Re: London, Murray House, Mina & Vanessa
Mina did not have nightmares as a child. The concept had been unfamiliar, and it was only now that pressing her cheek to her pillow conjured up shades and shadows. Some nightmares caused her to sit straight amidst her bedding, sweat cooling on her skin and breath caught in her throat. Others had an altogether different effect, and there was a thrill she'd never known as a child. Fear had never called to her, had never whispered in her ear, but now she sometimes felt the stirring of its breath along her cheek.
She did not need to be told of the maze. She knew of her father's infidelities. Her mother shared the truth with her on the eve of Vanessa's betrayal. Her mother, sad and plump, and as if it was something to be tolerated, the infidelities of men. Mina had believed marriage an altogether different thing, and she'd thought her mother a sad creature when she learned the truth of it.
"The gossips will spin, as is their wont," Unconcerned, but she did not fear the wagging of their tongues. She knew her reputation was a thing made of whispers behind gloved hands here, and if Vanessa had not heard the suppositions, she would. But Mina knew, too, that she was wealthy enough to pave the road of speculation with lavish balls and sumptuous affairs, and to buy forgiveness with her status. Cast aside, but with no formal blot upon her, she was still attractive in her own way.
Vanessa made no more mention of a supposed visit after a funeral, and Mina was glad of it. She knew better than to think the other woman had not registered the lack of remembering, but what of it? She could hardly be blamed for gaps of memory. She had died, had she not? She knew Vanessa was aware of that, even if she said nothing. It made no sense, but neither did the book she'd writ upon earlier.
"We are under the same roof, are we not?" Mina asked easily, taking the question to be quite literal. She turned. "At week's end. There will be time to prepare if we do it then. Have you friends in town, or shall I handle invitations?" It was decided. "Dancing, or theatricals, or something more risque?" London did love its decadence and dark motifs. "Seances are all the rage this season."