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Chapter 6

than water of the womb

The enemies are within the gates.
It is with our own luxury, our own folly,
our own criminality that we have to contend.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero

"We're so far from real society that I have to add the ribbon myself. This is ridiculous. I'm not a milliner and it's been lifetimes since I've had to do such tedious work!" Katherine thrust the needle into her bonnet with a violence never before seen in the Fell's front parlor. Honoria Fell had invited a few choice ladies to work on their Founder's Celebration accessories with her and her daughter, and Bonnie had been dragged along in Katherine's wake.

"Honestly no one will notice your poor stitches. I am so dreadful at any of this women's work that I'm as slow as a human." Katherine had assured her in an attempt to persuade the witch into accepting the invitation. Bonnie had hardly believed her, but she held no doubt of the vampire's words now now. Bonnie's stitches were just as clumsy and amateurish, but she was not nearly as demonstrative in her displeasure as Katherine, so no one mentioned them.

"Oh, Miss Katherine! You've shredded another ribbon. Have you brought anymore?" Katherine pawed through the bag at her side after Honoria's exclamation, and Bonnie could tell that the vampire was suppressing a few choice curse words over Honoria Fell's nosiness and her own clumsy sewing hand. Katherine hadn't wanted to come to this either, not when the Salvatore brothers were free to be toyed with, but Pearl insisted that the pair of vampires appear at town events during the daylight hours regularly.

"I'm out! Well, with no ribbon, I'll just be go—" Katherine had stood, ready to use this as an excuse to leave, but Pearl's glare pinned her down. "and ask young Sebastian to bring me some more." The little boy materialized at the door, as if he'd been waiting to be called. Bonnie didn't know if Emily's oldest child had magical precognition of when he would be needed, or if he was just well trained. Bonnie couldn't imagine that spending time with Katherine lent itself to a childhood forgiving of mistakes.

"I will go and collect some more for you right away, Miss Katherine!" Sebastian Bennett scampered off, no doubt already anticipating the coin and candy that would be waiting for him as a reward when he returned. The candies were mint-flavored and, Katherine had confided after Bonnie saw her slip the siblings the same candy a number of times, made the two young Bennetts smell significantly less appetizing to the vampire.

Bonnie looked around the small circle of women. Katherine and Pearl tittered easily with Jessa Forbes, as if they did not consider her to be an easy meal. Pearl's daughter, Annabelle, sat nearby, with her face hidden by her long hair as she diligently embroidered a piece so complicated it made Bonnie's eyes hurt. Anna hadn't said a word since she and Pearl had arrived, even when the ladies cooed over her neat stitches. Bonnie sat between Honoria and Rachel Fell, nervously keeping up a conversation about the recent turn in the weather. All three were relieved, since the hot summer heat had continued far into September. Its final breaking was so well received it nearly overshadowed the topic of the Founder's Ball. Nearly.

"So, Miss Bonnie, I hear congratulations are in order. You've managed to snag one of our most eligible bachelors as your date to our town's little party." Bonnie tamped down her alarm. She wasn't skilled at deception; she was always caught in her lie, even when she felt she'd pulled it off without a hitch. True, some of that came with hanging around lie-detecting vampires, but it didn't mean she was comfortable being put on the spot by nosy townswomen.

"Really? I didn't know that Mr. Lockwood was so sought after. His offer was very… unexpected."

"Yes, he is, very much so. Why, the only other contenders for the top title are the Salvatore brothers, and since neither of them is a sure thing, every girl in Mystic Falls has had their cap set on George Lockwood since they were small. He has never shown much interest in anyone. Except for you of course."

"I don't think he has any serious interest. I'm sure it's just curiosity at a new face around town."

