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Finally Sophronia shook off herit, Di than actually read In fact, Sophronia suspected she only read enough to have soot to the bit where the vampire has taken the heroine to his town house and we don’t know if his intentions are honorable or dastardly"

Agatha gasped She’d been getting an annotated commentary on said novel for the past week "Oh, really? Does he want to suck her blood?"

"Far worse He wants to give her a makeover" Dimity fiddled with the mother-of-pearl buttons up the front of her peach brocade dinner dress She didn’t want Agatha to see how excited she was to relay atha squeaked in titillated horror "A full ht the novel very silly

They arrived back in Swiffle-on-Exe mid-December As usual, they came in over the river, took on water in the wee hours, and circled back to rest near the goat path Parents would send carriages for their girls the nextladies were happily occupied well past bedtiifts with friends before parting ways

Winter holidays were the longest offered by Made ladies were let out earlier than most because they had so little contact with the outside world the rest of the year One could not order in Christ irls had an early pickup well before Christirls traditionally spent New Year’s together So certain the New Year came in deadly and stylish

Sophronia left her fellows to the tribulation of fitting everything into hatboxes and port to decide which of her sparkles to pack and which shethis Christirl She was doomed to disappointment Her parents hadthe crystalline valve, but not enough to afford sapphires And Dimity adored sapphires And rubies And emeralds And… not diamonds

"But they sparkle," Sophronia protested

"They aren’t colorful enough," Dimity explained "All that white is so flashy, don’t you feel?"

"Until this veryflashy"

"Really, Sophronia, credit , purposeless, not bothering to pack Much as she disliked school, it was better than home

Sophronia, for her part, never wasted toofor travel As Preshea said, it wasn’t as if she had much to take with her Instead, she drifted out of the door and into the hallway, unnoticed It was after curfew, but Sophronia so rarely kept to legitimate hours that even her enemies didn’t bother to rat her out For all they knew, she was under orders from one of the teachers There were even a few, Preshea included, who accused Sophronia of taking over Monique’s duties as Professor Braithwope’s second drone

"That’s why he went for her during crossbow training," Preshea explained to her new friend Frenetta

Sophronia allowed the ruood a front as any, that she would entertain vae No one need know she had already struck a deal with the olves She had bargained her freedom to the dewan for Soap’s survival, and she considered it a fair deal At least, right now she did She had no idea what the deould want once he got her under his command But in the end, wolves were better than vampires--or she hoped they were

In the interirinations were perceived by her fellow students as part of soossip that stood her reputation in good stead Especially not gossip that stopped others fro at their prescribed location behind the rosebushes, once again set a reputation as a swill tub tosspot"

"Good" Vieve also liked to be underestimated because of a perceived reputation She handed over Bumbersnoot

He looked the same as ever, if perhaps a bit shinier and free of rust He tooted s back and forth in cheery greeting

"How did the installation go?"