The Countess and the Caretaker - part ten

The thought of spending the day with her pleased him, and he
would certainly feel safe with her in public. As far as he was
concerned he was getting his celebration of freedom, in a way
he had not even dared to hope for.

It was not until she clipped the lead onto the collar, grabbed
her coat and bag and started walking towards the front door that
he began to realise what she had in mind. He started to protest,
but she simply opened her bag, brought out the photograph of him
and waved it nonchalantly over her shoulder at him, as she
yanked hard on the lead.

He had no choice, so he followed. First she had punished him,
then she had restrained him, and now she was going to humiliate
him.

He thought he could see her plan, but his mind was totally
focused on the fact that she was going to lead him around
behind her in public. In depth thought would have to wait until
this ordeal was over.

The first part was easy, as they left the building by the side
door on the ground floor, which led straight into the private
car park. So far - so good.

There seemed to be nobody there, but as the Countess, heels
clicking on the concrete, approached her Rolls Royce, her
Chauffeur appeared, as if from nowhere, and opened the rear
door.

The Caretaker felt ridiculous, but the Chauffeur totally ignored
him. He was yanked into the spacious back seat after her, and
when the Chauffeur had settled himself into the driver's seat,
and instructions had been issued, they were off.

When they emerged from the car park, he noticed it had stopped
raining and that the sun, although a little watery, was trying
to shine on their expedition. Normally this would have cheered
him up but today was different.

First stop was apparently to be her jewellers. They pulled up
outside and he closed his eyes and hoped to disappear, as she
told the Chauffeur to pick her up in half an hour.

Then they were out of the car and he squinted around him to see
if anybody was looking, but nobody took the slightest bit of
notice. It was a completely different story once they were
inside the shop.

There were two assistants in this rather exclusive shop, both
dressed in tight black dresses that hugged their figures like
gloves. One wore a pearl necklace, the other a pearl brooch,
and this was how he always identified them in his mind
afterwards.

To his relief, his embarrassment was not made any worse by the
presence of any other customers. He followed the Countess up to
a glass topped counter at one side of the shop, and then moved
to stand next to her, but she snapped her fingers, indicating
that he should stay behind her.

He knew the two assistants were giggling at him, but he could
not bring himself to look at them. One of them, pearl necklace,
walked around the other side of the counter and proceeded, very
solemnly, to show the Countess the diamond bracelets she had
arranged to view that morning. One in particular seemed to
attract his captor, it was three inches wide, made of velvet and
studded all over with diamonds.

Having made her final decision, she asked for it to be boxed and
told them she would collect it after lunch. Then they left -
leaving pearl brooch to dash across to her colleague, where
upon they promptly started laughing again.

He glanced over his shoulder as they were half way out of the
door, but quickly resumed looking at the pavement. He stared and
stared at it, as he was remarked upon and laughed at, for at
least five minutes. One fur-coated lady even stopped and asked
the Countess, how much she wanted for him.

Fortunately she declined the offer, saying something about his
not being fully trained yet.

A feeling of absolute relief swept over him, when the car pulled
up, and he dived gratefully, into the back seat, automatically
sliding down so as not to be seen. Soon they would be back at
the apartments and this nightmare would be over.

It was not going to be that easy, however, as the Countess had
other plans. He began to realise he was not going home, when the
car started to head down town, and eventually pulled up outside
what appeared to be a restaurant.

Again they got out of the car, and with a feeling of complete
dread he followed her through the smoked glass doors. He did
not look to left or right, just straight down, as his face
blushed bright red.

The Countess was shown to a table and sat down, yanking on his
lead, so that he knelt down. She then manoeuvred him under the
table, gave him a pat on the head, and proceeded to ignore him
while she made her choice from the menu.

It was several minutes before he felt able to take in his
surrounding, and when he did, he realised he was not totally
alone in his predicament. Where had she taken him? There was
another man chained to a table leg over to his right, and one
other in a metal cage against the wall to his left.