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.
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My rich uncle Ken has three lovely daughters and a ruined castle. I have been friends with the daughters since each was born. They regard me as the elder brother they never had. The way they treat me, Anne, Emma, and Maureen could be my real sisters.
I didn't know his castle. He has been renting it and the surrounding land for a month and has an option to buy it all within the next six months.
It is a genuine 13th century castle, towers, moat, drawbridge, the lot. It is virtually unknown despite being in the South East of England. Access to it is difficult and until recently it was in an Army exercise zone. Anyone trying to reach it could have been shot or blown up. The Army had just returned the surrounding land to the heirs of the original 19th century owners who had lent the area to the army during the Napoleonic Wars. Uncle Ken had seen his opportunity and put in an offer almost before the heirs knew they had the land back.
His intention was to turn it into a knights and ladies theme park with the castle as centrepiece. He might have difficulty with the conservation bodies or perhaps not. His brother in law is the Chairman of the most important body. Ken would not be at loss for advice.
The locals said that the castle is haunted by not just a lady in white but two or three. Some elderly former soldiers claimed to have seen things around the castle while on sentry duty. One had even challenged a lady who vanished. His mates discounted the story saying he had been drunk that night.
Ken didn't believe in ghosts but knew a selling point when he heard one. If there were ghosts, so much the better for Ken and his theme park. He, his daughters and I plotted together.
The three daughters had acceptable but dilatory suitors. Why the men were such diffident lovers I don't know. Anne, Emma and Maureen were attractive and willing enough. Perhaps their suitors were scared of Ken. He was known for his temper and fiery outbursts. I understood him well and had endured the worst he could produce, giving as good as I got. To those who didn't know him so well he could be terrifying and his status as a multi-millionaire, a life peer and chairman of more companies than there are days in a month could be daunting. No one except Ken and his tame accountants knew how much Ken was worth. Sometimes I doubted the accountants knew the full truth.
The plot was set for Halloween. My cousins would invite their boyfriends and I to spend the night in the 'haunted' castle. The idea was for the men to prove they were worthy. Rubbish! – It didn't take much persuasion for the three swains to accept the challenge. I was included to be the apparent fourth and actually the stunt arranger and my cousins' man on the inside.
Against the inside of one of the castle walls were the only inhabitable rooms. It had been an army guardhouse with single cells. The main guardroom faced the castle courtyard. Through a door at the back of that room was a long corridor, passing the cells, that connected at each end to the stairs in the two best preserved towers, the Well Tower and the Postern Tower. The towers were also linked by the only part of the wall walk that could be traversed. One at least of the women in white was supposed to walk along that wall before disappearing into the Postern Tower.
Us four men would make up beds in four of the cells and wait for the ghostly manifestations. If one of us saw something we were supposed to call the others to assemble in the guardroom.
That was the story. Even if we saw nothing the men would have proved their courage. But if we did see something we would have four witnesses and Uncle Ken would be delighted. He might even be delighted enough to be approachable about his daughters' marriages. I knew, and his daughters knew, that he was happy with the three prospective sons-in-law. He just wanted to be asked.
Anne, Emma, and Maureen intended that their men should prove something else on Halloween night. I would be the only solitary sleeper that night.
The whole event was a set-up. The women made the beds. I and Jack, a professional sound and lighting man, wired the castle for a delicate hint of son et lumiere effects to get the men in the right mood for the women to appear. Jack wasn't sure that this was necessary. He felt that the castle was eerie enough without additional effects. Closing the place in the late evening I could see what Jack meant. Every corner hid a shadow; there were unexplained temperature changes and a constant succession of small sounds as the fabric adapted to the change from day to night. I never felt that I was wholly alone and perhaps someone or something was watching me.
One evening I was clearing up after Jack had left. I was sure I heard the rustle of a woman's dress. As I looked round I thought I caught a glimpse of a white hem vanishing around a corner. I wrote it off as an over-active imagination when I was tired.
On Halloween I brought the men, Ernest, Albert and Ralph to the castle after dark. Uncle Ken had provided a cold collation and plenty of drink. The selection of Scotch was impressive. They sampled a dozen or so single malts and by eleven we were well oiled and ready for anything. The hurricane lamps and candles burned unwaveringly in the still air.
Anne, Emma and Maureen arrived bearing a large Thermos flask of cocoa as a bedtime drink. They were dressed in jeans and sweatshirts but still looked very attractive. Their individual perfumes were obvious. I had to avert my eyes from the goodnight kisses. The men were left in no doubt what the women's intentions were.
As the women left I ostentatiously bolted the outer door on the inside with a hefty clang. I didn't drink any of the cocoa and watched with amusement as Ernest, Albert and Ralph succumbed to the effects of the drug and the quantities of Scotch.
At midnight I slid back the bolt and Anne, Emma and Maureen came back bearing large sports bags. The four of us carried each of the sleeping men to their beds. I started up the sound and light effects as the women stripped the men and lashed them to the beds with pantyhose. They should be recovering in about an hour's time.
My three cousins took over the guardroom while they changed. Emma called me when they were ready. Even though I knew what to expect their appearance was a shock. Their faces were whitened, their eyes lined in black, their hair covered by white headscarves. They were dressed in layers of white silk draperies flowing around their bodies. Anne twirled to show the extent of the yards of material. The final touches were silk gloves and a hood of veiling over their heads.
The room was heavily perfumed with Chanel No. 5. They had chosen it as being an 'old' perfume they wouldn't normally use. I think they had overdone the application but I was stone cold sober. Ernest, Albert and Ralph probably wouldn't notice with the effect of quantities of good Scotch and the drugged cocoa. I had been drinking cold tea whenever they had whisky. It looked the same but had no alcohol content.
Maureen gave me my own flask of cocoa as I returned to my lonely bed. I drank a couple of cups and lay down, listening appreciatively to the sound effects of a moaning wind, rustling trees, odd clanks and creaks. I blew out the hurricane lamp that added its own faint sounds as it cooled down. The artificial light effects produced mysterious glows and glimmers as the computerised system worked. I would have been impressed if I hadn't help set up the effect. From time to time the castle's own noises added to the atmosphere.
Suddenly I was aware that something was wrong. My limbs were not responding as they should. My cousins must have drugged my cocoa too. Why? They would be busy, each with their own man. Why me? I was still just conscious when the three of them swept into my room. Emma was carrying a five candle candelabra. She set it down carefully. They handled me firmly, stripping me bare and tying a length of wide white silk ribbon around my ankles and to the bed frame. I tried to object. Anne's lips pressed against mine, kissed me, and then whispered in my ear.
"Just relax, Mike. We're sorry to do this to you. We don't want an audience while we have fun. We'll let you free in the morning. Goodnight. Sleep well."
Anne kissed me again. Maureen and Emma had used more ribbon around my waist and tied my wrists to my sides. They kissed me. I enjoyed their kisses even though I was furious with them.
Emma stuffed my mouth with a white silk scarf and tied another one over my lower face. Maureen pulled up the sheet and blankets and tucked me in efficiently. My feeble grunts were almost unheard as they slid out of my room in a susurration of silk. I wanted to protest that I didn't deserve this treatment. I couldn't struggle against my bonds. I couldn't make enough noise to be heard even above the faint sound effects. I was a helpless prisoner raging against my cousins. What I would like to do to them... Despite my fury, within a few minutes I was asleep.
I have to rely on the men's accounts of what happened to them while I was drugged, trussed and asleep. We were sitting in an empty public house lounge waiting for my three cousins who had decided to tackle their father en masse. We had all drunk too much and that, and the three men's nervousness, loosened our tongues.
Ernest:
