The happy valley set

Chapter 5 - lady jane

Lady Jane only travelled to Zenithia to please her husband. She hated the heat. She hated the dust and the insects. She hated the thought that she might get mauled by a wild animal if she ventured beyond the garden of the house. She missed her freinds and her social circle.
Henry did his best to create dates in the social Calendar that she would enjoy. Ladies' day at the races. Polo matches, picnics, cocktail parties, anniversaries. He held regular dances for the zenithian elite at his club.
Jane did the polite thing and attended most of the social events.
The events were all very British. The fact that they were held in the middle of the Arabian Sea was purely coincidental.
There was never any concessions to the heat in polite society, other than wearing lighter colours and lightweight fabrics. At formal occasions, men still had to wear a suit with a jacket and a tie. Ladies still had to wear their skirts long, with multiple petticoats, and corsets. If the day was particularly hot and they had any strenuous exersise to do, the ladies were liable to faint.
Of course, there was the odd one who abandoned polite society, did away with their corsets, dressed like a man and actually did some physical work. They were no real ladies and were much frowned upon.

Sarah watched Jane from a distance for several months. She sneaked into the kitchen and added certain herbs to her food. The herbs, she knew would increase her appetite.
Again she watched as Jane tried to deny her body the food it craved. She ate only small morsels very daintily.
Then one night, the cook confessed, she was missing a large steak pie. All that was left was crumbs. At first she thought it was an animal that had got into the larder, but animals did not eat off plates with knives and forks. Animals did not come back night after night stealing the same or similar things!
Sarah suspected it was Jane. She stepped up her campaign by leaving pies packed full of a thickened formulation that was used in the fattening of medicine women. Except, she had added more ingredients to it to make it highly addictive. Jane would be back for more, she was sure of it!

Jane was hungry. She was always hungry these days. Perhaps it was the heat. Unfortunately, with her corset on she could not overeat. Her stomach was restricted, if she ate too much, she could not breathe, she could hardly move.
Her stomach growled. She drank a glass of water to try and keep it quiet.
During dinner, she ate very little, despite being exceedingly hungry, she left most of her food on her plate.
But, at night, with her corset removed and everyone asleep, she ran down to the kitchen and ate as much as she could to satisfy her craving. Pie was her favourite. Especially that beautiful cheese pie that she had never seen on the dining table. Maybe it was made especially for the servants. She didn't care! She loved it!
The first time she had come down to the kitchen, she was so hungry, she'd eaten a whole game pie to herself. Afterwards, she clung onto her bloated stomach, feeling guilty for enjoying her gluttony. Now, a week later, there was no guilt. She barely even waited for everyone to go to sleep. She just loved the taste of the rich, crumbly pastry and the even richer salty cheese flavour.
It became a nightly occurance, her kitchen feasts. She'd return to her bedroom feeling full and satisfied, rubbing her stomach to ease the pressure inside it.
Her maid noticed the changes in her first. It was getting more difficult to get her into her corset every day. She had to loosen the ribbons significantly to fasten it properly. She also noticed her flesh was getting softer. Where her corset ended on her hips was more noticeable as her flesh bulged out of the bottom. On her back, she was developing more bulges out the top of her corset as her skin oozed out. She was sure her breasts were getting bigger too, although they were bulges that were less difficult to hide.
A month later, her maid had continued to loosen the corset. Now it was no longer possible to hide how tight her dresses were becoming too. The fabric was stretched to it's limit. It puckered at the seams and rode up more readily. It was only a matter of time before the fabric gave way completely.
She made arrangements with lord Henry for him to have clothes made in larger sizes for her, but to keep her weight gain quiet.

Jane's cravings were getting the better of her. She started to request her breakfast in her room, before she dressed. Whatever was on her tray was never enough! She sent her maid away to fetch more, sometimes more than once.
She hated her restrictive corset so much, she had her maid loosen it over and over again until it barely gave any support to her figure. With more space, she no longer had to pick at her meals. Indeed, she insisted on having large portions and finished everything on her plate.
At buffet parties, she tried to stand near the table and surreptitiously devour whole plates of finger food. And she still came down for her nightly feast.
Her maid had new ribbons made on her corset. The new ribbons were much longer. But it was around this time that Jane finally gave up wearing it. Instead she took to wearing a controversial aesthetic dress, an early form of emancipated clothing, that was long and loose and required no boning of the undergarments. Indeed, it was as if she was wearing her nightgown all day.
The less restrictive form of her clothing allowed her to indulge her greed completely. No longer hidden away, she enjoyed the multi-course meals that were served on an almost daily basis, either at home, at the British club or at the home of an acquaintance.
She piled the weight on, becoming fatter and fatter.
Lord Henry urged her to stop. He thought she must be so unhappy there that she simply filled her days with food. However, she refused to go home to England. He worried about her, but he was not close enough to her to enjoy sexual relations. Sarah was a much better bedfellow than Jane had ever been!