Hayley made her way along the winding drive to Hadleigh Manor for the second time in the last four weeks. She still couldn’t believe she’d secured the job of housekeeper to a record producer and his wife. Apparently Michael and Belinda Philips were well known on the celebrity circuit, even though Hayley had never heard of them before, so securing this job was a dream come true. The only downside was that she was on a two-month trial, on probation, and she was going to have to prove herself in that relatively short period of time or risk being made redundant from a job she was really excited about.
Lugging her suitcase up the stone steps to the imposing Victorian building, she walked through the front door – which she was surprised to find open – and looked about the large hall.
Gold discs and photographs of rock bands – some she recognised and held in awe, some she didn’t recognise at all – lined the walls, and an electric guitar lay on a burgundy chaise longue which stood against one wall, hardly in keeping with the nineteenth century surroundings. There was a tall vase of dying flowers on a circular table in the centre of the hall, and the table itself was dusty, both of which indicated that they certainly did need a housekeeper. With rock music pulsing from somewhere deep in the bowels of the house, Hayley recalled the interview a month previously.
Michael Philips apparently worked very hard, and he never wanted to be disturbed when he was working. Belinda Philips was a night owl and tended to sleep in until late in the morning. They led busy lives, deadlines were always tight, and so they were never to be interrupted or distracted unless previously requested. During the interview Hayley got the distinct impression that Michael Philips did most if not all of the work and Belinda Philips did the socialising. He earned the money, and she was hostess to the rock stars and the agents and the record companies.
Hayley did not want to get off to the worst possible start by disturbing either of them, so climbing the stairs to the top floor she pushed open the door to the attic bedroom they’d shown her during her previous visit and dumped her suitcase on the bed. Smiling contentedly to herself, she looked out of the dormer window and cast her eyes over the extensive grounds of Hadleigh Manor. There was money here, she thought, watching the elderly gardener pushing a wheelbarrow across the vast lawn. Far removed from the small cottage in the village where she’d grown up, this was paradise. Far away from her old mundane job at the village bakery, this was a completely new world and she was determined to do well and stay for a very long time.
Hayley’s room was small but well fitted with a pine wardrobe, a small television, a washbasin and a chest of drawers. A compact hi-fi unit and a selection of CDs stood on a pine corner table, and books lined the shelves above the bed, which looked very comfortable. This was to be her new home, she thought happily, opening her suitcase.
Hanging her clothes in the wardrobe, the white blouses her mother had bought her, and the knee-length black skirts, she reminded herself that she was on probation. With no experience of such a position and no references apart from Mrs Watford’s glowing report of her work at the bakery, Hayley was a little surprised that she’d landed herself the position of housekeeper at Hadleigh Manor. There must have been countless girls who’d have leapt at the chance of working for Michael Philips the record producer, so what was special about her? Despite her delight at being here, her natural lack of confidence allowed doubts to creep in. Why had she been offered the job even though she could offer no relevant experience or adequate qualifications? Ah well, whatever the reason she wasn’t complaining and she must be positive, and she didn’t want to let her new employers down; again thinking how fortunate she was, she also knew the job wasn’t going to be easy. But she was used to hard work and it didn’t scare her.
Mrs Philips had said that Hayley would have little time for going out and socialising, but having lived in a rural village community all her life she’d never really had the opportunity to socialise much anyway. There wasn’t a great deal to do in a small place amid square miles of countryside, and according to Mrs Philips, things wouldn’t be any different at Hadleigh Manor. Apparently the local pub was three miles away, and as Mrs Philips had so eloquently put it, it was teeming with the area’s lowlife. The local pub, as Hayley was told in no uncertain terms, was strictly out of bounds to her.
Hayley had never travelled too far from her home village before. She was a happy girl who’d always enjoyed simple pleasures like reading, listening to music, walking in the countryside and watching television. But working for Michael Philips, a famous record producer, arranging parties for celebrities and such like, was just the beginning of what promised to be an exciting future.
Placing her underwear in the chest of drawers, she span round as a floorboard creaked behind her. Glancing around the room she felt as if someone was watching her. There was no one there, but she had the distinct feeling that eyes were upon her. It was a large and very old house, she thought, closing the drawer. There were bound to be creaking doors and floorboards, making her feel a little creepy, but with Michael Philips working long hours in the basement and his wife sleeping in late, she was going to have to get used to being alone.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ Belinda Philips said coldly, appearing in the open doorway in just her bra and knickers.
‘Good morning, Mrs Philips,’ Hayley said politely, smiling at the woman who was one of her new bosses. ‘I’m just unpacking and then I’ll go downstairs and...’
‘Well can you please unpack quietly?’ Belinda Philips snapped, gingerly lifting her hand to her head and frowning. ‘And before you carry on with anything go and make me a coffee and bring it up to my bedroom.’
Asking Belinda whether she took sugar – to which the answer was an impatient no, and no milk either – Hayley felt a little uncomfortable as she couldn’t really help but look anywhere but at the woman’s near naked body. She was probably in her thirties, attractive with long black hair, her cleavage between full breasts was deep, and she had a small jewel adorning the indent of her navel. She looked feminine and warm, but she came across as indifferent and cold. Like an icicle, Hayley thought as she found her way down to the kitchen and filled the kettle.
Michael Philips had given her a brief tour of the house after the interview, and she managed to remember her way around pretty well. The basement was out of bounds; that had been stressed in no uncertain terms. It apparently housed the studio, and no one but no one was to venture down there without the express permission of Mr or Mrs Philips – and that was highly unlikely to be given. Hayley had a lot to learn and a lot to remember; she had to familiarise herself with the vast house and the general running of it. But this was only her first day – only her first hour, in fact. Surprised that she could only find instant coffee, she spooned some into a mug and poured in the boiling water, believing she’d settle in to the house and her duties within a few days.
Taking the hot drink upstairs, Hayley tapped on Belinda’s bedroom door before entering. The double bed with its brass bedstead was almost lost in the huge room. With the curtains drawn and the aroma of incense hanging in the air, Belinda was in bed with her hands covering her face, and she looked as though she was in pain, Hayley thought, placing the coffee on the bedside table. Clearly someone had overindulged in the evils of drink, as her mother was known to say.
‘No, no,’ Belinda huffed impatiently, finally lowering her hands and gazing at Hayley. ‘What on earth are you wearing, girl?’
‘I haven’t had time to change yet,’ Hayley replied sheepishly, looking down at her T-shirt and jeans. ‘I was unpacking when you asked me to make you your drink.’
‘Go and get changed at once,’ the woman grumbled. ‘Get changed and then come back here and show me. And be quick about it.’
Leaving the room and closing the door behind her, Hayley thought Belinda somewhat unreasonable. The woman knew she’d only just arrived and hadn’t finished unpacking yet, let alone had time to change and settle in. But returning to her room she hoped she’d not annoyed her new employer in their first encounter. That was the last thing she wanted to do on her first day.
Putting Belinda’s bad mood down to a severe hangover, Hayley slipped her jeans and T-shirt off and opened the wardrobe. Again having the unsettling feeling that she was being watched, she turned and looked at the door, but it was closed and she was definitely alone in the small room – as she knew she was. And yet...
No, she was being stupid, she told herself, slipping into a white blouse and black skirt, and then sitting at her dressing table she sighed. She wasn’t unattractive, she thought, eyeing her reflection in the mirror and cocking her head to one side, smiling, displaying perfect white teeth, her blue eyes sparkling, so it was a shame and a frustration that she’d never yet had a boyfriend of any consequence. But now she was living and working at Hadleigh Manor, would she perhaps meet and fall in love with a famous rock star?
Although she was twenty-two years old, she’d never really had the chance to meet young men. But that was because she’d only known her home village where the average age was sixty-odd. There had been a couple of lads there she quite fancied, but they’d both moved to London to find work. Village life had been quite lonely, truth be told, but hopefully she’d find a little excitement now, she mused, returning to Belinda’s bedroom to show off her new attire as ordered.
‘Your hair is supposed to be loose, not tied back,’ Belinda complained in exasperation as Hayley stood beside the bed. ‘And this is instant coffee. We keep this crap for unwelcome visitors and staff. Go down and make me a decent cup of the real stuff. Good God, I do hope you’re not going to be as useless as the last girl!’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hayley replied, realising that she did have a lot to learn, but also feeling aggrieved that the woman was talking to her in such a demeaning manner.
‘Have you forgotten what I told you at the interview?’
Hayley frowned uncertainly. ‘Er... no ma’am, I don’t think so.’
‘I distinctly remember telling you about the coffee. If you can’t remember something as simple as that you won’t get very far with us. I’m unimpressed, to say the least.’
Back in the kitchen Hayley again recalled the interview. She knew she should have worn her hair down, as Belinda had mentioned that was the way she liked her female staff to wear it. She was to call her, ma’am, and her husband, sir. She was to wear a little make-up, but not too much. She was to wear black shoes and dark stockings, and her black skirts and white blouses were to be crisply laundered at all times. But there had been no mention of Belinda’s coffee preferences, of that she was certain.
Filling the filter before wandering through the backdoor into a small walled yard, Hayley looked up at the clear blue sky and inhaled the crisp fresh air. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, reminding her of home. Was her mother hanging out the washing in the back garden? She missed her home already, she thought, hoping Belinda Philips would brighten up later. She’d seemed warm and friendly during the interview, so perhaps it was just the hangover.
‘Ah, Hayley,’ Michael Philips said, wandering into the kitchen and looking out into the yard.
‘Good morning, sir,’ she said brightly. ‘Would you like some coffee? I’ve just put some on for Mrs Philips.’
‘No thanks, not for me.’ He frowned, as if troubled by something. ‘Is she awake yet?’ he asked.
‘She?’ Hayley echoed, following him back into the kitchen. ‘Oh, your wife. Yes sir, she is awake but in a bit of a bad mood, I think.’
‘Is she complaining about everything?’ he asked.
‘I’m sorry, sir?’
‘Has she started complaining about everything yet?’
‘Um, no, no she hasn’t.’ Hayley was a little baffled by the comments of her new boss.
‘She will, believe me,’ he sighed despondently. ‘But don’t worry too much; her bark’s much worse than her bite.’
Pouring Belinda’s coffee as her employer grabbed a biscuit, Hayley concealed a smile. He seemed a little frightened of his wife, so perhaps her bite was actually worse than her bark!
But they were a good-looking couple, she pondered. He was still pretty dishy even though he must have been around fifty, and with plenty of money they should be very happy – unless the age difference was a bit of a problem. Probably they were happy together, she thought, smiling at her boss as he munched on his biscuit and studied her.
‘Have you settled into your room okay?’ he asked.
‘Well, I haven’t really had the chance to—’
‘Good, good, I’ll be up to see you later for a chat,’ he cut in before she had the chance to fully answer him. ‘I’m rather busy with the plebs at the moment. They’re a spotty bunch of teenagers who’ve formed a band.’
‘That’s an unusual name for a band,’ Hayley chuckled. ‘The Plebs.’
‘No, no,’ he laughed, ‘that’s what I call them, that’s not their name. But their music’s good, and that’s why I’m producing them. Anyway, I’ll see you later.’
He seemed nice enough, Hayley thought. Looking casual and relaxed in jeans and a T-shirt, his greying hair brushed back from his tanned face, he was quite a rugged man and not the type to be afraid of a woman. But there again, looks could be deceptive. And he was very well spoken, which wasn’t in keeping with Hayley’s idea of the world of rock music. Perhaps she’d watched too much television.
Plucking up the courage to take volatile Belinda’s coffee up to her, she took a deep breath, left the kitchen, and climbed the stairs again. Her bark was worse than her bite, she told herself. And she certainly hoped so, she mused ruefully, knocking on the bedroom door and entering.
