"Have you any notion of what serving as a ladies maid involves Katherine?" Miss Edwards asked as Katherine Howard stood before her desk in the headmistress' study trying to make sense of what she was hearing.
"No Miss Edwards," she replied.
"That is probably quite fortunate, but with the untimely demise of your parents, and still two years until you attain your majority aged twenty one there is little for you to do but follow your uncle's instruction." Miss Edward said, "We shall be sad to lose you, especially so close receiving your diploma, but my instructions are that you shall take up the appointment of ladies maid to Mrs Adele Fortescue forthwith."
"Aunt Adele?" she queried.
"I'm afraid I know not why Katherine but those are my instructions," Miss Edwards said sadly, "And so soon after losing your parents."
"But all my friends are here!" Katherine protested.
"Stiff upper lip Katherine, remember your instruction," Miss Edwards cautioned, "Remember you are a St Justine's girl, shoulders back, chin up, always smile through the pain my dear, every circumstance is an opportunity, just remember that which you have learned at Ecolle St Justine and you will never be bested."
"Yes Miss Edwards," Katherine said sadly, "May I say goodbye to my friends?"
"Yes, indeed but be quick," she replied, "You depart this afternoon, Mme Faulken will chaperone you on the trains to Calais where you will find Miss Davis of the railway chaperone service waiting to guide you to Harrogate.
"Miss Edwards, surely I do not need a chaperone if I am to be a Ladies Maid?" Katherine asked.
"No, Ecole St Justine has a duty to ensure your safe passage to England," Miss Edwards explained, "I do hope you'll find a suitable husband, perhaps one of Prince Alfred's sons?"
"Yes Miss Edwards," she replied.
"Or a soldier, they do make excellent husbands, long campaigns abroad, copious mistresses," she said, "Especially now they are fighting in southern Africa!"
"Yes Miss Edwards," Katherine replied.
"And soon enough you'll be twenty one, and indeed soon enough it will be the twentieth century, with all the celebrations," Miss Edwards said cheerily.
"Yes Miss Edwards." Katherine said sadly.
===============================================
Mme Faulken handed Katherine over to the even more stern and oppressive Miss Davies at the Gare Maritime Calais and she was swiftly bundled into the first class saloon of the RMS Dover for the short but exceedingly uncomfortable passage to Dover where a train for London awaited, and then a short hackney carriage ride took them to Kings Cross where a train awaited to whisk them through the night to York and on into the depths of Yorkshire.
The magnificent station of Harrogate loomed out if the Yorkshire mist as they concluded their long and tedious journey from Switzerland, the train finally hissed to a halt and she looked for a familiar face. Uncle Eustace, father's disagreeable brother leered at her from the platform.
"Katherine," he greeted her, "At last."
"Uncle?" she said.
"Now come along, I have better things to do than look after stupid young women," he snapped.
Katherine dutifully followed as Miss Davis arranged a porter for her luggage and bade her farewell.
"I think it best you live with Aunt Adele until you reach your majority," Eustace informed her, "Act as her maid, learn the ways of the world, find a husband perhaps."
"Yes Uncle," she replied.
"We would have you at our house but you are such an unfortunate reminder of my poor brother." he added.
"Yes Uncle," she agreed.
"So I just need you to countersign some forms," he said and then seeing a fellow in a top hat he shouted "Mr Harding if you please."
Harding walked across at a dignified pace, "Sir," he said, "How may I be of assistance?"
"My papers you idiot!" Eustace replied.
"My junior has them sir," Harding replied, as he beckoned to a tall athletic young man busily engaged with flirting with a group of schoolgirls, "Now if you don't mind I have his grace to attend."
Katherine smiled at the man, who promptly dropped his papers all over the platform, "I'm sorry," he said "Paul Harding at your service madam," and he took her hand and kissed her gently on the wrist.
Katherine giggled nervously, she had little enough experience of flirtatious young men but "Just sign the damned papers!" Eustace demanded and the moment was gone.
=======================
Aunt Adele was a bad tempered woman of barely twenty three years, dark haired and with a heavy bosom and short but none the less shapely legs, not that any but her husband and maids had glimpsed them. She regaled Katherine with a steely stare.
"I think we had better start as we intend to continue," Adele informed Katherine who at five feet and eight inches tall towered over Adele, "You must call me Madam, not Aunt, and answer to the housekeeper Mrs Robbins."
"As you wish Madam," Katherine said straight faced as she planned how she would out wit her Aunt, her husband and indeed her uncle.
"Oh?" Adele exclaimed, "Did Miss Edwards not explain that Mr Eustace Howard that is my dear sister's husband has inherited your late father's estates and you are now his ward?"
"Yes indeed Madam." Katherine lied.
"You seem uncommonly untroubled by your misfortune?" Adele enquired.
"Oh no Madam, I am delighted to be free of Miss Edward's clutches Madam," she lied, "Switzerland is so disagreeable, all mountains and snow and lakes and sunshine."
Adele struggled to maintain her decorum, troubled by Katherine's response she knew not whether the girl was being flippant or if she spoke honestly.
"Mrs Robbins will find you a smock of some sort and tie your hair back, you may go." Adele said brusquely as she dismissed Katherine and returned to her book.
