Chapter 11: Amina & Miss De Witt

Narrator

Having completed the formalities, there was lots to do before dusk. The pair of new housekeepers was surprised that he left them with a brief, "I shall see you outside the doors of the Emporium in some twenty minutes." With that, ignoring the confused girls, he climbed the steps of the mounting block and threw his leg over the back of his horse, flipped his reins and trotted off.

"I think we better move," suggested Amina.

"No hurry," responded the taller girl, "we have plenty of time."

CHUCK

"Chuck, it's the one who made your life a misery?"

I had to calm down as Madame poured out a second cup. "And I'm sure she knows who I am."

Absentmindedly Madame responded, "Oh, it's not unusual. Pre-rejuvenation memories are often recalled by those who have not been imported from the prisons. I must admit though, it occurs more frequently with the Frontiersmen. I think that there is a reason for that. You, with your specialist knowledge, must have a need to recall things like those equations and stresses that you're always going on about. You have that knowledge in a part of your brain that retains the information of where you studied it and where you applied your skills. Of course, you remember quite a lot of ancillary personal information, too.

"My girls in the House recall nothing of their true life, I think that's for the best. That'll be the same for your Amina, not recalling a thing pre-rejuvenation. We both know the reason for that. And then we have your, what is she called?"

"Cassandra de Witt," I pronounced with a hint of bitterness.

"Let's just call her Cassie. And you say that you think that she recognised you?"

"It's starting to worry me."

"Oh, I don't think it should distress you half as much as it will be troubling her. You've got to give her a little leeway. All this is happening to her, and she does not have the benefit of your background information. She will be getting quite upset, I doubt if you have any idea what consternation your existence will be causing her. 'Upset' is the least word to describe her feelings, I've seen it before."

"I don't see why?"

"Put yourself in her shoes. She might be, as you say, very bold and forward, but she's not unintelligent. She knows perfectly well how she treated you. I do hope you're not going to be the vindictive sort for the rest of your time together? She'll be scared that you will be."

"I've no idea how to treat her. I just wanted to knock her head off the moment she started maligning me." Of course, Mom would never have let me do that, "I don't think that that's me, being violent."

"It isn't you, Chuck. But now you've recruited her, you've got to decide how you are going to treat her."

"I can't take her back to the orphanage?" That option was very inviting. "She's just going to be trouble."

"Don't even think about returning her, that's out of the question." She gave the matter some thought and then started rocking the top part of her body and head backwards and forwards in silent laughter.

I stared at her questioningly.

"You do realise that this is THEM?"

I stared at her.

"THEY promised you that they would reward you in some way."

"This is a reward!"

"Well, it depends upon how you look at it. She's not very tall, is she?"

"Almost my height."

Again Madame started to chuckle. "You always said you liked them tall, then you go and choose the tiniest housekeeper there is. I have an idea THEY might be doing you a favour, but I think you're pulling them out of the mire at the same time."

"Pulling them out of the shit? What you mean?"

"I hear things."

I knew she picked up a lot of gossip. The amount of news even I picked up around the breakfast table from the girls was amazing. Although Madame had insisted that she never repeated anything outside the House, it was a veritable source of information. Madame and I had previously discussed this very fact, but we were very circumspect as to how we used that confidential information. I generally kept it to myself.

She sighed and nodded her head slowly three or four times knowingly. "Yes, I think it was decided that this girl was for you. Her reputation has escaped the confines of the orphanage and I'm sure that not one guardian would have touched her with a barge pole. She's been difficult to handle ever since the second year after she arrived."

"Difficult to handle?"

"Oh, I think she's met her match now."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"But I don't want the trouble of having to handle and deal with that rude, selfish, self-righteous little bitch." Now, I had no idea why I had decided to take her on as a second housekeeper.

"You do like slim young ladies? Don't think that I haven't noticed where your eyes light up."

"Slim, maybe. But certainly not chestless, bony, argumentative, aggressive, nasty..."

