Chapter 5

Kat POV

“It’s just down this alley,” Giulia gleamed as she took my hand, guiding me toward the costume shop she knew.

Giulia had taken it upon herself to help me find the perfect dress for the fundraiser, and while I was grateful for her help, my sense of style was less dramatic than her own. I guess I was just overly used to wearing neutral colours, whereas Giulia always picked out the bold colours which looked amazing against her dark skin.

“Are you sure we are going to find a dress classy enough for me to wear to the fundraiser?” I asked her, unable to keep the doubt from my voice as the costume shop came into view, a few gaudy dresses in the display window.

Giulia smiled brightly and tugged me closer as I became more and more certain that I would likely walk out of the shop with a clown costume.

“The owner is a friend of mine,” she said, emphasising the ‘friend’ part so that it left no doubt that the man was a client of hers. “I told him about you needing to find a dress and he said he has a few perfect options that you can borrow.”

The owner met us at the door to his shop, a middle aged man whose bald spot shone as if it had been polished.

“Come, come,” he said in a low voice as he ushered us inside. “Lenito has the perfect dress for you.”

I was about to ask who Lenito was, when Giulia hugged him and exclaimed dramatically, “ah, Lenito. You are such a darling.”

He blushed an ugly shade of crimson before he kissed her hand and led the way through the racks of costumes toward the back. Slowly, he picked up dress after dress and held them against me, a frown permanently on his face as he muttered critiques about every look.

“Here, try these on,” he said, thrusting a few gowns at me before he left the room.

I glanced around the cluttered mess before I caught sight of Giulia looking hopefully at me. So with an internal sigh, I put on the dresses one by one.

Gulia made sure I knew what she felt about each dress as she called out, “too long” or “too revealing”. There was even a “you look like you’re eighty!”

“Maybe we should just leave and I can go and find something to buy,” I moaned, already tired of having to play dress up. “There is still a few hours before the event tonight.”

Giulia grunted and shook her head. She started rifling through the racks of garments, and a few minutes later I heard her squeal with delight.

“I’ve found it. I have found the dress,” she bubbled enthusiastically as she motioned for me to put the dress on.

It was gorgeous. The emerald green fabric shone with the tiny crystals which had been sewn into the fabric. The sweetheart neckline was classically simple but made the ruffled hem even more extravagant, and drew attention to the way it looked like sea foam when I walked.

“Wow,” I heard myself whisper.

There was a rustle behind us and I spun to find Lenito glaring angrily at me.

“I didn’t give you this dress to try on,” he snapped, and Giulia quickly took his hand and dragged him away from me, probably to talk to him in private - or maybe to convince him in another way that he needed to lend me the dress.

Whatever she did, I was grateful for as when they came back, he was in a much better mood and even handed me a black velvet mask to tie on my face.

“The fundraiser is always a masquerade. Just make sure you don’t ruin this dress. It’s worth more than your life,” he declared dramatically.

I smiled and thanked him as sweetly as I could with mere words, before Giulia and I took the dress and almost ran from the building.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with waxing, plucking and grooming every inch of me until I somewhat resembled one of the high society women who would be attending the event.

“You know what to do,” Mother said seriously as I appeared in her kitchen. “Franky will be acting as a waiter so whatever you manage to get your hands on, hand to him and he will sneak it out of the venue.”

I nodded, more nervous than I had been the night I had snuck into the Viking’s hotel suite.

Mother’s eyes narrowed as the light caught my pendant which hung around my neck. “Don’t you have something more glamorous than that old thing?” she asked, tapping on it with the tip of her knife.

My hand flew up to it and I clutched it in my fist protectively, shaking my head.

“No, I won’t take it off,” I replied firmly, still tormented by what I had experienced the last time I had taken it off.

The screaming that had flooded my head had been enough of a deterrent for me to never take off the necklace I had worn for as long as I could remember.

Mother’s face was filled with exasperation as she conceded, her eyes narrowing once again as she shot a warning in my direction. “Don’t fail me again, Kat.”

The knife she flipped in the palm of her hand was enough to drive the message home, and I felt my throat tighten. I didn’t relax as the black vehicle drove me to the fundraiser, if anything I became more and more anxious as the Capatoline Museums came into view.

People dressed glamorously strolled casually to the man collecting invitations, and I slipped easily into the throng. Mother had presented me with an invitation and the velvet mask covering my eyes obscured my appearance, but the fear of being turned away at the door still made nervous knots form in my stomach.

“Invitation?” the man in the tuxedo said, his eyes on my hands as I fumbled with the piece of paper.

He snorted softly as he noticed that I had crinkled the card slightly, but he took it and waved me inside, and I was finally able to let out the breath I had been holding.

The function was spread out throughout the venue, and I spent some time admiring the stone statues and gold gilded vases before I got to work. Most of the attendees wore expensive items of jewellery - golden cufflinks, pearl bracelets, ornate brooches. The choices were endless.

I set my eyes on a particular target, and made my move.