“My lord!” Three maids said as one and gave me a proper curtsy when I stepped into the parlour.

“Vanessa, are you happy with them?” Hope asked.

“We've talked about certain things and discussed what's to be done and what I want to handle myself.” Vanessa said. “These three are the most amenable to my requests.”

“So, no distinguishing factors right now?” I asked and Vanessa shook her head. “All right, then. For now, the three of you have the job.”

Three screeches of delight met my words and Hope clamped her mouth shut to stop her laugh.

“Get your lady changed and ready to head out with myself and Lady Henrietta.” I said and the three maids nodded, helped a stunned speechless Vanessa stand, then led her from the room.

“That was a bit much.” Hope said and led me out of the room behind them.

“Helena said to give them a day to try and work out who would be best as a single maid. Even if she picks one, the other two can still stay here under her command while she's at the academy.”

“Ah, just like you were at first.” Hope said in understanding and I nodded.

We entered the main bedroom and Sara and Tabitha stripped me of my clothing, gave me a quick wash in case I needed it, then they dressed me in my finest 'going out' suit. I also had my knife sheath and bandoleer tucked underneath the coat and out of sight.

“Very nice choice, girls.” Helena said with approval as she came out of the bathroom with her hair done up in a complicated hairdo. She was quickly dressed in a blue dress to compliment the dark blue of my suit and she let out little laughs as Jill tried to stuff her breasts into the seemingly smaller compartment in the dress meant to hold them. She was mostly successful.

“I'd suggest losing the extra support to fit in the dress better, only you'll be sore by this afternoon.” Jill said with a sigh.

“I will just have to accept the heaving breasts.” Helena said with a huge smile. “David will protect my virtue if anyone dares to comment on it.”

“Do you have any of that enchanted underwear that Mage Ridge, Lady Marks, and the queen uses?” I asked and every single woman in the room let out gasps of shock. They also looked scandalized.

“David! How... how did you know... a woman's deepest secret that...” Helena looked away from me. “I mean... no, I don't have any; but, my mother does. It's how she can keep her breasts from flopping all over the place when she walks.”

“You were going to buy some today?” I asked and both she and Jill nodded.

“How do you know about them?” Jill asked.

“I've seen underwear glow when I used my Sense Magic spell and also my Detect Enchantment spell.” I said and a few of them sighed. “I wasn't supposed to mention it?”

“It's not that, it's because...” Helena started to say and paused for a moment. “It's embarrassing for a woman to lose confidence in her body.”

I walked over to her and lifted my hands to her face, cupped her cheeks, and gave her a light kiss. “I sincerely hope that after last night, you are not losing confidence in your body.”

Helena looked into my eyes and tried not to moan as I lowered my hands and lightly caressed her breasts. They really were heaving up from her dress and I was sure that I could undo all of Jill's work to get Helena situated properly if I wanted to. I bent over to kiss both breasts and Helena did moan as I did so.

“D-David.” Helena whispered and I looked up to give her another kiss.

“We'll stop there first to get some alterations done before we go anywhere else.” I said, firmly.

Helena smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

“I'm ready.” Vanessa said and she came into the room with a near identical dress to Helena's, only it was a softer blue and didn't show off as much cleavage.

“Then we can go.” I said and led both women out of the bedroom and down the stairs to climb into the waiting carriage. It had already had the crates of creme loaded onto it and we left the mansion behind at a fast trot.

When we arrived at the city proper, we stopped at the special shop to buy new underwear for Helena. I struck up a conversation with the woman that ran the place and wrung a promise out of her to show me some of her work if I signed a contract that I wouldn't disclose her secrets. I agreed to do so later, probably tomorrow, and she looked happy when I offered to show her some enchantments, too.

The day turned out to be a complete success. With multiple breaks along the way for Helena to rest, we went to all of the activities that she had crammed into our day. She let out little laughs every time either I or Vanessa hovered over her and made her rest, or walk slower, or in one case I offered to carry her around.

“You're both so sweet.” Helena said and cupped my face with one hand and cupped Vanessa's face with the other.

We made it back to the mansion in the late afternoon, just before suppertime, and dropped off our purchases. I went upstairs and took a quick bath with Sara and Tabitha's help, then changed into the suit that I had commissioned for Lady Marks.

“No wonder Lady Marks is so happy with you.” Vanessa said when I entered the parlour to say goodbye.

Helena let out a laugh. “She definitely appreciates the compliment that a man would spend that much on a suit to look good, just for her.”

“On the plus side, I do not want to get into her underwear.”

Helena looked like she was holding her laughs in. “The poor woman is driving herself nuts trying to figure out why you don't find her attractive enough to break your promise to me.”

I nodded and gave her a kiss and then turned to Vanessa. “I never break my word.”

Vanessa looked into my eyes and I knew she was remembering me reassuring her that Helena would accept the contracts. She nodded to me and gave me a chaste kiss.

“Vanessa?” Helena asked and looked concerned.

“I don't want to kiss him and possibly get him aroused before going to see another woman.” Vanessa said, her face red.

