Basic Chapter Overview: Ellia gets used to her new home in Russia, and begins to notice that she isn't treated like the others.
This is a big lump of a chapter, so I'm sorry.
Here is the first chapter:
http://www.writingforums.com/critiqu...apter-1-a.html
Chapter 2: I Will Work Gladly; I'm Not Social
Master Valder spoke to her as a servant scurried away with their
coats. "Just try to breathe. I will have Nick show you to your room
when he gets back, and he can tell you how things are around here. I
will give you about a week to settle in and get used to the 'pressure'
of all of us. And mind your tongue, Russian vampires are not lenient."
Ellia swallowed nervously and waited for Nick to return. She took a
good look at him. He was tallish about six-two, pale and blonde, but
he seemed a bit in his own shell. "Well, come on then." It surprised
Ellia that he spoke English. Could they all speak English?
He lead her down some twisting halls and up a flight of spiraling
stairs. This place was huge! It looked large from the air, so it must
be immense!
He opened a door "This is your room. You'll be sharing with another
girl, Sonya. She's rather nice, but quiet, and she doesn't speak much
English." The room was a pale blue and rather sparce. There was a desk
and two beds. This must have been where that girl that had replaced
her had lived.
"It's about time for dinner; you should change into something more
appropriate."
"Appropriate?" Ellia asked not understanding. "What's wrong with what
I'm wearing?"
Nick shook his head. "I don't know about you Americans, but we dress
up for dinner here. Wear a good dress." He closed the door and left.
What will I wear? She wondered. There was a little black dress in her
suitcase, but it wasn't too formal. She sighed and put the little
black, off the shoulder dress on and rummaged through her luggage for
a pair of stockings and heels. Eventually she found them, and
struggled with them until they stayed up. Ellia was confused, was she
here to work or to be a wall-flower?
There was a sharp rap on the door, and she snapped around as Nick
opened it again. He looked at her hair and frowned. "Do you have a
hairbrush, a rubber band and some bobby-pins?"
"Yeah, just give me a second." She pulled the loose bobby-pins out of
her bag and put them between her lips as she chaises a rubber band
around the bottom of her suitcase, before she gave up and dumped it
out on the floor, coming back triumphantly with both the brush and
rubber bands. She handed them to nick who was shaking his head
silently.
He sat her down at the chair to the desk and started to furiously
brush her curls in an attempt to straighten them out, but they just
recurled. In frustration, he just pulled it into a high ponytail. He
pinned back her bangs and looked at the whole picture of her with a
touch of disappointment. "Something's missing." He rummaged through a
drawer. "Ah yeah, a little blush aught to do the trick. "
As he lead her down the stairs, her hair felt strange, as if it was
fighting it's way free off the bonds. She took a hand and smoothed it
down as she entered the dining room, pleased that none of her hair had
escaped.
The Dining hall was vast. The vaulted ceiling was twenty-five or
thirty feet tall. White walls with gold trim, which formed an outdoors
scene, a man on the hunt for a fox. A blue marble floor, flecked with
black and white was greatly polished.
There were some tables that formed a T, which were decorated
fancifully. The T-table was covered in a fine white tablecloth,
exquisite blue china and actual, shining silverware with glass
goblets. Vampires, all dressed up in finery, as if straight out of the
pages of a book, already occupied the main table. The ladies wore
their hair on the top of their heads, jewels graced their throats,
rings covered their fingers while silk and lace clothed their bodies.
The men were clean-shaven, wearing suits and tuxedos. They were all so
beautiful.
Then there were a few smaller tables in a random pattern, which were
noticeably less attractive. They had white tablecloths also, but they
were heavily stained. They had paper plates and cheap, clear, plastic
glasses.
Ellia tried to sit at the lesser tables, as far away from the fear
that the vampires impressed on her as she could be without utter
rudeness, but Nick insisted that she follow him. Not wanting to make a
scene, she followed him, and sat on the first seat to the left of the
head spot. Soon Madam and Master Valder sat. He right next to her, and
his wife on the other side. Most of the vampires eyed Ellia with
curiosity, while some made no move to cover their distaste.
