A Rose To The Flames

Chapter 18

Two different guards burst into the cell and each take one of us. Rowan and I are walked in different directions.

My guard shoves me forward.

We walk a little further. "I'm not going to hurt you." The guard whispers in my ear.

"Then—" I start.

"I'll tell you when we reach our destination." He says. We walk in silence. I try to map out the castle as we walk, but we take so many turns that I am lost.

We walk a little further and reach a room the the guard opens and motions for me to walk into it.

I walk in and my jaw drops. It's a beautiful bedroom. The guard closes the door behind us and walks in.

I spin around taking in my surroundings. It has a brilliant poster frame bed and an ornate dresser. The walls and doors are decorated with small details.

I am surrounded by white and gold and blue. I look up and the ceiling has a beautiful chandelier hanging from it. It glimmers as a soft breeze blows it ever so slightly.

I turn to look at the guard and he smiles at me knowingly. "This is your room." He says.

"My—Room?" I ask, awestruck.

"Yes, ma'am. You are to be treated like royalty, miss." He says, bowing.

"No. My name is Rose. You don't need to bow." I say.

He straightens. "Sorry, Rose. I'll send in the team."

"Team?" I ask.

"They're to get you ready for the ball tonight." He explains.

"A ball?" I ask.

"Yes, ma—Rose." He says as he leaves.

I plop onto the bed and sprawl myself out, staring up at the ornate drapery hung over the poster frames.

It looks like a seamstress sewed her favorite winter scene into the drapery.

A few minutes later my silence is interrupted by the door being opened and two girls rush in, hauling a cart with them. I sit up and look at them.

One girl looks to be about 40 and she is ordering the younger girl around. The younger girl looks a little less than my age, around 15, maybe?

The younger girl successfully pulls the cart in. It is packed with lots of over the top dresses and makeup. Some of the likes I have never seen before.

They both stop and curtsy to me when they realize that I'm watching them. The woman nudges the girl and they both turn towards me.

"Uh, there's no need for that." I say.

"Oh, uh, sorry ma'am. Would you rather we don't curtsy?" The woman asks.

"Absolutely, and don't call me ma'am, call me Rose." I say.

"Sorry ma—I mean Rose." She replies.

The girl walk over to me and grabs my hand. She takes me over to the cart.

The woman picks out a very over the top white dress and a equally over the top dark blue dress.

I look at them. She can't expect me to wear either of those.

She holds a dress on either side of my face. She hands the girl the dark blue dress and puts the white dress back on the cart.

The girl leads me to a changing curtain and gives me the dress.

"You can't expect me to wear this." I say to her.

She nods and points at the dress and then at me.