Disclaimer: Anything by the wonderful Gail Carson Levine is not mine. All of the characters and ideas from Ella Enchanted are Gail Carson Levine's. However, most of the plot and characters are mine.
Summary: Sarah, Ella's daughter, is kidnapped on the night of her debutante ball. At first she does not know what her captors want from her, but when she does her life is changed forever. What follows is an adventure featuring magic, mayhem, romance, elves, balls and a prince in disguise!
A/N: Please R/R! I would really appreciate it. I hope you all like this chapter. It is kind of short but I promise you that there will be another ball a bit later in this fic. (I am aiming for it to take up around three chapters).
Chapter 2:
The Ball
Sarah took a deep nervous breath and prepared to descend into the ballroom. Guests had already started to arrive. She could see some of the expensive and gaudy gowns that the ladies were wearing and could hear the deep booming sound of some of the men's voices.
Sarah forced herself to walk down the gilded staircaseto her parents and kissed their cheeks. "Hi Mother. Hi Father."
"Hi darling. You look beautiful." Said her father, his eyes twinkling. Sarah could tell that Ella had told him of the discussion they had had earlier. "You better start greeting the guests." He whispered as an afterthought.
Sarah shyly approached a group of ladies and tried to remember all the lessons in etiquette that she had received, "Shoulders back, chest out, straight back, chin up. But most importantly of all…smile!" She repeated those words over and over again in her mind.
"Hello." She spoke hesitantly.
"Hello. We do just love this palace." replied one of the women. She was small and pale and had an accent; this group of women seemed to be from the neighbouring kingdom of Berrylia.
"Yes." Piped up another. "It is almost as good as our King's. We, of course, have a bigger ballroom and I prefer our garden much more to yours – every single exotic flower can be found in our palace's gardens." The group of women smiled, seemingly unaware of their rudeness.
Sarah just tried to attempt a smile and nodded politely. She had not really been taught to deal with situations like this. She just hoped that she would be able to keep her temper.
"Of course, people are naturally jealous of such beauty. Wehave had many struggles with the peasants of our kingdom– I don't know about you, but ours seem to think that they should be given equal rights! Absurd really."
To this, the other ladies agreed. Sarah quickly made up some excuse about having to greet some other guests and left before she might say or do anything that she might regret. She could not believe that some people could be so selfish. She tried to rid the memory of those awful women from her mind.
More people were coming inside and Sarah was polite and courteous to every one of them. Though there were a couple of mishaps. For instance, she made the mistake of congratulating the Duchess of Chesire on her pregnancy, only to be told that she was not. She had confused the Duchess with another and had to apologise profusely to the woman from the mistake that she had made. The Duchess just left in a huff at being insulted so. Sarah tried to think on the bright side - it could have gone worse.
It was soon time for the ball to begin and Sarah was to lead the opening dance. She was extremely nervous but her partner (a cousin) helped her ease her nerves by making a few amusing, if terrible, jokes.
Sarah began to feel more comfortable and started to enjoy herself. She had many partners and danced practically every dance. It was the other side of midnight when Pierre, a family friend and a very wealthy earl who also happened to be twice her age, asked her to dance.
They started off the waltz in silence. Sarah was wondering what to say to him when he blurted out, "I could make you happy, you know."
"Excuse me?" Sarah was wondering if she had heard correctly. If she had, then this man clearly had no tact, either that or he was deranged. Sarah was thinking that it was likely the latter in this case.
"I am saying, that I would be prepared to ask for your hand in marriage. I am going to go and see your father tomorrow and he should hopefully consent, I do not see why he would not."
Sarah's jaw was hanging open, all her etiquette lessons had flown out the window. "But I-I barely even know you, let alone love you."
"Love rarely occurs in a marriage, it is just a matter of coincidence. Your parents were one of the lucky ones. I think I could make you happy."
"But you are so – old." Sarah's voice rose in near hysteria, people were starting to turn and look at the dancing pair.
"It's not that much of an age difference. Many marry with a much wider age gap. Besides, I do feel something for you. I was hoping that you would feel something for me, too."
Sarah, with a great amount of effort, kept her voice low and said, "I'm afraid that you have the advantage over me sir and have shocked me greatly. However, I do not think that I would be able to marry somebody that I did not know very well. I need to consider the matter." Which Sarah had no intention of doing.
"Of course." Pierre said just as the dance finished and bowed down before her.
Before Pierre could say anything else, Sarah ran outside, shocked at what had just happened. She did not really believe her mother when she spoke to her of marriage, she never imagined that something like that would ever happen to her.
Sarah ran outside and down to a bench, away from the crowd of people. She needed to think. Suppose her father accepted the marriage proposal from Pierre? Sarah just wanted to disappear.
She tried to pull herself together and was preparing to go back inside to the ballroom again. However, just as she was about to stand up somebody grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to hit her.
Sarah could not see who her attacker was but she did put her self-defence lessons to good use.
Her parents had always insisted that she learn how to defend herself and the learn the basic defence manoeuvres.
Sarah aimed a blow for the man's head and was satisfied to see him wince in pain; she then spun out of the way of the man's fist.
Sarah tried to yell for help.
Unfortunately, there was more than just one person, because before Sarah could open her mouth, somebody whacked her on the head.
She swayed for a moment in a daze before falling to the ground and the world around her went black…
A/N: Please review.