Master Valder cleared his throat. "I would like to welcome a new
addition to our family today. This is Ellia Burnstein, whom I have
recently brought back from America to replace Helga. I would ask you
all to treat her kindly, as she knows nothing of our customs here. But
she will learn in time. Please, do try not to crowd her." He then
repeated the message in some gibberish, which Ellia could only assume
was Russian from the lack of vowels.
Ellia looked down at the fine tableware in embarrassment. Why did he
have to make such a fuss about her? Couldn't she just fade into the
background of work here? But soon the drinks were poured, the toasts
toasted and the food served. There was a lot of small talk on topics
she did not understand. But eventually the ordeal of dinner was over.
The dessert was a peach cobbler with a light vanilla ice cream.
Finally they left the room, and she returned to Nick, unwilling to try
and dance with the vampires. She couldn't dance and took the excuse to
get away form the crushing pressure of their presence. She want back
to her room with some difficulty and changed into working clothes as
Nick asked. An oversized brown shirt and a pair of grubby jeans.
She somehow managed to find her way back to the dining room without
having to ask for directions, which she had needed repeatedly to get
back to her room. She joined right in with the others at cleaning away
the dishes and collecting the leftovers, which she later learned would
be turned into tomorrow's servant dinner. The linens all had to
washed, and the plates had to be scrubbed. Everyone worked with a
desperate speed, which Ellia was accustomed to being attributed only
to her. Despite their frantic rush, they still managed to carry out
conversations as they weaved to and fro, often barely managing to
avoid collisions. The china was dried and put back into the oak
cabinets, which had those things that remove moisture from the air, so
the wood wouldn't warp too badly.
In all the hustle and bustle, Ellia got very warm; her skin was on
fire and her sweat was clammy. There was a hand on her shoulder. "Slow
down comrade. Don't work yourself to death on your first day." She
steered Ellia to a chair and she collapsed into it.
"You must be Ellia. I can see why he brought you in to replace that
slacker Helga; don't work yourself so hard, you're among friends. I'm
Elane, and I run the kitchen here. We could use a hard worker like you
down here. I'll be happy to have you assigned to the kitchen if you
would like, we're a bit short staffed right now anyway. How's that?"
"That would be great, I just want to stay out of sight so that I don't
get in trouble. Jeez, it's so warm down here, I thought it was just
me!"
"Sit still. I'll go get you a glass of ice water, comrade."
She returned with a glass and Ellia sipped it slowly, shifting it from
hand to hand, it felt like ice to her warm, throbbing fingertips.
"Thank you so much. I'll have to remember to watch out for getting too
hot down here. I never knew that anything in Siberia could be so
warm!"
"It doesn't help that we are right next to the boiler, which is why
the air is so moist. If it was bone dry it wouldn't be so bad because
the sweat could evaporate off your body and you would cool off, but
the air is so saturated that is takes forever for the sweat to
evaporate, so you don't cool as quickly as you are used to. You'd be
fine anywhere else in the castle though."
"Thanks for the heads up, I could have made myself really sick."
Elane smiled. "I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you comrade. You
seem hard working and honest enough, but I'm not sure if you'll be
able to hold your tongue. I'll be sure to see that you get stationed
down here to start out with." She hurried off to do what, Ellia did
not know. She sat there a while, sipping the last bit of the cold
water before getting back up and throwing her self into the last few
chores.
She helped wipe the counters and scrub the floors, even as another
meal was getting started. She asked around about it and it was simply
answered by the short line, "They all sleep on different schedules, as
little as they sleep."
It made just as much sense as everything else here, when she said as
much, Nick only smiled and said that it would all make strange sense
in a month or so, but until then, she just needed to take the senior
members word for it.
When the kitchen was clean, she collapsed back into her chair with
another glass of water and a horribly red face. In just and hour or so
the whole process would start all over again! It was utterly crazy.
"You need to pick sleeping now or you get crap." Sonya said. The tall
skinny blonde happened to be her new roommate.
"I need to pick sleeping? You mean like when I sleep?"
She nodded quickly.
