The first act of defiance, refusing to sign the paper the next day, did not have the desired effect. While Zaria was not expecting him to drop to his knees and beg her for forgiveness before setting her free, she had hoped for more than his dismissive glance before heading to the bed to read. She refused to go to the bed when told and ended up being dragged and chained to the frame again. Her throat hurt too much to eat anything, and the lack of sleep the night before made her limbs feel too heavy to put up much of a fight. The next morning, she was able to croak out that her throat hurt, and tea with honey was sent up with her lunch. She drank all of it and then waited a moment before beginning to eat. It took all afternoon, but she ate all of the food in tiny bites with sips of water. In her reflection in the water, she could see the finger shaped bruises around her neck, and her hand began to shake so badly that she had to rest before finishing the glass. She did not struggle that night but was chained anyway because he told her that he could not trust her yet.
The third day she was told to sign the parchment once again, and when she did not he told her that he did not want to hurt her, but he would if she drug it out for too long.
Zaria could not think of any way to get free without risking her life. She could get past the guard, but only if he was not alerted to trouble by the duke. That meant that the duke would have to be gone for the day. If the duke was gone for the day, that meant it was light out, and there would be many more people wandering the manor who she would have to get past. There was no sneaking out the window, even if she thought nobody would notice her doing so from outside. The ground was at least ten meters down, and the Berber Duchy did not believe in having fire escapes built into the sides of their buildings.
On day four, a new dress was delivered to the room. It was not in any way extravagant, a light purple night dress with an empire waist and a skirt that went all the way to the floor. The duke told her that she would no longer need to wear the uniform since she was no longer a maid and that he expected her to be wearing the new dress from that day on.
"If you behave yourself and stop making this difficult, then you can have more," he said as he changed into his night wear. "Go and change into it before bed."
"I'm not wearing that," she said incredulously, dropping it to the floor. "You must be mental if you think I am going to make any of this easy for you!"
The duke sighed and walked calmly up to her before smacking her face. Zaria dropped to the ground with the force of the blow, her hand over her cheek . He bent over and grabbed her face, squeezing her jaw until tears leaked from her eyes. "You will go and put it on, and then you will get back here and sign the paper. Or I will change your clothing for you." He held on tightly until she agreed, leaving her where she lay and going to the bed to read his book.
Refusing to look in his direction, she pulled herself to her feet by using the bed post as a support and walked quickly to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. She sat on the edge of the bathtub for several minutes, crying quietly as she gingerly dabbed at her split lip with the edge of her maid uniform. Then she slipped her phone out of its pocket, tucked it into the back waistband of her underwear, pulled the purple nightgown over her head, and settled it into place.
As soon as she walked from the bathroom, Duke Berber spoke again. "Dump that garment in the trash, and go sign the paper. You are making all of this far too difficult."
"Right," she responded bravely as she scrawled her name across the bottom. She had no interest in getting struck again. "I should make it easier for you to imprison and rape me."
"Rape?" he shook his head in disgust. "Don't be dramatic. Has there ever before been a servant girl who has complained about becoming a lady, and all she has to do is lay still for a little while?" He sat his book down on the side table and pointed to the side of the bed. "Lay down. I am tired."
Zaria scowled at him as he shackled her left arm to the bed before looking her over in the new dress. With an approving noise, he nodded his head and laid down. She steeled herself for him to make some sort of advances, ready to bite and kick to keep him away, but his snores began a few minutes later.
Staying awake was difficult, the pain in her face, lips, and jaw taking the place of the throat pain that was finally beginning to fade. Her eyes were heavy already, and pain made her even more tired than she might have been any other night. But she had to stay awake. She had to put the first stage of her escape plan into motion.
The best time to escape, she had decided, would be at night. The only problem with that was that she was chained to the bed to keep her from pulling away. But... on the duke's wedding night, he was required to spend the night with his new wife and provide evidence of the consummation of their marriage the next morning. On that night, she would be alone. She just had to switch her schedule around a little so she would have the energy to do what she had to do to get out. Nobody came around during the day. Meals were delivered to the guard, who then slid the tray inside the door and closed the door once more. Nobody would notice if she slept late every day.
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The last few days before the wedding, she barely saw the duke. In the morning, she was asleep when he left, and at night, she refused to look at him or acknowledge him other than moving to the bed when he ordered her to. The bruises on her face and neck were a constant reminder of how casually violence could be applied to someone, and she did not want him to even look her way if it could be helped.