Belinda was in the en-suite shower, so Hayley placed the tray on the bedside table and made a hasty retreat. Back in her room she finished unpacking and sat at her dressing table and toyed with her long blonde hair, which she’d always tended to wear tied back. But that wasn’t what Belinda wanted, so releasing the band, her golden locks cascading over her shoulders, she shook her hair loose. Then applying a little make-up she prayed that she now looked right for the finicky woman. Hair loose, white blouse, black skirt... in the world of rock music she’d thought things would be pretty laid back, with wild parties and music and drinking going on all the time. But perhaps she was out of touch – or perhaps she’d never even been in touch.
Belinda obviously wasn’t easy to please, but Hayley was prepared to do her best to win her round. After all, this was her probation period and she needed to impress. With lunchtime nearing she checked the notes Belinda had given her at the interview. A light lunch was to be prepared, preferably a nice salad, at one o’clock every day. Wondering why the timing was so precise, she went down to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Perhaps they had to fit everything in with appointments, she pondered, opening the salad drawer. After all, they must both lead pretty hectic lives.
Preparing a ham salad, Hayley decided to spend the afternoon familiarising herself with the kitchen and taking stock of the supplies. She was to order groceries from a Mr Jones, and his phone number was on the fridge. Meat and dairy products came from Mr Tomlinson and everything else was to be ordered from the nearest town’s supermarket. Belinda had said that Hayley wasn’t to go shopping, which she’d found rather odd. Everything was to be delivered.
Setting the dining room table, Hayley checked her watch. It was bang on one o’clock and she’d prepared two ham salads with brown bread and butter. Perfect, she thought, making some final adjustments to the knives and forks, positioning them just so. Then again climbing the stairs to Belinda’s room she tapped on the door, but there was no reply, and opening the door and entering, discovering that Belinda wasn’t there, she wondered what to do. She had to get this right, she thought anxiously, and Belinda might not be aware of the time. Descending the stairs again it dawned upon her just how quiet the house now was. There was now no deep pound of the base music from the basement, and not a sound disturbed the still air.
Having followed her orders to the letter and prepared lunch for one o’clock, she decided to take a quick break and look around the grounds before taking stock in the kitchen. If her bosses had become sidetracked and weren’t aware of the time, then there was nothing she could do about it. Lunch was on the table, she’d done her job, and that was all that mattered. Whether they chose to eat it or not was up to them.
Walking through the small yard she passed beneath an archway in the brick wall and gazed across the expanse of manicured lawns to a wooded area beyond. The grounds were beautiful, reminding her of the stately homes she’d seen on television. If she got on well with her employers and passed her probationary period, then this idyllic location would be her home for quite some time to come.
Wandering along a path bordered with flowers, she noticed the gardener walking towards the woods, so heading across the grass, the summer sun warming her back, she decided to introduce herself to the man. Belinda hadn’t mentioned the fact that they had a gardener, but there again, why should she? There were probably many things she hadn’t mentioned, Hayley mused as she followed the narrow, winding track the man had taken into the woods. With grounds of the size enjoyed by Hadleigh Manor, a gardener had to be an absolute necessity.
Reckoning there must be an outbuilding for heavy gardening machinery or something concealed by the trees, Hayley called out for him, and looking about her she frowned. The path came to an end with nothing but thick brambles before her, and her spine tingled icily as she again had the feeling that she was being watched.
‘Hello?’ she called gingerly, turning and looking back along the earth track. The man having seemingly disappeared into thin air, she was about to retrace her steps when she noticed a smoking cigarette butt lying on the ground. That confirmed that he’d definitely come this way, but where had he gone? He’d apparently vanished into thin air.
Hayley felt uneasy as she retreated and emerged from the thick undergrowth into the warm sunshine, back on to the lawns. Something wasn’t quite right about Hadleigh Manor, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Michael Philips was okay, his wife would probably be fine once her hangover had passed, so what was this uneasy feeling she had? Dismissing her doubts and occupying her thoughts with thoroughly learning her job, she quickly made her way back to the kitchen.
Opening the cupboards and making a list, Hayley again wondered why the house was so quiet. It would have been nice to have some company – maybe a cook or a chambermaid to chat with. Perhaps she’d eventually get to know the gardener and he’d call into the kitchen for a coffee and a chat now and then.
Deciding that everyone must have gone out, she worked in the kitchen for an hour or so before checking the dining room again. The food she’d prepared was untouched, and she shook her head in frustration, somewhat annoyed that her best efforts had gone unappreciated. Belinda had specifically said that lunch was to be on the table at one o’clock, but something must have cropped up, she supposed resignedly, clearing the table. But the least they could have done was let her know they wouldn’t be dining on this occasion.
Having cleaned the kitchen, Hayley made her way up to her room. She thought Belinda would have been around to show her the ropes; after all, this was her first day at Hadleigh Manor and it was all very unfamiliar to her. Sitting on the edge of her bed she sighed; if she was going to be regularly left alone in the house like this life would be as boring as it had been in her home village. Perhaps she’d expected too much from her new life.
‘Ah, Hayley,’ Michael Philips said, suddenly appearing in the open doorway and startling her a little. ‘Is everything all right? Are you settling in okay?’
‘Yes, sir, I think so,’ she replied, standing up. ‘But your lunch... I put it on the table at one o’clock as instructed but—’
‘Sorry about that, but we had to go into town unexpectedly,’ he said, moving into the room and pointing at the chair by the dressing table. ‘May I?’
‘Yes, yes of course,’ Hayley said, sitting back down on the edge of her bed.
‘Although somewhat belatedly, may I offer you a warm welcome to Hadleigh Manor?’ Michael said, and Hayley smiled at him, feeling a little more reassured by his presence. ‘At times this place is as quiet as a morgue and at other times it’s like Piccadilly Circus, but you’ll soon get used to it. Have you any questions, anything you want to ask me?’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said.
‘Don’t hesitate to shout if you need me,’ he told her cheerfully. ‘Belinda’s still in town, by the way, but she will be back for dinner.’
‘Is it still dinner at six o’clock, sir?’ she asked, not wanting to have her efforts go to waste again.
‘Yes, that’ll be fine,’ he confirmed.
‘I want to get things right,’ Hayley said, brushing her golden fringe back from her brow. ‘I don’t think I got off to a very good start with your wife this morning. I gave her instant coffee instead of filtered and she seemed pretty annoyed with me.’
‘I wouldn’t worry too much about Belinda,’ he said reassuringly. ‘As I said earlier, her bark is worse than her bite. The secret is to do exactly as she says and, obviously, don’t argue with her.’
‘Oh, I would never argue with her, sir,’ she insisted.
‘And neither would I,’ he laughed. ‘But in all seriousness, in the car she was saying how much she likes you, so you’ve no need to worry.’
‘Really?’ Hayley brightened up at hearing that endorsement.
‘Yes really,’ he chuckled. ‘You two will be just fine. I’m sure she’ll have no need to punish you.’
Hayley frowned, wondering whether she’d misheard him. ‘I’m sorry, sir?’ she said cautiously. ‘Did you say punish me?’
‘She’s a stickler for discipline, Hayley,’ he continued. ‘Discipline and obedience, but you’ll be just fine. And I’m certain that you and I will be just fine, too,’ he added, gazing at the firm shape of her breasts within her blouse. ‘You’re a very pretty girl. Very pretty indeed, and I’m sure we’re going to get on extremely well together.’ Hayley blushed, his words making her feel uncomfortable. ‘Well, I’d better get back to the studio,’ he said breezily, lifting the suddenly tense atmosphere that threatened to unsettle her. ‘If there’s anything you need, my dear, just shout.’
As he left the room Hayley pondered on his words. ‘I’m sure she’ll have no need to punish you.’ Wondering what he meant, she went to the tiny dormer window and looked out across the grounds. She had already been feeling anxious, and Michael Philips hadn’t helped. Why, and more to the point, how would Belinda punish her? Send her to her room? Withhold part or even all of her wages? Hayley was building a picture of the woman in her mind, and she didn’t like it at all – cold, moody, and impossible to please. Hayley was beginning to feel very homesick.
Noticing Belinda emerging from the woods, Hayley frowned. Had she walked back from town and taken a shortcut? Then seeing the gardener emerge from the woods too, she thought that Belinda must have been to talk to him about his work. But Michael had just said that his wife was still in town...
Deciding it was unimportant as she heard the backdoor close and Belinda call up the stairs from the hall, she left her bedroom and met her female boss coming up on the landing. ‘Yes, ma’am?’ she enquired.
‘I need to talk to you,’ the woman said indifferently. ‘Come to my room.’
‘Is everything all right, ma’am?’ Hayley asked, following the woman into her bedroom.
‘No, everything is not all right,’ the woman snapped. ‘Why were you watching me in the garden?’
Hayley frowned. ‘Watching you, ma’am? I wasn’t watching you—’
‘I saw you at your window,’ Belinda cut in. ‘You were watching me.’
‘I was only...’
‘Don’t argue with me, girl. You’ve been into the woods, haven’t you?’
‘Yes, I went for a walk earlier,’ she admitted, thinking she’d done nothing wrong. ‘After I’d prepared your lunch for you,’ she couldn’t help but add to make a point.
‘The woods are out of bounds to you, do you understand?’
Why should the woods be out of bounds? ‘I’m sorry, but I—’
‘Do you understand me?’ the woman interrupted again.
Hayley understood the words, of course, but she didn’t understand the reason for them being uttered. ‘Yes, ma’am,’ she said, feeling crestfallen at being spoken to in such a disrespectful manner, and crestfallen about having inexplicable and unfair restrictions put upon her movements.
‘I’m having a guest for dinner this evening,’ the woman said, quickly changing the subject. ‘So I want you to dress properly.’
Hayley was confused. What did she mean about dressing properly?
‘Try that on,’ she said, pointing to a black skirt hanging over the back of a chair. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’
Uneasy with having to change in front of her new employer, Hayley reluctantly slipped her skirt off and placed it on the chair. The new skirt looked shorter, she thought, stepping into it and pulling it up her legs, and tugging the zip at her hip up she knew she couldn’t wear it; the waist was about right, but the hem was so high she’d not be able to bend over without exposing her panties to anyone glancing in her direction. Catching Belinda’s gaze as she nodded approvingly, she recalled her boss’s words. ‘The secret is to do exactly what she says and, obviously, don’t argue.’
‘Why are you wearing tights?’ Belinda asked her belligerently. ‘I distinctly remember telling you to wear stockings. Can’t you do anything right? Take these,’ she said, snatching a suspender belt and a pair of stockings from a drawer. ‘Go and change and then come back and show me.’
‘Um, yes, ma’am,’ Hayley said meekly, taking the garments and grabbing her skirt from the chair.
Returning to her room and closing the door behind her, she let out a long sigh. Why was Belinda so temperamental and so aggressive towards her? The woods were out of bounds, the coffee was the wrong type, she should have worn stockings, her hair wasn’t right...
Eyeing the new skirt in the mirror she sighed again. She couldn’t understand why Belinda wanted her to wear such a short one, and with stockings and suspenders too. ‘Do exactly what she says and don’t argue,’ she muttered as she put the delicate items on.
‘Oh goodness!’ she gasped, again eyeing her reflection in the mirror, the triangular patch of her white cotton panties clearly visible between her thighs as she raised her arms and the hem of the skirt lifted a little. She could see that she was going to have to stand up to Belinda. There was no way she was going to walk around the house dressed so immodestly, she decided, again leaving her room. She wouldn’t argue; she would just be firm and insist that she wanted to wear her own skirt.
