The Seehofer Chronicles: The Memoirs of a Courtesan - VOLUME THREE.

By Jaime Davenport

Twenty-one-year-old Isobel Torricelli is surreptitiously approached by Stella Browning. At a coffee shop in Taunton, Izzy discovers that it is not an imagined modelling assignment that is being offered to her. At a later formal interview with Stella and her assistant, Isobel ascertains that it was her Aunt Becca who recommended her for the prospective role.
Isobel is offered a place on an induction and assessment course ran by the Ministry, the modern equivalent of the Governmental Body that had employed Rebecca Seehofer as a courtesan for Great Britain PLC back in the 1960s through to the 1980s.
The yet to be employed engineering graduate and part-time glamour model decides to confront her Aunt Becca. Hardly surprisingly, Rebecca ends up reminiscing upon her final days as a courtesan spent in the Scottish Highlands.
Rebecca comes to realise the artful Isobel has an ulterior motive where her visit is concerned. Isobel has decided to accept Stella Browning’s offer but requires Rebecca’s help to resolve an obstacle in her way.
Rebecca agrees to help with one caveat. Isobel must tell her estranged boyfriend about her secret modelling career. In order to do so, Isobel arranges to meet Josh at the family home in Cornwall.
Whilst reconciling with Josh might be problematical, the issue pales into insignificance when dealing with her career obstacle, in as much the impediment is the blackmailing Merlin, the artist boyfriend of Sybil Torricelli, Isobel’s cousin. Fireworks will result.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jaime Davenport
• Release date: Jun 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463494035

Jaime Davenport

Writing should be fun.We all love a story, don't we?I am English. Or should that be British? Either way, I write in English, although the Queen may question whether I represent her particular take on the language. Who knows, she might have actually read some of work and I might be destined for a peerage?Ah yes, writers are dreamers and I am no exception.If you happen to be reading this, then good for you! If you are reading this and have read some of work, then even better for you! I hope that I haven't offended you, although that is perhaps preferable to having bored you.Thanks for stopping by.Happy reading!

Book preview

THE SEEHOFER CHRONICLES.

THE MEMOIRS OF A COURTESAN – Volume Three.

Written By

Jaime Davenport.

Smashwords Edition.

Published by

Jaime Davenport on Smashwords.

Copyright © June 2019 by Jaime Davenport.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

Table of Contents.

Author’s Note.

Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Meeting.

Chapter 2 - Stella Browning.

Chapter 3 - Amber Light.

Chapter 4 - Mount Pleasant.

Chapter 5 - Bang-Bang.

Chapter 6 - A Problem Shared.

Chapter 7 - Archie the Ghille.

Chapter 8 - Where to Draw the Line.

Chapter 9 - Josh’s Musings.

Chapter 10 - Storm at Sea.

Chapter 11 - Dawn Awakening.

Chapter 12 - Frank Zapper.

Chapter 13 - Chastisement.

Chapter 14 - Comeuppance.

Chapter 15 - Endgame.

Author’s Note.

This is the third volume of the memoirs of British civil servant, Rebecca Seehofer as recorded in her journals and by the audio testimony related to her biographer, Sybil Torricelli.

Following Becca’s singular decision to recommend Sybil’s cousin, Isobel Torricelli as a potential candidate to follow in her courtesan footsteps, the ensuing extracts relate to how Isobel dealt with relationship issues that might have thwarted her ambitions with the Ministry.

The chapter headings give the dates and locations of the various incidents, including Becca’s forays into the Highlands of Scotland. So as not to contravene the Official Secrets Acts, names and locations have been changed as befitting a work of utter fiction.

Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Meeting.

Thursday, 17th July 2014.

Taunton, Somerset, England.

Isobel Torricelli had moved back to the family home on the southwestern outskirts of Taunton, not far from the North Somerset Railway, a heritage railway society that ran preserved steam locomotives as a viable means of reaching the Atlantic coast.

She had always assumed that it had been the lure of the railway that had persuaded her father to up sticks and retire to the West Country. The retired barbershop magnate (as he self-deprecatingly referred to himself) was a seemingly full-time volunteer who had achieved his life’s ambition by learning to drive a bona fide steam loco.

Having grown up in the urban sprawl of Greater London, the green, rural pastures of Somerset were hardly what Isobel was used to. Staying at her parents’ home always evoked a sensation of time travel. Infrequently, living with her parents elicited cosy memories of her idyllic childhood. However, more often than not, it invoked an unsettling feeling of being a little girl again.

Having gained a university first, she had imagined that finding a job would be easy. The media was always reporting on the deficiency of females in the areas of engineering, especially civil engineering that happened to be her forte. She now understood why that was. Women weren’t given the jobs.

