Necessary Adjustments 9: Wheels in Motion

Oh my goodness. Sam realised with a jolt. She’s... she’s strumming herself to me. To the effect she’s having on me. I’ve come over so insensible that the power she has over me is actually... exciting her. His eyes widened with astonishment and a little fear. There were evidently doors previously sealed within shy little Miss Marcia Trembley’s true nature that he feared he might foolishly already have turned keys in the locks to.

Sam hears tell of a concerning development in the Ashwaters' underhanded plotting, and tries not to think about it. Late that night, he makes a surreptitious visit to a certain somebody's bedchamber, where he ends up getting a little more than he bargained for and the promise that his life will get yet more difficult in ways he may struggle to refuse.
On the other side of the world, in the remote Australian city of Palmerston, a telegram is received. What tidings does it bring? What does it portend for its recipient, who is certainly not what she seems? And what might any of this have to do with the secrets of a country house gardener in Hertfordshire?

A 15 page, ~8300 word chapter of my popular ongoing story Necessary Adjustments, which brings the trappings of the traditional wish-fulfilment force-feminisation story to a transmasculine audience. Follow the exploits of alternate-Edwardian gardener Samson Hocking as the conditions of his employment move him further and further away from his origins as the meek and innocent chamber maid Jessica.
In this chapter: Sam gets more than he bargained for in a night-time visit to a friend's bed, and the story's late-arriving deuteragonist is introduced.

Content Warnings: