“Miss Myers, when you I said I was willing to do anything…” Danny wiped sweat from his brow. He should just shut up. He kept talking. “I suppose the tone of your voice led me to think that, maybe, since you were looking for a ‘personal assistant’ and it was going to be work in my degree field…”

“You thought perhaps the work would either be sexual or related to business. I understand.” Lilliam Myers sat down on stone wall with a practiced skirt-smoothing gesture that did not help Danny’s concentration. She was fifteen years older than him and a thousand times richer and more successful. And he worked for her, and she was talking about sex. “You weren’t expecting to be laying walls and mowing my lawn. It doesn’t appear to be forwarding your position any, am I right?”

“Exactly.” He picked up another brick and slotted it into place.

“But you did say you’d be willing to do anything.”

“I’m doing it, I’m doing it. It’s just – “

“Not what you expected.” She was laughing at him, wasn’t she? He should have stayed quiet. He should shut up now.

“Not really, no.”

“So what you want is the ability to climb in society, not to build the walls that holds society’s lawns together. But in reality, all that we do is build walls for other people to sit on.”

Danny finally listened to his inner voice and shut up.

“We do a lot of dirty work. Yesterday, while you were working on the bushes, I know you heard the entire conversation between Mr. Donaldson and myself.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He hadn’t known that she’d noticed him.

“And did you learn anything?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“There will be a quiz later. For now, go use the bathroom next to my bedroom and clean up. The wall will still be here tomorrow… and, in a couple hours, we have a charity ball to go to.”

“In a…” The look in her face was unmistakable. “Yes, ma’am!”

My Dungeon & Cave Call is open!

Written to thnidu‘s prompt.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/824469.html. You can comment here or there.