Page 27 of Her Creation

Victoria’s hand cramped in the hidden nook of the dark and dusty stairwell as she furiously added to her notes.

Chapter 9

Log entry

March 1803

Recounting events 1773–1795 Location: Unknown

We are playing Grosstarock, Victoria. Have you played before?” Rosemary asked. “We shall have to form teams of three and rotate dealers.”

“Uh, yes, I’ve played,” Victoria muttered into a tall bird of paradise. She shouldn’t have come and wished to leave.

“We’ll use a seventy-eight card Tarock pack,” Wilhelm said, his voice loud and horrible in the elegant glass conservatory.

“Shall we play for garments?” Rudolph, Wilhelm’s friend, and one of the men that had brought him to the castle, was in attendance at the gathering. The gathering that had been on Friday, like Victoria had remembered.

“We most certainly shall not,” snapped Johanna as she followed behind the young-looking man. “You are making Ida all red again.” She snorted as she followed closely behind the man. Victoria got the impression they must be a pair from the way she teased and followed him.

“I am not all red. Can we not have one gathering wherein the males of our party are not attempting to mount us?” Ida smoothed her black hair into place, though not a single hair had strayed from the elegant updo.

“Ida!” Sophia chastised as she waltzed into the conservatory to meet the rest of the group.

Victoria and Helena had been the first to arrive at Ida’s beautiful mansion. In the carriage, Helena had given Victoria a bit of helpful information on the members of the group. For prim and proper Ida, whose family was incredibly wealthy, it was that, if Victoria wished to make a nice impression, they should arrive early as the hostess absolutely begrudged everyone that didn’t follow the polite guidelines of societal manners. This was quickly followed by informing Victoria that none of the group, including the hypocritical Ida, were truly all that strict about societal guidelines—in private. Publicly, the group acted poised and perfect, as was necessary of their stations.

Helena said Sophia was kind, very well off, and completely consumed with the latest fashions from France. Helena said Victoria would have to work the hardest to earn Sophia’s friendship. Helena had no idea. With her fiancé coercing an affair, it would probably be a bit more difficult than Victoria just taking her to lunch.

Johanna was younger than the others but was arguably the wealthiest of the group. She apparently was a princess of some distant country no one had ever heard of, so they made an exception for her despite her immaturity. Apparently she was completely in love with Rudolph and Emerson, both friends of Wilhelm’s.

Rosemary, who arrived last, was quiet and shy, but hilarious once she opened up, at least according to Helena. She had married into wealth and status but lost her husband after only a year of marriage.

“Well, if not for garments, then we should put a thaler on the table to keep it lively,” Rudolph chirped.

Sophia passed in front of where Victoria stood with Helena and Rosemary on the way to the large circular table in the center of the slightly humid glass room filled with blooming flowers and fronds of green. “Fine with me,” she called ahead.

She paused in her steps when she passed Victoria. The color of her pink dress brightened in contrast to Victoria’s black blouse and matching skirt. Sophia’s flawless skin and sun-drenched hair made her look as if she were a beautiful oil painting come to life.

Victoria’s only piece of color was the small, ivory pin she wore with her mother’s silhouette etched out of bone; an Ouroboros circled the border of the small oval piece she wore clasped at her throat.

“Though perhaps we ought not tempt fortune when some among us can ill afford her,” Sophia added with a nasty smile aimed at Victoria.

“Sophia, behave,” Helena chided, inciting a glare from her friend.

Everyone knew, especially nobles and wealthier families, that Victoria and her father were placed in the Thousand-Sword Castle because they were in the count’s favor, and they could barely afford more than a few servants and staff for the large home.

Sophia’s stare turned wicked. “Of course you would befriend the stray. Lonely, lonely Helena. You do love caring for the wretched, mangy curs, don’t you?” Sophia’s words turned cold and harsh, but they remained quiet enough for the others not to notice. “Say, how is your husband all alone in France without you?” She clicked her tongue. “I forgot; he’s not really alone, is he? How is Leopold?”

Helena’s jaw clenched as she took a step forward until the women were almost nose to nose.

Silent tension filled the glass conservatory, so heavy it finally drew the notice of the others seated around an iron and wood table designed to look like ivy was climbing over it.

“Sophia, my darling, sit next to me. The sight of you in that fluttering, soft gown teases me so.” Wilhelm broke the silence.

Sophia’s harsh stare and thin lips snapped into a smooth, evil smile.

“Victoria, come; you can sit on my other side. Helena, could you be an absolute angel and fetch me a tankard of Dunkles Bier?” Wilhelm added jovially.

Sophia’s smile fell as she stared at Victoria.