Audrey had been right to fear what the punishment for her "clumsiness" would be. It seems the Lady was in a particularly malicious mood that afternoon, despite getting two new theows.
First, she was told to wash the dirty costume and several of the other costumes as well. She had expected that and did it without complaint. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. Morcefres dealt with the man in the jougs, the one who had been caught trying to sneak into another room, but the Lady had another idea for Audrey. Instead of just placing her in the stretch-neck, or giving her a few lashes with the whip, she had found another solution.
"I still need you to deal with most of the animals," the Lady said. "Having you immobile will be inconvenient. Instead, you will need to wear this." She held up what looked like a long piece of wood with three holes in it, one larger than the other two. Audrey was confused until she saw that it could be opened down the middle. She didn't like the look of that.
"This is sometimes called a Shrew's fiddle, but I like to think of it as a movable stretch-neck. Your head is in the largest hole, and your hands go through the smaller ones. Come here, let us see how it works."
Audrey reluctantly walked over to the Lady and held up her hands like she instructed. She knew she deserved this, though not for the reason the Lady thought. She hoped it wouldn't be on her for very long though, it was very uncomfortable. Her hands were locked in a 90-degree angle on level with her neck and she couldn't move them at all. How was she supposed to get anything done with this on?
"Ooh, that looks even better than I expected," the Lady said with a grin as she locked the bottom ends together. Audrey said nothing. She worried that if she complained, she would say more than she intended.
"It's not very practical though," Morcefres said. He had come over once he saw what the Lady was doing. "It will still be hard for her to do anything work related."
They were both looking at her like she was a model for a new toy, not as if she was a human. But she couldn't let them see her anger. Audrey the theow wasn't angry. She was obedient and clueless.
"It'll be fine for the day. It will make her be more mindful of where she walks, which is the goal."
That it did. If she stumbled with this thing on, she wouldn't be able to catch her fall. Fall with the wrong angle, and she could snap her neck. But the worst part was the humiliation. They had all grown accustomed to the stretch-neck by now, but this was a new thing. Everyone stared at her as she tried to walk around doing her regular chores with her hands fastened like that. Carrying a water bucket was impossible, but she did find a way to hold the fodder bags.
This was the worst thing that had happened to her since she was initially captured. It was way worse than the stretch-neck. This was humiliating. She felt her anger rise again and she had to push it down, same with the tears. She couldn't let them know how horrible this felt, or they would do it more.
When the night finally came, and Ædven came with the keys to take it off, Audrey almost wept with relief. Her arms were so tired from being in that awkward pose all day.
"I hope you've learned to watch where you're going," Ædven said sternly as she let her hands out of the contraption. "Next time, it might be even worse."
"Yes, Ædven," Audrey replied quietly, not looking at her. The hate she felt burning in her eyes at that moment shouldn't be shown to anyone else. She climbed into her bed cage with her arms feeling like jelly, and deliberately didn't look at any of the others. No one said a word, either of comfort or of scorn. Audrey didn't know what would have been worse. She just wanted to sleep.
Luckily, it seemed the next day, the Lady was back to torturing her new victims and Audrey's clumsiness was forgotten. The man who had had too much mead was vocally protesting having his freedoms removed. That was how he said it, his freedoms. Audrey had heard some people talk like that but had never met any. Anytime he had his mouth ungagged it was the same spiel. He was almost as annoying as Karen, but his voice was more booming than shrill. Apparently, he was also an old Army man, but all Audrey could see was an older creep with a drinking problem. The Lady then confronted him about his military history, and it didn't take long before his entire image came crashing down. His military background was bogus and just an excuse for his drinking problem.
"A military man would never have let himself be tied to a wall, no matter how intoxicated he was," Morcefres said with a sneer. "But if you want us to treat you like a captured warrior, we can. I don't know if that's better or worse than a sexual predator though."
"I am not a sexual predator! The woman asked me to come into her room that night!"
"From what I heard, you invited yourself into her room that night, then you were reminded that we don't tolerate such behaviour here, then you tried to do it anyway. No matter what you say, the result will be the same. The question is how long you will need to stay there for you to accept your new reality."
Audrey didn't really feel sorry for this man, he had definitely been an idiot. But then she remembered how Nora had reacted to all of this and mentally shook herself. She couldn't afford to start thinking like them. She was actively trying to stop the Lady from doing this to other people. Yet she had grown so used to buying their lies about why people deserved corporal punishment, she believed it.
The woman in the stretch-neck was almost ignored, since the man put up such a fuss. But the Lady made her way over to her as well, giving her usual spiel. The woman didn't talk back much, she seemed resigned to her fate even before the slave collar was placed around her neck. Maybe she had heard what they had threatened the man with and thought better of it when her chance to protest came.
As it turned out, the woman thought she was smart and tried to keep a low profile so she could escape when the chance came. She was sent to collect water from the well, but somehow managed to release herself from the yoke and make a run for it. Audrey had never seen anyone run that fast, but she couldn't outrun a truck. She fell down a hill and broke her neck because of the heavy collar on it. They buried her without much ceremony but made sure that all the new theows saw it.
"Please don't run with the collar on, you could break your neck," the Lady said with mock concern.
There was only one more visitor's day left before they would return to the castle. Audrey looked forward to it being done. She didn't like going on tour, it reminded her too much of what she had missed. Though meeting Nora again had made it all worth it. But would she be able to bring this all down? Audrey couldn't think too much about that. Especially since she still had mixed feelings about it ending.