The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter Four - Exercise

I hurried after him as he led me down a corridor, past a lobby area with a lift. But suddenly the stupid collar gave a buzz and I felt as if I've been kicked in the back of the neck.

"What on earth was that?" I managed to gasp.

"I presume that you have just received a small electric shock," he explained. "That is the collar's way of telling you to stand up straight. I do not like to see you slouching."

"But..." I began but he showed me that he was not interested in anything I had to say by turning and walking away. I tried to hurry after him but I was interrupted by another savage jolt.

When, at last, I caught up with him, I was walking really carefully, of course. And he gave me a smile... just as if he wasn't making me wear a collar that was giving me horrible electric shocks.

"I called this my sunroom," he told me. "This is where I normally eat breakfast and lunch."

"It's certainly a lovely room," I replied, forgetting, for a moment, just how furious I was with him. Two of the walls and half the ceiling were made of glass and the view was absolutely stunning. We were not far from his office but here we were straight on the river right at the top of another tower block. There was a large rooftop garden thing with various trees in pots and garden furniture and things... And even the wall around it was made of glass

I guess they didn't want anything to get in the way of the view.

Because the whole of south and central London was spread out in front of us.

Lunch had been laid out for us on a little table in the corner with a fresh French baguette and a board of sliced cheeses and another with ham and salami together with fresh salads and prepared fruit.

He took a seat and invited me to join him, then he poured out a couple of glasses of fancy looking fizzy water and added a slice of lemon to each.

"This is probably my favourite spot in the whole flat," he told me and, for a while, we just enjoyed that amazing view: across the river to Greenwich Park with its Old Naval College and Observatory and onto the North Downs beyond. To The right, you could see up to Tower Bridge and the old City of London and, to the left, about half of The Millennium Dome was visible.

And I could even spot the Charlton Athletic football ground, right next to my home!

"The view's totally stunning," I had to agree.

"Should we begin?" he suggested.

For a while, we ate together in a surprisingly comfortable silence but then the collar must have spotted that I was slouching again and gave me another one of its horrible reminders.

And that was just too much for me. I simply couldn't cope with the way all the lovely food and the beautiful view clashed with me being held as a prisoner here... and the horrible collar and everything.... and, before I knew it, the tears were pouring down my face.

"Excuse me a moment, please, Constantia," he said as he took out his phone. He started doing something on the screen.

"I have just reconfigured your collar," he explained after a few seconds. "Now, the default is to give you a buzz as a reminder. You will only receive the shock if it is necessary to give you more than three reminders in any hour. Next week, I will reduce that to two and, the week after, it will go back to giving you a shock every time - so I suggest you learn quickly."

"Thank you, Master," I said simply. And I was truly grateful for this show of leniency.

"Rough plan for the rest of the afternoon," he told me when we had finished eating. "I know you had a disturbed night so I suggest you go and rest for a couple of hours. I have some work to do. Then it will be time for your exercise."