714 Bridle Path Ch. 01

"For poker," she wheezed, putting the shot glass on the table. "That is nearly as bad as one of those Helen Kellers that Alexandra tells me of."

"Nothing is as bad as that, except for the Stations of the Cross," Jenny said with conviction, but then she lapsed into thought. "Speaking of..."

"Countess, no, please," Val almost whined, looking more than a little worried. "No Stations of the Cross, per favore, te supplico! I'll clean your panties with my tongue for a month, just don't get that drink! I promised Mistress I wouldn't let you do those! She will kill me, and then Tril will be stuck cleaning up by herself!"

"Can I have your pay added to mine if the countess gets you bumped?" the hippie girl asked rather unhelpfully.

"Tsh, fine," Jenny scoffed, looking put out. "I'll remember what you said about the panties, Miss Prospero. I need another dance."

She turned and wiggled back onto the floor, finding some people to dance with.

"She forgot to do up her blouse," Tunde observed. "Should we tell her?"

"I somehow doubt she forgot, Tunde," Theresa sighed, watching Jenny laugh and party on. "Probably just airing the girls out for a bit, she's been drinking and dancing for hours now, with no signs of slowing down."

"Nobody seems to be objecting, either," Ari laughed. "Whose turn is to go and try to keep up?"

There was silence around the table for several moments, with nobody volunteering. Ari shrugged. "I guess we'll just wait until she comes back and commands a few of us to join her. My feet're killing me anyway."

"You've gotta admit, guys," Jeanie reasoned, drinking her Rainbow Amigo. She was glad they knew how to make it here. "Easiest two grand ever made, or at least the most fun."

"Aren't you two newly mega-rich?" Dave asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah," Jeanie the brunette replied with a shrug. "But two grand is two grand, y'know?"

"I guess that's true," Trilby allowed. "We've been out for just five hours, meanin' we're bein' paid four hundred bucks an hour so far. Hard to complain about that."

"Hard to complain about anything," Val chirped, beaming at everyone. "C'mon, guys. Our jobs are great. We're all way above any pay scale we've had before, even Glenda."

"Shorty's not wrong," the chauffeuse agreed. "Lovin' the pay, and I get my own place. Food is paid for... what's not to love?"

Dave nodded. "Best job I've had by a country mile. Good enough that I might actually con my daughter into comin' to see me and spend some time with me. Don't you jokers scare her off."

"Oh, c'mon, gramps," chided Trilby before putting her head on his shoulder for a moment. "We're family, we won't do that to you. And yeah, I agree. They're gonna pay for me to continue my education, get my business degree. Not bad for a gal's first real job, right?"

"We're proud of you, hon," Theresa said, putting her arm around Trilby and hugging her. "They encourage my culinary creativity, and I'm still learning lots of new things. I guess working for zillionaires has its advantages."

"From my point of view, one of the advantages of working for zillionaires is that we get to eat your food, Theresa," Tunde pointed out. "And David and I get to work with Marie's plants and design the gardens with her. And I send back as much money to my umama as she will allow."

"The gardens here will be beautiful," Marie agreed. "Like Theresa, I am allowed to be creative, and they are absolutely my kindest bosses ever. So many were control freaks. And when you work at giant public gardens like Versailles, there is so much tension, and your contributions are often intentionally played down or overlooked. I love this pace, it is not frantic."

"What about you, nerd?" Andrea asked, smirking at Ari now. "Y'ever worked for a private citizen before?"

"Not salary, no," the young man said, shaking his head. "Small temp jobs, sure. But mostly for companies needing upgrades to their security. It scares me, because everything is so cutting-edge with our bosses, and they're expecting me to keep on top of it and protect everything. But the pay is so worth it, and I'm learnin' a lot."

"You said that boss lady's actually one of the pioneers of computer security or something?" Glenda queried.

"Not that directly, but she was one of the great minds of the technology that cybersecurity springs out of," he said, taking a drink of his Cosmotini. "Quantum cryptography. Her work in the field is still the basis for textbooks today. It's incredible, I'm working for my spirit animal."

"Don't let her catch you callin' her that," Andrea quipped, eliciting a round of laughter from her friends. "I'm still blown away that we have our own lounge and games room, you know? Food, rent, paid for. Killer salary, and I'm gettin' to work on all those classic cars! Now all I need is- shit..."