"I've had a few like that," Madame commented. "You know you're not on your own here in dealing with the likes of her. THEY can help you."

"THEY? Help me, how?"

"And you can help yourself. You've already got all the tools at your command to subdue the little thing."

"I don't see how?"

"Well, first of all, I don't see why you shouldn't have some fun with her. She needs payback, give her payback time. Now," she leaned forward, a sly look on her face, "this is how I suggest you approach matters."

I listened intently for quite some considerable time, and slowly my anger dissipated. Finally she announced, " ... and then because THEY have dropped this problem on you, there's no reason why you can't ask for their help."

"Ask for their help? How do I do that?"

"I'm not quite sure how you would do it, but the way I've found works is like this. I think very seriously about a problem that I have, and a solution that I want to utilise in solving it. If I'm in THEIR good books, then before I know it, the solution emerges. Let me give you an example. You say she's too bony. If you concentrate very hard on that fact and imagine her hip bones banging into you causing pain, my guess is that over a few weeks she'll find herself putting on a little bit of weight. You want to be very careful what you think about. You don't really want to change her into a rotund Michelin man do you?"

"Why should I worry what she looks like?"

"Don't be silly. They might have guided you to make a decision to take her on, but you were the one who, probably in a fit of pique, went and signed the contract. You've got her now, whether you want her or not. It was your decision. She's your woman, and, if I know THEM, it's a permanent thing.

"Make the most of it. You haven't really appreciated the power of latching have you?"

"Of course I have. You're forgetting Beth."

"I'm not forgetting her, but she was favourably disposed towards you. Latching is a very powerful weapon in your arsenal, use it wisely. Once the little so-and-so starts treating you as if the sun shines out of your arse, and she will, you'll relent. You won't be able to be nasty towards her, I know you. Latching works both ways, you see. Look at the facts."

"What facts?"

"She's been transported here as a breeder. You're still a human being at heart, but that girl is going to be the mother of your children, as you pointed out. There's no way you want an aggrieved troublemaker looking after your children. And you won't want a four hundred pounds roly-poly around your house. You will want her to look good. Just give THEM some ideas as to what her general physical appearance needs to be like. I'm pretty sure she'll have been rejuvenated to look better than she was. They always are."

I recognised that her face was prettier than I remembered it, but? "I'm not so sure I understand."

"Just think what you want her to look like, a bit more weight on, and didn't you say she had no bust. Is that really for you? You like a handful as much as the next man, I have noticed."

"I'm a leg man and bums. I like..."

"I know you aren't a 48 EE suffocating-chest man."

I looked askance at her.

"Some men are. Why do you think I have four girls who can hardly walk upright? You do appreciate a fair pair of tits as much as the next man. You never give Tiny a look, or Dainty."

I considered two flat-chested boyish whores that I'd met in the House, "She's no bigger than Dainty," I commented. "Dainty may be twenty years old, she looks as if she's eleven, turns me off."

Madam chortled, "Dainty, Twenty! She's just passed her thirty-third. I told you aging slows down here. You still haven't got used it. But to the point I was making, you are interested in boobs. I'm an expert in assessing men's interests. Like those tits on the far nude by the fireplace in the club's social room."

"It's not the breasts," I protested, "she just looks very sexy."

"Maybe not her tits but you can't take your eyes off the shape of those nipples."

I went quiet. It was disconcerting to have your little foibles pointed out to you by an older woman, things like that were very personal. I quickly reverted to the subject in hand, "Cassie, you mean I should... ?"

"I mean, make your feelings about her shortcomings known. Her attitude to you will change on latching and I guess when you put one up the spout of Little Miss Know-All, her hormones will start doing funny things.

"Hormones, funny things? What do you mean, 'put one up the spout'?"

"Don't keep on repeating what I say." Madame shook her head slowly in despair. "When girls end up with one up the spout, they're preggers, up the duff, knocked up, have a bun in the oven, she'll be in the pudding club, pregnant. It'll be then that her physical appearance will start to conform more to your liking."

