All the inhabitants of the village of Kronink in Scotland know the castle of Kelingson which stands majestically a few miles outside of the village, and which never fails to draw all the visiting tourists who are struck by the mysterious charm of its old-fashioned towers looming at the horizon and surrounded by the thick vegetation of an immense park.
In that castle lived Lord Kelingson, the heir of an old Scottish family and who was reputed to be a millionaire.
He lived in it only a few mouths in the year and spent the rest of the time travelling in his powerful car through Britain and abroad.
Lord Kelingson was about forty-five years old. His body was athletically built but his face was ravaged by too much good-living. Vice and spirits had left their marks and given him a strange expression of sadism and cruelty. He had the reputation of being heartless and insensitive to human suffering. Besides, he was very stingy and always dreamed of adding still more to his already immense fortune.
The people and tradesmen of the village very seldom penetrated into the domain which was surrounded by a very high wall for miles around. Only an old guardian lived in a small house near the entrance and obeyed blindly the orders of his master, so that it was almost impossible to enter the castle and it would have been still more difficult to get out if by any chance one bad got in.
The guardian's wife, an old woman, looked after the cooking. The only other member of the staff was the servant of Lord Kelingson, named Bridget She was a fine slip of a girl, aged twenty-three buxom and robust, with a beautiful face lit up by fine blue eyes and hair the colour of ripe corn. Formerly she had had a scandalous behaviour at the village. Then she became Lord Kelingson's maid and was no longer seen outside the castle. Of course it was widely whispered that her services were not limited to those of a simple chambermaid.
Anyhow there was a lot of gossip about Lord Kelingson and the people living in the castle, but what was certain was that his life was enshrouded by a deep mystery which nobody could pierce.
Our story begins with a visit to the castle, by a young women who had just arrived at the station, met by Lord Kelingson.
Seated in a deep leather armchair she was now convening with her host She was twenty-eight years old and her name was Dorothea von Berner. Her nationality was British but her parents were German. She was strikingly beautiful but her type of beauty was harsh, imperious and fascinating at the same time.
Her hair was black and shiny, with bluish reflections and carefully arranged into numerous curia which gave it the appearance of being naturally wavy. Her face was pale but remarkably well made up and its profile was very fine. Her mouth was rather strong and sensual, yet wilful and its lips were very red, contrasting with her wonderfully white and regular teeth. Her eyebrows were carefully kept and tapered towards the temples, being thicker towards the middle of the face.
But what struck one most in her face were her eyes — as grey as metal, they stared one out of countenance, so harsh and bright they were. Coming from under oval eyelids, they seemed to cast off an exceptional sheen which took possession of the object or the person on which they were focused.
She wore tortoise-shell spectacles with iridescent lenses which gave still more strength to her look and did not make her any the less beautiful. She had the habit of taking them off and putting them on again several times in the course of a conversation, which may have been involuntary or perhaps purposely, in order to reveal the two aspects of her handsome face.
The young woman's body was rather heavily built, but very near to perfection. Her bust wan taut and extremely arrogant under the silk blouse. The breasts were heavy but its tips pointed hard and seemed to stretch the material to the bunting point.
Dorothea's only physical defect would seem to be a certain heaviness and massiveness, but it made her behind appear all the more insolent and voluptuous and her skirt looked as if it would burst its seams.
On her head was perched a natty little felt hat and she wore an elegant pearl-grey tailor-made suit. Her legs were encased in stockings of the finest silk and on her feet she wore flat-heeled brown buckskin shoes.
There emanated from her a current of overbearingness raised with a suspicion of sadism, a refined charm (hat both drew one to her and chilled one.
She was smoking a cigarette, now and then shaking off nonchalantly its ashes with her very white hand which had purple-dyed finger-nails.
Lord Kelingson, standing in front of her, was talking animatedly to her.
"Dear Hiss von Berner, I have already hinted at the reason why I wished you to come here in the letter I sent you. I would need your services for a year at least, perhaps two, who knows, maybe more. Can you start at once?"
The attractive girl smiled a whole row of cruel teeth.
"Certainly, Lord Kelingson, and the proof is that I have brought along all my luggage, which is at the station — two trunks for my personal effects nod a third one containing several disciplinary instruments, for, if I understand correctly, ray task will be to bring up a young girl under strict discipline, am I right?"
"You are perfectly right. By the way, may I ask whether you still have the same methods of education which are, so to speak, your trademark?"
"Yes, I have. "
"I still recall perfectly," the lord reminisced, "our first meeting which took place at my friend's, Lord Delphy, and I shall never forget the original and delightful manner with which I surprised you for the first time. I was walking in the park when I saw you at a place where the path was curving, with your pupil, Lucy Mac Nerling, who was Lord Delphy's ward. She was lying in front of you on her stomach on the gravelled path. Her skirt and underskirt were pulled up above her waist and her drawers pulled down to her ankles — a rather odd position for an nineteen-years-old aristocratic girl. I also noticed that she was wearing a very strait-laced corset and that both her hands and her ankles were firmly shackled with steel bracelets. And you were giving her the best whipping I had ever witnessed. The poor girl was screaming her head off! I can still see the scene in my mind as fresh an if it had happened only yesterday. But what struck me most was when I saw Lucy, after the whipping, thank you on her knees, on your order, for having punished her so well, and kiss your feet. I understood then, Miss von Berner, how effective your teaching methods were. "
"That was nothing," the young woman replied with an enigmatic smile, "you could have seen much better than that."