Andrea was staring off at something, and everyone glanced over at where she was gazing.

On the dance floor, Jenny was prying the hands of a young man who was wedged up behind her out from under her skirt. She had let him dance with her, but he was beginning to take liberties the countess was not willing to give up. She pushed his hands away and turned to confront him and tell him off, but the sleazy jerk just leered and put his hands into her blouse and on her tits.

Instantly, Jenny's hand flashed out and cracked him across the cheek, sending him staggering away. One of his equally obnoxious buddies confronted her to intervene, but the pointed toe of the countess' shoe found his balls with unerring accuracy before her fist slammed across his jaw, knocking him backward.

Another guy surged up behind her to grab and restrain her, but he was tackled suddenly by Freja, who took him to the floor and punched him quickly, right in the nose, instantly putting him to sleep. Apparently the sleazeball Jenny initially slapped had a lot of friends with him that night, because she found herself surrounded. She stood her ground, glaring back at them before lunging at one unexpectedly and tagging him in the nads before smashing her forehead into his nose.

Andrea and Dave plowed into the fray, trying to protect the countess with their bodies. Dave and his goons crashed into a table, while Andrea wrestled and grappled desperately with two guys and a woman who tried to get involved by tearing her hair out. The mechanic screeched before booting the girl in the stomach, knocking her away.

Tunde leapt in as well, charging into a man who put his hands on Jenny, and getting slugged for his efforts. He hit the ground but surged back to his feet, fists flying.

"Lady Greymoor!" Val called in a panic as she saw a woman getting ready to hit Jenny with a chair from behind. She threw herself into the woman, both of them tumbling to the floor and rolling around, fighting over the chair.

The other staff members all watched the unfolding chaos, centered around a Jenny nucleus, the confused brawl soon enveloping other tables, whose patrons probably had no idea what was going on. Jenny was snarling and charging into foes, her brown eyes flashing as she began to lay about with her fists.

Theresa, Glenda, Trilby, Jeanie, and Marie all slowly turned to look at Ari, and he looked shocked when he saw them all gazing squarely at him.

"Aw, c'mon!" he protested. "Y'can't be serious! Just because I'm a guy, I've gotta... oh, dammit..."

He got up and tossed his Rubus on the table. "Look after my phone for me!" he said before dashing in to try and help. They all watched quietly as the whirlwind of violence spread through the club, sucking in more people. Marie shifted around uncomfortably.

"Should... should we try and help?" she asked, sounding nervous.

"No, hon, we should stay here," Theresa assured her. "We'd only just get in the way and make the others worry about us getting hurt. Let them look after the countess."

"Trugarez Douet," the French woman said, sighing in relief.

Music was still playing over all the chaos.

"Tonight... we are young,

So let's set the world on fire,

We can glow brighter,

Than the suuuuun!"

"Don't worry," Jeanie assured everyone. "Fre's got this handled."

"YNDLING!!!" her wife howled as she went sailing past them overhead and crashed somewhere out of sight.

"Wow," Trilby mused, watching Freja's flight path. "She gets good air time, she's pretty light in spite of how muscular she looks."

"Dunno how, but that's gonna end up bein' my fault," Jeanie sighed resignedly.

Back on the dance floor...

"C'mon, countess," Val said rather breathlessly, doing her best to lead Jenny away from the fracas and back to their seating. If things were going to go to Hell, the least she could do was keep her boss' beloved best friend out of harm's way. "Let's get you somewhere safe until this is over with."

"The nerve," Jenny groused, scowling back at the brawl as she allowed herself to be led. Her blouse was even more wide-open and her chignon was beginning to fray. "Thinking he was allowed to grope my baps like that! You colonials have no manners!"

"I know, I know," Val said wearily, sitting Jenny down and then grimacing when she noticed that her own dress was looking somewhat worse for wear. One of the shoulders was torn, and there were scuff marks all over her skirt. "Now we just need to-"

"It's him!" Jenny shouted angrily, standing up. "That's the blighter who grabbed my tits! Oi!"

And before Val could stop her, the Lady Greymoor had charged directly back into the fight. The smaller girl looked at the empty air where the countess used to be, turned to face her comrades, sighed and shrugged before pivoting and diving into the mess to find the countess again.

