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Emilia, a gently born Begman girl - fresh from the
Convent of the Unicorn in the capital city, and come to Amber with her
high-ranking Begman uncle, Count Nickolai Odelenski, who has hopes of marrying her off to an Amberite
nobleman (he may be amoral enough to hope she might catch the eye of a
Prince and become his mistress). Emilia, however, has ideas of her own ...
Emilia's an innocent, but not unintelligent. Her besetting fault is her
friendliness - and her habit of getting into scrapes without really meaning
to. Such as the pig in the font at school.
It was a country ramble, you see. And as there was scarlet fever in Bleys
(nb all the dormitories at the Convent of the Unicorn are called after
Amberites), all the nuns were busy. So Corwin and Fiona were told to go off
together - because Eric and Deirdre were in quarrantine, poor things. And
Benedict had exams, being senior. And the others were too small to go on
rambles.
So Corwin and Fiona all paired off, which was such fun, and they had this
lovely, lovely ramble all over the country until they came to this dear little
farmhouse, where they had the sweetest pink pigs, with the curliest tails
ever. And there was one little dear one who was all pale and sicky, and
they said he was the runt of the litter and they were going to kill him and
have him for supper. So of course, Emilia and her chums all screamed, 'No!'
and said they'd buy him. So they named a price which was probably massively
too high, but the girls scrimped and scraped around until we had nearly
enough from their left over tuck money - but they were still short ... so it
looked pretty black for poor darling Snuffles, until Maria Federova fortunately remembered that she had two gold kroner sewed into the leg of
her knickers.
Her mother told her she should always keep them there in case she was ever
robbed, because then she would have something to give the robbers and that
would save her life. But Emilia privately thinks that if robbers saw you
lifting up your skirt and tearing your knickers to pieces, they would get
quite other ideas, don't you?
Anyway, the girls all formed a circle with our backs to her so Maria was
able to rip up her knickers quite comfortably with no-one seeing - apart
from Helene Kurowski, who peeped over her shoulder and got the giggles which
really was just typical.
And that was enough money, so they tied three of their shawls together and
carried the piglet back in that. And they decided to keep Snuffles in the
font overnight because it was quiet and covered. But they completely
forgot that the Bishop was coming to take the Thanksgiving the next morning!
"It was all perfect until the choir started on the Aves. And it must have
been something about the sopranoes must have set him off, because as soon as
the second chorus started, he just started to squeal ... "
Description
Emilia, Countess Rodkonski is etherally fair, with deep golden curls gathered up into an artless knot on the top of her head. A few curls are escaping, however, and tumbling around her heart-shaped face. Her eyes are large and blue, and her fair skin is a little flushed, perhaps with excitement.
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