Julie Sanders

13 Beach Street

24th December

Dear Jules,

I havent had a letter since the last time you wrote to me which was before I wrote to you but I thought I would write to you anyway. Its Xmas day tomorrow and I'm really excited. We got a turkey and its defrosting in the kitchen. Its really big and my mum says it was the biggest in the shop and I believe her. She always buys the biggest one she can find and we always ends up eating turkey for a week but she's really good at using up leftovers so it dont get boring. Well not much anyway. Yesterday I helped my mum ice the Xmas cake and the marzipan was really thick the way I likes it. Marzipan is my favourite bit of the whole cake. My dad dont like it so I usually gets his because the others can either take it or leave it. I'm the only one whose really mad about it. The trees been up for days already and its really beautiful. Of course the lights didnt work when dad first tried them and they never do but it was just because there was a couple loose bulbs. We got decorations everywhere. I got some make-up for Sharon and a CD for Kirsty and the usual socks for my dad. My mums more difficult but I think she'll be happy with the gloves I bought her. All that cleaning down the social club plays havoc with her hands and although she's alright in the house she dont like going out in the street without gloves on. I wonder what I'm going to get.

Keith came round last night to see Sharon and they started arguing and then Sharon says that you are going to come over here and give him a good thrashing and Keith says him and whose army. I told Sharon what you wrote and she said that she wouldnt tell Keith so I was as surprised as anyone when she told him. Keith says that if you still wants your windows cleaned you can forget it. He wouldnt clean your windows if they was the last ones on earth. I think he means it. After all that shouting and arguing they went for fish and chips and I think it is back on between the two of them but I think she could do better. She is very pretty in her own way.

I dont think your typical day was boring. I was really interested about what you eats and about rolling in the morning dew. I told my dad and he says the lot of you need your heads examined but he's like that. If theres anything new or different he cant accept it. If anyone does something he dont agree with he says they needs their head examined so dont think it is just you. We dont have a lawn and anyway there are lots of houses overlooking our back yard and I dont think the neighbours would like it. I wouldnt mind trying it but not if someone was looking and I'd be a bit scared about worms and things. Sharon says that she'd like to try it because she thinks it might be good for her skin. She is always looking for things that are good for her skin.

I told you I would tell you what a normal day is with me so here goes.

I gets up about eight or half past and haves a cup of tea while I watches morning telly. Sometimes I eats a slice of toast. Then I does a bit of cleaning because we dont have a cleaner like you not even once a week and then I has a coffee with some biscuits and watches a bit more telly. There are lots of really good shows on in the morning and you can really learn a lot. This morning I saw a programme on how to make stain glass windows. It was really interesting. I eat whatever I can find for lunch. I'm not fussy. Beans on toast or a steak and kidney pie or anything there is. Today I had chips. Usually in the afternoon I does some alterations or if I dont have none to do I walks around town looking in the shops. When I comes home mum has usually got a meal ready and we eats about five o clock and then we watches telly for the rest of the evening.

Thats a typical day for me and when I writes it down it dont seem like much but I am always busy. My mum tells me to slow down and take it easy because she thinks I am doing too much but I likes to keep busy.

The Comtesse Jacqueline de Montfort seems very interesting. I dont know why but when you wrote about her I felt really jealous and got stomach cramps. What is she like. Is she pretty. I bet she wears tiaras and things and long dresses and speaks with a really posh accent. Not like me. I talks really common. I know I does but so does everyone else round here. Do you have any photos of her and if you do could you send me one and could you get her to sign her autograph on it. I would really like to see how she looks. I bet she's got some really beautiful dresses. When she sleeps over does she roll in the morning dew with you and your family. She sounds very nice and I am sure we would get along together.

I'm surprised you dont have a girlfriend. I dont know why I am surprised because I dont have a boyfriend and that dont surprise me at all. If you had a girlfriend what would she look like. What sort of girls do you fancy. I bet you like blondes. What colour hair does the Comtesse Jacqueline de Montfort have. I bet she's got dark hair like me or even darker.

You talks a lot about your brothers and sisters but you dont say nothing much about your parents. What does your dad do. I'd be really interested to know. I'm going to try and catch the four o clock post. I hope to hear from you very soon.

