Agatha yawned as her day began, bright morning sunlight streaming through the windows of the lobby.

It seemed like the maids had already been through and cleaned up everything, and after opening up her computer it looked as if the number of emails that had come through from last night were minimal. It had been the weekend after all. Today was looking to be surprisingly easy, something for which Agatha could always be grateful.

Allowing herself to stretch in a way that she knew the Majordomo would likely hit her extra hard for with that damned ruler of his, she decided this was the perfect time to sneak herself a little tea break. From the way the breakfast buffet seemed to serve everything from grilled chorizo or chicken and waffles to exotic fruit salads and high protein muslei every day, they must have some really good tea stashed away in the kitchen.

Leaving her desk for a moment to pass through a few rooms – making sure to carry a clipboard with a few sheets of some miscellaneous document attached to it to make it look like she was actually busy – she eventually found her way back to the break room. Basically no one was around anymore, so she’d be able to make her tea in peace.

Rifling through the cupboards, she tried to keep everything as neat as she’d found it. After all, it was pretty rude not to when there were so many other people using this space. Even if nearly everyone who worked here was cleaning staff in one way or another, there was no reason to make a mess of the place.

Agatha paused as she was bringing a large french coffee press down from a cupboard. She’d just had the realisation that she hadn’t seen any other members of the personal assistant staff in the manor. Maybe that was something worth asking about?

Then again, Mistress was likely busy enough that she’d ignore or dismiss the question entirely.

Eventually finding a nice box of loose black tea, Agatha relaxed as she drew in the smell, the water steeping the tea nicely within the large press. Faint hints of vanilla bean mingled with the rich black tea, and the faintest spice of black pepper – so faint Agatha wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not.

She couldn’t wait to try it.

As she walked back through the mansion to her desk with her tea, a delicate porcelain cup and saucer, using her clipboard as a makeshift tray, she was about to set her things down at her desk as the mansion door opened.

Agatha looked up to see a woman, possibly in her thirties, with round glasses and a turbulent expression. Long, straight brown hair, and a shoulder bag. Her clothes were formal but somewhat frumpy, a grey v-neck jumper covering a floral collared shirt with pale jeans and flats.

And she was starting to walk straight into the mansion without even looking at Agatha.

‘Um…’ she began, surprised at the audacity of what was happening. Remembering her job, she put down her tea and called out after the woman, ‘Excuse me!’

She turned around, her frown only deepening as she looked at Agatha.

‘What?’ she spat.

Agatha was taken aback. Just who did she think she was?

‘If you’re here to see the Mistress of the house for scheduled business, you’ll have to take a seat. As she's currently at work you may have a long wait, so perhaps it would be best to come back later,’ she said as firmly as she could muster.

The woman stared at her with that contemptuous expression before scoffing, and continuing to walk further into the mansion, speaking over her shoulder.

‘I’ll be back.’

Agatha was baffled as the woman just … walked away.

This was going to be trouble.

She quickly sat down and grabbed the handset of the desk phone, pushing the emergency speed dial button for Mistress’ phone. She might be in the office right now, but this was serious and Agatha had no idea how to respond to someone who would just walk in and ignore her.

Wasn’t the front door normally locked, anyway?

Shit, if someone had left it open…

There were a few agonising seconds as the phone dialled before Mistress’ voice – either annoyed by or relieved for the interruption – came through.

‘What is it?’

‘There’s a woman Ma’am; she came into the manor and just … walked past the lobby and into the mansion. Mid thirties-ish. Straight hair, dresses like an office worker or a teacher, I think?’ Agatha said quickly, ‘She totally ignored me when I asked her to take a seat. What should I do?’

There was a sound a little like sucking teeth from the other end of the line before Mistress responded, ‘That’s Anne. I keep telling her to use the back door, but of course she never listens to me. Just do as she says. Next time, only call me when there’s actually an emergency.’

Before Agatha could even open her mouth to ask another question the line clicked as the call ended. She couldn’t help but just stare at the handset in disbelief before returning it to its cradle.

