this means the servant’s quarters weren’t up to your standards? Were they too plain for a woman like you? I’m sure we can find something far more interesting for you to do now that you’re back home all safe and sound.”
He laughed and pushed to his feet, the two men stepping over to the opposite side of the room while I finally took a moment to look at the space around me.
Fear dripped through my body like a busted tap, a steady trickle that froze within my organs and bones. Eyes wide, I stared at the wall in front of me and tried to make sense of the two women hooked to large wooden structures, their bodies naked and exposed as tears dropped from their eyes.
They stared down at me in warning. Run! I could hear them scream. Get the fuck out of here while you’re still able.
But I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but sweep my eyes down the marks on their bodies, the welts blistering red like strap marks over their chests and stomachs. A keening whimper crawled up my throat as the room came into full focus around me.
There were whips and chains, polished silver ... what the fuck even were those things? I shrank around myself, my arms shaking as if they could protect me from furniture and other devices designed solely for torture.
Deep voices murmured among the chorus of tears and moans, the two men discussing the terms of my new position.
“She refused to be a maid, so the only thing left for her is to be a whore...”
“I didn’t take her to be that stupid, but it is what it is...”
Bile shot up my throat, two hands brushing together as if someone were wiping my fate from them.
“Nothing left to do but get on with it. Do me a favor and chain her up. I’ll get my things together for her first introduction.”
When heavy steps stormed toward me, I pushed up on hands and knees in an attempt to crawl. But I wasn’t fast enough to keep a fist from locking over my ankle to drag me along to a pole in the center of the room, chains clanging against its surface as Callan tugged me up to my feet and slammed my wrists against it above my head.
“Stop! I’m sorry. Please. I’ll be a maid. Please don’t do this to me!”
The words spilled out before I could think. I was too terrified to do anything other than react, to submit to anything but this.
Reduced to a woman who only knew to beg, I pleaded until my voice cracked over sobs, my bandaged feet slipping over the ground as my spine ran the line of that pole. And when I opened my eyes to look at Callan’s face, he stared down at me with a satisfied grin.
“Please,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
And I was.
For our childhood.
For the way I treated him.
For the insults, the laughter and the taunts.
I was sorry for all of it in that moment, but I wasn’t sure he knew what the apology was for.
“I’m so sorry,” I said again as tears dripped along my jaw.
The other man stepped into view, his eyes sharp and discerning.
“It’s sweet when they beg, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard one apologize. Not this soon, at least.”
Fuck him, I thought, my eyes cutting back to Callan where he stared at me with an unreadable expression.
It was pathetic how weak my voice had become.
“I’ll do anything. I swear. Just not this. Anything but this.”
One hand still locked around my wrists, he watched me for several seconds before peeling each finger away slowly and letting my arms go. The entire room went silent except for the women still quietly crying.
Stepping aside, Callan waited for me to do something, his brow arching in question when I didn’t immediately know to move.
Thankful for the reprieve and change of heart, I kept my head bowed as I limped away from that room, his footsteps a drumbeat following me as we wound the halls and returned upstairs, a silent predator at my back until I was safely tucked away in my small room.
I sat on the bed and rubbed at the skin of my wrists, my head angling up to watch him through the curtain of my hair.
Without a single word, this man had broken my will so easily.
Without one insult.
Without one spoken threat.
I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted him to talk to me if this is what he