© Copyright 2009 - Michael England - Used by permission
Storycodes: FF/ff; latex; leather; maids; mast; cons; X
Chapter 7: Sometimes You Need a Lift
Jessica was woken from a light sleep by her maid as she raised the shades in the spacious bedroom. "Good morning Mistress! I hope you had a pleasant night's sleep. I have breakfast waiting for you in the living area. Or if you prefer, I can serve you in here Mistress."
Jessica dragged her legs out of the bed, set foot on the Persian rug and stretched out the various kinks and knots that accumulated in her body over the night. "No, breakfast in the waiting room will be just fine." Jessica climbed into the thick robe her maid held open and then wrapped around her naked body before padding out to the large breakfast that had been prepared for her.
Jessica noticed the maid was dressed in the same uniform as when she met her the night before, however this time it was a light yellow color, slightly translucent. And again, the same flawless fit on the gloves and stockings. She had on 5" spike heel ankle boots of the same color, and had little gold bells attached to the ankles.
"So Mistress Jessica knows I'm coming" was the maid's half-giggled explanation.
Jessica and her assigned servant made pleasant small talk until she went off to draw Jessica's bath, despite Jessica's protest that "I never take baths in the morning, I just take a quick shower and then get to my day."
"I was instructed by Lady Taffy to give Mistress Jessica a pampering bath." the maid informed Jessica before she sashayed off to the large bathroom and began drawing the water for Jessica's morning bath.
Jessica finished her breakfast, rather she picked at it since she normally didn't eat anything this rich or elaborate at home, then dragged her self and her coffee into the large bath suite and stood in front of the ornate tub that dominated the center of the suite. Jessica stood an stared at the thing. It resembled a much larger version of an old Victorian bathtub, and looked like it was crafted entirely of a dark chocolate. "Couldn't be." Jessica thought to herself as she dropped her robe to the floor and accepted her maid's help to climb up and over the rim before settling down into the warm soapy water.
And as Brulée had instructed, Jessica was given a true pampering. Not a single millimeter of Jessica went unwashed by her maid, from the tips of her toes to the last hair on her head. The maid's touch was so delicate that Jessica could easily have fallen asleep if she didn't have her coffee with her. She was extremely sorry when her maid announced to her that she had finished and Jessica was now ready to be dried, dressed, and styled for the rest of the morning's activities.
"Whatever you think about Brulée, she does have a well-trained staff" Jessica murmured under her breath as her dutiful attendant, in her pale yellow latex uniform, assisted Jessica with her with her knee-length leather skirt, leather halter top, and silk blouse, before she finished off by lacing up Jessica's knee-length boots.
"My Mistress has wonderful taste in clothing" her maid commented when she tied Jessica's second boot before she finished her job by taking the 5" spiked heel in her hand and kissing the toe of it.
Fully dressed, Jessica was then turned over to one of Brulée's 'house' stylists, who did Jessica's makeup and hair. She frowned when Jessica told her to just put her hair back into a ponytail and leave it "But Mistress would look so much better with it up" was her protest before Jessica got her way and the stylist did as instructed. As a final touch, her hair was finished with a black velvet ribbon tied in a bow and then Jessica was released to her maid and led downstairs where Heather and Taffy waited to begin the tour of the house and estate.
"The house itself is a reproduction of Livadia Palace, although some of the interior rooms have been modified to fit Madame's tastes and needs, and admittedly the landscaping outside is not the same as this is hardly the Crimea." Taffy began the tour with Heather, Jessica, and their maids in tow. The entire time, while Jessica feigned interest in the layout and extravagance of Brulée's residence, Jessica looked for anywhere that might underground might be located.
"This is one of Madame's favorite rooms in the entire house" Taffy continued as the tour wore on, even Brulée's loyal assistant beginning to grind down to a monotone delivery as she had performed this thankless duty each and every time Brulée had someone visit the estate for the first time. "This is Madame's Great Art Hall." Taffy stopped the tour to give her charges a chance to react to the surroundings. "We'll stop here for a moment and refresh ourselves before heading on to the factory itself." As Taffy dismissed the maids to retrieve the refreshments, Heather sauntered over to Jessica.
"Do you think these are real?" Heather asked as both she and Jessica looked at the numerous examples of classical sculpture which where
dispersed throughout the cavernous room.
"Well, Miss Jensen" Taffy replied before Jessica had a chance, "Some are real and some are obviously reproductions. Madame has a rather curious taste in old and new, so she took it upon herself to create her own reproductions of some of the more famous works you see across the globe."
"Like 'David' over there." Jessica directed Taffy's and Heather's attention to with a wave of the thumb back over her shoulder.
"Oh my God! Look at the thing on that guy!" Heather, never at a loss for words, giggled.
Standing diagonally behind them, some 15 feet away was indeed a faithful reproduction of Michelangelo's David, exact in every detail. Every detail save for the 10" flaccid penis which would have clearly identified it as being a copy even if the original weren't housed in the Accademia Gallery in Florence.
"As I said" Taffy replied completely nonplussed, "Madame has a rather curious taste in old and new."
As Heather decided to get a closer look at 'David', Jessica and Taffy moved to another one of Brulée's statues a reproduction of Rodin's classic 'Idole Eternelle'.
"Interesting take on a masterpiece..." Jessica commented with a certain lack of conviction.
"Madame considers it a 'modern reinterpretation' of Rodin's work." Taffy added as they both stood examining the two female subjects replicating the precise poses of the Rodin original.
"I suppose a similar pilfer of 'Le Baiser' is forthcoming?" Jessica sniffed.
