out into the city streets.

“Are you living with your parents?”

“At the moment, I live full-time at Kedleston, have done since July. I have to go back in early in January, as they want to make a film of a tour I do.”

“That’s interesting. If we go to my place, it’s only a couple of streets from yours. I’m sure you remember where I live.”

“Terry, dear boy, you were the only one to invite me to a birthday party. Of course, I know where you live.”

We travelled in relative silence, only the burble of the exhaust to mark our passing. I could see that he had fallen in love. With the car! At his house, he was slow to turn off and get out. He came around to my side and opened the door, then bent to help me stand. It was natural that, as I got upright, our faces were close together and we leant forward for a kiss. His arms went around my body and mine went around his neck and his tongue played hide and seek with mine. I could feel his excitement against my groin, and I wondered what I should do.

The moment was broken by a tapping on a window, and we parted to see his mother beckoning us in. We both laughed and I picked up my bag, locked the car and put the keys in.

“Now for the third degree, I think that she wants to know who I was kissing.”

He led me in, and his mother was in the hallway. I got in before she could say anything.

“Good evening, Mrs Brookes, I’m Jesse.”

“Call me Ada, young lady. No wonder Terry has been mooning about since he met you. He told me that he knew you from years ago.”

“Yes, we had some same lessons in High School, and I went from there to the University. It’s been a good few years since we last met. He was always friendly, but we didn’t truly connect until tonight. I’m sorry, I can’t stop, as my parents are expecting me home. I may be all grown up, but they still worry.”

“All right. Jesse, it’s nice to meet a girl who thinks of her parents.”

Terry led me back to the car and I unlocked it.

“Thank you for this evening, Terry, I really enjoyed it. The meal was great, the film was funny, and you’re wonderful.”

“How about coming out with me, again. There’s a New Years party that my parents have been invited to, in the city hall. I wasn’t going to go, but I would love it if you would come. I know where you live, so I’ll organise an Uber for the night. Say you’ll come.”

“Yes, Terry, all I need to know is the pickup time, that way I can give myself a few hours to get ready.”

“Let’s make it seven, at your house. It’s semi-formal.”

We kissed and I got in, fired up the car and drove the two streets home with a smile on my face. I felt a little guilty about Sally, but we hadn’t got any further than kissing and our relationship was as best friends, rather than lovers. Tonight, I had discovered how young ladies got into trouble. If I had the proper equipment, and we had the opportunity, I would have felt what it was to have him inside me, tonight, no questions asked. Semi-formal, he had said. I only had Monday to go before the party, and not all the stores would be open. This was a case for motherly advice.

I asked her about it on Sunday, and she set to planning our shopping trip. Looking up the dress shops on her phone, she made a list of four that would sell something suitable and would be open. Monday, I drove us into the city, and we hit the stores. Being a New Year do, the first thing we did was go to her usual salon, where they pencilled me in for later in the afternoon. Then we went looking. She insisted that I should get a little black dress, but it couldn’t be any little black dress. She knew Ada Brookes and knew the sort of party it would be. I paid a bit more for the dress than I would have liked, but it was beautiful, slinky, short, and had a top that was decent enough to hide the fact that I was wearing falsies. I had to buy a tee-shirt bra to smooth out the upper part, as well as new panties designed to not show lines.

At the salon, she took over and told the girls what to do. I came out with hair that was a lot lighter than I had gone in with, with streaks of auburn, and a bag of new cosmetics with the instructions on how to use them. They were certainly a step above the ones I had bought from Terry.

By seven, on New Years Eve, I was looking at my reflection in our hall mirror, to make sure nothing was amiss. Mum had fussed around me, giving me advice on how I should behave during the evening.

“Be casual, but classy. Those parties are all councillors and businesspeople. I know that they have a collection for a charity, but it will be your young man who pays. Don’t lose my emeralds, they were your grandmothers’. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, after midnight.”

I heard his steps to the door but held off answering it for a few moments. When I opened it, I saw him in a tux, and he looked very smart. I called out to my parents that I was off and heard them wish me a good time. He took my arm as he walked me to the Uber, opening the back door to help me in. When he got in, beside me, we were off to the city centre. He took hold of my hand and told me that I looked wonderful, so I told him that he looked good, himself.

