BELLRAM

Meia impatiently tapped the carpet repeatedly with the toe of her shoe. Now she was really starting to be late. The party officially began at 19:00. As she had seen on the pendulum clock downstairs, it was already after 19:00. The courtyard was already full of guests. As usual, Meia was the only one who was late, even though she had been the first to arrive. Mr Monet must have been waiting for her too, but instead of hurrying, she stood around waiting herself.

Meia still had Rujell's spherical lamp in her hand. She herself had the same one at home. If you turned a gear in the base, a spark would strike the wick and the lamp would light up. If you turned the lid, you could take it off and refill the oil. As Meia could smell, a vanilla scent was added to this oil. The lamp was a bathroom accessory. If you put it into the bath, it did not sink. If you accidentally pushed it away with your foot, it did not go out. That Meia had the same one meant nothing. It was a popular model. That Meia looked at it so closely meant nothing either. She just had nothing else to do at the moment.

After about a minute, the door opened again.

The two maids came back into the hallway.

Rujell stopped in front of Meia.

"Miss Arvis, I apologise for the inconvenience. My colleague will now attend to you immediately."

Rujell tugged Lijeux in front of her with a firm grip on her forearm. Lijeux followed with ponderous steps until she stood in front of Meia. Since she had been out of the door, she had hung her head and shoulders and looked sorely afflicted. At first she was silent and said nothing, but then she suddenly jerked up and straightened.

"Miss Arvis, my colleague explained to me clearly that it is necessary for me to behave in a manner befitting of the house towards you. I would like to apologise to you from the bottom of my heart for my past misbehaviour and hope that you will continue to allow me, as an apprentice, to be of service to you."

Meia was slightly shocked. She seemed changed. She looked like a child who had been forced by her father to apologise to the residents of this house because while throwing stones at the roof she had accidentally broken a window, which could not be denied because the housemaid had seen it, because she was always somewhere.

"It's all right."

"Would it be satisfactory for us to go to your room now to change your clothes, or do you have another wish you would like me to fulfil beforehand?"

"No, but can we hurry now?"

"Of course. Please follow me."

With an inviting hand gesture, Lijeux pointed in the direction they would walk, as if she had learned something from her colleague after all.

~What did she do to her?~

During her apology, Rujell listened attentively and nodded contentedly at several points, but every now and then also looked briefly as if she was considering whether she would have to take out the stick again after all. This impression, however, could also be due to her generally stern appearance. Meia was not sure.

In the end, Rujell left it at that. She said goodbye with a curtsy and headed off in the other direction, probably back to the trolley.

"Stupid cow." Lijeux grumbled, even before she had disappeared completely behind the corner. Still, it was not brave, for it was so quiet that even Meia could hardly hear it.

~Didn't last that long.~

Meia and Lijeux walked on in silence. After some time, they came to the strange corridor arch again. This time Lijeux behaved differently from the last time. She went straight to a particular door, opened it a little and leaned into the room.

"Ah! In the door... Yes, but in the room. How am I supposed to know that? This way anyone can get in."

Casually, Lijeux pushed the door open until the handle came to a wall as she walked into the room.

The room door here opened inwards, but did not extend all the way into a room. As with the tree room, a short tunnel led through a thick wall.

"I hope your stuff hasn't been stolen," Lijeux grumbled as she was about to turn on the light.

"As if anyone would steal here," Meia commented as she passed her.

Meia came to the corner of a room. The first thing she noticed was that the room was rectangular, although the corridor in front of it curved. The two sides of the tunnel were of different lengths. The house had offcuts in the inner walls to compensate for the curvature of the corridor. Only someone who was too rich would think of having a rectangular room built onto a round corridor. Only someone who was too rich would have a round corridor built in the first place. After all, the building was rectangular as well.

Meanwhile, Lijeux was still closing the door and talking even as he did so. "Unfortunately it happens. Sometimes my uniform disappears and then at some point it is suddenly back in my wardrobe, as if nothing had happened. But I know very well that someone had it. The traces have been removed, but I can tell it's been washed." While talking, she tapped towards her. "Between you and me, I'm afraid I also know who is responsible because I know the smell of the detergent." Lijeux, shifting his weight on one leg, leaned forward over her shoulder from behind and whispered in her ear with a hand held out, "It's Rujell. I think she's from the other side of the river."

~I don't even know if we're all standing on the same river.~ After all, she had meant she was a man earlier, and the other was asking a guinea pig to judge her appearance.

To escape her proximity, Meia took a step forward.

By the insinuation, Lijeux probably meant that Rujell was attracted to women. That would certainly be unusual. Meia could not quite believe it either. She did not seem like that. Although Meia did not really know how such a woman would seem. But at least in books, such women were always rather easy-going and you noticed it immediately. On the other hand, maybe that was on purpose, so that the reader would notice it at all? Regardless of everything, Meia could not imagine Rujell stealing her uniform.

"Doesn't that just mean she washed your uniform?"

Beside, Meia looked at her room. Down the wall to the left were many wardrobes, all the way through the back was an opulent four-poster bed. The wall straight ahead was full of windows. Down the wall to the right was almost nothing, but a mirror, a dressing table and a chest of drawers stood close to the first window. All in all, there was rather little furniture in relation to the size of the room. Meia would call this room a bedroom and dressing room. There was not much else to do here. There was no desk or anything similar.

The most unusual thing was probably that there was a wooden partition. At the moment it was pushed wide open, but if you wanted to, you could divide the room in two. The partition did not go up all the way to the ceiling. The part above it that was was occupied by an ornate wooden grille. In a way, the room therefore already felt divided.

"That's very naive. Why would she wash it?" Lijeux moved closer again. "I'll give you a hint, you'd best watch out around her. She'll try to touch you. Just now she pinched my butt. Did you not notice that? And do you remember that I knew she wanted to massage you? Why do you think she offered you that? She wanted to touch you and depending on how you reacted, she would have offered you something else. That's how she always does it, because this way no one notices that she's not normal. But I know."

Meia had realised she had pinched her and the massaging thing made sense as well. At the latest, that would probably put the romance theory out of the window.

"It would be better if she just asked."

"She can't, because then everyone would find out her secret. Rujell is not her real name. She's already lost her real name. Even though she's an only child, her parents disinherited her. They found out what their daughter was doing and threw her out for it. No daughter is better than the wrong one. They had no choice. She corrupts others. They say if you're around her too long, you become like her. Are you not corrupted yet?

Meia had already thought that it was not her real name. Who would name their child after a brand of pralines?

"Not really."

"Is that so... Well you have not seen her kissing a woman yet. I was given the hint that if you see it, you'll be corrupted immediately."

"Sounds silly."

What was interesting about women anyway? Women were... It was hard to describe, but boiled down, Meia would miss the muscles and also the voice and also other things that were potentially interesting. But there was nothing interesting about women at all. Meia would say it was like with the flowers. Sure women were beautiful, but they were also beautifully boring.

"Is the truth, though." Light-footed, Lijeux pranced past her. "Anyway, it's good that it's not her helping you, but me." She stopped in front of her and after a turn on her heel grinned at her. "Let's get you changed then."

.../ End Part