Re: London, Murray House, Mina & Vanessa
Mina was a vision in the light from the window. I want a brighter word than bright. Clean and fresh as morning. How?
This close, the scent daubed lightly behind Vanessa's ears in the morning came through, clove and musk, with a smoky undertone that had not come in the bottle. She was sharper than she had been since they last saw each other. Better defined, she liked to think of herself, keener, like a knife sharpened by years. She knew what the men of London must think of her too, and it hardly mattered.
That smile. To see it bereft of warmth, a winter sunlight, deepened the shadows around her. Once she would have beamed at her friend when she took her hands and squeezed them. She would have wound her arm around Mina's and laughed. Now the pulse of blood to her fingertips was the only signifier of meaning. This was an empty gesture, the habit of a hollow friendship. Perhaps it could be filled again, but it would never be the same.
So many letters, thousands and thousands of words, and now all had flown. This was not merely a long-imagined reunion in the flesh, but a mystery she could not pierce. And who, if not she, knew of mysteries?
She pressed a light kiss back. She had kissed sweet Mina's cheek more than once in her careless sleep, reassurance that she was there, and would be there when she woke again.
Vanessa smiled. She was good at smiling, not as prettily as Mina, not as sweetly, but with promise, with knowing. Mina's hands under hers put iron in her spine. She must have answers.
"This house has missed your presence," she said, searching her gaze for anything, any flicker, any sign, and it was true. She pressed her hands a little tighter, just for a moment - real, real as trees and the floor beneath them, and she was here, not a vision, not a trick, but alive.
But she must proceed with care. "I was glad to see you after mother's funeral," she said, with the same throaty weight as before, as if the visit had simply been a courtesy in a time of mourning. Did she remember the beach? Did she remember coming to her with knowledge of things unsaid, and telling her of her Master? What did she know?