At the hall, I waited until he had gone around to open the door for me, then he helped me out. I know that I could have done it all, myself, but I was playing my girl cards all the way. I knew he wanted to kiss me, so I murmured that I didn’t want to have to redo my lipstick until later. Arm in arm, we went in and left our coats at the desk. I could tell that I was way outside my usual comfort zone, whatever that may be nowadays. The gowns were sumptuous, the jewellery sparkled, and the air was filled with serious perfumes. My dress was in a minority, but a minority of girls my age, the older ones were in calf or ankle lengths, and it was all very Victorian, but without corsets. That, I could tell from the larger waists that populated the room.

He led me to where Ada and Fred were talking to the couple that ran the sweet shop. I thought it funny that I had to be introduced to them as Jesse Jamison, as I knew all of them well from my school days, wandering the town. We talked, we mingled, we sat and ate a meal, drank some wine and then it was time for speeches. As it was a civic occasion, the Mayor said nice words about the way the city had pulled itself out of bad times, and then announced that the charity auction was about to begin.

That consisted of a lot of goods and services donated by the very same people in the room, and I thought I noticed some of them overpaying for items that they had donated. I guess there’s a tax break in there, somewhere. Towards the end, the offering was tickets to the new sensation at Kedleston Hall, the History of the Hall and Family, through the Artworks. It was for a private, pre-season tour, with lunch, for fifteen. That’s when I saw the Lord and Lady, at a table. At the same time, my eyes and Lady C’s eyes met, and she stood up.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” she called. “I see that the presenter of this new tour is here tonight. Come on over, Jesse, and present the tickets to the winning bid.”

I smiled at the others at our table, who had stunned expressions, and stood to go to the front. There I was given a hug by both aristocrats and the bidding began. As I watched, I saw Ada talking to some of her friends at a nearby table and wasn’t surprised when she and Fred made the winning bid. I suspected that the cost would be shared around. With another hug from Lady C, after one from Terry, who had been sent up to take the tickets, I joined Terry to go back to our seats.

I could tell that something had changed. Previously, I had been a nice girl who her son was keen on, so graciously accepted, for now. When we sat back down, I had become the nice girl who was on first name basis with respected aristocrats, and also the named presenter of a new tour, different enough to be specially ticketed. The friends at the nearby table joined us as we went into the dance area for the arrival of midnight. Terry saw my dilemma in being pestered with questions and stayed close. We danced and stayed dancing until it was time for the countdown. At midnight we kissed for the first time that night, and again for the first time of the New Year.

As things wound down, we were approached by Lady C.

“Jesse, I have to say that I’ve never seen you so radiant as you are tonight. I see that it was your own knight in shining armour that collected his booty.”

“May I introduce Terry Brookes; his parents own the chemist shop in the High Street. I expect that the tickets will be used by a group of local shopkeepers.”

“Pleased to meet you Terry, and also pleased at who won the bids, it will be good to have the shopkeepers seeing the tour before summer. They may allow us to put posters in their windows. Why don’t you join us on Monday when Jesse starts filming the tour? She can show you the hall in a new light.” She grinned. “The state bedrooms are a sight to behold.”

Terry gulped. “Thank you, Your Ladyship. I’ll love to come and see Jesse then, I’ve always had an interest in films, and how they are made. I’ll get my brother to work in the shop.”

“Good boy. Stand by your girl and you can’t go wrong. I’ll see you both on Monday, about nine. Happy New Year to you both.” Then she gave us both a hug and joined her husband to say goodnight to the city fathers. Terry just stood there, dumbstruck.

“Come on, you good boy, you. You need to call up that Uber and take me home.”

He made the call, and I said goodnight to his parents, getting a hug from them both. Outside, while we waited for our ride we stood, face to face, with his arms around me, inside my coat. We kissed again and he whispered in my ear.

“Tonight, I danced with an angel and was hugged by a Lady. You certainly move in circles that I never suspected. How about another film, on Saturday night?”

“I have a better idea, how about you drive me, in the MG, out into the countryside and we can eat in a country pub and look over a wooded valley, sitting in the car and kissing.”

“You win. I had thought of that, but wondered if I was being too forward.”

The Uber arrived and we kissed, in the back seat, until we arrived home. He helped me out, we had a goodnight kiss, and I watched him get driven around the corner, wondering what had made me be so confident that I was his woman.

