Dear Diary,
Well, I am writing to you still as a slave. Today we freed Lady
Ulma, but decided that Meredith and Bonnie and I should remain
"personal assistants." This is because Lady Ulma said Damon would
seem odd and unfashionable if he didn't have several beautiful girls as
courtesans.
There is actually an upside to this, which is that as courtesans we
need to have beautiful clothes and jewelry all the time. Since I've been
wearing the same pair of jeans ever since that b*st*rd Old Drohzne
sliced up the pair I wore into this place, you can imagine that I'm
excited.
But, truly, it's not just because of pretty clothes I'm excited.
Everything that happened since we freed Lady Ulma and then went to
her old estate has been a wonderful dream. The house was run down,
and obviously the home of wild animals who used it as a lavatory as well
as a bedroom. We even found the tracks of wolves and other animals
upstairs, which led to the question of whether werewolves live in this
world. Apparently they do, and some in very high positions under
various feudal lords. Maybe Caroline would like to try a vacation here
to learn about the real werewolves though-they're said to hate humans
so much that they won't even have human or vampire (once human)
slaves.
But back to Lady Ulma's house. Its foundation is of stone and it's
paneled inside with hardwood, so the basic structure is fine. The
curtains and tapestries are all hanging in shreds, of course, so it's sort
of spooky to go inside with torches and see them dangling above and
around you. Not to mention the giant spiderwebs. I hate spiders more
than anything.
But we went inside, with our torches seeming like smaller versions
of that giant crimson sun that always sits on the horizon, staining
everything outside the color of blood, and we shut the doors and lit a fire
in a giant fireplace in what Lady Ulma calls the Great Hall. (I think it's
where you eat or have parties-it has an enormous table on a dais at
one side, and a room for minstrels above what must be the dance floor.
Lady Ulma said that this is where the servants all sleep at night, too (the
Great Hall, not the minstrel gallery).
Then we went upstairs, where we saw-I swear-several dozen
bedrooms with very large four-poster beds that are going to need new
mattresses and sheets and coverlets and hangings, but we didn't stay to
look around. There were bats hanging from the ceiling.
We headed for Lady Ulma's mother's workroom. It was a very
large room ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
one side, and a room for minstrels above what must be the dance floor.
Lady Ulma said that this is where the servants all sleep at night, too (the
Great Hall, not the minstrel gallery).
Then we went upstairs, where we saw-I swear-several dozen
bedrooms with very large four-poster beds that are going to need new
mattresses and sheets and coverlets and hangings, but we didn't stay to
look around. There were bats hanging from the ceiling.
We headed for Lady Ulma's mother's workroom. It was a very
large room where at least forty people could sit and sew the clothes that
Lady Ulma's mother designed. But here's the exciting part!
Lady Ulma went to one of the wardrobes in the room and moved
away all the tattered, moth-eaten clothes that were in it. And she pressed
some different places at the back of the cupboard and the whole back of
the cupboard slid out! Inside it was a very narrow stairway going
straight down!
I kept thinking about Honoria Fell's crypt and wondering if some
homeless vampire might have taken up residence in the room
downstairs, but I knew that was silly because there were spiderwebs just
inside the door. Damon still insisted that he go down first because he
has the best eyesight in the dark, but I think the truth is that he was just
curious to see what was down there.
We each followed him one at a time, trying to be careful with the
torches, and...well, I can't find the right words for what we discovered.
For just a few minutes I was disappointed because everything on the big
table down there was dusty rather than sparkly, but then Lady Ulma
began to gently brush jewels off with a special cloth and Bonnie found
sacks and packages and she poured them out-and it was like pouring
out a rainbow! Damon found a cabinet where there were drawers and
drawers of necklaces, bracelets, rings, armlets, anklets, earrings, nose
rings, and hairpins and ornaments, too!
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I poured out a pouch and
found that I had a huge handful of glorious white diamonds dripping
through my fingers, some of them as big as my thumbnail. I saw white
pearls and black pearls, both smaller and perfectly matched, and huge
and in marvelous shapes: almost as big as apricots with pink or golden
or gray sheens to them. I saw sapphires the size of quarters, with stars
you could see almost from across the room. I held handfuls of emeralds
and peridots and opals and rubies and tourmalines and amethysts-and
a lot
And the jewelry that was already made up was so beautiful it made
my throat ache. I know Lady Ulma had a quiet little cry, but I think it
was partly from happiness as we all kept complimenting her on
of lapis lazuli, for the discriminating vampire, of course.
her
jewels. In days she has gone from being a slave who owned nothing to
an incredibly rich woman who owns a house and all the means she
would ever need to keep it up in style. We decided that even though she
is going to marry her lover, it was best at first for Damon to buy him
quietly and free him quietly, but to play "Head of the Household" for as
long as we are here. During that time we will treat Lady Ulma as family,
and will put the jeweler Lucen back to work until we leave, when he and
Lady Ulma can quietly take Damon's place. The feudal lords around
here are not demons anymore, but vampires, and they have less
objection to humans owning property.
