Once Upon a Time, in a land far, far away…
Ratatatat.
From the floor of the cellar,
Ella heard the echo of the loud rap on the front door but paid it no heed. Her
chores for the morning were complete and all she wanted was to catch up on some
sleep before her stepmother or one of her stepsisters forced another job upon
her.
Pulling the thin sheets
over her shoulders, she closed her eyes and let her mind drift away to James,
the handsome stranger she had met in the woods only ten days before. He had
brightened her life so much. Just thinking about him eased a little of the
tightness in her chest.
Sleep was just about to
claim her when the cellar door flew open and Ana hurried down the narrow stairs
waving a sheet of creamy parchment in her hand.
“Do you see this,
Cinders?” she asked, a self-satisfied smile lighting her face.
Ella stared at her, not
attempting to hide her loathing. “I’m not blind.”
Ana’s smile dropped a
fraction. Malevolence sparkled in her eyes. Looming over Ella, she waved the parchment
in her face. “This, darling stepsister, is an invitation from the King. He is
holding a ball to welcome his son’s return from war. Every eligible female in
the land has been invited, and from us all, the returning Prince shall select a
bride.”
As if Ella would be
allowed to attend. Since her beloved father had been murdered the year before, her
life had consisted of enslaved drudgery. His death had marked the start of a
new chapter in her life, a chapter that would be better placed in a horror story
than a fairy tale.
Her lack of hope was
well placed.
Ana leaned over so her ugly
face was mere inches from Ella’s, close enough for Ella to smell the rancidity
of her stepsister’s breath. “Do you know why I am telling you about this,
darling stepsister?”
Ella pursed her lips and
gazed at the grey ceiling. She was sick to death of these ridiculous games her
stepsister insisted on. “Let me guess – you and Izzy will be attending while I
stay locked in this cellar? You’re here to rub my nose in it?”
“For a blonde, you’re
not as dumb as you look.” Ana giggled, a sound that had the same effect as
nails being run down a chalkboard. Spittle flew from her mouth, landing on
Ella’s cheek. “Izzy, Mummy and I are all going to go to the Ball, while you, Cinderella, shall stay here and party
with the rats and spiders. I just thought I would share our good news with
you.”
“How kind.”
Ignoring the sarcasm,
Ana’s smile widened. “Don’t worry, we won’t let you miss any of the
excitement.”
“Ooo, do I get to
squeeze your spotty back before you leave?” As a result of her atrocious diet,
Ana’s plump skin was marred with blackheads.
Ana’s foot struck Ella’s
shoulder before she had time to wriggle away from the danger area. “That’s for
your insubordination,” she hissed, her face contorting into a grimace
Rumpelstiltskin would be proud of.
Before she left she
aimed another kick in Ella’s side.
Ella didn’t even flinch,
simply stared at her stepsister’s retreating back with eyes that revealed
nothing. So what if her nonchalant stance only served to increase Ana’s fury?
They might have control of her life but she would give them no more. It drove her
step-family mad they could not break her outer shell.
“It’s all right boys,
you can come out now, she’s gone,” she said to her pet rats, Itchy and
Scratchy. It took a few minutes before they heaved their shaking bodies from
their tiny hideaway and snuggled back under the blankets with her.
***
Of all the jobs Ella was forced to
do, there was only one she enjoyed: collecting firewood from the forest that
backed onto their large stone manor. Naturally, she made a big fuss of doing
it, knowing her stepmother, Christell, took perverse pleasure forcing Ella to
do anything she hated. Thus, Christell sent Ella into the forest more often
than was strictly necessary.
Ana, Izzy and Christell
would not set foot in the forest. Each was terrified of the talking bears who were
rumoured to live in it, never mind the malevolent dwarves who were often spied
trundling through with their axes and spears.
None of these creatures
scared Ella. Beneath their gruff exteriors she found them, on the whole, kindly
and much misunderstood. They just wanted to be left alone to live their lives
in peace. Not that she would tell her step-family this. It was one of the many
secrets she kept from them.
The largest secret she
hugged to herself like a precious jewel.
When she left the house
much later that afternoon, armed with a sack that required filling, she had to
force her feet to walk hesitantly rather than skip along with glee as they
wanted.
Following the footpath
from the garden gate, she was soon in the forest, the thick trees camouflaging
her from prying eyes.
