MAID'S ROOM (standard:romance, 5540 words)
Author: Anonymous	Added: Feb 07 2002	Views/Reads: 4097/2928	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Love can happen in any room...

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do. She was bent on being a playgirl -- and let the world be hanged! 

During her youth both father and daughter had enjoyed riding together
over the wide expanses of the ranch and sharing a closeness that he now 
sat and mused about over his coffee. Maybe everything would have been 
different if her mother had not died when she was so very young -- Bess 
had no memory of her mother; the only mother she had ever known was the 
housekeeper, Mollie McBride. Mollie and Bess were the only females for 
miles around that ranch. Of course Bess was in boarding school most of 
each year where discipline reigned a heavy hand, and maybe the 
completion of that phase of her life represented being freed from 
something -- maybe that's why she went so wild. 

Whatever her reasons were, her activities had taken their toll on her
father. He simply could not cope with her! Sometimes it seemed to him 
as though she was out to destroy his world, and had come close to 
succeeding on several occasions. He was a wealthy man, but she had put 
quite a dent in his financial status on several occasions. There had 
been two abortions that he knew about, but Las Vegas gambling was her 
real cup of tea -- and costly to her father. 

It was that last escapade to Las Vegas that had brought them to
loggerheads. He had tried everything and was at his wit's end even 
before they got into that ever so heated argument when he had gone to 
Las Vegas to bail her out of her gambling troubles. 

As he sat there looking into his empty coffee cup he pondered over the
extreme measure he had taken with her. In his heart he knew he had to 
do something drastic for her sake, and when she had blurted out an 
angry challenge in response to his plans to disown her, he took her up 
on it! She was at the very peak of anger when she had yelled, "Maybe 
you'd re-own me if I proved myself by doing something silly like 
working for a month as a maid to some rich family on Park Avenue in New 
York!" That terrible argument had ended by his putting her on a plane 
for New York with a one way ticket and a reluctant promise to speak to 
her again, if and when she had acceptable proof that she had worked as 
a maid to someone on Park Avenue for no less than thirty days. His last 
words to her were that he might be checking on her himself, not to see 
if she was all right, but to find out if she was really working as a 
maid... yes, he might just consider checking up on a twenty-four year 
old daughter for hi s own purposes. 

Jason helped her get her bags into the elevator, then, on arriving at
the third floor, they set the bags out on the floor. Jason said, "This 
is your rooms, your new home, over here in the corner of the third 
floor rear." As he spoke he had approached a doorway and unlocked the 
door. As Bess awaited the first look at her room, he continued, "Why 
don't you just go inside and look around while I bring your bags inside 
for you." 

"Oh, thank you. I will." 

It was a well furnished sitting room, bedroom and bath, plus a huge
closet. The closet was large enough to accommodate ten times the 
belongings Bess had brought along. After looking around through each of 
the rooms she informed Jason just how pleased she was to have such a 
nice place in which to live. Her private appraisal was that it would 
outstrip anything most modern hotels had to offer. 

Suddenly Jason was standing beside her and said rather authoritatively,
"We must arrange for some proper attire for you young lady." 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"But of course, a maid's attire," he replied rather flatly. 

"Do I have to go out and buy this maid's clothing?" 

"Not at all. We have a clothing room on the fourth floor which contains
a sufficient supply for all of the maids." 

"You mean that I'm not the only maid?" 

As they climbed the stairway around the birdcage elevator to the fourth
floor, he continued, "My dear young lady, you are one of five maids. As 
usual, you are starting at the lower level position in the household." 

This told Bess in a rather nice way that the dirty work was hers and she
cringed from the thought of it. When they had finished in the clothing 
storeroom Bess had received a quick education on how she must dress for 
this next thirty days. There were black wrap around skirts for all 
seasons with all sizes of matching blouses. And then there were those 
funny looking little hats that sat on top of a maid's head -- the color 
of hers would let everyone know that she was the one at the very bottom 
of the totem pole. With a head full of instructions on how she was to 
replace her clothing daily with clean attire, they left the clothing 
store room with an armload of clothing for her. When they reached her 
room again he unlocked the door for her to enter with her armload of 
clothing. While she placed the clothing on hangars in the closet he 
questioned her as to her shoe and stocking size; then he called on her 
telephone to a shop and made arrangements for the delivery of some more 
proper attire for this new maid. 

