Stella replied with an 'oh' as her eyes traveled to little Landon, who had almost finished the drink Mr. Cecil had given him.
"Yeah. He's Philip's son. I have another elder sister, Pedra and then there's me, the youngest." Penelope said, as her face took on a warm smile. It was obvious that she really loved her family, contrary to how Sharp had behaved when he had met his parents.
Thinking of Sharp and his parents on the floors below brought another question in Stella's mind.
Back at June's home, they had told her that Penelope and Sharp were cousins. But both of their families were worlds apart. Stella's heart ached for the little Sharp and the parental love he had never received as she stared at Mr. Cecil's face. His face was completely different from Mr. Sharp's face. Sharp senior's face. Stella frowned as she struggled to find a correct way to adress Sharp's father. There was no way that the two men were related. Their faces and their personalities, both were worlds apart.
Then there only one other possibility. Stella turned to look at Cordelia Cecil and sure enough, she found some similarities in her face with Mrs. Sharp. Both of them had the same eye and lip structures, but where Mrs. Sharp's eyes were unkind and her lips had been carved into a permanent scowl, Mrs. Cecil's eyes and lips shone with kindness and happiness. She even had little laugh lines around the corner of her lips.
Stella's brain had processed all of this with lightening speed and she turned to look at Mrs. Cecil just as Penelope finished her sentence.
"You're Mrs. Sharp's sister." There was no questioning tone in Stella's words as she said this. Cordelia Cecil nodded and her head seemed to hang a little at Stella's words.
"McCarteney, uncle and aunt are . . . . ." Sharp began, but his words were cut off as Stella spoke, her expression and tone complete deadpan, "Don't worry. I won't hold it against you."
There was a shocked silence in the room as the four vampires took in Stella's words.
Mrs. Cecil was the first to react, she burst out laughing as she covered her mouth. This led to everyone else also laughing along with little Landon squeaking happily. He looked delighted at everyone's cheerfulness.
"I like her. She's like a breath of fresh air." Mrs. Cecil spoke, wiping away tears of laughter from the corner of her eyes and Stella let out a polite smile.
Her eyes strayed over again to little Landon, that pull she had felt when she had first saw him was back again.
"You can go near him now dear. I think he should be full enough not to try and lurch at you." Mrs. Cecil spoke, following Stella's gaze. Stella shook her hands in embarrassment. She wasn't big on kids, especially babies, and tried to avoid them as much as she could. But why was it that she couldn't keep her eyes off this baby.
"Vampire babies have that effect on humans." Mr. Cecil spoke, as though reading her thoughts. He continued when Stella looked at him in confusion, "Vampire adults, or for that matter even vampire kids have all the weapons available to hunt humans. Our speed and strength, to begin with."