Little Vampire Women by Lynn Messina

annihilation by catching the stake a mere half inch from its mark.
    Nobody could believe it, least of all Beth, who sank softly to her knees, the stake clutched in her hand, then slipping from her fingers as her clenched fist opened almost by compulsion. The company stared first at Beth, who was too shocked to shrink from the attention, then Fred, a foreigner surrounded by hostiles.
    Although much alarmed by the astounding turn of events, Meg tried to smooth things over as sheimagined a fine vampire lady like Mrs. Moffat might, by introducing a new topic as if nothing untoward had happened. “How beautifully you do it!” she said, with a look at Kate’s sketch pad, which was open on the blanket. “I wish I could draw.”
    The rest of the company remained frozen, unsure of how to proceed. Laurie thought Fred should be brought up on charges of assault and attempted murder and was happy to drag the villain to the local magistrate himself. Jo thought they should re-create the entire episode so she could attempt to handle it in a way befitting an aspiring defender. Fred rather thought he should run.
    Kate was scared for her brother and worried for her siblings, innocent little Grace and lame Frank. Keeping one eye on Fred, she replied graciously to Meg, though her voice was stretched thin with fear, “Why don’t you learn? I should think you had taste and talent for it.”
    “I haven’t time,” explained Meg.
    “Your mamma prefers other accomplishments, I fancy. So did mine, but I proved to her that I had talent by taking a few lessons privately, and then she was quite willing I should go on,” Kate said, relaxing just a bit as the territory grew more familiar. “Can’t you do the same with your governess?”
    “I have none.”
    “I forgot young ladies in America go to school more than we. Very fine schools they are, too, Papa says. You go to a private one, I suppose?”
    “I don’t go at all. I am a governess myself.”
    “Oh, indeed!” said Miss Kate, but she might as well have said, “Dear me, how dreadful!” for her tone implied it, and something in her face made Meg cringe, and wish Jo would attack Miss Kate rather than Fred.
    Mr. Brooke, who had been wondering how to handle the situation, which, as the only authority figure present, was his responsibility, observed the change in Meg’s expression and said quickly, “Young ladies in America love independence as much as their ancestors did, and are admired and respected for supporting themselves.”
    Realizing her unintentional slight might make her brother’s life forfeit, Kate rushed to make amends. “Oh, yes, of course it’s very nice and proper in them to do so. We have many most respectable and worthy young women who do the same and are employed by the nobility, because, being the daughters of gentlemen, they are both well bred and accomplished, you know.”
    But her patronizing tone only made matters worse for it hurt Meg’s pride, and made her work seem not only more distasteful, but degrading.
    An awkward pause followed in which everyone present, including innocent little Grace, expected Jo to bite Kate’s neck for this fresh insult to her sister or at the very least bleed the brother like a leech. But in fact Jo was not attending to the exchange, which seemed to her wholly incomprehensible at a time such as this, when she had very nearly allowed herself to be staked. The shame was almost unbearable and she occupiedher mortified mind by running through the five steps of the Grosengauer Gambit: leap, somersault, pike dive, cartwheel, round kick. 19
    She’d practiced it a dozen times in her attic garret and knew the moves as intimately as her own hand. And yet she’d stood there like a bubble waiting to be popped!
    “Did the German song suit, Miss March?” inquired Mr. Brooke, breaking the uncomfortable moment with yet another new topic.
    “Oh, yes! It was very sweet, and I’m much obliged to whoever translated it for me.” And Meg’s