This is a question self never imagined herself asking, never in the course of her very long reading life.
She asks it now because Queen Marie of Roumania is a very mysterious person.
There have been hints that it is she: she is the vampire.
Here are the facts: Whenever the Queen spends time in her summer home, Castle Bran, people die or go missing. Once, “a twelve-year-old scullery maid was preparing vegetables in the castle kitchen and sliced open her hand . . . the Queen was passing and heard the child cry out. She went to see what was wrong, seized a bowl to protect the child’s clothing, and started to bind the injury with a dishcloth.”
People who happened upon the scene saw this: “a young girl bleeding copiously into a crockery bowl . . . apparently half-filled with blood.”
As soon as the Queen left at the end of the summer, the series of occurrences ceased.
Further, whenever the Queen is expected, a man goes about the village, instructing the villagers that their dogs should be kept “inside or tied.” The Queen likes to go riding, and if a dog happens to frighten “her horse and makes her fall, that dog will be shot and the family will go to prison.”
Self is completely hooked on this combination vampire/Sherlock Holmes mystery!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 
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