an unexpected governess 2 (lotrips au, dom/elijah)
Title: An Unexpected Governess 2
Fandom: Lotrips AU
Pairing: Dominic/Elijah
Ratings/Warnings: So far, just crossdressing.
Notes: Concocted by oneangrykate, here.
*
I could walk in my sister's shoes, but the rest was not so easy.
The next step found Mrs. Burns and myself sequestered in my room, my hands fastened around the bedpost, my lungs wheezing out air as Mrs. Burns cinched one of Hannah's corsets around me-- for her modesty's sake, over my shirt, which was much wrinkled by the effort.
Mrs. Burns tugged at the laces mightily, and while I felt painfully constricted, I thought I could bear it. But the moment I put down my arms, I knew the garment was untenable. "I can't breathe!" Indeed, I had to raise my arms again to stop myself asphyxiating on the spot.
"Oh! I told you it would never work, sir," she said as she eased the infernal strings. "Everyone knows men and women are composed differently! Women breathe high, but men breathe low, right where the corset pulls you in and binds you so. A man could no more breathe in a corset than a woman could stand upright for an hour without one!"
"But I must find some way to fit into Hannah's dresses," I said, all despair.
From my sister's wardrobe and our mother's old things, I had endeavored to choose suitable attire for a governess; of the greys and blacks and beiges, I found costumes that seemed less closely tailored, such that I had some faint prayer of fitting into them.
But even these clothes would not admit my frame. They fitted me well enough til it came to the waist, where always three or four buttons simply would not be buttoned.
"Isn't there any other way?" I asked Mrs. Burns. "Something smaller, like a belt, to bind me only where the dresses won't close?"
"Not a thing, Mr. Wood," she said; then she tapped her chin. "But your sister has a corset for exercise, and I don't half wonder if it's not like what you describe; for it has less boning in the frame, and that mostly at the bottom. Let me fetch it for you."
Which she did, forthwith, and bade me grip the bedpost again while she pulled and pulled at the laces. The athletic corset bit into me just as deeply as the other, but straightening, I found the fabric panels in the front lacked the steel boning that otherwise crushed all hope of respiration.
"Go out, and let me try a dress, if you please; only take care you don't go far, for I shall need your help to finish doing up the back."
"Oh, but Mr. Wood," she demurred with a scandalized air. "You're a young gentleman, it's not proper--"
"You must not think of me as Mr. Wood any more," I reminded her. "I shall have to be Miss Wood now, as poor Hannah cannot. You would never force Hannah to contort herself to button all her own buttons!"
"Sure and I wouldn't, sir."
"Miss," I corrected firmly.
The poor woman very nearly lost her nerve in the face of such an unnatural appellation, but mustering her fortitude, she agreed, "Yes, miss," and withdrew from the room.
*
It was far from comfortable to don all the necessary attire: not only the spotless white chemise and over it, the corset again, this time fastened up by means of the eyes and hooks in front, rather than the laces in back; but also the unmentionables, and the several neat petticoats, white and starched, with eyelets at the hems.
I felt as encumbered as a saddled and bridled horse before I ever went so far as to put on the dress. But my reward came when that modest gray item slipped easily on, fitting flat and snug against the corset in front once Mrs. Burns returned and finished fastening all the buttons up the back, every one of them.
"My poor--!" she cut herself off in mid-exclamation, unwilling to risk reprimand for another careless 'sir' or 'mister'. "I prayed it wouldn't work, but you've done it. Look what a little waist you have now! It's not natural!"
"It isn't natural when Hannah has it, either," I replied, examining myself in the looking-glass. The corset pinched me in quite firmly, and even gave some very slight illusion of a girlish bosom merely by dint of compressing and changing my shape.
"Whatever will you do about your hair? Hannah's not one for false locks, and neither was your poor mother. Rebecca has them, but she'd notice if you took so much as a single hair."
"I shall have to keep a bonnet on as much as I may, and borrow a cap for the rest of the time, if you can spare me one."
"Of course, s-- miss," said Mrs. Burns.
"What else must I do to complete the illusion?" I asked, turning to face her. "Spare me not in your examination, for soon I must confound more skeptical tempers than your own amiably disposed nature."
"Oh, Mist-- Miss Wood... Heavens! What a calamity this is!" But perceiving my unhappy look, she hurried to outfit me with a cap, and looked then upon me with care and discernment. "You effect a better appearance when your hair is covered; but your eyebrows are not as neat as a girl would keep them."
"Then we shall neaten them," I resolved, and though she wrung her hands and sighed, Mrs. Burns agreed to help, and fetched instruments designed for the beautification of the female face and form, though in truth to my eye they looked rather more suited to the purposes of the Spanish Inquisition.
