Chapter 38
ELLA
MAIER MANOR
Today has been torture getting my stepsisters prepared for the ball.
First, preparing Marianne’s dress and then her bath, which required multiple trips to the kitchen to boil water.
She even sent me to the garden to find flowers.
Impossible this early in spring. The most frustrating part is returning to Marianne’s room to discover flower petals floating across the bath’s surface.
“Where did you find those flowers?” I ask her as she sinks beneath the water’s surface.
“I have my sources.” She smiles coyly at me. “My skin needed them to soak in their essence.”
“Then I suppose you don’t need these flowers.” I set the ones I gathered onto the vanity.
“Those useless weeds? Hardly!”
I don’t have time to mull over Marianne’s strange behavior or the source of her roses because Bertha is in the next room screaming for me.
I pause at Marianne’s mirror, realizing I need to find time to clean up and dress.
Bertha screams my name again. Letting out a frustrated breath, I rush into her room only to watch her throw all her jewelry out the window.
“What’s wrong with you?” I demand and peek over the ledge. Jewels are scattered on the ground below.
“Wrong with me?” Bertha tosses her shiny blond curls over her shoulder. “You’re the one who threw all my jewelry out the window. I hope nothing is broken.”
Fear winds up in my chest. “You’re not blaming this on me,” I say.
The sun is dipping low in the sky. Time is fleeing. I’ve minutes at best to gather up the lentils. An impossible task.
“Darling Bertha, why aren’t you ready yet?” Stepmother breezes into the room in a dazzling crinoline gown.
“It’s Cinderella’s fault.” Bertha points a shaking finger at me, tears trickling from her blue eyes. “She didn’t want me to look beautiful, so she threw all of my jewels out the window.”
“Cinderella!” Stepmother cries. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“I’ll fetch them immediately,” I say, and dart out of the room. There’s no use arguing. To my stepmother, her daughters are always right, even when they aren’t.
I gather up the jewels in my apron but stop at the kitchen first. If I hurry, there’s still a chance I can go.
Dropping onto the hearth, I start digging through the ashes and picking up the lentils.
After a few moments of listening to the ringing of the bells for me to return to my stepsisters’ rooms, I decide I’d be happy to never see another lentil again.
Stepmother knew this was a hopeless task when she tossed them into the ashes.
“She’s won,” I grumble. “Again.”
A twitter of a bird, and then a tap tap on the window catches my attention. I open it, discovering the ravens and Aunt Fiona in her bird form perched on the small tree.
“What’s going on?” she asks.
“It’s the ball.” Then I explain the impossible task my stepmother gave me.
“My poor dear,” Aunt Fiona says. “My sister would peck my eyes out if she knew I allowed such nonsense to happen to you. And she’d insist you went to the ball.
Don’t worry. I’ll call the pigeons and turtledoves.
They are excellent at such things. Then you can dazzle the prince and be free from your nonsensical stepmother.
Now hurry! Go get dressed. Once you come back here, you’ll find your task complete. ”
“Thank you, Aunt Fiona!” I kiss her feathery forehead.
By the time I scurry upstairs, sweat soaking my dress, I find the three already dressed and exiting Bertha’s room.
They look like queens, strolling down the hall with gossamer tulle, shimmering lavender bodices, honey-dipped skirts, and brown-sugar brocades.
All my hopes and dreams of attending a spectacular ball melt away.
“I brought the jewels.” I hold out the box filled with glittering rocks, now looking too fine for my callused hands.
“Never mind those old things,” Bertha scoffs. “Mother found a far finer set of jewels. Aren’t they simply enchanting?”
With her satin-gloved hands, she points to her neckline where a large ruby pendant hangs over her chest. Then she shakes her head, allowing the matching ruby earrings to catch the fading sunlight in their crevices.
I frown. “Those are my mother’s jewels. I thought you needed to sell those.”
“They’re the household jewels,” Father says, coming up from behind the group. “Since you threw Bertha’s out the window, I decided it’s only fitting she should have the best. Now let’s be off. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late.”
Panic seizes at my throat, threatening to cut off my air. “Wait! You can’t leave yet.”
“I’ll take those.” Stepmother snatches the box from my hands. “Can’t have you trying to steal the family jewels. I know how you think, Cinderella.”
“I wouldn’t.” Or would I? They’d let me start a new life, wouldn’t they?
I trail after the group when Marianne touches me lightly, careful to hold her skirts away from my grimy-covered ones.
“I’m sorry you can’t come,” she says. “I promise to tell you every juicy detail tomorrow.”
My heart squeezes tighter. I know it’s silly to want to go to a ball. I should focus on finding a way to escape. Except Jacob is also depending on me coming to help him.
“You promised,” I call after Stepmother.
She spins on her satin slippers, her gown swaying off the ground like a bell. “Cinderella, you knew our deal.”
