King of the Castle

Copyright Oggbashan September 2016

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons. This is a Halloween fantasy with femdom.

Ruritania is the fictional country of Anthony Hope's novels The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau. I have used the name Ruritania for this story but any resemblance between my 21st Century Ruritania and Anthony Hope's is accidental. I have used only the name instead of inventing an Eastern European state.

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It was a last minute decision. It seemed such a good idea back in England. We wanted a venue for a Halloween Party and a genuine castle seemed the ideal location. All we had to do was get there. The cost of accommodation and food would be provided by my father. Normally the castle would be full for Halloween but there had been a group cancellation because of unrest in that country. The staff and everything had been arranged for the group. We could take over what had been already planned if we could get flights there in the next 48 hours.

My grandfather Alfred had owned the castle in what had been an East European Communist state. I'll call it Ruritania, not its name.

Madeleine and I had been having a mild disagreement about our wedding. We wanted a quiet simple affair but we were under pressure, not from our parents but from the wider family, for a big event. I was inclined to humour the relations. The cost wasn't a problem because both sets of parents could afford to pay. Madeleine just didn't want the hassle of organising a big event. She and I are rather quiet people who prefer the company of a few friends instead of attending large events. We thought a week away, particularly away from the relations, would give us time to sort out what WE wanted.

There was another problem. There was some unrest in Ruritania. I did some research on the internet. There was a movement for a revolution to overthrow the current democratic government. The movement's leaders were using the Big Lie technique making statements about what the government was and had been doing that were obviously untrue. Some of the more outrageous claims had been mentioned on Snopes. From the UK the revolutionary movement seemed ridiculous and obviously intended to enrich the leaders and foreign investors who were barred from owning too many assets in Ruritania. As the castle was in a remote area and easily defended against a rioting mob I thought we would be very safe.

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Back in the 1960s Ruritania's communist government didn't have enough money to preserve or restore ancient monuments. Such money as they had for heritage they used in their cities and towns. My grandfather owned a toy factory in the English Midlands and frequently visited the Nuremberg Toy Fair to exhibit his company's products and to see what others were selling.

There was a small exhibit of handmade wooden toys from Ruritania. Alfred liked the quirkiness and the quality of the workmanship. He bought a few samples back to England but it was too expensive to replicate them in his factory. Over the next few years he visited Ruritania and bought the toys in quantity selling them through his marketing outlets. Eventually he invested in Ruritania, building a factory and employing locals. By the 1960s he was well respected in Ruritania and had contacts in the government.

When they decided to ask foreign investors to take over some of their heritage places, Alfred was one of the first they approached. Their idea was that the foreigner would be offered a building at a nominal sum but they would have to conserve and restore it using local labour. Alfred was using local labour extensively and because he paid in hard currency he could pick and choose the best workmen.

His first purchase was the castle. It was in a remote area guarding a mountain pass. The castle was fairly small and in a reasonable condition. The only problem was that it was too far from any major roads. Materials for repair would have to be found locally, but those materials were the ones that had been used when the castle was originally built. He paid the local equivalent of one US dollar for the castle and its estate but spent fifty thousand US dollars on it over the next decade.

When finished in the late 1970s the exterior had been restored to the state it had been in the 14th Century. The main rooms were equally antique but the kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms were modern. He had repaired and widened the road from the nearest town to the castle so that trucks could bring in bathroom fittings. They had to be manhandled across the drawbridge and through the defended gateway because no vehicle could enter the castle. The storerooms and dungeons underground housed a collection of genuine and newly manufactured instruments of torture as a museum display.

Alfred's castle became a showpiece for other foreigners to demonstrate what could be done with Ruritania's neglected heritage. He had to create a car and coach park in the outer bailey to accommodate visitors from Western Europe and beyond.

The staff were all locals from the mountain villages, a few living at the castle but most coming in to produce banquets and when there were foreign guests.

Eventually Ruritania overthrew its Communist government and started on the way to becoming a genuinely democratic state. My grandfather handed over responsibility for Ruritania to my father John. Alfred was unpopular there because of his work with the former regime. John wasn't compromised by past associations.

Eventually John had taken over the whole family toy business, the factories in England and Ruritania, and the restored castle. At first he used the castle for conferences, product launches and family holidays. He improved the road access and added a helicopter landing pad in the outer bailey.

Part of the castle became a small gothic-themed hotel but with very modern facilities. The main rooms were still as Alfred had left them but discreetly improved with electric lighting and Wi-Fi. The castle was well used in the summer months and for winter sports. The staff organised events for Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas and New Year to extend the season. They did weddings as well but they weren't as popular as the seasonal events. The castle wasn't large enough for a big wedding party.

The staff organised a discreet sideline in sex parties. People who liked BDSM found a genuine castle with real dungeons and real torture equipment to be a wonderful venue for a weekend or even longer of playing around. It was used by many people making erotic bondage videos for the internet. All the bedrooms had unusual accessories such as anchorage points built into every bed and a wardrobe of fetish equipment.

