PART 52
As Mrs. Smyth finished straightening his jacket and blouse to her satisfaction, she spoke again, “Fauntleroy jackets were designed to fit snugly and remain unbuttoned to showcase all the wonderful embroidery and lacework of the blouse underneath… it would be such a shame to hide all those delicate frills, wouldn’t it my dear?”
Indeed, the multiple layers of elaborate ruffles on his blouse stuck out prominently from the open jacket and practically spilled down his front. “Now let me show you why your darling blouse fits perfectly,” she added.
Again standing before the large mirror, Josh watched in fascination as she folded the blouse’s long lace wrist cuffs back up around his jacket sleeves. He realized that the cuffs of his blouse had little fasteners that secured the cuffs to the jacket sleeves. He stood meekly as Mrs. Smyth arranged them properly around his slender forearms. Worn this way, the jacket’s lustrous velvet contrasted beautifully with the intricate patterns and openings in the elaborate white lace on top of it. He was shocked to see that his oversized cuffs reached nearly back to his elbows, and with the buttons holding them they would obviously stay right in place. The remaining frilly fringes at his wrists now danced cheerily around his hands, and once again he could see his pretty pink manicured nails sparkling in contrast to the white frills.
With the cuffs of his blouse now daintily flipped back, Mrs. Smyth neatly knotted the little pink ribbon ties around his wrists into pink bows that matched the ones at his knees. The bows created such a charming contrast with his flouncy white wrist puffs. And of course, with the cuffs of his blouse attached like this around his forearms, he understood the jacket would not come off anytime soon.
“I must say again that the ladies at Andrea’s salon did a marvelous job on your nails… so pretty! And they look so lovely with the rest of your outfit,” Mrs. Smyth said admiringly. “What was the name of that color dear? It was something like ‘Sparkly Pink,’ wasn’t it?” she asked.
Reddening again to be reminded of how complete his descent into sissyhood was becoming, he replied, “It’s, uh… ‘Baby Pink Sparkle’ Mrs. Smyth.”
“Yes that’s it! ‘Baby Pink Sparkle!’” she beamed. To drive home her point, she added, “That’s such a fitting color for a special boy finding his softer side I would think,” she went on, “I’ll bet it makes you feel very feminine!” She asked, “Did you pick it out yourself?”
Grimacing slightly, the teenager replied, “Uhh… Kathy helped me pick it out, Mrs. Smyth” Catching his mother’s eye, he added, “I just love how girly it makes me feel!” A moment later, Josh couldn’t believe the words that had just spilled out of his mouth almost automatically. His little man twitched again futilely in its plastic cage.
His ordeal continued.
“Now for the crowning touch,” Mrs. Smyth announced triumphantly. The sissified boy involuntarily held his breath as she removed a large piece of heavily embroidered lace from another padded hanger. The pattern matched the lace cuffs now running up his arms. As she carefully unfolded the beautiful fabric, Josh felt his pulse quicken slightly. Then, she lifted it up under his chin and he caught the distinctive scent of freshly starched laundry. As she wrapped it around his neck, he had a sudden, overpowering sensation of being enveloped in feminine lace. He twitched like a nervous rabbit when her fingers grazed his throat as she gently but purposefully took hold of his blouse collar.
Mrs. Smyth began meticulously fastening the piece of delicate fabric to the collar of his blouse. “You’re going to just adore this, I’m sure!” she said with genuine enthusiasm. He could see now there were several tiny pearl buttons on his blouse collar he hadn’t noticed earlier, and she was using them to secure the new item in place. It was immediately obvious that this was a very fussy and oversized lace collar. It was open in front so that it didn’t hide his floppy silk bowtie, but otherwise it completely encircled his neck.
“Large lace collars were an integral part of a proper Fauntleroy suit, my dear, and yours is no exception!” Mrs. Smyth explained. “This one, like many historical ones, is large enough that it needs to be attached as a separate piece instead of being sewn to the blouse itself.” Josh watched as Mrs. Smyth expertly arranged his lace collar so that it draped daintily across his shoulders and down from his neck in back. It was so large that it extended nearly off the ends of his narrow shoulders and hung sweetly down the top of his jacket front. Next, she used some tiny safety pins to attach the collar directly to the velvet jacket at his shoulders. When she was done, the pins were completely hidden underneath the lavish lace. “We want your gorgeous collar to have a slight bounce to it, dear, but those pins will ensure it stays tidily in place,” she added, “and you can see that while it reaches down generously in the front, it is cut at an angle so that it doesn’t hide that elegant silk blouse!” Stepping back to admire her work, she concluded, “the whole effect is just exquisite!”
“Oh Dolores,” his mother piped up, “it looks so darling on him!”
For some reason, this extraordinarily large and fancy collar had an outsized effect on Josh as he looked at himself in the mirror. Despite all the feminine indignities he had suffered so far, his dainty Fauntleroy collar seemed to hit him with an unexpected intensity. He had never worn anything like this even as a young boy, and it all just seemed inescapably stifling. He felt a sudden welling of tears and fought very hard the urge to cry.
Sensing the boy’s whirling emotions, Mrs. Smyth said gently, “I know how you must feel, dear.” She patted him lightly on his shoulder and added, “I think it’s beautiful too.”
Mrs. Smyth paused and let the moment pass. Then, she regained her energy. She beamed triumphantly as she hovered over her helpless charge and addressed him again, “we’re almost there, my dear!” With satisfaction evident in her voice, she added, “we have just one last little flourish to take care of!”
“What else could there possibly be?” the feminized teenager thought dejectedly as he stared at his incredibly childish and prissy image in the mirror. He quickly realized that even the slightest movements made the oversized lace collar and the frills on his blouse rustle adorably… a constant reminder of his sissified state. As any remaining traces of his masculinity were relentlessly smothered by Mrs. Smyth’s unyielding attention, the feminized teenager could only wait to find out what she had planned for him next.
Topic: New Arrangements for Josh (Read 97829 times)
