Um...please don't kill me.
If you did, you know...you'd never get updates again. Ever.
And, er, this one's kind of short.
-ducks to avoid torrent of art easles-
I'm sorry, but I do have a life!
Disclaimer: I don't own Cinderella and said characters, but I do own some of them...er, well, at least their new tendency to go OOC. Yay for that.
Please try to enjoy...
- - -
Dream Come True
Chapter 12
- - -
"His Highness the prince has just arrived, Miss!" Bridgett stuck her head through the door, startling Cinderella from the small nap she was taking atop the pile of signed invitations.
"Oh, right…" she muttered groggily as she fussed with her hair and wrinkled dress, reaching down to place the last invitation in an envelope and sealing it with dripping red wax, just as she'd done fifty-five times before.
It had been monotonous and tiring, but most of all it hadn't been very comfortable falling asleep in the dress the maid had chosen for her to wear as she greeted the invitees. It was a dark shade of green with black lace trimming and black buttons down the front. She had matching green ribbons woven all throughout her hair that was piled gracefully around her head in golden ringlets. Cinderella glanced at her pale and lace-imprinted face for a moment before dismissing any possibilities of making herself look more presentable.
She hurried down endless flights of stairs and hallways and into the arms of Alaric, who had been waiting by the carriage patiently. He took her hand and helped her step up into the high curricle.
"My, aren't you lovely today!" he exclaimed, his eyes moving up and down her figure as she stepped through the small door.
Cinderella laughed, not bothering to point out the red marks on her face from dozing on her sleeve.
"Aren't you tired of riding in carriages all day?" She took his hand in hers and gazed at his tired and drooping eyes.
"Exhausted…you have no idea how bad the roads are in between towns. Nobody bothers to fill in the potholes." She opened her mouth to suggest an alternative, but Alaric shook his head and squeezed her hand gently. "I'll be fine as long as I'm with you, Cinderella."
Her face flushed involuntarily, looking out the window with a silent smile as the coachman whipped the horses into motion.
- - -
The day couldn't have gone any slower. Each stop they made, they were required to personally deliver each invitation, and almost every home felt obligated to invite them in for a short cup of tea. Conversation mostly centered around the upcoming wedding, and Cinderella soon found herself falling into a steady routine of default answers. Her cheeks were sore from smiling, her sides ached from restricted breathing from her corset in the hot weather, and her mind had succumbed to a numbed state.
"Cinderella?" Alaric's voice brought her slowly back from miles away in her thoughts.
"Hm?" she grunted.
"I love you."
She sighed and leaned against his chest. "And I'll love you more when we can get all this over with."
He took a moment to search through the bag and count the remaining letters.
"Five more letters and then we can retire."
She gave him a tight-lipped smile.
"You can look forward to a relaxing evening, but I still have to try on my reception dress for the last time, take final measurements and alterations, and choose the menu for the reception meal…" she paused, thinking. "And speaking of meals, we have to eat dinner with my stepfamily this evening."
She looked up at Alaric, whose face was twisted into a grimace.
"Oh, don't worry," she laughed, "Anastasia eloped with the baker, so we'll only have to deal with one stepsister and my ornery stepmother."
"Well that's a relief!" Alaric said in a flat voice.
- - -
Cinderella had gathered her wits on the way to Lady Tremaine's abode, which they'd inevitably put off until the end. She couldn't have done it, however, without her prince standing so close beside her.
"Take my hand, and you'll be fine." Alaric said comfortingly as he helped her down from the carriage. "Don't tremble, my love…" he whispered softly in her ear as they approached the front door.
Cinderella pulled the bell rope with shaking fingers, her eyes fixed on the large brass handle, waiting as footsteps approached from inside.
"Courage." Alaric muttered to her, pressing her fingers to his lips briefly.
She took deep breaths, trying to bring back that bravery she'd shown only the previous day. She hadn't spoken a single word to Lady Tremaine. Cinderella had simply taken Anastasia under her wing with silent confidence. She'd aided in her stepsister's elopement, and not a single scream of harsh words from her stepmother could have stopped her.
But now she felt her confidence slipping as the brass handle finally turned slowly. She wondered suddenly what her stepmother would do. Cinderella watched as the door slowly opened, clenching her leg muscles, ready to run if need be.
Drizella's pudgy, slightly pink face peered around the side of the wide wooden door. Her eyes were swollen from crying.