"I shall have to leave them each a good strong line," she said. "If we give you brows as narrow as Miss Hannah's, it will call too much attention to your physiognomy, which is certainly not feminine."
Shaking her head, dear Mrs. Burns began to comb my brows and mark out where to denude me. "I can't imagine how anyone could be fooled for a moment, even with such large eyes as you have, and such long pretty lashes. You haven't a girl's dainty hands; look how square they are, from all your riding the reins! If a girl were to have a jaw as firm and square as yours, I'd have all the pity in the world for her. And this is no swan's neck!" With that, she set to with the tweezers.
"Ow! That hurt!"
"Most of it will; there's no gentle way to pluck a bird, nor a brow neither; but just hold you still, now, miss." And so saying she attacked again, leaving me with a series of little pains like bee-stings just above my eyes.
A strange and fascinating thing began to occur as Mrs. Burns neatened and combed my brow, and improved my manicure, and curled a few of the brief lengths of my hair to decoratively escape the cap; her manner toward me became both warmer and more pragmatic, more familiar. With each small step we took to improve my disguise, Mrs. Burns treated me yet slightly more as she might be more accustomed to behave with Hannah.
"How lovely you look, my dear," she said, seemingly unconscious now that she spoke to the gentleman of the house. "Such a fine and fair complexion, so clear and pale, very becoming to a young lady! --Begging your pardon," she added with some approbation.
"Quite all right; it is to be hoped that strangers will be as comfortably deceived!"
Mrs. Burns divulged a few further little secrets to appear yet more ladylike. Lavender sachets she gave me, to put among all my clothes, and lavender water for my toilet. I was supplied with a softening cream for the skin, to apply to countenance and even décolleté, upon the contingency that a lady's-maid might catch a glimpse of same.
She gave me papier poudre, with white leaves to press against my face and remove any hint of shine, and shaded leaves to add a touch of rosy colour to my cheeks; and she showed me how to smudge the tips of my lashes with burnt matchsticks, to add a feminine shadow to my eyes.
When I viewed myself again in the glass, I myself was surprised by the extent and success of the beguilement.
The person in the mirror was slim, elegant, with the attractive air of one secured in youth and health: attributes which become those who possess them, regardless of sex. With the cap and little curled auburn tendrils, the neatly shaped brows, the small waist and voluminous skirts, my face and form misled the eye completely.
And so, thus outfitted and appurtenanced, I set off toward the Monaghan estate by carriage, making my way to the house and lands known as Westmarch.
*
Fandom: Lotrips AU
Pairing: Dominic/Elijah
Ratings/Warnings: So far, just crossdressing.
Notes: Concocted by oneangrykate, here.
*
I could walk in my sister's shoes, but the rest was not so easy.
The next step found Mrs. Burns and myself sequestered in my room, my hands fastened around the bedpost, my lungs wheezing out air as Mrs. Burns cinched one of Hannah's corsets around me-- for her modesty's sake, over my shirt, which was much wrinkled by the effort.
Mrs. Burns tugged at the laces mightily, and while I felt painfully constricted, I thought I could bear it. But the moment I put down my arms, I knew the garment was untenable. "I can't breathe!" Indeed, I had to raise my arms again to stop myself asphyxiating on the spot.
"Oh! I told you it would never work, sir," she said as she eased the infernal strings. "Everyone knows men and women are composed differently! Women breathe high, but men breathe low, right where the corset pulls you in and binds you so. A man could no more breathe in a corset than a woman could stand upright for an hour without one!"
"But I must find some way to fit into Hannah's dresses," I said, all despair.
From my sister's wardrobe and our mother's old things, I had endeavored to choose suitable attire for a governess; of the greys and blacks and beiges, I found costumes that seemed less closely tailored, such that I had some faint prayer of fitting into them.
But even these clothes would not admit my frame. They fitted me well enough til it came to the waist, where always three or four buttons simply would not be buttoned.
"Isn't there any other way?" I asked Mrs. Burns. "Something smaller, like a belt, to bind me only where the dresses won't close?"
"Not a thing, Mr. Wood," she said; then she tapped her chin. "But your sister has a corset for exercise, and I don't half wonder if it's not like what you describe; for it has less boning in the frame, and that mostly at the bottom. Let me fetch it for you."
Which she did, forthwith, and bade me grip the bedpost again while she pulled and pulled at the laces. The athletic corset bit into me just as deeply as the other, but straightening, I found the fabric panels in the front lacked the steel boning that otherwise crushed all hope of respiration.
"Go out, and let me try a dress, if you please; only take care you don't go far, for I shall need your help to finish doing up the back."
"Oh, but Mr. Wood," she demurred with a scandalized air. "You're a young gentleman, it's not proper--"
"You must not think of me as Mr. Wood any more," I reminded her. "I shall have to be Miss Wood now, as poor Hannah cannot. You would never force Hannah to contort herself to button all her own buttons!"
