Jewel Ascending Ch. 07

She suspected that she must be in mourning as veils had become fashionable again as well as traditional for women in mourning.

She waited as the woman hesitantly approached her. Was she about to place another order? She noticed that her male companion had two drinks at their table already. Probably about to lodge a complaint most likely

The woman approached until she was opposite the counter.

"Donna?" She asked.

Donna smiled politely. Her name tag was clearly visible after all.

"Yes, may I take your order?"

The woman gasped.

"Donna, it's me; Jewel." She said as she lifted her veil to reveal her face.

Donna felt all color drain from her face...Jewel...Lady Delacroix...Countess Delacroix...Her lover...

"Jewel?"

Jewel was astounded to see her former headmistress and lover working in a coffee shop of all places. The suddenness and surprise robbed her of any idea as to what to say.

"Uh...hi..." She finally said, lamely.

"Hello." Donna replied.

"Oh my god...I'm stunned. I am so happy to see you." Jewel finally found her voice.

"Um...yes...you too." Donna replied.

Jewel was again at a loss for words. She was content to simply drink in the apparition that manifested it self before her. Donna Hancock, her first and only lover...was working at a coffee shop.

"I...uh...how have you been?" Jewel asked. C'mon Jewel, think of something...say something!

"Good, I've been good."

"Is this where you work now?"

"I work here as a barista and I also work days as a legal secretary at a nearby law firm. I am reading the law, basically interning as a lawyer under the guidance and tutelage of a practicing attorney. These two part time jobs are how I support myself while I save up enough money to be able to attend law school."

Another customer approached and was ready to place an order.

"Look, I have...work..."

"Of course, please, take my contact info. May I have your number? May I call you? I'd love to see you again."

"I...can't...sorry, can't give out numbers at work...rules..."

Jewel was immediately disappointed.

"Oh...ok...I understand." Jewel wasn't ready to give up though. "I'll come back late, is that ok?"

"Yes...sure...later sounds good."

"Good...great. I'll see you...later...then." Jewel stepped back to let Donna work.

Holy shit! She found Donna!!!

**

Holy shit! Jewel!

Countess Jewel Delacroix, one of her lovers from the Academy had found her. And the only male lover she had ever wanted to seduce...showed up here, where she worked.

Holy Shit!

"You seem upset, who was that?"

Donna was working the late shift and was closing up as she wiped down the tables and counters. She looked up as her boss; Marci had asked her a question.

Marci was probably only 35 years old despite looking 25. The beautiful voluptuous red head with a pretty smile and freckled nose stood shorter than Donna at only 5'6" in her flats. Her toned body boasted 39-25-36 measurements. She wore only minimum makeup with just a hint of eye shadow and a touch of lip gloss on her perfectly symmetrical features.

Donna answered uncomfortably.

"That was someone from my past. Someone I thought I'd never see again."

"She seems to have upset you. Want to talk about it?"

"No...I mean...it's just..."

Marci made a drink for Donna and one for herself.

"Sit down. Relax. Tell me all about it."

"You know why I was terminated at my last job, right?"

Marci 'officially' didn't know why, but unofficially she knew that Donna had an affair with a student. Marci nodded her head yes to encourage Donna to continue talking.

"That was her?" Marci asked.

"That was him." Donna affirmed.

Marci raised her eyebrow at the gendered statement,

"Him?"

"That was Lady Jewel Delacroix. He's a countess." Donna elaborated.

"Hmm...interesting; I've heard of her. The first arranged marriage male bride, yes?"

"Yes." Donna answered.

"So...tell me everything."

Donna slowly and awkwardly told Marci her tale of how she and Jewel met and shared with her details of their intimate relationship. She finished by explaining how she was caught with Jewel having sex and Jewel was expelled and Donna was fired from the boarding school.

Donna looked to Marci. How would she judge her story?

"So there is a tragic back-story, but the real question is how does seeing her now make you feel?"

"What do you mean?"

"How did you feel when you saw her standing in front of you?"

"I felt...good...happy...then sad." Donna admitted.

"Why?"

"Because I was truly happy when we were together, our secret affair, but now..." Donna trailed off."

"But now what?"

