Chapter 3

We just sat there, speechless, as she looked at her papers.

“He rang, the second morning, to tell me how the two of you turned the drive from the airfield into a sight-seeing trip, and then turned the free evening into a party. Splitting the groups in Budapest was well done. It was originally thought that it would be a single group with the interpreter. All in all, you both did very well, and we have already noted a few changes for the next trip. You’ll be flying into Lyons to collect the guests and use the same airline to Baja. The coach is the same company, and you can give me the contact details for the restaurant, then we’ll ring them and make the booking.”

“So, you won’t want a report from us, then?”

“Not unless there’s something you want to add.”

“Only that the Danube trip was lovely, but we were superfluous. We may have just gone directly to the wharf at Budapest and greeted the guests there.”

“Noted, but over-ridden. On the river, the two of you are like a captain on an airliner, on hand if something goes wrong. On top of that, socialising with the guests gave them a good feeling, as it allowed them to take the Budapest section as being shown the sites by friends, rather than being herded like cattle. It was one of the big things that was noted during the tour. We will be having major meetings about how we can get our guides to socialise more. Some tours aren’t able to have that, like the garden or artistic ones, but others, like the Great Sites tours, may be adaptable. Look, that tour was an expensive one, because of the river trip and the good hotel. Nobody has complained yet, and three have already emailed head office with a good review. Here’s the revised itinerary for the next one, have a rest and I’ll see you back here, afterwards.”

We took the paperwork and went back to the flat. We did our laundry, tidied up the flat, spent a lot of the first full day sleeping late and taking an afternoon nap. Then I taught Belinda some more Hungarian, having bought an English to Hungarian book at the airport. We also sat with our guitars and sang a few of the folk songs. The trio had given me the lyrics in Hungarian, and I wrote them out in French.

When we arrived in Lyons, we had a night in the airport hotel, and then met our guests the next morning. The trip to Baja was similar to the last time, but that’s when it all changed. The coach to the hotel was taken with a more scenic route, with a new cheat sheet for Belinda to read from. The hotel had a French speaker to get the guests booked in, and we were booked into the restaurant for the evening meal, with the meals factored into the tour.

The trio came in, and an extra two guitars were on hand for us to join in later, singing along in French. It was a lot of fun and brought Belinda into things. The following morning was the checking out, a more structured tour, lunch in the winery, also factored in the tour, and then joining the river boat. The extras, this time, would be carried by Topper, with one couple that we had been told was the manager from the Paris Office. Next time, they would be added to the tour price.

The boat trip wasn’t as easy as the last time, as one of the tourists fell overboard. The crew were very slick in getting him back, but then it was up to us to take care of him and the companion by me getting him into the cabin while Belinda took the companion to the bar for the ‘hair of the dog. I say, ‘fell overboard’, but it was a row with the companion that was the root cause, followed by a shoving session that got out of hand. The companion left us when we arrived in Budapest, telling our passenger that he was a beast, and that his wife was welcome to him.

It was a short bit of excitement in a mostly restful trip. The first outing in Budapest was now listed as a female shopping spree with Mikala, or a museum meander with Belinda. Other than that, it was much the same as before. We flew back after the last day and stopped in at the office.

“Another successful tour, girls. I hope you now realise that you can’t leave the guests to their own devices on the river boat.”

“We do. We just hope that it doesn’t get any more fraught. We could see that she was a bit angry. I suppose that we should have tried to separate them until we got to Budapest.”

“That’s a skill that comes with experience, and you’ve just had Lesson One.”

“Do we have another tour?”

“You do. You are booked to trial another new tour that we’ll start next summer. It will be from Heathrow to Vienna, then on the river boat to Budapest. You will spend five days in Vienna, being shown what the local office has set up for us, then take the trip to Budapest. The actual tour will have four days there before coming back to Heathrow. With what you’ve already learned, it should work out well. We have learned from your first trip and have made sure the first interpreter has German to English and French. We want you to evaluate it, as it will be another premium tour next season. When you’ve done that, there’s another one to Baja with more Italians. There will be a fourth before the end of the season, and then you’ll have some time in the snows.”

“Thank you for your faith in us.”

“Just keep doing what you do, and there’ll be more good tours for the two of you. You’re much too good to be doing the humdrum trips.”

She gave us the paperwork for the trial, and we went home. We only had a couple of free days before we went to the airport to fly to Vienna. We met the interpreter, and she guided us around the sights, telling us all about them. Belinda had reasonably good German, and I had a smattering, so we were well able to keep up with most of her patter, only having to stop her when she threw in one of those huge word mixes linked as a single word that the Germans do so well.

