[10th May 2020]
“There… that is the last of the alterations done,” said Emma as she put her scissors down.

In the workroom, there were four very similar but different coloured dresses hanging up. There were also four bolero style jackets on separate hangers. None of these dresses would look out of place on the stage of the Follies Bergère in Paris until you looked very closely at them.

“Well done,” said Hayley who had been helping Emma for the past week.

“Now all we need is the latest delivery from France and we will be all set.”

Michel’s birthday party was just a week away and it was proving difficult to hide the preparations from him. He knew that something was going on but so far, he’d been unable to find out what they were. It had been strange enough to have the very eccentric Delphine in his life for the past year but to now have three more women in his life was a completely new experience for him. There were times when he thought that he was no longer in control of his life. They only lasted a few minutes. Deep down he knew that whatever it was would be fun for him as well such was the trust he had in his wife.

In order to take his mind off his forthcoming birthday, he’d immersed himself in his charcoal business. He knew that very soon, more of the lockdown conditions would be relaxed and people would start having BBQ’s and they’d for them they would need charcoal. He had prepared almost double the amount that he’d sold in previous years at the farmers market. Those events had all been cancelled since lockdown began so, he was preparing to take his charcoal and herbs on the road starting in late May, early June. His plan was to go around the local villages and try to sell his produce.

For a few days, he was a bit resentful of the idea but given that the whole country was in lockdown, anything that would make his wife and their friends happy for a few hours was ok by him. They were playing games with him and he was playing with them. He made a few attempts to discover their plans but he wasn’t really serious. Seeing everyone smile when just a few miles away, people were dying of the virus was payment enough for him.

---

Maxine and Hayley had been helped with their corset wearing by Delphine. Her experience was proving to be a godsend to them. Emma looked on and wondered that if lockdown went on for much longer it might be her turn to step back in time to Victorian England where every self-respecting lady wore the blessed things.

Despite many of her brides opting to wear dresses that had some boning, they were mere child’s play compared to the masterpieces that Henri had made for Maxine and Hayley. Being a seamstress, she could appreciate the care and craft that had gone into making them. Then she tried to imagine wearing one herself and just shook her head.

After lockdown had been announced, there had been a period of good weather but in recent days, it had been pretty miserable. Maxine had rigged up a clothes line in the cow shed to compensate for not being able to hang the washing out in the garden.

Even with three women in the house, the energy generated by the solar panels exceeded the amount consumed. That pleased Maxine. Her gamble of having her electricity supply disconnected in March was paying off. A lot of the excess energy would have been used to charge her car but as they were hardly going anywhere at the moment, it didn’t need charging for several weeks on the trot. The same applied to Delphine’s car.

Hayley had gradually given in to Maxine’s ‘suggestions’ that trousers and leggings were not really the ‘done’ thing in their household. It wasn’t that Maxine didn’t like them but she just preferred the feeling that a skirt or a dress gave her. This had been the original reason for her to engage Emma to make a set of similar but different dresses for her not long after she had started working for Adrian. Her aim was to look smart and professional and definitely a woman not a woman trying to be a man.

That sort of comparison had always amused her but the simple act of smoothing a skirt out before sitting down in her mind emphasised the fact that she was a woman when the reality was at that time, a man pretending to be a woman. The other advantage of not wearing trousers was that a full skirt would hide her manhood on the odd occasion that it got a mind of its own. That problem was long gone but it didn’t matter to her. Her default was a skirt rather than trousers for daily wear.

Emma was more than happy to carry on wearing the skirts and dresses that she normally wore in her shop. At one point, she took Hayley to one side and gave her a few words of advice that ended with ‘resistance is futile’ with a nod in the direction of Maxine. She did offer to make her a set of business clothes that would emphasise her figure when her corset was starting to have some effect. Hayley was beginning to get used to Maxine almost always getting the last word in every conversation. She almost began to complain about it when she recalled their childhood and it was the same then. That was Maxine for you.

