Chapter 11: Seventh Floor, Thames View

Henry was standing in the hallway of Julia’s flat at Pepper Wharf feeling a certain level of trepidation. He’d put almost all of his belongings into storage and now the suitcase he was carrying and the small box of books that he had brought with him was all that he had for his new home.

He hadn’t been sure what to expect from Julia when he arrived, although he was pretty certain that she wouldn’t be clad as he had imagined in his fantasy the night before. A sleek evening gown in black latex was too much to hope for, Henry knew.

Julia opened the door. She had only got back from work some ten minutes before. She was still wearing the dark grey skirt-suit that was part of her collection of conservative business outfits for the office. “Come on in,” she said.

Julia tried to put him – and herself – at ease. In different ways it was a big step for both of them. “Come through to the living room. Leave those there and I will show you your room later. I think we have a few things to talk about first.”

The chrome and wood Scandinavian design furniture in the living room wasn’t really Henry’s taste but he could tell Julia had a good sense for what made a home stylish and comfortable. Julia sat on the couch, stretching her legs out and taking amusement in Henry’s unguarded and definitely not Respect-Agenda-compliant look as she did so. “Do sit down, Henry,” she said. “I’m not going to keep you standing up or kneeling on the floor all the time. There might be a time and place for that sort of thing but I’ll tell you when, all right?” She wondered if he looked just a little disappointed. “Look, I’m not Raven Courten. This is a sponsorship arrangement not a 24x7 lifestyle femdom scenario. Now have you got the sponsorship agreement?”

“Yes,” said a chastened Henry pulling a folded form from his inside jacket pocket. “I’ve signed it and you’ll need my ident card to register it too.”

“Good. I see you’ve read your introduction. You understand that allows me to transfer responsibility for your credit cards and bank accounts to me? You’d better let me have those cards for now until we sort out how we’re going to manage your finances. I’m hoping there’s no surprises there?”

Henry shook his head. He pulled out an envelop with half a dozen bank cards in it. “Here you are.”

“You’re very thorough.”

“Well, I do like to do things the right way first off.” That was something that Julia had learned from Henry when she had first started at the Department. It had meant that her learning curve was less steep than it otherwise might have been.

“Right. Well your room is through there. As I said, there’s not a lot of space but you haven’t brought too much stuff so it should be OK.”

Henry nodded.

“The room can be locked, as Raven suggested, but I won’t lock you in unless I have to. You’ll be expected to deal with the domestic work around the flat. I assume you’re happy with that?”

“Yes, of course, it’s what I expected. I’ll do what I can to pull my weight.”

That, at least, was encouraging, Julia thought. She was working longer hours at the office now and Henry’s job was much simpler. He’d have more time to deal with cleaning, laundry and the other tedious realities of everyday living than she would. She hoped things would work out to both their benefits.

“Well,” said Julia. “You had better put your things away. I’ll let you get on with it.”

Julia headed back to the living room and Henry unpacked his bag into the wardrobe. He was feeling a little flat. Julia’s blunt words that “this is not a 24×7 femdom scenario” was, he knew, a statement of reality but even so he had hopes of how things might work out in that direction and he was disappointed that Julia seemed to be ruling out taking a dominant role in addition to her acting as his sponsor.

He went to push his suitcase under the bed but found that there was some sort of obstruction. Getting on his knees to peer underneath the bed in order to see what it was he recognised the metal mesh of a fold-flat dog cage like the one that Raven had sometimes forced him into. He took that as a sign that his hopes for his situation at Pepper Wharf weren’t entirely unfounded. If Julia had gone to the trouble of getting it, she must have some expectation of using it. And she didn’t as far as he knew, have a dog.