Flashbacks.
Minnie was 11, though strangers tended to assume she was 8. And at the moment, she couldn't move.
She hadn't been able to move since the Tall Lady said 'Hold Still, Child.'. Now the Tall Lady was talking to Julian.
"You've been improving, my son, but you still have such difficulty
stopping. I'm beginning to suspect that is because the last person you practiced on was so big, and didn't really matter anyway. Stopping is a skill you
must learn, Julian. And so here we have it. You are hungry. You need to feed. But you must stop after a little, and if you cannot stop, you lose your playmate. She /can/ be enough for you right now without harming her, but you /must/ press yourself into stopping."
Minnie was understandably frightened, but it was Julian. If he didn't /have/ to hurt her, he wouldn't hurt her, even if hurting her would be easier.
And he didn't! She was so glad. Boy, that felt funny, though. But the colors around him looked so much better after it happened.
Minnie was 16 when Mr. H. died, and Julian became master of the house. Master of a lot of things, really.
Mrs. H. and the others seemed to be out of the picture. There was lawyer talk about it. But the important thing was that Julian was sad, and Minnie was going to be there for him. She tried to make sure he was getting enough rest, and nourishment, and chances to relax, and anything else that would get his mind off his troubles. Her comforts were affectionate and often physically experimental, but he always ended up stopping her at certain points. Did he not want her? Did he think she was too tiny and frail? She was strong! She'd been en pointe since she was 9; she could perform on parallel bars; she could bring a man to eye level with her in pain. She wasn't delicate. He assured her he knew, but it still took a year before he was willing to really put Minnie through her paces in private. When he did, they had a lovely, wonderful time. Julian, dear Julian, was so sweet, so lovely, and so happy with her.
Not long after that was Minnie's 18th birthday. And it was beautiful.
Julian took her out by the lake for a picnic. He'd eaten well the night before, and his colors rivalled the sunlight. And she'd opened her present, and it was beautiful. As he'd put the choker on her, she felt so
right with him ... but it was precarious. Things could go wrong. She could fail him somehow. She couldn't live with herself if she did that. She would work harder. Train more. But today, he held her as the sun set, and she danced for him in the twilight to music she would play for no other man.
