Free Bondmaiden by B.A. Bradbury

handed the drub to the woman, who told Lia to stand up straight with her hands clasped behind her head. As she did so Dagna took up station at her left side. ‘Don’t move your feet,’ the woman said ominously. ‘If you do I’ll make you wish you’d never been born, understand?’
    Lia gulped and nodded fearfully, then Dagna began to spank her, striking full on her bottom, six strokes to the left cheek then six to the right, repeated over and over. Lia concentrated on not moving her feet, her sole aim at this point, for she believed Dagna’s threat absolutely. But her hips rocked forward with each blow, and her back arched as she instinctively tried to draw away from the assault. Dagna was striking harder than Holmann, and such testing blows on an already sore bottom were agonising in the extreme.
    ‘She’s feeling it now,’ the overseer observed, eyeing her expression, which told the whole story. She gritted her teeth and concentrated on remaining silent, but feared her effort was doomed to failure.
    ‘She’ll feel it before I’m done,’ Dagna muttered darkly, ‘you can be sure of that.’
    Lia wondered why the woman hated her so. She remembered the suspicious, hostile look on Dagna’s face the first time they met. Lia could only assume it was the overseer who was the cause of her enmity. Perhaps she thought her privileged position with Holmann was under threat, for it was plain to see the man wanted Lia, if only to take her to bed. Whatever the cause, Dagna’s hatred was real and she was clearly determined not to waste the opportunity to vent that hatred on her helpless victim.
    And while she continued to ply the drub vigorously, Holmann took it upon himself to further Lia’s education in the matter of physical chastisement. ‘On occasion,’ he said, ‘there’s a need to hand out an especially severe punishment. Underneath the castle you’ll find a maze of tunnels and chambers – catacombs, some call ’em – dug into the rock by the ancients. We store food and water in one part, in case there’s a siege. Another section has been turned into dungeons to hold especially bad sinners, along with a torture chamber to make them rue their wicked ways. I tell you, there’s contraptions down there to make the blood run cold. I’ve seen ‘em; though not in action thank the saints. The torturer, Master Yves, works in secret, as jealous of his skills as any miser of his gold. If they ever take you down there, girl, and you find yourself in his hands, pray to God for a quick death.’
    Lia was no stranger to pain. A serf working the land knew much about the subject, for it was a hard life full of unremitting, backbreaking toil. She had learned even more in the past few days; and was learning again under Dagna’s strict tutelage. And yet the things Holmann spoke of sent a chill to her soul.
    But her present predicament forced such thoughts from her head. Her bottom was on fire, and still Dagna showed no sign of stopping. Lia whined through her clenched teeth at each cruel stroke, her vow of silence having been broken for the second time. She felt light-headed, and her legs were trembling so much it was a miracle she didn’t fall over. And since her two tormentors would doubtless see it as an act of defiance and punish her even more in consequence, Lia concentrated hard on staying on her feet.
    When the beating ceased Lia’s fears about falling came perilously close to realisation. Her hips swayed, anticipating the blow, but it never came. She tottered, and only by taking a hasty step back did she manage to regain her balance. Holmann chuckled, clearly amused, whereas Dagna seemed more interested in Lia’s poor ravaged bottom, studying it with evident satisfaction and cruelly agitating the blotchy welts with a long fingernail.
Chapter Seven
    Lia saw the shadow approaching before she heard a sound. When he wanted to, Stig could obviously move as silently as the ghost she’d first taken him for. He stopped