“There you are!” A
figure jumped down from a huge oak tree with a flourish, and landed upright before
her, his arms stretched in a ta da
fashion. James. The man who had turned her monstrous nightmares into such sweet
dreams.
He gazed up at the
position of the sun. “You’re late,” he said, before looking back at her, the
twinkle in his green eyes belying his choice of words.
She shook her head.
“You’re early.”
He reached into his
pocket and pulled out an apple. “This is for you.”
She mock-curtseyed.
“Why, thank you kind sir.”
He bowed. “Mademoiselle,
it is my pleasure.”
Ella could no longer
contain the smile from exploding across her face. In the space of ten days she
had gone from harvesting a supply of Belladonna to feeling as if her heart was
pumping fizzy water through her veins.
Ignoring the apple she
threw her arms around his neck and crushed her lips to his in a kiss that was
every bit as thrilling as she remembered and dreamed of.
His free hand curled
around the nape of her neck, his fingers threading through her hair, the feel
of his warm skin on hers sending tingles bouncing down her spine.
He broke the kiss, rubbing
his nose over her cheeks, raining kisses across her skin. “Ella, Ella, Ella,”
he murmured, his deep words touching her core like a caress. “Would it be
presumptuous to tell you I have missed you?”
“Only if it would be
presumptuous to say I have been counting down the minutes until I could see you
again.”
Laughing, he extricated
himself from her hold and pressed the apple into her hand. “Here wench, you
need to eat.”
“Call
me that again and I’ll stuff the apple into your mouth whole,” she said, grinning
widely before kissing him again.
“Sounds kinky.” James
tugged at her hand and pulled her down to sit on the small clearing with him. “I
do have other gifts,” he said, releasing her hand and opening the bag he’d had
slung over his shoulder. With an enormous grin that turned his handsome face
into a glory to behold, he produced a large slice of fruit cake, two chicken
legs and a bunch of red grapes.
As she caught a whiff of
the delicious cooked chicken, her belly rumbled. She pressed a hand to it.
“Excuse me!” She laughed, almost giddy on the fumes from the feast before her.
“Eat,” he ordered in
that commanding voice she guessed years of ordering troops about in the war had
perfected. “We can talk when you have finished.”
“But I’m hungry for
something else,” she said, the innocence in her tone a total contradiction to
the message being thrown from her eyes. James’s refusal to do anything physical
other than heavy petting was becoming an increasing source of agitation. Ella
yearned for him. To hell with proprietary. He was the first man she had met in
eighteen months. That he was handsome, charming and witty and turned her brain
to mush was an added bonus. Her body sang like a canary for him.
He growled, helped
himself to a chicken leg, brought it to his mouth and ripped the flesh off it.
“Eat.”
Together they demolished
the food. After eighteen months of stale bread and luke-warm water, all these
delectable goodies were nearly too much to handle.
“That’s better,” he
said, nodding with satisfaction as she licked her fingers. “Look at you. You’re
skin and bone. You need fattening up.”
“Careful,” she winced.
“You sound like that old hag who lives in Gingerbread Cottage.”
He laughed. “I thought
those kids killed her.”
“For someone who’s been
away for so long, you’re certainly up with the gossip.”
“I make it my business
to keep in the loop.”
“Very wise.” She took a
long swallow of the deliciously cold water from his flask.
Her shrunken belly full
from so much wonderful food, Ella lay onto her back and gazed up at the cobalt
sky.
Had there ever been such
a perfect moment?
James lay on his side
next to her and traced a finger along her bare arm. “There is something I need
to ask you.”
“Does it involve making
love?”
“In a roundabout way.”
“Not in a direct way?”
He rolled on top of her,
his weight and movement stealing the breath from her lungs. He kissed her, hard,
but before she could respond he broke away and stared at her with a solemnity
she had never seen before. Stroking his fingers through her hair he rubbed his
nose to hers and said, “Ella, I want to make love to you too, more than I have
ever wanted to make love to anyone. But when we make love I want it to be right
– I want us to be married. What I am trying to say is I love you. Will you
marry me?”
“Oh, James,” she sighed,
desperately trying to ignore the rush of joy that surged through her veins at
his words. “Nothing would make me happier but I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
He stilled, his eyes
clouding. “Are you promised to another?”
“No, nothing like that.”