Hayley put up some resistance but, in the end, she gave way and Emma suddenly had another project to occupy her time.

---

[10th June - Michel’s Birthday]

“Are we all ready?” asked Maxine.

“As ready as we will ever be,” replied Emma.

“Then let’s go.”

Delphine was the last to get into Maxine’s car.
“Second thoughts?” asked Emma from the back seat.

“Some. Michel knows that we are up to something.

“He knows nothing!” exclaimed Hayley.

“Remember the plan ladies…” commented Emma.

Maxine didn’t wait for anymore dissention in the ‘ranks’. She drove away from the cottage and headed for Michel’s home.

As the crow flies, the distance between the two houses is less than half a mile but to drive between them, it is a distance of almost three miles. Normally, the women would have walked the short distance but that might have ruined their dresses and besides… they were all wearing high heels.

For once, the weather gods had smiled on their part of the world and it was a lovely sunny evening. He’d prepared a fire pit and was open roasting a locally produced Lamb. He’d bartered with a local farmer for the animal. Two Geese and two dozen eggs had secured
Their food for the evening.

The Lamb had been slowly cooking for several hours while he prepared the salad. Everything came from his greenhouse or animals. This made him very happy. The goal of being self-sufficient in terms of food and energy that he’d set himself when he bought the smallholding had come to fruition. The advent of the Pandemic had made that decision even more fortuitous. Since he’d had Delphine lending a hand his quality of life had improved beyond even his wildest hopes.

Michel was unsure what it was that his dear wife and her friends were planning for the evening but whatever it was, it was sure to be different. The combination of Delphine and Maxine in his ‘bubble’ was a force to be reckoned with. From having no one close to having two and possibly three women in his life was uncharted territory for Michel.

He owed Maxine an awful lot for bringing Delphine into his life. He
Life had changed beyond his wildest dreams in the past year and she was responsible for much of those changes… her and Delphine.

The only person missing from the evening was his daughter, Rosalind. He’d spoken to her earlier in the day but it wasn’t the same. He would have loved to have her present but the situation with Covid and travel had prevented her from being there. She might not be present in body but she was there in spirit and that made him happy.

His daydreaming was cut short by the sound of voices. His birthday treat had arrived.

The four women walked in arm-in-arm with Delphine near the centre. Maxine used a remote control to start the music. Appropriately, it was ‘The CanCan’.

In unison, the women marched forward and lifted their skirts before stepping back. In time with the music, they continued to dance for Michel. Lots of stocking clad leg was shown every time they came towards him.

At the end of the song, they all collapsed on the floor laughing and trying to get their breath back.
Michel clapped their performance and gave each of them a kiss on the cheeks. The party could begin.

---

[two hours later]

The lamb had been consumed along with the salads that came from the smallholding. Most of a 5ltr container of local Scrumpy had also mysteriously disappeared. The only sober person was Maxine. As the designated driver, she’d only consumed less than half a glass of the evil drink while eating the truly delicious feast.

Maxine tipped the wink to the others just as the sun was going down. It was time for her, Hayley and Emma to leave.

Each of them went to Michel and gave him a birthday kiss. Delphine stood by grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. She knew what was coming next.

Just as the three got into Maxine’s car to leave, Maxine started the Cancan music again. This time it was just Delphine performing for her husband. This time, she was going to remove the front panel of her skirt just before the climax but that was for her husband’s eyes only.

---

[Back at Maxine’s house]

“That was fun,” said Emma.

“It went well didn’t it,” agreed Hayley.

“Delphine is a lucky woman,” said Emma.
“To have found someone like Michel who is clearly devoted to her is… just nice.”

“That’s all down to Maxine,” said Hayley.

“Guilty as charged,” replied a smiling Maxine.

---

[Two days later]

“Are you sure that you have everything?” asked Hayley for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Emma was going back to London now that some of the lockdown travel restrictions were being eased.

“I think so but if I have missed anything then… Next time perhaps?”

“You are coming back then?” asked Hayley.