Well, if Mistress said that everything was fine, she supposed it was fine. Even so, did this Anne person have to be so rude about it? And it wasn't just her rudeness that made her feel uneasy.

Still, at least she could just enjoy her tea for now. And enjoy it she did, it was absolutely delicious! Intricate and delicate flavours perfectly complemented the boldness of the tea itself. Absolutely heavenly. This mansion might be a weird place to work, but she had to admit that the perks were worth it.

In a way it sort of reminded her of her old job, where she’d keep a big pot of tea in her cubicle each day, usually refilling it once or twice to get the most use out of the crushed loose leaf tea the office provided. Nothing as fancy or delicious as this blend, but it was something she appreciated all the same.

She worked in the reflective quiet of the lobby for a while, sorting through the calendar and marking contracts which were set to expire within the next fortnight down for interviews, and poured herself another cup of tea.

Then she heard that woman’s voice again.

‘And just what the hell do you think you’re doing?’

The sudden shouting caused Agatha to jump and twitch, spilling the tea from the press all across her work desk and all over her skirt. Cursing as she set down the press and moved away any electronics or paper, she yanked tissues from the nearby box to try and mop up what she could of the tea to keep it from spreading.

After putting down enough tissues, she turned her head to see that same woman, with a much more confident expression – though it contained the same amount of contempt. Furthermore she was dressed in a dark navy coloured maid uniform bordered by black ruffles, distinctly different from all the other maids Agatha had seen as it was made entirely from latex.

Oh. So this was Anne.

Agatha didn’t know where to begin, but couldn’t hide her indignation, ‘I … Sorry I didn’t recognise you. I’m just trying to do my job. You’re a maid, right? Could you help clean this up please? Or at least give me a cloth or something?’

Her eyes flared as she started striding with balled fists straight towards Agatha. That had clearly not been the right thing to say.

Anne reached out and grasped Agatha’s hair in her hand, pulling her close as she relished the yelp of surprise and pain Agatha had made.

‘Oh you have no idea how badly you’ve just fucked up, do you?’ she hissed, ‘I can’t believe Mistress would hire such a complete incompetent to manage our schedules.’

Agatha tried not to yell out any more as she tried to hold onto Anne’s wrist for stability, and to keep her from pulling on her hair anymore, ‘Wh-what do you want?’

‘Whu-whu-w-wu-what do I want?’ she mocked, pulling Agatha’s face around to meet her gaze, ‘I can start with telling you everything you fucked up “doing your job,” how about that?’

Agatha stomach yawned into an anxious pit. It was hard to keep Mistress’ advice in mind while this woman had a fistful of her hair in her hand.

‘Hey wait! I’m not a maid here, I’m one of – ow! – one of Ma'am's assistants!’ she protested.

‘You think there’s a difference to me?’ Anne cackled, ‘Sweetheart, how is your IQ so damn low? Last time I checked, you were living in the servant’s quarters, and you’re working as a servant. And I,’ she leaned in to leer, ‘As Head Maid, have authority over every servant in this mansion. So yeah, I get to tell you how to do your job. But more than that, I get to punish you however I want when I think you’re not doing good enough.’

Agatha’s face was a mask of fear; but the curl at the corner of her lips betrayed a pulse of arousal.

‘So why don’t we start,’ Anne twisted her head to look at the desk, ‘With what you did wrong here. Go on, tell me what you did wrong if you’re so smart.’

‘Agh! I … You made me spill my tea.’

‘Oh? Did I push it out of your hands?’ Anne seethed.

‘Ngh, no.’

‘So you’re just blaming it on me for no reason?’

‘What, no! You surprised m- agh!’

Anne pulled her head closer, ‘It’s not my fault if you can’t control yourself. Maybe you need some more lessons with Semour. But yes, there’s a mess you made all over your desk. And you did try to clean it up before it could damage any electronics, so you’re not a complete idiot.’

Agatha felt herself dragged by the hair again as Anne moved around the desk.

‘Then again, I might be wrong,’ she continued, ‘Since not only are you drinking tea at your desk like you’re on break, but you’re putting tea in a french press! What is wrong with you? Don’t you know what that’s for?’

