House Rules (6 page)

‘If you are only training domestic workers, servants if you prefer, then why was the one who came to meet us wearing chains? Is that part of the training?’ Richard asked.

‘Yes, it is, in several ways,’ Margaret answered, with a disapproving glance at Richard. ‘I just told you not to interrupt me,’ she reminded him, ‘but since you have already done so I will answer the question. Marie is Swiss, from a German-speaking canton near Zurich. She was sent here by her employer, one of the negotiators with a leading bank, for further training before being taken on a series of business trips to the United States. She had been – how shall I say? – remiss in her duties, and he felt she would benefit from further instruction before travelling with him.

‘She wears those leg-irons to remind her that she is here to obey. They are also handy in preventing her from running away, which she has threatened to do once or twice after being disciplined. Since she speaks German, it would be very easy for her to escape by fading into the local population. Hence the chains. She will continue to wear them for the duration of her stay, and they will be sent to her employer when she goes back to him, in case she is in need of a further reminder. Many of the women and men who pass through here need to be prevented from running away during their first days here, and they too are placed in leg-irons. There are other methods of restraint for the more intractable, or for repeat offenders, of whom I trust you will not be one.’ Margaret glanced at Richard as she spoke.

‘I will not try to explain all of the rules at once. Some are best learnt by the example of others. And some from one’s own experience after breaking them. The basic idea is to get everyone here accustomed to taking the orders of their trainers, and of their future employers. Some of the men and women who pass through our programme are not seeking employment, but merely enjoy the thrill of learning obedience through rigorous training and discipline. And we have our share of bondage devotees. We never know who will show up next, so the routines are always changing. It is only the rule of obedience and subservience that never changes.

‘You fall partly into the latter class: that is, you are here for the thrill of it. Of course you may later seek employment as a servant if you find the training to your liking. At the same time we will be training you to act another role: that of confidential courier. You’ll be told about that when the time comes. And what you learn may come in handy in other ways. One never knows what the future will bring. We – I – have no intention of keeping you here indefinitely. As you have said, you have other obligations at home. But I will probably recall you from time to time as conditions dictate.

‘Since there is always the chance that you will seek to escape during your first days with us, we will take precautions in case you should try. Even though you are not being trained for future employment, never forget that the rules apply to you as well as to the ones who are seeking domestic work.’

‘Like wearing leg-irons?’ Richard asked, forgetting Margaret’s injunction.

‘No,’ she said with asperity. ‘Until we can find a maid’s costume like the one worn by the servant who brought these –’ she indicated the snacks and drinks ‘– we will keep your clothes under lock and key. Running away in the nude is not an attractive prospect. After we have got the maid’s costume for you, you will of course wear that. Running away while dressed in women’s clothing will not be so attractive either. And of course I have little Helena in my care. I don’t think you would like to have her hurt by running away. You are fond of her, are you not?’

Richard nodded, not wanting to provoke Margaret further by speaking. As he went over what she had said, he felt the stirring of excitement again. This was something he had never tried, and now he had got over the initial surprise, he found himself strangely eager to begin.

As if reading his thoughts, Margaret summoned the maid with a small silver bell. The same one who had brought the refreshments appeared a few moments later.

Margaret said, ‘Richard, I’d like to introduce you to your new colleague. His name is Raymond, but since he is French the final letter is silent.’ Addressing Raymond, Margaret directed him to take charge of Richard’s clothes, both those in the bag and the ones he was wearing, and to treat them ‘in the customary manner’. To Richard she said simply, ‘Strip and give your clothes to him.’

Richard looked at his colleague, and all at once he understood why the maid’s waist and legs, indeed ‘her’ whole figure and way of moving, seemed so strange. It was hard to believe that the person wearing the maid’s costume was male, but he didn’t doubt it now. He would have to learn to move and act as Raymond did. As he rose to take off his clothes, Richard remembered Margaret’s half-promise to answer his questions after she had finished explaining his new regime. There were a hundred questions he could have asked: everything was new about the fantasy he had fallen into. But he could think of only one clearly just then.

