Free Covenant With the Vampire by Jeanne Kalogridis Page B

financial information, and soon forgot my sadness
as I involved myself in work.
    In all honesty, I was startled by the extent of V.“s wealth. Considering the
degree of it, there are fewer servants than one might expect: only three chambermaids,
one cook, one stablehand, a gardener, and the steward - and of course, the unpleasant
coachman, Laszlo. After speaking with the overseer of Uncle's fields, I made
a most unsettling discovery: our family's land is worked by
rumini,
actual serfs, over whom Uncle still possesses the ancient
droits du seigneur!
Feudalism is usually an unjust system in favour of the lord, who owns the land;
the serfs pay him a tithe to farm it, then another ten percent of the proceeds,
in addition to paying the
bir,
a sizable personal tax for ”protection.“
But in V.”s case, the
rumini
paid no tithe, only five percent of the
proceeds from sale of harvest, and a yearly
bir
of only pennies (as
though we still feared Turkish marauders and, for such a minuscule sum, would
offer to all the wartime shelter of the Tsepesh castle walls). Another surprise:
Uncle owns most of the village, yet receives no rent. Only one arrangement seemed
to his advantage: the serfs are required to do whatever work V. bids, whenever
he bids it. Today one of them was at the castle, remortaring some stone which
had come loose near the entrance. He bowed politely as I neared, but as I passed
by, I could hear him grumbling under his breath about ignoring his own pressing
work in the fields in favour of the
voievod“s,
the prince’s. He worked
with a languor born of reluctance, which I resented in the light of V.”s generosity.
    To think that feudalism is still alive, in this day and age… ! Clearly, V.
collects only a fraction of that to which he is entitled. This is no way to
make a profit; it would be far more businesslike to release the serfs from their
obligations and rehire them as labourers at a lower, more reasonable wage, and
pocket the profits made from the selling of crops himself. His extravagant kindness
has, I fear, led the serfs to take advantage of him.
    But that does not trouble me as much as the notion of feudalism itself, which
suggests that V. “owns” the peasants and their homes outright. No man has the
right to so control another. Far more just for all would be the system of a
fair wage for a fair day's work.
    I was surprised also by the high wages - far more than a trained domestic might
receive in England - paid the domestic servants, which certainly fails to explain
their cool, though polite, behaviour towards me. The undercurrent of hostility
was there, again, although I still cannot decide whether they despise or fear
me, or both. Masika Ivanovna alone is good-natured; this is fortunate, since
she serves as chambermaid for the east wing (where my office is located) and
the west (where Uncle dwells). The other two chambermaids, Ana and Helga, share
Laszlo's cold, sour disposition despite their youth.
    Yet I begin to question Masika Ivanovna's sanity. There is a strange air of
unpleasantness in this castle, no doubt due to the resentment of the servants
and Uncle's odd habits, and I suspect that decades of service here would work
on a peasant's superstitious mentality. After I introduced myself to the servants
in the main wing and retired to Father's office to work for some time, Masika
Ivanovna appeared - to perform her daily tasks, I assumed. She made a show of
dusting all the furniture, then lingered uneasily, for so long that finally
I interrupted my work to ask whether she had something to say.
    At that, she paused and her expression became troubled, as though she was struggling
to make a difficult decision. Finally she lowered her dust-rag, went over to
the half-open door, and peered nervously down the gloomy corridor as if expecting
to find someone hiding in the shadows. She then repeated the process by peering
out the