Great and Terrible beauty book questions?

At the end of the book, it sais that the dark scary creature took the form of Gemma's mother. Does this mean that all this time when Gemma and her friends were in that happy place with the huntress, knight, etc, her mother actually wasn't there? It was just the creature taking her form? And also, is that little girl that Gemma's mother is always holding onto her hand, is that the girl that Gemma's mother killed?Great and Terrible beauty book questions?
No, the creature only disguised itself as Gemma's mother in that very last scene. In all the previous scenes with Gemma's mother, it really was Gemma's mother. As for the girl, I think she was the one that was killed.