‘When will I see Helena?’ he asked.

‘When you have got through some training I may bring her to visit you. She will be due for more training herself, and I think she might enjoy seeing you in your new costume. You could show her how well you can walk in high-heeled shoes,’ Margaret replied.

Richard felt a flush of embarrassment at the idea of appearing before Helena in women’s clothing, but he never thought of backing out. In for a penny, he told himself. As he took off his clothes, he caught sight of a black cloth bag lying on the mantelpiece. That must be The Discipline which had been used on Helena. Once again there flashed into his mind the image of himself wielding the whip while she writhed and screamed under the lash. So vivid was the mental picture that his cock grew stiff, so that when he came to take his pants off he had to manoeuvre them around a full erection. The chain dangled down between his legs, and he was suddenly aware again of the nylon band around his scrotum. He had almost forgotten its presence during the ride from Hamburg and the conversation with his new mistress.

‘Look, Raymond,’ she said to the maid. ‘I think he likes us!’

Raymond said nothing as he took Richard’s clothing and folded it into the bag containing his possessions. Silently, obeying some rule of which Richard wasn’t aware, he extracted the small bag containing Richard’s toilet articles and laid it on the coffee table. From this Richard gathered that at least something would be left him.

Margaret looked on approvingly. ‘You will need your razor to shave your legs in a few days,’ she informed Richard. She gestured at the maid’s legs, and Richard noticed that they were as bare as a woman’s under the sheer black tights. Or were they stockings? What was the protocol about that here? He shrugged mentally. He would know soon enough.

At Margaret’s gesture of dismissal the maid withdrew, taking Richard’s clothes with him. She rang the bell once more and another maid came in. There was little doubt that this one was female. It would have been impossible to give a man that hourglass figure. Her movements were subtly different from Raymond’s: more natural, not so studied. And she smelt like a woman, with just a hint of perfume. Her voice was a pleasant contralto. He found it hard to place her accent. Dutch, maybe?

Trying, and failing, not to look at his erection, she asked what it was that ‘madame’ wished her to do.

Instead of replying, Margaret strode across the room to a low cabinet along the far wall. Bending down, and allowing Richard to see her legs all the way up to her bottom, she rummaged among the contents and selected a pair of handcuffs from the collection inside. Straightening up, she moved behind him. Richard didn’t need to be told what she intended. Wordlessly he brought his hands behind his back, and stood still as she locked the cuffs around his wrists. This tacit acceptance of whatever Margaret wished to do to him was yet more proof, if more were needed, of his complicity in his own transformation.

‘Take him to his room, and leave him chained in the usual way,’ she ordered the maid.

The girl picked up his shaving kit and took the chain attached to his scrotum like a lead. She tugged gently on it, and Richard followed her out of the room and down the hall towards the rear of the house. On the way they passed the maid who had come to the car. She was carrying two medium-sized suitcases into what appeared to be a dining room. At any rate there was a long table inside, and on the table were four more of the same kind of suitcase. The maid – Marie, Richard recalled – moved carefully lest she trip over her leg-irons, but she took time to smile briefly at Richard and his escort. Richard smiled tentatively back. His escort stopped before a set of lift doors. She pushed the button and waited until they opened. She led Richard inside by the chain. She pushed a button, and the lift went slowly downward. Apparently the house had a cellar, not visible from the outside.

When the doors opened, his escort tugged again on the chain, and once more Richard followed her down another hallway, this one lined with doors that gave it the appearance of a hotel corridor. The girl led him about halfway down the corridor before stopping in front of a door that stood open.

‘This is your room,’ she told him. Once inside she dropped the chain, and Richard felt it, cool against his leg. The girl faced him with her finger on her lips. She signalled for him to stand still while she made a circuit of the room. Richard followed her with his eyes as she checked the ensuite bath, the wardrobe (empty, of course), the bed, the television set and the stock of videos and paperback books with which the room was supplied. There were rugs on the floor, colourful islands in the stone sea. Reading lamps were arranged near the armchairs and over the bed. The room looked comfortable enough, even though it was windowless.