“Now that is a good point.” Helena said and smiled at me. “Don't have too much fun.”

“I'll only tease her a little by offering to apply some creme for her.” I said and that made Helena laugh.

“I am so glad you accepted my offer.” Helena said and gave me another kiss. “See you tonight.”

I left the mansion and rode in the carriage to Lady Marks' estate. What followed was a meal filled with innuendo, compliments, halfhearted attempts at flirting, and an embarrassed Greta when she insisted that she had to watch me apply creme all along her mother's bare back. When I asked her what she was embarrassed about, she opened up her dress and laid down next to her mother on the padded bench before she asked me to do her back, too.

Her mother laughed at the shameless display, even though she had just done the same thing, and Greta enjoyed it just as much as her mother did. I didn't stop at her back, though. I scooted her dress up and did her thighs and calves as well, both front and back, then did her arms and the back and sides of her neck.

“I can't do the front.” I said and handed her the partially used jar of creme. “I have to leave it to you.”

“Th-thank you, David.” Greta said, her face flushed red. “That was... I really enjoyed...”

“I couldn't let just your back look twenty years younger.” I said and she caught her breath.

“I completely forgot this was the enhanced creme!” Greta exclaimed and sat up, showing me her breasts, then she ran over to the side of the room to the full length mirror to stare at her legs and then she turned to look at her back. “Oh, my GOD! I'm gorgeous!”

Both Lady Marks and I laughed at her.

“Shut up, you two.” Greta griped and kept admiring herself.

“I'll leave you two alone to compare notes.” I said and bent over to give Lady Marks a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, David.” Lady Marks said. “Until next time.”

“I'll see you both at the docks at the end of the weekend.” I said and left her there. I glanced once more and saw Greta applying the creme to her belly and then her chest. She moaned as the skin tightened up and her breasts perked up with her nipples poking out prominently. I closed the door to the room and left the mansion. I had some work I needed to do to protect the people that I cared for the most.

I made it home and everyone was in bed already, so I quietly undressed and hung up the suit in the closet, slipped on some casual clothes, and went to my work room. It had been surprisingly easy to have the Montgomery family deliver a metal forge to be set up in the basement. I didn't have any formal training and they said that I didn't really need it, because all I was doing was heating the metal and engraving it.

I had commissioned a dozen metal medallions and I knew that I had a bit of research to do before I could successfully do what I wanted to do. I stoked the forge and got it going, because it was going to take a while to get it up to the proper heat, then I went back upstairs to get my book and papers. I started to read through the chapter and quickly found similar runes to the ones that were in the split enchantments that covered the cells I had been held in.

I wasn't sure why they were slightly different with a missing bit of squiggle on one, two lines from another, a little circle from a third. When I found them all and copied them out and figured out what they did, I almost laughed. My guess about it being a physical mage shield had been right on the money.

I had to assume that over time, the original enchantment had been too large and complicated for a single mage to enchant, so they had broken it up into six different ones. When combined in the right order and at equal distance apart, it made a coherent enchantment that linked them all together. The funny thing was, the book did not have a full enchantment that combined all six runes together.

I've got my work cut out for me. I thought with a smile and took everything down into the basement.

I slipped the first medallion into the forge to get it hot. While that happened, I did my best to combine the six runes into the same enchantment. I had already done it with four for the Montgomerys and the full sword enchantment they had, so I knew that if I took out the redundancy I had built into that and added in the two extra runes, while adding them in the proper order to charge them all to make them effective, it should work.

I took out the first medallion and just before I made another man repellent chameleon enchantment on it, I went to the reference book and looked up what the 'woman' and 'person' runes were. I chuckled as they were nearly identical to the 'man' rune and changed the enchantment. I knew if I imbued it that it would be all I could do with it, so I did it.

I took another small medallion and carved the new mage shield enchantment on one side of it. With my enchantment potion, I imbued both medallions and they glowed brightly. I held the mage shield in my hands and gave it some magic to make it pop a shield around me. It was like a rounded tube around me and I smiled, because it was under my feet as well.

With two separate enchantments to work with, I used some number ten potion and fused them together, face to face. I had to see if they would work both separately and together when needed. They set together flush and you couldn't tell that it was two medallions in one.

Perfect. I thought and attached a chain to hang it on my neck to test it. I could feel the two different enchantments waiting for my magic and I put some into the chameleon enchantment. I faded away and was hidden, which meant the person repellent enchantment would work as well. I deactivated it and then held my breath as I used the mage shield enchantment.

The same tube shape popped up and covered me, so I was happy. I deactivated it and then added magic to both enchantments at the same time. The medallion glowed and as the mage shield popped up around me, both the shield and I faded from sight. I did a little dance and deactivated both enchantments, then got back to work.

I had five more of them to make and then I had to test them. Somehow. I would have to worry about that later. I needed to get these done and get to bed. Helena had a nice relaxing day planned for tomorrow and I wasn't going to disappoint her.

I left my medallion on as I worked, letting its solid weight on my chest remind me that I was about to give the best protection that innovation could create to the people I cared about most in this world.