‘Ah, that’s much better,’ Belinda said, smiling as Hayley knocked and entered her bedroom. ‘You keep doing as I say and we’re going to get on very well together.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hayley said, trying to pluck up the courage to complain about the skirt. ‘I... don’t you think the skirt’s rather short, ma’am?’
‘Short?’ the woman snorted. ‘Of course it’s not too short. You have lovely legs, young lady, so why hide them?’
‘Well, I just thought it’s rather—’
‘Now, tea I think,’ the woman went on without listening to Hayley’s objection. ‘Yes, I’d like a nice cup of tea. Go and make me one and I’ll be down in a minute.’
Hayley bit her lip as she descended the stairs, feeling acutely self-conscious in her new clothes. She generally wore jeans and a T-shirt; she was a country girl at heart and she felt most comfortable in casual clothing. But she wasn’t in her home village now, she reminded herself. She was the housekeeper at Hadleigh Manor and she had to look the part, not that she’d ever imagined that would mean wearing such a short skirt and stockings.
Hearing Belinda walking down the stairs she decided she had to say something to register her opposition to her uniform. There was no way she was going to serve at the dinner table dressed like this.
‘I don’t want you to feel nervous,’ Belinda said with a hint of sympathy, sitting at the large pine kitchen table as Hayley poured her a cup of tea. ‘I realise you must be feeling a little anxious as it’s your first day with us, but I don’t want you to worry about anything.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hayley replied, placing the steaming cup of tea on the table.
‘I thought we’d have trout with boiled potatoes for dinner,’ Belinda murmured abstractly, sipping her tea. ‘Nothing too difficult on your first day, and I’ll help you on this occasion. It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other a little better.’
Perhaps Belinda wasn’t so bad after all, Hayley thought. She’d said that she was pleased with her progress, and now she’d even offered to help with the evening meal. And Michael Philips seemed like quite a nice man, she reflected. Perhaps things weren’t going to be too bad after all, although she was still unhappy about her skirt. Deciding that this was the right time to say something about it, she smiled at Belinda. ‘Um, about my uniform, ma’am,’ she began hesitantly.
‘Yes, what about it?’ Belinda asked, placing her teacup in its saucer. ‘There’s nothing wrong with it, is there?’
‘No, no, it’s just that—’
‘You look lovely in it, Hayley,’ she carried on. ‘Quite enchanting.’
Hayley tried again to get a word in. ‘Thank you, ma’am, but I—’
Belinda scrutinised her suspiciously. ‘You’re not having second thoughts about the job, are you? I sincerely hope you’re not. Not after we were good enough to offer it to you in favour of the countless other perfectly suitable applicants we had. Some were more suitable than you, in fact, but my husband convinced me to select you over them.’
‘Um, no ma’am, thank you ma’am, it’s just that—’
‘Good, that’s settled then. Right, I have one or two things to do, and then I’ll be down in about an hour to help you get ready for this evening.’
Hayley opened her mouth to try again to voice her concerns about her attire, but with no more success than before.
‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ the woman went on breezily, turning back at the kitchen door to look at the flustered girl, ‘don’t wear a bra in future. It shows through your blouse and disrupts the neatness of your appearance. And I’m very much a stickler for my staff always looking just so, as you’ll find out.’
Back up in her tiny attic bedroom, Hayley was having second thoughts about her new job. The short skirt revealing her suspenders and panties was bad enough, but now to be ordered not to wear a bra beneath her blouse? What her parents would say about such an instruction she dreaded to think.
Closing the door and unbuttoning and removing her blouse, she slipped her bra off and looked down at her firm nipples, just as the door barged open and Michael Philips breezed in. ‘Hayley,’ he said, his eyes instantly fixing on the naked perfection of her breasts.
‘Oh!’ Hayley gasped, folding her arms over her bosom. ‘I thought you were down in your studio and I...’
‘Don’t mind me,’ he chuckled. ‘I just wanted to ask you—’
‘I do mind you barging in here,’ she returned instinctively, blushing deeply. ‘Please, I’m half naked and I’d rather you weren’t in here.’
‘Er, yes, right,’ he acknowledged. ‘Perhaps I’ll come back and see you later.’
‘Yes, please do,’ Hayley insisted, her cheeks burning with embarrassment as he gazed down at her short skirt.
‘You really are a very pretty thing,’ he murmured as he turned and left the room.
Her heart racing, Hayley made a mental note to lock her door in future. Why hadn’t he knocked before rudely barging in? It was only good manners to do so.
Putting her blouse back on she returned to the kitchen, took three dinner plates from a cupboard and placed them on a trolley. As she bent to do so her blouse gaped open at the top, exposing the upper slopes of her breasts, and she knew she’d be mortified with embarrassment when serving dinner. If she leaned over to serve her breasts would be in danger of being exposed, and if she bent down or reached up her suspenders and panties would be displayed. She couldn’t win! This was ridiculous, she thought angrily; she was supposed to be a housekeeper, not a caricature of a flirty French maid.
Feeling despondent as she laid the dining room table, she squealed with shock when a face appeared at the window. It quickly disappeared again, and she thought it might have been the gardener. Holding a hand to her throat as her heart raced she realised she was trembling like a leaf. There was something very strange about Hadleigh Manor and it was making her feel decidedly nervous.
Feeling distinctly uneasy, she moved to the window and looked out across the garden. There was no one in sight, but she was sure she’d seen a man’s face peering in at her.
Just then Belinda bustled into the dining room, and Hayley could instantly tell she was in a bad mood again. ‘Dinner’s been cancelled,’ she snapped. ‘Stop what you’re doing and clear everything away.’
‘Oh,’ Hayley was shocked but such an abrupt change of plans, ‘but why—’
‘It’s cancelled, that’s all you need to know,’ the woman said, before storming out again and leaving the girl feeling uncertain and unhappy.
Back upstairs that evening, her first day’s duties completed, Hayley changed into her jeans and T-shirt and tied her hair back. She felt despondent, and disappointed with her first impressions of Hadleigh Manor and its owners. Nothing had gone right from the minute she’d arrived. Perhaps hearing her mother’s voice would cheer her up, she mused, deciding to walk down the lane to the phone box she’d noticed before. Her mobile couldn’t get a signal where they were, which was a pain, and she didn’t feel like asking Michael or Belinda Philips if she could use their telephone.
Leaving the house she made her way along the drive, the evening sun and fresh air relaxing her. In her spare time she’d get away, she decided, and enjoy the tranquillity of the lovely countryside.
Deciding to tell her mother that things were fine with her new job and home and she was happy, she thought she’d give it a few days before coming to a final decision on whether to stay or not. To leave after only one day would be silly. She had to give it a fair crack of the whip; otherwise she’d always wonder what might have been.
A little way along the hedge-lined lane Hayley spotted a middle-aged woman strolling towards her. ‘Good evening,’ the woman said as they drew closer to each other.
‘Good evening,’ Hayley politely returned. ‘It’s a lovely evening for a nice walk.’
‘Yes, it is,’ the woman concurred, stopping and studying Hayley from head to toe. ‘I haven’t seen you around here before,’ she said. ‘Are you a local girl?’
‘As of today I am, yes,’ Hayley told her. ‘I live at Hadleigh Manor.’
‘Hadleigh Manor?’ the woman echoed, frowning at her.
‘Yes, I work for Michael Philips and his wife,’ the girl elaborated.
‘Michael Philips?’ the woman frowned. ‘I’ve never heard of him.’
‘Michael Philips the record producer.’ Clearly the woman was too old to have heard of a music celebrity.
‘So what happened to old Mrs Stevenson?’
‘Who’s Mrs Stevenson?’ Hayley asked, beginning to feel a little confused. ‘I’ve not heard her name mentioned before.’
‘She’s lived at Hadleigh Manor for decades,’ the woman snorted. ‘She’s a bit of an old recluse. She never sets foot outside the house. I suppose she must have sold up and moved to the coast, or something like that.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ Hayley murmured, again thinking there was something very odd about Hadleigh Manor. ‘I was under the impression that Mr and Mrs Philips have lived there for years.’
‘Well, it’s news to me,’ the woman said. ‘I know most things that go on around here, but I’ve heard nothing about the old lady moving.
‘Ah well,’ the elderly lady brightened, ‘it’s nice to have met you, my dear.’
‘And you,’ Hayley said, smiling as the woman walked on.
When Hayley stepped off the train that morning, a porter helped with her suitcase and asked her where she was going. She’d thought nothing of it when he said he’d never heard of Michael Philips – but now? Intrigued and confused, she decided to go back and take a look in the woods to see if there was a gardener’s outbuilding there. Earlier in the day he’d mysteriously disappeared amongst the trees, and now they were out of bounds to her. What secrets did the woods conceal? Something was going on, she thought, returning to the grounds of the manor and slipping into the dense undergrowth beyond the lawns.
Glancing about her as she again made her way along the winding track, she noticed a small brick building she’d not seen before and ducked behind a bush in case anyone was there who might spot her. Deciding it was an old air raid shelter she waited for several minutes, checking the coast was clear before emerging from her hiding place and cautiously moving towards it.
Pushing the creaky old door open, she was about to venture inside when she heard twigs cracking underfoot and voices in the distance, and without thinking twice she quickly and silently retraced her steps and made her way back to the gardens like a frightened rabbit. She didn’t want Belinda or some creepy gardener to catch her in the woods where she shouldn’t be.
Calming her breathing and walking back towards the house, she realised she’d not even phoned her mother. She’d do it tomorrow evening instead.
Entering the house by the backdoor she was surprised to find Michael Philips waiting for her in the capacious hall, and looking extremely stern he asked her where she’d been.
‘Just down to the phone box, sir,’ she replied, wondering what the problem was.
‘My wife isn’t at all happy,’ he reported. ‘She saw you going into the woods, after expressly telling you they’re out of bounds.’
‘Oh, I... I thought I saw a rabbit, sir,’ she lied, forcing an unconvincing smile. ‘I used to have a rabbit and so I—’
‘Belinda has gone into the woods to look for you,’ he continued. ‘She’s not very pleased with your disobedience. You’d better go up to your room and wait for her there.’
Hayley was shocked by his attitude. ‘Wait for her in my room, sir?’
‘Yes, Hayley, wait for her in your room,’ he repeated.
‘But I was only...’ Hayley sighed, hanging her head, ‘yes sir.’
‘You know the woods are out of bounds, don’t you?’
Hayley nodded meekly.
‘And you’d better change, too. If Belinda sees you dressed like that she’ll be even less pleased with you than she is now.’
‘But I’m not on duty,’ Hayley protested. ‘Surely I can wear what I like when I’m not on—’
‘That doesn’t matter.’
‘You mean, I have to dress in my work clothes even during my time off?’
‘You know how Belinda wants you to dress. Why do you keep deliberately trying to annoy her?’
‘I’m not trying to annoy her, sir,’ Hayley argued. ‘I just thought that in my own time I could dress as I pleased.’
‘I told you earlier, Hayley, my wife can be a funny woman at times. Just do as you’re told and you’ll be all right. Now, you’d better go up to your room and change before she gets back.’
Climbing the stairs Hayley was aware of her hands trembling and her heart racing. She felt like a naughty schoolgirl as she went directly to her room and closed the door. Why did she have to change? This was her own time, she thought dolefully. Surely when not on duty she could dress how she pleased? She wasn’t at Belinda’s beck and call twenty-four hours a day.
But not wanting to antagonise her new employers, she slipped out of her jeans and T-shirt and picked up the suspender belt from the back of the chair. She wasn’t giving in to Belinda, she tried to convince herself; she was simply avoiding getting off on the wrong foot. What was wrong with jeans, anyway? And what on earth was wrong with walking in the woods? What were they trying to hide from her?
