The bell jingled, telling Miss McLeod that a customer had entered from the street. She stood up from the boxes of tights and panties that she had been putting away and squeezed between ruffled shirts and blouses to the main aisle of the shop. She arrived at the same time as her assistant, Jennifer Dundee, and after a combined glance towards the door, they looked at each other and grinned.
"Petticoat punishment!" said Jennifer.
"He's certainly wearing a petticoat, from the hang of the kilt," said Miss McLeod. "Well, well, well; a Stewart sissy. I'll start, and I'll bring you in as soon as I can."

  Kilt Korner is a jewel of a store for mother's of boys who are to be kilted, especially in their late adolescence. Hidden down a side street of Stirling, in the shadow of the castle, its quaint proportions mean that all of its stock must be displayed. Staff and customers alike must push their way between blazers, kilts, petticoats and blouses if they are to see anything at all. On this occasion, the customer and the kilted boy had moved no more than five yards from the street.
"May I be of assistance?" said Miss MacLeod warmly. She addressed herself to the tall lady in the beaver coat with a silver brooch clasping the join of her fur collar.
"Good morning. I saw your advertisement in the Highland Fling and wondered... well... if you attend to kilt-wearing underfittings?"
"Indeed we do. Is it for the young man?" Miss Mcleod's fingers took over the boy's jacket, running under his lapel and collar on both sides, down the edge of the buttoned bodice and along the hem to his hips.

  "Yes. I can see from your displays... of delicate lingerie and close fitting, rather girlish looking blazers, that you may stock the alternative apparel that I am looking for. I want Melvyn to be... prettier. I find the more traditional kilted styling too masculine, if you see what I mean."
"Indeed I do, Madam." She held the boys arms to turn him round and felt the resistance. "Ooooh?" She pursed her lips and looked to his mother. From his costume and demure manner, the boy was clearly under her control, but he obviously wasn't happy being inspected by a silver haired boutique proprietress.

  "Melvyn, behave!" she snapped. Her face had a hard line to the jaw as she glowered at her son. "I do not want to punish you in public." She spoke to Miss McLeod: "Do you have canes in your attractive establishment, for use on boys who resist? "
"Of course madam. We will make an array of punishment implements available if the need should arise."
"Good. Do you hear that, Melvyn? You will be caned if you cause me to speak to you again. I think you had better allow..." and she looked to the proprietress...
"Miss McLeod."
"... allow Miss McLeod to do whatever is necessary for your dressing. Do you understand?"
Her son's face sank onto his tie and he nodded with a whispered "Yes, mother." He was turned round and felt across the shoulders, round the waist and down onto the kilt, where Miss McLeod's practised fingers examined the contour of his pert bottom.

  "I see Master Melvyn is in a petticoat," observed the proprietress, and she turned him to face her, lifting the kilt to explore. She found a white nylon half slip scattered with little roses and ribbons with two inches of lace round the hem. An audible gasp came from the boy. "That gives his kilt a pleasing spread, and is plain to a woman's eye that he is under your firm control, if I may say so."
"Why, thank you. Yes, I believe in controlling my son, and deciding what other people will think of him. I am sure that he is generally regarded as a well brought up and remarkably modest young man."
"Excellent. So what kind of pretty details would Madam like to add for her son's appearance?"
"Mainly what is under his kilt... perhaps with a hint of pretty lace appearing."

  This time the boy gave a whimper but stifled it and gripped his fingers into tight fists of self-control.
"But then I can see that you have some very attractive kilts in your selection," went on his mother. "I might consider buying him something more feminine. It would depend on the price."
"Of course. We also do boy's blazers that fasten the girls' way, fitted to the female body shape, if Madam would like to consider corsetry for him." Miss McLeod raised her hand and clicked her fingers at her assistant who was watching from the far end of the aisle. She joined the group in no time. "Jennifer, Master Melvyn will need to be undressed to his petticoat. Can you attend to his mother's wishes while I gather a selection of lingerie for us to try on the boy."

