Catherine ran her own accountancy practice and was very good at what she did. She had a wide stable set of clients, who were to tell me later - at her funeral - how well-regarded she was for her cheerful outlook, bright personality and professional excellence in her dealings. She had prided herself on delivering a high-quality service at every turn. The result was that only one of her clients ever had to suffer an Inland Revenue review - and that was settled in her client's favour, despite him not following her instructions to the letter.

On our third date, I went to hug her at the end of the evening. My hand closed around her jacket and, beneath it, I felt something rigid. She looked up into my eyes and smiled conspiratorially. A quick exploration with both my hands, maintaining the hug, revealed that Catherine was corseted. I had met a real-life "straight-laced" accountant." This explained her wonderful poise and how she carried herself, with her head held high.

As the relationship developed and we moved in together, Catherine revealed more of her secrets. Several corsets made up her collection, including a dominatrix-style black over-bust leather number which she was always able to wear invisibly, beneath a blouse and the waistcoat of her customary three-piece suits (which included both skirts and trousers). Her leather cat-suit was a work of art, representing the high-point of the leather engineer's art. It hugged her, held her and yet enabled her to move with considerable grace - even in three-inch stiletto heels.

More was to come; at the urging of a previous boyfriend, Catherine had been persuaded to try on a chastity belt - and she loved it! Their relationship did not survive, but it meant that Catherine arrived in my life with two chastity belts in her wardrobe and (most importantly) two sets of keys! Her black dominatrix corset, paired with a black cape, slit skirt, thigh-length boots and a gold mask for a charity fancy-dress party, was still the talk of the county accountancy profession some 15 years after her death. No-one could have realised that she subsequently wore that corset to work the next Monday morning, invisible beneath her "vanilla" suit.

I felt positively medieval on some mornings, as she walked away from the house towards her car, her smart suit, coat and spiked heels giving no sign whatsoever of the locked steel and boned leather or canvas which restrained her body. She built up a range of corsets in her collection and she graciously consented to allow me to be her key-holder for her chastity belt. Later, she submitted further and referred to me, in private, as her Master. Catherine did a power of good for my ego as we progressed to marriage. Needless to say, a corset provided the "foundation" for her wedding outfit when we married, where her sister Helen was similarly confined to match the desires of her master, Graham. Graham supported his wife's liking for leather, but I did not think that she would ask him to follow big sister's predilections and invest in a set of "stainless-steel panties" for her!!