"That was when," Lord Kelingson went on, "my friend Delphy told me that you were a governess of a rather special kind and that you aimed to destroy completely the personality of Lacy Mac Nerling, to make her your slave so that her plentiful heritage should go entirely to Delphy."
Loud Kelingson laughed and Dorothea blushed slightly.
"I was only doing my job of educator, milord. And Lord Delphy had promised me ten percent of the heritage if I succeeded in my task."
"And what happened to Lucy?"
"I got her tamed so well that it was impossible for her to resume her title and her place in society. Lord Delphy gave her to me as a present and I took her with me to London where she became my maid and she bad to maintain the strictest discipline. Later, I got tired of her and I gave her away to a friend of mine, a wealthy American woman who was going back to the States. Then I learned in a letter from that friend that she had sold Lucy to an eighteen-year-old screen actress, a very attractive starlet and very promising but extremely temperamental: she locked up Lucy in her Hollywood villa and treated her like a slave, whipping her every morning before going to the studio merely to calm her nerves."
"A fine result, Miss von Berner, a fine result indeed," exclaimed Lord Kelingson. "I see that girls who get out of your claws are definitely tamed and their personalities annihilated for over, Well, I have a similar job for you and that is why I asked you to come. I am the legal guardian of a girl called Mabel Sunway, a very pretty girl, aged eighteen and a half. She has been an orphan five years and was brought up in an expensive school in the suburbs of Paris. As she has now left that school, it is up to me to look after her till she is of age."
He drew near Dorothea and lowered the tone of his voice.
"Now, when she is twenty-one, Mabel Sunway is to inherit a great fortune, something like a hundred thousand pounds. And I don't want her to be able to use that money, do you get me?"
"I understand perfectly!" Dorothea exclaimed, with a cruel smile and almost licking her chops.
"If you succeed in reducing that girl to bondage," Lord Kelingson whispered, "I'll give you ten percent of the heritage."
"Agreed! And I can assure you that when your Mabel gets out of my hands she wont have a will of her own to claim her money."
"Fine!" the man exclaimed, rubbing his hands with satisfaction. "But I warn you, Miss Von Banner, your task won't be an easy one. Mabel is pretty and has been brought up like a princess. She is high-handed and capricious, terribly snobbish and imbued with her rank and fortune. Besides, I believe she is very modern in outlook, independent and flirtations and quite bold. It wont be easy for you to tame her."
"I'll enjoy it all the more," the beautiful governess said.
She got up from her armchair and walked up and down the room, which made her powerful hips move suggestively under her tight skirt.
"I'll tame her!" she exclaimed. "I'll shower humiliations of all kinds upon her, I'll tame her with the whip, with fetters, corsets, tight panties and all the ways and means I have at my disposal."
"I trust you, dear Miss von Berner. As soon as my ward arrives I shall hand her over to you and depart for a long trip in Europe. I shall be back only in about three months and during my absence you will be the absolute master of the castle and you will have my faithful maid Bridget to help you in your taming work."
"Be without fear, milord, when you come back home Mabel will lick your boots and tell you that she is my life-long slave and that she will submit to your authority as well as mine if I want it so." On hearing those words, Lord Kelingson smiled with joy. He could not help admiring the calm assurance, the authority and marvellous beauty of this strange governess who dominated girls by means of whippings and made them her slaves. And, already, he was savouring the thought of the heritage of pretty Mabel that would be entirely his.
The same day, at five in the afternoon, Mabel Sunway arrived in the mysterious castle. Her guardian had picked her up at the station and bad been obliged to hire a small lorry to carry her numerous luggage.
Lord Kelingson had not exaggerated — the young English girl was very pretty. Her eighteen years of age were blooming with incomparable grace and freshness. She was of medium height and her figure was admirable. She as apples, and a behind that jutted out provocatively and showed its curves under her dress with the suggestive cleavage in the middle.
Her complexion was clear, her nose so to speak witty, very soft big blue eyes, pale blue hair which made her look like one of those eighteenth-century paintings which are so delightfully charming.
She was dressed very smartly and Lord Kelingson noticed that she wore a lot of make-up, even on her eyes. During the first year Mabel had spent in a French college, Mabel had received every month an important sum of money from the notary who looked after the heritage of her dead parents. She could use that money as she pleased and hence, her manners were free and high-handed and she had the insolent assurance of a very wealthy young girl who knows what money can buy.
Lord Kelingson greeted her with simulated affection, but it did not deceive the young English girl. She did not like her guardian, although she had only seen him twice in her life. Be seemed to her wicked and false.
