La Belle Swan

Prologue

La Belle Swan

BYjairsoliloquy

**********************************************************

Prologue

There, on the sides, she stands -beautiful as day, dark as night. Just a little over 16, the young beauty stands in silence with commanding grace. Her face is the picture of gripping innocence, but there she stands -guilty.

"Odette Caswell, I hereby sentence you to death by hanging." The impassioned judge ruled.

Mixed emotions enveloped the tiny courtroom as the judgment sealed the fate of the young chit. Noble ladies with nothing better to muddle themselves with shook their heads in disapproval of her, hiding their faces behind their silly paper fans gossiping with each other. Each judging her and looking down their long noses at her; as if she wasn't there, as if they were any better. Young rakes and other various admirers filled the suffocating room. All faces bore the image of disbelief and utter horror.

I stared at her, studying her every feature, every response to this verdict. She stood tall in all dignity, chin up in boldness, everything about her screamed of defiance and of great self-possession. Her façade cracked for a fragment of a second, as her eyes locked with mine. Her green-gray eyes beheld mine and I saw all the fear in them. Although she was matured beyond her years in the way she carried herself, and so mature in her looks that no one would have guessed she was only 16; in those eyes, you could see all her youth spilling out from them. This was first time I have ever seen her afraid. She closed her eyes as her feathery lashes swept her cheeks and faced front again, this time she wrapped her arms around herself as if there was a great sudden chill in the room.

Miss Odette Caswell, 15 September 1799 - 28 July 1816. I would suppose, reader, you would wish to know what exactly young Miss Caswell is guilty of. Reader, she is guilty of murder. Not one, two or three accounts, but of five accounts of murder.