"And what a face it is. So…untraditional in our circles." Bonnie winced outright. She'd wondered at the easy acceptance of her by the proud Confederate town, and quickly deduced that Katherine and Pearl had been liberal in their application of compulsion on the human citizens of Mystic Falls. Bonnie wasn't the only black member of the town's supernatural society. But as more and more of the humans wore, or regularly ingested, vervain the vampires couldn't renew the compulsion. For many in Mystic Falls, this particular compelled order went against their entire world view and, without the occasional top off, they were starting to notice that Bonnie and Harper should not be seated at their dinner tables.

That was why George Lockwood's offer to be her escort had been so surprising. Bonnie had nearly decided not to attend the ball at all. The entire town was tense, as both humans and vampires had been disappearing in the night. Bonnie knew that when one hunted hidden threats, it was easy to target those with obvious differences. She didn't want to be caught in the middle of a party when the torches and pitchforks came out. Plus, she wasn't relishing the thought of witnessing Stefan and Damon's fight over Katherine. She'd come to see all three of them as friends, and while it was clear that most of the blame lay with Katherine, neither of the brothers was completely innocent in the situation. Bonnie could see the seeds of the future in every interaction between the three now, and it made her heart ache.

"Have you known Mr. Lockwood and the Salvatores long?"

"Yes, my whole life, all of them. George's family's orchards are only separated from ours by the stream. We used to play there often as children." Bonnie caught Rachel's slip of George's first name, and her dreamy-eyed gaze, and she understood.

"That sounds lovely. I'm sure Mr. Lockwood has fond memories of that time with you as well. We should all talk about it at this weekend's party." Awkward? Yes. But Bonnie thought it served her purpose. She had no plans to stay here and marry George Lockwood, and the girl was clearly half in love with him already. She might as well do something good while she was here.

"I don't know," Rachel said. "He doesn't want to talk to me anymore. He thinks I'm still a child."

"He's barely older than you; I'm sure you're imagining things."

"It's only a few months that separate us, true, but he is so different lately. The war changed him, it has changed everyone, of course. But George…he's almost a different person. He was so angry before he left. He would fly off at the smallest of infractions against him. The anger is still there, but he wields it instead of it wielding him. Now, he is so much more confident and sure of himself. I just don't know how to talk to him anymore." Bonnie thought this was good news for the teenaged Lockwood she knew in the twenty-first century. Maybe being angry and idiotic was something all of them grew out of once they turned twenty?

Rachel Fell looked dejected thinking about the changes in her friend, though they all sounded like positive changes to Bonnie. Still, she decided to steer the conversation to a new subject and gather gossip for when she got home.

"What did you mean about the Salvatore brothers? When you said neither of them are a sure thing?" Rachel glanced at Katherine quickly before leaning in closer to Bonnie.

"Well, the Salvatore property is larger than any other in town, and both brothers would have been a fine match with each of them inheriting half the estate. But then their father made it known that he would be giving the plantation in its entirety to only one of them. While Damon is the eldest, and therefore the more conventional choice, their father has always favored Stefan, even before Damon became so wild." Not exactly the titillating secrets Bonnie had been hoping to share with Elena and Caroline on their first manicure night when she got back. Inheritance drama didn't go well with ice cream sundaes.

"So, no one wants to commit to them because they're not sure which one will inherit?" Bonnie wanted to curse their shallowness, but since women couldn't exactly go out and get their own job here, she couldn't really blame them for their shrewdness.

"It certainly made many of us girls wary at first, but it's much worse than that now." Rachel's voice fell to an even softer pitch. Bonnie knew Katherine and Pearl could still hear their conversation perfectly, but neither seemed interested in eavesdropping. Probably old news to them.

"Stefan and Damon pledged to share the inheritance between them equally, no matter what was written in the will, just as they had always shared all things," At this Rachel's side eye at Katherine gained more than a gleam of judgement and Bonnie had to hide her laugh in the handkerchief she was mangling. "And all of the town knew of the pledge fairly soon. But after Damon had a liaison with Regina Maxwell, his father decided to write him out of the will, permanently. But apparently he didn't want Stefan to get too comfortable, as he brought his other son into the house."