I went to pick him up on Saturday and let him drive. We didn’t end up overlooking a wooded valley after a pub lunch. Instead, we found ourselves sitting on a bench, overlooking Rutland Water, eating the fish and chips we had bought at a shop in Oakham. It was lovely, and we were quite alone, wrapped in our winter coats as it wasn’t the warmest of days. There, we talked about things and, finally, I spoke about the elephant in the room.

“You know that I was born as Edward. I still have my boy bits. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Jesse, those bits are well hidden. As far as I, and anyone else knows, you’re a lovely woman. I will say that I have no wish to see them, however.”

“That’s all right, I wasn’t happy for you to see them, anyway. Will you wait until I’m reworked?”

“I’ll wait for ever, until we can be truly man and woman. Surely there’s somebody you can see about this, you’ve been living as a girl for a good six months, now. Haven’t you consulted anyone?”

“I haven’t had time, plus I hadn’t realised that I wanted to go all the way before. It’s taken a possible future where being fully female may be advantageous.”

“Look, we have a list of doctors in the shop, with their specialities. I’ll look through it and give you some contact details. I believe that you need to be presenting as a woman for at least a year before they will do anything major, but the sooner you get referred, the sooner you can get on the list, and the sooner we can get married.”

“That sounds like the most convoluted proposal I’ve ever heard, but I will say yes, dependant on my transition being successful. I won’t hold you to it if I can’t come to you as a proper bride.”

We must have looked like a couple of Eskimos, there on the bench, in our big coats, with our lips locked together. He tasted of salt and vinegar chips, and I must have tasted the same, with a hint of lipstick. We spent the afternoon at the Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester, followed by a light meal in a local café. It was a wonderful day, and we parted, outside his house, after a kissing session, both sure in what we wanted for the future. It was a feeling that I had never had, before. It had been my birthday, but I hadn’t said anything, in case he got upset that he hadn’t bought me anything. What he had given me, though, was priceless. Someone, and something, to look forward to, for life.

He walked around to my house on Monday morning and drove us to the Hall. Although I loved driving the MG, it was nice to sit beside him and gaze at his profile as he concentrated on the road. As we pulled into the carpark, I was surprised to see Sally in a very concentrated smooching session with a slightly taller guy. As we stopped, she stepped back, looking a bit flushed. Terry looked at the guy and laughed, then got out of the car.

“Hey, Oscar, how are you, buddy?”

The two of them had a man hug, while I had got out to hug Sally.

“Jesse, you have no idea how worried I was when you found out that I had found a guy. Now, you turn up with a hunk of your own, and they know each other. It truly is a small world.”

“It’s all right, you’ll still be my BFF, even if I got jealous. Mine works in his fathers’ chemist shop, what about yours?”

“He’s a fireman. I met him at a dance in Derby over the holidays. Where did you meet yours?”

“He sat next to me in maths for three years in High School.”

“He knows about you and is still has the hots. Girl, you’ve struck lucky with that one.”

“I know, it’s a lovely experience. We discussed it on Saturday, and he told me that he would wait until I had transitioned.”

“Hold on, are you saying he’s already proposed?”

“It wasn’t a proposal, but an ambit claim. I said yes and await a proper ring with high expectation. By the way, I met our aristocrats at a civic do on New Years Eve. They had put up fifteen tickets for our new tour, with lunch. I had a quick look at them, and they were dated for the end of March, a week before we re-open for the summer.”

“This does mean a lot to them. We have to do our best.”

By then, the boys had run out of their own talk, and I was formally introduced to Oscar, who had played rugby with Terry, until Terry had to go and work in the shop. We led the boys into the Trust entrance, then down the corridors until we came out in the room which started the tour. There was quite a crowd there, setting up cameras and lights. I took one look and called out in a loud voice.

“Who is in charge, here?”

A guy held his hand up.

“Before you turn those lights on, you’ll have to reverse them and use reflectors. The pictures don’t like direct strong light. It’s a bit like the death of a thousand cuts, a little bit at a time builds up and, before you know it, the paint is brittle and starts to flake.”

“Thanks for that. I gather that you’re Jesse?”

“Yes, and this is Sally, one of our presenters. The two guys are Terry and Oscar and are here to help with anything you can use them for. Now, when do you want us to be in costume?”

