"Corsets don't ever get easier," Mary sighed and went to help him. She took the ties and pulled them only a little tighter, knowing her mother's attention to detail. "Sorry, there we go." She tied them off. "Be glad it's only me and Ann you met so far. I think with Mum here, that's all of us."
She was still crying, but there wasn't anything to be done for it. Mum had that effect. "It isn't speaking I'm worried about, Nell. You don't need to talk for her to..." Mary trailed off. What was it her mother did? She just did it and one moment she was the wicked queen and the next you thought maybe she wasn't and you forgot everything...
"I-I don't know if you can rely on Harry and me, Nell." Mary gave Nell a pain-filled glance. "She's our mother. It ain't so easy. We... we don't have a real good history of stopping her." In fact the only workin' method any of them ever found was to just run and not look back, and even that one just hurt you more than it did her.
"So the rule is you go down there, you don't let her see one single real thing, Nell. Like walking into a mirror- everything goes opposite. No matter what, you don't let anything be real. Not feelings, not smiles, nothing."