The fittings and pipes in the bathroom were aging brass and covered in green verdigris, but the water flowed fast and hot over Jemima, filling the air with steam and losing the walls in a mist of moist heat. She would have liked to spend more time beneath the cascade and soak up the warmth after the chill of the late autumn evening outside, but there were things to be done and a schedule to be kept to. So she made a quick but diligent job of lathering herself with soap and shampooing her corn blond hair, but took more time and care when it came to running a razor over her body, making sure that there was no stray hair left that could be removed.
Satisfied with the feel of her legs as she ran a hand from the top of her thigh down to her ankle, Jemima turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Arching a leg over the side of the bathtub, her petite frame almost made the act of exiting the high-sided bath onto the wooden boards of the floor like swinging over a fence. Once out she walked barefoot and naked across the bathroom, her subtle curves moving with her motion and wrapped herself in a towelling dressing gown that had been hung from the back of the door.
She moved quickly to the bedroom of the cottage and sat on the bed within reach of the small travelling bag that had been partially unpacked on the floor beside it. The hairdryer made short work of the wet hair, which when dry was pinned up severely and concealed beneath a flesh-tone swimming cap. The effect was that Jemima seemed suddenly bald and she stopped for a second to laugh at her own reflection in the mirror.
Satisfied with her work, Jemima slipped out of the dressing gown and started to unpack a collection of items from her bag. Each was placed on the bed and examined before the first was opened to reveal another almost flesh-toned garment.
This one resembled another that Jemima had worn in the past, but with a few important alterations. Opened out the garment might have been mistaken for a zentai body-stocking, and in some ways it was just that, but Jemima had specified some unusual requirements when she commissioned it.
Jemima inspected the body-stocking for a moment before sitting on the edge of the bed and slipping her feet into the lower half. As soon as her legs followed her feet into the lycra of the garment, one of the first oddities became apparent. Below the waist the stocking was more like a tube into which both of her legs were fitted tightly together, limiting her movement while showing off the shape of her hips and thighs at the same time. Starting at the bottom of the stocking, where Jemima's feet were pinned together, a raised hem had been sewn into the lycra so that it spiralled around her legs several times as it made its way up to her waist.
She pulled the stocking over her arms, her hands filling out the mitten-like gloves at the ends, pulled the hood up over her head and zipped the thing closed in one smooth motion. Next she smoothed the stocking wherever she found a wrinkle in the fabric and then inspected the effect.
In the past she had worn a body-stocking intended to mimic the look of a plastic sex doll, but the lycra of this outfit had been made in a very different way. Subtle manipulation of the lycra had given the illusion that the person wearing it was made of a very fine, very pale fabric. The seams were made to look like neat and discreet stitching, as though the skin of the wearer had been sewn together from pieces of cream coloured material.
This time the body-stocking was intended to make Jemima look like a real doll.
But the need for her legs to be hobbled in such a fashion was still a mystery to anyone other than Jemima herself.
Next she unpacked a red dress that in public would have been almost indecent and slipped it over her head. It was strapless and barely covered her below the waist, but the cut of the garment was so simple that it had obviously been designed to fit the image of an imaginary doll that professed innocence in one breath and then took a provocative pose in just that kind of dress with the next.
Moving as best she could with her legs pinned together, Jemima made her way around the edge of the bed to the table where her makeup had been deposited and started to prepare her face. When she had dressed as a sex doll she had exaggerated everything in order to give the impression of being synthetic, but tonight she was aiming for a more subtle effect.
She applied a powder to her face chosen to match the cream of the body-stocking, an even covering that blurred the edges of the hood and blended her exposed skin into the effect of the lycra. Jemima applied circles of red to her cheeks and then to her lips before adding large fake lashes and mascara to her eyes. The final touch for her face was a pair of contact lenses that gave the illusion that the pupils of her blue eyes were subtly larger than normal and gave her the innocent, glassy stare of a doll.
Her last item was a shocking red wig that she skilfully slipped onto her head and smoothed down, arranging the bunches into which it was gathered on either side of her head. Rather than an imitation of human hair, the wig was instead made up of lengths of wool in imitation of the locks of a rag doll.
Jemima took a second to glance at herself in the mirror, cocking her head to one side and making her expression as blank as she was able.
All in all she thought she made a pretty convincing doll.
She glanced at the clock on the bedside table and then grabbed her mobile from beside it, pressing the key that would send a pre-prepared message to a certain man's own phone. He was sitting in the local pub, down in the village by the lake at that very moment waiting for the message to arrive. It was his cue to stop his efforts to sample every ale that the establishment had on tap in one night and make his way back to the rented cottage via the winding country lanes. They had timed the walk together the previous day and if things went to plan he should walk in through the door a few minutes after Jemima was ready for him.
The hardest part would be making it downstairs with her legs pinned together, but then Jemima had some considerable experience of getting about in restricted positions and wasted no time in rising to her feet from the bed and then dropping to the floor where she dragged herself forward like a bizarre snake towards the door.
The landing was tiny and she soon reached the top of the stairs where she adjusted into a sitting position, swung her legs forward and literally bum-shuffled down each step until she reached the bottom.
From there it was only a matter of a few feet to the small sitting room that was dominated by an ornate wooden box.