"Good!" Ms Gregory said with a steady smile. "Now as the treatmentprogram for gender reassignment is a long drawn out and protractedbusiness taking on...average five to seven years, in reality all you'reactually doing is taking on a temporary feminine identity until naturalwastage opens a male vacancy for you. Obviously during this period,you'd have to follow the real life test program and maintain publicly afeminine appearance, and lifestyle?"I nodded not sure I was hearing what she was. The Ptolemeys did not inquire too closely where their wealth came from, nor did they seek to tax it to death for an immediate gain. For all of this I was suitably grateful--in cold cash, of course.The Court itself had been up to its collective eyeballs in intrigue with the Romans. Cleopatra was walking a very fine line between independence and sufferance. The Romans coveted Egypt for its food and wealth, but they knew enough to recognize fighting over it could destroy the very thing they were. Gentle but firm hands eased me back onto the bed and secured my wrists to the headboard wide apart, my legs were raised and a small lubricated butt plug introduced to my back passage.I was told I was forbidden to come until instructed. My legs soon followed my arms by being secured to the legs of the foot of the bed, I was now totally unable to move spread out in the most vulnerable star shaped position, legs wide apart, naked before my master my sex open to his gaze. He took from the bag a. ’ I started to explain about the enormous city-wide shortage of suitable forests, but she cut me off. ‘No, I mean you should have bought this weeks ago.’ I got the thing into the apartment, and we dug out a wooden tub that we had used the year before from the closet. With some wooden wedges and a lot of swearing, I got the tree upright in the corner by the window, over-looking the street. As I looked out, it struck me how many windows in the building across the street had lights twinkling in.