Nature or Nurture Ch. 37-39

I've my own, especially made to my exact height and weight, longer and heavier than this one.

I'm guessing you will progress rapidly with the company you keep.'

Her father seems reasonably resigned, Mina supposes he has faced his own responsibility, probably since her own disappearance some three years ago.

She used to yearn for his approval, never to get it, he was never home, and whenever he was he was friendly, but children didn't interest him much, especially girls. Vanessa has always had more connection to him than either of his own children.

But to Mina that is no longer painful, she has found her place with her new friends and her brilliant and sensitive lover, she will accept this blade and make good use of it.

Checking it for markings, she realizes it is not the kind of blade one risk having to leave lying about on a crime-scene, it can easily be traced to her family. Something to consider as she progresses in her fencing, maybe she should buy an unmarked blade to take on raids.

Mina thanks her father for the gift, and they spend the rest of the afternoon in harmless conversation, Victor discussing evolution with what to all intents and purposes is now his father-in-law, and Mina talking to Vanessa about fashion, culture, friendship and love.

'I envy you your circle of friends, Mina,' Vanessa observes, 'I know the price was unimaginably steep, but it must be so incredibly gratifying to have people around you that you can really trust with everything.'

'It is,' she replies, 'and you can have your place in our little circle, too.'

'I cannot overcome my shame of what I did to your friends when they were trying to help me. You don't know half of it, I used to flirt with your man shamelessly, your father's orders, but still, it was me who did it.

And Vincent, I kept touching him though it was clear he went out of his way to avoid just that, and I baited him with clever observations until he fled my presence and avoided me altogether. With the shameful conclusion you witnessed. No, I cannot face your friends, let alone expect them to extend their friendship to me.'

'They know you were not yourself then, Vanessa,' Mina observes, 'they will not hold it against you. I will try to include you sometimes, please don't say no before you have tried just once.

What about the American fellow? He seems to like you a lot.'

'Mr Chandler is a good man to have at your back in a fight,' Vanessa replies, 'but he is involved with someone, and he does not show his true self to any of us.'

'I know about his affair,' Mina remarks, 'it will soon come to a tragic end I'm afraid, Victor says it cannot be long now. He feels awful not to be able to do anything. Will you comfort your friend when the time is there?'

'I honestly don't know if he is a friend, or just someone who works for your father. I know his lady is very bad, dying, and I try to support him whenever I can. Which is not very often, he is a very private man.

But Mina, I want you to know I'm very happy to have you back, though of course I feel guilty for what you went through on my account.

And I'm so thankful to your friends that they delivered me from the evil that possessed me, for I'm very certain that that was true evil, not something dubitable like the enemy.

Can we please stay in touch? I'd like to do some girly things, even if it will have to be after dark.'

Mina promises, and when they take their leave she knows she will keep in touch, despite what has happened, Vanessa is a deserving person, and very, very bright. They will need her capacities in the time to come, but most of all, she is just good fun to be with.

Chapter 38

Life moves on, as winter approaches and the days shorten and the weather deteriorates.

Adison and Victor are very happy to see their practice take shape, the front-room is stripped, and one wall is replaced with a gorgeous, and very expensive, cabinet with little drawers for all their instruments and medicine. Every drawer is labelled in Adison's best handwriting, and moving their stuff in is a pleasure and not a chore.

There is a desk in the room, with a chair of course, and a bed set to a convenient height to examine patients. A screen to change behind completes the whole.

As they settle their account with the contractor, partly from the practice's savings, partly from Vincent's fortune, the contractor tells them the boiler is also finished. Setting a date to have it installed, they agree to arrange further details with the craftsman who has made the whole set-up, and who will install it in person. Things are moving!

Vincent knows his part by heart after two weeks, but he keeps practising until he can dream every line, and those of the other players. He drills Catherine until she can switch from herself to toddler instantly, testing the result on Vanessa when Catherine accompanies Mina to meet her on a coffee date.

Mina feels a bit apprehensive being out in public, but she manages well, and having an adorable little girl along does help to draw the attention away from her. Though she can drink a cup of tea, Mina cannot eat pie, which usually doesn't bother her anymore, but seeing everyone eating away at the most delicious and beautiful concoctions brings home to her for a few moments what she has lost.

