Chapter 3: Kitchen Cleaning & Bed Time

I suppose I was only working for an hour but by the end I was quite exhausted. As the evening drew in and the light outside faded, Mrs Danbury appeared and surveyed my work with a slightly disappointed air. “Oh well,” she said, “I suppose it can only be expected. I won’t apply any sanctions on this occasion but you should know this standard of work will certainly attract the attention of performance improvement measures once training is under way. Very well, follow me. I shall show you to your accommodation.”

Her remarks were worrying. I had thought that I had done a reasonable job but it obviously wasn’t good enough to satisfy Mrs Danbury.

I followed her out. Beside her office a doorway gave on to a narrow steep stairway. She went up it quickly, passing doors on each floor of the house until we reached the attic. Leaving the stairway we stepped out into a narrow corridor, lit only by a small skylight and a single naked electric bulb. There were four doors on either side of the corridor. Mrs Danbury opened the first and showed me in. Inside was a small space set in the eaves of the house. The slope of the roof made the ceiling very low towards the front of the building. Four single iron bedsteads with thin mattresses had been squeezed into the space. One small cabinet stood beside each bed and a single battered plain wood wardrobe stood by the door.

“Take off your uniform, hang it up in the wardrobe. You will find a night dress in there. Put it on. Then get into bed.”

“Do I have to wear the nightgown? I usually sleep naked.”

“Really? Well here you do not. You will find it is not warm in here. Besides, it is easier to wash a nightgown than to be forever cleaning sheets as you will discover.”

I did as she asked. The nightgown was long and plain cotton with long sleeves and a high neck. The only concession to femininity was a frill around the neck, and others at the hem and cuffs.

“Now, into bed. You will see a chamber pot beneath if you have a need during the night. Your first task in the morning will be to empty it. You will be woken at six o’clock. That is the time the staff start here”

I climbed between the sheets. They felt cold, even through the nightgown.

“Good night, Meakins,” Mrs Danbury said as left the room. Moments later she she turned out the light in the corridor and the room became completely dark. I heard a key turn in the door’s lock. There didn’t seem to be anything else to do other than to try to get as good a night as I could. Luckily, exhausted as I was from my work in the kitchen, I was soon asleep.

My night was restless. Several times in the night I woke up, hearing groans, squeals or grunts from nearby rooms. And there were the dreams. I dreamed that I was back at home, crouching, naked at my wife’s feet while she threatened me with her riding crop at the same time wearing a grin that told me that she would be instructing me to provide her with some intimate pleasures later. It all seemed more fun that the rather clinical air of the staff at Miss Matilda’s. Erotic dreams turned out to be a bad idea though. More than once in the night I woke up as the consequences of arousal in my sleep came up against the unrelenting grip of the cage around my cock.