Katherine went to find Mrs Robbins, "Oh it's you," she said, "I suppose I had better find you a smock, you can hardly wear your gowns and serve her Ladyship, nor those high heels!"
"I cannot wear high heels Mrs Robbins," Katherine admitted, "For my legs are excessively long, I am forced to wear servants pumps Madam."
"You can't call ma Madam girl,"Mrs Robbins chided, "I'm Mrs Robbins and proud of it, though truth to tell I've never been wed but, we call her 'Her Ladyship' as she is so high and mighty and bad tempered with it."
"Yes Mrs Robbins," Katherine agreed, "What are my duties?"
"Well to serve Mrs Harthope, of course, have you not been told?" she asked.
"No, I have been schooled in Switzerland do you see." Katherine answered, "Father thought I might marry a nobleman."
"With hair like yours and tall and everything you might well girl, you fight the wood cutter off though or it will be the workhouse for you kids and all." Mrs Robbins agreed.
"Wood cutter?" Katherine asked as Mrs Robbins started to rummage around in her store cupboard seeking a smock.
"Foreigner, don't know hardly any English, don't understand 'no' where wenches is concerned any road." Mrs Robbins chuckled, as she found several garments and bundled them up for Katherine.
Mrs Robbins showed Katherine to her room, high up on the top floor of the old manor house at the top of the back stairs, "It won't be what you're used to," she said, "No feather mattresses here."
Katherine stared, it was a small room, but with only one bed with a pleasant enough cover and an eider down and while certainly not feather soft was pleasantly compliant.
"Oh, it's quite charming!" Katherine agreed as she looked at the view across the moors and valley towards the village.
Mrs Robbins thought Katherine was being flippant but she knew nothing of the solid wooden beds on which the young ladies slept at Ecole St Justine in the interests of 'Posture.'
"You better put a smock on and come downstairs." Mrs Robbins suggested.
Katherine took the smock Mrs Robbins proffered, it felt coarse, not unlike the school smocks they habitually wore at St Justine except somewhat longer, extending below the knee.
"I'll call you for servant's tea," Mrs Robbins promised, "Get settled in, the lock don't work but the bolt do," she explained and she closed the door behind her.
Katherine slipped the heavy bolt across and thankfully stripped off her travelling attire, the long flowing blue dress, the painfully tightly laced corset and the voluminous silk bloomers and petticoats, and took up the smock, it felt deliciously coarse against her nipples but seeing her cases had already been placed in the room she lost no time in seeking out her set of ivory "Tusks" that Miss Edwards insisted all her girls use regularly and she lay on the bed and pleasured herself for a few moments.
She peered at her collection all beautifully carved to resemble the members of statues of ancient Greece or Rome so it was said though the largest resembled more that of a donkey than a Greek god and then the smaller ones which Miss Edwards had insisted the girls use upon their bottoms as they entered their final terms.
She had become proficient in their use, indeed she could accept the number seven with but the least discomfort while the number eight she could accept but with such pleasure that she could not but cry out in ecstasy, and yet the number two in the bottom and at once the number six inserted entirely within her was her favourite.
She remembered her lessons well as she stifled the cries her passion would usually have produced and she lay back on the soft bed and enjoyed the moment.
"It's Tea time," Mrs Robbins announced as she knocked the door, "I say Tea time," she repeated.
"Oh, yes, thank you," Katherine exclaimed, "I'll just be a moment," she added as she quickly removed the carved white phalli and wiped them before returning them to their box felt lined box.
"I bet you never thought you'd be eating we us," Mr Harding the Butler asked Katherine, "You we all your hairs and graces!"
"Oh perhaps not but we dine very well I must say," Katherine observed as she stared at a table loaded with succulent ham and bread far more tender and fresh than anything she had seen in Switzerland.
"I reckon yon woodcutter will take thee down a peg or two when he gets his prong up you!" Mrs Robbins chortled, "He don't know what 'No' means.
Katherine smiled at the woodcutter across the table, "Ja!" he said and smiled.
"Nein," she replied and wagged a finger at him, "I did learn self defence at St Justine," she explained, "And a smattering of German and French."
Quite suddenly a bell rang, Katherine looked up at the long row of bells attached to a wooden frame high on the wall, each connected by wires to the rooms of the house for summoning servants to "Oh that's 'Her Ladyship,' Mrs Robbins exclaimed, "Her sitting room beside her bedroom, Katherine see what she requires."
Katherine left her food and hurried to where she thought her Aunt might be, she took several wrong turnings and arrived breathless at her Aunt's room, "You rang Madam?" she asked.
"Indeed, my husband has returned unexpectedly," she informed Katherine, "He is sure to require carnality."
"Madam?" Katherine enquired, "I'm not sure I need to know this?"
"Oh yes you do," Adele snapped, "I shall not partake in such a distasteful matter, no girl you must serve in my place!"
"Fornicate with your husband Madam?" Katherine exclaimed.
"Indeed!" Adele agreed.
"I shall consider it a great honour." Katherine lied.
"What!" Adele countered.
"He is a most beautiful gentleman, kind, well mannered," she said and Adele struggled to reconcile the brute who abused her at every admittedly rare opportunity with Katherine's version, "It is a great kindness that you offer me, I shall bear his child with pride."
"Child?" Adele queried, "Have you lain with him already?"
