Plan and Response

Grace laughed softly as she threw herself into a gilded chair beside the King's bed. "I think that went very well, don't you, Louis?"

The King mumbled something indistinct as he crawled onto the top of his palatial bed. He didn't even bother to get undressed. "Yes, very well, my sweet."

Grace smiled. "Now we must swiftly wed so that I can get to work." She leaned across to whisper into his ear. "I will give you a son, my king; a son brave and strong and worthy to succeed you on the throne. I will be your queen and give you such a line of kings as the world has never seen before."

The King blinked dozily. "Give me...but I have a son, a-"

"A son who plots against you, a son who does not love you, a son who has forsaken his father for his wife," Grace hissed. "Do you really want to give the crown to such a son? Or have him take it from you?"

The King hesitated. His will and mind warred with the magic of Grace's spell; the part of him that was yet his own, the part of him that trusted his son and loved Cinderella contested with the part of him that was so enthralled by Vanessa that be would believe anything she said.

"Is it your name the people shout in the street?" Grace asked. "No, it is Cinderella that they cheer for. All the lords and commons, or almost all, are with Cinderella and Eugene, not you. Even in your own palace your officers and servants have more love for the princess than they do for their rightful and anointed king. You know it to be true."

The best lies, especially in a case like this, contained at least a trace of truth about them: the people did love Cinderella more than any other member of the royal family, they doted on their People's Princess for the favours that she did for them; the nobility had not been shy of making it known that they preferred the Prince and Princess to the King's new queen; and amongst the denizens of the palace Cinderella was well loved for her kindness.

The lie, of course, came in insinuating that Louis had anything to fear from any of this. Prince Eugene would never overthrow his father, and Cinderella had taken him for a second father of her own. But that was where the lie and the compulsion of the potion that had rendered the King madly in love with her came in. She took what he knew and then convinced him of what it meant and he believed it, because he believed in her.

The King struggled within himself. "My dear, dear heart...My son...Eugene would never...Cinderella..."

"They think of you as the setting sun, and turn like flowers towards the dawn," Grace said. "Your son and his wife will take your crown from you if you slumber as you have done."

The King shook his head. "I don't believe...would they?"

"Could they not?"

"They...They could," the King admitted, because just something was impossible did not make it any less of a fact. Eugene could declare his father mad and he could seize the throne for himself and no one would raise any question about it. The fact that Prince Eugene would not did not alter the fact that the answer to the question of could he was yes.

But, having admitted that his son could, it was so very easy to convince the King that could led naturally on to would.

His being madly in love with Vanessa only helped in that regard.

Their behaviour, innocent though it was, didn't hurt Grace's case either.

Grace nodded. "They are unworthy of your majesty's love. All of them, even the boy. Cinderella hordes power the same way as she hordes jewels, and for what reason has Prince Eugene put her on the council if not so that they can rule together and steal the governance that should by rights be yours? The princess pretends to be a rose, but her thorns are poison; and if you force your son to choose between his father and his wife he will choose her every time."

That was probably even true, for Prince Eugene loved his wife very much. If it was a matter on which she was indisputably wrong he might argue against her, but to Grace's knowledge he had not done so yet. He had taken Cinderella's side against the king's, and fairly consistently too. Grace wondered if that galled His Majesty; he was a proud man, did it irk his pride to see power slipping out of his hands like water between his fingers, did he secretly envy Cinderella the love of commons, was there a part of him that already hated her and even his son, too?

Probably not, although it might have been nice if he had been. It would have given the two of them something they genuinely had in common.

"Trust in me, my love. I am the only person in all the world who truly loves you." She kissed him on the forehead. "Take me to wife and be guided by me, and I shall prove all these treason I have accused them of." She kissed him again, on the lips this time. "I will save you, my beloved Louis, and we shall remind the world that your sun has just begun to rise."

The King smiled at her with foolish fondness. "I will rely on you, dear heart. I was blind before you opened up my eyes. I cannot believe how deceived I was."

Grace stroked his face. "Rest now, my love. You are very tired."

The King yawned like a walrus. "Yes. Very tired. Rest...good night my..."

He began to snore, lying on top of his bed still dressed in the uniform he had worn to the ball.

Grace shook her head with a contemptuous fondness. As much as she didn't enjoy playing his lover and letting him crawl over her and under her and wherever else he pleased she couldn't deny that there were far worse men in the world. He was gentle with her, and it was not her magic that made him so. For a king he was remarkably free of snobbery, he had embraced his daughter-in-law and his grandson without prompting. He was a good man, take all in all, and Grace even found herself thinking that if she had to love out the days of his life by his side it would be no I'll fate for her. It was almost a pity that she must make use of him in such a way.

But she would be revenged. Cinderella had ruined everything, cost Grace her plans and ambitions, ruined her family, and the worst part was that she had done it almost by accident. Cinderella was no great schemer, she was naive and foolish but she had blundered her way to victory all the same. Grace would lay her back for that and all the hurts that Cinderella had done to her. She would strip Cinderella of everything and then make an end of her. And then she would achieve the long and dearly held ambitions of her family: a king of their blood, a king of magic who would bring back the old ways.

Grace had slipped His Majesty a love potion, but she had not been shy of taking potions of her own, to enhance her fertility. If she was not yet with child she would be soon, as sure as spring.