"Poor Val," Theresa said with sympathy. "She's a lover, not a fighter."

"I don't think anyone out there would claim to be a fighter, except for Freja," Trilby mused, just watching. "And the countess. She's nuts."

"Hashtag, no cap," Jeanie agreed, watching her wife roaring like a deranged bull and thundering back into the carnage. "I take back my earlier statement about the easy two grand."

"Oh, you didn't know, darling," Theresa said, patting Jeanie's arm.

They all pressed themselves back against the wall hastily as Freja came staggering toward them, carrying a woman and slamming her down on her back against the table. With a shout, the Danish girl raised her elbow and slammed it down on her thrashing foe's thorax three times, right in the sternum. The girl stopped thrashing, opting to go still. One of her eyes already going black and swelling shut, Freja nodded and then turned around to head back into the fight.

The women just looked at the unconscious girl on the table, and the mess that had been made.

"Damn," Jeanie muttered, making a face. "I wasn't done with my Rainbow Amigo, and now it's on the floor. It was pretty good, too."

"Incoming..." Glenda said rather urgently, standing and turning over the table. The unconscious woman rolled off and it was now on its side, the large, flat round surface facing out. They all ducked behind it as they saw Dave shoving a man in their direction, the two of them tumbling to the floor. They felt a body impact the other side of the table with a grunt, and then several juddering thumps, someone getting punched.

Then it was quiet on the other side of the table.

"I... I hope it wasn't gramps that went quiet," Trilby said, sitting with her back against the underside of the table. "Theresa, you should look."

"I'm not gonna look, you look!" the chef hissed, scowling.

"Yeah, no," the hippie girl said, shaking her head. "Pacifist, remember?"

"This is not how I saw my evening going," Marie lamented. "I expected less fighting and probably more naked countess. Suddenly, two thousand dollars does not seem like enough. We are not chaperones tonight, we are bodyguards."

"Not very good ones, either," Glenda added.

"Oh, hey, a beer," Jeanie remarked, picking an unsullied bottle up off the floor, popping off the cap and taking a stiff pull.

Theresa and Glenda dared to poke their heads over the edge of the table and look out. They were greeted with the sight of a young man whirling around in front of them wildly, trying to dislodge Val from his back, but she was holding on like grim death, her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, choking him in the process.

"Waaahhhhhhhh, don't like!" she howled, her eyes spinning with her foe's circular movements.

"You're doing great, hon!" Theresa called out encouragingly as the man staggered back into the maelstrom.

Glenda reached across the partition and smashed a beer bottle over the head of a guy who was trying to turn Tunde's liver to jello. He flopped to the floor, and the landscaper looked at her, panting wearily and nodded before trotting back toward the action, which by now was everywhere.

They both shook their heads as Tunde got flattened virtually immediately. Still, he scrambled back up, looking around for an opponent he could possibly take.

Jeanie shot up from behind the table and flung her beer bottle at the massive brawl, certain she'd hit someone.

"AUA!!!" Freja howled. "Who ams throwing bottles?"

Jeanie flopped down behind the table again, going pale and looking very worried. "Maybe I'll just stop tryin' to help now."

"Good idea, Rambo," Trilby muttered, shaking her head and actually looking rather bored. She steadfastly refused to get up and look around, no matter what might happen to thump into the other side of the barricade.

"At least we've still got music," Theresa mused, looking around.

"Oh, when I woke up tonight, I said I'm

Going to make somebody love me

I'm going to make somebody love me

And now I know, now I know, now I know

I know that it's you

You're lucky, lucky, you're so lucky!"

"That's rather ironic, y'gotta admit," Jeanie said, wincing as another body impacted the table.

"Well, do you, do you, do you want to?

Well, do you, do you, do you want to, want to go

Where I'd never let you before?"

"I'd rather be anywhere than here," Marie said, her knees drawn up to her chin, making herself as small a target as possible. "I think our employers may have swindled us."

"This wouldn't be happening if they were here," Glenda pointed out, flinging her jacket out and catching it around some guy's neck, pulling him backward until he was pinned to the table, struggling. Dave laid into the man, landing three haymakers before tossing him aside.

"Thanks," the older man growled, stomping wearily back to the brawl. He was looking worse for wear at this point.

