Bad For Business
'How lovely,' they whisper, seeing her sparkling like a diamond on the velvet of the swing. Her pale, smooth skin, her vibrant red hair, her full lips. All she has to do is send a single glance in their direction, and they're lost forever to dream of posessing her. When, in fact, it is her eyes that posess them. And so it continues for many years, and she is as cold and lovely as the diamonds they compare her to and shower her with.
Until one day, she meets an eager young poet from across La Manche. His lips touch hers, and the warmth of his breath is a spring breeze to melt the last of winter's frost. She feels herself being caught in that same web with which she has trapped many others. Her captor, however, is innocent of this power, and she realizes that she doesn't mind as much as she should.