‘Ow! There wasn’t a … a big enough teapot!’ Agatha tried to explain.

‘Oh so you’re stupid and greedy!’ Anne spat, ‘You can drink tea on your breaks, but while you’re working you’re working, got it?’

‘Ouch! Y-yes Anne!’

SLAP!

Agatha tried to blink the stars away from her vision as she realised she’d just been slapped.

‘That’s Miss Anne to you, idiot!’ she hissed before grumbling, ‘God, I don’t know what Mistress and her Highness were thinking bringing you in here. Can you get anything right?’

At this point she couldn’t help but start crying. This only earned another derisive groan from Anne, as she pulled Agatha’s office chair behind her and sat her down on it.

‘Don’t move. We’ll see if you get that right, at least.’

Anne stalked off, as Agatha tried to dry her eyes. This fucking sucked. What was she supposed to do? Mistress said to just … let her do what she wanted, but Anne was just hitting her and scolding her so much.

If she’d actually expected this and felt like she had permission to, she might be enjoying this – not that there wasn’t a tiny bit of her that didn’t wish Anne had pushed her face into the tea covering her desk and forced her to clean it up – but what Mistress said and what was happening contradicted so much, it just made her head hurt.

She hated having to just shut up and take it like this. What could she possibly do to please everyone in this situation?

Agatha felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder. She opened her eyes.

It was Anne. Her expression was much softer now, as was her voice when she spoke.

‘Hey. I know I went pretty hard on you. But there are rules we need to follow, and we need to follow them exactly for a very good reason. I know you’ll do your best to make sure things like this don’t happen again, alright?’ she asked, finishing with a small smile.

Agatha, unable to speak, just nodded as she let her hands drop into her lap.

‘Good. That said,’ she said as she pushed a strip of black bandages across Agatha’s chest, ‘You still deserve a punishment.’

‘Wait, what? H-hey wait, I-!’ Agatha stammered as Anne quickly wrapped her in wrinkled bandages which clung to each other like athletic tape, pinning her arms and securing her to the chair.

‘Of course I get that you need a break too after what you just went through, so maybe the best thing for you,’ she continued, wrapping her chest, hands, and legs to the chair, ‘Is to put you into time-out so you can think about what you did.’

‘You … you ca-mmph!’

Her words were interrupted by a ball gag slipped into her mouth, quickly secured behind her head. Anne grinned with intense sadistic joy as she tauntingly tapped a fingertip against Agatha’s gag.

‘Oh but I can. After all, Mistress and her Highness let me do whatever I want to the servants. And that includes you, Agatha,’ she added with a wink.

Agatha blinked in disbelief. She knew her? Anne laughed more as she ran her hands through Agatha’s hair, shaking out her bun and letting it fall back into its natural ringlets.

‘And you know what else I know about you?’ her tone and timbre dropped to become low and seductive, ‘A little kitty tells me that you’re something of a silly little hypnoslut. And from the way she talked about you, and how you squirmed so much when Mistress so much as suggests disciplining you, I figure that someone is a glutton for punishment.’

Something caught in Agatha's throat. Was she really that obvious? The pressure of arousal was starting to build as Anne was beginning to creep further in, sitting on Agatha’s thighs and staring into her eyes.

‘Yeah, you're a predictable little thing, huh? Bet you’re not clever enough to think of any kind of trigger of your own, just going along with what everyone else tells you to do?’ she cooed, ‘Well that’s okay, because it feels good, doesn’t it? To just follow along and listen, nodding your head … yeah, just like that.’

Agatha could feel herself slipping into the induction, the last of her thoughts trying to reach a conclusion before one was made for her. She knew it felt good, and Mistress said she should listen to Anne, so this was fine … right?

‘I’ll bet your trigger is something as obvious as something like, hmm, let’s see,’ Anne said before snapping her fingers, ‘Sleep.’

Agatha’s head drooped forwards, resting against Anne’s latex-ruffled chest.

Anne gave a victorious cackle.

‘Oh, this is going to be great.’

