“Try it on,” Mum said, pulling my attention back to the dress I was holding. “Let’s see how it fits you.”
I was so relieved when I tugged the dress on in the bathroom. It fit like a glove in all the right places, albeit a little bit tighter. Maybe Hans had already seen me in it a few years ago.Maybe it wouldn’t surprise him in the slightest to see me returning to Edwin’s all in white.
One thing was for sure though, Mum would never have seen any vampire bites before. I flinched as I caught sight of my reflection. The wounds on me were fierce and deep. Definitely beyond a bit of a concealer to hide them from view.
Her voice was light when she knocked at the bathroom door. She sounded almost excited for me.
“Well? Does it fit?”
“Yeah,” I shouted back. “It fits well.”
I knew the inevitable would follow.
“Come on, then. Show me.”
Fuck. I pulled a face at my reflection as I gave my wounds another onceover. The neckline was low, and the sleeves were puffy but short, and it was obvious I’d been the victim of some serious bites. I’d totally understand if she freaked out up to the rafters at the sight.
I mean, it’s one thing someone explaining how amazing it feels to have blood sucked out of you by a vampire, but another thing altogether seeing the marks on their skin.
But. Here goes nothing…
I stepped out of the bathroom, giving her a little curtsy on the landing.
She clasped a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked me up and down.
“I know, I know,” I said. “They look bad, but they felt fine, I promise. Hans wouldn’t hurt me. I mean he hurt me, but not hurt mehurtme, you know?”
“No,” she said, and shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ll take your word for it.”
I stared at her in shock, because that was probably the greatest thing she’d ever said to me in my life.
She’dtake my word for it.
There was so much sentiment in those few words and in the calm expression she showed me.
She’d trust me and my judgement, and trust me to know myself and my own needs, and trust me to be making the decisions I wanted to be making – which was so much more than I’d ever been allowed as a child here at home.
Mum could read my mind – of course she could.
“You’re not a child anymore, Katherine. If anything, you should be judging me, not me judging you.”
I smiled at her. “Shame Grandma doesn’t feel the same.”
The wicked witch of Lyston Lane hadn’t returned yet. I almost laughed out loud at the thought of her in Garway church right now, still in her dressing gown, praying for the atonement of my sins at the place I’d be giving up my mortal life in, to the man she condemned as asinner.
Mum shrugged. “Maybe she’ll be the next one to get her wake up call. She might be a little more entrenched in delusion than I was, but there is still a spark of her true self underneath, I’m sure.”
I smirked. “I don’t know, but I’ll take your word for it. How about that?”
“How about you take the same words for it from Grandad? Seems he had the same words for it, too.”
I remembered the love in his eyes as he’d talked about Grandma. His Rhona. His wife.
“Yeah. He did. He thinks she’s got a lovely soul under the surface.”
“Maybe one day she’ll show it. The people in the village will think she’s lost her mind.”
I laughed. “You’ll have to give me updates on the local post office gossip. It’s not as though I’ll be able to call in there myself anymore.”