"Hello, Cinderella." She said softly, her eyes widening as they fell on the regal figure attached to Cinderella's arm. "Good afternoon, Your Highness."
Drizella moved to present him with a deep curtsy, but Alaric held up his hand.
"No need to be so formal, Miss Tremaine. Cinderella and I are merely here to present you with an invitation to the wedding ceremony taking place next week," he placed the envelope in Drizella's outstretched hand, "And also to extend a hand of welcome to join us for dinner this evening around seven o' clock."
"Well, I…I suppose we'll come. Mother's not well today, and--" Drizella's eyes filled with genuine tears once more.
She fell silent, her body shaking with sobs as she gripped the door firmly to keep from toppling to the floor. She held the back of her hand up to her nose, her tears dripping onto the sealed envelope she grasped between white-knuckled fingers.
"We should call a doctor." Cinderella spoke the words without thinking, and Drizella seemed to brighten, her sobs subsiding somewhat as she nodded emphatically.
Cinderella turned, leaving Alaric to say a few awkward words to her crying stepsister. She called to the footman, and he approached with a polite bow.
"If you could ask a particular doctor on South Street to come as soon as possible, I would greatly appreciate it."
The footman bowed once more and jumped onto the running board as the carriage was whipped into swift motion.
The doctor arrived shortly, his face showing the same disapproval as before. He helped himself down from the carriage and eyed Cinderella with a curious expression as he approached.
"What seems to be the problem, miss?"
"Lady Tremaine is ill, apparently. Drizella can tell you more if you will be so kind as to follow me inside…"
The doctor's face showed recognition as she spoke, and she thought she saw a pleased sparkle appear in his eyes when she spoke Drizella's name.
Her stepsister's face lit with a smile despite the tears that poured down her cheeks when her eyes fell on the doctor.
"Harris." Drizella's voice squeaked as she held out her hand to him in greeting.
The doctor took her hand in his, kissing it gently before standing upright with a serious expression. He seemed to gather his wits, his eyes resuming their normal disapproving stare as he took deep breath before asking numerous businesslike questions.
"How is your stepmother feeling? What are her symptoms? How long has she been sick? Have you kept a hot water bottle by her feet? What about the fire, has it been taken care of?"
Drizella seemed to struggle with ever answer, but it all did not sound so well for Lady Tremaine.
"I must see her at once!"
Harris took long strides to follow Cinderella's stepsister who jogged ahead up the steps with quick gasping breaths. Cinderella's heart seemed to wither when they entered her stepmother's bedroom. An ungodly stench reached her nose as she stepped over the threshold. She felt Alaric's grip on her arm tighten slightly, and his face paled only briefly, but Drizella didn't seem to notice the smell at all as she let loose a stuttering torrent of questions and excuses.
"I d-didn't know what to do. She's oh-so cold, but she's sweating, and she moans when I move the blankets—and I didn't have time to chop firewood. Harris, what d-did I do wrong? I only tried to help! I only tried--" Her face collapsed into her hands as she sobbed helplessly by her mother's bedside.
"There, there, Drizella…" Harris, the doctor, said as he picked up Lady Tremaine's wrist, examining his watch while he felt her pulse. "You and her highness will go and build a proper fire." He looked up at Cinderella with a pleading expression, and she nodded, taking her sniffling stepsister from the room.
"Now, Your Highness, if you would be so kind, I need your help turning this woman onto her side so I can listen to her heart…"
Cinderella shivered in spite of herself as a pained moan echoed down the hallway.
Drizella's fingers were cold to the touch as Cinderella led her quickly into the kitchen, away from the noise.
"Take this axe and come outside with me. We need to chop firewood."
"B-but your pretty dress!" Drizella stood still, gazing down at the laced fabric.
"Oh…" Cinderella found it odd that Drizella could only think of clothes during such a crisis, but she found herself smiling. "I have so many other dresses, I'm sure my maid won't mind…"
She looked up and smiled at her astonished stepsister, and managed a small smile before grabbing the axe from Drizella's hand and leaving the kitchen.
…
Cinderella found her arms were still used to the feel of an axe, and she almost found she enjoyed it much more than signing invitations. In this job, at least, she could be messy and let the wood chips cover the front of her dress and grab tufts of her hair as they flew by.
"That should be enough." Cinderella said breathlessly, wiping sweat from her brow as she dropped the axe and grabbed an armful of scented cedar wood.
They hauled their heavy load up the steps and through the door, attempting to ignore the sounds coming from her bedridden stepmother and the two gentleman who discussed something in lowered tones.
