“Mother? Is that all you have to say?” Clarissa demanded.
Mirabelle blinked. She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She hadn’t spoken to Clarissa since the night the woman refused to give her daughter a bed to sleep on. Mirabelle thought calling her ‘mother’ even as just an acknowledgment was kindness.
But of course, Clarissa didn’t think so. The woman’s disapproving glare moved from Mirabelle to Kara, slowly studying the latter up and down before she was dismissed with a curled lip. Then Clarissa’s attention was back on Mirabelle with all the warmth of an iceberg.
Mirabelle shifted on her feet, inadvertently exposing her nerves and cursing herself for the mistake. Damn it. Her mind was racing even as her body tensed and twitched like a runner waiting for the starter’s gun to take of
