Letter 14

Carmen Ortega to Elías Ruiz

1st September 2002 (from Pueblo)

Dearest Elías

The most incredible thing happened the day after I sent my last letter. I was getting ready for work when there was a bang on the door. I opened it to see Don Esteban standing with an excited look on his face. He ushered me outside and I saw a crowd standing around the village square. I followed Esteban to the square to see a man dressed in what looked like medieval-style clothes standing on a big wooden box, standing next to another tiny man also wearing really strange clothes. As I arrived I saw more people heading down the path towards us, and soon it seemed like the entire village had arrived.

When everyone had arrived the taller man began to speak and even the children were quiet, probably expecting a magic show or something. It wasn't until the short man introduced himself that I remembered who he was. His name is Salazar, and he's the castellan of the castle just outside our village. But it's really strange, because I've lived in Pueblo my entire life and the castellans have NEVER been seen in the village before. We don't have any access to the castle and it just kind of sits there, fading into the background. But we are aware that people live there, living luxurious existences while we work below.

So the Castellan told us that he was going to donate a whole load of money to the village to help us out and the guy with him, who he called Lord Saddler, had come to help us with the regeneration of our town. He was wearing what looked like a priest's gown, but he certainly wasn't a Catholic priest. Apparently he's just an eccentric nobleman from Madrid who's interested in national humanitarian projects.

So Salazar went on to explain that his donation would be funding a mining project into a rediscovered cave underneath his castle, and that the project would create hundreds of new jobs in the village. Delegation began immediately, with me keeping my job as co-manager of Esteban's farm, but now supervising a huge team to provide food for the specialist team which Saddler says has arrived to direct the exploration. Esteban has basically become wealthy overnight, and I've been given an enormous pay rise. Ana wasn't given her old job at the farm but was delegated to the mining team instead. At first I wasn't happy with that but Saddler explained to us that, as the caves had already been dug out long ago, all they would be doing is exploring what exactly there is there, with the supervision of Saddler's team. His team will make sure everything is completely safe, and they talked about some technology I'd never even heard of which would make the job easy.

So, your proposal means I'm now spoilt for choice. I would like to stay with you again, but this is an extremely exciting time for my village, and I'm going to have to stay here and make the most of this good luck. I hope you understand.

With all my affection,

Carmen.