Clipping the belt around her slender waist, the dangling suspenders framing the triangular patch of her white panties, she was about to unhook and remove her bra when the door burst open.
‘What on earth is the matter with you, girl?’ Belinda snarled, slamming the door behind her with such force that the room seemed to shake.
‘I’m sorry, ma’am,’ Hayley squealed, ‘I didn’t mean to make you angry. I was only—’
‘Only wandering around the bloody woods when I’ve already told you not to!’ the woman accused venomously. ‘I specifically said that the woods are out of bounds. Didn’t I? Now bend over.’
‘Bend over?’ Hayley echoed incredulously.
‘That’s right, bend over and touch your toes.’
Hayley was stunned. ‘Bend over and...?’
‘I’ll count to five,’ the woman went on relentlessly. ‘One... two...’
Bending over and grasping her ankles, Hayley yelped as Belinda’s hand landed squarely across the cotton-covered flesh of her young buttocks with a loud slap. She rocked forward a little under the impact, stunned by the unjust assault. She couldn’t believe what was happening as a second slap resounded around the room. With the stinging sensation permeating the tensed cheeks of her bottom she tried to stand upright, but Belinda pressed on her back with her free hand and held her down. This was a very bad dream, she thought. A very, very bad dream. Belinda Philips, her boss, sending her to her room like a scolded child and spanking her for being naughty? Was the woman mad?
Again and again Belinda’s palm spanked the burning globes of Hayley’s vulnerable bottom. This was a nightmare, the girl thought, struggling to break free. Her young body trembling uncontrollably she looked back between her thighs at the inverted view of her boss. The woman was possessed, she’d lost her senses she was sure as the gruelling spanking of her bottom continued, and at last finally ended.
‘Let that be a lesson to you,’ Belinda panted, scowling at Hayley as the girl scurried away and cowered in a corner of her small bedroom. ‘Now, get yourself to bed.’
‘To bed?’ Hayley gasped, rubbing her stinging bottom cheeks. ‘But it’s only early—’
‘To bed, Hayley, now,’ the woman insisted.
‘You can’t order me to do as you say just because you’re—’
‘I can and will order you to do what I say,’ the woman cut in belligerently. ‘Unless you want another good spanking, that is?’
With tears rolling down her cheeks, her bottom lip quivering, Hayley sat dejectedly on the edge of her bed as Belinda left the room and slammed the door shut. Drowning in confusion, her head spinning, her bottom sore, she was stunned. She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened to her – her boss spanking her and then ordering her to bed? She wasn’t going to be treated like this, like a child. Checking the time, she knew it was too late to catch a train home but, she decided, she’d leave Hadleigh Manor first thing in the morning.
Resting on her bed, her buttocks stinging like mad, she again wondered what secrets the woods harboured to justify them being made out of bounds to her. There was obviously something hidden in the trees that Belinda didn’t want her to discover, but what could it be? Surely not an old air raid shelter? Unless that virtually derelict structure was Belinda’s secret den, a love nest she shared with the gardener. But Michael Philips had also said the woods were out of bounds, so... perhaps he knew about an affair between his wife and the gardener and to save some dignity he didn’t want Hayley to discover the sordid truth.
There was a knock on the door and then Michael entered without waiting to be invited. ‘It’s only me,’ he said. ‘Are you all right?’
‘No, I’m not all right,’ Hayley sulked, pulling the quilt over her half-naked body. ‘She... she spanked me.’
‘Yes, I know,’ he said, with no great surprise.
‘And she ordered me to bed,’ she complained.
‘Hayley, you have to understand that my wife—’
‘I don’t have to understand anything,’ she cut in indignantly. ‘Your wife treats me like a child and I’m not going to put up with it any longer. I’m leaving first thing in the morning. I’m sorry, but that’s my decision.’
‘I’m sorry to hear you say that too,’ he said amiably. ‘What will you do, go back to the bakery?’
‘Yes, I will,’ she confirmed resolutely.
‘Well,’ he mused pensively, ‘if you’re determined to leave us already, perhaps I can help you. After all, I don’t suppose you really want to go back to your old job.’
No, Hayley didn’t really want to go back to her old job. It would be somewhat humiliating to return so soon. ‘Well, I... what have you got in mind?’ she asked curiously.
‘I was talking to Dave Ruby the other day,’ he announced.
‘The Dave Ruby?’ Hayley asked, suddenly interested in what he had to say. ‘You were talking to Dave Ruby, the...’
‘The one and only king of rock,’ he chuckled. ‘Yes, I happened to mention you and he said he’s thinking of employing a live-in housekeeper for his Sussex home.’
‘Goodness!’ Hayley breathed, feeling star-struck.
‘He asked me whether I knew of anyone who’d be interested in the job,’ Michael went on breezily. ‘Of course, in his position he’d want to see glowing references before appointing anyone. Still, you’re going home so it isn’t really relevant.’
‘No, no, I’m very interested,’ Hayley breathed excitedly.
‘You’d need a first rate reference from Belinda,’ her male employer pointed out.
‘Oh,’ she sighed despondently, ‘that’s probably the last thing she’d give me now. I don’t suppose you could give me a reference instead?’
He shook his head. ‘Belinda deals with things like that. Besides, how could either of us give you a reference after only one day? But if you were to stay on, at least for your probation period, then that would be different.’
‘Well, I suppose I could,’ Hayley conceded.
Michael shrugged. ‘It’s up to you,’ he said indifferently. ‘It’s your decision.’
‘But she spanked me,’ Hayley complained again. ‘She spanked me and sent me to bed. I’m not a child, Mr Philips.’
‘But she did tell you not to go into the woods,’ he pointed out firmly. ‘So what did you do? You went into the woods.’
‘What is it about the woods?’ she asked, exasperated.
‘A few weeks back a stranger was seen roaming in them,’ he went a little way towards explaining. ‘An intruder, but he slipped away before we found out who he was or what he wanted. Belinda only has your safety in mind.’
‘An intruder?’ Hayley pressed. ‘That sounds serious.’
Michael nodded gravely. ‘In the woods, lurking.’
This was all sounding very strange, and then Hayley recalled the woman she’d met in the lane. ‘How long have you lived here?’ she asked.
‘Quite some time,’ he said, somewhat evasively. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘What happened to Mrs Stevenson?’
‘Mrs Stevenson?’ he echoed, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable. ‘She moved. Who have you been talking to?’
‘A woman I met,’ Hayley told him, watching his body language. ‘She said she’d never heard of you.’
‘Hayley, you have to understand that we have many celebrities coming here,’ he said, somewhat patronisingly. ‘If word got out that stars like Dave Ruby were regular visitors the place would be constantly besieged by the paparazzi and screaming groupies. We keep ourselves to ourselves for security reasons. We do our best to keep a very low profile here, and you must respect that.’
Hayley felt a little guilty for being suspicious and for discussing her employers with a complete stranger. ‘Yes,’ she said, somewhat chastened, ‘I can understand that. I’m sorry.’
‘Anyway,’ he said, smiling, ‘enough of that. Should you decide to stay on with us here I’m sure Belinda will be only too happy.’
‘And if she tries to spank me again, what do I do, let her?’ Hayley asked, somewhat mutinously.
‘Yes, in a word,’ he answered blithely. ‘She’s a stickler for discipline and obedience. It’s the way she was brought up, my dear. Now, I’d better go and see what she’s doing. You think about what I’ve said and we’ll talk again in the morning.’
Feeling a little easier as he left the bedroom, Hayley couldn’t imagine working for the famous Dave Ruby. To meet him would be incredible, she mused excitedly, but to actually work for him. But on the other hand, she thought, bringing her feet back down to earth, without a glowing reference from Belinda that was unlikely to ever happen. Closing her eyes she tried not to worry about Belinda and her peculiar ways. Perhaps the odd spanking would be worth enduring if the end result was the job of live-in housekeeper to Dave Ruby.
Taking a shower the following morning, Hayley decided to stay on at Hadleigh Manor, at least for her probation period. With Michael apparently on her side she reckoned things wouldn’t be too bad. He was right, she reflected, returning to her room with a towel wrapped around her naked body, Belinda had specifically said the woods were out of bounds, and she had deliberately disobeyed that.
Dressing in her short skirt, blouse and stockings, she still felt acutely self-conscious. With the outline of her nipples pressing against the crisp material and her panties barely veiled by her short skirt, she brushed her golden hair and tried to relax. Applying a little make-up, praying that she looked all right, she finally left her room and went down to the kitchen.
The early morning sun was streaming gloriously through the window, lifting her spirits. It was eight o’clock and Belinda wouldn’t surface for a couple of hours yet, so perhaps now was a good time to go and phone her mother.
Leaving the house through the backdoor, Hayley was sure that at this hour Belinda wouldn’t be watching as she made her way around the house and down the winding drive towards the country lane, and in her somewhat skimpy clothing she hoped she wouldn’t bump into anyone on the way to the phone box.
But then stopping dead in her tracks she turned and stared at the bushes; she’d definitely heard a rustling sound coming from there. Something or someone was in the undergrowth, but she daren’t investigate; the woods were out of bounds and she’d learnt her lesson. Then spotting some movement from behind a large bush, she stared aghast as an erect penis poked out into view! Stunned, she gazed open-mouthed at the male organ pulsing amongst the green foliage. Was this the stranger Michael had spoken of? Or was it the elusive gardener? Whoever it was clearly knew Hayley was watching as he ran a fingertip over the shiny surface of his purple globe. Paralysed, frozen to the spot, she watched the man’s fist move up and down the brazen erection.
As he projected his hips forward, obviously making sure she could see his indecent act, Hayley gazed in awe at the huge organ. She’d never seen a penis before, let alone an erect one. The hairy sac containing heavy balls jerking as he quickened his wanking motion, Hayley was frightened – but also fascinated. Wondering whether the anonymous man was going to ejaculate, she knew she should run, but something compelled her to watch the obscene act.
Sperm suddenly jetted from the bloated knob, hanging in long strands from the pumping fingers. The obscured figure let out a muffled grunt of pleasure, withdrew into the concealing undergrowth, and with the spell suddenly broken Hayley turned and made a dash for it back towards the house.
Was it the gardener? The disgustingly graphic performance disturbed her. Why would he have done such a thing? Panting heavily she reached the backdoor. Was he trying to frighten her away from the woods, or even away from Hadleigh Manor? Then turning before going into the kitchen she noticed the gardener tending some plants a hundred yards or so away on the edge of the back lawns. It couldn’t have been him, she realised. So it must have been the intruder Michael had mentioned, she concluded as she slipped into the kitchen and closed the door.
Realising that Michael had been right, that Belinda had told her to keep away from the woods because she’d had her welfare at heart, she wondered if she should mention what she’d seen, trembling as she pictured the man’s huge cock. No, it was best to try to forget about it, although she knew it would be forever etched in her memory.
There was something very strange about Hadleigh Manor, she reflected, sitting at the kitchen table and sipping a fresh mug of coffee. This was only her second day here, yet not only had she been spanked by one of her new bosses, but she’d also witnessed some unknown stranger masturbating in the undergrowth!
Just then Michael Philips breezed into the kitchen and smiled at her. ‘Good morning,’ he said, ‘how are you on this lovely day?’
‘Erm, I’m fine, sir,’ Hayley replied a little shakily.
‘Michael,’ he said. ‘Please, call me Michael – unless Belinda’s around, that is.’
‘Yes sir, I mean, Michael. Would you like some coffee?’
‘No thanks,’ he declined, shaking his head. ‘I take it you’ve decided to stay here?’
‘Yes, I think so,’ she confirmed. ‘You were right, it was my fault, I should never have gone into the woods against your wife’s express wishes.’
