Author's Note: Thanks to MathGeoArtFab, Clara Spencer, and Prin rox for following this story.
THE CASTLE IN THE SWAMP
Chapter 10
Michael was already at the meeting point, when Yuliya arrived.
"You really came back," he said in disbelief.
Yuliya repeated what she'd said so often the previous day, "I promised."
"You might have thought you didn't need to keep a promise to an animal."
The pain in his eyes was more noticeable than ever. Yuliya shrugged.
"You're not an animal. I'm not sure what you are but definitely not an animal."
"Thank you … I think." Michael's mouth twitched, as if he tried not to laugh at what she'd said. "Shall we go in?" he asked.
Yuliya followed him as he led her to the entrance of his underground castle. She stepped onto the flagstone that took them down. She closed her eyes as he requested. She still felt the descent in the air that rushed past her. There was an increasingly stronger smell of earth, a scent that was discernible in every room of the castle in varying degrees, though nowhere as strong as here.
They finally arrived and stepped off the stone and into the entrance hall.
"Welcome again to Altena Castle," Michael said. "I'm glad you're back."
"You'll change your mind soon. I'm planning on doing more cleaning." She laughed.
"Why?"
"If you're going to eat that rubbish in the kitchen, you're going to be unavailable for a considerable time each day and I 'm not going to sit down twiddling my thumbs. I know I could use your library and read but this place looks like a pigsty and neither of us are pigs. And don't you give me that animal line again."
"No, I'm not an animal. I'm a beast, a creature of the swamp that lives by eating and drinking its filth. I'm-"
"Stop! You're not a beast either. You look like one, but you are not some mindless swamp thing. You act and talk like a gentleman, you have intelligence. As I have said before. I don't know what you are, but I know you're not a beast. Beasts don't talk and definitely don't read books."
He smiled fleetingly. Her defence of him, her anger because he said that he was a beast amused him.
"Okay, I'm not a beast. I'm not a man either, though. I still belong here, in this swamp."
She had no arguments to counter that, nothing more to say, so he took her hand and kissed it.
"See you at midday," he said and left her at the door of her bedroom.
He went to the library to read a bit and let her get on with cleaning his castle. After an hour he suddenly put down his book.
She didn't shudder when I touched her. She didn't pull her hand away when I kissed it. She's not just being kind when she says I'm not a beast. She really means it.
The hope that Yuliya could be the girl who would share his loneliness surged up inside him. So strong was it that he had to repeat to himself that it was not all a certainty that she would stay. Yuliya had a family who loved her. Would they let her go? Would she want to leave them?
Despite these thoughts the flame of hope kept burning. For the first time Michael believed that Zinaïda's promise had not been just a lot of hot air. It didn't take him long to make up his mind. He closed his book, put it on the little table next to his chair, and left the library in search of Yuliya.
ooOOoo
The first thing Yuliya had done was check out the rooms downstairs that she had cleaned already, the first ones nearly three weeks earlier. To her surprise and joy every room looked freshly done, as if an army of invisible servants had prevented them from becoming dirty again. Happy that her work seemed to be appreciated she went up the stairs to start on the bedrooms.
The large staircase split in two halfway to the upper floor. Yuliya's bedroom was to up the right hand flight. She knew Michael's was to the left, at the end of the corridor. In the middle, in line with the main entrance was a room with double doors. In front of it, was a little sitting area. The little tables and seats were all in a heap, as if somebody had vented his anger on the inoffensive furniture.
Yuliya put tables and chairs to the side, and started to clear the floor. Among the pieces of a couple of vases and bits of candle lay two elaborate candle holders and a dish in hammered metal decorated with a bacchanalian scene. She put those with the furniture and continued sweeping up the debris. Half an hour later the area looked nearly as pretty as it must have done before it was so rudely disturbed. All it needed were candles for the candleholders, and some flowers though they would be impossible to get.
Next she went to the room across. This was a particularly large bedroom. Yuliya guessed it was the master bedroom, though Michael didn't use it. The furniture wasn't pushed over, but it was strangely bare.
At least there should have been scent bottles, combs, a hand mirror, things like that, she thought.
She heard the creaking of the door but didn't look up from her work, not until she heard Michael's voice.
"You know, if I help you, you'll finish quicker."
Of course he had startled her, but not for long. She turned and threw a duster at him, followed by a damp cloth.
"You can do everything that's too high for me to reach," she said.
Working together they finished the room before lunch. Afterwards Michael followed Yuliya to her next target. This surprised her.
"Isn't this the time you normally eat?" she asked.
"Yes, but I've decided to change my feeding time. Eat a lot one day, eat nothing the next. It gives me a complete day every other day to help you. If you like."
She smiled. "I would love that."
They got into an easy routine. One day they worked together in the morning, he fed in the afternoon, and she didn't see him until the evening meal; the next day they worked together all day long. The evenings though they always spent together, sitting in the parlour talking about all sorts of things, especially books, or they were in the library, reading.
Because they worked together, the work advanced at a faster rate.