Still, Vanessa doesn't eat pie either, she never cared for sweets in the evening, and Catherine has ordered a small cupcake only, though it is beautifully decorated with frosting and tiny flowers made of sugar.

Catherine plays the toddler to perfection, not a single whole sentence escapes her lips all through the visit, not even when a middle aged lady trips quite close to her and spills a cup of hot coffee on her beautiful dress.

Though it undoubtedly hurts, Catherine does not start to cry, she merely sits there wide-eyed as Mina tries to soak up the coffee with a napkin, whilst Vanessa keeps the lady from touching Catherine too closely as the woman expresses her regret at being so clumsy.

In fact, Catherine is watching the lady. She is very elegant, with black hair and beautiful clothes, but somehow she doesn't seem clumsy at all, it is almost as if she spilled that coffee on Catherine on purpose. That is kind of mean, for it hurts quite a bit, and also very calculating, what would be the point in spilling coffee on a child if it was not a specific child?

With her dress as dry as it can be, Vanessa still on alert, and Mina holding her protectively, Catherine hears the lady repeat her excuses over and over again. She offers Catherine a cup of tea and a slice of pie to make up, but Vanessa declines in a pleasant but very determined voice.

Now the lady tries to convince Catherine personally to accept an offer of peace, very rude towards Vanessa, and certain to make a normal child act up, it almost seems as if this lady is trying to cause Catherine to make a stand against her companions.

And she seems to want Catherine to take food from her hands, something the girl will certainly not do, but since a normal child would be happy to, Catherine needs to act in the right way.

She thinks rapidly how to resolve this without giving herself away, and how to even make the most of this encounter, for if this woman is sent by the enemy they need to learn as much about her as they can.

She can cry to go home, not an unlikely reaction in a case like this. Or she can ask to go to the ladies' room, also not unreasonable for a toddler with a wet dress. But then the woman will leave.

She decides to let her eyes fill silently instead, a performance of epic proportions but helped by an increasing hurt to her upper legs, as if she is stunned by what has happened.

The lady does not seem to be put out too much by having caused an angelic toddler to cry silently but heart-rendingly, which only confirms that this was not an accident. She does increase her attempts to make up for the accident somehow, but quietly, not attracting attention in the room.

Mina now speaks to the lady.

'Never mind, my lady, my little girl is merely startled, and it was an accident after all. Things like that happen, and we can easily forgive you. You didn't trip on purpose after all.'

Catherine now avoids the lady's gaze, in fact looking around if she has any accomplices. Only two people in the room pay any attention to what is happening, two beautiful young ladies with loose hair, who have the same kind of vibe that the older lady radiates, a certain coldness, an uncaring attention for what is happening.

Trying to fix all their faces firmly in her mind, as well as the feeling they give her, she says her first words.

'Go home now?'

Mina answers, 'Of course my dear, you must feel uncomfortable in a wet dress.

My lady, I'm certain my little girl has already forgiven you your accident, and now, as you hear, she means to go home straight away. Will you please excuse us?'

Without a single reason to remain, the lady cannot but move on, and Catherine notices she does not acknowledge the young women, nor does she claim a table of her own. She walks straight to the exit. After a few moments, the young women follow, not having had any coffee or pie.

When they have all left, Catherine says, 'I'm fine, thanks to your vigilance Vanessa. That was no accident. Do you think it was suspect that I didn't cry out loud or start to nag you to accept pie from her?'

'No, you did really well, nothing to give you away, you were too stunned to cry or say anything. So you noticed it, too?

I have actually met her before. I'll tell you both all about it, but not here. I suppose she'll follow you anyway, so we can just as well go straight home, they undoubtedly know where we live.'

Mina observes, 'Either she doesn't know what I am, or she thinks she's more powerful. I'm looking forward to our next meeting, preferably somewhere quiet.

Your place or our place?'

'My place, if you can stick it out in that dress for an hour or so, Catherine. Somehow the idea of her following you to your own house feels wrong. Though they are probably aware of where you live already,' Vanessa offers.