"When does Elane sleep?"
"Four to noon."
"I think I'll sleep then." Ellia looked at the watch on her wrist and
scowled. She hadn't reset it for Russian time yet. "What time is it
Sonya?"
"Two in morning." She answered.
"Thank you." Ellia reset her watch and sighed inwardly. Two more hours
of all of this was more than she was used to in a day. And tomorrow…
She decided not to think about it.
She looked at the tiled floor, and was lost in thought in for just a
moment or so. Elane tapped her on the shoulder. "When are your
sleeping hours comrade?"
"I think that they are the same as yours. Four to noon."
"Yes those are mine. I think that will be useful so I can keep an eye
on you until you get used to the perils of life here. You will grow
accustomed to it and it will not be so hard anymore, but for now it is
best that you keep your mouth shut and yourself out of sight. Now,
comrade, can you cook?"
"A little bit, but nothing fancy like what you serve here." Ellia
looked down to her feet.
"You seem to me like a quick learner. Here, I'll show you how to make
the pot roast, it is one of the simpler things that we have." She
pulled a cast iron pot down. "Only ever use this one." She opened
seven cans of broth and put them in the enormous pot, which she then
put on the stove. It seemed like the weight of the thing should make
the stove buckle. She pulled down a cutting board from the cabinet and
a blade from the knife block, and brought over a sack of potatoes,
which had already been washed. "You cut them into eights and throw
them in the water."
As Ellia set about cutting the potatoes, Elane got another cutting
board and knife, and began to chop up the carrots with a quick skilled
hand. Someone else scurried around behind them, and dropped a
half-cooked roast into the pot, adding a few cans of water.
Soon the sack of potatoes was in the pot, along with a sack of
carrots, and it had to be constantly stirred. With a long spoon, she
stirred and stirred, and soon her arm became numb and leaden. She
caught herself drifting off to sleep, then there was a tap on her
shoulder, which pulled her out of the rhythmic motion.
"Comrade, let Sonya take over for you. It's time that we sleep."
Dumbly, Ellia handed Sonya the spoon and followed Elane up to the hall
with the rooms, she went into her room and slept, only to be awakened
when Sonya came in at noon. It seemed like the sleep had been much too
short. How could that have possibly been eight hours? But she changed
into something clean, and headed back to the kitchen, which was
unpleasantly warm.
Elane sat at the table in the kitchen ready with a cup of coffee and a
bowl of cereal. "Hope your up to work today, comrade, we've got a
group of nine flying in from Berlin for Six."
"You really do get a lot of people in here don't you?"
"Comrade, wait until we hold the convention next month." She laughed.
"That, comrade, is a lot of work! You'll get used to these little
groups fairly quickly."
Nine more than the thirty-five or so vampires of last night was
little? This was going to be a long time to get used to all of this!
"You remember how to make the pot roast comrade?" Elane asked.
"Yeah, I'll need a bit of help with the spices though, I don't
remember that bit too well." Elane nodded as she walked off.
Ellia struggled to heave the pot down without dropping it on herself.
"Darn, this thing is heaver than it looks." She searched high and low
for the can opener before finally breaking down and asking for help.
It happened to be in the drawer to the left of the one she remembered
it in. She poured in the broth and headed into the pantry. It was
gigantic!
She searched each shelf, and the potatoes happened to be on the last
one in the entire pantry. While she was there, she got the carrots
too, just so that she didn't have to waste time looking for them. She
cut them up with a desperate speed, but careful not to get too warm
like she had last night, or this morning, or whenever.
"Elane? Can you help me with the spices?"
Elane looked up from a boiling saucepan. "Sure comrade. Rita, can you
look over this saucepan, make sure it doesn't get the milk scorched?"
The short brown haired woman nodded and put down the dough for the
noodles she was making, and stirred the contents in the pan quickly
enough that they didn't get burned, but slowly enough it didn't get
spilled.
"About this much rosemary, and parsley, then some salt and pepper and
three bay leaves. That's it. Just add the roast and seven cans worth
of water and be sure to keep stirring, comrade."