Michael shrugged, and Hayley couldn’t help but notice a sparkle in his eyes. ‘Ah well, we all make mistakes.’ Those sparkling eyes flitted down to her figure, clearly lingering on her breasts, her cleavage partially revealed by the open top few buttons of her blouse. ‘I must say, you look lovely this morning,’ he complimented her. ‘Absolutely lovely.’
‘Oh, er... thank you,’ Hayley said sheepishly, blushing prettily. Was he after something he shouldn’t be after?
‘So, how are you feeling after Belinda...’ he paused tactfully, ‘after she punished you?’
‘Well, I don’t know really,’ she answered truthfully. ‘Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. Even my parents never spanked me.’
‘Belinda was brought up in a very strict family,’ Michael told her. ‘Her father was a major in the army, you know, the military type. That’s why she has this thing about discipline and obedience. It’s what she grew up with. Behave yourself and do as you’re told and there won’t be any problems for you.’
‘I should hope not,’ Hayley sighed, recalling the incident outside by the bushes.
‘By the way, we’re going into town this morning,’ he informed her, changing the subject. ‘But we should be back by one for lunch.’
‘I’ll have it all prepared and ready for you,’ Hayley said. ‘Lunch at one o’clock.’
Again recalling the bizarre incident in the bushes as Michael left the kitchen, Hayley couldn’t clear her mind of the picture of the unknown man masturbating until he ejaculated in full view of her. Was it really the stranger Michael had mentioned? If so, why hadn’t something been done about him? And why did Belinda go into the woods knowing that some pervert was on the loose? Then thinking about the derelict old air raid shelter intrigue was getting the better of her. Michael and Belinda were going into town, so she was going to have to take a proper look in the woods, despite being told not to.
Finishing her coffee, and still a little unsure of what she should be doing as part of her duties, she ambled into the hall and wondered when Belinda would rise, and what kind of a mood she would be in. Noticing a letter lying on the doormat, she picked it up and was about to place it on the hall table when she noticed it was addressed to her. ‘Be careful,’ she read, having opened it and studied the scrawled writing. ‘Things are not always as they seem.’
Frowning as she climbed the stairs, she had no idea who the letter was from. Things are not always as they seem? That was certainly true of Hadleigh Manor, but who had sent the message to her, and more importantly – why?
Listening outside Belinda’s bedroom door she heard no signs of activity and decided to go up to her own attic room. Closing the door behind her she dropped the letter on her bed, and still frowning she noticed the quilt was ruffled and had obviously been pulled back. Someone had been in her room, she knew as she noticed a pair of her panties hanging out of one of the partly open drawers.
Looking out of the window she decided to get to the bottom of whatever was going on at Hadleigh Manor. The man’s face at the dining room window, her boss spanking her, some pervy masturbating in the bushes, a mystifying note, and now her room had been searched – and she’d not even been here for twenty-four hours yet!
Again with that creepy feeling that she was being watched she looked around the room. The door was closed; there was no one else there, and yet she had a distinct feeling that...
Hearing Belinda calling, Hayley let out a sigh as she left her room and made her way back down to the lower landing. ‘Yes, ma’am,’ she said, knocking and entering the boss’s bedroom.
‘Ah, Hayley,’ Belinda snapped moodily, getting gracefully out of bed. ‘I’m going into town with my husband this morning.’
‘Yes ma’am, I know,’ Hayley mumbled, blushing profusely and trying not to gaze at the woman’s naked body. ‘Will...’ she had to clear her throat, her mouth suddenly dry, ‘will you be wanting breakfast before you leave?’
‘No, we’ll have something to eat in town,’ her boss said dismissively. ‘Go and turn the shower on for me.’
Wandering into the adjoining bathroom, Hayley couldn’t believe that Belinda had shaved her pubic hair, and that she obviously had no qualms about parading her nakedness in front of her embarrassed housekeeper. Hayley couldn’t imagine doing either.
Turning as Belinda walked into the bathroom behind her, she tried to drag her eyes away from the woman’s hairless pussy, Belinda seemingly oblivious to her nakedness as she stepped into the shower cubicle, turned her face up to the cascade of steaming water and asked Hayley to pass her the shampoo.
Having done so the girl left the bathroom, made Belinda’s bed and tidied the room. Feeling increasingly uneasy as she again wondered who had been through her things, she could at least eliminate Belinda. That only left Michael, but why would he search her room? What had he been looking for? Unless someone else had been roaming around the house, like the gardener or the disgusting stranger, whoever he was.
‘Where are you going?’ Belinda asked as she padded back into the room, seeing Hayley hovering by the door. ‘I’d like you to dry me now,’ she said, tossing Hayley a towel.
‘Dry you, ma’am?’ Hayley gasped, her eyes wide as she gazed at her naked boss.
‘Yes, dry me,’ the woman said sternly, ‘with the towel. Can you manage that, do you think?’ Watching her maid hesitate she shook her head impatiently and tutted. ‘Well, can you cope with that? Or is it too difficult a task for you to undertake?’
‘No, no I can cope,’ Hayley stammered bashfully. There was something very odd going on, she thought for the umpteenth time, moving close and towelling the woman’s shoulders.
‘There’s more to me than my back,’ Belinda complained.
‘Um, yes ma’am,’ Hayley said quickly, moving down to the rounded cheeks of her boss’s bottom.
‘Tell me, Hayley,’ the woman started conversationally, ‘are you happy with your room?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hayley said. ‘I’m very happy with my room, thank you. It’s nice looking out over the grounds and...’
‘You can do my front now,’ the woman instructed, turning and facing the blushing girl, and with her embarrassment intensifying Hayley towelled Belinda’s breasts lightly, trying to ignore the thrust of her nipples, moving quickly down to the smooth plateau of her stomach. This wasn’t right, she thought anxiously. She may have led a sheltered life but she knew that intimate contact like this with another woman was wrong. Was this normally part of a housekeeper’s duties? It certainly wasn’t mentioned at her interview!
‘My legs,’ Belinda said. ‘Kneel down and dry me properly.’
Obeying, Hayley found her eyes on a level with Belinda’s hairless pussy. With embarrassment swamping her she lowered her eyes, trying to appear nonchalant to the blatantly displayed intimacy of Belinda’s naked body. If this was expected to be a part of her duties at Hadleigh Manor, then she was going to have to make some sort of a stand against it.
‘It’s all right,’ Belinda said, ‘I won’t break. You can do it harder. And make sure you don’t miss anywhere. Dry me properly between my legs.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hayley said softly, and complying with her mistress’s demands she brushed the towel over the smooth flesh of her naked sex lips. Belinda began to breathe deeply, her naked body trembling slightly as she parted her feet wider. Hayley looked up at her closed eyes, a slight smile curling her succulent lips. This wasn’t right, she again thought, rubbing the towel a little harder between the woman’s slender thighs. Surely this wasn’t part of a housekeeper’s duties? Thoroughly drying her mistress, completing the job as quickly as she could, she stood up and folded the towel.
‘Will that be all, ma’am?’ she asked, desperate to leave the room.
‘Oh... yes, yes,’ Belinda sighed, somewhat dreamily. ‘Go and make me a cup of coffee, will you? I’ll be down shortly.’
Leaving the room, Hayley hurried down the stairs to the kitchen with troubled thoughts careering around her head. Belinda had seemed to derive some sort of sexual pleasure from Hayley drying her with the towel, and she wondered whether her boss had lesbian tendencies. Hayley distractedly poured Belinda’s coffee and placed it on the scrubbed pine table, just as Belinda walked briskly into the kitchen.
‘I don’t want you to leave the house while we’re in town, do you understand me?’ she instructed, hastily finishing the coffee awaiting her.
‘Erm, yes ma’am,’ Hayley replied obediently.
‘You’re sure you understand?’ The woman watched closely for her reaction, looking pretty intense.
Hayley nodded, wondering why it was so important. ‘Yes, yes of course.’
‘Right, we’ll be two or three hours.’ The woman seemed to relax a little. ‘I’ll see you later.’
Even more than ever Hayley was determined to take a look around the woods. Something was going on and she didn’t like it. Waiting until she heard their luxury car leave, she went out to the walled yard and slipped through the archway, making her way across the back lawns to the woods, knowing she might be taking a big risk. But intrigue and a strange feeling of injustice had now outweighed commonsense.
Creeping along the narrow winding path beneath the canopy of the trees, she could smell tobacco smoke hanging in the still summer air. She knew the gardener, or someone, was close by as she stopped still and listened. A dry twig cracked underfoot somewhere deeper in the woods and some bushes rustled, causing her to hold her breath and freeze, then adrenalin pumped through her veins and she turned to dash back along the path to the open space of lawns beyond the sinister fringe of trees. It was too frightening to venture in there alone, she decided, heading quickly back to the house, walking despite the intense urge to run.
Searching around the empty house instead, Hayley didn’t really know what she was looking for or why she was doing it. Drifting around the study, sifting through papers on the desk, opening the drawers, she found nothing of interest. Everything seemed to be quite normal.
Climbing the stairs she went into Belinda’s bedroom, even though she knew it was wrong, and still with no idea what she expected to find she looked through the dressing table drawers.
‘So, this is what you get up to the minute you think my back is turned,’ Belinda hissed, emerging from the en suite bathroom.
‘Oh!’ Hayley shrieked, spinning round, her eyes wide with shock and fear. ‘I was just... um... I was just tidying up, ma’am!’
‘Just tidying up?’ the woman snorted. ‘Is that what you were doing in the study, too?’
Hayley nodded frantically. ‘Yes, I was. I was just tidying—’
‘And is that what you were doing in the woods as well?’ the woman pressed. ‘Just tidying up, were you?’
‘I...’ Hayley shook her head, barely able to believe what was happening to her. ‘I...’
‘Turn around, young lady,’ Belinda ordered the girl, moving close and snatching a stocking from the open drawer. ‘Tidying up in the woods indeed!’ she sneered derisively, pulling Hayley’s hands behind her back and tying her wrists together with the stocking. ‘Tell me, young lady, do people normally tidy up in the woods?’
‘No, I... please, you don’t understand...’ Hayley pleaded pitifully. ‘W-what are you doing?’
‘Punishing you, Hayley,’ the woman stated coldly.
‘But you can’t tie my wrists,’ she protested. ‘Please, I was only—’
‘But I have tied your wrists,’ Belinda scoffed, spinning Hayley back around to face her. ‘What is it with you? You seem to take great delight in continuously defying me.’
‘No, all I was doing was—’
‘Don’t even think about adding lies to your deceit,’ the woman scolded. ‘I will not tolerate deceit, and I certainly will not tolerate lies. You were snooping around were you had no right to be. I can’t believe this. I really can’t believe it. I had cause to spank you yesterday, and now I have cause to spank you again. Don’t you ever learn, hm? Don’t you want to work here?’
‘Yes I do, ma’am,’ Hayley insisted desperately. ‘It’s just that I—’
‘It’s just that nothing, young lady,’ Belinda cut in again. ‘I specifically told you not to leave the house, but you disobeyed me. I specifically told you not to go to the woods, but again you disobeyed me. Now bend over.’
Hayley couldn’t believe this was happening again. ‘Please ma’am, no,’ she pleaded.
‘Over the foot of the bed young lady, now!’ the woman ordered angrily, and grabbing Hayley’s long blonde hair and forcing her to bend over the bedstead, she yanked her skirt up over her back and ran her fingertips over the tight cotton covering the girl’s tensed buttocks, and then her hand landed squarely across her quivering bottom cheeks.
