Once again, a duet – Cinderella in italics and the prince in bold…

            "Your Majesties, Your Lord and Ladyships, ladies and gentlemen, loyal subjects all, Her radiant Majesty, the princess Emberina of the distant land of Inglenook." And down she walked, down the long curved staircase, with every eye in the room fixed on her. She was so radiant and beautiful, this princess from an unknown land. Only she wasn't a princess from an unknown land, she was my friend, Cinderella!

            Everywhere she strolled at the ball, people watched her, and made their way towards her to introduce themselves and enjoy her beauty, and the delicate tinkle of her laughter. It was ages before she gopt clear of the crowd, and saw Dandini standing by himself against the staircase. Of course, she thought he was the prince, because of the first time they'd met. So. She made her way towards him to try and find out about his friend, the young man that she'd fallen in love with at that first meeting.

            "Good evening, your majesty. I bring you greetings from the royal court of Inglenook. I am the princess Emberina." Dandini was very puzzled by this young princess mistaking him for the prince, but soon set her right and led her off to meet the real prince. And as she looked ahead to where Dandini was leading, her dream washed over her like a wave of the purest water, filled her lungs with perfumed air from the first garden, lifted her heart up as though it was the first flight of some great bird, because there before her stood the young man she loved, that she thought was Dandini, and on his head was the royal crown.

            It would have been very easy at that moment to have given up the dream as hopeless. Kitchen maids don't marry princes, after all. But at that moment, a beautiful butterfly flew in through the French windows, and reminded Cinderella of the words of her fairy godmother. So she held on to her serious dreaming, and went forward to meet her love. And as it turned out, the prince had been doing some serious dreaming of his own…

            A moonless sky, a silent night,

            A million years ago

            I looked across eternity

            And knew this would be so.

            I was a star, you were a star,

            A billion miles away,

            A million years, a billion miles,

            To bring us to this day.

            And oh, my love, my guiding star,

            That journey ends today.

            And I would seek you evermore

            If you should go away.

           

            A shining mist, a shifting light,

            I glanced, then you were gone.

            Alone I walked the virgin earth,

            That first and freshest loam.

            The burning sun sang of my love,

            The pale moon shed her tears,

            They were my friends, and kept a watch,

            And marked the months and years.

            And oh, my love, my morning light,

            The searching ends today.

            And I would seek you evermore

            If you should go away.

            We journeyed through the universe

            And littered it with love,

            We lighted on the holy earth

            Like Noah's holy dove,

            The days looked out over our love,

            Once met, never apart,

            And I must live in wonder now

            That you have claimed my heart.

            And oh, my other self,

            Until our moment's dark,

            Let's love, and laugh, and show the world,

            That one and one is love.

            And so they spent the entire evening together, speaking with their eyes and dancing with their hearts. They were so caught up in each other that Cinderella completely forgot her fairy godmother's instructions; to leave before the last stroke of midnight. That is, until the clock started to chime…

            "Midnight! The pumpkin!"

            The prince was flabbergasted.

            "The mice! The lizards!"

            He couldn't work put what was happening. His dream was melting away in his arms.

            "Let go of me! Let go, please! I must get back to my pumpkin before my footmen turn into lizards!"

            And off she ran, slipping and sliding on the polished marble floor, towards the door and her waiting pumpkin. It was so slippery that she was in danger of falling. So, for a moment she hopped along, first on one foot, then the other, removing her beautiful glass slippers. Well, as she went sprinting barefoot through the doors to the open air, someone tried to grab her elbow, and only succeeded in knocking one of the slippers from her hands. It was the eleventh stroke, and she couldn't stop to pick it up, so she bolted through the door. A moment later, when the whole party had followed in pursuit out of the door, there was no princess to be seen. No one noticed the lizards sitting motionless on the stone balustrades, or the white mice scurrying into the entrance to the palace drains, the smashed pumpkin lying in the gutter, or the young peasant girl disappearing around the corner in the direction of Hard-up Hall.