“As soon as you like. We are going to shoot an introduction from Her Ladyship, first. I’ve looked at the number of shots we need, and I expect that we’ll be here all week, to produce a two-part show. I want to use it as a pilot for a series that I have been told will be called ‘The Effect of the Grand Tour on the Great Houses of Britain’. If it gets taken up, we’ll be filming at every place with a lot of paintings and sculptures in the country, if we get permission to film. The Trust has promised their full co-operation, so that’s a years’ worth of shows, straight away.”

I could sense Sally starting to panic beside me, so I just looked at him.

“That’s good, it will make it fit better for future shows. How do you want to work it?”

“Right, before you go and change, can you stand in front of the first picture, then move on to the rest that are in this room, when I tell you. We’ll measure the distance from the camera and check the lines. We will do the whole room, hopefully in one long take, which makes it look more spontaneous. We’ll then do any fillers that fit the narrative. Your call on that. Then, you get a break while we move to another room. It doesn’t matter what order we do it in, that will be rectified in post-production.”

“What about the Christmas tinsel and trees?”

“I’m told that the gardeners will have all the trees out today, the tinsel doesn’t matter as we’ll keep it out of shot.”

I did the movements as he called them, with Terry and Oscar running a tape out from the camera and calling out the distance. The camera was quite a way from the wall, so they could cover the whole thing from one place. Sally and I then went off to get changed.

“Where’s Claudette?” she cried. “She should be here by now. I’m going to give her a call.”

She put her phone on to speaker as she dialled. When Claudette answered, Sally pleaded.

“Claudette, where are you, girl? They’re nearly ready to start filming.”

“Sorry, Sally. I went on a skiing holiday and had an accident. I’m in a French hospital with an arm broken in two places. I did call Derek and leave a message. You’ll have to do the filming with just the two of you. Have to go, the doctors are coming along the ward, love you both, bye!”

Marianne Gregory © 2023

Part 5

I hugged Sally and told her that she would easily cover the topics. We had done enough of these tours, now, for all three of us to be able to repeat the lines.

“Look, with the new slant on the narrative, there won’t be many places for the building details. What they’ve said is the title of my thesis, I could do ten hours of that with my eyes shut, it took up three years of my life. Come on, let’s get dressed and go out there and slay them in the aisles.”

When we got back, a girl fitted me with a tiny microphone, with the transmitter just a small box that sat in the front of my bra. She then sat me in a corner to give my face some extra make-up, so I didn’t shine under the lights. Then I was positioned at the starting point and the director called action!

I had the first lines of my thesis ready to go, and started the narrative with a comment on how the Grand Tour changed the interiors of grand houses, it also improved the knowledge of the owners of those houses, and of all those that have visited them since. I then spoke about the painting I stood beside; then moved on to the portrait of the man who had brought it back, moving through the edited tour as smoothly as I could. At the end of my talk, beside the last painting in the room that was on my list, I just stood and heard “Cut!”

Then things were re-arranged. The main camera was taken to the next room, while a second one was set up in front of a sculpture that Sally would describe. I watched as she did that, with altered words to match the new tone of the show. I left her to her job and went to where the camera was being fixed, did the measuring procedure, then we did that room, taking two set-ups to get all of the pictures in. As that camera was moved, along with the lights, to the next room, Sally came in, followed by her crew, to film those sculptures and ceramics that were here.

I had a quick word with her, and she told me that she now had the tone of the talk, after having to repeat the first bit three times. She said that the crew didn’t seem to mind and had encouraged her as she moved on with other set-ups. In the end, including lunch, we completed three rooms, and the director was happy. He finally got around to telling me his name was Scott Bradley, and that we had done better than he had expected. By the end of the day, Terry and Oscar were seasoned hands, knowing what to carry and what to leave alone.

Back in our normal clothes, Sally and I decided to go somewhere nice for dinner, and the boys were happy with that. Both guys praised our composure and performance, and both were caught up in the excitement of making a film. Terry said that his brother would have to work in the shop all week, so that he could continue. Oscar was back on duty so wasn’t able to come back tomorrow.

On Tuesday, we had to redo two of my positions, and one of Sally’s, due to poor lighting and, in one case, tinsel in the shot. We did those with the small crew that followed Sally, while the main camera was set up in another room. That set the tone for the week; we filmed three rooms a day, catching up on the reject shots after they had seen the results in the comfort of a studio. When I got to my final picture, I described how she had arrived at the Hall, smiled, and finished with, “And she has never left.” I stood there and the director asked me to stay still, then told me to walk away, while I could see the camera still rolling. It did so for nearly a minute before he called “Cut” and the crew all slapped each other’s backs and smiled a lot.