'I'd rather go home, I'm very uncomfortable in this stained and wet dress and I think I have a burn. I'd like mum to look at it, or Victor.'

And Catherine doesn't like Sir Malcolm, she'd rather not meet him, old tyrant.

'I have her smell,' Mina says, 'let her stake out our house, I'll find her.'

Catherine is actually pleased to hear the anger in Mina's voice, her legs are starting to hurt, and she would like for Mina to hurt those women back.

'She'll probably send her cronies, the young ladies who were at that table over there,' Catherine says, 'I couldn't tell you there were three, so I'll describe them to you, they were pretty but just as cold as her, and they didn't drink any coffee or eat pie either.'

It is almost a relief, to find their enemy's new minions so little subtle and so fallible. Though being incredibly paranoid did help finding them out. And the beauty of the whole thing is, that Catherine's acting will have made their failure look like bad luck, not as if they have been seen through.

They take a cab home, feeling eyes on their backs all the time nonetheless, but they'll have to get used to that feeling, Sir Malcolm spoke of having that feeling all the time, which does suggest he may be a target this time.

Vanessa seems a bit uncomfortable entering their territory, and Mina addresses her on it.

'You're welcome here, Vanessa, never doubt that.'

As they come in, they hear sounds from the front-room, now the practice, and Adison comes out to meet them. Catherine suddenly turns into a two year old, and runs at her, crying.

'What happened, lovely, you're upset!'

Adison gathers her in her arms, kneeling on the floor.

The little girl just sobs, bereft of words, and Mina says, 'We've met the new servant of the enemy, and Catherine beat her at her own game, but of course she's just two. I tend to forget that, sorry Catherine.

She may have a burn under her dress, better have a look at that, and then we'll tell you what happened.'

And they all move towards the kitchen, where Adison greets Vanessa cordially then invites her to sit down, and Victor kisses his beloved and makes tea and coffee. Mina leaves her friend for a few moments to fetch a clean dress from Catherine's room.

Taking her coat and the wet dress off the little girl, Adison makes a sympathetic sound.

'That must have hurt a great deal, Catherine, what happened?'

The girl is still crying a little, it is as if she feels the hurt only now, for when it happened she didn't scream or even cry. Since Catherine is rather upset now, and doesn't say a thing, Vanessa gathers courage.

'A lady seemed to trip right beside her and spilled a cup of hot coffee in her lap. The woman wanted to comfort her and offered her pie and tea to make up, but something didn't feel right, to neither of us.

Catherine didn't show any emotions and didn't say anything, until she overflowed silently after a few minutes and shyly asked to be taken home.

In the meantime, she had spied out that the lady who spilled didn't have a table or pie, and there were two cronies in the place who didn't either, and watched the whole thing. That it?' she asks Catherine.

'They left just after her, and felt the same, cold like a snake,' Catherine adds.

'Well, this certainly looks like a nasty burn, and it will hurt a little more when I clean it. But after that I'll put some cooling ointment on it and the pain will go away. Do you want to squeeze something while I work on it?'

Catherine points at Vanessa and asks her, 'Can I sit on your lap as mum treats the burn? I'll be as brave as dad, he never cries out when he hurts. But he's older than me. In a way.'

Feeling more than a little flattered to be chosen to comfort Catherine, Vanessa moves over, and as Mina comes in with the clean dress and Adison's doctor's bag, Adison has just finished cleaning the burn on her right leg.

Holding tightly to Vanessa's elegant hand, the little girl doesn't cry out, but her face shows the treatment does hurt.

Thanking Mina for bringing the bag, Adison takes a bottle out of it, and applies a lotion to the wound, which clearly takes away a lot of the hurt, for Catherine's adorable face relaxes.

'Thank you, Vanessa, that helped. I hope I didn't squeeze too hard.'

'You are such a brave girl,' the elegant woman replies, 'you may squeeze me as hard as you can. And smart, you kept that woman from realizing we were on to her, bravo!'

