The Lady With A Secret

Lorna Gilbert is a successful lady. At 27 years of age she has reached the enviable position of working in the London Stock Exchange as a Stock Broker. As a single person with a salary in excess of £500,000, Lorna enjoys living in a town house in the upmarket area of Chelsea. The house is light and airy with white leather furniture acquired during a shopping weekend at Harrods, with colourful throws of African animals purchased from Habitat draped across them. The gleaming metal tubular style furniture of coffee tables and a dining table are finished in smoked glass. The pictures are modern abstract in style; random stripes of gaudy colour or stark geometric designs.

Each morning Lorna rises at 6.30am and leaves her comfortable white metal and brass bed dressed with lace curtains to go downstairs and have her breakfast. To begin her day, she has fresh coffee and a bowl of Alpen.

The house is perfect, nothing is amiss, Lorna has everything that she could possibly want. Her father Max and her mother Theodora made sure that Lorna had the best education that money could buy. Max was an Army man. A major who now looked after Queen Elizabeth II. Thinking of her education irritated Lorna. Her mother could never content herself with simply saying (to just about everybody who would listen), “Lorna went to a private school“; oh no that would certainly not do. Theodora would always say, “Oh did you know that Lorna was an Alumni of The Institut Villa Pierrefeu.“ and that her clever daughter had completed her International Etiquette and Protocol Certificate with distinction.

What was wrong in her life she wondered? If Lorna was completely honest with herself, she was bored.

She closed her front door and made her way to the garage. She pressed the remote control in her hand and the garage door whirred in to life gliding upwards to reveal a gleaming white Lamborghini Diablo which daddy had given to her on her 25th birthday.

Lorna wanted a lot more excitement in her life. That was it. A number of her friends were Sloane Rangers. Maybe she would give them a call. If a party was close by., then
Yes. Her friend Sarah was a ranger and she married one of the Queens sons. Ok it did not last but wow was that exciting or what?

As Lorna turned the key in the ignition, those twelve cylinders on the top of the 5.3 litre engine roared in to life.

As Lorna worked at her desk that day, she started to daydream. Maybe she would call her friends but they were in the same position as her. Money was nothing, everybody that she knew either had a very good career or daddy gave them a very generous allowance. An idea flashed in to her mind. Yes that was it, tonight I will leave my car in the office car park and go on the tube to Soho. Why? Because it was something different. Lorna knew that it was so different that it was bound to be exciting.
As she locked her office that night she smiled at the other brokers leaving for home, exchanged a few words then set off for the tube.

As Lorna entered Soho she was struck by how vibrant it was. Mummy and daddy would be horrified if they knew that she was here. Lorna stopped for a moment and examined her conscience. She shrugged her feelings of guilt off and carried on past street cafes, burger stalls and mysterious shops with opaque windows. The neon signs flashing with their coloured messages inviting punters in to those clubs.
Lorna carried on walking. Each step some how giving her more of a buzz.
That was enough for tonight. It was time to go home now. Would she come back?
Yes, Lorna knew that she would.

And so it continued, each Friday night Lorna would follow the same routine of leaving her car behind and setting off for Soho. This was the most exciting thing that she had done for ages. Lorna had it in her mind after the first few visits to pack a change of clothes. A charcoal grey business suit and blouse was likely to attract attention to herself by pickpockets. No this time she would dress in jeans and a baggy polo shirt.

Three months had passed and Lorna had begun to pay to enter the clubs.
As she sat near the stage, she smiled to herself. A few men came over and chatted her up. “No I am not with anybody and yes please, I would like a drink.” Lorna loved the attention that she was getting. She also liked some of the looks that she was getting. A few of the punters obviously thought that she was looking for her husband who should be at home. Lorna laughed to herself.
Here we go she thought as two middle age men came over. The first was aged about 50 and looked a bit embarrassed as he looked towards the floor. The man with him was a little younger and more forward. ”Eh darling are you going on to Miss World?”
Lorna laughed, “Yeah love after I finish here.”

The man who spoke introduced himself as Bob. The older man was Jeff.
As they chatted by the by the bar, Lorna realised how much she was at ease with these men. The older man was more confident now and suggested that they could meet again next week at Pandora’s Box, another club in Soho. It was the longest week that Lorna had ever known. Each meeting that she sat through seemed more boring than ever. Each purchase of shares to support an offshore company seemed unreal and drab. Lorna was warned several times by her boss that week for not paying attention.
He asked. “ What is wrong with you this week.? Lorna shrugged and mumbled. “Time of the month Mr Boyle.” “Sort yourself out Lorna.” Lorna apologised and paid more attention at the next meeting to discuss a £1,000,000 deal for a Jersey holding company.
The trading finally finished, and Lorna quickly popped in to the ladies to change in to her customary polo shirt and jeans, placing her expensive Italian leather shoes in to a Tesco carrier bag and donning her comfortable training shoes. She sprinted past the startled security guard and ran down the street to Bank tube station for the short ride to Piccadilly Circus. Alighting from the seemingly endless escalators she stepped out in to the street with that feeling of excited anticipation that she always felt when she entered this alien world. After a few wrong turnings she found the Pandora’s Box club where she hoped that her new friends would be waiting. Breezing confidently past the bored looking bouncer with his shaven head, dark glasses, long black coat and totally bored expression, she entered the gloomy club. Her friends were perched on high stools at the bar, small spirit glasses in front of them filled with amber liquid.
Thinking back Lorna could never remember the full details of the conversation that she had with these men that day, but she remembered the hurried audition that she had with these men in the back room with Mistress Raven helping her into her pole-dancing costume (it did not take very long as there was not much costume!).
Within the hour she found her new freedom, dancing and twisting herself around the pole enjoying the fixed gaze of the sweaty men leering at her gyrating body. Lorna laughed to herself. If only her personal fitness instructor could see her now! The evening wore on and more banknotes were stuffed into her tight costume. Lorna hadn’t had so much fun in years.
The Tina Turner hit “Simply The Best” blasted out as another man pushed his way to the front of the crowd. Momentarily their eyes met in shocked recognition. She crouched down and whispered to him “I thought that you were supposed to be at Balmoral this week”. The man replied “I thought that you were working late at the office tonight”
Lorna smiled sweetly at him … “Well daddy, I won’t tell mummy if you don’t.
Same time next week?”