No matter what Michael had said about her acquiring a good reference for Dave Ruby, no matter what future she was throwing away, Hayley wasn’t prepared to endure this sort of treatment again. She was an adult, a grown woman, not a naughty child in need of discipline. Struggling to break free as Belinda continued the merciless spanking she sobbed as the hardest slap yet abused her stinging buttocks. Again and again the woman’s palm met her tensed bottom with shocking slaps, the pain permeating her poor rear as she squirmed and writhed. Belinda was possessed, mad, insane...
‘How dare you defy me?’ Belinda spat, finally halting the punishment. ‘You’ll go to your room and stay there until I come for you. And your hands will remain tied behind your back. That’s the only way to ensure you don’t get up to anything you shouldn’t again.’
‘Please,’ Hayley sobbed. ‘I was only...’
‘It’s Wednesday tomorrow,’ Belinda stated with a note of triumph. ‘Wednesday. You know what Wednesday is, don’t you?’
Poor Hayley’s head was spinning. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘It’s your day off, young lady,’ Belinda told her, calming down somewhat. ‘Wednesday is your day off, or perhaps I should say, it was your day off. As of now it’s cancelled. Now get out of my sight.’
Hauling her trembling body up straight, Hayley hobbled to the door and managed to turn the handle and get it open. Climbing the stairs she let herself into her room and pushed the door shut. Determined to escape as she moved to her dressing table, she wondered whether she could cut through the nylon stocking with her pair of scissors. Belinda really must be mad, and the second she was free she’d pack her case and leave, she decided, trying desperately to cut through the stocking. Once free she’d say goodbye to Hadleigh Manor – for good!
Finally managing to get free of her bonds, Hayley pulled her suitcase off the top of the wardrobe and began packing. All she had to do was walk to the station and take the next train home, and she’d be safe. Emptying the dressing table drawers she opened the wardrobe and laid her clothes on the bed. This was the end of her short nightmare, she thought, as someone tapped on the door.
‘Hayley, it’s me,’ Michael called. ‘May I come in?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, folding her clothes and placing them neatly in the case.
‘Why did you do it?’ he asked, entering and closing the door behind him. ‘Why did you go into the woods when you’d again been told not to? And why were you snooping around our home?’
‘Because...’ she wondered how to answer without sounding silly, ‘because there’s something very odd going on here,’ she eventually replied.
‘Odd?’ he echoed, sounding puzzled. ‘Going on? What do you mean?’
‘Yesterday I followed the gardener into the woods,’ she told him, suddenly feeling relieved to have someone to share her troubled thoughts with. ‘I was merely going to introduce myself to him, but he disappeared into thin air.’
‘He’d probably gone to the outbuilding to get something,’ Michael suggested. ‘There’s an old brick building where he keeps his tools and gardening machinery. What is this fascination you have with the woods?’
‘I saw your wife emerging from them,’ she confided, ‘followed by the gardener.’
‘So?’ he asked simply. ‘She’d probably been talking to him about some ideas she has for the grounds.’
‘There’s more,’ Hayley went on undeterred. ‘I saw a man this morning. He was lurking in the undergrowth, and...’
‘And what?’
‘And he had his...’ Hayley faltered. ‘He had his penis out. He was masturbating.’
‘Wow, I thought we’d seen the back of that creep,’ Michael said, although he didn’t really seem overly concerned. ‘That’s the very reason Belinda doesn’t want you roaming around out there. I thought I explained that to you. I thought we understood each other. We’ve had trouble from this bloke for some time now. It’s for your own good that you listen to us.’ Shaking his head he chuckled. ‘So, is that it? The gardener disappeared, Belinda emerged from the woods, and you caught sight of the creep tossing off. Is that what this is all about? For goodness sake, Hayley, is that why you keep defying my wife? Do you enjoy being spanked or something?’
‘No, of course not,’ she sulked. ‘She... she made me dry her with a towel this morning.’
‘And?’
‘Well,’ she was surprised by his lack of indignation at the revelation, ‘it’s not right, is it?’
‘I’m sorry, I’m not with you,’ he said neutrally. ‘What isn’t right?’
‘Me drying your wife after she’s taken a shower.’ Hayley was growing somewhat exasperated by his lack of reaction.
‘You’re two women,’ he stated with annoying simplicity, ‘so what’s wrong with that? I mean, if I’d asked you to dry me, then perhaps I’d understand your discomfort.’
An uneasy silence fell between them for a few moments.
‘So, you’re leaving us?’ he eventually broke the awkward impasse.
‘Yes I am,’ she confirmed, nodding emphatically.
‘In that case I’ve wasted my time,’ he announced.
Hayley looked up at him quizzically. ‘What do you mean, wasted your time?’
‘I was talking to Dave Ruby earlier,’ he disclosed. ‘We were talking about you. He’s away on a couple of gigs next week but when he gets back he wants to meet you and talk to you about the job vacancy he’s got coming up.’
‘He wants to meet me?’ she asked, aghast.
‘Yes, he does,’ he said, as if a famous rock celebrity wanting to meet a naïve country girl was the most natural thing ever. ‘But look, if you’re going to mess me about like this we’ll forget it. He’s a very busy man, and so am I.’
‘No, no,’ she said hastily, ‘it’s just that... your wife spanked me again, and I don’t think I should have to stand for that sort of treatment. She even tied my hands behind my back. She treated me very badly, and I don’t like it. It’s not fair.’
‘Yes, I know what happened,’ he admitted smoothly. ‘But I did explain to you her background, regarding obedience and discipline.’
‘And she’s cancelled my day off,’ Hayley added, pouting miserably.
‘If only you’d do as you’re told, my dear,’ he said. ‘Surely it’s not that difficult to obey, is it?’
‘I know, but...’ she didn’t know quite what more to say on the matter. ‘Can’t something be done about the man in the woods?’ she asked, changing the subject.
‘We’ve reported it, but what else can be done?’ he said. ‘He has to be caught, but that’s not easy. The police can’t be expected to hang around in the woods for twenty-four hours a day, every day.
‘So,’ he went on, changing the subject, ‘will you stay here?’
Hayley suddenly felt a little more at ease and smiled at him. She quite liked Michael. ‘All right,’ she conceded, ‘but I have to say that this is nothing like I’d expected it would be.’
‘In that case you’re going to have to change,’ he said. ‘You’re going to have to fit in to the real world. You could do well, Hayley. Keep Belinda happy and I reckon you’ll soon be working for Dave Ruby, if that’s what you really want. But remember that you need a good reference from us.’
‘Okay, I’ll do my best,’ she said, brightening up somewhat.
‘Good girl,’ he smiled, looking satisfied. ‘Right, I have to go down to the studio. I have a busy day ahead.’
Gazing out of the small dormer window as Michael left the room and closed the door, Hayley realised that this was a different world. She’d known things would be far removed from her old village life, but so far this had all been a very different experience.
Unpacking her suitcase again, she decided that she would give the job another chance. Deciding to make a fresh start as she finished putting her clothes away, she left her room and made her way down to the next landing.
With the throbbing beat of rock music drifting up from the bowels of the old house, she hovered outside Belinda’s bedroom door. She had it in mind to go in and apologise, to promise to keep away from the woods and do as she was told from now on, sure that Belinda would be forgiving, and about to knock on the door when she heard whimpers coming from within. Pressing her ear to the door she couldn’t believe what she heard.
‘Mmm, that’s good,’ Belinda breathed. ‘Lick harder.’
Frowning, confused, Hayley thought that Michael had gone down to the basement. So who was in the bedroom with his wife? ‘Put your tongue inside me,’ Belinda whimpered. ‘Yes, yes, that’s good. I can feel your tongue. God, yes, I’m going to... God, I’m going to come!’
Scurrying down to the kitchen Hayley didn’t know what to think. Was the gardener with Belinda? Her mind in turmoil, she knew the woman was having sex with someone. Did Michael know his wife was having sex with another man in the marital bedroom? This put Hayley in a horrible position. What should she say to him, if anything? How could she look either of them in the eye again? The situation was bizarre – and intolerable. It wasn’t fair to put her in such a predicament. Where should her allegiance lie, if anywhere?
Filling the coffee filter Hayley decided to mind her own business. Whatever Belinda got up to with other men in her bedroom was her business. Strange things went on at Hadleigh Manor, that much was for certain, and she’d do well to keep well out of it.
Just then Belinda drifted into the kitchen in a black silk dressing gown. ‘Did I tell you to leave your room?’ she asked, but before Hayley could defend herself she snapped, ‘Come up to mine in ten minutes,’ and then she immediately left again, leaving Hayley to wonder anxiously why she was to go to her boss’s bedroom. Was her illicit friend still there? Was Hayley going to find herself an accomplice to the woman’s infidelity? That would be totally unfair. It would put her in a more impossible position than she already found herself in. Hayley wondered whether she could endure Belinda’s selfish mood swings and indulgences for much longer, but ten minutes later, still distracted by her conflicting thoughts, she again climbed the stairs and knocked on her boss’s bedroom door.
‘Now then, Hayley,’ Belinda said as the girl entered the room and closed the door behind her, relieved to see she was alone, but intrigued to know who’d been here only minutes before. Belinda was sitting on her dressing table stool, still in her black silk gown. ‘Do you want to stay here for several years and make a career for yourself?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hayley replied, sensing the woman knew nothing about the possibility of her going to work for Dave Ruby, ‘I’d like that very much.’
‘Good,’ Belinda said crisply. ‘But first of all, there’s the problem with my husband.’
‘Problem, ma’am?’ Hayley frowned. ‘Is he all right?’
‘Oh yes, he’s all right,’ the woman laughed, although with no evident amusement. ‘But he has been chasing after you.’
‘I beg your pardon, ma’am?’ Hayley gasped, shocked by the suggestion.
‘There’s no need to deny it because I know,’ the woman insisted. ‘What’s happened between the two of you so far?’
‘I can assure you that nothing has happened between the two of us, ma’am,’ Hayley said indignantly. ‘Nothing at all – and I don’t much care for the suggestion. He’s been down in the studio most of the time, and I’ve been—’
‘Hayley, let’s get one thing straight,’ the woman went on undeterred, ‘there’s no point in lying to me.’
‘I would never lie to you, ma’am,’ Hayley protested. ‘But nothing has happened between your husband and me.’
Belinda studied her for some moments, and then suddenly lurched forward and grabbed the dumbfounded girl by the arm. ‘Well,’ she snarled, ‘I’m afraid I don’t believe you! I know my husband only too well, young lady, and I know a young flirt when I see one, too!’
‘But—!’
‘Bend over the bed!’ the woman went on, ignoring the stunted protest.
Hayley twisted and turned, but the woman held her too easily. ‘No please, I—’
‘You wouldn’t want your family to discover that you’ve been playing around with my husband, would you?’ the woman threatened. ‘And you wouldn’t want it on your CV, either.’
‘No, you wouldn’t do that,’ Hayley tried desperate to appeal to her boss. ‘I mean, nothing has happened, honestly.’ Stunned, she tried to break free as Belinda grabbed both her arms and forced her over the bedstead. Her short skirt was hastily folded up onto the small of her back, the tight material of her panties blatantly displayed, and she let out a yelp as the first slap across her tensed buttocks resounded around the room. From where had the lunatic woman got such an outrageous and unjust idea?
‘No,’ she cried as Belinda managed to pull her panties down, exposing the stinging cheeks of her rounded buttocks.
‘You’ll pay for this, young lady,’ the woman vowed maliciously. ‘You dare to come here and betray my good nature by seducing my husband?’
‘Get off me,’ Hayley pleaded, finally managing to push herself back upright, and swinging round to try and protect her poor bottom from further punishment she accidentally knocked the aggressive woman to the floor. At that moment Hayley expected her time at Hadleigh Manor to be over.
