The Gilded Cage - Put in my Place

Earning a Treat

"It is quite a view...but if it is cooler up here, how hot is it down there?" Nicola moaned as we stood against the garden wall, staring down across the south of France towards the sea in the far distance. Our holiday villa was high up in the mountains, and it was probably was cooler than anywhere down at sea level, but at the height of summer, it was still baking hot, over forty degrees according to Papa, who had some weather app on his phone. We were wearing thin summer frocks, all flowers, with just our nappies underneath, which was about as casual as we would get, we reckoned, unless we were in the pool, and we were still boiling hot and sweating profusely, as well as lathered all over in gallons of sun cream. "Last year, you let us run around in just our diapers...smothered in suntan lotion like this, obviously?"

"Obviously...but things were different last year...Mama and Auntie Susannah sunbathed too and modesty was only required when we left the villa," I remembered, a little dreamily. Nicola was right, that holiday had been totally different. Helen and Colin had only just agreed to turn their three daughters into nurslings four short weeks before, and the family was still living in London at the time, still well away from the social pressures of the village. Helen had still been dressing quite normally at home, which was modest but no more so than the other well-heeled ladies of Kensington, who were a rich, conservative bunch at the best of times. So, the holiday had been quite relaxed for everyone, although the three girls were still settling down to their new lives and dear Caris was about to be transformed, as we prepared to move the newly blended family to Meadvale. But a year on, I could not really say that anyone was particularly relaxed in hot, sunny France. Us girls were under just as much control as I had imposed on my nascent litter twelve months before, I suppose, but the attitudes and general behaviour of our responsible adults was very different, which changed everything. Turning away from the wall and the view, with Nicola holding onto my hand, I looked along the terrace, to where the five daughters of Eve were taking a mid-morning coffee in the shade. They were all dressed in their usual gowns, tightly corseted and probably wearing all the usual undergarments, none of which were keeping them very cool, it was safe to assume. It was unbelievable. They were behaving as if they were home, and not making any allowances for the temperature. "I don't think they will be doing too much sunbathing this year..."

"But it is fine for the men...it is so sexist?" Nicola grumbled, her sweaty hand gripping mine in her annoyance. She was a good nursling by that stage, but she still had her brain, and there were some things about our lives that always irritated her.

"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; if any obey not the word they may also without the word be won by the conversation of their wives: While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting of hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a weak and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God a great price." I said, quoting Peter chapter three from the bible without any difficulty after months of bible study. Nicola looked at me and rolled her eyes. "It is all in the holy bible, Nic...we should be obedient and the rules are different for men!"

"Hmm." She replied, not convinced by my argument, as mum looked up and noticed us.

"Come here girls?" Mummy said, holding out her hand to us. We hurried over, still holding hands, like the good little girls we were. "Why aren't you playing with your sisters?"

"We were just stretching our legs a little bit, Mummy?" I responded as I took her outstretched hand and she drew me closer. Helen took hold of Nicola. "Nanny said we could, I promise? I wanted to look at the view?"

"She will take you for a walk later, I expect?" Mummy suggested, as she slipped her hand up under my floral dress to check my diaper. Helen was doing the same to her daughter, purely out of habit. Nanny Ford had checked us both before she let us go for our toddle around the baked garden, but checking us was part of our routine, designed to encourage dependence. "We need some fresh food from the village and it's not too far."