As Adison clears away the mess, and they all get a cup of coffee or tea, whichever they want, Vanessa tells them, 'I recognize that woman from a seance I once visited, she was the medium. I held hands with Dorian, and had a very shameful fit of possession, in which I publicly disgraced and hurt Sir Malcolm. Now I wonder who triggered that fit, Dorian or her.

I had some teaching in witchcraft, and my sigil worked against his enchantment quite well, suggesting to me that his enchantment is from the same discipline.

Also, she triggered some inner alarm inside me, warning me of witchcraft, she probably meant to poison or spell a drink or a slice of pie. She wanted to seduce you to ignore my advice to not take a gift from her, and she wanted you to openly defy me, probably by inducing a tantrum.

By starting to cry as if in shock, you gave her a good reason why you did neither, she will not be on to you yet.

She thinks you are an ordinary toddler. I commend you, Catherine, but I also beseech you, please be very careful, accept nothing from anyone you don't know really well, stay away from her, all of you, and from her cronies.

They can put spells on you with help of your blood, spittle, hair, nail-clippings, or by touching you. Don't let them touch you or get at any personal items, not even a used handkerchief.'

After that warning she sends a boy for a cab and goes home.

'We're going to the theatre tonight,' Mina states, 'all of us. She may be there, or one of her servants, and only Catherine can recognize them. Vincent may be in danger, he doesn't know yet.

Unless you're too tired or hurt, that is, Catherine.'

The girl shakes her head.

'I'll go to bed right now, and I'll manage tonight. Dad is in danger, he needs us there, and I want all of you to know them.'

They arrive in good time so Catherine can see the crowd move in, and she does indeed spy out the two young women. She points them out to the others, and she insists on seeing her father straight away to warn him.

Adison has never disturbed Vincent before a show, but she knows he can play this piece in his sleep by now, and she does see Catherine's reasoning, so she agrees to take the girl to see her father immediately.

The stage hand guarding the dressing rooms knows her, of course, and since this is the very first time she has ever asked a favour in almost a year, he lets them in. Vincent is not put out by their appearance, but rather alarmed, for he knows they will not disturb him without reason.

Catherine tells him herself, Bruce is into her little secret as well, and he needs to know, too.

Proud of his daughter, but nonetheless concerned with the situation, Vincent promises not to touch any food or drink that may have been tampered with, and not to let any young women of her description touch him, and they kiss him and leave him to his job.

With just two weeks to go, he gives his all, Adison and himself have decided his newly found fortune and her earnings from the practice will keep them very well until his new role starts paying again, so he has quit this theatre just before the rehearsals start at St James. After leaving this role and before starting with St James, he will take a week off work in which they plan to visit Adison's father.

Adison has indeed written her father to invite him to visit them in London, also stating part of their reason to want to see him: to ask his permission to get wed. But he has declined, telling her his health doesn't allow him to travel to town, but that he wants to see her again very much, and her husband and adopted daughter as well.

And within the letter is a separate letter, an official document signed by himself and two witnesses, giving his daughter permission to marry Mr Vincent Heathcliff.

The day after receiving that letter they have gone back to the council house and purchased a marriage licence, the quick, expensive way. And Adison has written a letter to her father, thanking him for his trust, and promising him a week long visit in three weeks.

So now they have their wedding planned, in two days, a small affair, just the three of them at the church, and a tiny party at the theatre, a special present from the director, who is sorry to see Vincent leave, but also very proud to have him head-hunted from his very theatre to make the large step up to St James'.

After the show Vincent easily avoids the ladies that Adison points out to him. They seem harmless enough, but he will not discount Vanessa's advice, nor his daughter's instincts. She may be very young, but there is a reason the enemy wants her, and it is not going to happen.

If only there was a way to protect his loved ones more easily. How will they know who's out to get them and who isn't? It just doesn't seem logical that there is no way to pick out these individuals, and that there should be no way to undo their workings. Like Dorian Grey, how come they all know something's up with him, and he doesn't?

Back at home, Catherine shows him the burn mark and for the first time in weeks, he feels a rage come over him. How can someone inflict a burn on a toddler to further her own ends? He will control his rage, but only to be perfectly cool when he finally meets this person, for he will not murder her, but wring the truth out of her, slowly.