Rouge Read Online Free PDF Page B

under my dressing table, digging through a small basket that was hidden behind the skirt.
    “Calm down. It lasts a few days, and then it stops,” I said, lifting out stockings and other discarded items.
    Her face was pale with fear when I emerged, and that old protectiveness rose within me.
    “Come here,” I soothed her. “It’s okay. Take this and go change.”
    I handed her one of the small towels I kept for myself. She sniffed and took the parcel from me. I watched her leave and then sat back, biting my lip. Those towels were expensive. The girls hoarded and stole them from one another, and with two of us to supply, there was no way I could cover this expense alone. We had to have more money. Now.
    After a few moments she returned. “Thanks,” she said, bundling her dress into a roll. Then she sat on the floor in front of me and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
    “How do you feel?” I asked.
    “A little trembly. And my stomach hurts. Here,” she rubbed her lower abdomen. Then she whispered. “I’m scared.”
    “Don’t be scared.” I pulled her into my arms and smoothed her copper locks back from her face. “ Rosa didn’t really say much when it happened to me, but it’s perfectly normal. You’re turning into a woman.”
    She lifted her chin and kissed my neck. “Thank you.”
    I continued smoothing her hair and we were silent a few moments. A tapping at the door interrupted us.
    “Hale,” Carla stuck her head inside. “Are you okay?”
    Teeny clutched my arm, and I looked at her. She shook her head.
    “We just…” I tried to think of something plausible. “Teeny’s feeling under the weather, so I was just checking on her.”
    “Frank needs you back onstage. I’m sorry you’re sick, Teence.”
    I stood and helped her up. “Just lie down for a little while, and we’ll talk more later.”
    Back onstage I went to where my dance partner was waiting. I turned my back to him and leaned against his firm chest. My arms spread open and his hands cupped my wrists as our legs rose in unison. It was a beautiful dance, and in my mind I calculated how long it had taken me to go from falling and stepping on my partner’s feet to near-ballet.
    No, I decided. We’d need a solution quicker than that.
     
    * * *
     
    “The first day really is the hardest,” Teeny said the next morning. “I feel so much better now.”
    “I’m glad,” I said, frowning as I handed her the second-to-last towel I had hidden beneath my table. Once they were gone, our only option was those smelly rags that didn’t provide much in the way of protection. Or hygiene. And we had to wash and boil them by hand. It was disgusting.
    Several minutes later, the door burst open again and she rushed in, grabbing my arm. “He’s back,” she whispered. “Come on!”
    “What now?”
    She pulled me down the narrow corridor to the backstage area where in a few minutes I’d have to test the bench Mastiff’s workers had constructed. I wasn’t looking forward to it. Midway there, she released me, and I reached back to finish tying my hair. Then she stopped so short, I almost slammed into her.
    She turned and grabbed my arms. “Look,” she whispered, tilting her head to the scaffolding above and behind her.
    I looked in the direction of her nod, but all I saw were workers.
    “What?” I returned my eyes to her, searching her face. “Did you see something?”
    “Up there,” she murmured a bit louder, through tight lips. I looked again, but the only thing I saw was… Oh, no . Through a sheen of dust particles a slender guy with honey-colored hair was tying the rope that would catch me if the one holding my bench broke.
    “Are you wagging your head at a stage hand?” I squinted into the light again hoping there was something else there I’d overlooked.
    Teeny squeezed my arms. “Don’t stare!”
    “But you just said—”
    “What do you think?” she interrupted, her voice giddy. “Isn’t he amazing?”
    I looked again, but