Maybe I should have realized it already then. What sort of place this really was. But I was still thinking about it all as a game, as roleplaying. The way the Lady smiled, when she barely smiled at any other time in the day, really should have told me what sort of person I was dealing with. Well, it is all water under the bridge now. I made my bed, now I have to live with it. The rest of the day was rather pleasant. I got to try so many different things, skills I never thought I would be able to try. Though I wasn't very good with any of them. I was horrible with the lucet, I couldn't make the thread go through it correctly. The theow that tried to teach it to me said it was always hard in the beginning, but a few of the others managed almost at once.
I'm still not very good with the lucet, though that is mostly because I don't have much time to work with it.
The smith work was fascinating, though most of us couldn't do anything fancier than a regular S-hook. Still, it was a satisfying feeling to hammer on the hot iron and see it mould into shape. I understand what the Lady said, about it being seen as an almost mythical ability.
And then it was time for dinner! That is the part I have the hardest time remembering, though I know it was fantastic. Lots of good food, the scop told the tale of the castle, though most of us thought it was all fictional. I wonder if most of what she said is actually true. As I look around me, I wonder if everyone here has the same story as I. How long have they been here? I don't want to ask. Instead, my mind goes back to that last evening when I was still the naïve young woman Audrey Keene that had just had the best day of her life.
***
Audrey thought she might be a little intoxicated, despite the very low alcohol level of the ale. She had only had one jug of the mead; she didn't want to have a hangover tomorrow. She had seen the place where they brewed ale and mead. It was a long, yet fascinating process. It was hard to imagine that this was once something everyone did. None of them stayed in there long though, the fumes were quite foul.
The scop had told so many fascinating tales! When she cried out the words, Hwaet, listen, and then even pronounced eald-dagum correctly, Audrey gasped with delight. It really was as if they were all enjoying themselves in a Saxon mead hall. If there had suddenly come a group of warriors through the door, with their swords and armour, demanding mead and toasted to Woden, she wouldn't even have been surprised. That seemed to be the only thing missing from this re-enactment. But Audrey didn't mind. That was pretty much all they focused on in other re-enactment scenarios. Here they had everything else! It was so perfect!
The combination of the good food, the singing, the stories and the generally festive atmosphere left her in a very good mood. She didn't want the evening to end, yet she was also tired. All in all, she didn't complain when the Lady declared that the party was over. She sobered a little as the Lady once again said something quite unexpected.
"If you wish, you may have a theow in your room with you, to help you get ready for bed. They will fetch things if you want them, answer questions you might have or help you undress. You may choose any theow of the same gender as yourself. You may not, however, punish or molest them in any way. If you do, you will be reported for assault and punished severely. And nothing sexual will be done in any way."
Audrey was surprised at this. She didn't think she wanted someone she didn't know to be in the same room as her when she slept. And it would mean they wouldn't be able to sleep very well either. But a surprising amount of the others wanted to do this. A few changed their minds once they saw that the theows were chained to the wall though. Audrey was glad she hadn't chosen to be part of that. It was a little too real for her taste, though none of the theows seemed to mind. Audrey had tried to ask about how they chose who would play what role, but it seems that was among the questions the crew wouldn't answer. They just said that they all had tried various jobs in their life, or something else generic. It seemed like they were all quite happy with what they were doing though, so Audrey didn't think anything bad was happening to those that played the roles of the lower-class people.
Several of the others had ended up in the pillory during the day, some seemed to almost do it on purpose. The worst was the man who waved a still-burning-hot piece of iron around the smithy, nearly starting a fire. Several churl guards had dragged the man out of there and held him down on the ground for several minutes before placing him in the pillory. That had been no joke. It seemed the man realized that as well as he behaved a lot more meekly the rest of the day.
Audrey got ready for bed rather quickly but spent some time in the very comfortable bed thinking about all the things she had seen during the day. The bed was quite high up from the floor, but otherwise looked like something a noblewoman would sleep in. When she looked a little closer though, she saw that the reason her bed was so high was because there was a cage under the bed, large enough for a person to lay down in. Was that meant for the theow? That looked uncomfortable. She was more and more glad she had declined that option. Apart from that one hour in the pillory, she had had one of the best days of her life. She wondered a bit how you went about getting a job here. Maybe she and Nora could apply for that together.
Full of experiences and food, she finally fell asleep, looking forward to the next day of experiences.
Little did Audrey know that this would be her last night in a comfortable bed.