The Wronged Princess - Book I (19 page)

“
He was a very attractive man
,” Hilda said proudly
. 
Her massive cheeks vibrated as she drew herself tall
. 
“Quite esteemed.”

“Would this be the same sire as Cinderella’s?”

“W..we…well,” she sputtered, turning a dull red. Thomasine watched fascinated
. 
“Alas, Charles was their stepfather
. 
My own dear, Henry, expired just beyond Esmeralda’s sixth year
. 
At which time
it
was
deemed I
remarry straight away
. 
The lands, you know.
”
She threw her hand out
. 
“
But dear Charles, bless his ever-loving soul, lavished his generous attentions on my girls.”

And, so it went
. 
With nary a kind word for her stepdaughter, scarcely a mention
even
.

Thomasine’s mind drifted through the endless droning
. 
What a dreadful life the poor child had been forced to endure after his death
. 
Cinderella’s father must have been a brilliant man, she concluded
. 
Thanks to Faustine’s informative knowledge, she’d related his specialty as cartography centering his interest on Greek Mythology
. 
Thomasine made a mental note to check the library for his some of his writings.

From the corner of her eye she caught the familiar glimmer of sparkles and resisted the urge to smile
. 
At times Faustine’s wispy communications were quite amusing
. 
Also reassuring, as her presence ensured that the carriage ride she’d insisted on for the girls must be going much better for them than this mundane company Thomasine was forced to endure
. 
She inclined her head politely at Hilda’s constant rambling
. 

She held back a sigh
. 
Her task to occupy Hilda was proving extremely tedious
. 
Someday she would be holding this over her son’s noble head
. 

The thought lightened her mood.

Chapter
14

Cinderella could not believe her good fortune
. 
The
tenuous relationship
with Esmeralda
pleased her beyond her wildest imagination
. 
And it could not have surprised her more
. 
True, they maintained a care in their casual conversation
. 
Only the guilt of Prince Charming’s fleeting kiss tarnished her complete joy
. 

With Pricilla in tow, neither felt comfortable voicing their thoughts aloud at this juncture
. 
But it still heartened her greatly to not fear every moment in
t
he
i
r presence
. 
She even found she could make small jests that would cease to be ridiculed at every turn
. 
Leastways, where Esmeralda,
Essie
as she now thought her, was concerned.

A light breeze teased the loose tendrils of her hair as she gazed about
. 
Just as she knew they would be
, t
he grounds
were
immaculate, the carriage ride perfect
. 
Well, but for Pricilla’s constant antagonistic commentary
. 
Two perfectly matched
whites
pulled their light
open
cariole
. 
Cinderella eyed the mammals
very nearly resembling
the ones Fairy Godmother had conjured up out of two fat rats
. 

She narrowed her gaze
. 
Impossible
. 
It could not be so
, could it
?
She drifted back to another moment
.

“Who are you?” Cinderella asked.

“Why, I am your fairy godmother, child.”

“Fairy Godmother,” Cinderella scoffed
.
“
Impossible.”

“Bah
, nothing is impossible
.
I am made of all your hopes and dreams and wishes.” This vision in the frothiest pink stood before her spouting
the silliest
nonsense
.
But to only believe
..
.

“I’
ve only one wish tonight,
”
she whispered, not daring to hope.

“You’ve only to ask, my dear.”

“
There’s a
ball…” her voice trailed
.
‘Twas
an impossible wish, she knew, as was the apparition standing before her
.
For it would
all disappear were she to blink—such was the way with dreams
.

A rut in the road jarred Cinderella back to the present
. 

The sun warmed the air
in
an unnatural bright fall day
.
Cinderella could feel excitement lending a tingle in the atmosphere
. 
She
turned her sights on the manicured trees sheared in uniform that showed not a single branch or leaf protruding from its designated position
. 
And if
she managed to tune out Pricilla she
found she was
most happy indeed
. 

Cinderella tried to contain her
exhilaration
as the footman steered them through magnificent squared and colorful gardens
. 
She felt compelled to ask for the possibility to wander the walking paths to some of the ponds where other
m
ythological statues resided, but one covert glance to the present company showed the relationship between Pricilla and Esmeralda, deteriorating with rapid vigor
. 

