From Maid to Newsie
Ella's POV
I ran down the stairs calling, "Wait for me! Please! Wait for me!"
Stepmother, Drizella, and Anastasia all turned and stared at me. "Do you like it? Do you think it will do?" I modeled the dress my animal friends had made me.
Anastasia and Drizella immediately began tugging on Stepmother's dress like whiny two-year-olds.
"Mother, she can't come!" Drizella whined.
"Mother, you aren't going to let her come, are you?" Anastasia whined.
Stepmother held out her hands and said, "Girls. Girls. We had a deal. After all, we did make a bargain, didn't we, Cinderella?"
She stepped toward me and, smiling evilly, said, "And I never go back on my word."
I cringed away. She stepped closer and I relaxed, thinking she just wanted to admire my dress. She smiled at me and murmured, "How very clever."
Fingering the necklace, she turned to Drizella and asked, "These beads—they give it just the right touch—wouldn't you think so, Drizella?"
Drizella huffed and said, "No. I don't think..."
She whirled and snapped, "Why you little thief. Those are my beads. Give them back!" She tore the necklace off.
"Oh, and that's my sash! She's wearing my sash! She can't!" Anastasia protested, tearing her sash out of my dress.
The two ripped my dress to sheds as I begged and pleaded with them to stop. Drizella leaned over me and said, "You little..."
I'll leave the rest to your imagination, but it wasn't nice or ladylike.
"Girls! That's quite enough!" Stepmother called. "Hurry along now, the both of you. I won't have you upsetting yourselves."
Drizella and Anastasia flounced out the door. Stepmother followed them and, closing the door, called, "Goodnight."
I looked helplessly at her and then fled the room. No, I fled the house. I ran until I reached the docks and eventually ended up on a ship full of goods headed for New York. Tears streamed silently down my face. I was never putting up with their cruel treatment again.
