Re: London, Murray House, Mina & Vanessa
Mina accepted the correction of semantics with a small inclination of her blonde head, and there was no proud raising of her chin to match Vanessa's half-inch. She needed no warnings about guarding her purity, not from Vanessa. It was laughable, truly, and Mina understood the hypocrisy well now. All those hugs and kisses and claims of adoration, and Vanessa had taken the only thing Mina had ever truly wanted. It wasn't merely the beautifully waxed mustache that Captain Branson wore handsomely. No, more than that it was the belief that her life, small as she dreamed it, was true. She knew better now.
Yet, she felt certain she still believed in love. She should not, perhaps, but she did. She had loved her Captain in her childish and fully trusting way, and she had not loved her husband; the distinction was one of merit.
There was some small pleasure in watching the bounce of Vanessa's brow as seduction was mentioned. No, the girl Mina had been would know nothing of such things. But her pleasure turned to curiosity when Vanessa asked if the man's name was a thing recalled. Why Vanessa would care eluded her, but Mina gave her betrayer-sister a look that was confused and blank, honestly so. "No. It was nothing like that. I barely recall him." Which was no lie; she would not recognize him on sight.
Whether darkness had lived in the blonde girl in the pale dress before her heartbreak, that was something that would never be known. There had been no indication of it, and Mina herself had felt no stirrings. No dark desires cast themselves upon her brow in her girlhood, and she had wanted no dark things. In truth, she wanted them not now. She wanted frivolity, and she wanted the decadence of words, but little else. Whatever was dark in her slumbered nearly, only casting small shadows along the elegant features of the sunlit girl.
Surely, there was nothing here of note or concern.
"Now, if you'll excuse me? It was a long journey. I'll undertake invitations and entertainment in the morning."