February 6. 1860. Monday

The last few days have been disappointing, all in all.
The day before yesterday, Mia and I went in to town to see some traveling performers. They did all kinds of things, like juggling, dancing, spitting flames. I was convinced that this would amuse her and make the silence between us change. At first, it did. All went splendid. All until the puppetshow started. The plot of the small child’s play was quite simple. Prince goes out to find and rescue the lost princess from the evil magician in the big castle. But during the story, right when the villain entered for the first time, disaster came. The villains name was William. What was worse was that he even looked like her father. And to top it all off, he had a son. An apprentice, named Derek. When this became clear to the both of us, we froze on our seats. We have not yet spoken of it, and I suspect we never will. We just sat there as the villain William marched thru the halls of his castle, in and out of secret passages to escape the prince.
Later that day, she locked herself in her room. She was angry at me and all the way home from the carnival she made sure that was clear to me. The chef went to her room with supper that day. When he got down again, he passed me. It turned out Mia had broken the plate after eating so the chef had to clean it up before he could come down. I was wondering why it took so long.

Yesterday was no different. She was still cross with me and even when I, personally, went to her room with food, she did not say anything more than a cold “thank you.”
For that reason, I had time to reflect then on the puppet show we had seen the day before. I realized that what I had not noticed as much the day before was that the crowd laughed along thru all the villain scenes. And this was not a laugh you can hear from people that has just seen something funny. They recognized something in the villain character. It is an absurd thought, I know that. William was a caring and strong man. The villain was coldblooded and cruel, both to his son and the villagers in the play. If they really knew William, they would never have done such a thing! Especially since that same man had just died, not a month ago.
But it is all delusions, I am sure! William was a kind man. I remember him clearly still from his letters and the last time we met six years ago.

Today, Mia got out at last. She still does not say much, but spends her time in the library, reading about the castle and Hobsford history. I have received an invite from one of the local gentlemen in town for dinner and a cup of tea. I accepted and will go there in a few days time. When I asked Mia to come, she refused on the spot, saying “I do not wish to be bored any further with your clearly horrible ideas of entertanement for me.” Then she shut the door in my face.
If there is anything I have learned, being married to this woman, it is that women have a unique skill of exaggeration and psychological torture.