The Peacock 376

 June 10, 1966

We always seem to be working here.  Fortunately we are okay at the moment for money and food and stuff.  Philip left a huge wad of cash in his bedroom.  We still haven't counted it, but it could well be in the hundreds of thousands.  We are not going to starve, not for a long time here.  But this feels even more like a prison now that our oppressors are gone.  It's all the work.  They really let this beautiful place go to hell, so we spend entire days cleaning, and repainting and gardening, cleaning more and repairing more.  They were all so negligent and destructive.  

I am amazed at how well we are all getting on.  Lydia and I are now in one of the big bedrooms on the second floor.  It is like a luxury apartment, and more than we need, but we are content and it is nice to have her right beside me again.  Theo and Rhona don't appear to really click.  I think that Theo might be homosexual, and Rhona doesn't seem to have eyes for him either, which seems a bit of a pity.  She is an incredibly beautiful woman, and Theo, as far as I can judge a man for his looks, could be called movie star handsome.

We don't talk a lot.  Not even Lydia and me.  I think we are all still really exhausted from everything, and we all seem to be practicing a kind of communal delicacy with one another, leaving each free and alone to heal on their own, while being always present for one another.  I rather like this.  

I wouldn't go as far as to call it heaven on earth.   We all have a lot of things, personal hurdles we need to work through, I think.  Rhona I am a bit worried about. She seems exceptionally wary and shy these days.  This is out of character.  She seemed to have Philip so under her control, but now that she has no one around to manipulate and puppeteer, perhaps she has just imploded on herself.  Since none of us other three are going to be opening contenders for her deft little claws.  Time will tell...