"Well he's a friend, and he's so proud of you

He's a friend and I knew him before you, oh yeah!

Do-do, do, do-do, do-do

Well he's a friend, and he's so proud of you

He's your famous friend, well I blew him before you, oh yeah!"

"All right now," Val said, her voice ragged with exasperation and her breath heaving like a bellows as she dragged the countess back and down behind the table. Jenny's shirt was almost completely missing at this point, her normally immaculate chignon a mess around her pretty face. Her brown eyes were still blazing. "Now please, countess, stay here!"

"Thank you, Miss Prospero," Jenny breathed, turning to face the somewhat battered girl now, kneeling in front of her and clasping Val's hands in hers. "I know you want to keep me safe and are looking out for me. It means so much to me."

She took Val's cheeks in her hands and leaned in her to kiss her, firmly. Val sighed and went limp, her hands now flopped at her side while she received the kiss, relief flooding through her and a tingle at the wet warmth.

"Now excuse me," Jenny said suddenly, standing up and stampeding back to the fight. Val's eyes opened wide as Jenny disappeared, and she seemed to sag even further in on herself.

"No-o-o-o-o-o!" the little brunette almost cried, her eyes closed as she looked at the ceiling. "Perché io, Dio?"

She got back up and dashed after the countess, who had already disappeared back into the whirling mass of chaos.

"Well, to quote our big boss, that'll get her a few years out of Purgatory, just in case the Catholics are right," Theresa sighed, shaking her head. She watched as poor Ari was nearly getting pulled apart by two men, but then Freja rushed up behind one, grabbing him around the waist and heaving, suplexing him backward through a table. Andrea grabbed the other one and belted him across the jaw so hard that he spun like a top before going to the floor. They picked Ari up and made sure he could stand before they went back to try and find Jenny.

"We need to renegotiate," Glenda said, ducking behind the table as a body flew past them and the song that was playing over the club's speakers reached its final crescendo. "We should all get danger pay. I think I'll go get the cars ready."

"Oh, lucky lucky, you're so lucky,"

Jenny landed a solid hook that flattened the man who had initially molested her, dropping him once and for all.

"Lucky lucky, you're so lucky,"

Andrea body-slammed a man with a loud krunch!

"Lucky lucky, you're so lucky,"

Tunde's eyes widened and almost popped out of his head as he got punched in both cheeks at the same time by two men.

"Lucky lucky, you're so lucky,"

Val let out an 'oof!' squeak as she landed on the floor, tumbling ass over teakettle and showing off her panties to the world, this time involuntarily.

"Lucky lucky, you're so lucky,"

Dave and another man punched one another at the same moment, both going down.

"Lucky lucky, you're so lucky,"

Freja leaped into her opponent, tangling her legs around his neck and arms before twisting and slamming him to the floor.

"You're so lucky, yeahhhhhhh!" the final line of the song shouted as the police burst through the door.

***

The following day, in a family van headed toward the city...

"Hello, Jordan," Karen said pleasantly, smiling as she spoke to the phone sitting in its holster on the dash. "And how are you?"

"I am well, my dear, thank you," he replied. "It is good to hear from you. Are you headed back now?"

"Indeed we are," she confirmed, nodding. "And things went swimmingly well. Michael and I barely had to do anything, what with Alex and Alli charming the socks off everyone present. There is no opposition to the bishop's support, and many have come around to siding with us, well over two thirds of them. The rest will simply be silent."

"Excellent," the elderly man said, sounding pleased. "You will be happy to know that you still have an estate to return to."

"I'm so pleased that it hasn't exploded in our absence," Karen sighed, while Mike, who was driving, laughed. In the back row of back seats, both Alex and Alexa snickered before they went back to whatever they were doing to one another. Karen preferred to not know, frankly. "And how was the countess' night out with the staff?"

There was a moment of hesitation in Jordan's response. "... well..."

"Go ahead and patch this call through the intercom to the whole house," Karen instructed. "Sit your phone in one of the receptors, Jordan, and everyone will be able to hear us and even speak back to us, no matter where they are."

They heard Jordan rustling around for some moments, followed by a thunk sound as his cellphone was inserted into one of the aforementioned receptors. They heard him flip a switch, and then he sounded different. "You are now broadcasting, my dear."