Chapter 25

Valerie

I could not look at Mrs. Manson’s face any longer. My heart panged with memories of my mother, the ghost of her still warm in my heart.

It was so painful to have lost a mother. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for a mother to lose her daughter. I wanted to know more about Mrs. Manson. More about the woman she used to be.

I opened my mouth to speak, then thought better of it. Mrs. Manson doesn’t like questions.

“Say it,” Mrs. Manson ordered.

“W-what?” I hesitated. She was not even looking at me in the reflection of the vanity. How could she have known I had a question on my mind?

She glanced to me, then back to my hair. “You’ve something to say. Say it.”

I swallowed and stared at my own reflection in the mirror. The girls had done a lovely job of fixing me up into a slave fit for a proper aristocrat vampire. I looked young and healthy, but not too pretty. Not too respectable.

“Can you tell me about her?” I asked. “How did you lose her?”

Mrs. Manson paused, the brush mid-way