Curse of Rose de Winter

Chapter 10

Minutes before noon the dress and accessories were procured in the span of two hours only, and Irene dressed me carefully. She wiped away the red on my lip for a pink shade of lipstick.

"It suits you much better," Irene said, standing back to admire her handiwork. "Now get used to the heels, they were quite expensive."

"I could get used to that, but these lace gloves are impractical," I complained instead.

"Hurry, it's already noon!" She turned away and cleaned up the boxes that held the dress and gloves. Expensive things came in expensive boxes, I learned. Like hat-boxes with ribbons and lining inside.

I rushed out of the room and slowly down the staircase, where Dylan and Vaughn waited. Calvin was not going to be there, as well as Ruby, I heard.

"How is the outfit?" I asked as I descended. Dylan nodded.

"White is a much better color on you. And your face looks better, healthier."

I had secretly patted off the white powder and Irene applied my makeup again, without the black for eyeliner.

"I should hope so, it's my natural look."

Vaughn snickered and Dylan looked away before speaking. "Well, I'll have to escort you out and give your introduction since you have no father."

"The will isn't told to them, right?" I asked.

"Of course not! We aren't begging for suitors," Dylan said quickly. Vaughn shrugged.

"You forget about Scarlett. She's bound to talk, and Austen may even hint towards it with that brain of his."

"Stop looking so worried, smile, Rose." Dylan could take his own advice. Instead, he held out his arm. "Let's go, as the siblings Dylan and Blanche."

I held his arm, making sure I wasn't overbearingly tight, but I was glad to hold him.

"Sometimes you feel familiar," he whispered right before the door to the garden opened. "I feel as though—as though I'd known you before this. Before all of this, which was why I thought you were Blanche. It wasn't your appearance."

"Then what was it?" I asked, but he opened the door, and sunlight was on our faces.

I struggled to stand straight with my heels for a while, pushing Dylan by accident, but I was giddy, especially after hearing what he had said. I tripped over the threshold and Dylan held me tight.

I was aware of how close I was to his face, he was only a half a head taller than me in such high heels, but he only met my eye with a confused look.

"Are you fine?"

"No, but I'll get through with it," I promised in a whisper. "Now let's make our entrance."

Both of us walked out with our chests out and proud, and as expected, people crowded around us.

"How darling!" Scarlett's voice rang out. "White for Blanche, am I right? I remembered suggesting it, I knew it would suit her. Oh, to be young and pretty again!"

Women chorused how pretty she already was, and I recognized them to be the Whitecross sons' mother, the Redmond's two mothers, as they had two heirs, and Leroy's mother.

I had seen the famous people before, in newspapers and tabloids, when I was Rose Blackwood, only no one recognized me as expected.

"Yes, this is Blanche de Winter, twenty-two as of this year. She is my younger sister and will live with us in the de Winter estate from now on," Dylan said, barely smiling.