K. meets Frieda and becomes her lover

K. meets Frieda, the barmaid at the Castle Inn, and through a series of charged encounters—including her revelation that she is Klamm's lover, his bold declaration of intent, and a night spent together under the bar—they become lovers, an event that radically alters K.'s position in the village and his relationship with the castle.

First Encounter and the Peephole

K. first sees Frieda when he visits the Castle Inn with Olga, Barnabas's sister. The bar is a large, empty room where several men in coarse greyish-yellow fabric sit quietly around the walls. Frieda, a small blonde with a sad face and thin cheeks, pours the beer. Her eyes hold a surprising expression of conscious superiority, and when they fall on K., he feels they have already discovered things about him of which he knows nothing. Olga and Frieda exchange only a few cool words, so K. tries to help the conversation along by asking Frieda if she knows Mr Klamm. Olga laughs out loud, and K., annoyed, leans over the bar counter to make Frieda look at him again. She keeps her eyes lowered but then asks quietly if he would like to see Mr Klamm. She points to a door on her left with a little peephole. Through it, K. sees Klamm sitting at a desk in the next room, a stout, ponderous man with a long black moustache and pince-nez, resting his left elbow on the desk and holding a Virginia cigarette in his right hand. K. asks if he has to leave the peephole, but Frieda says he can look as long as he likes.

Revelation and Declaration

Now alone with K.—Olga has moved away to sit with an acquaintance—Frieda leans close to him and playfully adjusts her cream-coloured blouse, cut rather low at the neck. K. whispers to her, asking if she knows Klamm very well. She says yes, very well, and then, instinctively standing a little straighter, reveals: "as it happens I am his lover." K. responds with a smile, saying that as far as he is concerned she is someone worthy of respect. Frieda replies in friendly tones but without returning his smile: "And not just as far as you're concerned." K. then asks if she has ever been in the castle, but the question does not have the desired effect; she says no, but asks if it is not enough that she is here in the bar. She has a raging thirst for praise, and seems to want to slake it on K. She tells him she began as a dairymaid at the Bridge Inn, and when K. remarks on her soft hands, she says no one ever noticed them at the time. K. then tells her that her eyes speak not so much of past struggles as of struggles yet to come, and suggests they might talk quietly some time. Frieda, her tone now speaking of endless disappointments, asks if he is trying to take her away from Klamm. K. replies, as if worn out by such distrust: "Yes, I secretly intended to do that very thing. I wanted you to leave Klamm and become my lover instead." He then calls for Olga, saying they are going home.

The Night Under the Bar

Olga obediently slides down from the cask, but cannot get away from her friends, who surround her. Frieda, with a dark glance at K., asks quietly when she can speak to him. K. asks if he can stay the night here, and she says yes. She tells him to go out with Olga so that she can get the men to leave, and then he can come back in a little while. K. waits impatiently for Olga, but the men—Klamm's servants, as Frieda explains—have invented a dance with Olga at its centre, whirling her about until her hair comes down. Frieda, biting her thin lips in annoyance, picks up a whip from the corner and, with a single awkward leap high into the air, cries "In the name of Klamm, out into the stables, all of you!" The servants crowd away to the back of the room and disappear. In the sudden silence, K. hears footsteps in the corridor and, for his own safety, hides behind the bar counter, underneath it. The landlord comes in, calling for Frieda. She returns, does not mention K., and when the landlord asks where the land surveyor is, she says he must have left long ago. She plants her small foot on K.'s chest, pressing down harder, and then, bending down, quickly kisses him before popping up again. The landlord leaves, and Frieda turns off the electric light and joins K. under the bar. "My darling! My sweet darling!" she whispers, lying on her back as if swooning with desire, spreading her arms wide. They embrace, her little body burning in K.'s hands, and they roll a little way, bumping into Klamm's door with a hollow thud, then lie there in the puddles of beer and the rubbish covering the floor. Hours pass as they lie there, breathing together, their hearts beating in unison. K. feels he has lost himself, or is further away in a strange land than anyone has ever been before.

Consequences and Aftermath

A voice from Klamm's room calls for Frieda in a deep, commanding, but indifferent tone. K. alerts her, but she says she will not go, that she is never going back to him. She knocks on the door and calls out: "I'm with the land surveyor!" Klamm falls silent. K., kneeling beside Frieda, looks around in the dim light before dawn and asks quietly what they have done, saying they are both lost. Frieda replies: "No, I'm the one who's lost, but I've gained you." The two assistants, who have been sitting on the bar counter all night, are discovered. K. is angry, but Frieda seems to accept their presence. In the morning, the servants pour in with Olga, who is almost in tears, asking why K. did not take her home. Frieda returns with a small bundle of clothes, and they form a little procession to the Bridge Inn: K. leading with Frieda, the assistants following. The servants show great dislike for Frieda, but a glance from her deters them. Out in the snow, K. breathes a sigh of relief. On reaching the inn, he goes straight to his room and lies down on the bed; Frieda makes herself a bed on the floor beside it. The landlady comes up to welcome Frieda, calling her "dear little mother," and their meeting is a bafflingly warm affair with much kissing and hugging. K. stays in bed all day and all night, and when he finally gets up the next morning, it is already the fourth day since he arrived in the village.