"Sure and I wouldn't, sir."
"Miss," I corrected firmly.
The poor woman very nearly lost her nerve in the face of such an unnatural appellation, but mustering her fortitude, she agreed, "Yes, miss," and withdrew from the room.
*
It was far from comfortable to don all the necessary attire: not only the spotless white chemise and over it, the corset again, this time fastened up by means of the eyes and hooks in front, rather than the laces in back; but also the unmentionables, and the several neat petticoats, white and starched, with eyelets at the hems.
I felt as encumbered as a saddled and bridled horse before I ever went so far as to put on the dress. But my reward came when that modest gray item slipped easily on, fitting flat and snug against the corset in front once Mrs. Burns returned and finished fastening all the buttons up the back, every one of them.
"My poor--!" she cut herself off in mid-exclamation, unwilling to risk reprimand for another careless 'sir' or 'mister'. "I prayed it wouldn't work, but you've done it. Look what a little waist you have now! It's not natural!"
"It isn't natural when Hannah has it, either," I replied, examining myself in the looking-glass. The corset pinched me in quite firmly, and even gave some very slight illusion of a girlish bosom merely by dint of compressing and changing my shape.
"Whatever will you do about your hair? Hannah's not one for false locks, and neither was your poor mother. Rebecca has them, but she'd notice if you took so much as a single hair."
"I shall have to keep a bonnet on as much as I may, and borrow a cap for the rest of the time, if you can spare me one."
"Of course, s-- miss," said Mrs. Burns.
"What else must I do to complete the illusion?" I asked, turning to face her. "Spare me not in your examination, for soon I must confound more skeptical tempers than your own amiably disposed nature."
"Oh, Mist-- Miss Wood... Heavens! What a calamity this is!" But perceiving my unhappy look, she hurried to outfit me with a cap, and looked then upon me with care and discernment. "You effect a better appearance when your hair is covered; but your eyebrows are not as neat as a girl would keep them."
"Then we shall neaten them," I resolved, and though she wrung her hands and sighed, Mrs. Burns agreed to help, and fetched instruments designed for the beautification of the female face and form, though in truth to my eye they looked rather more suited to the purposes of the Spanish Inquisition.
"I shall have to leave them each a good strong line," she said. "If we give you brows as narrow as Miss Hannah's, it will call too much attention to your physiognomy, which is certainly not feminine."
Shaking her head, dear Mrs. Burns began to comb my brows and mark out where to denude me. "I can't imagine how anyone could be fooled for a moment, even with such large eyes as you have, and such long pretty lashes. You haven't a girl's dainty hands; look how square they are, from all your riding the reins! If a girl were to have a jaw as firm and square as yours, I'd have all the pity in the world for her. And this is no swan's neck!" With that, she set to with the tweezers.
"Ow! That hurt!"
"Most of it will; there's no gentle way to pluck a bird, nor a brow neither; but just hold you still, now, miss." And so saying she attacked again, leaving me with a series of little pains like bee-stings just above my eyes.
A strange and fascinating thing began to occur as Mrs. Burns neatened and combed my brow, and improved my manicure, and curled a few of the brief lengths of my hair to decoratively escape the cap; her manner toward me became both warmer and more pragmatic, more familiar. With each small step we took to improve my disguise, Mrs. Burns treated me yet slightly more as she might be more accustomed to behave with Hannah.
"How lovely you look, my dear," she said, seemingly unconscious now that she spoke to the gentleman of the house. "Such a fine and fair complexion, so clear and pale, very becoming to a young lady! --Begging your pardon," she added with some approbation.
"Quite all right; it is to be hoped that strangers will be as comfortably deceived!"
Mrs. Burns divulged a few further little secrets to appear yet more ladylike. Lavender sachets she gave me, to put among all my clothes, and lavender water for my toilet. I was supplied with a softening cream for the skin, to apply to countenance and even décolleté, upon the contingency that a lady's-maid might catch a glimpse of same.
She gave me papier poudre, with white leaves to press against my face and remove any hint of shine, and shaded leaves to add a touch of rosy colour to my cheeks; and she showed me how to smudge the tips of my lashes with burnt matchsticks, to add a feminine shadow to my eyes.
When I viewed myself again in the glass, I myself was surprised by the extent and success of the beguilement.
The person in the mirror was slim, elegant, with the attractive air of one secured in youth and health: attributes which become those who possess them, regardless of sex. With the cap and little curled auburn tendrils, the neatly shaped brows, the small waist and voluminous skirts, my face and form misled the eye completely.
And so, thus outfitted and appurtenanced, I set off toward the Monaghan estate by carriage, making my way to the house and lands known as Westmarch.
*