by Ray Gordon
‘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 th
e 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.’