We were six of us going to the castle. I'm Stephen Owen. The others were my fiancée Madeleine, her younger sister Angela, Madeleine's best friend and intended matron of honour Helen, Gary, who is Angela's boyfriend and James, Helen's husband. For James and Helen it was almost like a delayed honeymoon. They had married in August but been back at work the Monday after their Saturday wedding.

Before booking we had to decide what we wanted. Because it was the start of Helen's honeymoon we let her have the last word. She chose mild femdom BDSM. The castle's staff could provide specialist BDSM scenarios to fit with the guests' requests. Mild femdom BDSM was one of the easier versions. I and Gary hoped we would see more of our girlfriends in action. We knew that Helen already practised mild BDSM with her husband James.

I had to inform the castle's staff of our clothing sizes. I had intended to ask Gary and James to give me the women's sizes. Madeleine stopped me. She pointed out that some of her sex play clothes were charity shop purchases with old system labels. If we wanted accurate sizes she would get them. She helped compose the email giving the clothing information. I was surprised that it took three attempts before the email reached the castle. Usually it had been instantaneous.

I had been to Ruritania several times with my parents but never on my own. I had been too busy at University and in my vacations I had wanted to go for sun and sand with my friends. I needed to know more about the country because eventually I would inherit the family business. While my friends would be enjoying themselves, I had another task. I had to find out from Jakob, our local manager, what impact Ruritania's current unrest might have on our company. He had given hints but he and we knew that communication was monitored. The new government had inherited some of the secret service tactics of the old one.

We were travelling with very little luggage. All the clothes we would need were underwear. At the castle we would be wearing costumes supplied for us using the size information Madeleine and I had given.

All of us were expecting to use some of the castle's BDSM equipment for mild bondage and sexual games as couples. We had discussed it among ourselves. We had agreed that as well as a Halloween party we would experiment with variations of consensual bondage. The women seemed more excited by the idea than the men. I knew the men would be the victims more often than the women, or possibly only the men would be the ones experiencing bondage.

I explained that although the staff might demonstrate the equipment, and for a fee pose for photographs with their faces masked the rules were 'Look, take pictures, but don't touch!'.

Our flight landed shortly after ten am. Jakob met us at the airport with a people carrier driven by his chauffeur Gregori. As Gregori was loading my friends and the suitcases Jakob beckoned me aside.

"Stephen, I'd like to show you the improvements to the battlements when we get there."

I nodded. I knew what he meant. We needed to talk in private and the people carrier might be bugged. On the battlements of the castle as we walk around it would be impossible for all our conversation to be monitored particularly if we were close to the ravine and noisy waterfall.

The castle is a hundred miles from the airport through increasingly rugged scenery. Jakob and Gregori gave a tourist style commentary for my friends pointing out local sights on the way including the chateau that my grandfather had restored before selling it back to the government. The last ten miles of road produced some squeals from the women. It loops around mountains with steep drops and no guard rails. Gary and James tried to look unconcerned but they were holding on to some of the vehicle's fittings.

The final approach to the castle is dramatic. We came around a bend to see the castle across the valley. We descended to an ancient looking stone bridge actually built by my grandfather Alfred in the 1960s to replace the rope foot bridge. As we approached there were several men dressed as hunters in camouflage clothing and carrying slung rifles. They had recognised the people carrier. Why not? It has the company's logo on all four sides. They waved at us as we crossed the bridge.

We climbed up and up until we drove through the widened gap in the outer bailey. The gatehouse had fallen down in the 19th Century. Alfred had replaced the rotten wooden drawbridge with a steel girder bridge that could take a fifty ton load. Where the gatehouse had been he had built a modern replica but with a much wider opening. The gates were hydraulically operated and usually left open. Where he got them from I don't know but underneath the apparently ancient oak they were armoured and weighed several tons each. They might stop a battle tank. Or they might not. Did it matter? Getting a battle tank along the roads to reach the castle was probably impossible.

The castle had been almost impregnable in the 14th Century. As restored it would be difficult to attack even in the 21st Century if there were armed defenders. Unless the attackers used airpower and/or very heavy artillery they wouldn't get in. But who would want to attack it and why? It is a hotel not a military base. One of the reasons the original castle had survived in a restorable condition was that it had never been attacked. It had been built to defend a mountain pass that was closed by a major landslide even before the castle had been completed. It was protecting a route to nowhere.

Sarah, the castle's Manager and Housekeeper met us in the car park. She had driven the propane-powered buggy down from the inner bailey. She and Gregori loaded our luggage on it. We followed as the buggy climbed the steep and twisting slope to the inner gatehouse. At the entrance to the keep the maids were lined up. They were all wearing their basic dark blue uniforms with white headscarves. Apart from Petra I didn't recognise any of them. I wasn't surprised. The local women rotate as maids at the castle. What did puzzle me was the lack of men. I looked at Sarah.

"Sorry, Stephen," she said in the local language. "All the men are away at the harvest."

Sarah seemed unusually subdued. Normally she is a bright and bouncy middle-aged lady. I have known her almost all my life since I first came to the castle as a toddler. She is far more sophisticated than most of the staff because of her constant interaction with our family and the foreign visitors. But there were more than enough maids to look after the six of us. Sarah organised the maids to take the luggage and each guest to the appropriate bedroom, telling us, in English, to meet in the Great Hall in twenty minutes. I took the opportunity to go with Jakob to the battlements.

