“Are you?” He adjusts my dress higher, exposing more of me, but I think he’s taking care with the tattoo.
“You’re very pretty to look at like this. I think I’ll have a pillory made for you. So you always remember.”
He moves behind me and I hear it again, the whoosh, the thud of leather against skin and I sob as if he had struck me.
“Stop, please! I’ll say it! I’ll say the words!”
“Go on then.”
“Do…” I start but have to stop when his fingernails dig into my butt, scratch their way up along my cheek.
He leans over me, face close to mine. “I don’t hear you,” he says and straightens, bringing the leather of the belt to my hip, testing it softly.
“Dominus et Deus. Dominus et Deus.” I blurt out.
“Again. I’ll hear it again.”
“Dominus et Deus.”
“Good girl. Again.”
“Dominus et Deus.”
“And what does it mean?”
“My lord and my god.”
“Had you forgotten the words earlier?” he asks, coming around to stand in front of me so I’m looking down at his shoes again.
I shake my head as best I can and a moment later, he bends and unlocks the contraption and I feel an instant relief. He lifts the heavy wooden top and I draw out slowly, my body stiff and tense. I sit on my heels, the dress falling to cover me, and I look up at him.
He watches me as he loops his belt through his pants.
“Guard,” he calls, never taking his eyes from me.
The man who must be standing on the other side of the door must hear him because the door opens and in comes Councilor Hildebrand. But none of the others. He looks at me like he’d like me on that post in the courtyard, stripped and humiliated.
I look back up to my husband who still has not moved his gaze from mine.
“You know what comes next,” he says with all the authority in the world, without any doubt that I’ll do what I am supposed to do.
My borrowed dress slides off one shoulder as I bring my gaze to his shoes, and I set my hands to the ground on either side, and I try to remember that he whipped himself rather than whipping me. That Hildebrand was standing outside listening all that time. I wonder if he’s hard beneath his robe at the thought of me having my ass whipped. I feel disgust at the man.
I lift my gaze once more to Jericho before lowering my head, bringing my lips to his shoe.
“Words,” he mutters.
“Dominus et Deus. My lord and my god,” I say so quietly I’m not sure either of them hear it and I remain as I am, head bowed, tears falling, and wait.
Hildebrand and his men leave. When they’re gone, Jericho’s hand wraps around my upper arm and he pulls me to my feet. My breast is exposed where the dress had already slid from my shoulder and my panties which were at my knees slide to my feet.
He looks down at my breast, tugs the dress up but is careful to leave it open at the back. He then walks me to the door.
“Wait,” I say, glancing back my panties on the floor.
“You won’t be needing those,” he says and pulls me to the door. He bends to pick up my shoes but proceeds to walk me barefoot through the chapel then out into the courtyard where all sound seems to stop at the sight of us.
I wonder what I look like. Not a bride happily emerging from her own wedding. No. I feel how my hair has come out of its tight style only realizing now why Leontine was so specific about how it needed to be off my neck and back. I wonder what they make of the makeup streaking my face. As Jericho moves me through the crowd that parts for us, I can hear the gasps as we pass when they see the ink on my back that leaves no doubt as to what I am.