Maneuvering her in front of it, he gently pressed his knee into the back of hers, forcing her down in a kneeling position. Her ankles slipped into the half-circles cut into the bottom piece of wood. He adjusted the cuffs on her ankles, moving them so that they were outside the area where the stocks would close. She knelt in silence as he worked, and then felt the upper board come down. The circles were small, and the wood was a tight fit against the leather of her boots. Turning, she watched him slide a lock in place in the hasp, completing her confinement in the new device.
"You want me to eat that?" she asked, wrinkling her nose as she looked down at the pile of paste-like gruel settled in the trough before her.
"You can either eat it or go to bed without dinner," he answered. "When I
