Amelia's Story

by Coachman
- do not use without the author's permission.



This flight of fancy has been woven around images on Sir Jeff’s website and also on that of Peterpd as well as a number of others.

Chapter 1

“However did I manage to get it”, I asked myself time and time again, as I sat in the luxury of a private jet flying at 30,000 ft. over Europe.

“How lucky was I”?

The stewardess broke into my reverie. “Miss Turner, we shall be landing in about half an hour, is there anything I can get you before we close down?”

I shook my head, my hair swirling around my face. “No thanks, you have looked after me very well already”.

She smiled and returned to her galley.

I thought about the last 48 hours as I stared out of the window into stygian darkness.

A week ago, I was almost destitute; lost my job through my feckless, useless husband who had used my name and the name of my employer, Bank International, to swing what at best could only be described as a shady deal; at the worst, an out and out fraud.

My boss, whilst sympathetic, was adamant that I could no longer work for them, Rex had done so much damage to their reputation.

“Between you and I and these four walls, he cost you your job, and us about 1.5 million”, he said.

A quick check round London and no banking or money business wanted me.

The engines changed tone and I felt the plane start to tilt.

The pilot’s voice announced, “We are about to land, please fasten your seat belt”. The well educated and modulated voice of Lavinia Harvey-Evans, the owner of this, and also of a very successful aircraft leasing company.

The engines cut as we dropped softly down onto the runway, where we slowed to a stop, before taxiing to the side of a rather small single storey building.

Miss Harvey-Evans appeared in the doorway from the cockpit, dressed immaculately in a short, slim fitting cream skirt, matching off the shoulder jacket, cream pill box hat set at a jaunty angle and elbow length gloves.

At her throat sparkled a diamond necklace. Her ears were adorned with the most beautiful diamond pendant earrings I had ever seen in my life.

She smiled as she minced elegantly on high heels to the now open door, where the stewardess stood to attention.

“I hope you enjoyed the flight”, she murmured, “and I hope you enjoy your stay with us; the staff will attend to you”, she added and then was gone, down the steps, just as elegantly as she had walked along the aisle.

The stewardess smiled and nodded as I rose to my feet and followed, out into the night.

Two men were already attending to the aircraft as I stepped down onto the ground, just in time to see our pilot disappear in a large limousine.

An open door beckoned and once inside a pleasant lady, who introduced herself as Miss Black, met me.

“We will have to wait awhile”, she explained, “our car has not arrived yet.”

She asked me about myself, explaining that she was the Estate Secretary and my file had not been very explicit.

“In fact” she laughed, “I could say empty”.

I explained my circumstances, how my rat of a husband had been leading a life of Riley unknown to me and explained his late nights as ‘networking’ in order to build up his own business in the London money industry. How it had all rebounded on me even though it was no fault of mine.

She listened carefully and sympathetically to the end, then commented, “Well, Amelia, nothing of this will be for the staff ears, although the Members will, I am sure, have been made aware of it by the London office”.

She explained that we would be driving to the latest purchase of an international ladies association, where I would be putting in place computer programs to assist in the running of what was an absolutely immense Estate.

“The villages are back in the Dark Ages”, she explained, “And the castle is so far out of the way that there has been no interest in buying it, apart from ourselves, so we got it at a really knock-down price; and the remoteness is acceptable to the Mistresses”.

That was a strange term to use, I thought – The Mistresses!

The car arrived shortly after and with my meagre suitcase in the boot, we started out for what I found out was Castle Brno. We drove all night through what seemed like an empty landscape over not very good roads, occasionally passing through what could only be described as ruined hamlets, although there was the odd sign of life here and there. Obviously very poor and very distant from what I thought of as ‘Civilisation’.

I was dozing in the corner of the rear seat when we arrived at the castle.

A girl dressed almost like a nun bowed to me as we entered the door and took my case from me.

Miss Black said, “Go with the maid, she will show you your room and I shall be in touch in due course”.

As we mounted the stairs, I asked, “What is your name?” She stopped and turned to me, eyes lowered before once more climbing the staircase having said nothing.

Along a corridor, up more stairs and along another corridor and she stopped at a door, opened it, ushered me through, then followed, going over to the bedside and placing my case on a side table.

She beckoned me and I followed her through a door into a beautifully appointed bathroom, all marble and chrome.

She pointed to the bath and I saw it was full of water, steam rising lazily from it.

She smiled and opened her hand towards it, then turned and left. No word or indication at all as to who or what or where!

But the bath beckoned and it took me mere seconds to strip and enter it, lying down and luxuriating in the utter comfort of the perfumed water.

Actually, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up, the water was rather cool and daylight was appearing through the window.

Once dry, I returned to the bedroom and found it to be as well fitted as was the bathroom.

