There's nothing better than the feeling of a warm bath. Or so Natasha had heard. The closest she had ever gotten being called to aid in Duchess Marissa's bath. What was a daily occurrence for her was a dream for Natasha. She couldn't help but feel jealousy for her- what had she done to deserve this life? She was beautiful, yes, but so was Natasha. But the Duchess was an aggressive woman, and often spoke out of turn. She read, and she never turned down an opportunity to lecture whomever would listen on whatever new philosophy was making the rounds. Natasha didn't know how the Duke could stand her, surely he'd rather had a wife that knew her -

“Natasha!" the other maid's shout snapped her out of her mental ravings.

"Stop standing around. What is the matter with you? Her bath is getting cold, do you want her to catch ill? Bring me the warmed water”

Natasha quickly complied. She rushed the water over to the bath, where the Duchess rested with her eyes closed, not a care in the world. Her emerald bracelet glinted in the sunlight streaming in through the window. Natasha coveted that bracelet, and here Marissa was, wearing it in the water with no second thought.

“Do you like it? The bracelet?" the Duchess noticed Natasha's staring.

“Oh- yes, Your Grace. It's beautiful. But…” she trailed off when she noticed Sarah, the more experienced maid, give her a look.

“But what”

“Aren't you afraid the milk in the bath will harm it?” Natasha inquired, a but sheepishly

“Well I wasn't, but maybe you're right. Would you be a dear, and go put it with the rest of my jewels? I wasn't planning on wearing it to the dinner tonight anyhow."

“O-of course, Your Grace”

The Duchess unclasped the bracelet, and held it out for Natasha to take. She did so calmly, hoping that she wouldn't look overly eager. She didn't have much, but maybe she could have this. As she walked down the halls to the Duchess's chambers, she tried to hide her excitement. She knew tonights dinner would likely go into the next morning, since it was to celebrate the return of the Duke's friend, Doctor Johnathan Herschfield. Natasha hadn't personally interacted with him yet, but she had heard strange whispers of him and his penchant for strange studies. Officially he studied medicine, but rumor had it his interest was in seeing how far the human body could go. Allegedly, he'd sometimes aid in interrogations, finding new ways to break the subjects, while keeping them alive. Once or twice she'd heard of his strange interest in the occult, but surely that was just the gossip of peasants. More importantly, his arrival meant that the surrounding gentry would all be arriving at the estate. With so many people coming and going, would the Duchess notice if one bracelet went missing? She had so many anyway, and she said she wouldn't be wearing that one at the party. To cover her tracks, Natasha went to the Duchess's chambers. But then she left to her own, and hid the bracelet with her belongings. She didn't know what she would do with it yet, but she knew she wanted it. And even if Marissa discovered it was missing later on, maybe one of the gentry would be blamed, since there would be so many guests. That's what she told herself, anyway.

______

A few hours passed, and Natasha stood in the kitchen with the other servants, preparing the feast. There was an air of excitement in the room, but Natasha noticed a few of the servants talking in hushed voices. Nosiness was one of her vices, so she walked right on up to them, and asked if something was the matter.

“No no, we shouldn't talk about it” the young servant replied in a hushed voice.

“It's just,” one of the others began, “Doctor Hershfield arrived a little bit ago. He came with a few wagons carrying some things”

“Isn't that normal?” Natasha asked. She was still new to this, but it didn't seem out of the ordinary.

“Well… yes. But the things they unloaded from them…”

“Things? What things?"

“There was a pillory. Like I've seen in the village square. Why would they have that here? Why would be bring it? Will they start punishing us?" Natasha thought back the the bracelet stashed with her things, and began to feel a bit uneasy.

“That's not all. There was this strange… table? It looked almost like a long triangle. I've never seen one before. And there were other weird tables, and chairs. And in some of the bags they were bringing in, there were these strange tubes sticking out.” Natasha thought back to those rumors. It was becoming apparent that there was some truth to them.

“I don't know about all of that, but I've seen the triangle thing in woodcuts. It's called a wooden horse. They use it in trials. They make you sit on it, naked, and it presses into your cunt. Judging from those expressions it must hurt like a bitch. Like you're being split in half” the serving boy said, blushing a little bit.

That settled it. As soon as more guests arrived, and everyone was busy, she would take the bracelet back. It wasn't worth this. She had a horrible feeling in her gut, and as she stood there, ruminating on her plan to return it without being caught, the Duke slammed the door open, followed by that other maid Sarah. He looked around angrily, until Sarah pointed directly at Natasha. Her stomach dropped as his eyes followed Sarah's finger. He walked right up to her, and asked cooly, “you wouldn't happened to have seen my wife's bracelet, would you?"

“I did, Your Grace. The Duchess asked for me to return it to her room, and I did.”

“That's strange. She seemed upset a bit ago, and upon further investigation, she revealed to me that she couldn't find her emerald bracelet. The darling woman has too kind of a heart, and wouldn't tell me the name of the servant she gave it to. Fortunately, Sarah here is not quite as discretionary.” He pulled his hand out of pocket, producing the bracelet. Natasha's cheeks burned. “This was found with your belongings. Care to explain?”

“You-Your Grace”, she stuttered, trying to stay calm, and hold back her tears, “I would never steal. I promise. Please believe me. Someone must have framed me…” she looked at Sarah, standing smugly behind the Duke.