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“Your face? Does it hurt you much?”

“No, not really. The pain inside is worse,” I answered truthfully.

“I brought someone to see you, Glynis. This is Doctor Emil Baum. Do you remember him?”

A man I remembered quite well from my childhood stepped forward. I recalled he was a friend of my father’s and often tended to us when we fell sick.

“Good evening, Countess Dracula,” he said with a smile.

“Dr. Baum, how lovely to see the face of a friend from home,” I said.

He graced me with a bright smile and kissed my hand. “It is lovely to see you as well, madam. You seem to be doing quite well after all you have endured. ”

I suddenly found I could not speak. The presence of my lost family seemed to fill the room and the pain of all we had endured sliced through me with fresh intensity. I gripped Andrew’s hand tightly and fell against his shoulder.

Andrew embraced me and held me close.

I could feel Vlad gazing at me with latent anger looming in his eyes.

After I had recovered myself, Andrew spent the next hour quietly questioning me on all that had happened since our family had journeyed from home. I happily told him the truth of our travels until I reached the point in my tale where Vlad tricked my family into traveling to his estate in the Carpathian Mountains. From that point on, I recited all the lies Vlad had instructed me to tell my brother. Andrew listened with a somber expression and believed all that was told him. When I had finished my tale in a wavering voice, Andrew broke down into fresh tears.

“Thank you, thank you, sir, for saving my sister,” Andrew said to Vlad, his earlier antagonism fading from his voice.

“It was all I could do,” Vlad responded lightly.

“You do not know what it means to me to have her alive. We have always been close and to lose her would have been too much to bear,” Andrew continued.

“You are a good man, Count Dracula,” Emil enthused. He, too, had been touched by the false story of Vlad’s courageous attempt to save my battered self from the raging torrents of the river and his kindness in nursing me back to health.

I could not help but frown at Vlad through my veil. I rather liked the gauzy thing at this point. I did not have to disguise my expressions of distaste.

“I desired to do what I could to help her. Then I was blessed with finding love in my heart for her,” Vlad said, smiling with satisfaction.

“You are a most remarkable man,” Maria sighed. She also had been swept away by the romantic aspects of the story.

A solitary Count rescuing a damsel in distress then marrying her even though she was disfigured was a wonderful story that warmed the heart.

It was nauseating in its effectiveness to sway our audience.

“He has given me more than you know,” I said darkly from beneath my veil. I could not help myself.

Vlad smiled at me, but I distinctly heard his voice utter Watch your words in my mind.

“Glynis, Dr. Baum has traveled far to see you. Would you please let him see your injuries? Perhaps he could help you in some way,” Andrew asked gently.

I looked toward Vlad, who nodded his consent.

“Well, yes, I suppose. But I only want him to see my face. ”

“But, Glynis-“

“Andrew, please, I could not bear for you to see what I have become,” I said sharply and I meant it. The creature I had become was not the same wholesome, vibrant girl I had once been. If Andrew were to see me now, he would know I was something unreal, unnatural, even though he may not know the word vampire.

“Very well,” Andrew sighed. “Then you will allow Emil to examine you?”

“Yes, I will. ”

“Maria, take the doctor and Glynis to a room where he may examine her in private,” Stephen instructed his wife.