"Fortunately... no." came Taffy's surprising reply. "These works were all done before Madame found much more lucrative uses for her talents."
Jessica was about to inquire what those talents might be when the maids returned with a tray of fresh fruits and cheeses a cart of various wines.
"Jessica..." Heather leaned over and whispered to her friend as they set on the antique Louis XVI couch, "The schlong on that guy, David..."
"Heather!" Jessica coughed as she choked on a cheese wedge at Heather's colourful term 'schlong'.
"Jessica, that thing looked real! I mean really real!" Heather continued. "I mean, I'm in the business and I've seen a lot of penises, or peni, or whatever the plural of 'dicks' happens to be. And I'm telling you Brulée really did on good job modeling that thing on that guy. It's like she took a mold of a real one and stuck it on the statue."
Jessica was about to inform Heather that she may be more right than she knew when Taffy announced that they would now head over to the factory complex next door.
"If you will all follow me, we'll head over and you can see the operation which has helped make this house possible." Taffy bragged as she led the tour group to the far wall of Brulee's 'great hall' and stopped in front of the massive bookcase which covered it.
"Well, this isn't that spectacular..." Heather chortled.
"Not really, but this is..." Taffy replied as she pulled what looked like a credit card pocket and held it out towards the wall. Jessica could swear that Taffy actually paused for dramatic effect before she ran the card down between two books.
"Well, that's cool!" Heather noted as a 10" section of the bookcase slid aside to reveal a hidden elevator which looked to Jessica to be big enough to transport items a cube 10 feet on each side.
Having seen her opportunity, Jessica immediately jumped. "Isn't there an alarm system or something? I mean we saw the heavy security at the front gates last night on the way in, so if you're trying to protect the factory from infiltration I would expect that not everyone could just use this elevator. I would think that with how seriously Madame Brulée treats her company's secrets she's have a very extensive and elaborate alarm system to her entrance to the factory itself."
"Correct Miss Darling. Only certain members of Madame's trusted circle of assistants and servants have the ability to use this passage. And only they have the key required to access it. As you surmise, this is all protected by a very sophisticated alarm system. The encoded key sequence stored on this card not only activates this elevator, it also deactivates the alarm system associated with it. Anyone who does manage to get into the elevator without it will immediately trigger the alarm system if they press a single button in it. The elevator then traps them inside until our security forces... errr... team arrives." Taffy bragged as she fell into Jessica's trap of providing too much information.
"So what's to stop whoever broke into the elevator from breaking back out the way they came in?" Heather jumped in.
"Thank you Heather" Jessica thought to herself.
"Well, as I said, the elevator itself traps them inside." Taffy failed to elaborate.
"But how?" Heather pressed to no response before the elevator ended its decent, its door opening to a large hallway with a security desk situated at its end.
"G..g..good afternoon Lady Taffy!" the lone, rather petite, somewhat visibly distressed guard stuttered as the tour group came to a stop alongside the desk. "I... take... it this is the... scheduled tour?"
"Yes, it is. Now if you'd be so kind as to open the security door we'd like to get started. Or perhaps you'd like longer stint at your post?"
Taffy hissed as she bent down and placing her hands on the desk in front of the guard so she was mere centimeters from her face.
"N..n.. no my Lady!.. Please continue..." the quivering guard stuttered as she press a hidden switch, causing the entire wall as the end of the hallway five feet in front of the group to slide aside.
"Very well. Enjoy your stint." Taffy muttered as she motioned the entourage forward away from the guard post.
Deliberately lagging somewhat behind Taffy and Heather, but not able to trail the two maids who dutifully followed no less than three feet behind them, Jessica turned to look over her shoulder at the guard's desk to see if she could see any other security measures aside from the single, small, quaking, guard. But something else caught Jessica's attention. The chair the guard was sitting in had no visible back support. In fact, Jessica thought, it didn't seem to have a seat either. "What the hell is she sitting on?" Jessica pondered as Taffy called for her and the maids to pick up their pace to keep up.
The factory tour was just as 'entertaining' as was the tour of Brulée's massive house. Heather yawned numerous times hoping to force her equally bored tour guide to speed things up. The maids kept their quiet mandated distance of three feet behind the three, while Jessica became the only member of the group to have any interest in the facility at all. The entire time, Jessica was examining, researching, detailing anything that could provide her with a clue to Cardinalli's disappearance and for any possible opening in the factory that she could leverage later on to perform some 'unsupervised reconnaissance'.
"I noticed that we went past several areas which we've not seen yet" Jessica pointed out as the group started it's return to the house.
"Jessica! Shut the fuck up! I want to get go back and sit down and get something to drink!" Heather whispered.
"Correct Miss Darling." Taffy replied as she continued to lead the tour back down the main underground hallway to the main house. "Those are product development areas which, as you can clearly understand, Madame Brulée would prefer to keep private."
"Secret?" Heather's ears suddenly perked up. "What kind of secrets?"
Jessica had learned very soon after first meeting Heather that she was a virtual sieve for secrets. Which Jessica learned to use to her advantage at times.
"Those are the labs where we develop new 'items' for use in Madame Brulée's products. This is all I can tell you Miss Jensen." Taffy replied in a well-studied monotone as she ended the conversation.
Jessica got one final look at the guard station as they swept past towards the main elevator and recognized several security monitors mounted in the desk before the call again went out for her to keep up as Taffy was holding the door to the massive elevator open; "Please hurry Miss Darling." Taffy called out as Jessica, maids rapidly following behind, scurried up the hallway and into the waiting lift.
12.06.09