was better this way, though. Thralling him without his knowledge would have been an invasion of privacy that would have made her feel guilty.
“Vlad told me that he’s a powerful shrouder as well. I guess he inherited your gift.”
“He’s much more powerful than I am.”
Things were getting too close for comfort again, and it was time to move the conversation away from Vlad.
“What countries have you been to?” Richard saved her the trouble.
“I was always fascinated with the East. China, Japan, India, Tibet, and everything in between. I spent many decades there.”
“Is that where you got your inspiration to design costumes?”
Once again, Richard had unknowingly diverted the conversation away from the danger zone.
“Naturally, some of my ideas are based on what I saw in my travels, but it wasn’t what got me into costume design. After I got pregnant with Vlad, I returned home, and I had to fill my time with something. I started with designing fun outfits for myself, and they served as an unintended advertisement. I’m also a theater fan, and I attend many plays and have friends in the theatrical community. One of them mentioned something about a production searching for a costume designer, and the rest was history. I started off slow, but everyone loved my costumes, word got out, and pretty soon, I had more work than I could handle.”
“You could have hired help.”
Stella shrugged. “It’s not how I work. I start with a basic design and then add elements. It’s a creative process, and each piece is unique.”
“Perhaps that’s why you are so successful. You put your heart into each costume.”
“I guess.” She readjusted her skirt. “But it would be nice to slow down and go back to traveling. Maybe not as extensively as I did before, but a couple of weeks twice or three times a year would be nice.”
“Where would you like to go? Back to the East?”
“No, not the East.” Definitely not there. “Maybe Northern Europe. I’ve never been to Finland. I hear that Lapland is an interesting place to visit.”
He cast her a doubtful smile. “You don’t strike me like someone who enjoys the snow. You look like a sun worshiper.”
That was true.
“I’m willing to broaden my horizons. Lapland’s traditional costumes are very colorful. They might inspire my designs.”
15
Richard
Throughout the lunch prep and then the lunch itself, Stella had been vacillating between seemingly at ease and anxious. Richard had learned a lot just from paying attention to which topics caused her to tense up.
It had something to do with her travels in the East and Vlad’s conception, which pointed toward Vlad’s father.
The kid had dark straight hair and thick lips, but the rest of his features were Caucasian. That didn’t mean that the father hadn’t been Asian, though. Vlad could’ve taken after his mother. Stella’s natural hair color was dark brown, which was the color of her eyes as well.
Vlad’s eyes, however, were one blue and one green, and since he hadn’t gotten them from Stella, it was more likely that he had gotten them from the father.
That meant that the guy might not have been an Asian, but Stella had probably met him in the East. Maybe he’d been a fellow traveler?
Whoever the sperm donor had been, Stella felt the need to guard his identity for some reason. Perhaps the guy was married?
But that shouldn’t matter to her. None of the clan females who had children with mortals kept in touch with the fathers. In fact, the clan policy was not to let them even know that they had fathered a child.
Perhaps the guy was someone famous and married?
Or maybe he wasn’t famous but infamous? A murderer?
That would be a good reason to keep his identity a secret from Vlad. As long as he didn’t know that he’d been fathered by a monster, it wouldn’t influence the kind of man he became.
But what about genetics?
Richard had read articles that debated whether nature or nurture had more influence on shaping a person’s character. Evidently, those who believed that nature had a stronger influence expected the sons of violent criminals to follow their fathers’ proclivity for violence, even when adopted and raised by others.
Vlad seemed like the nicest, kindest guy, but Richard had seen the murderous gleam in his eyes when he’d talked about Wendy’s father. Not that he blamed the kid for feeling that way. Richard felt the same. But there was a big difference between fantasizing about killing someone and actually doing it.
Then again, immortals were a different