Pulling her panties back up she looked down at the woman; sprawled across the carpet, her eyes closed, she was motionless. Feeling slightly panicky she knelt by her side, assuming she must have banged her head on the floor. This was all she needed, she thought anxiously, shaking Belinda’s shoulder.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked, again shaking her shoulder. ‘Ma’am, are you all right? I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
At that moment Michael burst into the room and rushed to his wife, kneeling by her side. ‘What the hell’s happened here?’ he demanded.
‘I... I don’t know, she just fell over,’ Hayley told him with tears of worry meandering down her flushed cheeks. ‘I think she might have banged her head.’
‘She fell over?’
‘Yes, she was spanking me again,’ the distressed girl babbled, ‘and I stood up and she just fell to the floor.’
‘You must have hit her,’ he accused, brushing Belinda’s black hair away from her pale brow. ‘Shit, you might have killed her!’
Poor Hayley shook her head in utter disbelief. ‘No,’ she squealed, ‘no, I...’
‘Go and wait in your bedroom,’ he ordered uncompromisingly. ‘And hope for all our sakes you’ve not done her any serious harm.’
‘But all I did was try to protect myself.’
‘Just go to your room, for crying out loud!’ he snapped. ‘You’ve done more than enough damage here already. I’ll ring the doctor.’
Dejectedly climbing the stairs to her attic room, Hayley couldn’t believe what she’d done. She’d not hit the woman, she was sure. She’d merely stood up and swung round to defend herself, and... perhaps she had hit her, she reflected in her miserable confusion. She must have caught Belinda off balance and struck her to the floor. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she wondered whether the poor woman would be all right. She might need hospital treatment, she thought fearfully. Or perhaps even worse...
Nervously biting her lip she wished she’d never heard of Hadleigh Manor. This was only her second day and she’d attacked and hurt her boss, knocking her unconscious. What a disaster it was all turning out to be!
Waiting for what seemed like hours Hayley paced the floor, wringing her hands fretfully as she imagined Belinda in a hospital bed. But on the other hand, Belinda should never have spanked her in the first place. To accuse her of having sex with her husband was absolutely ludicrous. She’d never, ever be so deceitful, let alone allow a man in his fifties to have sex with her. And besides, she’d never yet had sex with anyone, let alone her boss!
At last Michael entered her room and from where she perched on the edge of her bed she looked up at him with wide, worried eyes.
‘The doctor’s just gone,’ he informed her.
‘Is she...’ Hayley started agitatedly, ‘is she going to be all right?’
‘She’s sleeping at the moment,’ he reported. ‘She’s concussed, but the doctor said she’ll be okay. Why the hell did you do it, Hayley? What on earth possessed you to attack her?’
‘I didn’t attack her,’ Hayley protested, wiping fresh tears from her eyes – tears of relief and tears of injustice. ‘She was spanking me. She pulled my panties down and she—’
‘And you lashed out,’ he stated, clearly sure in his own mind of what had occurred between his wife and the new housekeeper.
‘No, I... I don’t know what happened,’ she sobbed. ‘I’ll pack my things. I think it’s best that I leave.’
Michael shook his head. ‘You’ll do nothing of the sort,’ he told her. ‘You’re not walking out and leaving me with this mess to sort out.’
‘But...’
‘But nothing, Hayley,’ he insisted. ‘Knowing Belinda like I do she’ll want to press charges.’
‘What?’ she gasped. ‘She’ll want to press charges? But she was spanking me. If anything she attacked me.’
‘That’s beside the point,’ he argued uncompromisingly. ‘You knocked her unconscious. You’ll have to stay here; at least until we know she’s all right. If you talk to her apologise and then perhaps she won’t call the police.’
‘The police?’ Hayley couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘Yes, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she did.’
‘All right,’ Hayley conceded, hanging her head. ‘I’ll stay for a while. But you must believe me, all I did was—’
‘All you did was knock Belinda to the floor with such force that she ended up unconscious,’ he said, indifferent to her denials and attempts to justify her actions. ‘That’s what she’ll tell the police. Shit, this is a mess. I’d better go down and sit with her.’
‘Shall I come, too?’ Hayley offered, keen to make amends and try to appease the couple. A police record for assault was the last thing she wanted or needed. ‘I’d like to try and help.’
‘No, no, you’d better stay up here,’ he quickly quashed the suggestion. ‘You’ve done more than enough already. I’ll be back later.’
Pacing her bedroom floor for an hour or more, Hayley didn’t know what to do or what to think. Michael was right; this was a complete mess. How it had all happened she couldn’t quite recall. Fed up with being spanked yet again like a naughty schoolgirl, she’d pushed herself upright, swung round and... no, she still couldn’t remember shoving or striking the woman in a way that would have pole-axed her like she apparently had.
If Belinda pressed charges Hayley could very well end up in court. Word would get around, her CV would be a mess, and her future employment hopes would be in tatters. No one would believe that Belinda Philips, wife of an eminent record producer, actually caused the confrontation in the first place by spanking her housekeeper.
Michael returned, tapping on the door and wandering in. ‘She’s awake at last,’ he told her.
‘And is she all right?’ Hayley asked, although she wasn’t sure if her concern was for the woman or for herself.
‘She’s seems a bit dazed, but that’s only to be expected.’
‘Has she said anything?’
‘She keeps mumbling about you attacking her. What did you hit her with?’
‘Nothing!’ Hayley exclaimed in frustration. ‘I didn’t hit her with anything. Please, Mr Philips, you must believe me.’
‘She said something about a shoe,’ he went on, regardless of her protestations. ‘Did you attack her with one of her shoes?’
‘One of her shoes?’ Hayley was shocked by such a suggestion. ‘No, that’s not true! Really it isn’t. I’ve never attacked or hurt anything or anyone in my life!’
‘Well one of her shoes is still lying on the floor near to where she fell.’
‘Mr Philips, you have to believe me,’ Hayley implored him.
‘My wife doesn’t lie,’ he stated flatly. ‘But perhaps she is a little confused.’
‘Yes, yes she must be.’ Hayley clung desperately to that faint glimmer of hope.
‘We’ll have to wait until she’s fully recovered,’ he decided. ‘I still don’t understand why you hit her, though. A little spanking never did anyone any harm.’
‘A little spanking?’ Hayley echoed, shocked. ‘I’m twenty-two years old. I’m an adult, I’m not a child and I don’t need to be spanked by anyone.’
‘So rather than get all aggressive and knock my wife unconscious, why didn’t you just leave?’
‘Because you said...’ the confused girl floundered. ‘Because you made me stay here... because...’
‘I made you stay here?’ Michael pressed.
‘You talked about Dave Ruby, and that I might get a job with him if I... oh, I wish I had left when I wanted to. In fact, I wish I’d never come here in the first place, what with that creep masturbating in the woods and your wife spanking me like I’m some naughty girl or something. I wish I’d never come here.’
‘Well, you are here,’ he pointed out unnecessarily. ‘And you’ve caused more trouble than—’
‘She accused us of having an affair!’ Hayley blurted, unable to contain herself for a second longer in the face of such unfair accusations. ‘She accused us of having sex with each other...’ She fell silent, fearful that she’d said too much and wishing she’d kept her mouth shut.
Michael nodded his head thoughtfully, absorbing what he’d just heard. ‘Okay,’ he eventually said, shrugging, ‘so she’s a little insecure. All you had to do was tell me about it and I’d have spoken to her.’
Hayley was taken aback by his incredibly simplistic response, any further words failing her.
‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘I’m going back down to check on her.’
Watching Michael leave the room, Hayley once again couldn’t wait to pack her suitcase and walk to the railway station. Once on the train heading for home she’d calm down and be okay. Nothing had gone right since she’d arrived at Hadleigh Manor and it was definitely time to call it quits, she decided, making her way down to the kitchen to get herself a cooling glass of water.
She’d not been long sipping it and gazing without seeing out of the window at the rear gardens, her mind in a spin, when she heard Michael coming downstairs too.
‘You don’t like Belinda much, do you?’ he said, joining her in the kitchen.
‘It’s not that I don’t like her,’ Hayley sighed, turning to face him. ‘I was hoping to get on with her, but that seems completely unlikely now.’
‘Had you not repeatedly defied her you might have got on with her,’ he said, utterly without justification, she thought. ‘But anyway, it’s no good looking back now. What’s done is done. She’s going to be in bed for several days so you’ll have to stay and help out, at least until she’s up and about again. I have bands booked for the studio, and I can’t work and look after Belinda at the same time. You’d better go and see her; see if you can’t make up.’
Hayley hated the idea of staying on, having already made her decision to leave. And she found the prospect of having to make up with Belinda hard to accept. ‘Michael, I don’t think I should have to—’
‘She wants to see you, Hayley,’ he cut in.
Hayley took a deep breath and shrugged. ‘All right,’ she acquiesced, her natural good nature coming to the fore.
‘Good girl,’ he said, smiling, although Hayley found the way he addressed her somewhat condescending. ‘I have to get on with some work now. I’ll see you later.’
Going back upstairs Hayley felt her heart racing and her hands trembling as she neared Belinda’s room. This was worse than a nightmare, she thought, again trying to recall exactly what had happened the last time she’d been in Belinda’s bedroom. Had she lashed out at the woman? In the confusion of the incident, in the heat of the moment, she might have taken a shoe from the floor and swiped it against Belinda’s head. But she hadn’t bent down or picked anything up, she was sure. All she’d done was stand up straight and turn around... and knock the woman unconscious in the process.
Quietly, so as not to disturb the patient, she opened the door. ‘Are you all right, ma’am?’ she asked in a hushed tone, moving into the room and standing at the foot of the bed.
‘Is that you, Hayley?’ Belinda murmured, opening her eyes weakly as Hayley nodded. ‘You attacked me.’
‘No, I didn’t attack you—’
‘You hit me on the head with one of my shoes.’
‘No, you fell over, ma’am,’ Hayley defended herself. ‘You fell over and hit your head on the floor.’
‘Are the police here yet?’ the woman went on as though deaf to the girl’s denial. ‘Has my husband called them?’
‘The police?’ Hayley gasped, her stomach sinking. ‘There’s no need for the police, ma’am.’
‘I have to tell them what happened. I... I need some water. Get me some water.’
Going quickly into the en suite Hayley filled a glass from the basin, feeling nearly sick with worry. How would she explain to the authorities what had happened? They’d never believe that the well-known Belinda Philips had bent her over a bed, pulled her panties down and spanked her. There were no witnesses to that. But Belinda had been knocked out and the doctor had been called to attend to her, that much was irrefutable. Was it common assault, grievous bodily harm or actual bodily harm? How on earth had this happened and escalated to such a regrettable point?
Taking Belinda her water and finding her dozing, she put the glass on the bedside cabinet and slipped up to her room to pack her suitcase yet again. She needed to talk to her parents, to explain what had happened and why before they heard a different spin on events from someone else. Not that she understood any of it herself. Again and again she went over the incident in her mind. She’d straightened up and turned quickly, nothing more... surely that’s all she’d done.
Changed into her jeans and T-shirt, she lugged her full suitcase down the stairs, grabbed the front door handle – and found it was locked. Then going back to the kitchen she discovered the backdoor was also locked. Dumping her suitcase on the floor she wondered what to do. Why had Michael locked the doors? Searching the room for the backdoor key, she suddenly feared that the police might be on their way. Had she been imprisoned until they arrived? Would she be taken to the police station and charged with assault?
‘Hayley,’ Michael said, appearing in the kitchen from the hall and eyeing her suitcase. ‘Where do you think you’re going? Why are you wearing your normal clothes?’
‘I’m leaving,’ she told him sharply.
‘Leaving?’ he echoed, shaking his head. ‘No, you can’t leave.’