It was on the trip to Budapest that things changed for me. So far, I had been just moving along with the flow, doing my job. In the few months that Belle and I had been together, it had been filled with work or else reading up on where we were going. The trips we had done as a team had brought us together in a way that was nice, very easy going and attuned to each other. I suppose that’s what made us a good team.

On this river boat, we had a smaller cabin to reduce the cost, and we shared a bed for the first time. Without any guests to look out for, our time on the river was almost a holiday, and we ate together, gazed at the scenery together, dressed and undressed together, and slept together.

It was in the middle of the second night that I woke up, on my side, with Belle spooned into my back with one of her arms draped over me and her hand on my breast. I didn’t make a move, just allowed her to stroke my nipple, which was now hard as a rock. For the first time in weeks, the two sides of my brain had a conversation.

“Well, Mikkie, what are you going to do about this?

“I’m not sure what to do. I like it, though. How many boys have you been out with?”

“None, my mother was saving me for the nunnery. She said that sex was bad for you, not that it stopped her.”

“I always enjoyed it with my wife, but this feeling is very different.”

“We could tell her to stop.”

“Or we could roll over and give her a kiss.”

“I think that I like that idea.”

Of course, that all took place in a matter of seconds, and was about the last time we spoke as two separate individuals. Then I made the move, by putting my hand over hers. I heard a sharp intake of breath, and she froze, then took her hand away. I rolled over and faced her. She looked frightened and we looked into each other’s eyes in the faint light from the window. I brought my arm over and put my fingers in her hair, and pulled her to me, with my lips against hers, lightly at first.

Her free arm went over me again, and she pulled us together and ground her lips against mine. We didn’t speak for an hour, just moaned quietly as we explored each other’s body. I had a lifetime of experience with making love to a woman, and I think that I gave more than I received. Mind you, what I did receive left me panting, as I was obviously not her first girl.

We finally reached a point where we needed to stop, to clean up and have a pee. She went first as I lay back and thought about things. The combined me decided that we had thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and if that made us a lesbian, we would embrace it.

Belle came back and stood by the bed, looking down. She was naked and beautiful and had a smile that almost lit up the cabin. I told her she was beautiful, and she got into bed again. We kissed some more and then I had to head for the toilet. When I got back into bed, we resumed our original position, me on my side with her hand on my breast. I drifted off to sleep with the thought that this was really a pleasant way to be.

In the morning, we talked while we got ready to face the day. What we did now would be important. We would have to hide our relationship. No kissing or holding hands in public. Especially when we’re on duty. We didn’t talk about love, that may take some time to arise, if it ever did. We knew how to make each other happy and sexually sated, and that’s all that mattered at the moment.

The next couple of days on the river were hard. It was difficult to force ourselves not to touch or hold hands. We acted like tourist guides learning a new tour by day, and like a couple of bitches on heat by night. When we left the boat in Budapest, it was straight to the airport to fly home. The next day, on the way to the office, we detoured via a sex shop to buy a double ended dildo, which would be something that I was looking forward to trying, as I had never experienced being properly penetrated. We knew that it would remain at home, as we wouldn’t be able to take it on tour, with the X-Rays at airports.

We gave our report on the new tour and made some suggestion, then we were given the information for the next two tours. The first was a repeat with Italians out of Milan, and the second was with the French out of Lyons. After that, we were given a week off and to come back to the office to get our autumn and winter schedule. Now that we were considered trained, we would have less free time between tours. We were told that we would have our holidays in mid-January, as it was a quieter time. From now on, unless we were starting from the office, we would get notifications by email and text.

The two repeat tours went well. As we boarded the smaller plane, we explained that out destination was a grass strip unsuitable for jets. The coach trip was good, with Damir now almost an old friend. The first night was great, and I had the lyrics in Italian, so we entertained the guests easily. The river trip was uneventful with the tourists, but fireworks in our cabin. We had found a blow-up dildo at the sex shop, which we could have in our baggage without being searched. It made for an interesting time.

It could be that we were giving off vibes, as we became friendly with the few single women on that, and subsequent, tours. Neither of us were the dominant partner, and we were both well-dressed women, in or out of our uniforms. Even Jelana mentioned that we were much happier than before, but no less efficient.

Our next summer was planned, and adverts put in the travel papers. ‘Experience the delights of Vienna and Budapest with Mikala and Belinda, with the River Danube trip between the five-star hotels. Limited to thirty guests in luxury all the way!’ was one of them. ‘See Hungary as if you were a Hungarian. Baja to Budapest with Mikala and Belinda. From authentic food to world-class sights.’ We would do each trip four times over the summer.

Autumn and winter, though, was a different kettle of fish. This brought us our first tour of Britain, starting from the office, picking up our guests at their hotel, and spending thirty days seeing the sights. This one had a mixture of guests, so we needed to do all the announcements in English, French, Italian, and German. We had a third girl with us who spoke Spanish to cater for the two couples from Spain. It was a big change for us, as we shared a family room with her, so needed to stay in our separate beds for the month.

After that, we were into the winter trips, usually to exotic snowfields and classy hotels. We were both personable girls and got on well with our guests. The hotels were happy to supply us with guitars so we could entertain the crowd, with a roaring fire on one side and snow outside the windows. In Spring, we did another tour of Britain, and then we were into another set of Hungarian holidays.

By this time, I was much better in German and Belinda was good with her Hungarian. We were now supplied with much better outfits for the trips, seeing that we were presenting a premium experience. We still wore the company colours, but it wasn’t as hi-vis as before, with just hints of red with the yellow, and hints of yellow with the red. Our off-duty outfits were better when we were on the riverboat, seeing that we were both earning a good wage. That was nothing to what we wore underneath, seeing that it wasn’t any business of the company. We had shopped well in Paris, Rome, and Vienna, and we were both turned on as soon as our dresses hit the floor.

We had resisted all attempts of seduction on our tours. Not that we weren’t interested, in a sort of academic way. Belinda was convinced that she would never contemplate having a man order her around, and I still had hang-ups from my many years of actually being a man, which was all right with the original Mikala.

That all went haywire on our fourth winter. We were in a classy hotel, with a mixed group of English and American guests. It was a ten-day visit, and we had been getting on well with everyone, singing in the evenings and generally being on hand during the days. This trip had a family from Boston, on their first visit to the Alps, and were all very happy with what they were seeing. The parents were reserved, at first, but were quite nice once they had relaxed. I gathered that they were very big in their own society, and this was an unusual situation for them to be able to actually let go of the threads that their normal life demanded.

There were two sons, non-identical twins and about mid-twenties. They were both basketball players and spent a lot of time on the slopes, reveling in learning how to ski, and being very good at it. I expected that they would be very good at whatever they did. We had looked after some very nice guys over our time, but these two were not only handsome and well off, but they were also perfect gentlemen as well. Sometimes Anthony and Archibald sat with us at breakfast, telling us about what they had planned for the day. Lunches and dinners were more formal, with them sitting with their parents.

On the eighth day, the weather closed down, and nobody was allowed on the slopes, so we organised board games and did a bit of singing with the piano in the lounge to keep everyone occupied. That night, the snowfall was beautiful to see, but potentially a problem. We called the office to tell them what was happening and were told to organise evacuation of our guests in the morning, as the weather was predicted to worsen the following night.

Unfortunately, the weather system was faster moving than predicted, and the morning dawned with us totally snowed in. At breakfast, the hotel manager came in and made an announcement, which we had to interpret for our guests. The road to the village was totally impassable by vehicle, so we were cut off from our escape route. There had been so much snow on the mountain above us, there was now the prospect of an avalanche, so helicopters were not allowed to drop us supplies. The cable cars weren’t operating either.

Belinda and I had a talk with the hotel management. The hotel had plenty of heating fuel to stay warm for months, but the immediate problem was getting enough supplies to feed everyone. They had been on the phone to the village, where all the instructors lived, and had been told that there were plenty of supplies on hand. The instructors would start to clear a path to the hotel but wanted us to start clearing a path from the hotel, towards the village.

We had a big meeting of everyone in the dining room to tell them about the situation. There were three of the staff who were experienced in snow work, and our two American boys declared that they were both Eagle Scouts and volunteered to help. Belinda and I put our hands up to assist in any way we could, especially with interpreting between the staff and the boys.

The seven of us were kitted out in enough thermal wear to look like the Michelin Man, and actually stepped off a balcony onto the snow, with shovels in our hands. The first job was to shift the snowdrift at the front door, and then, once we had found the surface, to work towards the road. The drift was about eight feet deep, but the rest of the way was about four or five feet deep. On the first day, we made it to the carpark. On the second, we got to the road. It was hard work, digging out the snow and tossing it to the side. It got harder with each day, as the snow hardened into ice, which kept us warm, at least.

