Chapter 31: Bound By Contract?

Allison and Lionel were together in Allison’s flat. She was sitting on the couch. He stood in the middle of the room facing her. He looked, she thought, more than a little uncomfortable. That alone gave her pleasure in a way she found surpising. “So,” she said, “have you had the chance to read it.” She nodded towards the papers that sat on the table on the far side of the room. She wasn’t certain what she expected or hoped the outcome of the conversation would be.

“Yes.”

“And what did you think?” She sat back. She was wearing a short, black and white panelled, long sleeved, dress with opaque tights. She sometimes wore the dress to the office, though not as now, Lionel noticed, with tight black leather gloves. As she settled herself comfortably she noticed Lionel’s eyes flick down to look over her legs. She smiled. Lionel had the good grace to look embarrassed

“It’s very,” he hesitated for a moment, “thorough. Very complete.”

“Very restrictive? Perhaps too restrictive?” She wasn’t certain whether his reply implied a lack of enthusiasm or simply the caution that anyone in his positiobn might be expected to express. Lionel was never, she knew, the most impetuous of men.

Lionel replied slowly, seeming to pull each word out of a deep bag where they had been carefully set for just this moment. “No, not at all. There is nothing there that I haven’t dreamed of, fantasised about, imagined. I worry about my ability to live up to it though. I always advise clients not to sign contracts unless they are convinced they can meet them. This is more difficult than any of those contracts. It’s difficult to know that I can keep my part.”

“You don’t doubt that I can keep my part?” Allison leaned forward, her elbows on her knees her hands clasped together so that her chin could rest upon them.

Lionel looked shocked. He hadn’t considered this. “No,” he said, “you have always seemed fully in control of your dominant self. From the time you reacted to my suggestion in the office, the first time I saw you at Mistress Calloway’s, you had obviously learned your craft. Why wouldn’t you be able to keep your part?”

“Do you remember what I told you at that first lunch meeting?”

“Yes, of course,” Lionel nodded his head. “I remember it exactly. ‘I am prepared to accept your offer of service. However,” he paused, anxious to make sure that he had the words exactly right, “you in your turn must accept that you will be my first experience of this, that I will be learning what it means to have such service. Eventually I may decide that I do not wish to continue with the arrangement. You have to recognise that as a possibility.’ I was terrified that you might not wish to continue, scared that you might not see in yourself what I saw in you; scared, even, that I might have imagined more than was, in truth, there.”

Allison was scarcely suprised that he recalled her exact words. “Well you saw more in me than I saw in myself, that is certain. But, perhaps you are right about that.”

“All I know is that I am very happy to continue to serve you as I have and that, if you are happy to have me at your service, I want for nothing more.”

“You know I could use you more harshly than I have so far? I found much to interest me at the Viaduct Club. That I might want to use you more often? That I might discover other amusements? Other restrictions for you. Things that you have not asked of Ms Calloway or me?”

“I accept that as the price for my pleasure. Isn’t that another demonstration of how you are able to live up to the terms of that agreement? Besides, you must have noticed that I find uncertainty arousing.”