Waiting for Love
Once upon a time, there was a girl in the ashes.
She had not always been there, once she was stepdaughter to a lord.
She had never seen her father, for he left her mother before she was born. Her mother never shown the girl much love, for she wanted to forget the daughter that resulted from her mistake.
May lived with her mother in the cottage for ten years. Then one day, her mother Rhea fell in love with a lord. They got married, May and her mother moved into the mansion with the lord and his three daughters. The girls, Hanna, Shauna and Lena, were very beautiful, with shiny blonde hair and charming blue eyes. They were older and their bodies had beautiful curves. Not only were they beautiful, they were very charming as well, perhaps it was the way they were brought up. Everyone loved them, even May's mother. Perhaps more than she loved her, May thought bitterly.
The lord often went travelling on business trips and was rarely home. Rhea treated her husband's girls well. She adorned them – and herself too – with jewels and dresses using the lord's money. The girls' radiant beauty was brought out by the shimmering things they wore. They were surrounded by admirers, from the highest nobles to the poorest slave boys. Amid all this, was May. Plain May, whom nobody cared to notice.
Rhea and the lord's girls held parties day in, day out. There was nobody that would tend the fire. The maids stole to the parties and neglected their jobs. May, being the kind girl that she was, took over the job. She didn't care much for parties anyway.
Her mother ignored her most of the time, and May was a little afraid of her. So she didn't ask her mother to buy her a new dress when her old one was in rags. A layer of soot from the fire covered her dress and hair.
May worked quietly at the fire, while her stepsisters and mother were having fun. She was used to this lifestyle when she was living with her mother, so she didn't complain. She used to fight back when her mother ordered her to do things, but after many painful lessons, she gave up. What's the use anyway?
Her stepsisters were not mean to her; she was almost invisible to them. When they did see her occasionally, they'd nod to her as they did to most people.
After a while, Rhea had to let the maids go because she couldn't afford to pay them anymore. She'd spent the money on parties and fashion. Thus May was stuck with all the work because Rhea would never ask the precious daughters of her beloved new husband to do those things.
May's mother was still moody, but she was more stable since the marriage. Before, she used to lash out at May for everything, perhaps for reminding her of the shame and her mistake of her past. After the marriage, she was too preoccupied with clothes and money to pay attention to her daughter.
~*~
May was sweeping the floor one day when she received a letter with a royal seal. Before she could open it, it was snatched from her hands. May turned around and saw her stepsisters crowded around the letter.
"Open it, open it! It's from the palace!" Lena jumped up and down.
Hanna, being the oldest at nineteen, took the letter from Shauna and tore open the letter.
"Dear ladies of the house," Hanna read aloud, "By royal proclamation the prince of our lovely country is hosting three royal balls on the evenings of the 4th, 5th, and 6th day of next month. All the daughters of the house are invited to come." Hanna clutched the letter to her heart and sighed, while staring into space.
~*~
It was the night of the first ball. The girls had been preparing the anticipating for this night. May worked extra hard since the arrival of the letter, getting the gowns of her stepsisters' ready while balancing her normal chores. It was decided that Rhea would accompany May's stepsisters while May would stay at home tending the fire. She didn't mind, she didn't like these social gatherings anyways.
After helping her stepsisters get dressed, May was left in the house alone while her family went to the palace in an elaborate carriage. Rhea had actually saved up some money to pay for all this.
The clock struck eight; May's family had been gone for an hour. She sat in front of the fire, wondering what the ball looked like. She almost wanted to go, out of curiosity. May had never been to the palace before and had never seen the prince, who was said to be the most handsome man in the country. So she decided that maybe she would go, peek in, just to see what it looked like, and come back home before her family comes back.
May got up and snuck to Hanna's room. She needed a dress suitable for an event such as this, the best dress that she had was brown and made of wool. She washed her sooty hands bare feet carefully before entering. She looked through Hanna's closet for the perfect dress. They were too long and too thin, for Hanna had a great figure.
Next, she went through Lena's dresses. Although she was the youngest, her dresses were bigger but shorter than her sister's. Besides, her dresses were too bright and frilly for May.
May sighed and went to Shauna's room, if her dresses didn't fit, she would just give up. Surprisingly, Shauna's dresses fit May's small and delicate figure. She found a simple blue dress at the back of the closet and put it on. Then she washed and cleaned her face in Shauna's washbasin. Next, she carefully brushed her curly auburn hair, which was greyish due to the cinders that settled on it. She gave up after a while, because some tangles were impossible to brush out. May put a veil that she found over her hair to cover her hair and her face to prevent anyone from recognizing her.
May saw a pair of tiny glass slippers at the bottom of Shauna's closet. She carefully picked them up and put them on. Although they fit almost perfectly, they were very uncomfortable, so she wore her mother's Sunday shoes and hoped that the dress was long enough to cover them.
When she was ready, May locked the door and walked to the palace. She took off her slippers and carried them because they were too uncomfortable to walk in. The palace was not far from her house, but it would take her at least an hour to walk, especially since she was careful not to ruin the dress. Midway to the palace, a kind driver in a pumpkin orange coach spotted her and offered to give her a ride to the palace. May was wary of strangers, but she knew that she had to go to the palace and come home fast, before her mother and stepsisters come home. The driver looked honest enough, so she agreed. When they arrived at the palace, the driver told her that if she wanted a ride, she had to come out before midnight because he needed to pick someone up at one o'clock.
May nodded and walked up the stairs to the palace. She meant to peek in the window, but an usher brought her through the front door. May was astounded at what she saw. The ballroom was huge! There were hundreds of chandeliers lighting the room. Tapestries and painting lined the walls between the huge windows reaching from floor to ceiling. So many couples were dancing together. May looked at the far side of the room and caught her breath, there, seated on velvet seats gilded with gold, was the queen and king. Standing in front of them was the most handsome man May had ever seen. He must be the prince.
