by Ray Gordon
‘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.
&n
bsp; ‘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.