Lady's Lance Shift V

The shop's front door chimed, and Cassia straightened automatically, her lips curving into the practiced smile that Angélique and Dolly had drilled into her. But it was only Angélique herself, emerging from the back room.

"Mademoiselles," Angélique announced in her foreign accent. She clapped her hands together, her emerald eyes bright with something that made Cassia's stomach tighten with unease. "I bring news. Your duties will be changing slightly for the next hour or so."

Dolly looked up from where she was dusting, her painted lips parting in curiosity. "Oh? What are we doing, Mistress?"

Angélique gestured toward the large front window, where two elegantly dressed mannequins usually stood. "I have sent our display mannequins away to be repaired. The poor dears have been looking a bit… neglected lately. Their joints are loose, leaving their poses uninspired."

Cassia's brow furrowed with confusion. "So, you want us to rearrange the window display?"

A smile spread across Angélique's face. "Not rearrange. Fill in."

Dolly's response was immediate and enthusiastic. She clapped her hands together, bouncing on her heels with delight. "Oh! Window time! I love window time!"

Cassia looked from Dolly's excited face to Angélique's devilish smile, a tendril of apprehension forming in her stomach. "So, you want us to… do what exactly? Display something by the window or something?"

"Display something?" Dolly giggled, covering her mouth with her fingers. "Silly Bonnet. We are the display. We get to go in the window."

The words took a moment to land. When they did, Cassia felt the blood drain from her face. "In the window," she said flatly. "The front window. The one that faces the street."

"Très bien," Angélique purred. "I knew you were clever."

"But-" Cassia's mind raced, searching for an argument, any argument that might extract her from this fresh humiliation. "Mistress, people walk by that window. All day long. The street is right there."

"Yes, chérie. That is rather the point of a display window."

Cassia's cheeks burned beneath her doll makeup. At least in the shop, only customers and delivery futas could see her like this, dressed in the scandalously short pink dress, her long blonde hair curled and pinned beneath the lace bonnet, her face painted with the ridiculous white powder and red circles that made her look like something from a child's nursery. But the window would put her on display for everyone. Every futa who walked down this busy shopping thoroughfare would be able to see her. See her dressed like a doll. See her standing there like an object, like-

"I can't," Cassia said, the words escaping before she could stop them. She felt the contract pulse faintly in response to her resistance, but she pressed on anyway. "Mistress, please. The shop is one thing, but the window, someone might recognize me. Someone from the Academy, or-"

"Recognize you?" Angélique's laugh was light, musical, utterly without sympathy. "Mon cœur, look at yourself. You are not Cassia Longwood, daughter of the esteemed Senator Demetria, right now. When you stand in my shop. You are Bonnet. My doll. And dolls do not feel shame, or embarrassment, or concern themselves with such silly thoughts. Non, dolls only want to look pretty and be played with."

Cassia's jaw tightened. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, the silk of her skirt bunching beneath her fingers. "But-"

"Was I unclear?" Angélique's voice did not rise, but something sharp entered it nonetheless. "You will do as you are told Bonnet. The contract you signed requires your compliance. Or have you forgotten?"

The reminder hit like a physical blow. Cassia's shoulders sagged, the fight draining out of her. She had not forgotten. She could never forget. Even now, she could feel the hum of the contract around her will, cold and implacable, ready to claim Cassia should she ever break it's conditions.

"No, Mistress," she said quietly. "I haven't forgotten."

"Good girl." Angélique's smile returned, warm and approving now that Cassia had submitted. "Now, come along. Both of you."

She turned and walked toward the front window, her hips swaying beneath her elegant gown. Dolly followed immediately, practically skipping with excitement. Cassia trailed behind, her heels clicking against the floor, each step heavier than the last.