They really did it in style. Wealthy friends invited them to join their party in a grandstand box at the Goodwood April meeting, one of the smartest occasions in the British social calendar. Lady Josephine looked stunning, wearing a white linen jacket over a bronze silk dress and a broad-brimmed white Ascot hat with a wide crimson ribbon. No-one would have guessed that the smartly turned out gent accompanying her was in fact her slave, subject to her imperious whim, should she choose to exercise it. His Mistress turned a few heads as she went to examine the runners and riders for the next race in the parade ring.
"I'm making a little side-bet," she murmured to her slave, "I'm putting ten on number eleven at ten to one."
"Ten pounds, number eleven to win?" enquired her companion.
"No, no. Not ten pounds. This is my bet: if it wins you get a hundred licks of what you love to lick. If it loses, you get ten strokes of my lovely new riding crop!"
"Certainly, Mistress," replied her slave.
Between races the slave would run down to the bookies' stalls to make bets and collect any winnings, while his Mistress enjoyed the food, the champagne and the company in the private box. Their host, the rather debauched-looking but attractive Lord Lansdowne, was paying her a lot of attention and she enjoyed the flattery that he was lavishing upon her.
Shortly before the last race Josephine found the opportunity for a quiet word with her slave: "Lord Lansdowne has invited us to a party at his house after the races. He has offered me a lift in his helicopter. You'll need to follow on with the car. Here is the postcode you have to find."
With one of her wicked smiles she handed him an old betting slip, on which she had written the crucial set of letters and numbers.
An hour later her chauffeur was in what looked like an endless queue of cars trying to get out of Goodwood, when he heard the roar of a helicopter overhead and wondered if it was the one carrying his Mistress. She would certainly be at Lansdowne Park a long time before he was.
Lansdowne House was a place big enough to have its own postcode and it was about ninety minutes later, as the sun was setting, that the chauffeur rang the bell at the impressive entrance. A severe looking woman in a grey business suit came to the door. She looked at him without smiling.
"Are you Josephine's chauffeur?" she enquired.
"I am, yes."
"Then you should have gone to the tradesmen's entrance." She snapped, "Accompany me."
He followed her down the steps of the portico. She led him to what looked like a stable block and opened one of the stable doors. She indicated that he should enter the building. It was indeed a large, old stable. There were no horses in it, but the trappings suggested that there recently had been. The woman closed the stable door behind her. She addressed him.
"Take your clothes off and give them to me." She said in a most matter-of-fact sort of way.
He looked baffled and did nothing.