"Well, Jacob?" I asked as we stood overlooking the ravine and the waterfall. "Why the secrecy?"

"I'm not sure it's necessary, Stephen," he replied, "but it is better to be safe. Now we are here you are probably OK but in the capital there is trouble. There might even be a revolution because the people, or some of them, are very angry that the same people are running the country as ran it as Communists. They say they might be sons of the fathers but the clique is the same and they are throwing opposition leaders into jail. There should be an election next month but if the opposition have been jailed as so-called traitors it is claimed it will be a rigged election. There haven't been riots yet but..."

"There might be?"

"Yes. When Gregori and I leave I have asked Sarah to ensure the outer gates are closed. It's not good that the men are away when the country is facing trouble. They and the local villagers could defend the castle against mob violence, unlikely as that might be."

"Mob violence? Here? Why?"

"Your grandfather was seen as a supporter of the old government. He, your father, and now you are possibly identified as part of the clique running the country."

"That's ridiculous, Jakob!"

"I know but some of the accusations being thrown around are lies. But lies can generate violence. Those behind the unrest are..."

The names he mentioned were very familiar to me and had featured in my recent researches. If anyone were former Communist rulers it was them. They were people who notionally owned large parts of the capital but were actually working illegally with foreign investors.

"They claim that the current government has sold national assets to foreigners..."

"You and I know that is a lie, Jakob," I said.

"You know that. I know that. The people don't and are being persuaded that it is true. I wish you hadn't come -- now. I tried to warn your father but I couldn't be explicit. As manager of your business in Ruritania I am watched very carefully and I suspect all my internet links are compromised. I hope I'm wrong and you can have an enjoyable week here. I'll collect you on Monday next week, but until then try to keep everyone inside the castle and preferably get the men back inside too. If the shit hits the fan you could have to bring the villagers into the castle. They at least know how much your family has done for them."

"And my grandfather only worked with the old government because he had to."

"I know, Stephen, but people aren't thinking straight. Gregori and I have to get back to the capital. We have organised watchmen to warn if there is any attack on the factories. It should be unlikely but if there is the workers will try to stop any damage being done. After all, they need the work and the pay. If the factories are wrecked we'll all be out of work. I'll leave in a few minutes. Enjoy yourselves while you're here but be careful, please."

"I will, Jakob, and thank you. I'll tell my friends to stay inside the castle grounds."

"If Sarah has shut the outer bailey gates they won't be able to leave anyway. I'll make sure she does."

We went back to the Great Hall. There was a buffet set out for us. Sarah was already talking to my friends. Petra was standing beside Sarah.

"I'm sorry," Sarah was saying, "the castle's Wi-Fi is temporarily out of action. Someone is coming to fix it in a couple of days but your phones won't work and we can't have television..."

Jakob interrupted her. I heard him tell her to shut the outer bailey's gates. She nodded.

I spoke to my friends.

"While we are here I'm sorry to say that we should not leave the castle grounds. It's the hunting season and some of our local hunters aren't very competent. They might shoot at anything that moves, including us. Later on, perhaps when the local men return, we might be able to organise some escorted outings but until then, please do not try to leave the castle."

"Are we prisoners?" Madeleine asked me. She wasn't serious.

"Of course not," I answered. "This was my family's castle. You are guests here. I would prefer my guests to remain uninjured."

"What about the troubles that caused the other group to cancel?" Angela asked.

"There is an election coming soon and people in the capital are overexcited," I replied. "We are a long way from the capital and surrounded by friends. If we had television we might see demonstrations in the streets of the capital, or perhaps not. The local media isn't wholly free. They only show what the government wants the people to see unless the people have satellite TV and internet so that censorship is fairly ineffective."

"But we haven't got TV or internet," Gary objected.

"Temporarily," I answered. "It should be fixed soon but it takes time to get expert technicians to come this far from civilisation. Even a simple repair means a whole lost day for them."

That seemed to reassure everybody as they set to eating the buffet.

Sarah announced that the evening meal would be at eight o'clock followed by a demonstration of a new device and a ghost story by firelight. I said that this afternoon I would give a tour of the outer castle, including if anyone wanted to do it, the wall walk around the outer bailey. Helen was dubious. She doesn't like heights but James told her he would hold on to her. He already was. They were behaving like newly-weds.

Madeleine pulled me aside.

"What was all that crap about the hunting season, Stephen? The locals hunt all year round and we've never had any problem before."

"It was bullshit, Madeleine, but please don't tell the others," I said. "Jakob has told me that Ruritania has real problems now. It shouldn't affect us here but he's worried. So is Sarah. You might have noticed she's not her usual self. And the men being absent? Harvesting? In late October? That's unlikely. Something is going on and I don't know what. We should be safe. We're in a castle but I would be happier if the men were here too. Apart from me and the women, none of us know how to use a gun."

"Gun? Is it that bad, Stephen?"