Friday was simple, we had four shots that needed redoing and then I was free of the long dress, which had proved a bit warm under the lights. We had lunch and Scott came up to Sally, Terry, and me, as we were talking.

“Jesse, I have to say that it’s been a pleasure working with you two, this week. You’ve done everything we asked, without question, and the result looks fantastic. Terry here has been a real help and he is welcome on my sets whenever he’s able. To tell you the truth, I heard him talking to Jim, our cameraman, about angles, and a few of the things he asked about made Jim change things, for the better. If we do another house, I’ll let him try out on the second crew. I have to cobble the show into some sort of order. We will do it as two, half-hour episodes and another as a full one hour. That way, we can give a prospective customer a choice. I’m going to pitch it to the BBC and the History Channel. If anybody takes it up, it’s likely to be for the end of the year. If they want a series, we’ll need to film the other episodes over this summer, so that the series could show next summer.”

“Thank you, Scott,” Terry grinned. “I’ll talk to my Dad this weekend about getting time off from the shop so that I can take up that offer. It’s been a fantastic week and I’ve learned a lot.”

“That’s good. By the way, what happened to the other lad, Oscar?”

“He’s a fireman,” Sally said. “He works in Nottingham and had to go back on shift. He told me that Monday was an eye-opener for him, as well. I think he may have caught the movie bug.”

“Tell him that if we start filming a series, we’ll need a fire warden on set in the old houses. You have one here, who has been keeping an eye on us, but I don’t think that every house has one, especially if we get asked to work in the privately owned ones.”

I went to have a word with the shop manager, who told me that she didn’t have any vacancies, but to talk to Doris, the Restaurant Manager, who usually does need extra staff. I did so and found out that my sister could start in two weeks, if she wanted. I told Doris I would talk to her, and, if she was still keen, would bring her in next week for an interview. Then we left, with another week before we were back in the house full time. There was more cleaning up to do, now, after the Christmas opening, and we then had to prepare for Easter, when we would be doing Egg Hunts in the grounds. After that, it was just weekends until the beginning of March and the Summer Season.

Terry had to do extra time in the shop, to placate Tommy and their father, so I didn’t see much of him for several days. I spoke to Dawn, and took her into the Hall on the Monday, leaving her with Doris while I went to my room to pick up a few things that needed cleaning. When I got back, it was smiling all round. There was a place for her that she had the skills for, in the kitchens. The Restaurant served all sorts of food, all day, and her fast-food expertise was well respected. The thing for her was that it was steady work, with no night shifts, and with older customers. For me, it was getting her away from her useless friends.

We all met up on the Monday, at the Hall. I took Dawn, and would take her home, until she got a car of her own. I could stay at home until we were into the Easter preparations. That’s how the first part of year unfolded, going in, doing my bit, and going home. My sister grew up several years in two months, becoming the woman she should have been, without the distractions. She became a solid member of the Restaurant staff and was happy.

It also made a difference at home. Mum now felt that she could trust her not to fill the house with her friends if they went away. They started planning a holiday, the first they had taken in several years. With me going home, Terry would often come around for dinner and we would take time to cuddle on the sofa. He had given me a list of doctors and I had been able to see one, who had been very helpful and supportive. I was now on a regime of blockers and hormones, that made me feel odd some days and weepy on others. Mum told me that I was having sympathy turns as the other two women in the house went through their periods, something that I had never considered to be part of my own future.

In the week after Easter, we had a visit from Claudette. She brought her new husband to show us. We knew that she had a French mother, thus her name, but now found out that she spoke fluent French and had been an Easter bride, in Toulouse, where she had married Jaques, one of the doctors that had treated her after her accident. They were in Britain as part honeymoon, part collecting all of her things, before going back to France to live. We all had a Saturday evening meal, where she met Terry and Oscar, telling us that we had both found keepers.

Two weeks after that, the Restaurant had a big screen set up, and we were all invited to a meal. There was all the girls, the gardeners, Derek, a few Trust guys, and the family. The film that we had done was shown before we ate. It opened with Lady C in the family drawing room, telling the audience that she was inviting them to go on a journey into history, with this show featuring her own family home of Kedleston Hall. Then it cut to a vista of the façade, before zooming in on the main doors, with a brief overview of the history of the house. The next shot was me, starting my talk, and it worked through the whole thing, with Sally coming in to describe the sculptures, ceramics, and their place in history. I was amazed at how smooth it all went. We saw the one-hour version, with the final shot of me, talking about the Lady D’Aubigny. When I said that she had never left, I slowly faded into nothingness while the Lady stayed smiling as the credits ran.

