Chapter 1: How My Poor Life Came to Be
Long ago, my mother was the young Lady Ella, daughter of the wealthy Sir Peter and Lady Eleanor of Frell. When her mother died, Mother's life changed. My step-aunts, Hattie and Olive and their mother, Dame Olga, took advantage of her, using her curse of obedience to force her to slave away for them.
At one point, she had been practically engaged to King Charmont, king of Kyrria. Mother's step-family, however, had not been too happy about that. They wanted the prince for Hattie. Mother had planned to go to the balls, and after hours of getting Hattie dressed, my step-family departed for the balls or 2 thirds of it had at least.
Little did Mother know, Dame Olga had learned of her plans and stayed to catch her in the act. After Mandy, my fairy-god-mother readied Mother and Mother was about to take her leave, Dame Olga pounced.
Outraged, Dame Olga locked Mother in a small dark closet for the 3 days of the ball. When she finally let her out, she ordered Mother 20 sound lashings, which just about killed her. After that, she worked Mother almost to death, never letting her outside, until King Charmont finally, unfortunately, took Hattie for his queen.
After Hattie was safely married to King Charmont, Dame Olga struggled with what to do with Mother. She finally decided she could make a bit of money off her, and married her to a wealthy lord, 30 years Mother's senior, who was certain to die in a few years. When he died, Dame Olga planned to use the curse to make Mother give her the old lord's money and hopefully my mother would have a few children who inherited the curse as well.
Mother was married to Lord Mitchell, 10 days later. While Mother did not love Lord Mitchell, he was very good to her and she was the happiest she had been since her mother's death. In the next 6 years, he gave her 5 children, my brothers and sister, Mitch, Ellie, Colin, and Bryant, but he never lived to know me, Cora.
When he died, Dame Olga ordered Mother for us to come live with her and give her all of the money Lord Mitchell left her. Much to Dame Olga's delight, all of my siblings inherited the curse of obedience. I was the only one who did not.
Like Dame Olga had worked Mother, years ago, she made us slave away for her. Mother often told me, regretfully, "Never do anything you don't want to do". And I didn't. It got me into loads of trouble, but when I saw how my sister, Ellie, was treated, I did not care.
My brothers were not allowed to live with Mother, Ellie, and me. They were ordered not to speak to us, but I would occasionally see them and break the curse long enough to say a few words. As for Ellie and me, we were just babies, she was 5 when we moved to the manor and I was not even born. Dame Olga worked us hard, anyway, assigning us chores difficult for full grown women.
When I was 3, Dame Olga decided that if Mother married again, she would have more children who would be her slave. This time, however, she married her to Danny, a no good manservant who gave Mother 2 daughters, Matilda and Jenna, who also had the curse.
Danny was a terrible husband. When he learned of the curse, he also used it to make Mother do things for him and he treated her worse than Dame Olga did. No one was sad when he was killed doing some illegal activity 3 years after there marriage.
After this, Dame Olga worked Mother mercilessly. Eventually, Mother died from overwork, leaving all of us for Dame Olga to raise. At only 10 years of age, my story starts.
A/N: Not sure where I'm going with this. Well, I kind of have another chapter, but....yeah. So, any ideas and suggestions would be welcome. Please, please, please review. Love ya'll Curly Q