She lowered her voice confidentially, "I can see you can imagine her with a big belly."

"I don't see that as more sexy," I denied that pregnant women turned me on. They did not.

"No, but that's the ultimate payback you get on a woman who tried to control you, you assert your power in modifying her body and change her way of life irreversibly. There will be some satisfaction in that, surely?"

"Put like that, I don't think I can ... it's immoral."

"Don't be silly, she's here to be bred. She must have agreed before she was regenerated. After latching, she'll be quite amenable to bearing your offspring, you'll be surprised. As a part of the package deal, of course, her hormones will go berserk."

"Er?" was all I could say.

Madame's discourse was not to be interrupted, "While she has these raging hormones, if you want her less bony she'll find herself eating for two and putting weight on where you want it. Tits always swell up a bit after a few months, but I bet her shape will start reacting a bit earlier if you make your feelings known. Would she look good with big boobies?"

"She'd hate that," I knew.

Madame started giggling, "There you are, I told you, you would be getting your own back in so many ways. Oh, she'll think it's all the result of pregnancy, so she'll know you're the culprit, knocking her up. I'd love to see her hefting a pair of bazookas around after what you've told me about her."

I had a mental image of the skinny Cassie, top heavy with two torpedoes pushing along in front of her and, in all honesty, I bent over in laughter.

Straightening up, I got myself under control. "I know it's sort of funny, but I couldn't lay that on her, I mean not anything bigger than Samantha upstairs, certainly not like Bertha. I couldn't do that to her, I'd feel bad. I don't want her to look sort of out of proportion. I'm not exactly a fan of Chesty Morgan."

"Samantha," Madame was musing, "she's a 'C' cup."

Madame never explained that with the slim figure of Cassie, even a 'C' cup size pair of boobs would be quite substantial in appearance, taking up all her narrow chest. But she did reiterate, "This is your payback time."

When I had opened my heart to Madame, she appreciated how difficult the girl had made my last months on Earth. Had I really sounded off* so much to my confidante?

Madame adopted one of her 'looks' again. Sometimes that 'knowing' smile annoyed me, "I know you don't go for big Bertha's boobs, but you do prefer at least a handful. I'm sure that if you put your mind to it, you could suggest to THEM your concerns about her lack of being big enough to breastfeed your children."

"What?"

"The mothers don't use powdered milk here. Breast feeding is a necessity. Lactation would result in an increase of breast size naturally, but an extra nudge would not come amiss."

I still thought this was all ethically wrong, being able to determine the shape of somebody else's body. It was most immoral.

Madame understood my reticence, "Psshhht!" she belittled. "All girls' tits swell up when they are carrying the baby. What's unusual in her hormones getting a bit of an added boost?"

My mind was in turmoil. I wanted to punish the bitch, yet I knew that inside me was an increasing need to have children by her. I sensed that the feeling had been growing inside me from the time I had walked into the orphanage that morning. I just had to accept the part of my destiny that was to be a father. And I wanted to be a good father. I certainly didn't want any children of mine to grow up with feuding parents. I think it came to me there and then that, yes, I should have my revenge, but once I'd shown her the consequences of her aggressive behaviour, I would encourage Cassie to be friends with me. Would that be possible?

The only drawback that I could see was that the girl had never been friends with anybody. Gawd! How I hated her!

I really would have to get my emotions sorted out, better move on.

We agreed to end the subject with my asserting that all this was a bit much, and hadn't we better do what I came to do.

Although we had taken well over an hour, my temper started to rise as Madame and I approached the Emporium. We saw the lackadaisical wanderings of my two housekeepers. Seeing them in the distance, I was well aware of the difference in their respective heights, Cassie was almost a foot taller than her companion.

But talk about not being on time! They had really been dawdling. They were both downright late.

"Calm down, Chuck." Madame patted me on my arm. "Don't let them know how much it has upset you. In fact, just don't get upset. Anyhow, there's time for some fun here."