"Damon and Stefan have another brother?" Rachel nodded; eyes wide.

"Yes, he's a bit younger than Stefan, but he was only brought into the house a few years ago. Giuseppe Salvatore insists that her mother was a barmaid at a tavern in Richmond, but Damon and George both think she was one of the housemaids he sold off that same year. It has caused quite the scandal in town, and everyone is rather hoping Stefan stays in his father's good graces for a long time yet." Satisfied at having scandalized Bonnie, Rachel returned to her project. Bonnie didn't much care about the outraged townspeople, but she was curious about the brother she'd never met.

"But I've never seen him. You said he was in the main house now?"

"Yes, I know he is. Though I doubt he feels very welcome, with Stefan and Damon acting as they do, and his father setting him up in the farthest wing from the family quarters. I'm surprised you've never seen him though. I thought he'd dine with everyone at least." Bonnie shrugged, ending the conversation with a demurral. She couldn't provide any new information to Rachel, as she had never even seen this other Salvatore. She didn't know his dinner habits; she had been skipping all of the dinners she could while Katherine had been laying the charm on thick when conversing with Giuseppe. He had started stocking up on the vervain tincture at the apothecary, and neither woman was sure if he suspected them.

Honoria left to scold the kitchen staff about their late tea. When her mother left the room, Rachel leaned closer to Bonnie as if revealing some great secret.

"I suppose I shouldn't gossip, but I need something to distract me from the state of things."

"Yes, I guess any gossip is happier than thinking about the war."

"Quite so. Though I never imagined the front would get so close or bring such terrors to our little town." Bonnie hummed in agreement without much thought. She wasn't exactly sympathetic to Rachel's hardships. A bit of rationing and fear were nothing compared to what the war-driving plantation owners, Rachel's family included, had put their slaves through. But then the witch grasped the meaning of Rachel's words and manner. This was not a wilting violet, fluttering over the lack of sugar in her tea or silks for new dresses. No, her pupils were blown, her breathing rapid, and her forehead dotted with perspiration. Her fingers were clutched in rigor over her needlepoint and she was wracked with a full body shiver. Rachel had not been exaggerating when she used the word terror; she was terrified.

Just the mention of said terrors had brought this to the surface, and now that Bonnie had noticed it, she saw it in each of the humans around the circle. Their fear lurked just under their skin, never really gone. All of these women were part of a founding family, and all of them knew what creatures prowled in the night on the dirt streets of Mystic Falls. But, Bonnie thought, glancing at the serene face of Pearl, and Katherine's thoughtlessly frustrated visage, not the creatures that lurked in their drawing rooms in the late morning sun.

Perhaps this is what would give the daywalkers away, more than any magical device. Fear sparked through the humans of Mystic Falls constantly. But even with the recent vampire disappearances that Pearl had expressed concern over, none of the vampires displayed that same ubiquitous dread.

"War has a habit of drawing out unsavory characters. I'm sure that once it is over, your town will return to its old sleepy peacefulness."

"These are not unsavory characters; this is far beyond that." Rachel seemed to be fishing, not very well, for Bonnie's confirmation of knowledge. But why would she think Bonnie would know anything? She couldn't suspect Bonnie to be a vampire herself, could she?

"I think you're right, Rachel. There is something almost inhuman about recent events here." Bonnie maintained eye contact, and placed emphasis on the word inhuman, hoping that would be enough. It seemed to be, as Rachel let out a relieved gust of air.

"I wasn't sure, but you always seem so nervous, and everyone knows you refuse to leave your room after the sun sets. I thought you must know." Her rambling ended with her clutching Bonnie's hand and a tremulous smile on her lips. Bonnie was rather shocked by the girl's knowledge of her, and her easy inclusion of Bonnie into her trust.