“Please, just wait.” I rush down the hall into the kitchen. Sure enough, the bowl is filled with lentils, cleaned of ashes. A lone feather lies beside it. “Thank you!” I whisper into the air, before snatching up the bowl and racing back to Stepmother.
“See.” I present the lentils. “The task is done. I’ve fulfilled the agreement.”
“Let me see those.” Marianne peers into the bowl, first studying the lentils and then me, a frown puckering her forehead. “How did you gather these so fast? It’s as if you used magic.”
My heart stutters at her words. Like she knows about such things.
Stepmother tsks. “Wonderful work, but have you seen yourself in the looking glass? You can’t wear that gown. You’re hardly fit to walk about our manor in such a state. You’d only bring shame to our family and whatever strands of nobility the Maier name has left.”
With that, she joins the others climbing into the coach.
I can’t move, gripping the bowl as if it’s the only thing that keeps me from losing it.
Peter flicks the reins, tipping his hat forlornly to me.
No one gives me a glance from inside the coach, too busy fluttering fans and giggling in anticipation.
In that moment, it’s as if I’m dragged back to the night of Mother’s death. Though there isn’t a drop of rain in the sky, I feel like I’m drowning.
I stumble down the steps, dropping the bowl of lentils onto the grass.
What did they matter now? I wander, not really knowing where to go or what to do.
Sunlight filters through the trees, and I gaze at the castle resting on the cliff.
The sunset illuminates the tower into gold, a lofty promise of hopes.
The sounds of music and laughter waft down from the castle on the wings of twilight’s breeze.
If only I could fly away and leave everything behind. Clenching my fists, I try to imagine myself transforming. When that didn’t work, I take off running, holding my arms out as if to trick my body into the act of flight. Instead, I only manage to look like a fool.
It’s then that I realize my feet took me to the one place I feel wanted, needed. Mother’s grave beneath the hazel tree. I drop to my knees, and a single tear trickles down my cheek. I brush it away, determined to be strong.
“Why are you crying?” It’s Aunt Fiona back in her half-human, half-bird form, sitting on the tree bough, kicking her legs as the wind brushes over her feathered arms. “You should be off to the ball.”
“I wanted to, but Stepmother is right. I can’t exactly wear this.
You know what Mother’s last words were to me?
” I ask her. She shakes her head. “Be good and pious, and then the good God would protect and look down on me from heaven and be near. But what has that gotten me? I’m nothing but rags and soot.
I’m a slave in my own house and betrothed to a monster.
I even tried to transform into a bird so I could fly away, but even that didn’t work. ”
“Well, that’s a terrible predicament indeed.”
I rise to my feet, brushing the dirt from my skirts, which is laughable. “I need to pack. I have only a few hours to escape before they return and notice I’ve gone missing.”
“Escape?” Fiona laughs. “I thought you wished to go to the ball. The ball is where you must go because that’s your future, not this place.” Then Fiona switches to a sing-song voice, saying, “Shiver and quiver, little tree, silver and gold throw down to thee.”
She flourishes her hands. A golden gossamer dress lined with silver ribbon floats through the air, landing in my arms. Silver slippers appear at my feet.
“How? How did you do this?”
“There might be a touch of magic in our family line.” Fiona titters as if she’s telling a good joke. “Maybe you’ll be lucky and inherit that as well. Come inside. We’ll get you all polished up and wipe those tears away.”
The doorway appears in the tree, and I step inside.
The scents of fresh wood and earth flow over me, rich and deep.
Fiona directs me to a side room tucked behind branches where there’s a basin of scented water.
I clean up and slip on the shimmering gown.
Then Fiona brushes out my hair, and with a few twists and pulls, braids and curls it into an intricate design.
She whistles and doves carry in snowdrop flowers, which Fiona tucks into my curls. After I slip on the silver slippers, she directs me over to a full-sized looking glass, larger than even Marianne’s.
“Now if that isn’t ever the prettiest girl in the land.” Fiona squeezes my shoulders.
I blink at my transformation. The dress shimmers as if it holds starlight. My hair looks like spun gold, free of dirt and soot. I touch my chest. The dress reveals more skin than I’m used to.
“Your mother’s jewels are gone,” Fiona says, misreading my actions. “But I have the blue star jewel passed down in our family for generations. I wanted to give it to you earlier, but I feared Frau von Maier would take it.”
She opens an old wooden jewelry box and, from its velvet-lined depths, withdraws a deep sapphire-blue pendant. She clasps its gold chain around my neck. It sparkles against my skin. Then she lifts a brush and sweeps powder over my face so my skin glitters too.
“How can I ever thank you?” I spin around, enchanted with how the dress moves like a stream rippling over rocks.
“You can thank me by having the most glorious time. The powder has a masquerading spell to keep others from recognizing you as long as you’re wearing it.
Now off you go. Take a horse up the mountain path.
It’s the shortest way. I’ll have the ravens escort you and make sure no harm befalls your trip. ”