Agatha’s brain was extremely fuzzy, but she was at least able to tell that whatever was happening to her was something that she deserved.

Miss Anne had wheeled her back to the mansion’s dungeon, out of sight of everyone else so Agatha didn’t cause a scene or make any more mess. She was honestly so relieved. She didn’t know how she’d been messing everything up so badly.

Thankfully Miss Anne said she knew how to make everything better.

They arrived, and Miss Anne pushed open the plush leather-covered doors to the dungeon. The Mistresses’ own home dungeon.

Something in Agatha said that maybe things were going too far, that she’d get in trouble if she was found in here.

But Miss Anne was bringing her in here, so it must be alright.

The doors closed behind them, and Miss Anne unwound the bandages around her. She freed the gag from Agatha’s mouth, letting the strings of drool run down her face.

‘Aw, someone’s a messy girl,’ Miss Anne teased, ‘You like being a messy drooly slut?’

‘Yes Miss Anne,’ Agatha murmured, speaking truthfully. After all, she knew that Good Dolls Don’t Tell Lies, even before she came to the mansion. And Miss Anne was someone she should absolutely tell the truth to.

‘Oh you do?’ she giggled, smearing Agatha’s drool all across her face and ruining her makeup, ‘Then let’s mess you up a little, you stupid whore.’

A dull giggle escaped Agatha as Miss Anne gently slapped her across the face before starting to strip off her clothing.

‘How good are you at taking pain, slut?’ Miss Anne asked as she threw Agatha’s uniform to the ground.

Another ditzy laugh burbled out from Agatha, ‘Mmmmh, pain~’ she moaned, ‘I really like pain.’

Miss Anne raked her nails down the front of Agatha’s chest as a moan of that ecstatic sensation whined from her.

‘Sounds like you do, doesn’t it?’ Miss Anne hissed, leaning in and biting deep into Agatha’s shoulder, sucking and pulling at the flesh until it felt like she would bleed, ‘But since you like it so much, and this is meant to be a punishment, how about I turn it off for a little bit?’

Agatha was so enraptured in the pain from the bite that she barely registered what Miss Anne was saying. She hoped it would make a nice bruise.

‘So I want you to take all that lovely, lovely pain you’re feeling, and push it all the way into the back of your mind. And I want you to make a big wall around it, like a big strong dam. That way, all the pain you might feel gets stuck behind the dam in your brain. It’s still there, just out of sight so you don’t have to worry about it.’

Agatha nodded along. Miss Anne’s voice was so soothing. It felt like listening to her talk was just making all the pain from the bruise melt away. She gave a small disappointed whine. Miss Anne laughed at her.

‘Don’t worry Agatha, maybe we can make that dam overflow?’ she leered, dragging Agatha by the wrists up from the chair and leading her towards a metal frame lined with eye bolts.

Standing her in the centre of it, Miss Anne started moving Agatha around, putting leather cuffs on her wrists and ankles and some kind of belt around her waist, before looping chains all through the anchor points on each, attaching them and locking them to the frame.

Agatha loved the noise the chains made as they ran through the eyebolts. It sent pleasurable little shivers through her every time, hearing the heavy steel clatter through itself, especially when it hit the floor, and the sounds of locks clicking shut, her escape made impossible as her legs and arms were spread taut, her waist locked in so she couldn’t even wriggle her middle.

Miss Anne hummed thoughtfully as she walked by the wall of impact toys, selecting a heavy leather flogger with wide falls and a viciously small and thin riding crop. Sauntering around to Agatha’s back, she gave both implements a few experimental swings.

‘God, Mistress and her Majesty really love wasting money on sex toys this nice, huh? Well, not like I can complain right now,’ she smiled, gently running the crop across Agatha’s back as she shuddered with pleasure.

Suddenly, Miss Anne lifted the crop away and struck it against Agatha’s thigh. She felt a slight pressure, but nothing like what she expected. What was it she expected again? Oh right, that stuff behind the dam.

Miss Anne hit her again, another globule of pain falling behind the wall in Agatha’s unresponsive mind.