She tried to remain rational, to understand that no one was automatically guaranteed a job, yet increasingly she found herself succumbing to the sexist blame game, something she had sworn never to do. She was a woman seeking work in a man’s world.

She could have remained living with Josh. Well, being supported by Josh, yet had decided to move back with her parents for the summer months. Even though Josh was against the idea, he had agreed. Twenty-five year-old Josh Ancliffe was the loveliest man she had ever met. Never had she met a man so tolerant, understanding, or forgiving. He was so nice that he could at times be utterly infuriating.

Part of her move home was because she was skint. St Albans was not the place to live when one had no money. And there was the rub, for technically she was not boracic lint, as the cockney rhyming slang went. And that was partly why she had moved back with her parents, as a means of putting her life in a semblance of order.

For almost the entire final year of her studies, twenty-one-year-old Isobel Torricelli had been living a lie. More exactly, she had been leading a double life.

In September of the previous year, she had enrolled at a model agency, which had proved to be a successful enterprise. Like most models, she had been semi-professional, all but the most successful models being unable to earn a living from modelling. And yet it had not been the money that had attracted her to the vocation. Izzy had been gripped by the thrill of being photographed in varying degrees of explicitness.

In nine months, she had earned approximately five thousand pounds by participating in some thirty or more shoots. The most lucrative had been the latter girl-on-girl assignments. The first few girl shoots had involved simulated, soft-core sex, the latter ones unsimulated, hard-core shoots. She had latterly been offered photo assignments with guys, which apparently was the natural progression up the rungs of the glamour model ladder. She had forestalled such work because of sitting her uni finals. Presumably, the top rung would be penetrative sex, beyond which lay the world of unabashed cinematic pornography.

Isobel’s immediate problem was not escalation; it was the fact that Josh had no idea that his girlfriend of many years was halfway up the ladder to being a porn actress.

Like many intelligent people, Isobel could be manipulative and deceitful, so long as her acumen justified the inveiglement. That she could contentedly be unfaithful to Josh was due to her cherished belief that exploiting her body for third-party masturbatory entertainment was not a direct act of disloyalty to Josh. She wasn’t actually being perfidious. She was simply play-acting.

And yet she had been unable to tell Josh about her modelling career. She considered him to be less emotionally resilient than herself. In other words, despite being steadfast and dependable she assumed that he might be psychologically fragile where her glamour work was concerned.

Thus, her dubious earnings were in a separate bank account from the one she normally used to deposit her earnings from a well-known chain of coffee shops, the income on which she was supposed to be subsisting.

In the end of the day, she had chosen to flee temporarily home, even though she hated it, whilst awaiting replies from four jobs she had applied for in the field of engineering and contemplate upon whether or not to accept more challenging modelling work.

The posted letter was unexpected.

Most of her work from her modelling agency was received via her cell phone. A letter was positively archaic. The missive mentioned that the agency had granted their permission for the direct approach. No details about any assignment were mentioned. The final line stated that she would be contacted by phone by Stella Browning.

The letter left Isobel confused and not a little perturbed. The manner of the correspondence seemed all very cloak and dagger. After two days and following a confirming call to the agency to substantiate the legitimacy of the letter’s claim, intrigue replaced disquietude as her main concern. Finally, after two weeks, she had all but forgotten about the letter.

And then the phone call arrived.

Chapter 2 - Stella Browning.

Tuesday, 22nd July 2014.

Brews and Mews Coffee House, Taunton.

Being suspicious by nature, Isobel Torricelli couldn’t help but wonder if the venue chosen for the meeting held any significance. Like any town in the UK, Taunton was dominated by charity shops and coffee shops.

Isobel might have been a tad disappointed to discover that Brews and Mews had been selected serendipitously by its proximity to the railway station. Stella Browning had no intentions of staying in Taunton any longer than necessary. Hence, her overnight bag packed in case of an overnight stay in the county town of Somerset lay at her side on the bench seat.

However, chance played no part in the coffee shop’s final seal of approval. That was all down to the bathroom facilities. Stella Browning was most finicky about the toilet arrangements.

The shop had been laid out in such a way so as to facilitate the installation of a series of booths along the length of one internal wall, providing imbibers with a discrete locale in which to meet. Whether the owner had intended her shop to appeal to couples intent upon private assignations remained a moot point.

It was in one of these booths that Stella waited, her eyes flitting between her cell phone where she checked her emails and the entrance door with its quaint spring-loaded bell that clattered when anyone arrived or left.

Stella held the advantage in as much she knew what the girl she was to meet looked like. Well, to a point. She had viewed the downloaded images, yet such was the extent of the girl’s heavy make-up that it was doubtful that she would recognise said girl unless