"I feel I'm a fool. How could we ever be together? What would people say?"

"People who say they don't care what people thing are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think" Marci quipped.

"Uh...what?"

"Donna, you do know about me as well, right?"

"You mean officially, or what the other baristas gossip about?"

"They gossip? No...never mind...of course they do...we all do after all. So you know that I was also a bimbo lottery winner right?"

Donna just nodded her head yes.

"Yes, I was drafted into the National Social Services Maintenance and Acquisition Department...wow... almost 10 years ago now...time sure flies..."

Marci was momentarily lost in reverie so Donna just waited patiently.

"Yes, as I was saying drafted and forced to become a feminized male whore for the state."

"Service provider." Donna politely corrected.

"No, whore is far more accurate."

Donna merely nodded again at Marci's assertion.

"What's it like?" Donna asked. Her curiosity piqued.

"Lonely."

"I meant your term of service, what was it like?"

"Lonely." Marci repeated.

"Anyway, as you can tell, I was pretty and passable in public and I had no shortage of admirers. My schedule was always full and I even amassed quite a retinue of regulars who only wanted me to provide them with sex to satisfy their perverted lustful desires."

"You provided them with relief from their elevated passions."

"Let's not mince words, ok? Unless I had an appointment scheduled I was required to work in the brothel. I got fucked by men up to three times a day for six days a week. My day off was Thursday..." Marci shook her head slightly in recollection.

"Eventually I got good enough so that my schedule was usually full. One appointment meant one client per day, much better than three a day right?" Marci asked with scorn.

"Anyway, one day, my division manager tells me that a wealthy regular has offered to buy out my remaining contract. She positively gushed with enthusiasm and seemed offended when I didn't appear as excited at this prospect as she did."

"How could I? I was a slave and a whore for the state. What did it matter who I had to fuck. I only wanted to serve my 7 years indentured servitude, get it over with and be free."

"Now the man who eventually bought my contract was one of my former regulars and, let's be blunt, was by no means an attractive man."

"He was not handsome?" Donna Asked.

"He was ugly." Marci said bluntly.

"He was heavyset, pimples, bad skin, bad hair, crooked teeth, hooked nose, average height, probably had never ever set foot in a gym in his life, plagued by a host of imaginary ailments."

"A hypochondriac?"

"Yes, that's putting it mildly."

Marci sighed again in reminiscence. She and Donna took a sip of their drinks before Marci resumed talking.

"I thought he was the ugliest man ever, but he was rich."

"Most women didn't want to be with him except for the money he could provide and the lifestyle he could give them. But the man himself was actually super nice, devoted, considerate and caring."

"His issues were that his girlfriends had wronged him over and over again."

"So he bought you..." Donna let the question hang.

"So he bought me for my companionship." Marci paused again.

"He didn't even touch me for the first two weeks. He brought me into his home, gave me my own bedroom, all my slut clothes from the service had been placed into my walk-in closet but he gave me an allowance to actually go and buy new clothes to wear...normal everyday clothes...as long as it was feminine and female attire of course."

"It was nice. But I was scared and I eventually came to think that if I didn't serve him as well as before he purchased my contract or better that he might send me back, so I gave him everything I thought he wanted. If he wanted my mouth, he got it, if he wanted my ass, I gave it to him, if he wanted eye candy in a pretty dress to hang on his arm for a gala or function, I put on the pretty dress and high heels and jewelry...oh yes, lots of expensive jewelry...and was his arm candy."

"He took me to art shows, opera, theater, red carpet affairs. I've been taken yachting and lay about in a bikini as I suntanned on deck when we visited Cannes."

"So you came to love him?" Donna asked.

There was a long pregnant pause before Marci finally spoke again.

"No."

The silence between them lingered for a few moments more.

"When the day came that my term of service had finally expired, after seven years of indentured servitude, I walked away."

"I'll never forget the look on his face...his expression of...sorrow..."

"All that time I only wanted to get back to my normal life. I did everything that they trained me to do but I thought it was done, over, I was through. But after all the training and mental conditioning...and let's not forget the physical changes they put you through."

Marci cupped her bountiful bosom and then let her hands flow down past her waist and out to her thighs; her hourglass feminine figure and her feminized facial features.