‘Wow, looks like you’re really taking to this trigger aren’t you?’ Miss Anne laughed, switching to her flogger as she whipped it against Agatha’s back.

She was confused. She felt the force of the heavy leather push her forwards against the chains which bound her, felt it fall upon her and slide away, heard the thuddy snap of it, but something was missing.

‘Miss Anne, what’s happening?’ Agatha wondered aloud.

Miss Anne howled with laughter, ‘You’re being punished you twit, remember?’

‘Okay,’ Agatha nodded, turning her head back to face the front as she felt the vague suggestion of the flogger hitting her again.

If Miss Anne was punishing her, and Miss Anne was always right, and Mistress said to do everything Miss Anne told her to do, then that meant that she deserved her punishment.

Made sense to her.

Agatha continued to take blow after blow from the flogger and crop, actually managing to get somewhat bored. Was this the punishment Miss Anne was talking about? She did hate feeling bored.

Eventually Miss Anne stopped. She returned to the wall of toys to put the flogger and crop away, and started undoing Agatha’s chains. She gave a noise of confusion before Miss Anne responded sweetly.

‘Don’t worry, I’m just moving you a bit. You’ll be bound up again in a second. Could you stand up for me?’

Agatha did what she was told, unable to sense the insincerity in the Head Maid's tone. Miss Anne was the Head Maid after all, she had to do what she said. Mistress told her so. She had permission to submit.

She stood straight after Miss Anne undid her ankles and wrists, then Miss Anne started to wrap her legs in more of those black bandages she had. She kept wrapping them and wrapping them around Agatha, up, up, up until she started covering over her whole head. But this was okay. Miss Anne said this was okay.

After she was fully wrapped, Agatha felt the gag being pushed back into her mouth. She was starting to feel a little unsteady, so she was glad when Miss Anne started securing her back to the frame with those beautiful, musical chains.

Miss Anne started making wondering noises, humming to herself. Agatha couldn’t see what about, since Miss Anne decided she didn’t need to see anymore and had covered her eyes with bandages. But she did feel something wrapping around her neck, forming over her shoulders, and cradling her chin as it was secured around her and chained to the frame.

‘A posture collar,’ Miss Anne explained, ‘Since you’re so improper, wearing this for a little while should fix you.’

Agatha mumbled a thank you, but the gag made her words utterly incomprehensible. Miss Anne laughed, but Agatha didn’t think she said anything funny.

Miss Anne’s touch left her, leaving her totally bound, her arms crossed behind her back and held tight by bandages, her whole body anchored still to the frame around her by heavy, rattling chains. Even her head was held up for her, the posture collar secured to the top of the frame.

Agatha relaxed. She felt so safe.

‘Oh Agatha~?’ Miss Anne whispered, her breath blowing across Agatha’s ear, ‘You know that dam we put in your head? I’m so sorry, but it’s time for that dam to … Burst.’

The dam crumbled. Every sensation hit Agatha at once.

Agatha squealed as loud as her body could, all of it distorted by the gag. She shook and quivered as the thudding blows from the flogger across her back and shoulders burned, the sharp strikes from the crop felt like they were slicing into her rump and thighs, the bite on her shoulder swelled and throbbed, and even her nipples ached with the pinches and twists Agatha hadn’t even noticed Anne had given her between strikes from the impact toys.

She writhed inside her bonds, the chains binding her already taut and rattling. She could barely even squirm.

Anne was nearly crying with laughter, wheezing out and having to stop laughing to catch her breath once or twice before starting again.

‘Oh my fucking god! I knew you were hopeless, but this is too much!’ she said with utter glee, ‘God, I hope you never learn, this is too much fun!’

Agatha’s pain was dulling now, fading into a warm ember as the haze of hypnosis was lifted away from her. Fuck! It hurt so bad! Fuck~!

Agatha heard the door open.

‘Well, I think you’ve learned your lesson for now. Keys are hanging on the frame. Now I’ve got to get back to doing my job, I’ve wasted enough time on you,’ Anne said loudly, ‘Don’t worry, someone will find you. Eventually.’