“I am. This is such a nice part of the world.”

“All you have to do is say the word and we’ll help you setup shop down here,” added Maxine.

“I know and I did promise that I’d consider the offer. I just want to see how things pan out back in Wimbledon before making any decisions,” said Emma as she got into her van.

“Drive safely,” said Maxine.

“I will… and thanks for having me to stay. It beat being on my own that’s for sure.”

“You are welcome any time,” said Hayley as she stood close to Maxine.

The two of them waved at Emma as she started her journey home.

“I’ll miss her,” said Hayley.

“Me too but as things are starting to open up, We, are going to start getting busy.”

Hayley nodded her agreement.

“Speaking of business, isn’t is time for our Zoom call to Rosalind?” said Hayley.

Maxine looked at her watch. This was just about the last thing she had that dated back to before Maxine. It had been given to Tom by his grandmother when he left school.

“Five minutes to go. We’d better get setup.”

---

[one week later]

Maxine was doing some weeding of their Herb Garden. It was not a patch on the one over at Michel’s but it served its purpose for her and Hayley. Hayley was hanging out the washing in the late morning sun when her phone rang.

“Oh, hello Mum. Can I call you back in a minute? I’m in the middle of hanging out the washing,” said Hayley.

“Someone has to do it and Maxine volunteered me to do it,” said Hayley as she smiled at Maxine.
Maxine responded by sticking her tongue out at Hayley.

Hayley finished hanging out the washing all the time wondering why her mother had called her. They normally spoke in the evening.

With the washing drying in the gentle breeze, she called her mother.

“Hi mum. Sorry about that.”

Hayley listened intently to what her mother was saying. After less than 15 seconds she waved at Maxine who came over to Hayley.
“I’m going to put you on speaker. Maxine is standing beside me,” said Hayley.

“Hello Maxine, I just told Hayles that her grandmother had a bad fall yesterday. She’s not broken anything but is badly shaken. She was given the once over at the hospital but naturally, given the situation with COVID, they don’t want to keep her in any longer than absolutely necessecary.”

“That’s not good. At least she hasn’t broken anything,” said Maxine.

“Hayles, can you come up and look after your gran for a while? I know that it is a big ask but I can’t have her to stay with me as the builders have not finished wrecking the place.”

Hayley looked at Maxine who nodded her head.

“I’ll do that Mum. Maxine says yes. I’ll get a train up to Brizzle, and change there. I suppose that trains are running to Chippenham?”

“I saw one in the station when I took your gran home an hour ago so I’d say that they are,” said Hayley’s mother.

“Ok, I’ll get there ASAP. Will you still be there?”

“I’ll hang on until you arrive. Then I’ll go and do her shopping.”

“Ok Mum. See you soon. I’ll let you know when I’m due to arrive. See you soon and give my love to gran.”

Hayley hung up the phone looking serious.

“Gran should really be in a home but she’s just so stubborn,” said Hayley.

“Perhaps this might persuade her that it is time?” suggested Maxine.

“I don’t know but we’ll have to try. I need to go and pack,” said Hayley.

Maxine gave Hayley a brief kiss.
“Take as long as you need with your gran. I’ll be there in spirit if not in body.”

Hayley gave Maxine a big hug.
“I know you will but I am worried about gran.”

“Do whatever you think is right. If you need me there then I’ll come up but don’t keep things bottled up.”

Hayley managed a brief smile before heading into the house to pack her things.

---

The house felt strangely empty without Hayley being around. Maxine had gotten used to her being there with her all the time. They’d become a close-knit team since Hayley had moved in with her. Lockdown had made them become even closer and not just in terms of business but as a couple.

Maxine shrugged her shoulders and got on with life but Hayley was never far from her thoughts. Those thoughts turned to marriage. It had not been mentioned by either of them but for Maxine, it felt that it was the right thing to do when things returned to normal.

[to be continued]
[Authors note]

Maxine appears in parts 12 and 13 of my story ‘Down but not out’. They will be published next.