Chapter 8

I shudder as I recall that moment when the first lash of the whip had hit my back. It was far from the last. The Lady is quite fond of seeing her theows, her slaves, get whipped for the smallest things. I am almost used to it by now, but I make sure to always scream. If you don't scream, the Lady thinks you haven't been hit and tells the executioner to do it again. Better to give her screams and get it over with.

After that first night in the pillory, the situation hadn't become much better. I spent most of the next day, after I had been taken out of the pillory, tied to the wall, in the jougs I had noticed earlier. They are basically a short chain from the wall to the collar that have now become a permanent fixture around my neck. Those were originally from a later period and from Scotland, but I had quickly learned that the Lady takes some liberties with authenticity when it comes to forms of restraints or torture. The jougs weren't much better for my neck, but at least I could move the rest of my body a little and I was even able to sit down, as long as I sat close to the wall. My hands and feet were still restrained. That in particular seems to give the Lady great pleasure, to make the newest capture unable to move. My back ached from the flogging, making it almost unbearable to sit on the ground, but I didn't have any other option. I barely got anything to drink or eat either. How long had I sat there? I don't know if I even remember anymore. The days are sort of blurred together.

***

Audrey wanted to feel angry, but she found she didn't have the energy to. All her energy was spent staying alive. How long was the Lady going to keep her like this? How many others had they done this to? Her whole body hurt, but the worst was her back, where the whip had come again and again. It hurt to move, it hurt to sit down, but she didn't have the strength to stand up. And even that would hurt.

Finally, it seemed the Lady had seen what she wanted to see from her. She walked over, dressed in clothes that weren't quite the gown that she had had on the day she arrived, but still noticeably better than what the others had. Most of it was probably silk. It was a stark contrast to her own costume, which was now quite dirty, ripped in several places from the restraints and also made from completely different materials.

"Are you ready to start working yet, or do you want to spend the rest of your life chained to the wall? I have no problem leaving you here for as long as I need to. This is the crew area, the place visitors are not allowed to enter, so no one from the outside will even notice you. And no one from the outside world will miss you. We've sent a series of texts to your friend. She now thinks you are stuck at a hospital with no cell service."

"How did you even get into my phone? It was locked, and off."

"One of my most loyal thegns is good at hacking. He wrote some programs that can override most basic phone defences. Finding a simple PIN code is child's play for him. Don't worry about it, your friend will soon forget about you."

Audrey doubted that, but it seemed pointless to argue. Besides, it would be better if Nora forgot about her. If not, she would try to find her and that could lead to her being captured as well.

"You didn't answer my question, theow. Are you going to stop being obstinate and do as you're told, or do you want to spend your time being whipped and stuck at this wall?"

Audrey didn't want to give in so easily, but what was the point of resisting? She was never going to get away from here if she was stuck in the jougs. She sighed.

"I'll do as you say," she said, and though she tried to sound angry, she probably sounded more resigned. It was enough to get her released from the jougs, though she always had the iron collar on. It was locked, and only the Lady had the key. This explained the large number of keys on her belt. Audrey had thought those were mostly for show, but now she suspected they were for the collars of the theows.

Audrey soon realized that she wouldn't get any chances to escape. It seems they weren't quite as trusting as they pretended. If she was outside the walls of the burh at all, it was to get water and then she was literally tied to a yoke which held two water buckets. The one time she tried to take her hand out of the yoke handle, just to massage it, she got a slash from the whip and was told to get back to work.

Carrying water was hard, but at least it made her keep moving. Most other things theows did was under the eye of the Lady or one of her trusted thegns. She cleaned the different areas, made food, did laundry by hand, and generally anything they needed her to do.

She also learned more than she had ever wanted to know about how to make clothes with flax and wool. That was the normal evening activity, when it was too dark to do most other things. Even in the crew areas, they lived as if they were in an Anglo-Saxon burh, so there was no electricity or hint of modernity at all. Thus, inside in the evening, there were only candles and the fireplace for light. Audrey was not cut out for that kind of fiddly work, but she didn't want to protest and get more lashes. She got some anyway, when they thought she sabotaged a whole bucket of linens. She hadn't done it on purpose, she was just not good at it, but they didn't care. Failure was punished, accidental or not. Her back had to be full of marks from the whip at this point.

This place was a strange mixture of caring about them and completely disregarding them. They restrained people like slaves and used them hard. But the restraints were made to be as comfortable as possible, with leather or even fabric on the parts closest to the skin. They weren't painful unless the Lady wanted them to be, like when she wanted to punish someone, or if they tried to struggle against them. Audrey suspected that was because the Lady couldn't afford for too many of them to die. But even a leather restraint proved impossible to break. Especially since they were attached to metal chains and shackles above them. On her legs were leather cuffs, with a metal shackle on top, attached to an iron chain that only let her take short steps. Any attempt at running would cause her to stumble. Most of the other theows had them as well, even the ones that were visible for the visitors. With the leather underneath, it looked less painful, and thus visitors would believe that it was just for show.

The heads on the wall of the gate, which Audrey had barely noticed when she came here, and thought it was just a part of the decoration, were also real. They placed a new one just a few days after Audrey was out of the jougs. It had apparently been a man who had tried to run away. They were all forced to watch as his head was put on a string and hung from the top of the burh, joining three others that were already there. It was a very efficient warning to all of them.