The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter Thirteen - Back to Work

The next couple of weeks went pretty smoothly. As long as I went along with the fact that I was just a toy with 'no purpose in life except to provide my master with pleasure and amusement', Daniel was kind and quite unbelievably generous. Of course, he was still giving me loads of those little slaps on my quim but I was starting to accept that I didn't hate them anything like as much as my brain thought I ought to.

He had set up a system that allowed me to keep an eye on my mother - basically a laptop that showed a live feed from the room in her Care Home. I could see that she was getting the best possible attention and it was much less painful, looking in as an outsider rather than being there with her.

And, the more I watched, the more I realised that Daniel was right; the woman in that room really wasn't my mother... in fact, she was hardly a person anymore... and the tiny smudge of person that was left behind was rapidly slipping away.

It was desperately sad, of course, but it was much less painful than being there in the room with her.

We went for another couple of trips out on the 'Emergency Exit' and he also took me out to the theatre, to classical concerts and to several restaurants.

I made solid progress in my lessons with Helen. I never found out what she would do if I actually disappointed her but I got plenty more raised eyebrows.

And I was spending loads of time with Susan. She seemed to know a fair bit about the social etiquette type stuff... and certainly loads about clothes type things... I got the impression that she came from quite a posh background but she was, understandably, not all that keen on talking about her past.

Then, at dinner, one Thursday evening, Daniel had a shocking announcement for me. "You are coming back into work from Monday."

I froze at that idea.

"Tell me what's going on in that little head of yours," he said with a smile.

I had to think about it for a moment but he looked totally unstressy about that and took a sip of wine.

"I know that you and Helen have helped me to develop," I answered at last, "but I'm still not sure whether I'm the kind of stylish person that I'd need to be to survive in that place."

"You don't have to be a stylish person," he responded with a smile. "All you need is enough self-confidence to be able to bluff successfully."

"But..." I just sort of trailed off. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to say.

"I strongly suspect that, were you to read the minds of those other poison princesses, you would find great dollops of insecurity in there too... certainly at a technical level but also in terms of style and personal presentation too."

I had to think about that. If those girls really were feeling insecure, it would go a long way to explain some of their nasty behaviour - particularly Mandy's.

"So 'fake it 'til you make it' is the way to go!"

I thought about that then smiled.

"Furthermore, I would like you to take over as team leader for the..."

"Me?"

"Come here and assume your primary punishment position," he told me in the bored voice that I was starting to really hate.

I mean... I hesitated - but only for a tiny moment - before stepping around the table and presenting myself so he could give me my painful and humiliating slap...

"Sooner or later, you are going to learn not to interrupt me," he said. Then he just held me like that for a moment before giving me the nod which told me I could go back to my place.