Mistress of the Air is a comic, Steampunk, erotic adventure.
Larger than life and itching to find inventive ways to punish her submissive slaves, Edwardian dominatrix Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester has a vision. Embracing the spirit of the age she embarks on a series of adventures on her airship, 'The Corsetted Dome', as she whips and spanks her way across Europe trying out her dastardly devices on a select group of submissive gentlemen. But her journey is not uneventful as, after a crash landing, Lady Sally realises there is a stowaway on board intent on sabotaging her airship.
There will be wild escapades, kinky BDSM, dastardly devices, explosions and nice cups of tea.
Chapter 1
Captain Wyndham had the tail of the bi-plane in his sights. He had the measure of his adversary. He knew Delagrange's plane wasn't capable of matching his speed. He knew he was a more skilful aviator than his opponent. He could have led the race from start to finish if he chose, but he preferred to give the crowd a show. That's why he stalked the tail of his competitor, waiting for the right moment to take him.
The crowd in the grandstand on the ground below rose to their feet. Wyndham heard their roars even above the spluttering of the planes' engines as they raced across the sky.
He didn't need the injection of dimethyl aether into the fuel to give him added propulsion, but he wasn't going to forgo the chance to impress the spectators. There were around five hundred yards to the finish line. He pushed the throttle and gripped hard onto the joystick.
The engine roared, and the propellers buzzed, drowning out the noise from the crowd. The captain accelerated with a burst of speed, zooming past his rival's bi-plane, leaving it in a trail of smoke as he overtook the hapless Frenchman.
The crowd went wild with excitement at the daring manoeuvre on the finish line.
After they both landed, Delagrange came up to shake Wyndham's hand and congratulate him. He was now in the final of the bi-plane time trials.
October 1910 would go down as a landmark date in British aviation history. This meeting at Doncaster Aerodrome and Airship Station was the first of its kind in the British Empire. It was a gathering of the pioneer aviators of the era to test the new-fangled bi-planes to their limit in a series of races and time trials. The captain believed with passion he was in the vanguard of a new movement. This event was proof of it, with aviators from the British, French, Prussian and American Empires.
As he walked back to join the other pilots, he received numerous slaps on the back. He glanced up at the grandstand. One figure stood out from amongst the crowd. His eye was drawn to a woman in one of the boxes, dressed in claret velvet, watching the event with keen interest, her arm outstretched as her maid poured a glass of champagne out for her. The image registered for a fleeting moment before he moved on.
He joined the group of other pilots. He was proud to be counted amongst this band of intrepid, pioneer aviators. Many were his friends and colleagues such as Charles Theobald and Edward Milnes with whom he had worked closely in developing their bi-planes, especially the adaption of their engines to use dimethyl aether for added propulsion. There was Monsieur Saunier from France, Wyndham's hated rival, and his compatriots Monsieurs Le Blon and Delagrange, Count von Schreck from Germany, and finally John Burch who had travelled from the United States to attend the meeting.
They formed a distinctive group. Captain Wyndham cut a striking figure dressed in his trade-mark flying dress of a black, fedora hat, white polo-neck sweater, long beige, canvas coat and flying boots, with huge, brass goggles hanging around his neck. The other aviators wore the attire of country gentlemen in tweeds as was more the style of the period.
He noticed Saunier, in particular, looking suave and dapper, reeking of expensive French cologne, chatting amiably with a group of young, attractive girls. He envied the Frenchman's social ease and good looks, conscious he was not the most handsome of men with his long face, pointed chin hidden by a goatee beard, and dark, deep-set eyes.
He knew he was a skilled and daring aviator though, and now he faced his rival in a fly-off for the speed-trial. Monsieur Saunier was a better pilot and possessed a faster machine than Delagrange and had beaten Wyndham narrowly at a recent meeting in Paris. The captain was desperate to beat the Frenchman, hoping the adjustments to his engine might give him the advantage. He waited patiently until the completion of the airship altitude trials before preparing for what was the final event of the meeting.