The further we got, more came out to help, giving us a rest. On the fifth day, we met up with the ones coming from the village, and then there were plenty of strong guys on hand to haul sleds with food and other supplies. By that time, Belinda and I had become very close to Anthony and Archibald, now Tony and Archie, as we shoveled our way to freedom. It would, however, only be freedom when it was safe enough for helicopters to fly to the village, with us learning that they were working with other resorts that weren’t so dangerous first.

We were another three weeks in the hotel before we could be evacuated. In that time, all pretence of being the tour guides had gone out of the window. We were the same as everyone else, trapped in a warm hotel, fed, if not as well as expected, and with comfortable beds to sleep in, even if the sheets stayed unchanged. The track we had made stayed open, but only for the experienced, so none of the usual staff from the village were able to come up, making us appreciate each other.

Some of the guests weren’t happy that their plans had gone awry, but there was nothing they could do except ring home to tell them to carry on without them for a while. Tony and Archie sat with us at breakfast, and also at other meals. Their parents looked on and smiled.

It was about the second week that the situation changed. Belinda and Archie would sit in the lounge and talk, while Tony and I would go to the games room and play table tennis. They had a billiard table as well, and I found that my skills with a billiard cue had not abandoned me with my miraculous transference. One day, when I had soundly beaten Tony, he laughed, hugged me and kissed me.

That awoke something fundamental inside me that I’d never felt with Belinda. It was a feeling of acceptance as a desirable woman, from a desirable and eligible man. The second time we kissed, we meant it, and I was lost. On the one hand was my faithfulness to Belinda, and on the other was my need to know something that had been hidden from me in both lifetimes.

When we went down to the lounge, I noticed that Belindas’ lipstick was smeared and guessed that she may be on the cusp of discovering something in herself at the same time. That night, we discussed things in bed, without our usual activity, other than a kiss goodnight.

At breakfast, we found that the two brothers had also discussed things, and the meal turned serious. They told us that they were in awe of our beauty, our talent, our bravery and our ability to stay cool under pressure, as well as being prepared to work hard when we were shovelling snow. Their parents were also in approval of us as likely wives, after a proper time to make sure, of course.

That was a surprise, but a nice one. Three nights later, Belinda spent the night with Archie, while Tony spent the night with me. My time with Belinda, and our dildo, had prepared me for the penetration, but not for the extra feelings that having the thing inside me being flesh and blood created. He wore a condom, but feeling it twitch and throb as he came made me gasp.

Belinda came back to our room in the dawn, and Tony gave me a kiss before he left. We sat on the bed, still in our nighties, and spoke about our new outlook on life. That day, our dildo was deflated and put into the rubbish to be cleared once we were able to leave.

The two of us were officially in our holiday time, so we didn’t feel a need to tell the office about us spending the nights with our guests. Belinda transferred all of her clothes to the other room, while I had Tony’s in my wardrobe. By the time the first helicopter landed in the village square, we were two couples in love.

We contacted the office to tell them that we were now able to start evacuating the guests, and then took control of getting them out in small groups, taken down to the village on sleds with the instructors. That took a week to clear them, with our guys in the last group, with their smiling parents, who we had become quite close to, as the hotel emptied. Finally, it was time for us to leave. The hotel manager praised us for holding the group together and gave us cards that would allow us to stay in any hotel in the chain, with both cards good for two weeks with our partners. The last was said with a smile.

We were given our time with the British tour with two extra guides, as thanks for our dedication to duty over the snowstorm. We also had been paid for all the time at the resort, along with our normal holiday pay.

Tony and Archie joined us for one of the Vienna to Budapest trips, as well as two of the Baja to Budapest ones. It was in Budapest that they both proposed, and we both said yes. We informed the office that we would be leaving the company after the summer trips. They were appreciative of what we had done while we were with them and was asked to come into the office with our uniforms when we returned after the last time in Budapest.

My father was happy for me, especially when I told him who I was marrying and how rich my in-laws were. Belindas’ parents were happy for her, and we spent our last day at the flat tidying up before having a lunch together. I drove her home and went home myself, a very different girl to the one who had left to see the world.

Eventually, I flew to Boston to stay with my in-laws before the wedding, joined by Belinda and both being welcomed into the family. It came home to me that my first lover as Mikala would now be my sister-in-law for life. We used our hotel cards for the first couple of weeks of our honeymoons. Different cities, though.

Marianne Gregory © 2026