The Fall

When I took the lady Sulaika Lavie de Beaumont to my office to settle the bet and receive payment on her now 40 thousand dollar debt, she confessed she did not have that kind of money to pay the debt she had just created. I started laughing at the confession. "So you made a bet that you actually couldn't afford to lose, and lost it anyway?" She blushed again, and softly nodded. "So how are you going to solve this problem now?" She shrugged and sighed. "I don't know, darling."

"Well, I have an idea how you can fulfill your debt to me," I said to her. "You work for me, until you've paid off your debt. Like you suggested for me, I will now suggest to you. You will work for me as a maid." Her eyes grew wide as saucers. "I cannot do that! My peers, what would they think of me? I couldn't show myself at the club ever again!"

Again I laughed. "Well, that hardly seems to be my problem now, is it?"

"I will have a contract drawn up for you which you will sign, and fulfill. And if everything goes well, your debt will be paid in a year." Sulaika nodded slowly, while I picked up the phone and called my lawyer to set up a contract. Within 30 minutes I had a concept contract in my mail, and after my approval an hour later a courier stood at my doorstep with the official papers. I put the papers on my desk in front of the newly acquired maid, "Read, sign with initials on each page, and at the end sign and date." She quickly read the contract and started blushing more with each page she got through.

"But if I sign this, I will be expelled from the club!" the white lady cried out. "I can't possibly sign this!" This time it was my turn to shrug. "You will probably be expelled when they find out you don't pay debts as well. Plus you'll completely lose your credibility. Imagine that, a High Society member without credibility.

Sighing deeply, she started signing the contract, and finally put her signature at the bottom of the contract, closing the folder, and putting it back on my desk again. "Welcome to your new job, FiFi!"I greeted the now maid with a smile, while she softly started sobbing, realising what she had signed. I handed her a box with a collar and cuffs, and a maid's dress, and told her to put them on and return to the office when she had done so. With the dress and the box under her arm, she left the office to change.

She returned wearing the dress collar, and cuffs, with her designer clothes and designer purse in hand. She then put the clothes and the purse on my desk. I walked up to her and closed the locks on the collar and cuffs, pocketing the keys. I picked up her purse and took out her papers, putting them away in my safe. "There, that will make sure you won't go anywhere. As for this junk..." with a high arc, I tossed her purse and clothes in the bin. "My clothes! she started. "They are not your clothes anymore, at least for a year, and in a year they are hopelessly outdated anyway." She crossed her arms and stomped. "Louise! I demand that you take my clothes from that bin!" I took a notebook, and started notching on the first page. "That is one more day for not using the correct honorifics, and one more day for back talking. Was there anything else?" I asked her. She startled and immediately stood straight. "No, Madame Valois."