Seeing them again, I really asked myself again, had I done the right thing?

It was Madame who led the way inside the Emporium. She took the control of matters completely out of my hands.

"You say both of your new housekeepers are completely inexperienced in the bedroom department?"

I nodded, and learnt there was something for a change that Madame did not know. She had always assumed that the orphanage gave them some background on bedroom etiquette, but no.

"And the orphanage gives them no work clothes, nothing?"

"They came as you see them." Both Madame and I studied the two girls carrying nothing except what Cassie grasped, very unhappily in her hand, a couple of leather straps.

"Then we need a couple of complete outfits, no wonder the Emporium does so well the first week in March, November and, what is it, July?"

What surprised me was that she walked right through the clothing department, and led the way past a large stock of enormous dark navy blue bloomers towards a small door. Opening it, before us stretched a staircase rising up to a level above the sales floor.

I heard Amina whisper to Cassie that she always wondered what was up the stairs.

We quickly discovered that it was a large and airy and well lit second salesroom.

At the counter was a middle-aged assistant attired in the ubiquitous black, with her white apron wrapped around her.

Madame saw the focus of my attention, "No man can stand looking at those black and depressing peasants' things all day long. If I were you, Chuck, I should make it a rule that their penguin dresses remain at your front door, and can only be worn on trips out to the town. I allow my girls to bring them in no further than the outdoor changing room. I suggest you apply a similar rule. We do stock more fitting garments for a woman to wear without alienating the man of the house."

"What, er, should they wear at home?"

I think she waited until the others were out of earshot before she confided, "Whatever you decide, as much or as little or as kinky as the master of the house decides. I'm told lingerie is often worn as everyday apparel behind the closed doors of many private houses."

It was no great feat of the imagination to appreciate that this was where the lingerie was purchased. I had never visited before. "You mean the lingerie your girls wear, this is where they do their shopping?"

"Chuck, I'm not going to frighten your young ladies today, but they wear as much as or as little as YOU please."

She lowered her voice and whispered in my ear.

"What! They'll never..." I couldn't bring myself to say it aloud. "It's been thrust down their throats for years... , they must act with modesty always."

"It's been well emphasised that females conduct themselves with decorum when they are in the town and at the orphanage. You can let them know that those rules no longer apply in the privacy of your own homestead."

"But... ?"

"But you're concerned that they would not like to follow your recommendations?"

"Well, you said it, Madame."

"I suggest you defer making such requests until they have enjoyed your latching exercise. I can assure you then they'll do almost anything to get on your good side."

I took my mind back to the inaugural meeting with Beth and it began to make a lot of sense. Madame redirected my attention to our two companions where Cassie was avidly looking around.

The Emporium's upper room was fitted out rather like any clothing store of a hundred years ago, wooden shelves and drawers hid most of the merchandise from plain sight. There were a couple of shapelessly carved smooth wooden torsos with different remnants of material gracefully hanging from their shoulders. And that was all that was on view.

"Now, ladies, we are going to redress you from the ground up. We shall start with work clothes," my mentor announced in a commanding tone.

In front of us all, she drew the professional assistant to one side and they started to draw up a list, muttering between themselves. "First of all; working clothes, at least two pairs of coveralls are needed. For warm weather a couple of bib fronts in denim. For particularly dirty jobs they will need completely sleeved coveralls, and I suggest an initial two pairs for each."

She looked at the girls and explained "Housekeepers have a lot of outdoor work to do. Working pants and working shirts, three of each," Twisting around to the assistant she was quite brusque. "Measure them each, and will you get the boots fitted downstairs on the way out? Woollen socks, four pairs, three pairs of cotton socks. Their guardian has told me that he wants them to continue their exercises so two pairs of trainers for each of them. Waterproof knee-high boots in each case, and also a good sturdy pair of leather ankle boots. This guardian will pay for the best quality."

