The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) by Baum Spencer

Author:Baum, Spencer [Baum, Spencer]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Renata took the stage and looked out over the audience. A hundred eager faces, students who had no clue of the significance of this moment. For decades she had been performing the Rose Ransom. Thousands upon thousands of students sat in the audience over the years and participated in the spectacle, the show changing them without their even knowing it.

Her dress on this night was a dusty rose color, made of silk and bejeweled with hundreds of small diamonds. Her hair was pulled back into a Roman ponytail that draped over her shoulders with tassels of golden silk. Her makeup was stark and theatrical. Sharp eye shadow, dark highlights on her cheeks, bright red lipstick.

She finished the look with a tiara that was so loaded with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires it was heavy on her head.

She could already imagine how the dress would look in her museum. For tonight’s performance, the knife was huge. This dress wouldn’t just be stained with blood, it would be soaked. It would be the most extravagant piece in her gallery. A perfect memento from the greatest of all Rose Ransom performances.

She marched to the center of the stage and began the show.

“There once was a king who was old, lazy, and fat,” she said. She scanned the audience as she spoke the words, catching many of them in the eye, locking into their minds and willing them to participate in the show.

“When his daughter, the princess, came of age,” she continued, “the king arranged for her to marry a prince from another kingdom, thus strengthening the power of both houses. But the princess had no love for this man, for he was foul and slothful.”

She had them now. Three sentences were all she needed to catch most of them. Now she and audience were one, and could get lost in the tale together.

“The princess begged the king to free her from the arranged marriage, but he refused,” Renata said, allowing her hands to move freely, accentuating her words. It was like a dance. She led; the audience followed. Art at its most exquisite.

“Distraught, the princess shut herself in her bedroom, vowing to never come out. And there she stayed, until the night before her wedding, when the king knocked at her door and told her to open it or he would break it down.”

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