Maid for You

Chapter 14: Out of the Bath and into the Pond

Marc frowned at the tide marks in the bath tub. The bath had not been cleaned properly for almost two weeks now and Marc was not pleased. He called Jocelyn into the bathroom.

"What's this?" Mark asked.

"A bath Sir" Jocelyn replied. At last he has noticed! I was beginning to wonder if I needed to get some dirt out of the garden and put it into the bath before he realized it wasn't clean. I bet if I didn't clean his beloved coffee machine he would notice that right away!

Marc rolled his eyes. It was going to be one of those days, he could tell. From the way the corners of Jocelyn's mouth kept twitching, it was clear that she was deliberately provoking him. Well, that was part of the reason why he had not said anything until Friday afternoon. Now he had time to deal with his cheeky little hand maiden properly...

"Yes it is a bath Jocelyn, but it is not a clean bath. You are supposed to clean it once a week."

"Of course Sir, I'll clean it right away Sir."

"I can't let this go unpunished Jocelyn, you realize that."

Yes! Jocelyn looked down at the floor meekly. She had to look down to stop herself from pumping her arm into the sky and cheering! She put her hands behind her back and dragged her toe back and forth in front of her. "Yes Sir, I understand." she replied in a quiet and subdued voice.

The little minx is hamming it up. "I will see you outside in the garden after you have cleaned the bath out properly."

"The garden Sir" Jocelyn sounded genuinely surprised.

"Yes Jocelyn, the garden. You obviously need practice at cleaning out objects that we keep water in. I will have you clean out the pond when you are done here." With that comment Marc left the room.

Oops. I might have misjudged that... I wonder what he is planning to do to me this time...?

+ + +

It didn't take Jocelyn very long to finish cleaning the bath. Even so, by the time that she was done Marc was comfortably lounging in the swing seat that he kept on the back porch. He had a book and an ice cooled drink next to him. He looked up from his book as Jocelyn came up to him.

"All done?"

Jocelyn nodded.

"Good. Take off your shoes and stockings and I'll show you what you need to do." Marc said as he got up from his comfortable seat. He waited patiently while Jocelyn took off her shoes and stockings and then started walking towards the pond which was at the back of the garden. Jocelyn followed, enjoying the feel of the grass under her toes. It was a lovely warm day, perfect for being outside. Under other circumstances she would have been perfectly happy to put up her easel and spend some time painting. As it was, she was curious and nervous to find out what Marc had planned for her as her punishment.

"As you can see there are algae growing around the edge of the pond. This is because the aerator at the bottom of the pond has been blocked up by dead leaves falling into the pond and rotting. First of all, use a rake to take out as much of the algae as you can. You can put it all into the compost bin over there. Then, in the shed you will find a suction pump. You can use that just like a normal vacuum cleaner to suck the muck out of the pond. Dump the muck into a barrow. It can go onto the flower garden as fertilizer later. Once you are done, we can switch on the aerator again. If we end up with lots of bubbles in the water then you are done."

Jocelyn looked at the pond suspiciously. The water looked dark and cold. It did not look very inviting at all. There must be more to this than I can see right now. Just clearing out the pond does not sound like Marc's style. What am I missing here?