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In England, there are strict rules about what women are supposed to be. Technically, women are not allowed to practice law. Technically, it is illegal for women to love other women in the marriage sense, when it is even acknowledged as a possibility (men who would lay with men are scrutinized more harshly).
However, women can go to law school. Women are allowed to have loving bonds, in the sense of being sisterly or a deep friendship. Josephine 'Josie' Harker learns these rules and loopholes early.
She is sixteen years of age when she meets Wilhelmina Murray and Lucy Westenra. They are beautiful and kind, though Mina has a sense of maturity about her that makes her seem older than her years. Despite that, she is not cold but warm; Josie feels an ache in her chest at her smile. A desire for friendship, of course; she has never had a close bond with another girl.
She is not yet ready to acknowledge the whisper in her mind: that is not the love you desire, silly girl.
Mr. Hawkins has always been lenient with her. He supported her wish to go to law school and, despite the inability to practice law, still found loopholes.
Josephine is not officially a clerk. There are many things she cannot officially call herself. She is still able to do the work of a clerk and be paid as such under the title of solicitor's assistant. It is better than nothing.
She learns how to write efficiently in shorthand. She learns to walk with steady confidence.
Some days she wonders if it would have been easier if she had been born a man. But those are pointless imaginings; this is all she knows.
She has made peace with it.
"Lucy seems quite popular this season," Josie notes on one of their long walks.
"She is quite excited about it," Mina responds, arm linked with hers. "Eligible bachelors are always chasing after well-off pretty girls."
Lucy has a loving heart; despite her relative family wealth, the best she can hope for is a kind husband. She would not be satisfied with a life of silent affection; the warmth between her and Mina has not faded but is now firmly acknowleged only as sisterhood.
"What about you?" Mina asks then. "Is a season of handsome rich men in your future?"
Josie shakes her head. "I imagine I will spend the rest of my days as a hidden clerk at Mr. Hawkins law firm and forever be known as a spinster."
"Then we are destined for a similar life, it seems," Mina teases.
It is easier to laugh about these things than speak of them; they do not even dare write of it in their journals. They are only allowed coded words for the mutual affection that dare not be named. Josie cannot imagine loving a man; Mina could not bear to sacrifice her future as a school teacher at a husband's request.
That special kind of intimacy is reserved in the quiet moments alone. Even then, it goes no farther than sweet kisses for now; despite how inherently unorthodox their relationship is, Josie cannot entirely deny what she knows is the proper thing to do.
Then one day, Mr. Hawkins comes to her with an exceptional opportunity. A Countess in Romania planning to move to London requests a solicitor visit to finish the paperwork.
"She has stated a preference for a woman to visit her." Mr. Hawkins' smile is nearly beaming.
Josie is nearly breathless. This is something she has only dreamed of. To be sent to do a solicitor's work, to be a solicitor, has always seemed just out of reach.
She is tempted to pinch herself to prove this is real. She does manage to retain propriety and keep her voice steady when she speaks. "I am honored by this opportunity, Sir."
Mina walks with her to the train station, arms looped together as usual. "Transylvania is quite far away, are you sure you will manage alright?"
It is true that she has never traveled that far East. Still, she is prepared. It is not often Josephine can dress as a man. A woman travelling alone in a foreign country must be cautious after all. Her hair that is already shorter than approved of is bound up in a bun rests against the top of her neck, mostly hidden by the gentleman's hat.
But her secret is this: if she were not so worried about social rejection, she would dress like this everyday.
Mina wears a modest yellow dress that is perhaps a couple years behind what is fashionable; it makes her look no less lovely. Her hair is done up practically, a few loose strands curling against her cheeks. Warm brown eyes looking up at her.
Not for the first time Josie wishes to kiss her out in the open, damn whoever is watching. Still, she dares not.
But she does do the next best thing. Taking Mina's gloved hand in hers, lifting it to press a chaste kiss to her clothed knuckles.
"It will only be for a little while. I will be back by your side soon, I swear it."
Months later, Josephine will find herself under the care of kind nuns. Her brown hair is threaded with silver strands; it has also been chopped short. It is something she might have liked, had she chosen it. She cannot help but suspect it had not been up to her.
She has a journal that even thinking about makes her sick. Even without opening it, she can tell pages have been torn out.
(She remembers only fragments.
Countess Dracula, a tall woman made no less regal by old age and greying hair. A commanding presence, able to pin her in place with words or a look alone.
She remembers sharp nails tilting her head back. A sharp aching pain in her neck, unable to move. Bell-like giggles outside her door.
A nightmare she cannot wake from.)
But Mina is here, hands gripping hers, eyes shining with tears. "I feared I would not see you again."
"Marry me," Josie whispers, unable to bring herself to care about any nuns who might overhear.
A quiet gasp, Mina's gaze half hopeful and half despairing. "You know we cannot."
She knows, but after the time she has lost, after almost losing her life in a way she does not wish to remember, none of that seems to matter.
This is Mina, and Mina is home. "Not by law perhaps but I have chosen you. You are mine and I am yours. All I wish is to be by your side. If the law reduces us to mere spinsters, then let us remain old spinsters together."
Mina's eyes shine softly with tears, joyful this time, a careful smile pulling at her sweet mouth. "Yes, yes, Josephine Harker, I will have you as wife."
Her chest spasms with warmth. The awful nightmare has ended. She is nearly home.
They whisper their own carefully formed wedding vows.
The nightmare returns. By the time they return home, Lucy has been killed, then resurrected as something monstrous, then laid to rest again.
The journal is opened. The monster is recognized. They hunt her and she hunts them in turn. They wield knives and communion wafers and crusifixes.
By the end, Countess Dracula is reduced to ash in her coffin, the three Weird Sisters along with her.
After that, what is left? Josephine and Mina are alive but forever marked.
"Sometimes I still dream of it," Mina whispers, a hand trailing halfway up to her neck where there was once fang punctures. "Sometimes I still feel marked by it."
They are in the house that Mr. Hawkins had bequeathed to Josephine, laying in their marriage bed. It is home, or close enough to it. It will be enough; they must put themselves back together first.
Josephine remembers her wife's horrified sobs, the repeated cries of 'unclean, unclean!' She remembers the awful helplessness of fangs in her own neck, the trick that whispered that she was only recieving what she secretly desired.
Josie feels helpless once again, haunted by the idea that she wan't able to protect her wife from the same monster. She understands the raw injury; she does not understand how to fix it.
All she can do is take her wife's hand, pressing a gentle kiss to her knuckles. "You are not tainted nor unclean. Despite all that monster tried to do, you are still yourself. You are still the woman I have fallen in love with."
Mina curls closer, her body warm against her. She gives a ragged breath that dares to become a sob. Her hand squeezes Josie's.
One day at a time, they will heal. They will live together. They will turn this house into a home.