13 13I woke up to see Prima standing in the doorway, saying my name and Tilly’s. It was already bright and I had a feeling that we had been asleep for a very long time.
I pulled Tilly’s arm to wake her up and we both sat up in bed.
‘This is it,’ said Tilly. ‘She’s waking us up so that we can start work. If one of us has to clean those stinky toilets, how about we do rock-paper-scissors to decide who escapes?’
‘That’s sooo not fair,’ I said. ‘You always win when we do rock-paper-scissors.’
‘You can’t blame me for being lucky,’ she said. ‘I –’
She stopped talking as Prima beckoned to us to get up.
The night before, Tilly and I had thrown our clothes in a heap on the floor. I looked at my dirty, crumpled uniform and really didn’t fancy another day of wearing it.
As I bent down to pick up my skirt, Prima clapped her hands and instantly a slave was beside us. Prima said something to her and the girl gathered up all of our dirty clothes and put them into a basket.
Then Prima brought us into her room and she opened a big wardrobe. Clearly she was a very spoiled girl, as the wardrobe was stuffed with clothes.
Tilly made a face. ‘Where’s the fun in having a gazillion outfits if they’re all exactly the same?’
She was right. All of Prima’s clothes seemed to be long tunic-type dresses in various not-very-exciting colours. Some were decorated on the hem, but most were plain.
Prima seemed to be waiting for a reaction.
‘Wow!’ I said.
‘OMG!’ said Tilly.
I considered we were pretty good actors, as I’ve seen better collections of clothes in the scabby old charity shop at the end of our road.
Prima pulled out a few tunics and held them up to us.
‘What do you think?’ asked Tilly. ‘Should I wear the grey or the grey?’
I punched her lightly on the arm. ‘Don’t be such an ungrateful little slave,’ I said.
In the end, Prima gave us each a pale green tunic. She also gave us each a belt to tie round our waists.
‘Totally cool,’ said Tilly. ‘Not.’
As I put on the clothes, I felt like I was getting dressed up for a school play, and I half expected to see Mrs Simms fussing about, asking if I’d learned my lines properly.
When we were dressed, Prima sat us on her bed and took a wooden box from her wardrobe. When she opened it, Tilly and I gasped – and this time we weren’t faking it.
The box was piled high with bangles and neck-pieces.
‘These are all made of silver,’ I said, as I ran my fingers along one beautiful bracelet.
Tilly let a delicate chain slide through her fingers. ‘If we brought one of these home, we could make a fortune,’ she said.
‘Tilly!’ I said, shocked. ‘That would be stealing.’
‘Would it? Maybe I’d be helping the study of world history. And Prima wouldn’t even miss one bangle – she’s got heaps.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t have anything to do with it,’ I said primly. ‘Handling stolen goods is wrong.’
‘Don’t touch me then,’ said Tilly. ‘I am stolen goods, remember?’
I leaned over and touched her arm and Tilly pointed at me accusingly – ‘Criminal, criminal,’ she chanted.
We were both laughing by now, thinking we were being very funny.
Then Prima leaned over and touched Tilly’s shoulder. ‘Cri-ni-mal,’ she chanted, smiling.
Clearly she thought we were playing some weird game, or engaging in some kind of tribal dance from our native land.
The three of us chanted until our throats were sore, and then we collapsed on to Prima’s bed, laughing.
When we had recovered, Prima reached into her jewellery box and picked out two silver bangles. She held them towards Tilly and me.
‘Do you think she wants us to clean them for her or something?’ asked Tilly.
Before I could answer, Prima gave each of us a bangle.
‘Wow,’ said Tilly. ‘I wish we knew the Latin for thank you.’
But we didn’t, so we both smiled and tried to use our faces to show how grateful we were.
Then I had an idea. I held my own charm bracelet towards Tilly. ‘Help me to take off a charm,’ I said. ‘I’d like to give one to Prima.’
‘Which one?’
I had to think for ages. Each charm told a story and seemed to be part of my life. I ran my fingers over the medal Mary had given me, the cat that reminded me of Saturn and the tiny Titanic. Finally I settled on the small silver flower with the tiny yellow crystal in the centre.
‘But your mum and dad gave you that,’ said Tilly.
‘I know. But they’ll understand – I think.’
Tilly unclipped the charm and we slipped it on to one of Prima’s chains. I held it towards Prima and she took it and fastened it round her neck.
‘Benigne,’ she said.
‘Benigne,’ said Tilly and I together, pointing to our new bangles.
Then Prima indicated that we should go and eat, and we followed her from the room.
‘I wonder what we’re going to do today,’ I said, as we followed Prima across the courtyard.
Tilly shrugged. ‘Who cares? Prima’s let us sleep near her. She’s given us her clothes and her jewellery. She’s not going to make us act like real slaves after all of that. She’s treating us like friends. So let’s enjoy ourselves.’
I knew she was right and I felt very happy and adventurous as we joined the rest of the family for breakfast.