Very much a ‘girlie’ room, it had frills and flounces and everything that a girl could wish for.

From my suitcase, I took out my best business suit and hung it up to try and get the creases out.

It would not be the thing to appear in front of my new employer looking all creased and rumpled.

Then, fresh bra, panties and my new suspender belt and stockings. They made me feel more feminine and then I sat and carefully applied my make-up, wallowing in the utter luxury that I found myself in.

Finally, my suit, shades of grey and a pretty mid sleeved jacket teamed with an above the knee skirt, black tee shirt and black shoes.

One last look in the mirror at pretty, demure, Miss Amelia Turner, and I was ready to meet my employers.

I sat in an easy chair, looking out of my window over a large high walled garden, with walks and trees, lawns and flowerbeds. In the distance, what appeared to be the sea, but a long way off .

Off to the side of the garden, I could see a narrow road wending into a very large wood about a mile away.

Also, parts of the castle, ramparts and a tower. All very old and built with what looked like solid sandstone. Certainly, the walls of my room were base stone, but carefully treated and pointed so that they almost glowed in the growing light.

As I continued my reverie about my good fortune, there was a tap on the door.

I rose and crossed to it, opening it to find a maid standing, black gloved hands clasped in front of her.

She smiled, totally oblivious to my stare of incredulity at her, shall we say, rather unusual attire.

A blue flared short dress topped with an overbody black corset knee length black lace-up boots with black stockings.

At her throat, a black leather collar with two gold rings at the front.

She smiled at me.

“Welcome to Castle Brno”, she said in excellent English, dipping in curtsey at the same time.

“My name is Marietta and I am one of the maids for the Secretariat Staff”.

“I have come to escort you to Miss Black and the other ladies of the Secretariat, so if you would kindly follow me, I shall show you to the Secretariat Lounge”.

I followed the hip swaying, whispering satin-clad maid along corridors down stairs and through doors until frankly, I thought we would finish up in the garden I had seen from my room.

Finally, a tap on a door, “Enter”, from within and I was ushered into the Secretariat Lounge to meet my fellow employees.

There were three women in the room as well as Miss Black and they were introduced as Elizabeth, Martha and Susan, who had only been there for three days, and who, with myself, would make up the Administration Department of the castle.

Miss Black explained that as yet there had been no visitors as repair work and fitting out had just been completed.

We spent the rest of the day talking and resting before we started work the following morning to prepare the castle for visitors in four weeks time.

My job was to set up a computer program that would allow all accounting, ordering etc. to be done at one central point ready for transmission to the H.Q. in London.

The other three would be sorting, filing all the invoices and costs ready for inputting when I had finished my work.

That evening, Miss Black requested that we dress formally for the evening meal, which we were all very happy to do.

During the evening, Miss Black told us more about the Association we were to oversee.

“All the areas that you will be using are clearly marked”, she explained, “The doors are all signed, 'No Admittance Beyond this Point'.”

“You are free to use the walled garden; that is for your use freely, entry being from the Staff Reception Area, please inform the duty maid that you are going out there”.

The Mistresses will be here in about four weeks from now, and they have the rest of the castle for their own use. When you meet them, please address them as ‘Madam’.”

“Each of you will be interviewed by at least two of the Committee Members who will have the London Files in front of them for their information. You will be asked to explain what you do and how you intend to carry out your duties on their behalf”.

The evening progressed with us all getting to know each other and I found the other girls very friendly indeed and I expected to have a good working relationship with them all.

We had finished dining and were standing around talking to each other, as well as, I must confess, weighing each other up when the door opened and in walked a woman.

Dressed as though she was taking part in high-class equestrian events, she wore the tightest pair of jodhpurs I think I had ever seen.

On her beautifully coifed head she wore a ladies top hat, at just the exact angle to make her look almost regal, and a whip in her hands.

My first reaction was that she had just taken part in a carriage drive and that she had not had time to change into normal evening wear.

She smiled very coolly at us as a simpering Miss Black, introduced her as Catriona, the Home Farm Director.

Offered a sherry, she accepted, and sipped slowly from her glass as Miss Black introduced us one at a time and added a little about our intentions.

She smiled slightly and nodded her head after each introduction before proffering her empty glass to Miss Black, murmuring, “So pleased to have met you all”, then left the room, her body tautly upright as she stalked to the door.

Miss Black seemed more at ease after she had gone and explained, “We hardly see Catriona at all, she hardly has anything to do with the castle affairs, and is directly answerable to London”.

The group broke up at that point and we all went to our rooms.

I for one was still slightly bemused by Catriona and, to a certain point about my new post.

Seconds after my head touched the pillow I was fast asleep.

Chapter 2


The next morning, after breakfast, I started work on the computer program.

