I had just decided this when I heard the castle door closing below me, and this told me that the Count had returned. He did not come into the library straight away, so I went carefully to my own room. I saw the cCount in my room, and he was making the bed. This was strange, but only made me more certain of what I had thought for a while. There are no servants in the house. Later I stood behind the door which was slightly opened, and he was laying the table in the dining room. Then I was absolutely sure.

If the Count himself does all the jobs of a servant, this proves that there is no one else in the castle. So it must have been the Count himself who drove the coach that brought me here. This is a terrible thought, for it means that the Count can control the wolves, as he did, by just holding up his hand for silence. Why was it that all the people at Bistritz and on the coach were so terribly afraid something bad would happen to me? Why had they given me the crucifix, the garlic, the wild rose, the mountain ash?

Bless that good, good woman who put the crucifix round my neck! It gives me comfort and strength whenever I touch it. It is odd because I have been taught to think badly of it, and as something which has no proper place in religion. But it helps me so much in this time of loneliness and trouble.