A/N: This chapter continues from where I left off with "The Letter". Everything belongs to Gail Carson Levine, etc.

- - - A BROKEN HEART - - -

My dear Prince Charmont,

Your latest correspondence with my stepsister was recieved by my mother, Dame Olga, and myself. Ella and the cook, Mandy, were not here to except it.

Ella is absent because she has eloped, taking our cook with her. She left a note which I have enclosed for your perusal.

You have been much decieved in her. It was her custom to read your letters aloud to us and crow over them, thinking it a feather in her cap to be writing to royalty, such as yourself.

For awhile, she had ambitions to be queen, but she dispared of it and took another offer. She would go into one of her dreadful rages if she knew the contents of your letter. I do not think she liked living on our generosity, and longed to be able to lord it over us with greater splendor than we could hope for, although we fancy that our stile is very fine.

Your letter arrived four days after her departure. I know because Demby had a ball that night, and Ella was greatly missed. Her beaux turned to me for consolation, and I gave them the same advice I have for you: Think no more of the minks, because she has already forgotten you.

I am sorry to dismay you, but I hope you will be consoled by the fond wishes of this admirer.

Your angel of comfort, Hattie

- - - - - - - -

These are the first words I ever penned as a married lady. You know him, but I shall not write his name, only that he is very old and very rich and lives far from Frell. And he is fool enough to make me his bride. Someday, and that day may not be long in coming, I shall be sole mistress of a vast estate. I shall not write again, but look for me. When my husband dies, I shall visit Frell. Should you spy a carriage that surpasses all others, peer inside. You will find me within, smiling at my jewels and laughing at the world-

Ella

Oh, God.

How could she do this to me? This can't be real. This can't be true. This is some horrible nightmare of my own imagining. Any second now, I will wake up. At any moment, I will wake up and Ella will still be the girl I've always known. The girl I'm in love with. Or, was in love with.

How could I have been so stupid? I fell right into her trap, and all the while, as she was leading me on, she was laughing at me.

I'm a fool.

Maybe this is all a scheme. A terrible, vicious scheme. I wouldn't put it past Hattie to do something like this. Maybe Ella had no part in it. What if she never received my letter? What if it was intercepted somehow? Maybe I should ride to Frell, find out what's going on for myself.

No.

I'm just being foolish again. The last part was in Ella's handwriting. Besides, Hattie is too stupid to concoct such a grand scheme.

Then its true. All of it.

I should never have let myself fall so hard. She had me from the moment I met her. She was so merry and kind-hearted, not to mention funny and beautiful. She seemed to have the best of intentions. She was my match.

What a magnificent actress she is. And what a fool I am.

I'm glad that no one can see me like this. I'm glad I didn't read the message at breakfast. I'm glad I saved it to read alone. If I would have read it while in the company of others, I would have made a complete spectacle of myself.

I put my hand to my cheeks. They are wet with silent tears. I shouldn't be crying, especially not over such a horrible, terrible, monster of a person that is Ella of Frell. I have to keep my dignity. I have to stay strong.

How she would have laughed if she had gotten my letter! All of my proclamations of love, everything I felt. A mockery.

My heart is broken into a million pieces so small, that they can't be fit back together. Only one person can mend it, and she isn't even real. She was a figment of my imagination, a passing breeze, a brief ray of sunlight soon covered by passing clouds. She was the makings of a completely different, manipulative girl.

How I loved her. more than anyone else in the world.

I slumped back into my chair in my chamber, defeated.

I would never love another. As long as I lived, I would only love one imaginary girl.

Gone.