Agatha tried to squeal through her gag again as she heard the door swing shut.

Fuck.

It hadn’t taken that long for someone to find Agatha.

When she heard the door open, she was hoping it was her Majesty, or Mistress, maybe Clara, or even Kae if he was still around. They’d probably help her out, though Kae would probably laugh at her for a bit and Clara would probably just take a long time to find the keys, even though they were right in front of her.

The people she really hoped it wasn’t were Anne or Lisa.

At first when she was feeling a light brushing sensation over her, then over the chains and presumably the frame supporting her, she was confused. A little tickled even. But when they started rubbing down the chains and what sounded like wheeling away her desk chair, she realised that they weren’t here to free her. Or even play with her.

Agatha wriggled and shook, squirming against her bonds to try and get their attention. Or at the very least cuss them out for leaving her there.

She heard one of the maids speak to the other.

‘Just ignore it. We shouldn't take too long.’

The maids finished their cleaning and left, no matter how much Agatha squirmed and writhed and moaned. The casual objectification made her cheeks burn, though not as badly as her other cheeks.

She groaned, and settled into her chains. She was so sore. How long was she going to have to stay like this?

Agatha didn’t know how much time had passed until the door opened again.

‘So that’s why I didn’t see you at your desk,’ the distinctive voice of Mistress stated flatly.

‘Mh’hm!?’ Agatha exclaimed, relief washing through her as she heard footsteps crossing the padded floor.

Mistress plucked the keys off the bondage frame and started undoing the locks, starting from the bottom and carefully undoing the chains as she went.

‘I’m going to take off this posture collar now,’ she explained, ‘And when I do I want you to let your weight rest against me, is that clear?’

Agatha exhaustedly mumbled an affirmative.

Undoing the collar and allowing Agatha to slide out of it, Mistress gently pulled her out of her bonds, resting against her chest as she slowly set her down on the ground.

‘There you are. Well done,’ she said, her voice so much more soft and supportive than Agatha was used to, ‘Now, I’m going to take all this vet wrap off you. You can keep your eyes closed as long as you need to, it might take some time to adjust to the light.’

Mistress carefully set to unwinding the bandages off her, removing her gag, and slowly, tenderly, taking the cuffs and belt off her.

Agatha felt herself be drawn in close under Mistress’ arms as her eyes fluttered dreamily, slowly letting herself see again.

She groaned, afterglow tinging everything and making lights soft and hazy.

‘Anne did this to you, didn’t she?’ Mistress asked.

Agatha nodded. Mistress drew a measured breath, held it for a few moments, and released it.

‘We can deal with that later. For now, let’s get you somewhere safe and comfortable.

When Agatha next opened her eyes, she was submerged in her fluffy blankets, surrounded by each of her plushies, arranged carefully to embrace her.

She yawned wide, feeling the stinging marks and bruises from yesterday across her shoulders, back, buttocks and thighs.

Remembering how she was bound so tightly and left alone to stew in her pain.

How relieved and elated she was when Mistress found her, and so gently and tenderly held her in her arms.

Mistress…

What day was it today?

Well … yesterday was Monday…

Shit.

Agatha sat bolt upright, wincing at every single bruise she’d accrued in such a short time. She looked over to her nightstand, seeing a jar of her tiger balm sitting conveniently next to a full bottle of water.

Along with a handwritten note.

She picked it up, recognising the handwriting immediately.

“Agatha,

I want an itemised report of what happened between you and Anne. Be as specific as you can remember.

Apologies for not informing you Anne was our Head Maid. I hope to give you a more formal introduction to each member of our harem in time.

Considering the stress you had endured, I will relax your dress code for today. Though I would request you remain somewhat presentable. Yes, you may even wear your boots.

— Mistress”

Agatha collapsed backwards onto her bed, the note held to her chest. Did she carry her all the way back here?

She closed her eyes to envision it, swaddled in Mistress’ blazer, carried so gently in her strong arms. She couldn’t help but sigh before forcing herself back awake. She still had to work today. And she still had a ton to do left over from yesterday.