"I'm so sorry," the lord said, "but I can stay with you only till to-night and then I go away on a long trip. That is why, my dear, thinking that you would feel lonely by yourself in this big isolated estate, I have hired a governess to keep you company."
Mabel's eyebrows shot up suddenly.
"A governess? But, uncle, I am no longer of age to be "governed, don't you think so?"
"I'm afraid I was unhappy in my choice of words," Lord Kelingson said. "She's more a companion than an actual governess, — a kind of friend, you see. I'm sure you will like her. She is a very attractive twenty-eight year old woman. And, even though you are up-to-date, I feel sure that you will learn something from her and that she will give you some precious advice."
"I don't need anybody's advice!" Miss Sunway retorted proudly. "I was perfectly well brought up in France and I won't tolerate anyone intruding into my private life."
Lord Kelingson realized that her ward would not be easy to govern. She really had a very strong personality for her eighteen years.
"Come, come," he said genially, "we aren't going quarrel on our first day together, are we? Don't you imagine that I would impose upon you any kind of obligation. However, I would advise you not to act in such a spirit of revolt, when you are twenty-one, you will do what you please. But until then don't forget that I an your guardian and that, according to the law, I have to look after you and your education."
Mabel blushed. She knew that only too well. For three more years she would have to live in this castle and curb her instincts of revolt. Besides, her guardian had the keys to where the money was and without money she could do nothing. So, on reflection, it was wiser to be more tolerant and accept the suggestions of this uncle of hen who, after all, might not be as bad as all that.
Lord Kelingson understood that her ward was beginning to be more reasonable.
"Well, my dear Mabel, I have to say good-bye now," he said in a kind voice. "You won't be seeing your governess before to-morrow morning, for she has gone to town. Until then, make yourself at home and do what you like. Bridget, the maid, will naturally be under your orders."
He kissed her with affection and went oat.
Alone, Mabel started thinking. It was hard for her to get used to the idea of having a governess She was terribly independent and proud and had so for been pampered and treated like the rich, noble girl she was. At college, she had had very good friends who loved and admired her for she dominated them morally, and, although she was gifted to her studies, she did exactly what she pleased and not more. What she loved was, before all, sports and pleasure. Very often, she went out to Paris with some of the girls and went so far as to go and have tea in some dancing cabarets. She was received in the best Parisian society and had experienced the joy of flirtation in more than one brilliant evening. All that was still in her mind, a delightfully fresh souvenir. But now, what was her life going to be like? How would she feel in this vast solitary castle, away from all pleasures, with an uncle whom she did not like and with a governess she had not asked for? Indeed, the future was not very smiling.
She vowed to herself that she would feign to accept this new life that they imposed upon her but that all the time, she would react under the surface, striving to maintain intact her personality of a young: and wealthy young girl; and never to let herself be dominated by these people whom she considered strangers.
Mabel was moiling over all that while unpacking her things and patting them away in the sumptuous room that had been given her, and this occupation distracted her from all her gloomy thoughts. Being very coquettish, she admired, one by one, the expensive dresses which had been made specially for her at the best places in Paris. With loving care, she pat away in the cupboards all her silk blouses, frilly panties, stockings of the finest quality, brassieres, etc. She would soon show those Scottish people how a pretty young heir brought tip in the luxury of Paris knows how to dress.
She bad just finished putting her things away when she heard a knock at the door. It was Bridget. She was really pretty, that healthy-looking girl, in her silk pale blue dress, her lace apron and maid's cap.
But Mabel gave her a despising look. Like many snobbish English girls, she had a high notion of the difference of social classes and despised domestics.
"You are Bridget, the maid, I take it?" she rapped out.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Has my uncle told you that you would be under my personal service during his absence?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. You're going to start your service at once by bringing me my supper in this room. I do not want to go down to the dining-room."
"But, ma'am, I was just coming to tell you that dinner was served downstairs."
"I don't care. You shall serve it here. I want it so. Or are you going to discuss my orders?
"No, ma'am, I'm sorry."
Mabel did not notice the ironical smile on Bridget's lips. For the maid had already talked with Dorothea von Berner and she knew perfectly well that the English girl would soon lose her arrogance.
But, with apparent submissiveness, she served Mabel's supper in her room, and the aristocratic girl went so far as to oblige her to remain standing behind her chair during the whole course of her meal.
After sapper was over, Mabel dawdled a I in her room. She got undressed and admired her naked body in the fall-length mirror. She was very proud of that body of hers, with its fine breasts and rump ditto. She always took good care of her beauty and need all sorts of creams and skin treatments, as well as perfumes. As was the custom every evening, she spent nearly an hour in front of her dressing-table. Then she put on en elegant silk pyjama, lit a cigarette, played a few records on her gramophone, then suddenly: felt the fatigue of her long trip and decided to go to bed.
In the darkness of her room, she lay for a while thinking again of the life that was awaiting her in this lonely castle and was again revolted by the idea of the governess imposed upon her. Then, vanquished by sleep, she stopped thinking and started dreaming.