  As Miss McLeod withdrew, the boy's mother asserted her control over her son. "Stand perfectly still, Melvyn, and be undressed. We may need to go right down to the skin if I decide that you will be corseted."
The boy's face was crimson as Jennifer, who was the same age as him or a year or two older, removed his blazer to reveal his pleated, lace trimmed shirt, then his kilt which had a back zipper fastening and button, and finally his slip so that he stood in no more than a singlet and his white cotton panties. Jennifer took every opportunity to catch him eye to eye, with a hint of a smile on her lips which said how pitiful he was. Miss McLeod returned with more ideas for the mother's consideration.

  "Some mothers like their boy's legs to be in pantyhose, visible between his stockings and the hem of his kilt. Or in Melvyn's case, the lace of his petticoats, for I have a new style of flared kilt in mind for which I earnestly recommend putting him in several petticoats."
"Pantyhose? But what about his genitals?" wondered the client. "I prefer to have good highland air circulating around them, which is why I keep him in kilts in the first place."
"A good point, Madam. I could recommend stockings instead. They are popular too, requiring a pretty garter belt."

  This touched a nerve in the adolescent boy. A whimper drew the eyes of all three women and they saw the trembling on his lips. This helped the mother to decide.
"I see you have a couple of corsets over your arm," she said. "I'd like to see him in a corset and stockings please, but... I wonder if I might sit down for a moment? I'm feeling a little..."
"Jennifer, a stool and a glass of water for Madame."
"It's Mrs Stewart. Maureen Stewart."
"Of course."
Maureen Stewart soon had a glass of water, so that she could sit in comfort and watch her son being dressed.

  He was completely undressed by Jennifer and stood with his knees pressed together and his fingers laced in front of his erecting genitals. Of the two corselets, Maureen picked the white satin one which finished short of his groin and had six garter straps with which to hold the welts of his stockings. She wondered about the 'emptiness' of the cups, and agreed to have Melvyn put into breast forms - quite sizeable ones - so that the corset cups were stretched to their limit in a divided, lace covered bust. The effect was appealing to all the females, but as they remarked on how feminine it looked, the boy burst into tears and had to have his eyes dabbed with a handkerchief by Miss McLeod. His mother selected a pretty panty in white satin with lace details and ruffled leg trims, especially since it had a darling chemise top to the waist to match. Jennifer fastened the buttons for him at the back.

  Miss McLeod had a widened style of kilt in a smooth, woollen material that incorporated pink into the Stewart tartan. She brought a selection of blouses to go with it as the boy stood and cried pitiably in the middle of them, with Jennifer wiping his eyes at regular intervals. He was dressed in some of the blouses, and had the kilt held in front of him to gauge the effect. Eventually he was put into a white silk blouse with a generously ruffled jabot beneath his chin, designed to take a brooch in its heart, while the blouse buttoned down his back and through the two French cuffs at the wrists.

  The kilt required several petticoats, in nylon net, so that once a silk petticoat was slipped over them, a wide spread of skirt flared from his waist to receive the pink, Stewart kilt. The length chosen allowed an inch of petticoat lace to show all round the hem. Instead of the usual kilt pins, Miss McLeod suggested a column of three silver brooches to match the brooch at his throat, and there were earrings to complete the set. When it came to Melvyn's blazer, it was found to button the girls' way, with silver buttons in a double breasted style, with a very narrow waist so that it fitted his hips, waist and bust to a T. Over his dark stockings went a pair of white knee socks, to be worn with white Mary Jane shoes with a hint of pink, and on his head a pink satin Tam O'Shanter beret, sloped girlishly to one side.

  The hapless boy was in copious tears as his mother left Kilt Korner in high spirits, having parted with far more money than she had ever intended to, but with a boy who knew perfectly well who was in control of him and his dressing. Most shaming of all was the firm erection making a tent in his pretty white satin panties as his petticoats swished and frou-froued over them.