"This is such a beautiful place. Why did you let it get into such a bad state?" Yuliya asked one day.
"You're angry when I call myself a beast, but the truth is that I am, and I acted like one. With all the work you've done the place looks a bit like the home I remember from my youth, but it can never be the same."
Michael shook his head. His claw like hand stroked the set of drawers Yuliya had just finished polishing. He remembered how it had looked. The matching vases either side, the china figurine in the middle, the porcelain trinket boxes. He had swiped them all on the floor. He traced the crack in the top drawer. That too had been his doing.
"If you had seen what I have destroyed you would not doubt that I am a beast."
He suddenly felt the warm touch of Yuliya's hand on his scaly arm, the first human touch he had felt since the day he had been cursed. Yes, she had touched him to steady herself going up to the surface, and he had touched her to kiss her hand, but this was different. He hardly dared breathe; he hardly dared move, fearing it was just his imagination. Slowly he turned towards her and saw the gentle smile on her face.
"Perhaps you were a beast once, but you're not now, not really. You only look like a beast, but inside you are not."
"You're sure about that, are you?"
Was she? Yuliya knew it was a question she should be able to answer easily, but the truth was that she didn't know. She had looked at him in that special way that Irina called 'prying', and had seen a fog, with a body trapped inside. A human or a beast? That she couldn't tell. She was not sure what the shape had really been. And yet, shouldn't she know without using her gift?
"Yes, I am," she said, and she hoped she sounded more certain than she felt.
ooOOoo
Only a couple of rooms had not been done yet, but the month had come to an end. Yuliya noticed Michael didn't seem well but he brushed it aside, saying there was nothing wrong with him. That evening he was very quiet again and she asked him for the reason.
"Are you sure you are well? Something is wrong. I can tell."
"It's the last day of your second month," he told her. "Tomorrow you'll go home again."
"Oh. Of course."
She had nothing more to say, and he wasn't sure if he could ask her to stay longer. Again there last evening was spent in silence, each alone with their own thoughts and worries.
The next morning he took her to the surface and asked her again what she wished for.
"I wish that my youngest sister's sweetheart will be not only what she wants but what she needs as well. I'm sure she made a silly wish but she's not a bad girl and I'd like her to be truly happy."
"You didn't wish anything for yourself again," he said, surprised.
"I don't need anything," was her simple answer.
"Could you come back for another month," he suddenly asked, speaking quickly as if he was afraid he might stop halfway through his question.
"Yes, I'll be back tomorrow," she answered and once more she was gone, safely on firm ground without needing to be told.
Her family received her with open arms again.
"Is this truly the end now," her father asked.
"The end was last time, Father," she said. "What I did this past month and what I'll do next month is for myself. I don't need to, I'm not forced or coerced, I'm simply asked and I say 'yes'."
Martin realised his strange daughter would do what she felt was right. He only hoped he wouldn't lose her forever to a beast in a swamp but decided the best course of action was not to talk about her decision to go back. He said this to his wife and to his other daughters when Yuliya was not with them. They agreed.
Martin sighed. Yuliya was a sweet girl, but once she had made up her mind she could be truly stubborn. If they kept harping on it and tried to pressurise her into staying, she would even more surely go. He knew it was a trait she had inherited from him, just like her dark hair and brown eyes.
Yuliya spent a pleasant day with her family. One moment, when Irina asked to talk to her in private, she feared she would have to hear Michael referred to as 'that beast' again, but her sister had something else on her mind.
"Yuliya, I'm expecting a visit from Daniel this evening. He's the man I'm going to marry. I don't want you to 'pry'. It's useless anyway. Nothing you can say will make me change my mind."
"As you wish, Irina. If you're that certain, there isn't much I could say anyway, is there?"
"You're not angry, are you?"
"No, Irina. I'm just worried about you and Annushka. You two are so alike, even if you look for opposite qualities in the men you love."
"I'm nothing like Annushka. I've got both feet on the ground, and she lives with her head in the clouds."
"Yes, and both of you forget there's a big world between those two, but don't worry. I won't pry."
"Thanks Yuliya. You'll like Daniel, I'm sure of it."
That evening Irina introduced Daniel and Yuliya to each other.
"Daniel, this is my sister, Yuliya. Yuliya, this is Daniel, my fiancé. We're secretly engaged. Father wants us to wait before announcing it officially but neither of us wants anybody else."
Yuliya greeted her sister's sweetheart. She had to admit he was good-looking and richly dressed. One thing bothered her though. He looked cool and distant. She could not tell from just seeing him if he really loved her sister.
When Daniel had gone Irina came to sit with her and asked her, "What do you think of him? Isn't he marvellous? He's the only son of a rich merchant and has a successful business of his own as well. He'll be able to fulfil my every wish."
"Does he love you?" Yuliya asked her sister.
"Love is overrated. It doesn't pay the bills," Irina answered.
Now Yuliya worried about the happiness of her second sister. Irina had struck feelings from her life, but Yuliya feared that one day she might regret it.
ooOOoo
