Bathory's Secret: When All The Time In The World Is Not Enough (Affliction Vampires Book 1) (7 page)

“Alright,” confirmed Oriana picking the book up.

“And Oriana?”

“Yes?” Asked the girl as she was about to close the door.

“Thank you.”

Oriana smiled her beautiful smile and went out into the quickly disappearing night to finally rest.

Five

It was mid-morning when Kati woke up. The forced daytime sleeping was really confusing her body clock. No matter how late she went to bed she could only ever muster three to four hours of sleeping before waking up and even then it was bad quality sleep. She always felt tired. She sat up in her bed and stretched extensively before getting up and washing her face and underarms in her basin. The soiled washcloth on the floor reminded her of Oriana's offer.
I could learn to read,
she thought to herself and wondered if she could take up this wonderful opportunity without being discovered by the Countess.

Looking out her window to the barn she saw that the shutters were closed so the girls were still asleep. If she was going to learn to read, she would have to push herself to make sure that none of her other duties were neglected. Getting dressed quickly, she rushed up the stairs to the west wing eager to get some binding done before having to tend to the girls. Touching her pocket for the key as she constantly did, she was alarmed to find it wasn't there. Her heart started beating very fast and she ran up the stairs and towards the binding room.
I can’t believe I’ve lost the key; she's going to kill me!

She reached the binding room and was relieved to see that the key was in the door where she had forgotten it the night before, and everything inside the room was just as she had left it. The huge wave of relief was felt all over her body as neither the precious key nor the secret journals appeared to be missing or damaged. To her good fortune, no one had seen the key hanging from the lock despite its large iron ring. She took it out of the lock and put it in her pocket. Thinking back to why she hadn’t locked it, she remembered the scream that had led her downstairs.
The scream wasn’t Oriana. Did I dream it?
She often had frightening dreams when she was under pressure but normally they included people she knew. The man at the vegetable market was a frequent inhabitant of her nightmares, though now he seemed small and insignificant compared to the Countess. Removing the key from her pocket once again she locked the door behind her and got to work.

At the chapel bells’ afternoon chime she took a break from her page sewing and went downstairs to check on the girls. She would have to get them up, feed them and help them dress which was quite a time-consuming exercise. The shutters were closed so they were still sleeping. At least they were doing better with the nighttime schedule than she was. Miloš had also followed instructions and had delivered the breakfast trolley which smelled of delicious eggs, bread, meats and some kind of fruit. She could feel her tummy protest.

Gently opening the doors she wheeled the trolley inside and called out to them.

“Good morning girls, it’s time to get up and get ready for class.”

She headed for the fireplace and rekindled the almost dead fire. She then proceeded to open all the shutters as the girls slowly came to.

“It really is incredible how much mess four little girls produce,” Kati said as she collected shed underclothes, bonnets and socks from the floors and bedposts. What she thought was still clean she folded and placed on each girl's trunk and the rest she put aside to wash while they were going to be in lessons.

It was late afternoon by the time they were all ready and Kati diligently escorted them to the Library. As the others ushered in and found their seats Kati pulled Oriana aside.

“I’d love for us to start what we talked about yesterday, if we can,” she whispered into the girl’s ear.

Oriana smiled and nodded frantically, without saying anything else. They all entered the large room and opened their books and began to revise until the Countess arrived. She could come at any moment so they all had to keep busy quietly. Kati cleared the ash in the fireplace and lit a new fire. She wiped down the lacquered tabletop as much as she could considering the girls were sitting around it and left the room as soon the Countess made an appearance. She quickly returned to the barn to finish tidying up after the girls and hastily washed their clothes focusing only on the stained parts. The frequency with which these spoiled girls changed their clothes meant that they weren’t particularly soiled so she could get away with a quick rinse in soapy water.

Hanging them up to dry, she remembered to place a small bowl of water for her little kitten who had seen her and after a languorous stretch and yawn came happily to greet her. Whatever the girls had left from breakfast, which included some very fine sausages, she cut up in tiny pieces and gave to him after having a sneaky bite herself. The sound of his purring soothed her incredibly as did the fact that he looked much healthier since she had started feeding him.

“You’re looking very well Mačka,” she said scratching his ear, which he was particularly fond of.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me I have more work to do.”

Back at the binding room she continued to puncture precise holes in the folds of the journal pages. This part of the binding process was the most time consuming and tedious, followed closely by the sewing of each group of pages to each other to form the basic book shape. Nevertheless it was a job she didn’t mind doing, she found it quite meditative and rewarding when the bunch fattened and began to resemble a book, though a naked one. She truly loved books, despite the fact they were an absolute mystery to her. She had been around them since childhood and had always been told by her uncle that they were very important. She held them in reverence and it pained her to know that she could not decipher their contents.

The last bell told her it was midnight. Conveniently, the castle’s chapel bells rung four times each day: 6:00 am, 12:00 pm, 6:00 pm and midnight as opposed to the three chimes of other chapels, which neglected the midnight ring. This meant that before long the girls would be done. Because it was spring the sun had set early, around 6:30, meaning they had been in lessons for over five hours, so they would soon come out tired and ready for bed.

