That was one of the delicate dances that Absynthian culture required for upper class females to negotiate. It was de rigeur for the daughters of the nobility to have handmaidens from earliest memory. These most intimate of trusted servants would be companions for life to the female progeny of the privileged classes, assisting in dressing and makeup and management of hair and toilette and all manner of intimate tasks. In a culture that celebrated sexuality as openly as one dominated by the commandment to Love As Thou Wouldst, there was also a fierce protectiveness of children exemplified by severe punishment of adults who engaged in erotic contact with persons not yet of age to consent. So Handmaidens were exempt from meeting the s****l needs of their charges until those females had celebra