"But it will be over soon. My father isn't content to wait for General Lee to put everything right. He says that each man must fight his own battles. He and the rest of the council are taking back Mystic Falls, and soon." Out of the corner of her eye, Bonnie saw Katherine and Pearl begin to gather their things, engrossed in goodbyes and the subtleties of polite societal parting insults. Anna was already gone, probably to call the carriage. Bonnie rushed out her words, wanting answers before she had to leave.

"What? How?"

"Jonathan Gilbert has invented something to reveal the monsters among us. He has had many failures before, but my father said that this time is different. They'll show it to the rest of the council tonight, and we will all be safe once more." The Gilbert compass! Bonnie knew it had never worked previously; it relied on dubious science and Jonathan Gilbert's bad calculations. But she'd seen Emily's recent pining stares, and knew that the witch must have reached her breaking point with Pearl. She had finally enchanted Gilbert's inventions to work, just in time for the Founder's party.

"Thank you for letting me know, Rachel. But why did you?"

"I knew from out first meeting, Bonnie. I could trust you with anything." These last words had the ring of compulsion to them, and Bonnie discovered the source of Rachel's openness. She pushed aside her nausea, said goodbye, and gathered her things to go.

After they exited the house, Katherine and Pearl abandoned Bonnie to a rather dull walk home with a reticent Anna. Bonnie didn't know why Pearl hunted separately from her daughter, and she didn't care to ask. Anna had never been her friend, or even a passing ally as Damon had been in the future. Anna had manipulated Bonnie through Ben McKittrick, kidnapped her, and held both her and Elena captive. Bonnie hadn't had any time to feel real remorse for her death, though she knew it would hurt Jeremy Gilbert.

But Anna, really Annabelle here, was distinct from the other familiar faces for Bonnie, because she was the most altered. Damon and Stefan were humans, yes, and at times they didn't act the same because of a lack of experience and instinct. But they were still the same people.

Stefan wasn't her friend, but his voice still held the same earnest desire for approval. Now, it sought that approval from his father, Damon, and Katherine, but one day he would ask the same from Elena. He ate rabbit just as voraciously, although significantly more cooked. He still had a caring heart, despite his very limited world view, and abhorred the violence of the war even as he extolled the virtue of the honor and courage displayed by the Confederate soldiers.

Damon easily excused the violence and murder of Katherine, even before needing it to live himself. He was still heedlessly loyal and a glutton for punishment, as he continued to stay home despite his father's increasingly unkind words. He trusted Katherine with his life and heart, Bonnie with his secrets, and Stefan with his loyalty. Some might say this was because he hadn't been burned yet, but Bonnie could see that his heart was already scarred, even this early in life. And in the future, when his heart felt a century of cuts and bruising and betrayals, Damon would still take that leap of faith time and time again. He was more trusting than Bonnie.

Anna though, seemed a different person altogether. Bonnie knew she wasn't young even now. She thought Pearl and Anna's many shared years as vampires should bridge the two decades in human years between them easily. But it didn't. Annabelle remained timid, and looked to her mother for approval constantly. It was disturbing to see her so dependent and remember being at her mercy. Bonnie rather thought that the time without her mother had been good for Anna, even if the independence she learned was what led to Bonnie's own kidnapping.

"Do you and your mother always travel with Katherine?"

"No, they are good friends, but tend to aggravate each other incessantly with constant exposure. We have only stayed so long because the front is so close. It makes for easy hunting." While this logic made sense, Bonnie knew that the vampires did not travel to the battlefields often, and were instead sipping from the citizens of Mystic Falls. The disappearances had long been noticed. The more recent violently mauled bodies placed the entire local vampire community at risk.

"And you? Do you ever travel without Pearl?" Anna looked confused by Bonnie's question.

"We sometimes travel separately to throw pursuers off our trail. But we have never stayed separated for an extended period of time, if that's what you're asking." Centuries together as mother and daughter. Abby hadn't made it a single decade. Bonnie swallowed her bitterness, and tried to project curiosity into her voice, even though she just wants the conversation to end.

"Never? Don't you ever want to explore the world without her?"

"I could never leave her. She's my mother; she needs me."