His lips tightened. He
rolled off her and sat up. “Do you not love me?”
“I do love you. More
than I thought possible.”
“Then why will you not
marry me?”
If only they had spent a
bit more time talking and a little less kissing, she might have felt compelled
to tell him sooner. As it was, she feared the truth could put him in mortal
danger. If Christell discovered she had blabbed…
Yet, if she did not tell
the truth he would only suspect the worst. Now that Ella had found him she did
not want to lose him. “My stepmother has placed me under an enchantment.”
“What kind of
enchantment?”
She looked up into his
hypnotising green eyes. “The day after we buried my father, Christell burned
all my personal possessions and moved me into the cellar. She then placed an
enchantment around the cottage – I can’t leave by the front door and can only
go within a three hundred foot boundary to the back of the house. And that, my
darling, is why I can’t marry you. It is impossible for me to leave.”
He looked a little
stunned. “What happens when you breech the barrier?”
“I get a shock that
incapacitates me.”
His eyes widened. “Why
would she do that?”
Ella shrugged. “Because
she hates me. She’s always hated me.”
“That doesn’t make sense
– if she hates you so much, why not cast you away?”
“Because I know too many
secrets to be set free. Believe me, if I told half the things I know she would
have her own spot at the hanging tree. She murdered my father – I can’t prove
it but I know it was Christell who put the poisonous spider in his bed. If she
could, she would kill me too but my fairy godmother put her own enchantment on
me that stops Christell or my stepsisters from killing me. It doesn’t stop them
beating me when the mood takes them, but it is impossible for them to
decapitate me or remove a limb or stop my heart from beating.”
“Why doesn’t your fairy
godmother break the enchantment?”
“Ha!” Ella rolled her
eyes and heaved herself up. “I haven’t seen her since my father’s funeral.
She’s elderly and very scatty.”
James’s easy-going smile
had vanished. His brow had furrowed and he stared at her for long moments
before speaking. “Christell’s taking an awful risk letting you into the forest
every day.”
“Like most of the humans
in this land, she avoids the forest.” She dragged a finger along his stubbly
cheek, tracing the long scar that ran along it, a permanent reminder of the war
he had been fighting in for King and Country. “But you are braver than most
humans.”
Darkness clouded his
eyes. “I wish you had told me before… Ella, we need to find a way to break the
enchantment.”
“Until my fairy
godmother shows up, there is no way. Christell’s magic is too powerful and
personal for an unconnected sorcerer to break it.”
“It’s not safe for you
here,” he bit out. “I wanted to marry you and take you as far away as I could.
It’s not safe here for anyone.”
“Why, what’s the matter?
How can we not be safe? The bears are harmless – honestly, that girl,
Goldilocks, she was completely in the wrong. I know they scared her but how
would you react if someone broke into your home and ate all your breakfast…?”
“It’s not the bears or
the forest I’m worried about.” His deep voice had become sombre. “This was
something I had planned on discussing with you at the right moment, but now I
know you are physically trapped I realize I need to tell you now.”
“Tell me what?”
“Ella, that war I’ve
been fighting in… do you know what we were fighting?”
She shook her head. “We
were only told that Prince Charming and a hundred of his bravest Knights were
joining the fight in a land far away.” Feeling a wave of affection burst
through her, she ran a hand through his thick, cropped hair, so proud that
James had been selected to join the noble cause.
“Did they tell you what we were fighting?”
“No. But then I don’t
get told anything, not anymore. Everything I know is from eavesdropping on my
stepfamily’s private conversations.”
“Would they be
well-informed?”
“Nothing gets past
Christell,” she said. “She’s a great one for wringing out people’s secrets. And
Izzy, the youngest of my stepsisters, is very popular, especially with the
boys.” She flashed him a wicked smile. “Before I was enslaved I remember
hearing a rumour she’d had a key made for her chastity belt.”
For the briefest of
moments his eyes sparkled before dimming again. “However much I would love to
get into a discussion about chastity belts, now is not the time. The people we
were fighting were not human in the strictest sense of the word.”
“What were they? Gnomes?
Goblins? I remember hearing once that goblins were ferocious warriors.”
“We were fighting
people,” he clarified, his eyes holding hers. “But they were not alive.”
Copyright © 2013 by Michelle Smart.
Cover design by Dee Tenorio
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Take care all xxx