There was applause, with hugs all round. Scott then stood and congratulated all of us for our work, thanked the family for the opportunity to film here, then he said.

“I can tell you now. The BBC have given us a contract for this, and eight other shows, each running for half an hour. The History Channel wants us to do twelve, one-hour shows with this being the first. The money is on the table, and we now have some shows to plan!”

There was a babble after that. I was shocked, and I saw that Sally was as well. I didn’t know what to think. We had featured highly as the presenters in the credits, a list that was much longer than the numbers we had filming. Even Terry and Oscar got named as grips. I did notice that the program had Trust Authorisation. That would have been a feather in the cap for Derek.

Dawn had tears in her eyes as she brought out mine and Sallys’ meal. She told us that the whole kitchen was happy with us, and that she was especially proud of her clever sister. I can tell you that the clever sister wasn’t feeling so clever at the moment. I think that the two of us were numb, with the effect of what we had just seen, sinking in. Neither of us had picked up a piece of cutlery. I looked at Sally, and she looked at me.

“Well, Best Friend Forever, we’ve gone and done it now, haven’t we.”

“We sure did, Sally. It was a shock, seeing us there on the screen, looking like all those other fashionable women on the box. At times I thought I was looking at someone else.”

“It did look good, though, and the altered wording made it a bit less like the tour, and more like a couple of shows on famous places that I’ve seen.”

We then turned our attention to the food, a simple meal of a stockman’s pie and some veg, covered in gravy. We both left half of it, still spooked by what we had seen. Looking around, I saw that the Trust guys were in deep conversation with Derek, and Scott was almost head-to-head with Brian, the lawyer. We were drinking coffee when Brian came over and pulled out a chair to sit with us.

“That was a very polished performance, you two, and Scott tells me that you nailed most of it in one go, with most of the retakes his fault. He wants to work with you both into the future. I’ve told him that you were contracted to the Hall until the end of next year, but we would be happy to release you during the week to go and make films. The family are over the moon with what has happened, and they are only taking reservations for weekend special tours.”

“I did start to wonder about that,” I said. “Our tour, and that show, was more than a quick thing. The content was the result of three years at Uni, and another six months in planning. He’s going to have to have a good team doing the research, and then give us at least a week to work out our approach. We won’t be doing any future recording in period dress, although I think we will continue to wear long dresses, something a bit lighter would be good.”

“The timing is close to what I insisted on. He is happy with that and tells me that his team is second to none. You’ll get paid the going rate for presenters, while you are on set, and he will start by paying you for the five days here. I have given him your payment details, so expect something in your bank soon. He’ll get back to us with papers for you to sign, as well as a likely set of filming dates. He’s very keen on this, and from what I saw, today, I don’t blame him.”

After he left, the seat was taken up by Derek.

“I have to thank you two. The executive have asked me to join them, in head office, to work on pepping up the properties across the country. My first job is to provide Scott with a short list of likely places. I clear out of here, tonight, and they’ll appoint a new guy before the Summer Season. None of this would have happened without you. I’ll make sure that many doors are opened to you as you move on, and I look forward to seeing you both grace my screen.”

As he stood, so did we, to give him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, telling him that he had been the best, and deserved everything that has occurred. I then sat there, looking around and thinking of how my life had slowly changed since I came to work here, less than a year ago. Somehow, I had been urged into presenting as a woman, made use of my studies, found some very good friends and one special boy, and was now being put into the role as a TV presenter of art in great houses. As something to test the media, I got my phone and typed Kedleston Hall, getting thousands of hits, most of the ones I looked at having a picture of me, some with the tag of “the cute new tour guide with brains”. That was a bit different! I considered the possibility of getting bleached. Would the tag then be “cute guide performs frontal lobotomy!”

I was stuck, I had been shown my future. As far as my life went, the moving finger had moved on. Nothing would change the past year, and there was no way I could do anything different without disappointing a lot of people. That’s when I realised that if I didn’t follow the path I had been shown, the one with the most disappointment would be me!