At some time after 1:00 am Kati abandoned her binding and went to the Library to fetch them. The doors were still closed but she could hear the Countess’s authoritative echo from within. She stood around for a few moments but nothing happened so she sat down on the cold stone floor to wait. There were no Turkish rugs here. Her eyelids felt terribly heavy and she battled to stay awake. Shaking her head worked but only for a few moments. Slapping her cheeks did the same for a few moments more. Biting her tongue also worked but for a little longer still.

***

Opening the door of the great Library the Countess ushered the girls outside. On the ground huddled in a little corner was Katalina fast asleep on the ground.

Furious at this impertinent sight the Countess marched towards her and grabbed her squarely by the roots of her hair. The girl woke instantly and cried out in pain, lifting her body up by Erzsébet’s pull.

“You dare sleep when you’re meant to be working?”

“I’m sorry Your Grace, it’s only been a few moments, I swear!”

The Countess released the girl and simultaneously whacked her in the face with the heavy book she was carrying.

“Take them to their room immediately and return to your binding the moment you are done!”

“Yes mistress,” replied Kati cradling her face.

***

After she helped the girls get undressed and into their nightclothes and then their beds, Kati took another bunch of soiled clothes for washing and left the room. She couldn’t look any of them in the eye; she felt very embarrassed at having been found sleeping and being chastised by the Countess. She hadn't even exchanged any words with Oriana.

Leaving the barn she closed the door behind her, placed the clothes in the basket outside to wash in the morning and returned to her binding. She worked for another hour or two before her weariness was too strong to ignore and wondered whether she should just go to bed or take a walk outside to wake up a bit. It was obviously very important to the Countess that she change her sleeping schedule so she was going to try to teach her body to stay up at night. She decided to go to her room, wash the sleep out of her eyes, and take a walk in the yard. It was really beautiful at this time, the air was crisp and the moon shone.

When she lit the candle on her bedside table she was greeted by the sight of Oriana on her bed once again.

“Oriana, what are you doing here?” She shook the girl awake.

She opened her eyes and yawned, slowly adjusting to the change. “I came for our lesson,” she said through another yawn.

“Really? You’re not afraid the Countess will find us?”

“Did she hurt you earlier?” Her eyes were filled with genuine concern.

Kati touched her face instinctively and felt pain all across her cheek. Looking in her little mirror she saw that the upper part of her cheek was red and the fine skin under her eye was starting to blacken.

“Oh my, I hadn’t looked at myself before now.”

“She’s very mean,” pouted Oriana.

“I deserved it; I fell asleep when I shouldn’t have.”

“She didn’t have to beat you for it, though. I’d leave right away if she ever did that to me.”

Kati didn’t want to remind the naïve girl about the difference in their stations in life. She was grateful to just have someone to talk to.

“Maybe she was just tired. And besides, I was being disobedient,” she said trying to reassure her. “Should we start our lesson now, or are you too tired?" She hoped that Oriana would be up for it. She had forgotten all about her fatigue at this point and was dying to get started.

“No, I’m not tired, there is always time to study His words. With all these Lutherans about, we need to spread his true words to as many people as possible.” Kati was vaguely aware of the Protestant wave that was sweeping through Europe at this time, but it wasn’t something she had thought much about. All she knew of it was through village gossip. Her ignorance left her in a position where she would just follow the crowd as the number of Protestants in the area grew. It didn’t really make a difference to her who won, but in this case Oriana’s fervent Catholicism was proving very useful to her.

“You’re sure she won’t find us and be mad at you?” Oriana asked concerned about Kati being disciplined again.

“We’ll be very quiet and make sure that we keep the lessons short to an hour or two so that we can both get some rest afterwards.” The Countess's rage was the last thing on her mind at this time. Her fatigue having dissipated, she was feeling brave and it was a risk she was prepared to take for books.

“Very well, let’s begin. I’ve brought you my second bible so that we can read together.”

Moving in front of the fireplace the two girls sat on the floor. Kati listened very carefully as Oriana explained.

“There are twenty six letters in the alphabet, and in writing words are made up of a series of letters.”

She wrote out the letters on a blank piece of paper.

“You’ll need to learn these very carefully in order to proceed. The first letter is ‘A’ and depending on the word it can sound a little different every time…”

For the next two hours, Oriana taught Katalina each word and the sounds it made giving her examples in both Latin and Hungarian as well as Slovak, trying to help her understand as much as possible. She then wrote down the first sentence of the book of Genesis on another blank sheet.

“Can you try and read that back to me?”

Kati stared at the text with a mixture of terror and excitement.

“I…n principio c-c-creavit Deus ca-elum, et ter-ram?” She stumbled on a few of the letters only momentarily.

“That’s very good,” smiled Oriana with an authoritative style that was a little unfitting to her age. “‘
In
principio’, and ‘
creavit’
, but the rest you read quite well.” Leafing to the first few pages of her bible she explained. “This is the book of Genesis, it describes how God created the world. What you just read means, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’”

Katalina smiled wide, she had just read her first ever words! She was beside herself with joy.

“More, give me more!” She pleaded eagerly.

Oriana wrote some more words on the paper in large clear letters.

“Try this.”