"On that last day, the day I woke up and it was over, He had flowers filling the living room of his home, he had champagne on ice..."

Donna saw tears forming in Marci's eyes.

"He had a ring and he actually got down on one knee and proposed. He had a fucking ring and even had a prenuptial agreement drawn up."

"He talked about how he knew he wasn't a good looking man but that he hoped he had proved to me that he was a good man."

"You know in all that time he never forced himself upon me? He would only ask. I did as I was trained and conditioned. I took his requests as if they were orders and did what I thought I was told to do."

"He didn't see it that way."

"When I said no..." Marci sniffled back a tear. "You could see the change...the hurt inside..."

"He was crushed."

"Anyway, after I left I tried to move on with my life. Clark was his name, he was still single. He later found me and visited me once. After me he said that he now feels he is unworthy of love and lives alone."

Donna struggled to hold back tears of her own.

"He even attempted suicide about a week after that visit." Marci finally sobbed, then used a tissue to dab away her tears.

"I'm so sorry." Donna offered.

"Thanks." Marci accepted her sympathy.

"You know when you leave the service they give you a separation allowance?"

Donna shook her head no.

"It's true. 50% of whatever you made during your tenure as a state whore is saved for when you exit the service."

"What they don't tell you is that they deduct your upkeep during your tenure. So food, clothing and rent for your brothel room all comes out of your half. And whatever is left over is still taxed. The Department of Income, Revenue and Taxes still take their share. They even tack on a penalty and surcharge for filing late, even though it's the Bimbo Lottery that's holding onto all your money." Marci paused to calm herself. She had been getting carried away.

"What was left over after that wasn't nearly enough for me to undo the physical changes...the surgeries alone cost way too much...so I used what little I had to open a small business and look at me now...owner of an independent coffee shop and barely making ends meet. I struggle every day to support myself and keep this shop running"

"And when I think about my dating life...ha...no girl wants to date or have a relationship with a feminized male ex-whore." Marci dabbed away a few tears with a napkin.

"Carl still stops by sometimes to see me."

Donna just listened attentively and gave Marci the time she needed.

"When I think about what I had, what I lost, and all because I couldn't see what I had right in front of me! I only saw my own suffering and not the effect I had on those around me."

"So if it's advice you've come for, here it is." Marci paused.

Donna sat forward in her seat.

"Don't give up a good thing just because the other person has flaws. You need to realize that you have flaws too and nobody is perfect."

Donna smiled at the honest advice.

"And don't give two shits what other people think. If you are both happy, then you deserve to be together."

**

Melinda and Dianne reacted quite differently to the news of Kyle's confession.

"Well, isn't that what you want after all?" Dianne asked "to find love and happiness in the arms of a man who would respect you and not abuse you."

"I guess you missed the part where he said he didn't love me or was attracted to me." Jewel replied evenly.

"But it's still a nice gesture. Maybe not very romantic, but truth and honesty is still a good foundation for a formal relationship moving forward. And having an open-relationship like that would still let you have your choice of partners, both romantic and physical!" Dianne encouraged.

She was warming up to the idea. Jewel as a feminized male bride/widow in a picture perfect society relationship would be great for her reputation and social media presence. The Oldsworth family was a highly respected noble line.

Dianne also had her own reasons not strictly professional. Lady Oldsworth had approached her and invited her assistance in convincing Lady Jewel to date Kyle. An implied reward from an Allegorian Noble was a potentially powerful incentive.

Jewel idly thought about and rejected the idea of mentioning Donna. She could already guess Dianne's thoughts on the matter.

"And how about you?" Jewel looked to her body guard and head of security.

Melinda paused a moment to consider her answer.

"It's not in your best interest." She finally stated.

Dianne looked surprised while Jewel looked interested.

"How so?"

"Lady Delacroix, you are a woman of independent means. If you remarry, Kyle Oldsworth receives and takes control of your wealth. His honesty means nothing if he has the ability to take and maintain control over your life. Without love he would have no reason to keep you close and could send you away, just as your previous husband did."

"Now there is no reason to think that..." Dianne started to argue and protest.

"Isn't there though?" Jewel asked rhetorically.