I had no idea that they needed so much, as Madame Grenouille spouted out a list as though there was no end to it. But the assistant was scribbling to keep up with the words issuing from her mouth, "One casing for a straw palliasse, two pairs of best quality Egglyt* cotton sheeting, a bolster, three pillows, a dozen pillowcases, two bales of those new soft towels that came in last week. Make them mixed colours."

She turned to me, "I don't suppose you've got a colour scheme for your bathroom?"

What a question? I thought I'd done a good job to get a thunder box installed in the time available.

By now I was sure that they had finished, but no. "One riding cape and rubberised coachman's cape, each of them for bad weather, as well as two riding coats, waterproofed with matching sou'westers*."

If I thought she was finished I was in for a rude shock. "The lanky one will go down and help you to do your carrying. Have them bundle everything up into two saddlebags, not those silly little ones, but the large canvas pairs you use for small pack mules, they'll go behind the saddle over the horse's rump."

With that, the assistant was dismissed. "And off you go," she bid Cassie, "Come back up here when you've got the saddle bags made up. Oh, and if you'll just let me have your measurements. Thirty two around the chest are we, Bony?"

"Thirty one, Madame."

Was she thin or not? I asked myself as Madame couldn't miss the opportunity, could she? "You're the one they call Fried Eggs, is that right? So that'll be an 'A' cup bra, not worth bothering about, is it?"

She actually laughed at Cassie's reaction. Yes, she had riled Cassie, who glared at me. Cassie was well aware that Madame could only have got that information about fried eggs from one person, me. I knew then that she HAD recognised me from pre-regenerative days. If I had let myself, I'd have been an uncomfortable recipient of the glower she bequeathed on me. Instead, she was more annoyed than ever in appreciating that I was amused by the brief interchange.

It was a relief when the pair traipsed off down the staircase. With their departure it suddenly fell very quiet.

The silence was broken by the whistling kettle. I had never noticed it before, hiding behind the small screen, but it looked as if the assistant had been asked to fill it with water before she left.

"What an excellent idea," announced Madame. "I think we all need some refreshment." I agreed, and was not slow to notice that we didn't all have the same infusion. Madam heaped a teaspoonful from another container, half turning around so that I could see what it said on the front.

She was giving this girl the contraceptive infusion. I thought the whole idea was that they left the orphanage in order to get pregnant. Now, where was I going wrong?

"Let it stand for a few minutes," Madame suggested, and sent Amina off to look at some jackets at the far end of the room.

Very quietly, I approached the question that was bugging me, "Why? I thought the whole idea was that the population was meant to get bigger?"

"You've got two housekeepers. Heaven forbid that they should both be pregnant at the same time. You would have two of them too large to do any physical work, and then both of them up all night with screaming youngsters, trying to feed them and overtired. You can't have both your women conceiving at the same time. Apart from that, you've got your own health to consider."

"My own health?"

She shook her head in a dispirited manner, "The young ladies do more than produce smelly offspring. They are there to make your life easier, and also to provide a bit of pleasure in bed. Heaven forbid that you have two women and you end up with their both being incapacitated for six weeks at a time."

She grinned, "Mind you, if that were to come to pass, I think we should be seeing more of you in our House, and that wouldn't be a bad thing."

I had it set in my mind, I don't know why, but, "It's obvious, if I'm going to get one of the girls pregnant, then it would be Amina, the first one I chose."

"Good gracious no. That girl's a sexy little piece, you enjoy her antics while you can, a firm body, strong breasts and she'll have a tight little cunny, she moves as if she reeks of sex. And she has no clue, at the moment she has no idea what vibes she's giving off," she lowered her voice, "but you do, don't you?"

There was nothing really that I could say. I kept quiet.

"No, it's that Cassie of yours. You want to initiate her into motherhood as quickly as possible. The first day she's ovulating, you want to get her up the duff."

