Chapter Sixty-eight

 

 

The Servants

 

 

In the households of the wealthy, the masters give small consideration to the needs, wants, or dreams of the servants. It is the servants of the two, then, who more closely follow and scrutinize the actions of the other. From this they learn to decipher the code of gestures, posture, and facial expressions displayed by their superiors. A good servant, then, can read the master like a book, and at times even anticipate what the master is thinking. The manor servants of Balducci’s household were of this caliber. Balducci, due to his haughty nature, was easily read by his servants; predictably demanding and scornful of others. Balducci’s mother, Lady Alda, and his sisters, Celia and Cosima, were also haughty, but to a lesser degree. This and the fact that they existed in a constant state of rivalry, often forming ever changing alliances of two against the one, made them a shade more difficult to read than Lord Balducci. Nevertheless, the servants of the household had become quite adept at manipulating this triangle of aristocratic females while simultaneously dodging the crossfire of their bickering. The pecking order of the house, therefore, was Balducci first, and the mother second, unless Celia and Cosima had happened to form an alliance against Lady Alda which would cause Lady Alda to wither with distress and temporarily shrink from prominence.

The entrance of Mala and Duxia, threw the servants into a state of confusion. They had at first expected the new wife to slip into the family hierarchy beneath Lady Alda. It soon became evident that Mala refused to defer to the manor matriarch. This meant that Lady Mala had unseated the mother and was now in second position, which caused a stir that lasted for months. Lady Alda felt Mala to be inferior, as did Celia and Cosima.

Duxia caused even more chaos for the servants who had at first expected that the old woman would take her place at the very bottom of the family chain. Soon they began to realize that Lady Mala and her aunt were tightly bound in a formidable alliance of their own, one that did not change from week to week or month to month… which meant that old Duxia had also dislodged Lady Alda, as well as the two sisters. Then the unthinkable occurred. With time the servants gradually began to perceive that it was Lady Mala, with the guidance and counsel of old Duxia, who actually appeared to be directing Lord Balducci.

Further complicating this situation was the fact that, unlike the four Balduccis, Mala was nearly impossible to read. To begin, she was neither haughty nor scornful to the help, therefore dissimilar to all aristocrats they had previously experienced. Furthermore, Lady Mala said very little to anyone except her aunt and displayed little emotion, which kept them guessing the state of their service and wondering whether she was pleased or displeased with them. And finally, they were so confounded by the fact that Lady Mala could manage to drive Lord Balducci with the simple movement of her brow that they became somewhat fearful of her though she never once threatened or mistreated them. They also became fearful of old Duxia, who said little to them but developed the habit of daily watching their every move with hawkish attention, as though probing for misdeeds.

Change, like a stone thrown into a pond forces ripples across the surface, the arrival of Mala and Duxia caused great speculation and chatter among the servants of the Balducci manor. This chatter was, of course, exchanged with visiting coachmen who would then pass along what they had heard to the servants of their own respective estates, and occasionally to the masters themselves. Consequently, Lady Mala and Duxia became favorite subjects of discussion within the staid existence of the manor servants throughout Tuscany since they were new arrivals. More interestingly, the two possessed unusual backgrounds… in other words, they were foreigners and, like the servants, were commoners. Mala and Duxia, then, served as living examples of peasant fantasies come true for many of these people, especially the women.

Embellishment is a required ingredient in the exchange of stories if one is to entertain others, so many of the female servants began to romanticize Duxia’s and Mala’s existence. “Ah, the old bitty is a sorceress and holds unnatural sway over the beautiful Lady Mala,” claimed one woman. “Yes, and I heard that Lady Mala was once an exotic dancer in the court of a great Saracen emperor,” reported another. “No,” another disagreed, “can you not see that she is no commoner at all by the way she carries herself? Indeed, she was born a Saracen princess. She was kidnapped by the Norse, somehow escaped and was working her way back east to Arabia when she was caught in the Alps!”

Each new presumption spread by this servant gossip about Mala was more preposterous than the previous. One common thread that was agreed by all: “There is a strange sadness that lingers over Lady Mala. She spends hours each day sitting in the orchard staring at nothing, lost in reflection. If she truly loved Balducci, she would not drown herself in such solitude. We women recognize that mournful gaze; there must either be a lost or an unrequited love somewhere in her mysterious history.”