She was handed a small booklet of house rules with a pointed request
that she memorize them by lunch time. That was her first task... to 
memorize the house rules. Before Jason left her room she understood 
that she would be expected for lunch in the kitchen at eleven thirty 
sharp -- dressed in the proper attire of a maid. Her conclusions, as 
she started memorizing the house rules while pacing back and forth 
through her rooms, were that she had wound up in a convent! Among other 
things, the rules made it clear how often she was to bathe -- how often 
her bathroom was to be cleaned, her sheets changed, her floors vacuumed 
-- even about using the earphone on her television after ten at night. 
How on earth was she going to put up with all this foolishness? Could 
she stick it out for thirty days? There was no choice and by lunch time 
she thought she was ready for whatever came next. Whatever it would 
turn out to be it would be counting toward the end of those thirty 
days, and she intended to hold that focus in her mind. 

Bess was accustomed to tight fitting jeans and such. She was
uncomfortable in the attire of a maid -- especially those awful 
stockings -- and that dumb looking little cap that let everyone know 
how lowly she was. She followed Jason's directions to the kitchen where 
he met her and introduced her to the rest of the staff. They all sat at 
a rather large table that was well set and the food was excellent. Bess 
thought it best to listen until she got to know these people a little 
better. By the end of lunch she knew that the family in residence was a 
young man about thirty years of age who was an investment banker, as 
had been his father before him. His mother, an Italian lady, spent 
about half her time in a villa in a small village in Italy. When she 
was at home in the big mansion on Park Avenue, she and her son had 
their meals in the big dining room, but when she was away the son had 
his meals in the kitchen with the servants -- unless he had special 
guests requiring the dining ro om. According to all the servants, 
Antonio Mitchell was a very congenial young man who was most successful 
in the world of finance. Jason often cautioned them about addressing 
him as Mr. Mitchell. 

After the friendly lunch, Jason took Bess aside and orally tested her
knowledge of the house rules. He kept it up until he was convinced that 
Bess understood what she could do, and what she could not do, in the 
Mitchell mansion. His concentration on guests in her room and when she 
would be allowed to be free for any social life was taken by Bess to be 
because of her age. She assumed that he thought it well to set her 
straight from the start about her social life while under his 
supervision as a maid. She could leave the premises, but only with his 
specific approval, and the same went for having anyone at all as a 
guest in her room. When all this had been digested, Jason commenced to 
inform her of her work assignment for that afternoon. Bess was 
apprehensive of what was coming.... He showed her the several closets 
that housed all the various cleaning materials. When he felt she was 
sufficiently oriented to those he led her to the basement... informing 
her that Mr. Mitchell was installing some exercise equipment there in a 
section of the house that had not been used for some time. The workmen 
had made quite a mess of things too. It wasn't a terribly large room, 
but it was obvious as to the need for a major cleanup job. Bess was to 
start with the adjacent bath and shower room. Jason sort of shrugged 
his shoulders and said as he left, "Dinner in the kitchen at seven. 
Please be in clean, presentable attire." 

Lucky for Bess that he couldn't see the expression of her face as he
left her for the afternoon. 

So this was it! The time had arrived for the punishment of Bess to begin
in earnest! This was how she would have to re-earn her way back into 
her fathers' graces. What an unusual predicament for Bess Fortin to be 
in! 

Twenty-nine and one half days to go. The only way out was to start. Off
to the nearest cleaning closet she went, gathered up what she thought 
she would need, and returned to the shower room to start her sentence. 

For the next four hours Bess didn't see or hear another human being. She
scrubbed with brushes and cloths. She used various kinds of cleaners -- 
most of them she had never heard of before. She found a step ladder and 
used it to scrub down the ceiling of the shower room. Her arms ached 
and there was a number of muscles in her back that were screaming for 
mercy. As she started on the bathroom, she was suddenly overcome with a 
memory about watching her father break Chariot for her to commence 
riding horseback. She had been around the mare a lot, and couldn't 
understand why the mare was resisting so forcibly when her father 
worked at putting a saddle on her. It had been awful to watch as the 
mare bucked and jumped in total resistance to what was happening to 
her. Bess stopped her scrubbing momentarily as she considered the 
parallel between herself and Chariot. What a hard time Chariot had 
given her father -- but nothing to compare with the hard time Bess 
Fortin had given her father! And now, just like Chariot, her father was 
taming her too! 