Have I told you about Lucen? He's a wonderful artist with jewels!
He has a burning need to create-in his early days as a slave he would
create with mud and weeds, imagining that he was making jewelry. Then
he got lucky and was apprenticed to a jeweler. He's felt sorry for Lady
Ulma for so long, and loved her for so long, that it's like a little miracle
that they are truly able to get together-and most importantly, as free
citizens.
We were afraid that Lucen might not like the idea of us buying him
as a slave and not freeing him until we leave, but he never thought he'd
be free-because of his talent. He's a slow, gentle, kind man, with a neat
little beard and gray eyes that remind me of Meredith's. And he's so
amazed at being treated decently and not worked around the clock that
he would have accepted anything, just to be allowed to be near Lady
Ulma. I guess he was an apprentice when her father was a jeweler, and
he fell in love with her all those years ago, but he thought he would
never, never ever
Every day Lady Ulma looks more beautiful, and younger. She
asked permission from Damon to dye her hair all black, and he told her
she could dye it pink if she liked, and now she just looks incredibly
beautiful. I can't believe I ever thought of her as an old hag, but that's
what agony and fear and hopelessness do to you.
be able to be with her, because she was a young lady
of quality and he was a slave. They're so happy together!
Every one of those
gray hairs was from being a slave
I forgot to tell you the other upside of Meredith, Bonnie, and I
being "personal assistants" for a while. It's that we can employ a
, with no property, no say in her
future, no safety, no ability even to keep her children, if she had them.
lot of
poor women who make their living by sewing, and Lady Ulma
actually wants to design and show them how to make our finest clothes.
We told her that she could just relax, but she says all her life she's
fantasized about being a designer like her mother and now she's dying
to do it-with three completely different types of girl to dress. I'm dying
to see
Meanwhile Damon has hired about two hundred people (really!) to
clean out Lady Ulma's estate, put up new wall hangings and curtains,
refurbish the plumbing system, polish up the furniture that has kept
nicely, and to get new furniture where things have fallen apart. Oh, and
to plant ready-grown flowers and trees in the gardens and put in
fountains and all kinds of stuff. With that many people working, we
ought to be able to move in in just a matter of
what she'll come up with: she's already started sketching and
tomorrow the man who sells fabric will come and she'll pick the
materials.
days
All this has just one purpose, aside from making Lady Ulma happy.
It's so that Damon and his "personal assistants" will be accepted by
high society as the season of parties begins this year. Because I've kept
the best for last. Both Lady Ulma and Sage could immediately identify
the people in the riddles that Misao gave to us!
.
It just goes to prove what I thought before, that Misao never
imagined that we'd actually make it here, or that we could get entrance
to the places where they've hidden the two halves of the fox key.
But there's a very easy way to get invited into the houses we need
to get into. If we're the newest, splashiest nouveau riche
I know my writing is shaky now. I'm shaky myself at the thought
that we are actually going to look for the two halves of the fox key that
will let us break Stefan out of his prison.
(sp?) around,
and if we circulate the story that Lady Ulma has been restored to her
rightful place, and if everyone wants to know about her-we'll get
invited to parties! And that's how we get into the two estates we need to
visit to look for the halves of the key that we need to free Stefan! And
we're incredibly lucky, because this is the time of year when everyone
begins to give parties, and both households we want to visit are having
early celebrations: one is a gala, and one is a spring soiree to celebrate
the first flowers.
Oh, diary, it's late-and I can't-I can't write about Stefan. To be
here in the same city with him, to know the direction to his prison...and
yet to not be able to get to see him. My eyes are so blurred I can't see
what I'm writing. I wanted to get some sleep to be ready for another day
of running around, supervising, and watching Lady Ulma's estate
blossom like a rose-but now I'm afraid I'll just have nightmares about
Stefan's hand slowly slipping out of mine.