Over the next couple of weeks, we set up the old planning room to work on new projects. It was odd to be doing all of this without Claudette, but we just had to make the best of it. Scott dropped in with Brian and we signed new contracts as presenters, being paid for our time in front of the camera as well as for us to bill the production company for our time spent getting a script together. The money, which he said was on the table, gave us enough to bring in a good computer and a printer/scanner. With the first set of paperwork from his researchers, we got stuck into producing a script for the next house to be explored. I had asked him to get the researchers to look at the other people who had visited and worked in the houses, along with any significant differences in the surrounding area to areas without a great house.

Just before we opened, we had the winning ticket holders for the tour and meal. Over the past few weeks, Terry had been a little withdrawn and I was starting to wonder if he was cooling down. I needn’t have worried, as all was revealed that day. Ada and Fred told me that they had sold the shop to a large chain, and it will be demolished, along with the whole row of shops, to make way for a hypermarket. That was why all the shopkeepers were in a good mood, most of them being close to retirement age and happy to be rid of the worry.

The tour went well, and I saw Tommy with his phone, taking lots of pictures. I spoke to him at the lunch, and he told me that he wanted to start painting, seriously. I said that we had a big workroom where he could set up an easel if he wanted. I took him and showed him the room. It wasn’t the best for light, but he said that he had portable lights he could use. We started the season with me taking Dawn to work and Terry took Tommy in his car. Terry helped us with the planning, from floor plans of the next batch of houses, while Tommy started working on a painting, taken from a picture of me in front of the Lady D’Aubigny.

Over that summer, we had a week of planning sessions, followed by a week of filming, where we all stayed in the house we were at, or else a hotel not far away. Weekends were generally two tours a day, one before lunch and one before dinner. On the shoots, we all got into a pattern, Terry was now spending a lot of time on the second crew, behind the camera, and the usual cameraman was working with a hand-held, getting general scenes of the house we were visiting. Oscar was on the payroll as the fire-warden and also a general handyman. I did my bits, one picture at a time, as we couldn’t move things around to create a natural timeline. Sally did the same.

We did these shows in tea dresses, calf length and light material, and had no problems with the heat under the lights. After a while, those dresses seemed to become our trademark, different ones for each house. The summer sped by, with us being busy, but we didn’t mind. We were planning our fifth house when Scott came by walking into our workroom with a big smile on his face.

“Girls, great news. I’ve shown two of the new shows to our customers and they’ve commissioned a second series. On top of that I’ve had a phone call from a big French Channel, asking us if we could do the shows dubbed in French. Of course, I said we could, the money they offered will fund a translator and you can just do the sound in a studio, while watching the vision.”

We congratulated him on the momentous events, and he then noticed a couple of Tommy’s pictures that we had put on the wall, then went over to where Tommy was working on a painting, taken from a photo he had taken at our second house. I could see the light bulb appear over his head. Before he left us, Tommy was on the payroll as our illustrator, with Scott planning to use his pictures as the lead-out and lead-in to likely advertising breaks. As he said, “You cover the chances, and you look as if it’s all been planned.”

We worked at the Hall, and in the field, through to Christmas and the December festivities. I was much more organised, this time, and had bought presents for all my loved ones, before time and in proper shops. My doctor was really happy with me, my breasts were growing, and my skin was much smoother. I had regular visits to the salon, so my facial hair was now non-existent, while my crowning glory was now, indeed, a glory to behold, if a pain in the butt to keep looking good. By this time, a lot of the things I needed to do to remain a good-looking woman were now second nature, and I had become accustomed to spending hours before a date to get ready. I loved it all, though.

After Christmas, a number of things happened to move me further along the road. I was approved for SRS later in the year, Sally asked me to be her Maid of Honour at her wedding to Oscar, and the original film was scheduled for screening. The first half-hour was to go on the BBC after Easter, and, at the same time, the first one-hour version was to be seen on the History Channel, both here, and in the U.S.A.

The first thing was expected, and, once we had a date, my work was shifted to take it in. The second was the easy one, just a frilly dress and help my best friend achieve married life. Was I ever wrong with that!

There were so many things about a wedding that I hadn’t known, hadn’t bothered to learn, or simply hadn’t cared about. It was almost worse than the final exams at Uni, and we only had two months to get it right. It was a whirlwind of dress finding, salon choosing, car booking, church trial runs, special girlie evenings, cake purchase, reception organisation, the list went on and on. It took my mind off of the upcoming operation I had booked for a week after the wedding.

