Mary

### Quote

"If you don't want to be chosen, you run, girl. You go down to that throne room and you tell Dr. Bleak you want to go with him, and you *run*."

Mary is a character in *Down Among the Sticks and Bones*.

## Appearance

Mary is described as not old, but not young. She has brown, curly and messy hair, with cloudy gray eyes, and rigid posture. She is also very pale.

## History

### Backstory

About twenty years prior to the events of Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Mary had fallen into the Moors while fleeing from her abusive family. She had recognized the Master as a predator upon meeting him, but was comfortable in his care, as it was something she knew. She had refused everything from him but what she needed, and saw her time in the castle as a game. However, when he asked to be her father, she refused him, as she did not want to be ruthless like him. He had raged at that, and she found that her friends from the village started disappearing. She tried to find them, until he dragged a child, Bela, in front of her, and ripped out his throat with his teeth. He then kept her as a servant to remind foundlings what happened to those who refused him.

### Down Among the Sticks and Bones

Mary is waiting to serve the Master dinner one night, and is shocked and scared when he enters with two new travelers, Jack and Jill, and the Master orders her to get them food, and to ask Ivan to summon Dr. Bleak. Mary later comes back with conjured food for the children, and stands to the side while Dr. Bleak arrives.

When the girls argue that they have to find their door, the Master mentions that not all foundlings find their door, and gestures to Mary, who affirms this in a dull voice. Dr. Bleak politely asks Mary for food, and she smiles as she goes to bring it for him. She later brings the children to their room for the night.

The next morning, she brings the children breakfast, and informs Jack that she can't have a bath "yet." She waits in the hallway, when Jack appears, asking what would happen if she doesn't choose the Master. Mary advises her to run to Dr. Bleak, and go as far as she can. She then has a servant lead her to the dining room. She waits for Jill, and informs her that since Jack made her choice, she is bound to stay. Jill is upset at this, and tells Mary that she didn't choose him second, and would tell him that Jack had only gone downstairs first to draw attention. Mary thinks the Master might be pleased at this, and leads Jill downstairs. As the Master explains that Jill has to be obedient and loyal to him, Mary reminds him that she can leave if her Door appears, and stares him down until he looks away.

She is put in charge of freshening up Jill, and brushes through her tangled hair, mentioning that Jill will have to grow it out, which excites the girl. Mary takes her to a door that leads to the bathroom, explaining to the hesitant girl that it's not the doorway home. After Jill is done bathing, Mary hands her the dress and waits for her to dress herself, though she has to fasten the dress for her. She also gives her a choker, warning her to not take it off around anyone but the servants, and takes her to the Master.

Years pass, and Jill becomes more and more like the Master, becoming more antagonistic towards Mary. On the Fifth Anniversary of Jill's arrival at the Moors, Mary brings her red roses from the Master, and Jill asks if that means she will become a Vampire. Mary reminds her that she will not until they are sure she's eighteen, which would be at the end of the season. Jill is offended and impatient, and asks Mary what she knows about waiting for Vampirism, as she refused the Master, and Mary replies that she refused him because she didn't want to be ruthless. She leaves to fetch breakfast for Jill.

After Jill kills Alexis, Mary finds her outside the castle, surrounded by an angry mob. She informs her that she should have been patient, and that the Master has disowned her for killing someone under his protection and without his permission, before abandoning her to the Mob.

## Relationships

### The Master

Upon arriving in the Moors and taken in by the Master, Mary immediately recognized him as a Predator, but stayed with him anyway. She believed that her time in the castle with him was a game, and refused to be his daughter. He raged at this, killed her friends, and demoted her to a servant.

### Dr. Bleak

Mary likes Dr. Bleak, as she smiles when he asks her politely for food. She tells Jack that she wishes he had been able to save her from the Master.

## Trivia

* "Mary" is a Biblical name meaning "sea of bitterness", "rebelliousness", "wished-for child" or "beloved."

## References

1. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 73: "She was not old, but she was not young either; she looked like one of the neighborhood women who were sometimes hired to watch Jack and Jill during the summer, when their parents had to work."
2. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 73: "Mary's hair was brown and curly and looked as likely to steal a hairbrush as it was to yield before it. Her eyes were the cloudy gray of used dishwater, and she stood at the sort of rigid attention that spoke of bone-deep exhaustion."
3. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 76: Mary paled, which Jack would have thought was impossible; the woman had almost no color in her to start with.
4. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 95: How the children who tumbled through the occasional doors between the Moors and elsewhere couldn't see that he was a predator, she didn't understand. Mary had known him for a predator the second she'd seen him. It had been a familiar danger: the family she'd been fleeing from had been equally predatory, even if their predations had been of a more mundane nature. She had been comfortable in his care because she had known him, and when he had revealed himself fully to her, it ahd come as no surprise. That was rare. Most of the children she walked through these halls were terribly, terribly surprised when their time came, no matter how often they'd been warned. There would never be warning enough.
5. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 161: It had all seemed like a game at first, her and the vampire in the high castle, him offering her whatever she wanted, while she laughed and refused everything but what she needed. It had seemed like a *game*. And then he had asked to be her new father, and asked her to be his child, to rule alongside him forever in fury and blood. And then he had raged at her refusal. Her friends from the village kept disappearing, and at first that had seemed like a game, too, a vast conspiracy of hide-and-seek... until the day he'd dragged Bela in front of her and said "This is what becomes of those who oppose me," and ripped the boy's throat out with his teeth. Sometimes Mary thought she could still feel the blood on her face.
6. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 88: Mary nodded. "I was. But I never wanted to be his child, and when he asked me to let him be my father, I said no. So he kept me as a reminder to other foundlings that there are more places in a noble household than the ones set at the head of the table."
7. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 81:

He looked to Mary. His eyes were kind. "Meat and bread and beer, if you would be so kind, Mary."

"Yes, sir," said Mary, and actually smiled as she fled the room.