The laughter eased off as we looked at each other, and with the resentment gone from Mum’s eyes she looked much more familiar to me. As though she was different.Seen through the lens of a family line gone by.
“Night’s coming soon,” Mum said, and gestured to the sun lowering into dusk outside the window. “No more sunshine for you.”
“It’s ok,” I replied, trying to stop the inevitable burst of nerves. “Hans is worth a lot more to me than daylight.”
I kept my white dress on as I brushed my hair in the bedroom. I put on a tiny bit of foundation, but kept my makeup minimal as usual. I wanted to be as bare for him as bare could be. Innocent and pure like the girl he’d watched grow up in front of him. A virgin whose love he’d taken as soon as it was morally right to take it, and a woman he was going to turn into an immortal partner on Halloween.
“What’s it going to be?” Mum asked me. “Some kind of formal service or something?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “Hans has been keeping his cards close to his chest on that score.”
“Yes, and his ideas cloaked up in a cloud of mystery from the sounds of it.”
He sure had. For hours now I’d been trying to hone in on his thoughts and visions, but he was still keeping me at arm’s length.
Head back to Edwin’s manor when your soul feels the calling.
Those are all the thoughts he’d had to say.
The calling was rising how, I could feel it. I could sense the rumble of the car outside, all set to deliver me to my fate.
“Go,” Mum said, and put her hand on my arm. “If it’s time, it’s time. Just please make sure you keep in touch and let me know how it goes for you.”
I got a lump in my throat at that, seeing the affection in her eyes. She mirrored me with a nod, and we both laughed to break the tension.
“I still can’t believe you’re such a big girl now,” she told me. “It’s crazy, just how fast time flies.”
“I’ll keep in touch, I promise. You’ll need to invite me over the threshold next time, though, and it’ll be a little bit later than a lunchtime eating jam sandwiches in the sun.”
“I can do that.”
I just hoped Grandma would let her.
“She will let me,” Mum voiced. “She won’t have any choice from now on. The secrets have come to light.”
“How do you feel about that? Do you think she’ll still be able to be your mum?”
“Yes,” she said. “The bond between us is too strong to break. It will have to twist and turn and take a new road, but it won’t be destroyed. I don’t think either of us will be pushing the other off the turrets of Garway church, given what happened last time.”
“Good,” I said. “Maybe one day she’ll be willing to speak to me again, too. Without cursing me for being a damned to Hell sinner.”
I walked down the stairs as Mum followed me. She watched as I fastened up my high heeled shoes.
Her arms were folded as she looked at me, and her thoughts were somewhere else, skirting around memories of the past.
“I’d better go,” I told her, because my soul was beginning to tingle. “I’m ready for my transition. I’m ready to be committed to Hans.”
She opened the front door for me, and I stepped out, but I couldn’t help turning back to face her, pulling her tight into my arms. Me and my mum. Close. Like I’d been crying out for since I was just a girl.
“Thanks,” I said. “It’s been amazing today.”
“Same for me,” she replied. “I’ll be thinking of you tonight.”
She put her hands on my cheeks as I pulled away, and planted a kiss on my forehead.
“Don’t wait too long before you come and ask permission to cross this threshold, Katherine. And next time, maybe you can bring Hans along with you? I’m sure he could bicker with your grandma if it comes to it.”
I was halfway down the garden path when she called after me. She was waving to get my attention.