"There is one other thing." Melinda said.

Jewel waited patiently for Melinda to continue. She had to shush Dianne from interrupting, and then dismissed her from her presence. That act seemed to encourage Melinda to speak freely.

"Lady Wanda Oldsworth is intent on forcing a marriage if you do not consent willingly."

"How do you know this?" Jewel gasped in shock. Another forced arranged marriage? One in a lifetime was already enough.

"Jean Claude kept informants everywhere. These informants sent word of plots and rumors as they heard them to him. Now they send information to us, me, your security." Melinda finished.

"And you know this for certain?" Jewel asked, still appalled at the thought of a forced marriage.

"100% certain; it came from...well...I can't tell you that for security reasons yet, but from someone in the queens inner circle. The petition of marriage has been delivered to the queen for her consideration."

"So what do I do?" Jewel asked.

"Dianne should help you handle this but I have my doubts about her fidelity to you." Melinda said as she glanced to the closed door Dianne had exited.

"But you can either protest the petition and move to have it quashed, or marry Kyle and accept his proposal willingly. Maybe there is a way to get a prenuptial agreement or something, despite your unusual legal restrictions."

Jewel didn't like those options. There had to be something better. Some way out of this mess.

"Thank you Melinda. I appreciate this. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"There are two things" Melinda replied.

Jewel listened carefully. She hadn't actually expected there to be anything, at least not immediately.

"First, double the budget for security. Informants will want to be rewarded for the risk they take in passing intelligence and information."

Jewel nodded agreement. "What else?"

"Jean Claude held a regular meeting for these rumors, a threat assessment briefing whenever needed. We need to resume those." Melinda finished firmly and professionally.

"Very well" Jewel said, standing back up as she moved to her computer and opened up her accounts. "I suppose I should double the security budget now but..."

"I'll show you what accounts he used." Melinda informed. She was satisfied with how this meeting went. Jean Claude had always had many uses for his security team, and not just babysitting Lady Jewel Delacroix. They had always been deeply involved and invested in Count Delacroix's machinations and had always reaped the reward for their loyal service.

At the next brief she would Teach Lady Delacroix about the piranha principle and it's relationship to the Allegorian Nobility. Melinda smiled. It felt good to be more than a bodyguard again.

**

Jewel was very happy. Her latest dinner date had gone perfectly. After inviting Donna out for coffee and being rejected; Donna worked at a coffee shop so that had been a dumb idea, to then inviting her out for dinner and drinks, and then now a formal dinner date, Jewel had been building up the courage to have Donna over to her home.

The dinner date had been the perfect excuse to invite her to Delacroix Manor. Jewel had invited her on a shopping date and volunteered to loan her accessories. Now they had returned home and were changing for bed. Donna had been reluctant but Jewel persisted and convinced her to stay the night with her.

Jewel walked into her walk in safe occupying the corner of her closet and removed her jewelry. She placed each item in its appropriate spot. Her emerald earrings, necklace, ring and bracelets were part of a set and went into their decorative wooden chest before being placed onto the appropriate shelf.

Jewel turned slowly around and admired the size of her jewelry box. With one wall the door to the room, the shelves were arranged in a "U" shape along the remaining three sides. The walls, ceiling and floor were steel reinforced to keep her jewelry safe from both fire and burglars. The lock on the door was biometric and would only open for Jewel, Muriel (her aesthetician) and Melinda (her head of security).

As she stood in the center there was enough room to hold out one arm with her shoulder touching a shelf and her fingers would touch the shelves on the opposite wall. Each shelf was covered in green felt and was 18 inches wide. They were spaced about 2 feet apart and had 3 shelves per wall, or 9 shelves total.

Every inch was carefully arranged to contain the precious stones and metals that made up her accessories.

Jewel stepped out as Donna entered to drop off the Ruby set she had been loaned and wore for the evening.

Jewel slipped out of and dropped her form fitting little black dress and lacy black intimates onto the floor, her staff would pick them up and tale care of them in the morning.

As Jewel was putting on a nightie Donna came out and shut and secured the door to the walk in safe.

She then took a moment to look over the room sized walk-in closet.

"I can't get over how big this space is." Donna commented.