"Thank you so much." As Ellia sat there stirring, she could feel her
stiff muscles getting warm with use in her right arm and switched to
her left. Rita went back to making noodles and Elane added the milk
from the saucepan to a pot with some sugar in it. She stirred it and
muttered a few words in Russian that seemed like they could be cuss
words.
Ellia's stirring of the roast became mechanical and she turned around
to look and see the buzz of activity behind her that was the kitchen.
People were making bread, noodles, cake and some other things that she
was unsure of. One person looked like they were making icing, but it
had the consistency of a loose gravy. Elane turned around and saw
Ellia staring at the helpless boy and frowned, running over to help
him. It was in fact supposed to be icing. He had added too much water,
so Elane showed him that all her needed to do was double the rest of
the recipe to get the right consistency.
Stir, stir, stir. It became an oppressive rhythm. Did it really need
to be stirred this much? Couldn't it just be stirred every once in a
while?
"No, comrade. It makes it thicker and creamier." Elane told her.
Ellia would spear that she had been stirring for near two hours, when
she checked her watch, and found that it was closer to three. That's
just depressing. Sitting, stirring stew for three hours. I haven't
even had time to write in my journal yet and this is my second day. It
feels like it's been forever! Master Valder wasn't lying when he said
that they worked hard in Russia!
"Ellia." Nick called. "They want you to come to lunch, dress up if you will."
She looked to Elane. "Sure, comrade, go ahead. I'll get Rita to stir it."
"Nick, I don't have anything to wear except what I was wearing last night."
"I'll get you one of Elane's things, I think that you are about the
same size." It turned out that she was a size larger, so the straps
kept falling down, but it was better than a size too small.
The lunch seemed to be the same as the dinner, except that the little
tables were missing, and another table had been added to the T to
accommodate the nine new comers. Again, everyone was dressed in their
finery, making Ellia wonder if they actually walked around the castle
like that or if they just dressed up every few hours to attend meals.
It seemed that the former was much more likely, because there seemed
to be tons of servants, and vampires were generally stuck-up enough to
do something like that. Maybe in the olden days people pranced around
like that and it had been carried over in a strange Russian group of
vampires, like the French people when king Louis holed them up in that
one castle, they were so bored, with nothing to do that they turned to
fashion.
Ellia reluctantly took up the same spot as the day before, and more of
the vampires seemed to look puzzled, but none said a word, and Ellia
concentrated on her food as the Russian conversation moved on without
her. It was very disconcerting to hear people whisper about her in a
foreign language and have no way of knowing if they were speaking
about her well or badly. Ellia, although prone to being pessimistic,
decided that she would try to pretend that they were all saying things
about her that were good. She paid attention to her food, but couldn't
help but hear her name out of the corner of her ears.
She was pleased to taste the cake whose icing had proved so difficult
for that one boy, well; he looked about twenty-five, so he probably
qualified as a man. But the light pink icing was a good consistency
and it wasn't too sweet, which had been her real fear while she had
been stirring, which she had found out earlier, simply melted in the
mouth, so apparently stirring it did contribute to the end product, or
it had been a really good roast, which would not have surprised Ellia
in the least, although where did they get all this beef? It didn't
appear to be old. Either it was hard frozen in a huge freezer, or
there were many cows around here somewhere. She was determined that
was the next thing she would discover about this weird little castle.
But, as always, work gets in the way of real life. After lunch, Master
Valder drug her out to the dance hall. What ever she had expected,
this wasn't it. Slowly through the speakers, the waltz built. It was
one of the few things that she learned to dance to because she enjoyed
the rhythm. One, two. One, two, three. One, two. One, two, three.
Soon it moved to the mambo and the salsa and she was lost, so Master
Valder let her go back to work, when she asked. She quickly changed
out of the gown that almost fell around her ankles as she hurried back
to her room. This place just didn't make any sense. Was she a servant
or a guest? Could he just decide? It would make this whole process a
lot easier.
She hurried back to clean the dishes away from the tables with a frown
on her face as she overheard some of her fellow toilers talk about her
in Russian.
"Elane, what are they saying about me?"