It was a close fought flight as he expected. It came down to the last lap of the race with Captain Wyndham on his competitor's tail. He had a manoeuvre up his sleeve. He had read the speed and direction of the winds and, taking his bi-plane high into the sky, let the wings get caught in the slipstream of the wind before adding the extra propulsion, swooping at enormous speed to surge past the Frenchman. The captain was just a few hundred yards from the winning post, and a satisfying triumph over his rival, when his engine misfired and his plane lost power, diving to the ground.
Wyndham was furious. He was so close to winning the event, only to be robbed of it at the final moment by an engine failure.
He shook his rival's hand, trying not to do so too grudgingly. The disappointment still left a bitter taste in his mouth when he stood on the platform with the other aviators, awaiting the distribution of the prizes for the competitions.
The compere stood on the stage and announced, "It is with great pleasure I introduce the sponsor of the prize for the fastest bi-plane, Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester."
Lady Sally's reputation went before her. She was well known as an extraordinarily wealthy and powerful lady, and the rumours she was also a severe dominatrix to the rich and influential were widespread. Captain Wyndham did not mix in those circles, his first sight of her being at this flying meeting.
The imposing figure of Lady Sally swept onto the platform. All eyes were drawn towards her. She stood upright in a claret, velvet jacket and matching skirt, the longest leather boots Wyndham had ever seen, decorated with silver buckles and black laces, and a fox-fur around her neck, the snarling teeth and startled eyes of the fox's head glaring out at the crowd. A matching fascinator with a black ostrich feather sticking out from it completed the outfit.
She was undoubtedly a formidable woman. Her alert eyes glittered with confidence as she cast a glance over the crowd. Her waist must have been constrained in the tightest of corsets as it was impossibly thin, and this only served to accentuate her breasts and hips, which were beautifully rounded and voluptuous. The men in the audience looked on awe struck at this statuesque, ravishing figure of a woman as she towered over them from the platform.
Her voice carried confidently across the expectant crowd with a clipped, pronounced enunciation, indicative of her aristocratic upbringing.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are on the cusp of a new era...."
The crowd hushed, hanging onto her every word.
"We are entering the age of the flying machine. I have a vision of a sky filled with airships and teeming with bi-planes. And these brave gentlemen, but regrettably no ladies," she added tersely, "are in the vanguard of this movement. I pay tribute to these intrepid pioneer aviators at this, the first flying meeting in Britain, here at Doncaster Aerodrome. I assure you, I shall be at the forefront of this new age, and will soon amaze you, for at this very moment, just a few miles from here, my team of skilled engineers are using their arcane knowledge to construct the most magnificent airship the world has ever seen.
"But to turn to today's events, it's with great pleasure I present the Rudston-Chichester prize for fastest aviator to France's Monsieur Saunier."
There was a burst of applause. Captain Wyndham gazed on enviously as he saw his hated rival kiss Lady Sally's leather-gloved hand and receive his prize. It should have been his. If only his machine hadn't failed him at the last moment. He knew he was faster than the Frenchman. Just as Saunier turned away to give his acceptance speech, Lady Sally's eyes met the captain's. There was the merest flash of dazzling, white teeth as she offered an acknowledgement, and the slightest hint of a smile. Perhaps Wyndham had imagined it and, if it was there, he realised with disappointment it probably meant nothing.
It was not the last encounter he had with Lady Sally that day, nor the event that was about to turn his world upside down. In the evening, the competitors at the flying meeting were invited to a ball in their honour. Captain Wyndham felt distinctly uncomfortable in his formal dinner-jacket and starched, white shirt with its winged collar and bow tie. Of course, Lady Sally was there, dressed in a magnificent, turquoise ball-gown.
She had a servant in attendance too, a strange figure in a black and white French maid's dress with layer upon layer of petticoats. There was something not quite right about Lady's Sally's maid, then it struck him... she was a man. There was no question about it. Captain Wyndham was shocked. He had heard of such things though never encountered them in the circles he mixed in. How terribly risqué he thought, openly flaunting a transvestite maid. She carried a fan and, every so often, wafted it past Lady Sally's face to cool her.
Captain Wyndham stood in uncomfortable isolation in the corner of the ballroom tugging at his starched collar, contemplating how early he could politely take his leave, when suddenly he was conscious of eyes peering at him. When he looked up, there was no doubt, Lady Sally's piercing gaze penetrated to the far end of the room.
