My Name Is Rose Read online

  Rose edged her way towards the piano. As she did, Mrs Luca stood up and turned to the audience.

  ‘I want to introduce you to my daughter, Anna, who I’m proud to say has inherited my musical talent and is making her debut this evening.’ Mrs Luca paused. ‘As you will have heard, Anna is unable to speak. She has never been able to speak. She was born mute, poor child. But she lets her music speak for her. I hope you’ll love what she has to say . . .’

  Mrs Luca sat down again at the piano.

  Rose couldn’t move. She was stunned by what she had just heard.

  ‘Ready?’ Mrs Luca whispered.

  Rose grimaced. She was there on stage for all to see and had no option but to go through with it. She offered a slight curtsy to the audience as she had been told to do, while they clapped encouragingly.

  Mrs Luca played the opening bar of a piece they had practised over and over again. Rose closed her eyes and tried to picture herself in a big open field, playing for no one except the birds in the air. She held the bow in place, took a deep breath and, when her moment came, she began.

  The first few bars were shaky, Rose knew, and she battled to keep the bow from quivering. She could feel the tension in the audience as they willed her to get it right and exceed their expectations. She fought to hold herself together, to allow the music to take over. At last, she gained control and was able to move the bow without it juddering against the strings.

  Mrs Luca hit a wrong note and glared at her, but Rose knew she wasn’t at fault. And then, as she caught sight of Mr Luca, now sitting in the front row of the audience with Victoria, a picture of Nicu filled her head. Nicu playing the violin; Nicu whipping the crowd into a frenzy, then stroking them into tranquillity; Nicu weaving spells with his music and making the world a happy place.

  There was a break in the music between the first and second movements. Before Mrs Luca could lay her fingers back down on the piano keys, Rose took a step forward on the stage, stamped her feet, shook her head so that her hair fell loose, then struck her bow violently downward against the strings of her violin.

  This is for you, Papa.

  She began to play, not the music Mr and Mrs Luca had demanded, but the music of her father, of her family, of her people. Somewhere behind her, Mrs Luca told her to stop, but in that moment she had no power over her. Rose was like a sorcerer with a magic wand. Nothing could touch her any more. She was doing what Nicu wanted and he would have been proud of her, just as she was of him the day before two monsters of people destroyed her family.

  She played the final heartbreaking note, and slowly lowered the violin.

  There was silence.

  At last, someone clapped, then someone else cheered.

  The whole audience followed, rising to their feet as though linked by some magical cord. Rose caught Mrs Luca’s eye. The woman whose project she had been looked utterly defeated. In front of Rose, Mr Luca and Victoria were the only people still sitting.

  Gradually, the ovation came to an end and nobody knew what to do. Except for Rose. Somewhere deep inside her, something was struggling to get out. She opened her mouth and whispered something which nobody could hear.

  She tried again, louder this time, fighting to control her breathing and find her voice. ‘My name is Rose.’

  Then louder still, and bold. ‘My name is Rose. Not Anna. I want to go home to my people. These are not my people. Please let me go home.’

  She watched as Mrs Luca fled from the stage, and said again, ‘My name is Rose.’

  Also by Sally Grindley

  Bitter Chocolate

  Torn Pages

  Broken Glass

  Spilled Water

  Saving Finnegan

  Hurricane Wills

  Feather Wars

  This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in June 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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  Text copyright © Sally Grindley 2011

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 9781408814031

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