As occasions go, the wedding was something that I had never imagined. I had been to a few, granted, but never at the centre of the action. It was fortunate that Terry was the Best Man, as he was a real help on the day. I had often wondered why a girl would wear a huge dress that was impossible to control, but found out, that day, that it was because it looked so damn good in the photos, as well as needing several helpers to move you around. The attention was intoxicating!

The second thing, that took place a week after, was both wonderous and awful at the same time. It was painful, embarrassing, messy and not good to look at for some weeks. After that I was in a new world where I looked like I now felt, was able to strip in changing rooms, and could shop for ‘delicates’ without blushing. When the next Summer Season started, I was ready to take it on.

That summer we filmed the second series, for both channels, and employed Claudette to be our translator, being able to give the script an informed tone. Sally and I did the speaking, which gave us another string to our bows. We both had school French, but the technical terms had never been covered. The French language shows went out in Autumn.

By the end of summer, we were getting requests for interviews, invites to openings, queries about being part of new projects, a lot of paperwork came in. Dawn was our part-time secretary, and Tommy helped out, organising publicity photos of Sally and me that we signed. We did our last special tour at the end of summer, then started training up a few of the regular girls to take over the year after. We had fulfilled our contracts, and everyone was happy.

Before all that, however, I was dolled up in another impossible dress to be married to Terry, now that we could truly become man and wife. We did trial my new equipment for some months before the event, just to make sure it worked. It wasn’t as if I could get pregnant.

That winter saw us renting a space in the same building as Scott. We were now part of his production team. The tone of the second series had moved, where we could, into the lives of the ordinary people that had worked in the houses, soaking up culture that was well out of the ordinary. There was also a long list of well-known artisans who had gained a foothold because of work they had done in houses that were exhibiting a definite European attitude.

We now worked closely with his research teams, often joining them when visiting likely houses. We started with an offshoot series, discussing the art and objects in museums and galleries that had benefitted from the largess of the owners of the grand houses. Then we worked on a series that explored the lives of great artists who had started out selling small paintings to the tourists of the day, then becoming the ‘Old Masters’.

As we were doing all that, Sally fell pregnant and decided that she would rather work in the background, leaving me out front as the presenter. I was, by now, well able to hold my own in front of the camera, as well as discussing our shows in interviews. I started doing talks about art, and was often invited to talk on the radio, whenever an expensive painting was coming up for sale.

There had been a show, on the TV, about fake pictures and the ways that could prove a genuine one. We started a similar one called “Real or Rubbish” and invited viewers to bring us artworks to work with, picking out the ones that were very realistic, or the real thing, to film the process. Then I was asked to be an art expert on the “Roadshow”. It was regular work, through summer, and I did that for more years than I could have ever hoped for.

Dawn blossomed in the restaurant and went on to take more studies in cooking. After a few years, she came on board with us as our catering manager, eventually being in the same position on the ‘Roadshow’ team. She also went on TV as the host of a show called ‘Britain’s Best Burgers!’ She married a chef and produced more grandchildren for our parents to spoil.

Tommy became a respected artist. It was odd, at a ‘Roadshow’ many years later, to have someone bring me one of his early works that they had bought. It was from that first rush of energy, and I was the subject, looking at a painting. And talking about paintings; we did a show from the grounds at Kedleston. I did a segment talking about the Hall and its contents, then meeting up with the current Lord to discuss, and value, the Lady D’Aubigny. He had been a toddler when I worked there and the shoot ended with us standing next to the portrait, with him holding up one of the original postcards.

I had to thank that time when there were no outfits in my size. I doubt that I would have had the career that I ended up with, had I worked, that day, as my male self. I had become the expert that the auction houses called in for advice, and the social media was full of pictures of me in a variety of shows and events, hanging on Terry’s arm.

We have two, adopted, children, and they used to play with Sally and Oscar’s three until they got old enough to go off to University. All five children are brainy and will do well. My son wants the MGTF to drive to Uni, but Terry will never give it up. He says that it’s a blast to drive a very recognisable car, especially as it had featured in the new opening shots of the ‘Roadshow’ for some years.

The finger had truly moved on, and there were no words that I cried over, as nothing in my life needed to be washed away.

Marianne Gregory © 2023