Chapter 3: The Gynarch Hotel

The Gynarch Hotel was a grand building overlooking London's Hyde Park. Its reputation as the place where the New Order intelligentsia had dreamt up their plans for the reworking of British society was only exceeded by its standing as one of the most luxurious hotels in London. Its unique blend of traditional charm with services that demonstrated whole-hearted support for the New Order agenda made it attractive to any of the wealthy and the famous that liked to indulge themselves in the benefits that New Order had brought.

As Effie and Coral climbed excitedly out of their taxi, uniformed flunkeys rushed forward to escort them inside and scoop up their bags. In the hotel's lobby, the Gynarch's greeter was waiting.

"Ms Race, welcome," she said effusively. "and Ms Harding The Gynarch is very happy to have you staying here. I'm the duty manager, Julia Finch. I'll be happy to help you to make use of any of the hotel services you need. Please come and register." She led the way across to some chairs and a low table close to the reception desk. For Effie and Coral it was their first introduction into the extraordinary world of the Gynarch.

As they sat down, the reception clerk got up from behind the desk and came across. As he reached them he stopped and bowed his head respectfully. He was, like all the service staff at The Gynarch, a man but he wore a woman's uniform blouse and skirt. "I'll explain," said their Greeter. "We're quite traditional here. We like to maintain old ways and the hotel always used to have check-in clerks dressed like this. Of course we use men now but we didn't want to abandon the smart appearance the uniform gives."

Effie and Coral grinned. Of course the receptionist looked ridiculous, and obviously uncomfortable with how he looked as well but the girls had learned about the value of having male servants cross dress in one of their New Opportunity workshops and besides many of their friends had men around the house who were treated in the same way. The Gynarch did it with style though. Their receptionist's uniform was well cut, neatly cleaned and pressed, and the clerk was obviously wearing a body forming undergarment to trim in his waist and give his chest a more female line. He presented the registration forms and a pen without a word. The two young women filled in the forms and he disappeared in search of the key to their suite, teetering back to his desk on heels that were perhaps a little high to be practical for a job where you stood up all day. "Gordon's been with us a while now," Julia said, "but it did take us some time to get him looking just as we wanted. I think you will find all the staff obliging. After all it's so difficult for them to get a good sponsor these days, isn't it Gordon?" Gordon nodded enthusiastically. "If you do have any problems and you don't feel like dealing with them yourself, just let me know. Mostly the guests like to give staff feedback themselves, though."

At the other end of the lobby, a raised voice indicated that one of the guests was giving very direct and immediate feed-back to one of the porters. "You've scuffed the leather on this case, you idiot," a tall, elegant, woman snapped. "Take more care or I'll see you're dismissed." There was a sharp crack as she struck the unfortunate porter with the riding crop she was carrying. Effie and Coral looked on in admiration as the porter cowered away, gathering up the other cases with greater care.