May scanned the sea of faces for her family. When she spotted them and was about to hide, a gentleman asked her to dance. May didn't want to embarrass him by turning him down, so she agreed.
Midway through the dance, they switched partners and May found herself dancing with the prince. She blushed deeply and avoided his eyes. The price wasn't looking at her either, and he had a bored and black expression on his face.
May danced a couple more dances before resting. A lot of gentlemen asked her to dance, and she, somehow, danced with the prince more than she had hoped for. She shivered at the touch of his hands around her waist and ignored the best she could the jealous looks the other ladies gave her. May spotted her family coming her way, so she quickly excused herself and went in hiding.
After a few more dances, the clock struck quarter to twelve. May had to leave the ball. She was reluctant, for the dazzle of the lights and music fascinated her. She promised herself that she would be back the next day and perhaps the day after – the day the prince would chose his bride. She couldn't help but hope that the prince would pick her, but she knew that it would never happen, still, she dreamed about living with the prince.
The next night was spent like the last one, May danced while watched for her family precariously. Again, the prince danced with her. Perhaps it was because of the mystery the veil over her head brought.
The night came for the third and final ball. May waited patiently as her family left, her stepsisters chattering excitedly about who was going to be the new princess.
When she came to Shauna's closet to select a dress – thank goodness Shauna hadn't noticed, for May always put the dresses back in exactly the same place – she noticed that the glass slippers were gone. Shauna must be wearing them.
May put on an off-white dress with pale silver embroidery set in the style that was popular at the time. She carefully combed her hair the best she could and again, draped the veil over her head.
The scene of the ball was the same as the others, but there was a tense feeling that night. Almost every young lady was hoping that she would be picked as the wife of the prince, even May.
The prince seemed nervous; he didn't dance nor flirt nearly as much.
As usual, when the clock struck quarter to twelve, May left the ballroom to get her ride home. She looked back longingly, wishing that she could live here, or at least stay and listen to the prince's announcement at two, but she needed to get home before her family. She sighed and walked down the marble steps towards the kind coach driver.
Not long after May arrived home and changed into her normal clothes, Rhea, Lena, and Hanna came home, but Shauna was nowhere in sight. A few minutes later, a knock came at the door. Rhea told her daughter to hide, and May, not knowing why, did as she was told. A butler opened the door and May's eyes widened from behind the vase stand that she hid behind. It was the prince and his attendants!
May heard an attendant announce that every young lady in the household was to come before His Royal Highness. A couple of minutes later, the foyer were assembled with bright-eyed girls, including all the maids and ladies, except for May and Shauna.
Another attendant brought out a velvet cushion holding something sparkly. May gasped, on the cushion was one of Shauna's glass slippers.
"Whoever can wear this slipper shall be His Highness's wife."
The girls gasped in delight, and one by one, they tried to wear the slipper. But alas, one by one they failed, even Hanna and Lena, for the slipper was too tiny.
As the prince and his attendants were getting ready to leave, May shifted her position from behind the vase stand. When she did, she accidentally knocked the vase off its base, causing it to shatter and revealing the top of the girl's head. May shivered, she wasn't supposed to be discovered. Rhea would kill her for breaking the vase and for disobeying her.
"Here's another lass," one attendant dragged May out from her hiding place. The look Rhea gave May sent a cold chill down the girl's back.
May sat down as instructed and shook as the attendant guided the slipper onto her right foot. It fit almost perfectly.
The prince looked surprised at first, then disgusted. May was wearing her everyday dress, it was torn and sooty, her legs and hair were smeared with soot and dirt to mask the fact that she went to the ball. She was not very pretty, especially with the dirt on her face. The prince would not have recognized her since she was wearing a veil at the ball.
"I, I guess she's your fiancée then, Y-Your Majesty," an attendant stuttered, not quite believing that this was the girl the prince had to marry.
The prince looked as if he was going to protest, but changed his mind and nodded reluctantly. May guessed that he wanted to keep his image and honour by keeping his promise, but he didn't look at all happy about it.
May suddenly didn't want to live with this man anymore. Her feelings before were perhaps just a crush on his appearance. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life with someone who would be ashamed of her, like the way she spent the first part of her life.
"I, I'm sorry Your Majesty, but I can't marry you, I'm just a simple maid," May mumbled quietly, but loud enough for the prince to hear. He nodded happily and looked as if a ton of weights had been lifted off his shoulder.
"But Majesty, who was the girl that ran away from you then?"
"I am." Everyone on the room turned and saw Shauna standing in the doorway. Her normally rosy cheeks were pale and were stained with tears. Her small frame trembled, and in her hand was the other glass slipper.
"You, it is you!" the prince exclaimed and walked softly to Shauna. May was surprised as he brought her stepsister close. She was even more surprised when tears glistened in the prince's eyes.
May was closest to the couple, so she heard their conversation.
"Why did you leave me Shauna?" the prince's voice was soft, as were his eyes that were so cynical when he looked at May.
"Because you didn't answer me when I asked if you were going to chose me as your wife, so I thought you didn't love me."
"Oh, Shauna, how can you think of such a thing? I love you."
May's eyes blurred and she felt a pain like envy in her heart, not because she was jealous of the prince loving Shauna, but because she envied that he told Shauna that he loved her. In May's fifteen years, the word "love" had never been directed at her. Her heart sorely wanted to hear that word, especially from her mother. Tears of envy and despair splashed her hand, for she knew that her mother would always be ashamed of her. But she could hope.
When the prince came to carry Shauna off her feet, May waited in the ashes. For her mother's love, or perhaps another person's love.
The End
~*~
what do you think???