The final night, as Zaria lay as still as she could on the bed, the duke spoke to her for the first time in days.
"I will be gone tomorrow night doing my duties with the Saintess. The next night I will be back. Make sure that you clean your body well. I will have medicine prepared for you with your dinner that night. The matron suggested it to make you more comfortable. Make sure you drink it all." He yawned and slid his hand around hers as he did every night before falling asleep. Zaria did not respond, closing her eyes and biting her tongue to keep from begging him one more time to let her go. As much as it boggled her mind, he really didn't see that what he and his future wife were doing was wrong. Begging again might end up with her chained even though he was not there.
When she woke up the next morning, it was well into the afternoon, and lunch was already sitting on a tray on the ground just inside her door. She sniffed it cautiously before taking a bite, but it smelled and tasted the same as it always did. She finished the bowl of soup and ate all of the bread. There was no point in refusing the food and using up more of her stock in her bags. For whatever reason, her bags were left alone after removing what could be considered a weapon, and whether they understood what the food items were and decided to leave them or not was a mystery. If everything went well and she was able to escape, she would need them in the days to come.
Zaria watched as the sky outside grew darker, a fierce storm battering rain against the windows as though trying to break through the glass. Very early on after arriving at the manor, she began to mentally adjust the time on the phone to match up with the current universe time, and she watched the screen as the hours ticked closer to midnight. Dinner went uneaten, not out of principle, but because she was too nervous to entertain the thought of food. Shortly after midnight, she slipped cargo pants on under her dress and changed into her hiking boots, leaving the dress on for the moment. Once her bags were ready and placed so that they would be easy to put on, she gripped the stun gun tightly in her hand and hid it amongst the folds of the nightgown. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to the hallway slowly.
"You need to close the door." The guard ordered her, not budging from his spot on the wall opposite the door.
Zaria tried to make herself seem very, very tired, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. "Please, I couldn't get the curtain closed today, and the lightning outside is keeping me awake. Can you help me close the curtain?"
"I can't enter the room. You will have to try to sleep with it as is."
"But I can't sleep like this, and the duke is expecting me to be awake to take care of him tomorrow night, I need sleep..." She yawned and looked back toward the wide open window and flinched when jagged lightning lit up the room. The tall guard looked around, uncertain, before walking past her into the room. Zaria followed him, waiting until he was leaning over the the small window-side table to grab the curtain, and stuck the stun gun against the back of his next, flipping the safety release and activating it. The guard yelled out and dropped to his knees. She let go of the stun gun and picked up a heavy piece of statuary, and dashed it against the side of his head. A moment passed, and he did not move, so she ran back to the bed and picked up the restraints she had sewn together using the random bits of fabric from the 'leisure' trunk. She tied his hands behind his back, and then his legs before grimacing and patting down his uniform for any hidden weapons besides his sword at his waist. A small knife and the sword went to her pile of things, and then she tied a gag around his head so that his yells would not be noticed as soon as he woke up.
The dress landed in a pile on the floor, and she hurriedly put a button-up camping shirt on and pulled her bags onto her shoulders. The knife went into the messenger bag, the camo poncho over her new bulk, and the sword in its sheath was held clasped in one hand, the stun gun in the other. She stuck her head out into the hallway, and, seeing nobody, she hurried down toward the hall that would lead her out of the manor.
Not a soul could be seen until she was almost to the side entrance, when Matron Teague wandered out of the kitchen. Her grey curls were tucked up under some sort of bonnet, and she visibly jumped when the short and broad shape nearly ran her over.
"Miss Joseph?" she gasped, peering under the hood in surprise.
"Please, Matron, don't call for them to take me back there. Just look the other way."
The old woman looked at her, concern taking over from the shock in her eyes. She had known deep down that Zaria had not agreed to be a concubine, but she chose to trust his grace whom she knew to be a good man. Seeing the terrified woman in front of her, willing to risk the dangers and hardships outside, she knew that she could not stop her.
"There are two guards at the gate, but there is a low tree at the back of the estate that leans too close to the wall. You will need to get back there fast and over the wall before anyone sees you. Stick to the shadows, and they might not see. This is all that I can do for you, though."
Zaria nodded and hurried around her toward the door. She didn't look back when the old woman wished her luck. Without another word, she stepped out into the storm.