'I saw you give in and bite her. So romantic. They still dragged her off, though. They'll have to use quite a long stake to hit any useful organ.'
'She'd have put her self somewhere close,' said the Count. 'It stands to reason. It must've been someone in the hall...'
'One of the other witches, surely,' said the Countess.
'I wonder...'
'That stupid priest,' said Lacrimosa.
'That would probably appeal to her,' said the Count. 'But I suspect not.'
'Not... Igor?' said his daughter.
'I wouldn't give that a moment's thought,' said the Count.
'I still think it was Fat Agnes.'
'She wasn't that fat,' said Vlad sulkily.
'You'd have got tired of her in the end and we'd have ended up with her always getting in the way, just like the others,' said Lacrimosa. 'Traditionally a keepsake is meant to be a lock of their hair, not their entire skull-'
'She's different.'
'Just because you can't read her mind? How interesting would that be?'
'At least I did bite someone,' said Vlad. 'What was wrong with you?'
'Yes, you were acting very strangely, Lacci,' said the Count, as they reached the drawbridge.
'If she was hiding in me I'd know!' snarled Lacrimosa.
'I wonder if you would,' said the Count. 'She just has to find a weak spot...
'She's just a witch, Father. Honestly, we're acting as though she's got some sort of terrible power-'
'Perhaps it was Vlad's Agnes after all,' said the Count. He gave his son a slightly longer stare than was strictly necessary.
'We're nearly at the castle,' said the Countess, trying to rally them. 'We'll all feel better for an early day.'
'Our best coffins got taken to Lancre,' said Lacrimosa sullenly. 'Someone was so sure of themselves.'
'Don't you adopt that tone with me, young woman!' said the Count.
'I'm two hundred years old,' said Lacrimosa. 'Pardon me, but I think I can choose any tone I like.'
'That's no way to speak to your father!'
'Really, Mother, you might at least act as if you had two brain cells of your own!'
'It is not your father's fault that everything's gone wrong!'
'It has not all gone wrong, my dear! This is just a temporary setback!'
'It won't be when the Escrow meat tell their friends! Come on, Vlad, stop moping and back me up here.. .'
'If they tell them, what can they do? Oh, there will be a little bit of protesting, but then the survivors will see reason,' said the Count. 'In the meantime, we have those witches waiting for us. With the baby.'
'And we've got to be polite to them, I suppose?'