With constant reference to Miss Black as to their specific requirements, it took me several days to put in writing what they required, before I started actually programming.

After she had finally agreed that there was nothing more to add, I remembered Catriona and her Home Farm and asked about that; did they wish that integrated in the main program?

Miss Black said she thought not but that she would check. I added that it seemed common sense, if all the other departments were included.

Day followed day and we met each other in the mornings and evenings and passed each other in between times, which seemed fine to me, as I did not want to reach the stage where we would get on each others nerves.

After two weeks, I had what seemed a workable program and asked the other girls to supply me with their sorted data and I would input some on a trial basis.

Elizabeth was first and she gave me the invoices for the castle environs. Building, Repairs, Fittings etc.

Martha supplied me with her data covering the Furnishings and Services.

It was amongst her data that I found an invoice from a New York company referring to four pairs of ‘Shooves’. Shooves?? What were they?

I had to ask Miss Black who was as surprised as I was.

She came back in the evening. “It was a miss print”, she explained, “It was for horse shoes for Home Farm and should not even be with us. I have sent it to Catriona for her to deal with”.

And that was the end of the matter.

By the end of two weeks, I was feeling really stale and asked Miss Black if there was any chance of using a horse from Home Farm to go riding and clear my head. A walk in the garden was all right, but not very stimulating.

She was aghast. “Oh, my dear Amelia, I should say not! These are for the use of the Members when they come”, she said.

“But”, I answered, “Surely as they are not here yet, it would help the horses if they got some exercise and that would mean they would be less flighty for the Members to handle when they do come”.

“There is no way you will be allowed to use the Members facilities at this castle”, she replied, tight-lipped, “So do not even ask ”.

Turning on her heel she strode away, and I could see that she was finding it hard to control herself.

I seemed to spend quite a lot of my spare time in the staff walled garden, as I began to find everything a little claustrophobic in the staff rooms in the evenings.

Martha joined me several times, like me, rather fed up with life at the castle and wondering just what would happen when the Members appeared. Not much had been said about them, other than they were Mistresses of Finance and Industry and quite secretive about their association; no men were ever mentioned where they were, according to Miss Black.

At the end of three weeks, I was fairly certain that my program was correct and working properly.

I asked Miss Black again if they would want Home Farm added to the package.

“I shall ask when the first Members come, next week; two of them are on the Management Committee”, was the rather curt answer I got.

The following week seemed to drag over and it was with a sense of relief that early one morning, I heard voices and car engines as dawn was breaking.

I slipped my dressing gown on and went down to reception.

Marietta was standing at the desk, listening to the noises coming through the closed door.

She smiled and dipped in curtsey and said, “This is the first of the Members arriving, isn’t it exciting”?

Then she told me she had been there since three in the morning, on call if she was needed.

“I’ve never seen the Members”, she said, “I only came three weeks before you did and the place was in turmoil with the builders and everyone”.

By that time it was not worth going back to bed, so I spent a leisurely hour showering, dressing and putting on my make-up, before going for a pre breakfast stroll in the garden.

I chose a favourite of mine, a red summer dress, sleeveless and with plunging neckline.

I felt wonderful in it, as I strolled the garden paths, enjoying the whispering softness of the material against my freshly showered and perfumed body.

At breakfast, the other three were talking excitedly about the arrivals and wondering if we would get to meet them.

Miss Black appeared, as we were finishing and announced, with a smile on her lips, that the Committee Members would like to see Martha and myself in the late morning.

I was ushered into our lounge where I found two women, dressed for riding.

Both identically dressed in white tight riding breeches, knee length black riding boots, black jackets and both wearing identical roll neck sweaters.

I nodded to them; “Good morning ladies, I am Amelia Turner”.

One of them nodded, “Thank you so much for what you have done for us, here at Castle Brno”, she said, “I am Miss Pearl Bailey and this”, indicating her companion, “is Miss Maria Punshon”.

I nodded and murmured, “Miss Bailey, Miss Punshon”.

Miss Bailey asked all the questions, as her companion stood by, smiling at me, until finally, Miss Punshon said, “We have so far found everything to our satisfaction and the only thing left, really, is to ask if you have any questions for us”.

I thought for a little while, then asked, “I understand that Home Farm is not included in the program, and as we did get an invoice for ‘shooves’, which surely was a misprint, I wondered if it would not be easier to include that department as well.”

They glanced at each other, and then Miss Punshon said, “Oh yes, Miss Black told us about that incident and we have given it some thought. We think that it may be a good idea to include it so that nothing gets into the wrong place or gets left out, so, yes please, include it in your program”.

Miss Bailey asked, “Will this set us back any time”? I shook my head, “No madam, not really, it is quite a simple operation and should take no more than a morning to integrate it”.