‘Why not?’ she demanded.
‘After all the trouble you’ve caused you can’t just walk away as if nothing’s happened,’ he said, with fair justification, she had to admit to herself.
‘I’m not walking away as if nothing’s happened,’ she countered, with more conviction than she really felt. ‘I’m walking away from an absolute nightmare. This place is a nightmare.’
‘Go and get changed,’ he ordered. ‘We need you now more than ever.’
‘Michael, I don’t want to stay here,’ she said defiantly.
‘Whether you want to or not, you’re staying,’ he insisted. ‘You can’t render my wife bedridden and then just walk away and leave us to try and cope. Unless your guilt is making you run, of course.’
‘Guilt?’ she gasped at the unfairness of his words. ‘My guilt making me run? I’m not running anywhere. She spanked me, I was only protecting myself.’
‘Yes, yes, so you keep saying,’ he said dismissively. ‘But I haven’t got time for all this. Now stop behaving like a spoilt little girl and go and get changed.’
‘A spoilt little...?’ she echoed, aghast. ‘Is that why you’ve locked the doors, to keep me here against my will?’
‘Belinda asked me to lock the doors,’ he told her.
It was hopeless to try and reason with such an unreasonable man, she realised, so having formulated no other plan for the moment, she grabbed her suitcase and retreated to the relative sanctuary of her attic room, from where she would re-evaluate her position. She should and would leave Hadleigh Manor, of that she was certain. Whatever anybody else thought, whatever assumptions they made, she had reacted in self-defence. Dumping her suitcase on the bed, she was sure she’d not deliberately hit out at the woman. In fact, she couldn’t recall hitting her at all. Belinda had lost her balance and fallen to the floor, and hit her head in the process.
Realising that she was becoming beholden to Michael and his wife, Hayley decided to leave once Belinda had recovered and there was no more talk of the police. The episode had been horrendous, she thought, changing back into her stockings and skirt, and then buttoning her blouse over her naked breasts as she heard Belinda calling her.
‘Yes, ma’am?’ she whispered, nervously entering the bedroom, the scene of the ‘crime’.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ the woman said, her expression pained as she laboured to sit up in bed.
‘Oh?’ Hayley fretted about what she’d been thinking.
‘Yes, well, as I see it I have two choices,’ the convalescent went on. ‘No, actually you have two choices. My husband was saying that you want to leave us.’
‘Well, I...’ Hayley suddenly felt guilty, although she didn’t know why, ‘it’s just that after all that’s happened...’
‘But if you leave I’ll have to involve the police.’
Hayley was again too filled with dread by the mention of the authorities to wonder why her staying or leaving should make any difference as to whether they we involved or not. ‘And... and if I stay?’ she asked anxiously.
‘If you stay we’ll put all this behind us. And I’m sure we’ll get on just fine.’
‘So, I have no choice about it?’
‘I don’t want you to leave. And I’m sure that you don’t really want to go back to your old job. You have a future here – a good future.’
‘Even so, I still think I’d rather leave,’ Hayley said determinedly. ‘If the police—’
‘You’ll stay here, do you understand?’ the woman cut in, not to be defied.
‘As a prisoner?’ Hayley challenged. ‘Is that why the doors are locked?’
‘Not as a prisoner, young lady, no,’ Belinda said. ‘You’ll stay here as our housekeeper, as my personal maid. I merely asked Michael to lock the doors as a precaution against the weirdo in the woods. Until he’s caught and stopped I think that’s a sensible thing to do, don’t you?’
The woman’s annoying logic totally disarmed Hayley, and again she felt bad, and perhaps even silly, for questioning her motives.
‘Now, you can go some way towards making amends for your appalling behaviour by massaging my back,’ the woman went on. ‘I think I may have bruised it when you attacked me.’
Rolling the quilt back and rolling gingerly onto her front, Belinda ordered Hayley to proceed, and blushing uncomfortably as she eyed the rounded cheeks of the woman’s naked bottom, the hairless lips of her vagina nestling between her slightly parted thighs, Hayley didn’t like this at all. There was definitely something most peculiar about Belinda, she knew, as she sat on the edge of the bed and tentatively began to massage her shoulders. There was something most peculiar about the woman – and Hadleigh Manor.
Moaning softly as Hayley worked, Belinda was obviously enjoying the attention, but Hayley was worried. She was locked in, and even if she wasn’t Belinda had threatened her with the police and ordered her not to leave. Was she really a prisoner in her new place of employment?
‘Lower,’ Belinda sighed, and moving her hands down her back, Hayley again eyed the fleshy swell of the woman’s vaginal lips as she parted her thighs a little further. Was she a lesbian? She’d certainly been having sex with someone in her room. Who was it: the gardener, or another woman? Hayley knew she’d be ordered to move her hands lower, and lower and lower until...
‘A little lower,’ Belinda whispered dreamily, confirming Hayley’s fears, and meekly obeying she smoothed her palms down to the cheeks of her naked buttocks, massaging the firm globes. If she moved her fingers any lower she’d surely make contact with her boss’s sex, and still finding it hard to believe the woman wanted some kind of lesbian encounter, she wondered what choice she’d have if ordered to touch her there... between her thighs. If she refused she might well end up with a criminal record, no matter how unjust that would be. Did Belinda want her to touch her vagina? No, this was very wrong, Hayley knew as she kneaded her mistress’s buttocks.
‘I think you know what to do,’ Belinda breathed huskily, languidly parting her thighs even further.
‘I... I don’t know what you mean, ma’am,’ the girl murmured, her fingers dangerously close to the woman’s femininity.
‘After the way you’ve abused me,’ the woman said, ‘the least you can do is bring me a little comfort.’
‘But, ma’am...’ Hayley couldn’t believe what was being asked of her.
‘Do it, Hayley,’ the woman said, her tone becoming slightly sterner. ‘Do as I tell you or you’ll be in more trouble than you ever dreamed possible.’
Knowing a refusal was not an option, Hayley pressed her fingertips against the fleshy swell of her mistress’s sex lips, wondering how she got herself into this unbelievable predicament. Floundering in confusion and despair she cringed and felt dizzy. She didn’t know what she was doing, or why. Unable to think straight, she imagined the police handcuffing her and marching her out to a waiting car if she didn’t do as her mistress demanded.
Things had started to go wrong from the minute she’d arrived at Hadleigh Manor, she reflected, and with the threat of the police hanging over her she felt beholden to Belinda. So deciding that she had no choice other than to play along with her, she planned to make her escape once the coast was clear and the doors were unlocked again. They wouldn’t keep them permanently locked, would they?
‘What are you thinking?’ Belinda asked.
‘Nothing, ma’am,’ Hayley replied.
‘Don’t lie to me, girl. You’re massaging between my legs and you’re not thinking anything?’
‘Well, I... I suppose I was thinking about my brief time here at the house,’ she confessed. ‘And how nothing much has gone right for me.’
‘That’s your own doing,’ the woman said uncompromisingly. ‘You went into the woods against permission, you assaulted me and knocked me out...’
‘That was an accident, ma’am,’ Hayley complained, exasperated with the continuing allegations.
‘Accident or not you knocked me out,’ the woman insisted. ‘But this is a fresh start, and so far you’re doing very well. Keep on like this and we’ll get on extremely well after all. I take it you know what to do, what I want?’
‘Erm... w-well, I...’ Hayley stammered.
‘All I have to do is lift the telephone and call the police,’ the woman threatened. ‘What with my husband witnessing your assault on me...’
‘But he wasn’t even here!’ Hayley exclaimed.
‘If I tell Michael that he witnessed your unprovoked attack on me, then he’ll go along with that.’
‘Why are you doing this to me?’ Hayley objected.
‘Because I like you, Hayley.’
‘Because you like me?’
‘Yes, I like you and I want you to stay at Hadleigh Manor,’ Belinda disclosed. ‘Now, you know what I want so get on with it.’
Struggling to comply with Belinda’s salacious demands, Hayley thought she’d be better off facing the authorities. She’d probably get off with a warning, which would be far better than embarking on a disgusting lesbian relationship with her employer. So she stood up and moved to the door, her decision made, and she wasn’t going back on it.
‘What are you doing?’ Belinda asked, lifting her head and staring fiercely at Hayley. ‘Were do you think you’re going?’
‘I’m leaving, ma’am,’ she replied. ‘I won’t do what you want me to do.’
‘I’ve written a letter to your mother,’ Belinda announced, completely out of the blue. ‘I’ve not posted it yet, and I hope I won’t have to.’
‘A letter to my mother; what does it say?’ Hayley couldn’t help but ask.
‘It says that you’re doing fairly well here,’ Belinda told her, ‘but I wrote that fifty pounds in cash has gone missing from my bedside table.’
‘Well I’ve not taken your money,’ Hayley gasped indignantly. ‘I would never steal from anyone.’
‘No money has gone missing, Hayley,’ the woman acknowledged. ‘I’ve written the letter as an insurance. Should you leave us, then I will send it.’
‘That’s blackmail, ma’am!’ Hayley protested.
The woman smirked, looking very pleased with herself. ‘Yes, I do believe it is,’ she said glibly. ‘Now come back here and carry on with what you were doing.’
Returning to sit on the edge of the bed, Hayley resumed her highly questionable duty as she pondered the woman’s threat. Easing a finger between her mistress’s fleshy lips and caressing the wet flesh surrounding the entrance to her hot vagina, she shuddered. It was this or the police, she reflected dolefully. It was this, or her mother would be told despicable lies about her. She had never even touched herself like this, let alone another woman. But what choice did she have?
Belinda no doubt wanted to feel Hayley’s fingers inside the hugging sheath of her vagina. She wanted her to massage her inner flesh, inducing her juices to flow. But caressing the hot wet flesh, Hayley couldn’t bring herself to push her fingers deep into her quivering body and sink into a lesbian encounter. This was wrong, she repeatedly thought, but her eyes closed as she continued her work and she did her best to please her mistress.
‘I also wrote another letter to your mother,’ Belinda breathed. ‘And I did post that one.’
‘Oh?’ Hayley gasped, fearing the worst.
‘I said that we’re off to Portugal for a couple of weeks.’
‘I’ve never been abroad,’ Hayley said.
‘And you’re not going abroad. I told your mother that because I don’t want her trying to contact you.’
‘Why not?’
‘Your training starts today, Hayley.’
‘Training, ma’am?’ The girl was confused by what she was doing and what she was hearing.
‘You have the makings of a fine housekeeper, Hayley; I know from experience that you’ve got what it takes. The day will no doubt come when you leave Hadleigh Manor, which will be my loss. When you eventually leave here with an excellent reference and proper training you’ll be able to land yourself any job you wish. You do want a good reference and to be correctly trained, don’t you?’
Hayley contemplated this for a while, and then nodded. ‘Yes, ma’am, I do,’ she confirmed.
‘I’d like to think you’ll be at Hadleigh Manor for several years to come,’ the woman went on, ‘but I have to accept that you’ll probably want to move on some day.’
‘Thank you, ma’am,’ the girl said carefully, ‘but...’
‘But what, Hayley?’
‘The things you’re making me do...’
‘Do they worry you?’
‘Well, yes,’ she admitted.
‘I don’t see why they should. You’re simply attending to my needs. It’s all just part of you performing your duties and looking after me.’ The woman smiled and sighed dreamily. ‘Now, I’m feeling tired so I want to have a nap. Your clever fingers have got me all relaxed. You go downstairs and get on with something and I’ll call you later.’
Leaving the room Hayley didn’t know what to think. What she’d just been doing troubled her; massaging her boss’s vagina, pleasuring her... how far would the woman want her to go? Where would their intimacy end?