Violet's mind raced as she walked up the winding staircase with her friend. Louise had been captured into service by the Count, but her own father had sent her to the castle to work off his debt. Much of this did not make sense to the young girl. Plus, she could not let go of the Count's puzzling words, "This I can take whevever it pleases me...slave." What had he meant by that? Why was he calling her slave? She understood that she was going to be toiling very arduously to relieve her father's debt, but she was no slave...was she?

Louise smiled at Violet as they reached the top of the staircase and pushed open the heavy wooden door with their manacled hands. The Kitchen was off to the left and the Hallway was to the right, so the girls parted ways and went to their respective locations.

Violet trudged through the enormous great room and parlor until she came to the long hallway. She saw a broom and a mop leaning in the corner of a large closet. She quickly grabbed the broom with her shackled hands. While gripping the splintering handle, Violet could hear the tinkering of pots and pans in the kitchen. She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the kitchen and bit her lower lip as she grabbed a dust pan in the other hand. The hallway looked to be very long, and Violet let out a soft sigh as she pushed a stray tress of brown curls from her face. She began sweeping the dusty floor as she continued to contemplate what the Count had meant by his words and why Louise's situation was different from her own.