They nodded in unison and Miss Bailey said, “Well then, Miss Turner, that is all, and I would just like to add on behalf of all our Members that we hope you enjoy your stay with us”.

I thanked them and left the room to allow Martha to have her interview.

It was an easy task, the following morning to adjust the program to include Home Farm as well.

Miss Black was interested to hear that Home Farm was included; her only comment was a rather huffy, ”They might have told me first, after all, I am supposed to be in charge of the Secretariat”.

For the rest of the day, I was at a loose end, as the other girls entered their accumulation of invoices and costings, on call in case there were any glitches.

By evening I was bored, all had gone smoothly and there were no problems. What, I wondered, was to be my role now?

After the evening meal, I strolled rather aimlessly around the corridors of our part of the castle, never having really taken a good look at it since I arrived.

The others were in the lounge, relaxing and talking.

On the top floor, I strolled along the carpeted corridor, looking at carvings in the panelling and on the ceiling when I saw at the end a heavy tapestry hanging on the wall.

It had been pulled slightly to one side and that showed the corner of a doorframe.

I stepped up to it, and looking behind the tapestry saw an old fashioned door handle.

I tried it and it opened. I stepped through and found the start of a spiral staircase built into the fabric of the castle walls. Narrow and winding tightly upwards, I started up it, careful on my high heels not to slip on the well-worn steps.

A minstrel’s gallery was at the top. Carefully I stepped onto the end of it and saw that it overlooked what was obviously the Members area. Set as a dining area with tables set for four diners, there were two maids in attendance at the main door.

One was Marietta, our maid, the other was dressed as a French maid and held in her hand a silver salver on which stood two champagne flutes and a third flute containing two red roses.

I stepped back into the shadow and turned to go back down the stairs when I heard voices in the hall.

I dared one more peep, and saw the two Members that had interviewed me, now in evening dress being offered the glasses of champagne.

Then Marietta escorted them to a table and seated them.

Another two ladies attired in evening dress entered the room, followed in quick succession by eight more, all offered drinks and all seated by our maid, Marietta.

I turned to go and at the top of the staircase saw an arrow slot in the wall. Really, I could do nothing else except glance through it and what I saw made me stop in my tracks.

Outside the castle, on the dirt track that skirted the walls, stood a woman dressed in a white strapless gown. It was what else she wore that stopped me breathing

Her head was encased in what I can only describe as a pony harness, complete with bit, head strap and reins. Two leather ears stood up, one at each side of her head.

As I watched, she slowly turned, and raised her gown at the rear showing that she wore platform high heels.

As she turned again, I saw with amazement, Miss Black appear, pick up her reins and then lead her out of sight into the castle.

I leaned against the wall in total shock at what I had just seen, my mind in a turmoil. Had I really seen a woman being treated as a horse?

Yes, my goodness, I had!

I turned to go down the stairs and heard voices raised in unison from the hall.

Once more, I carefully looked down on the assembly and saw that Miss Black was now leading the girl in the harness into the hall.

From table to table, she led the woman, and at each table the occupants were given plenty of time to inspect this strange apparition.

She turned at the second table and again raised her dress at the rear only this time much higher, and I saw to my horror that she also wore a horses tail flaring out from under her dress.

I felt compelled to watch the rest of the scene. The woman being led to the centre of the hall and then high stepping along the centre aisle, her knees coming up level at each step, then turning and with her hands held up in front of her breasts, she high stepped her way back along the aisle to where Miss Black stood, watching every step and movement the woman made.

I watched as the girl was led, hips swaying, high stepping from the hall, then I decided that I must get back to reality, and fled down the staircase to the corridor, taking care to see if I had been observed.

I was halfway down the lower staircase before I saw anyone and it was Miss Black of all people.

I greeted her rather breathlessly, and found it hard to make eye contact with her – would she see in my eyes what I had just witnessed?

At the bottom of the stairs, I glanced back and saw her still standing there, motionless, watching me.

Then she turned and carried on upstairs.

The following evening, having spent all day reviewing the program and making several adjustments, I visited the top floor before our dinner, and found the tapestry in place and the door behind it locked.

I suppose I was rather quiet that evening and found it hard to concentrate on anything the others were talking about. When they asked if I was alright, I just replied that I was mulling some computer problems over in my mind so that I could correct them in the morning.

In the event, that never happened.

Back in my room, I undressed, cleaned my make-up off and had just put on my night-dress when there was a tap at the door. When I called out “Enter”, Marietta minced daintily in with a cup of Horlicks of all things on a tray.

“Miss Turner, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I saw you looked a little tired so I have brought you a night-cap to try and help you rest”.

I thanked her and she left. I almost asked her about the previous evening but thought better of it.

She smiled as she left, saying, ”Have a good sleep, Miss Turner”.

That, I certainly did.