The old toilet bowl hadn't been used in ages and the stains were
absolutely there to stay. She had gone over it several times and the 
stains wouldn't budge with any of the cleaners. She thought it must be 
late in the afternoon -- she was beat --especially her arms and back. 
She hadn't heard Jason come into the doorway of the bathroom. He had 
stood and watched her work for several minutes before he startled her 
by saying, "Didn't realized that old bowl was in such bad shape. Don't 
try any more. It'll just have to be replaced. You've put in a pretty 
good afternoon of work, so go get cleaned up and rested for dinner." 

"What about all the rest of the cleaning? Is that all right?" 

Turning around and speaking over his shoulder as he kept walking away
from her. he replied, "Oh yes, you've made it ready for the painters, 
and tomorrow you can start on the room itself. It has to be repainted 
also." 

A short rest before dinner did wonders for her appearance and the way
she felt. As she made ready to go down to the kitchen for dinner, she 
couldn't quite digest the idea of wearing her maid attire for dinner, 
but she supposed the attire of the servants was to remind them of their 
place while they had dinner with Cord Mitchell. She just wanted to get 
something to eat and get back to her room. Nothing else was of any 
interest to her. 

Every one was on time for dinner except Cord Mitchell -- it was more
than five minutes after the appointed time for dinner that he came 
strolling into the kitchen. They all rose as he approached the table. 
As they were seating themselves he looked directly at Bess and asked 
rather casually, "I see that we have a new face among us." 

During those moments Bess had already experienced her old self, her old
practices. When Cord had walked within her sight, her old self had 
quickly taken aim at him until she quickly disciplined herself back to 
the reality of being a maid in this Mitchell mansion. In other 
circumstances she would have targeted him for a one night stand without 
even giving it a second thought. This Italian looking man of about five 
years her senior excited her no end... but she had to remember that she 
was one of his maids. She had already forced herself back into her 
proper station in life before Jason introduced the new maid to the 
resident of Mitchell mansion. 

During dinner Bess realized that Cord Mitchell was a most congenial man
who was constantly finding reason to look at her... and she liked it, 
although she knew she could do absolutely nothing about it. It took a 
great deal of concentration to keep her own eyes off him and play her 
proper role as a maid. 

Back in her room she pondered over the way he had studied her. Why would
he do that? A lot of men had looked her over, but none had ever given 
her such a feeling as this man did! She probably wouldn't see any more 
of him during the next twenty nine days, since he was leaving tomorrow 
morning for a visit with his mother in her Villa in the Italian 
countryside, so she rather forcibly dismissed all thoughts of him. She 
had much more important things to do. She had to be a maid for the next 
twenty-nine days to get back on the good side of her father, and that 
was becoming more and more important to her as she struggled with this 
whole idea of being a maid. Her back and arms ached! They still gave 
her problems as she tried to go to sleep... and her thoughts turned 
again to the memories of her father breaking Chariot. She thought about 
that traumatic incident to Chariot until finally she fell asleep. Bess 
wasn't accustomed to going to bed that early and after about two hours 
of sleep she awoke with stiff back and arm muscles wanting to be 
exercise a bit. She got out of bed to get more comfortable from the 
stiff muscles and in so doing suddenly realized that it wasn't yet 
bedtime on the ranch in Montana. Somehow she wanted her father to know 
that she was carrying out her end of the agreement. She remembered the 
house rules and how she could call long distance on the telephone as 
long as she informed Jason about it the next day. When her father 
answered the telephone, she stated very rapidly, "I'm a maid on Park 
Avenue with just twenty-nine days to go." Then just as rapidly she hung 
the phone back up so he could not reply. 

Mollie McBride watched her rancher boss as he lingered over his coffee
the next morning she could tell that he had heard something good about 
Bess. She didn't know the particulars of what was going on, but it was 
overly obvious how worried he had been until this morning. It was 
usually Bess he worried about -- but something had changed. She watched 
as he strolled away from the ranch house and then her gaze followed him 
as he rode leisurely out onto the range on his favorite horse. 

