So here is my sequel to 'Angel of Crystal.' I wanted to write more about the background of Milady and her niece. This takes place 2 years after the events in the 'Angel of Crystal.' Sissi wants to find out more about her early life and Milady is the key to it all. Athos finds out more than he bargains for.

Sissi took a breath and walked up the stairs to the big double doors. She could feel her heart beating frantically. She couldn't wait to go inside. When she quizzed her aunt, she was told that she had been born in a Carmelite convent in La Rochelle. Her mother had never talked about the details of her birth with her and she was curious. She was in La Rochelle for now and she had every intention of investigating, for there was only one convent here. Dark and forbidding, it rose up through the trees and pierced the sky with its tall spire.

She pulled at the old fashioned doorbell and waited. After a minute, a tall young nun came to open the door and welcome her inside. They walked through the dim corridors together.

'What would you be looking for, girl?' Her voice was pleasant, high and fluting, matching her kind face and merry eyes. 'Spirituality, reflection, peace? We have plenty of that.' She chuckled.

'Actually I've come to see if I was registered here. I was told the nuns kept unofficial birth records from the babies that had been born here.'

'That's true. I'll take you over to the one who keeps the records.' She ushered her to a small room where an elderly nun was sitting at a desk. 'Here is Sister Constance. She will take you through your records if you were born here.'

Sister Constance smiled at the engaging creature in front of her, tall with intense blue eyes and russet hair in a long plait over her shoulder. 'Come child, sit here and give me your name.' Sissi warmed to her at once. She gave her full name and watched as Sister Constance looked through the records painstakingly, in alphabetical order. 'Here we are. Elisabeth, isn't it?' She handed over the frail folder.

Sissi took it eagerly and thanked her. With trembling fingers, she opened the cover and looked at her details. It was a silly thing but she had been told virtually nothing about her birth and she wanted something to feel closer to her mother, who she hadn't been on the best of terms with when she died. She was fifteen when her parents had died in a train crash and her aunt had been her next guardian. She had told her everything she could about her mother Eugenie but Sissi wanted more. She was at the age where she was to start thinking about marriage and children and she wanted to gain the feeling of becoming a mother in preparing for what was sure to happen in the next few years.

A few pictures fell out of the folder and she picked them back up and looked at them. It didn't hold her birth certificate, although she knew that already. That was commissioned later; the nuns had only recorded the babies' when they were born. But there were pictures too, of newborns and their mothers.

'I didn't know you took pictures.'

'It's a well kept secret' smiled Sister Constance. 'We are lucky enough to have a camera here and we take pictures of the new mothers in case they want something to take home.'

'Why haven't I seen these pictures before?' In the sepia photograph there sat a young girl on a bed, arms wrapped around a tiny bundle. Her mother had never looked so young, Sissi thought. She had been married at seventeen, was twenty when Sissi had been born, the age she had passed a year ago now. She had been called a miracle, for her parents never had any more and she was an only child.

She studied the photograph intently. She remembered her mother's hair to be tied back in a bun all the time but here, her hair was long and loose, framing her face and sweeping down her back in waves. She was looking down at the baby in her arms with an expression Sissi couldn't place. Had she looked a little different back then? Maybe the photograph was a little blurry.

'I expect she forgot to pick them up after you were born. These records are an old fashioned way of documenting births. I'm sure they'll do away with it soon.'

Sissi nodded absentmindedly. Just as she closed the folder, something caught her eye. Opening it back up again, she examined it. A thin gold chain was caught at the bottom and she teased it out of its hiding place, untwisted it in the air and looked at it. It had a tiny pendant on it, a little heart, half coated in turquoise stone.

'That must be hers I suppose' said Sister Constance.

'I've never seen it before.'

'She must have left it behind. That happens.'

Sissi looked up. 'Thank you, you've been so helpful. I must get going now.'

'You're welcome. Come back if you have any questions.'

Sissi nodded and walked out, tucking the folder in her bag and the necklace in her pocket. The tall nun saw her to the door. 'You found what you wanted?'

'Yes, just what I was looking for, thank you.'

Out on the street, Elisabeth felt a sense of elation. Just wait until she showed it to her aunt. She hadn't seen this either and would hopefully begin to identify the necklace. Sissi wanted to wear it already. Taking it out of her pocket, she looked at it thoughtfully. It was pretty. Unclasping it, she drew it around her neck and closed it. The pendant felt a little heavy against her skin and she could swear that she could feel something coming from it. As she walked back to the hotel she was staying at, she felt a flicker of apprehension. For nothing, she reminded herself sternly. What had she to be nervous of?