Audrey wasn't so sure once she actually stood in front of the prison. She probably shouldn't do this. But she didn't want to admit defeat. To go back now would just prove that Philip still scared her. She straightened as she was permitted to go inside.
As she was escorted down the corridor, she tried not to look into the other cells. She wasn't prepared for the sight of a pale and defeated-looking Arthur being led from one room to another. He jumped in surprise at the sight of her, and probably thought he saw a ghost. He hurried away from her and didn't say anything. The sight didn't give Audrey any pleasure. Arthur hadn't really hurt her. She didn't feel any sympathy towards him, but no hate either.
Audrey had deliberated a lot about what to wear. The prison had many guidelines she had to follow, but she had to decide whether to dress in modern clothes, or the sort of clothes she wore at the castle now. In the end, she went for the modern clothes. And as far away as possible to the clothes Philip would have seen her in. Bright colors and pants.
The reverberation of the doors closing behind her sounded ominous. They had already passed three such doors, how far were they going?
At last, her escort stopped in front of a cell. It was actually a lot like the cells they had back at the castle, though with gray concrete instead of the dark stones there.
"I didn't think you would actually come." His voice came from just out of sight. Was he trying to make her scared? She didn't let him see her jump at the noise.
"I considered whether it was worth it. However, many of the others wanted me to bring you their last words, so I decided to do it after all."
"You are still in contact with the others then?"
"Most of them, yes. Mona and Lars procured phones for us, so we are able to keep in touch. They have gotten a lot smaller from the ones I remembered." Audrey stopped herself from babbling on further. Her goal was just to mention his relatives, to get a rise out of him. She wasn't disappointed.
"You believe their stories then? I suppose they told you all sorts of horrible things about me. They even poisoned my own mother against me. She refused to come, did you know that?"
"They didn't really need to tell us stories, Philip. We had plenty of those on our own. I have never met your mother, and I doubt any of the others have either." She saw the glint in his eyes when she used his name again. He still didn't like that.
"So, you all keep in touch and talk about what a monster I am?"
"Actually, we mostly talk about other things. None of us see the point in dwelling on the past. Those who had a family are reunited with them, and those of us who didn't have one have made one of our own."
"So, you all got what you wanted in the end? A happy ending, is that what you think?"
"Hardly. It would have been a lot better if you had done as I suggested and let people apply to live and work at the castle. It would have saved all of us a lot of pain and suffering."
"And how do you know that would have worked? There is a reason we had to revert to taking people with force."
"Yes, Leann mentioned how that began. But I still think that doing it the way you did was unnecessary. And, as you heard during the trial, illegal."
"You seem confident that your way would work."
"I know it is. That is how we do it now."
Philip didn't reply to that. Had Audrey at last managed to surprise him?
"So, you went back. I suppose you sleep in the Lady's room now and enjoy ordering others around?"
"Not at all. Elfgifu's room became a storage room, it was way too big for one person, and none of us fancied having to walk up and down those stairs every time. Your room, in case you're wondering, is now a pantry, since it is close to the kitchen."
She saw a real flash of anger in his eyes when she said that. But he clearly didn't want her to see that this bothered him, so he replied in what he probably hoped was a casual tone.
"Really. Tell me more. What other changes have you made to our home?"
Audrey told him. How the FBI had removed most of his trademarks, how they had burned the pillory and his bed, how they now worked all as equals.
"And what are you going to do," Philip said when she finished. "When the others also leave you because life there is too hard? Where will you go then? Or will you resort to force making all of them stay anyway?"
"Didn't I mention? Only about 10 of us even wanted to go back. Most of them didn't. But a few others have joined us, and we all do what we can to make it work. We only plant what we can harvest with the people we have. And since it isn't the tenth century anymore, we buy the things we can't make. And we have electricity in every room. It is great to be able to do things after dark, it saves us a lot of time."
"And you're also stomping on the belief of those that started the project in the first place. Don't you think we also wished we could have electric lights or heating? But that wasn't the point of the Bamburgh project."
"Yes, I know the story. But I also don't think the original goal was to recreate the slave part of the old Anglo-Saxon society. At least, that is not how Ædven said it. Either way, I don't really care whether or not you approve. I'm just here because you asked me to, and to give you these letters from the rest of the people who knew I was coming here." Audrey didn't want to read them out loud, so she had asked if she was allowed to leave letters. They had to be searched through, but most of them had been approved.
"I think you could benefit from reading them, especially the one from Aldheim. He tried to carry on your legacy, but it seems he now blames you for all the misfortune he's experiencing in prison. And he didn't even have the excuse of just following orders, so he won't get out for quite some time. Anyway, the guards here nearly confiscated his letter, saying it was too explicit. Not that I see why it would be wrong to tell you to kill yourself, considering that is going to happen in less than a week anyway."
"Aldheim would never say that."
"The Aldheim you knew wouldn't. But like I said, we all had to adjust back to the real world, and those that had been churls had the hardest time to adjust. Especially those that were closest to you. Getting to terms with what they had done took quite a while. Read their letters, if you don't believe me." Audrey placed the rather large stack of letters on the small opening that was also used to pass things like food or dishes. Philip ignored them for now, but she suspected he wouldn't be able to resist later.
Then Philip said what he had truly wanted to ask. The real reason why he had called her here. He tried to take her back to that last day, when he had been tied up and she had teased him. She refused to indulge him. When he tried to ask why she had tied him up, she told him the simple truth. That she knew the FBI was coming and thought that having him incapacitated increased the chances that the others wouldn't fight them. Any mention of the sexual innuendo, she deflected it. He was hoping for a last release, she wouldn't give it to him.
Audrey was relieved when her time was up, and she had to leave. She didn't want him to think he had got to her. And when she was out of the prison and thought about it, he hadn't. He had lost all his mystique and power. Learning his real name and seeing him in a cell, knowing there was nothing he could do changed everything.
She treated herself to a nice lunch, with food they rarely had back at the castle. It was always a little strange, to walk down a normal street with normal people going about their day. The strangest part of all was that none of them spared her a glance. Her feeling of not belonging here was only in her mind. These people didn't know who she was. As she came back to the hotel and finally was able to relax in the hot tub, she sighed with content. Life was good.