It took them only moments to bring the fire to an almost unbearable height.
"Is that what you need, Doctor?" Cinderella stood and distanced herself from the tall flames, her head spinning slightly with the effort.
"Yes, thank you."
For the first time that evening, Cinderella finally looked at her stepmother, but only regretted it once she had.
While Alaric and Harris pushed hot water bottles against all exposed skin on her stepmother, Cinderella stood to the side, suddenly kept interested by the horrors she saw.
Lady Tremaine's skin was a soft shade of gray, and every part of her seemed to be covered in droplets of sweat. The clothes she wore were drenched with it. Her face was pale, the eyes surrounded by dark circles and her lips white with the effort, it seemed, to keep her mouth closed. Every now and then, when the men were forced to move her even an inch, she would let out a soft moan.
Cinderella felt her stomach twisting itself into knots. The stench was overwhelming.
All her life, she had always looked upon Lady Tremaine with an impression of monstrous pride and dignity, a terrifyingly intimidating woman. Yet that same witch of a lady was before her, withered and pale, too weak to lift a finger or blink an eye.
Whether this moment was Lady Tremaine's last, Cinderella would never see her with the same eye again.
…
It seemed an eternity before Alaric and Doctor Harris seated themselves with defeated sighs. They were on their third hour, and Lady Tremaine's condition remained unchanged. Between them, both the prince and the doctor had exhausted all of their ideas.
Drizella leaned her head against the cool of the marble hearth, breathing heavily next to the red hot embers of a dying fire.
"I'm afraid there's nothing else we can do." Doctor Harris's voice was nearly a whisper, but Drizella started as if she'd been hit with the fire tongs.
"What do we do--" Drizella began, but she was interrupted by a soft sound from Lady Tremaine's lips. "Mother!"
Drizella stood and bolted to her mother's side, clasping her hand and looking into the pale face eagerly as the white lips began to form words.
Drizella leaned forward and placed her ear directly over her mother's lips, drinking in every whisper and repeating it aloud.
"I know now this is my last breath," Drizella's eyes filled with tears as she continued, "Tell my brother I wish him well, and--" she paused for a moment and looked up at Cinderella. "She wants you."
Cinderella took hesitant steps forward, staring into her stepmother's face, watching as her eyes fluttered open slowly. Even though Lady Tremaine's illness was so advanced, her gaze still held some authority.
"Take care of my daughters, Cinderella." Her voice had regained some of its strength, but it faded away as she continued to speak, "And keep the house in fit repair…"
"Yes, Stepmother." Cinderella sat for a moment, watching as Lady Tremaine's eyes closed and fluttered until she ceased to move at all.
"NO!" Drizella grabbed her mother's limp hand and pressed it to her face as she sobbed heavily.
Doctor Harris came to her side and put his arm around her shaking shoulders, crooning words of comfort into her ear.
"Come, Cinderella. It's time to go." Alaric's touch sent shivers down her spine as she suddenly realized it was all real.
Her stepmother, Lady Tremaine, the woman who'd smothered all pleasantness from her life, was…dead.
A sudden flare of anger burst within her, and she felt the urge to move, to flee…to forget, but his hand lead her from the room and down the stairs.
Cinderella moved as if in a daze, her actions merely determined by other forces, not of her own will but simply out of the fact that shehad to move.
"Cinderella…" Again, his voice called her back from the dream-like state she was in, and she looked at him, suddenly alert. "Cinderella," he repeated her name, and she was suddenly feeling childishly irritated.
"What?" she snapped.
"Aren't you going to cry? You must grieve some time. It isn't good to keep it all in…" He placed his hand on her knee, and she brushed it off, glaring at him pointedly.
"I don't need to cry. I don't love that woman. And she never loved me. Did you hear her? The last thing she said—the very last—was an order. As if I still lived there! As if I cared, as if--"
She broke off, tears bursting from her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. Her mind was a terrifying swirl of emotions, and her heart fluttered uneasily beneath her ribcage.
"Oh god, Alaric, help me…tell me what I should feel…" Cinderella sobbed as she let herself be pulled into a warm embrace.
- - -
It wasn't terrible, was it?
-barely escapes cloud of flying daggers-
Alright I get the point!
-waves a white flag-
I surrender!
The next chapter will be better, I PROMISE!!
Shall we call it a Ceasefire and swap reviews as a sign of peace?
Better make it two just to make sure...
