HollyMaid - Chapter 6

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Cathy was speechless till she made it to the living room, and then she started talking wide open. I tried not to listen, but Cathy's voice could be heard in the next county, so it was hard not to.

"Now, that's a maid," she told Holly, "and what a uniform," she added. "I hope you don't mind sharing."

"I do mind, Holly spoke bluntly, "but you could ask her."

I went and got the silver tray I had polished earlier that day and placed the snacks on it, and got the bottle of champagne placed in the ice bucket, ready to go. Holly had started calling me Julie since the operation, and I had, in fact, legally changed my name, so that was correct.

"When will you ever tell me which salon you're going to these days?" Cathy chimed in again.

"Why go to a salon?" Holly boasted, "when you have a maid like mine."

"She did all this?" Cathy sounded stunned.

"Well, yes," Holly spoke in a casual tone. "She's very good at what she does," she added as I came into the room with the tray and champagne.

"Will that be all?" I curtsied again to Holly.

"I'm expecting three more guests tonight. Once they arrive, you're done for the night," she added.

"I doubt that," Cathy spoke up. "Can I ask if you have references?" she spoke to me.

"I do, but I work full-time for Holly," I spoke quickly.

Holly smiled as I left the room to answer the door. Amanda and Rita came together, so there was one left to go. I returned to the living room to fill everybody's champagne glass and ignored Cathy's barrage of questions as the other girls took their seats. I curtsied to Holly as she gave me a dismissive nod. I had almost made it back to the kitchen when the bell rang again. Sally was last to arrive and seemed rather stunned when I answered the door.

I took her coat and gloves and pointed her to the living room, telling her the other guests were there. I poured another round of champagne and told Holly there was another bottle already chilled in the ice bucket on the kitchen counter. Cathy started with the questions as Holly dismissed me, and I curtsied again and left.

I sat in the kitchen and listened as the girls talked about nothing for hours on end. The conversation eventually came back around to me; Cathy saw to that.

"Does she have a sister or brother?" Cathy asked Holly about me.

"Not to my knowledge," Holly spoke softly.

"I've never seen a maid so well-groomed and with such manners," Amanda added.

Rita agreed and told Holly she just simply had to learn how to share. Sally took her turn, saying any maid that could keep a house this big clean, single-handed and make Holly look like a million bucks had to be worth whatever price. A sure ploy to get Holly to tell them how much she was paying me.

"Look, Holly spoke loudly, bringing the room to silence. "My maid is just that.....Mine. Now, if Julie wants to work elsewhere, that is up to her, but I suspect you will have a hard time getting her to quit me. Cathy spoke first, saying, "most maids weren't paid that well, and she felt sure she could pay Julie better than Holly was."

"Make her an offer," Holly spoke with some confidence.

"I might do just that," she chimed in, sounding rather snobbish at the time.

As the night wore on, the girls began to get tired and were saying their goodbye's as I went to the door to pass out the coats and gloves. Cathy was the last to leave, and I had already started to clean up before she made it to the door.

"How much is Holly paying you?" she asked me straight out.

"You should ask Miss Parker that question," I replied as I handed her her coat. She looked at Holly for an answer, but Holly just opened the door and told her goodnight.

"You're the best," Holly looked at me as Cathy bounced down the stairs and out to her car.

"Maybe so," I struck a pose, "but you made me," I quipped.

"No, I just made you better. She put her arm around me as we walked toward the kitchen.

"Where on earth did you get that darling outfit?" she asked.

"I have had it for years. I'm a bit of a packrat if you know what I mean."

"Well, it looks great on you," she added.

"I'll just clean up here and call it a night," I smiled as I looked around the kitchen.

"I'm off this weekend, and so are you," she shot back. "Okay. Well, I'm going to bed," she spoke, sounding exhausted.

"Good night," I replied. "I'll be quiet as I can."

I decided that since Holly really seemed to like my uniform that I should get some more. That night before I went to sleep, I went on the internet and ordered seven more outfits just like the one I had. I ordered three pairs of shoes to match the ones I had on. I figured that was more than enough to last me all week without washing every day.

As my nineteenth birthday passed, I got a good lawyer, filed several more freedom of information act papers, and found out even more about who I really was. My father's parents were dead, and he was an only child. Their estate would also fall to me at age twenty-one. My mom's folks had been dead for a long time, even before I had been born. Mom had a huge life insurance policy that had never been paid out. According to my lawyer, all this stuff was mine once I was old enough to claim it legally. I still didn't have a dollar figure, but mom's insurance policy was over a million dollars all by itself.

