The thief’s Reward: A Medieval Rape Story

The thief’s Reward: A Medieval Rape Story

The square was quiet, still with the cool early morning air. Not a guard was in sight along the distant walls, not a single peddler was up setting up his booth. It was early and that was exactly why he was where he was, no one would see him.
He crossed the cobblestones quickly and quietly, moving up behind the figure fastened into the heavy wooden stocks that occupied the raised stone platform right beside where they held the beheadings.
She was young, a servant girl, and just yesterday she had been caught stealing her masters jewelry and summarily sentenced to a fortnights punishment in the stocks.
Circling behind her he didn’t fail to notice the curve of her body through the folds of her rumpled, tattered dress, or her long legs where she knelt on the pavement. She had been forced to her knees and then her head and hands had been placed through an opening in the wooden stocks which had been closed and locked, pinning her in place.
After she had been pelted by fruit and insulted for nearly an hour, many of the towns citizens had lost interest and resumed their daily routine, right up through sunset.
Now, she knelt much as she had during the heat of the day, but had finally fallen asleep sometime during the night. Listening to her even breathing as he approached, he knew he would have the upper hand only if he moved quickly.
Moving in front of the stocks he pulled the length of thick cloth from his pocket and held it by either end. Her head hung through the front of the stocks, she rested with her mouth open, her face streaked with dirt and tears from her torment.
He pulled the cloth quickly into her mouth and tied it in a knot behind her head, knowing speed was essential. She awoke from her fitful dreams with a start, but try as she might her screams were absorbed by the bitter tasting rag.
Moving around behind her while she blinked in fright, suddenly and terribly awakened, but saw no one. Stepping up behind her he lifted the back of her dress, exposing her legs to the cool morning breeze.
She shivered and struggled against her stocks, suddenly painfully aware of what was to come. When she began to lash out with poorly coordinated kicks he forced her to cross her ankles and tied them together with another rag.
This reduced her antics to flailing, bucking movements not unlike horses he had seen hobbled during the breaking process.