"I don't see?" I started

It was with a resigned air that Madame tried to explain to me a couple of very simple facts. "If she's walking around like an overblown whale, I can guarantee she'll get all broody, no time to worry about making caustic remarks and annoying you. If there's one thing the breeders have been indoctrinated into, it is that they take to pregnancy and childbirth as if they were born to be mothers. I've never seen one that isn't content with all the experiences of childbirth, wiping bums and putting the smelly little things to their breasts. It takes all sorts."

I don't think Madame was very enamoured with babies.

It concerned me, using pregnancy as a weapon. "That's wrong." I tried to explain this to Madame.

"Well, you think that is wrong? I think it's wrong to have an argumentative rebel in your small household coming between you and your pretty little Amina. Believe me, Cassandra will be far happier concentrating upon wiping sticky bums and shoving her teats in the baby's mouth than arguing with you all day.

"Before you know it, she'll be looking like mother Earth, bare-foot and with a glow of motherhood. I can see her now, thrusting her belly out so everyone can see she's got something of which she can be proud."

That image caused me again to burst out in laugher.

Madame was seeing things through an imaginative haze. I knew the truth would be far different. "She doesn't like children, she has a real down against them. I know I never told you."

I had to put Madame straight, "When she was in the HR department, she regarded all childcare absences as a personal assault on her ability to do the best for the company. Any women wanting maternity leave had her application delayed, and comments made about stupidity at getting knocked up. This is the woman who regarded maternity leave as a direct gift from the devil. She almost had a stand-up fight every time a young mother asked for time off for her baby. She HATES babies."

Madame just sniggered.

"What are you laughing for?"

"You forget. Why has she come here in the first place?"

"To be my housekeeper."

"No, why to Pionova?"

"What? I don't understand."

"Come on, why did THEY arrange for the orphans to arrive?

"Oh, I get it, to make sure there were more people being born."

"Yes."

"Exactly, and wasn't a 'pleasant family environment' in there somewhere in which to rear the children?"

"Oh, yes."

"And you don't think, when the time is right, THEY won't do something about her attitude?"

"I can't see that they have yet."

"Believe me, once she's growing a little egg inside her, she'll be changing. I've seen it before, THEY don't leave things like that to chance. If THEY wanted a happy family environment to bring up good healthy children THEY wouldn't make a basic mistake as to have a latent filicide amongst us."

"Filicide?"

"Learn your Latin; child killer."

"So, Madame, you reckon, she'll go all lovey dovey and coo into the faces of little babies?"

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far, but I'm damned sure her attitudes will change."

"I just can't imagine her as a waddling mother-to-be."

"Waddling?"

"Haven't you seen how large pregnant women have to lean back to balance and don't take large steps, they waddle."

Madame started laughing out aloud, "I can't wait to see this. Let's just wait and see shall we? Now, I'm going to be laughing my head off whenever I see your Cassie getting near her time to drop."

There was just one thing I wondered, what if Cassie never had a baby? Many women didn't.

I was about to broach this when she hurriedly broke off on the return of Amina, "Yes, a good choice," she started after a quick glance at the two samples brought over. "Which do you think would be more suitable? Remember, it's only in the town you have to be more circumspect about what you wear."

She studied both, "No hold up the other one. Which is the lighter of the two? Yes I think the see-through one is more suitable, it suits you, too. Take back the blue jacket and get one the same for Cassie, maybe a bit bigger in the length. It will be ideal for the afternoons' showers, quite lightweight."

Madam still took the initiative, waiting for Amina to return and placing the two selected items with others on a small pile.

She stood back and took a long audit of Amina's appearance. "Unbutton your chemise."

I could have imagined what Cassie would have said about my still being there, if she had been present. I was thankful she had gone downstairs. I did think that Amina was going to complain at my presence, but, instead, I saw her firmly clench her teeth together. My purpose was not to make Amina feel uncomfortable. I made a point of going to sit down at a small desk behind the low screen and picked up a brochure in which to immerse my attention. I tried not to look up. Of course I did, but I was relieved to discover that Amina had her back to me. There was not really an awful lot to see.