With affection,

Julie

Jules Lablagues xx

Chateau Lablagues

2nd January

Dear Julie,

Let me take the opportunity to wish you a very happy new year. I hope it will be the best one you have ever experienced.

The mail delivery has been somewhat disjointed and your last letter, sent before Christmas, has only just arrived. I missed hearing from you for so long and wondered whether everything was well with you and your family. Your letter arrived just an hour ago and I have been reading it, over and over again, ever since. I almost know it by heart. A letter from you is the high point of my week and the time in between letters passes so slowly. My days are spent waiting to hear from you again and I am getting very little else done. In your letter you wrote of your preparations for Christmas and I hope everything went as wall as expected. Our Christmas was the best one ever although I received thirteen egg-timers and I already have many from previous years. One was in the form of a mute swan and it has replaced the one I habitually use. My presents were well received and nobody was forgotten.

The two brothers surpassed themselves this year and we have never dined better. We remained at the table for more than six hours yet the menu was so well balanced that I was still able to enjoy the petits fours with coffee, by the fire, before going to bed.

I am sorry you became jealous when I wrote about Jacqueline but you must not be. She is really like a sister to me and the love I have for her does not diminish the love I can feel for others. On the contrary. I find that love needs company in order to multiply.

You are mistaken in how you picture a Comtesse. Jacqueline frequently wear jeans and a T-shirt and she does not even own a tiara or, if she does, it is only a very small one. She works very hard for a charity that gives help and support to the descendents of the Royal victims of the Revolution. She hosts parties that her friends pay to attend and any profits go to those in need. This takes up a great deal of her time. I have been to several of her parties and they are always well attended. Her chef is a genius. Each time I am amazed by what this one man, with a few helpers, is able to produce and I wonder how he is able to do it for the price we pay, yet Jacqueline assures me that there is always a fine profit.

You asked about my parents. My father goes to the city, late morning, most days and attends meetings. He is a director on many boards and is kept very busy. After the meetings lunch is provided in the directors' dining room and, towards the end of the afternoon, when the meal is over, he drives home. His job is very tiring and so he sleeps and we awaken him in time for the aperitif before dinner.

My mother is equally as busy, having such a large house to run. Shopping takes up much of her time. Some days she makes up to eight trips to town for various items. There is always something that is needed.

That is all I can tell you about my parents. They are good people but unfortunately they seem to argue a lot although, surely, it takes two to argue. If this is, indeed, the case they never argue. When my mother berates my father he merely looks concerned but says nothing. He refuses to become involved. This does not stop my mother from screaming endless accusations at him and uttering recriminations for having married him. Her behaviour escalates when we have visitors and she has caused much embarassment for people who did not know her well. I have seen her make people so scared that they would leave the house without saying goodbye. As a child she wanted to be an actress but her authoritarian father insisted she became a physicist or a brain surgeon. Her heart was only in acting but she obediently commenced to study medicine. Soon after she commenced her studies, however, she married my father and he insisted that she gave up a promising career in order to attend to the demands of domesticity. She has never forgiven either man but her father is now dead and so my father has to bear the brunt of her angry frustration. She never, in my opinion, left the acting career behind but has remained an amateur thespian all her life. To see her sometimes is to witness a fine actress interpret a bitter emotional scene from a Shakespearean tragedy. Her tirades, if written down, would grace any of the Bard's greatest works.

You ask me what kind of girl I fancy and I find it difficul to reply. I suppose I would have to say someone like Jacqueline but who I did not know so well. We have no secrets from each other and it is the unknown in a person that creates interest. As you can see from the photograph I am sending you, taken last summer when our families went on holiday together, she is not particularly beautiful but she has a good heart. It is not the physical side of a girl that attracts me so much as her spiritual side. I value kindness, tolerance and the ability to empathise with those less fortunate more than a shapely figure and a pretty face. As for hair colour, I have a photograph of you in front of me and I find your hair to be beautiful.

New Years Eve was spent with the Montforts as usual. There were more than 200 people and it was all a bit too much. It was a night of excess and I am still feeling the effects. I hope to hear from you soon.

With affection,

Jules