I didn't have the heart to tell Holly that in just a few months, I would be more wealthy than she was, my twenty-first birthday being just ten months away. I continued to be her maid, butler, and groundskeeper just as I had before. I spent most of my days in the uniform she loved so much, and the corset was ever-present, along with the five-inch heels that seemed not to bother quite as much these days.

Cathy, Amanda, Rita, and Sally all made me offers to try and steal me away from Holly. I just said no, as none of them even came close to what Holly was paying me. And none of them could have done what Holly did for me and for free even more. My service to Holly was little in the way of repayment for all she had done, and I wanted to do even more. In time I would have that chance, and I would show my gratitude in my own way.

In the weeks just before I turned twenty-one, my lawyer took me to see the estate that would soon be mine. There was this grand old house on eighty-plus acres, two smaller homes for servant's quarters and a barn, should I decide to have a horse or some other livestock.

Having been broke most of my life, I knew it took money to keep a place like this. Lots of money and I had very little. My lawyer was being tight-lipped about just how much I was worth, and I finally had to ask him point-blank.

"Well," Hank scratched his chin. "I haven't really added it all up. The life insurance on Thomas and June is worth about twenty million alone. Then Thomas's parents left him their estate, along with the insurance, and that's another twenty million, give or take a bit with interest. Their house is worth around a half million, and this place is worth about two million, plus, with all the land included. So rounded off, you're worth about forty-three maybe forty-four million at the going price. Of course, there are stocks and bonds that haven't been tallied up as of yet. And there's another house in the Florida Keys that needs to be figured in, as well.

All in all," he smiled, "I would say you're a rather wealthy young woman. Oh, and your father's jet is still in storage at the airport."

I fought hard to hold back the tears as I listened to this man pronounce me a millionaire several times over. You would have to have lived on the poverty level for most of twenty years to really understand why, but it was almost like a dream. My estate, which sounded odd for me to say, was just ten miles from where I lived now with Holly.

I did my best not to shirk my duties to Holly as I planned an all-out bash for my twenty-first birthday. I came to find out I even had a limo, so all I needed was the driver. I cleaned mom and dad's old house from top to bottom the same as I would have Holly's. I hired a maid, a real one, imagine that. And a butler and got a driver for the limo. Bought enough food to stock the house and have one hell of a party. Then sent out invitations to all my real friends, including the doctors at the clinic. Grace. Of course, and all the guys from the car wash. I wanted everybody to know I was going to be okay, maybe even better than okay.

When Holly got around to asking me what I had planned for my birthday, I wasn't sure what to say.

"We normally celebrate together," she added.

"If you have other plans, that's okay," I smiled.

"Well, I did get this invitation to a party, and while I don't really know who it is, I was thinking we both might go.

"I'm not much on costume parties, but I don't get gold-gilded invitations very often either."

"Am I invited?" I asked, seeming not to know a thing about it.

"Well, according to the invitation, I can bring one guest."

"I'm game," I spoke softly.

"I'll get the costumes. What time is the party?" I asked.

"8:00 p.m.," she answered, "but it says we'll be picked up at 7:30."

"Sounds like somebody is throwing a bash," I smiled.

"You never know," she quipped. It might even be somebody important."

"Could be," I replied. "Might even be somebody that can advance your career."

"Think you can handle the crowd?" She looked at me. "You still seem to keep to yourself quite a bit."

"I'm your maid. I'm not supposed to be seen," I replied.

"You're my housekeeper and my best friend, but you'll never be anybody's maid." She looked me in the eye.

Holly wasn't very free with compliments, so I took what she said in just that light. I had already decided what our costumes would be after seeing them on the computer. They were schoolgirl uniforms, but rather sexy if you fixed them up a bit. I had ordered them two weeks ago, and they were already here, just waiting for the big night.

Around 9:00 on the morning of my birthday, I signed all the papers making me the sole owner of all my parents' and grandparents' worldly goods. By then, the lawyers had a dollar figure, and if I sold off everything and paid all the taxes, I would still be worth about eighty million, give or take a bit. Of course, I had no intention of doing any such thing. The stocks and bonds were paying enough each month to keep me well off for years to come. All that seemed relatively small as the insurance people and others to witness the event cleared the room.

That day I also signed the last of the papers that legally made me a female. I had passed the real-life test, and now even my birth certificate said I was a female. I spent most of the rest of the day at my estate putting the final touches on the place for the party. After the party tonight, my life would truly start over, in a sense.