Chapter 9 Summary and Analysis
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All analysis is based on the text of the chapter itself.
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Summary
After their time in the bathing chambers, Marion, Irene, and Evie embark on an extensive tour of the House. They begin on the first floor in the kitchen, a bustling space filled with ovens, worktables, and a courtyard hothouse that grows vegetables and fruit trees. The head chef, a tall, starved-looking man, barks orders at his staff while his hands are covered in blood. Irene explains that the chef often requires the bloodmaids' talents in the kitchen, hinting at the House's reliance on blood as a resource.
From the kitchen, they move to a small room that resembles a cross between a parlor and a physician's office. There, they find Evie's elder sister Elize sitting in an armchair, being bled by a servant. Elize wears a black velvet dress with one sleeve folded back, exposing the crook of her elbow. A needle is inserted into her arm, and blood flows into a bowl on the table. She calmly nibbles on chocolate-stuffed pastries, and a white cat named Theodore sleeps in her lap. Irene explains that bloodmaids are fattened with pastries and cream to keep them from fainting and to make their blood taste sweet. Elize, speaking softly, warns Marion that the hard part comes after the blood is spilled, and she mentions the upcoming etiquette classes with Madame Boucherie, whom she clearly dislikes.
Evie introduces Marion to Elize and Theodore. Elize reveals that the whole House is talking about Marion, and that Lisavet took a liking to her blood the previous night. Evie speculates that Marion might unseat Cecelia as the First Bloodmaid, noting that Cecelia looked perturbed when she returned to her chambers. Irene firmly cuts off this line of conversation, and they move on.
They pass through the rest of the kitchen, past roaring ovens and racks of curing meat, and enter the finishing room, which looks more like a salon than a kitchen. Tables hold half-finished confections and a spread of meats, including barely seared steaks and baked fish. A kitchen maid places a small pitcher of blood on a tea tray next to the cream and sugar. Irene explains that the Countess takes her tea with blood.
They then climb to the proper first floor and enter a wide loggia. A marble path leads across a courtyard and into a large glass greenhouse filled with date palms and fig trees, a structure Marion has only read about. They pass the greenhouse and the entrance to an overgrown labyrinth that rambles toward the cliff's edge. Re-entering the House through a side door, they cross into the gallery, a cathedral-ceilinged room crowded with dozens of marble statues. Irene notes that Mae likes to play fox and hound there, and that the space is terrifying at night.
Marion examines a statue of a young bloodmaid wearing only a choker, with her arms extended and wrists upturned as if ready for bleeding. This reminds her of the previous occupant of her room, and she wonders if the tooth she found beneath the bed belonged to that girl, and if she carved the word