She came back to where he stood with a faint look of relief on her face. ‘I don’t think they’re listening to us now,’ she said, speaking softly nevertheless.

Apparently trainees were not supposed to speak to one another, although Richard couldn’t see why not. As with most places with strict regimes, there was an obsession with keeping the inmates from forming relationships with one another.

‘I’m Heidi,’ the girl told him.

‘Richard,’ he replied. ‘How long are you in for?’ he asked, thinking this was just the sort of conversation they would be having if they were in jail.

‘I’ve been here four months, with two more to go,’ she told him. ‘I’m supposed to be getting trained as a governess and housekeeper. Why are you here?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Richard said. ‘Call it curiosity.’

‘You came here of your own free will?’ Heidi asked.

‘Practically,’ Richard replied. Seeing the look of bewilderment on Heidi’s face, he added, ‘There was some coercion, but I suppose I could leave if I insisted.’

‘I don’t think so. None of us can leave without permission from the Mistress, or unless we are taken away by our employer. Even you would find it hard to get out, I think.’

‘Well, yes, I suppose that’s why they took away my clothes. But I think they would give them back and let me go if I made a fuss.’

Heidi looked dubious. ‘Then why have you been handcuffed?’

‘As you saw, I allowed Margaret to handcuff me. I could have refused.’

She still looked doubtful, but said only, ‘When I go, I am expected to leave you chained by your …’ She hesitated, as if groping for the polite word, before continuing, ‘your chain. To the ring there by the bed.’

She pointed to a heap of chain attached to a ring set into the stone floor near the foot of the bed. Richard also noticed other rings set into the walls and the ceiling. The room suddenly looked less comfortable and more penal. He walked over to the bed to look more closely at the ring to which he was to be fastened.

There was a heavy padlock, open, waiting to be used. There was no key in evidence. ‘And what will happen if you don’t leave me chained as you were ordered?’ Richard asked the girl.

She looked startled, as if the thought of disobeying had just occurred to her. ‘I would be beaten, of course. They would be very angry with me.’

‘Have you been beaten before, then?’

‘Oh, often.’ Heidi shuddered as if the memory was painful.

‘Why?’ Richard wanted to know.

‘Once I dropped a stack of dishes and broke them. That was not very serious, and I only had twenty-five lashes. But when I spoke without permission, Madame was very angry. I cannot remember how many lashes I had that time, I lost count, but I hurt for days after. And several times just because I had not been beaten recently: to keep me in line, Madame said when I cried.’

‘So why don’t you run away?’ Richard asked. ‘You should be able to get outside and then just make for the woods.’

‘You don’t understand. You have just arrived, so you don’t know about the wall. It goes around the whole estate. We call it the Berlin Wall, and it is impossible to get over. It is electrified. And there are alarms, just like the ones they had in Berlin.’

‘Are there minefields and armed guards who shoot on sight?’ Richard asked half-jokingly.

‘Oh, no. No mines. Guards, yes, but they do not shoot. They just bring you back, and then you get a beating, and they make you wear leg-irons, like Marie. She tried to run away and they caught her. They made us all watch as she was whipped. And then they locked those chains on to her ankles. They are only removed when she has to dress and undress, and then only with one of the trainers in attendance. She has to sleep in her chains. I would not like that.’

Richard had a sudden thought. ‘Heidi, do you know Helena? Short, pretty face, dark hair, about twenty-four or twenty-five?’

Heidi nodded. ‘I have seen her come for visits to Madame. And once I watched as she was stripped and beaten. She seemed to like the beating.’ Heidi sounded puzzled at the idea.

‘Do you wear a chastity belt like hers?’

‘Oh, yes. All of the women do. I have got used to it. Now I hardly know it’s there.’

Heidi lifted her short skirt and Richard saw her belt resembled Helena’s. She wore stockings. Her legs were rather fuller, but very nicely shaped. Richard felt his erection growing as he looked at her.