Bess made it through the first days of scrubbing down that basement room
to ready it for the painters. By the time she finished with it her 
muscles weren't aching nearly so much as at first. Jason put her to 
work cleaning all the bathrooms in the mansion. She never realized that 
any one house could contain so many bathrooms. Sometimes she would get 
the job of folding sheets in the laundry room. During those times she 
had someone to talk with as she was helping another maid to do her job. 
The only other time she spoke to any one was at meal time in the 
kitchen. Sometimes those conversations weren't very fulfilling to Bess. 
She just had nothing in common with these people. They lived in a 
different world than she... then she would realize that she was one of 
them. She was living in their world and she had best make the most of 
it. By the end of her first week Bess had adjusted enough to begin 
watching a bit of television in the evenings. She had no plans of even 
going outside the mansion until that thirty day sentence came to an end 
and she would leave for good. 

It was in her third week that Cord Mitchell returned from Italy and
returned to his habit of having breakfast and dinner with the servants 
in the kitchen. Bess had wondered, in his absence, as to how he could 
live there all alone in that great big mansion. So, although she 
thought she was managing to act her place as a maid, she asked him at 
dinner one evening, "How do you manage being alone in such a huge 
house?" 

Jason frowned as Cord quickly replied, "Really hadn't ever given it too
much thought with all the reading I have to do to keep on top of 
everything in this great big rat race of a world I work in." He glanced 
at Bess and, as though he had mis-stated something, quickly added, "I 
mean to say the banking and investment business is a rat race -- not 
the world itself. No one has ever asked me that before. I'm a bit 
curious as to what made you wonder about me being lonely." 

Bess knew how she would have picked up on that as her old self, but she
quickly put that to rest as she glanced toward Jason and said, "I 
didn't mean to meddle, Mr. Mitchell, it's just that this mansion is so 
very huge in all it's splendor and beauty." 

It was about bedtime on the ranch when Bess called and stated with
finality in a rapid voice, "Seven days to go to re-instatement." Mollie 
didn't get a chance to say one word to Bess before the telephone went 
dead. When Mollie gave the message to Bess' father, she saw his eyes 
light up and she figured that whatever it was that had been wrong was 
beginning to right itself. 

At mealtimes Bess and Cord seemed to dominate the conversation to the
utter dismay of Jason. Cord talked about his mother, his new gymnasium 
downstairs and all sorts of things that Jason thought unthinkable to be 
discussed with a maid! It was sometimes quite apparent that Cord wanted 
Bess to talk about Bess, but he was never successful -- Bess always 
managed to turn the conversation back to the subject of Cord. The other 
servants were enjoying all this very much. They remembered what small 
talk had always taken place before Bess was present and they liked the 
change. 

Bess never had occasion to see Cord at any time other than at mealtime
in the kitchen. She was still assigned to mostly menial, dirty jobs 
throughout the house, but when she would be in the great mansion Cord 
would be at work. Her complete attitude had changed toward life -- just 
exactly what her father had hoped for -- only he didn't really know yet 
what had transpired. In six more days she would be leaving the mansion 
a new and different Bess. She wanted more than anything to be re-owned 
by her father -- nothing was more important right now. She had been 
tamed just like he had tamed Chariot. That correlation was constantly 
on her mind and she realized that Chariot's taming was mild compared to 
her own. She had been remorse about her life over the past few years -- 
how would she ever be able to explain all that to her father, or would 
he already know -- like he always knew things like that. 

Bess had not been outside the mansion for twenty-four days, and had gone
about the task of being tamed in the most honorable of ways. For that 
time she had experienced nothing but hard work and remorse. She could 
see the light at the end of the tunnel where re-ownment awaited her. 
With only six more days to go there came a knock at her door. It was 
the strangest of sensations to be answering that knock; no one had 
knocked on that door during her stay of twenty-four days. She opened 
the door and there stood Cord in his exercise garb. She was 
flabbergasted at the sight of him at her door. He leaned against the 
door frame and stated very quietly," I'm lonely, and I'm hoping that 
you'll invite me for some conversation after I've had my shower and 
changed." Then he just leaned there as he watched Bess try her best to 
figure out something to say to him. She could tell that he was enjoying 
her surprise at seeing him there. 

"You're lonely for conversation?" 

"With you. Yes." 