From the moment Prince had slipped Cinderella’s slipper onto Esmeralda’s foot, Pricilla’s scowl had taken on a permanent etch in her pinched expression
. 
With m
ost of her anger directed
quite unrestrained
at Esmeralda
,
Cinderella
ceased
to exist
as an object of scorn
. 

On the one hand, Cinderella felt a surge of relief at being spared Pricilla’s sharp and vicious tongue
. 
While on the other, as the object of many of those horrendous jabs in the past, she felt an immense empathy for
Essie
, and struggled with how she might aid in diverting the borderline abusive attention
. 
For each added kilometer the ride became conspicuously contemptuous and painfully awkward.

After a particularly scathing remark,
Essie
whipped about and said, “Really, Pricilla, you go too far
!
What exactly is the nature of the problem here
?
You have been nothing short of monstrous since our arrival
. 
I
suggest if you have nothing nice to say then you say nothing at all!”

Cinderella was hard pressed in keeping her mouth from gaping.

A violent flush rose up Pricilla’s neck
—q
uite unbecoming
. 
In a flash Pricilla’s hand
rose
toward
Essie
. 
But a swift, yet surprisingly, strong gust of wind stirred
. 
Cinderella shot a quick look to Essie’s eyes
. 
But they were
slotted toward
her sister
.
Not a single blink registered
.
Very odd
. 

As sudden as the burst appeared, it just as promptly disappeared.

But a
speck of dirt diving through the air
had
met its mark
. 
Pricilla let out a hysterical shriek
and covered her tearing eye with a gloved hand
. 
Frankly, Cinderella was surprised dirt was allowed to levitate and dart as such without its proper consent
. 
She tugged a white lace handkerchief from a hidden pocket in her skirt and pressed it into Pricilla’s hand
. 
Much nicer than
the
dingy gray she’d
been
accustomed.

“Wh…what happened? Oh,
this
is all so unfair,” she wailed
. 
Her voice was muffled by the lace hankie while she worked the foreign substance from her eye.

“What do you find unfair, Cill?”
Essie
sighed
. 
The dramatics were almost comical.

“Everything,” Pricilla cried. “
You
have dainty feet.
You
are engaged to Prince Charming
. 
Even Cinderella’s chamber is bloody nicer than ours—”

Cinderella gasped at her profanity.

“—and now my eyes will swell, turn red and watery.”

“My chamber?” Cinderella’s calm façade snapped in an unprecedented instant
. 
“What can possibly bother you regarding my chamber
?
’T
i
s the Royal Palace, for heaven’s sake
. 
Of course, it is nice.”

“Oh, quit being so dramatic, Cill
. 
I do not even wish to marry the prince
. 
I certainly have no choice in the matter.”

“
What
!”

“I thought I did…” she said
,
softly.
“But—”

“What do you mean you do not
wish
to marry the prince?” Pricilla
interrupted
. 
She
turned to Cinderella
. 
“Would
you
marry the prince?”

Shocked by the question, she stuttered an answer
. 
“Of…of course
. 
He
…he
is the prince, is he not?
”
She could feel the flames in her cheeks
. 
If they only knew.

Pricilla did not seem to notice and whipped back to
Essie
. 
“See
?
Even Cinderella would marry him.”

Cinderella had no idea how to comment to a statement such as that and let it go somehow holding back
a
groan.

“I’m just a
blast of nerves
,” Essie
defended
. 
The self-
disgust
in her tone
was rivaled by the
apparent anger at circumstances beyond her control
. 
“The instant the prince is anywhere about you’d think a storm had blown off the
Mediterranean Sea
. 
My eyes bat like I’m about to take flight…I…I start to stutter.
”
Her embarrassment tugged at Cinderella
. 
“Can you imagine a union where your husband
wondered
if the crops
blew
away
simply
because he walked up
and
ask
ed
you some mundane, perfectly ordinary question
?
Like ‘how was your day, dear’?
”
The
throb pulsing
Essie’s neck was testament to the inner torment she worried over.

Pricilla stared at her sister in astonishment
. 
“B-but you have dainty feet!”

Cinderella let out a gurgle of laughter drawing Pricilla’s unwanted attention. “What are you snickering at?”

Cinderella shrugged. “
I
have dainty feet, too,” she sniffed.

“What is
that
supposed to mean?
”
It was
plain
Pricilla’s patience had worn through and Cinderella could see her temper threatening
. 
Yet, Cinderella fought the urge to shrink away.