Baron
The next morning, Victor Frankenstein was woken by a knock at his door. He had drifted off just after he finished his letter to Ernest. He still wore his dusty travelling clothes, so he went to his trunk and got out some fresh clothes and laid them on the floor, then went to the door.
"My master has instructed me to point out the bathroom to you," said the voice from last night, and when Victor opened the door, a middle-aged man in a smart suit stood there.
"Thank you. Might I ask where I am and who you are?"
"Certainly, sir. You are at Castel Dracula. I am Jean, the Count's butler."
"The Count?" Victor asked.
"Count Vladimir Dracula," Jean replied over his shoulder as he turned away, "if you follow me, sir, you will find the bathroom."
After Victor had washed himself and put on fresh clothes, Jean led him down countless staircases to a breakfast room.
It was large, with a gilded, slightly domed ceiling. The carpets were all crimson and the long table took up half the room. On it was a white satin table cloth and the centrepiece was a huge bronze candelabrum with six candles burning in it.
Sitting at the head of the table was a tall man with dark brown hair. He had finely chiselled features and an aquiline nose, and his eyes were big and dark. He looked up and smiled. Victor was surprised to see that his canine teeth were much longer and sharper that the others.
"Ah, Monsieur Frankenstein," he said, in accented French, "do sit down. What would you like to eat?"
Victor asked for some bread and cheese, then sat himself opposite the Count. They struck up an easy rapport, and while the Count drank what looked like a cup of steaming mulled wine, and Victor ate his breakfast, they spoke at length about their families and history.
"I have no real family," Dracula explained, "my father died when I was very young, and left me this old place. And extensive dental problems. Overly large teeth run in the family, you see."
"I am a Swiss Baron," Victor answered, "but my entire family save my brother have been murdered by a cruel beast."
As he told the story of Adam, Vladimir's expression became more and more unreadable. Eventually, anxious to change the subject, Frankenstein told him:
"You speak excellent French, Count."
"Oh, yes, well...I have no-one to talk to in this lonely house except Jean, and he is French, so he has taught me his tongue."
Victor nodded, and they carried on conversing. They got on so well that they did not notice the young man looking in through the window, and idly playing with a silver crucifix, a crystal bottle and a bulb of garlic hanging from his neck.