By the time that evening was over Cord had caused Bess to loosen up and
pour her heart out to him. She approached it as the confessional part 
of her taming. She told him everything... the whole wild, ugly picture 
to include the abortions and the gambling... and, in the end, her 
argument and dis-ownment by her father, along with her masquerade at 
Mitchell mansion. When he left her that night his last words were, "My 
mother always told me that if I ever wanted to find a good woman that I 
should look in the maid's room. That's why I couldn't take my eyes off 
you that first time I saw you at dinner in the kitchen." 

Now he had five days to figure out what he wanted to do about her. 

For four successive evenings Cord returned for more conversation, and on
the morning of the thirtieth day Jason informed Bess that she was to 
move into the guest room of her choice in the mansion. She flatly 
refused and demanded to know if he knew what was to happen the next 
day. When their confrontation was over she felt sorry for Jason because 
he had been caught in the middle and didn't really know what was 
happening. At first she was alarmed that possibly Cord had betrayed her 
by informing Jason of her plans. But, it was now apparent to her that 
Cord had done no such thing. 

Cord showed up on the thirtieth evening for more conversation and Bess
related what had happened about his invitation to move into a guest 
room. It was a firm Bess who stuck to the concept that to have not 
finished that final day would have been cheating on her father. The 
total taming had to go to full completion as agreed upon between she 
and her father -- no cheating, no short cuts. Then she stated with a 
great deal of pride in her voice, "Poor old Jason was so frustrated 
that he never did give me any work assignments, so I looked around for 
the hardest, dirtiest jobs that needed doing... and I did them as my 
last work day as a maid." 

With Cord still in her room Bess called her father and proudly informed
him that she had honestly earned re-instatement, but that she had 
obtained an extension to stay on in Mitchell mansion for another thirty 
days. It had been that final day of fulfilling the agreement with her 
father that brought the decision by Cord to invite Bess to a life of 
marriage with him. His mother had been right about finding a good woman 
in the maid's room! But Bess wanted thirty days to think it over and 
see how she could work all this out with the servants she had worked 
with during her taming. 

Jason was at the height of his glory arranging a big wedding in Mitchell
mansion. A wedding where the invitations confided the fact that the 
couple would honeymoon in the maid's room of Mitchell mansion! 

Sophia Mitchell arrived from Italy about a week before the wedding day.
On the day before the wedding she was there to greet Hank Fortin and 
his sons when they were ushered into the great foyer of the old 
mansion. Bess and Cord were coming down the staircase and had a 
ringside seat for what occurred when Hank Fortin approached the elegant 
hostess, Sophia Mitchell.... 

They were about five feet apart when Hank Fortin stopped dead in his
tracks and asked in a curious tone of voice, "Sophia?" 

After looking Hank Fortin over with an appraising look, Sophia Mitchell
suddenly squealed out, "Are you Hank Fortin, the Hank Fortin... Yes! 
You are Hank Fortin!" 

No one there had seen anything like it... Sophia and Hank embraced, and
there was such a lingering, intimate kiss! Very quickly she took Hank 
by the arm and steered him in the direction of a small sitting room as 
Hank asked, "You mean Boyd married you?" 

"Yes, but he's gone for some time now." 

As Cord, Bess and her brothers watched them enter the little sitting
room they heard Sophia asking if Hank was married... then, as they 
closed the door, she was talking about meeting the children later.... 

As Bess introduced Cord to her waiting brothers, they were all watching
a silhouette through the glass door and it's sheer curtains. There, 
Hank and Sophia were in an embrace and kiss that seemed to never 
end.... 

Sophia sold her Villa in Italy and moved to the Fortin ranch in Montana
to live with her second husband, Hank Fortin. They never have told 
their children about two American soldiers who fought at the Anzio 
beachhead together and were later involved in occupying a small Italian 
village where there was a huge Villa. Nor did they ever tell them about 
Hank and Sophia, the maid in that Villa, being first loves -- each to 
the other -- while Boyd stood guard outside the maid's room in the 
hallway of that huge Villa. Boyd had a small bag filled with coffee, 
cigarettes and candy to bribe anyone who might even look as though they 
were going to disturb Hank and Sophia.... 

The children did know all about Cords father, who having returned from
the war, and after being discharged from the Army, went to Italy, 
bought the Villa where Sophia was the maid, married her and brought her 
to Park Avenue. But they did not know that Boyd and Sophia had spent 
their honeymoon in the maid's room of that Villa while waiting to 
obtain full possession of the premises! 

End... 


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