Judith

Judith is a young vampire servant in Aleksander Dumoulin’s household, entrusted first with helping Esmeralda adjust to life at the mansion and later one of the people left to face an attack there. Her brief appearances mark the household’s changing atmosphere: from a carefully managed welcome, to alarm when Esmeralda disappears, to collective grief after the butler is killed.

Position in the Household

Judith is introduced through service rather than independent action. Aleksander addresses her while arranging Esmeralda’s first hours at the mansion, asking her to take the new arrival to the baths and provide proper clothing. Judith curtsies, her blond hair falling into her face, and answers, “Yes, Master.” The gesture and form of address establish her subordinate place in the household, while the practical task makes her Esmeralda’s first assigned attendant there.

Aleksander describes Judith as young and trusting, and believes she will treat Esmeralda gently and help her feel at home. That description is Aleksander’s assessment, not Judith’s own account of herself. It also sits within a troubling imbalance: Esmeralda is being kept against her will, and Aleksander expects eventually to drink her blood. His instructions that no one beat or bite Esmeralda, that she keep her collar on, and that she not go outside set limits on how she is to be treated without changing her captivity. Judith’s introduction therefore places her inside the household’s system of control, but in the role of a caretaker whom Aleksander expects to be kind.

Caretaking and Esmeralda’s Disappearance

The first task assigned to Judith combines bodily care with an attempt to make the mansion feel livable. Aleksander permits Esmeralda to choose a book from the library, then asks Judith to take her to the baths and find her proper clothes. As the two head down the hall, Esmeralda looks over the walls. Aleksander watches them go and supposes that Judith’s gentleness will help Esmeralda feel at home. The scene gives Judith no spoken view of Esmeralda’s situation; instead, it shows how the master’s expectation of her conduct shapes the role she is asked to perform.

Judith becomes the person who discovers and reports Esmeralda’s escape. A little after midnight, she enters the living room in a panic and calls for Aleksander. She tells him that Esmeralda is no longer in her room, that her collar is lying on the bed, and that the window has been found open. These specific details turn Judith’s alarm into the scene’s first account of what has happened: Esmeralda has left, and the collar that marked her enforced confinement has been removed. Aleksander responds with a pounding heart and asks whether the windows were locked. Judith’s report precipitates his reaction, but the evidence does not establish how Esmeralda got out or whether Judith had been responsible for watching her.

Return to the Mansion

After Aleksander brings Esmeralda back, Judith is among the servants waiting at the entrance with several others. When he sets Esmeralda down, Judith rushes toward her with her hands outstretched. The immediate gesture contrasts with the earlier report of escape: now Esmeralda is physically present again, and Judith moves toward her rather than remaining a distant household attendant. Aleksander orders the servants to tend to Esmeralda, change her clothes, and make sure she does not leave her room. The scene again places Judith within the work of caring for Esmeralda, while making clear that this care remains bounded by Aleksander’s restrictions.

Across these scenes, Judith is repeatedly shown at moments when the household’s treatment of Esmeralda is being put into practice. She is assigned to help her settle in, sounds the alarm when she disappears, and reaches for her when she returns. The narrative does not give Judith a separate explanation of her feelings about Esmeralda or the rules governing the mansion. Her actions nevertheless distinguish the attentive, responsive service Aleksander expects from the coercive conditions he imposes.

The Attack and the Butler’s Death

Judith’s most emotionally exposed appearance comes after the attack on the mansion. Aleksander hears crying from the kitchen and finds Judith and other servants on the floor beside the butler’s body. The butler has been badly wounded, with scratches and bites; Aleksander kneels beside him, recalls that the man had been there throughout his life, and finds no pulse. Judith’s presence among the gathered servants places her within the immediate aftermath of the violence, although the account does not specify what happened to her during the attack.

Her eyes are red from crying when she addresses Aleksander as “Master,” and she adds, “He tried to protect us.” The brief explanation gives the butler’s death a clear context: he was defending the servants. It also shifts Judith from attendant to witness, providing Aleksander with an account of the dead man’s action while she herself is grieving. When she falls into Aleksander’s arms for comfort, the other servants seek one another out. The gesture shows the household’s surviving members turning to one another after a loss; it does not erase the hierarchy established earlier, but momentarily places their shared distress at the center of the scene.

Judith’s appearances thus connect domestic care to the consequences of violence. Initially, Aleksander relies on her to make an unwilling captive more comfortable within his home; later, she reports that captive’s escape, reaches toward her on her return, and mourns beside the servants after the attack. Her role remains secondary, but her specific acts—curtsying, warning, reaching out, and seeking comfort—give the mansion’s household a human scale, showing both its ordinary routines and its vulnerability when violence reaches it.