However, in order to ensure the succession of her boy, all others of the blood would have to go: to destroy Cinderella would be her revenge, to eliminate Prince Eugene and the boy also would be necessity.

But she would have to constrain her wrath for a while yet because her words to Louis held some truth in them: Cinderella was very popular here and an overt move against her could spark trouble. She would need to get people on her side, or replace those who were not with those who were.

Cinderella's strength came, in part, from those with whom she surrounded herself. Grace would need to isolate her, as well as to make a few friends of her own.

And prove, of course, some non-existent treasons.

Fortunately, she already had a plan for that in mind.

Angelique had to give the mice credit, they didn't hang around. Already, on the night of the same day that she had set them to work…actually, no, it was gone one o'clock, it was morning of the day after; but regardless, it was not long after she had asked the mice to do this and already Jaq had come to her with a report on a conversation he had overheard between Vanessa and the King.

Angelique yawned. It was late, but this was important, too much so to fob Jaq off until morning…or even until later that morning.

Still, she had written down everything he told her in case she forgot any of it in her sleepy state.

It was a little unfortunate that there wasn't a great deal to write down, but what there was confirmed all of Angelique's suspicions and more: Vanessa was dangerous, Vanessa was out to get Cinderella and her husband too, and Vanessa needed to be stopped.

Somehow. Angelique hadn't quite gotten to that part yet.

"Thanks, Jaq," she said. "This is a big help."

"Really?" Jaq sounded a little less than fully convinced. "But we didn't hear them say nothing about what she gonna do to Cinderelly!"

"No, she didn't," Angelique admitted. It was unfortunate that the King had fallen asleep before Vanessa could get that far. "But we know what she's aiming at now, and that's more than we knew before."

Part of Vanessa's plan was obvious: she was going to become queen, and quickly too. What would that mean exactly? This was technically the Queens Tower; would Cinderella be turned out of it once there was a queen in Armorique again? She wouldn't have thought the King would do such a thing...except he hadn't really been himself lately. In fact he had fallen quite a bit in Angelique's estimations, moreso now that she had heard from the mice that he suspected Prince Eugene and Cinderella might be plotting against him.

Which led her mind to the second part of Vanessa's goal, the part that Antique was having a harder time wrapping her mind around. She didn't just want to be queen; she wanted her son - the son she meant to have at least - to succeed to the throne. That meant doing something about Prince Eugene, but to prove he was treacherous to his father? Angelique could admit it was quite clever to use Cinderella's popularity against her like that, but treachery? That was ridiculous, and the main reason Angelique's opinion of the King had fallen so. Cinderella had tended to him in his illness right up to the moment she became sick herself, she loved him like her own father; she would never stab him in the back.

Angelique loved Cinderella, but they were talking about a woman who couldn't tell a lie with a straight face, who couldn't keep her emotions off her face or out of her eyes and who seemed to struggle enough merely with being what she would call 'unkind' never mind diabolically nasty. If she could betray anyone she was a much better actor than Angelique was giving her credit for.

So how did Vanessa mean to prove this treason, the existence of which she had just invented out of whole cloth? The obvious answer was that she meant to make up the proof the same way that she had made up the thing she was going to prove, but somehow Angelique didn't think that was it. After all, if she only meant to fake letters – Dear Eugene, let's kill your father. Your loving wife, Cinderella – or the like she could have done that already. What she'd actually said – assuming the mice had reported it accurately, and notwithstanding her occasional difficulties parsing their accents Angelique trusted them to get it right – sounded more as though she expected Cinderella or Eugene or both to do something that would 'reveal' their treachery. Except there was no treachery to reveal. So what was her plan?

Angelique yawned again. She probably wasn't going to unravel this mystery with her eyelids drooping like they were. Or even by herself. Perhaps she should talk to Augustina about this, she was a smart girl.

Except she'd probably be in bed now, the ball had broken up in uproar and confusion a little while ago. Angelique was quite sure that Cinderella and Prince Eugene were in bed too.

Everyone who needed to know about this was probably asleep or trying to be, except for her.

And she wasn't going to find the answers feeling like this.

"Thank you," she said again. "This really helps. Let me know if you find put anything else."

Angelique continued to wonder what Vanessa aimed for, and what could be done to stop it. She could tell Cinderella not to do anything treasonous except that she wasn't planning on it anyway. How did you avoid doing what you were never planning on doing in the first place?

What proof was Vanessa talking about?

Angelique got up off her bed. Cinderella was probably asleep but Angelique could go and make sure of that. And if she wasn't then Angelique would tell her everything. She might not like using the mice as spies but she would have to see, faced with the information they had obtained, that it was both vital and necessary in the face of Vanessa's threat.

How did you avoid doing something that you were never planning on doing in the first place?

Angelique didn't know the answer to that, but she knew that if she didn't tell Cinderella what she knew as soon as she could and something happened then the blame would all be hers.

She couldn't suffer anything to happen just because she was tired.

Cinderella sat in front of her vanity mirror, staring at her own reflection in the gilt-edged mirror.

Did she look so melancholy? Were her eyes really so downcast, did her lips tremble so? Obviously they did.

Cinderella couldn't say that it wasn't how she felt at this moment. The fear that she had felt after Vanessa had shoved her to the ground…she could feel it spreading throughout her, just as it had ever since His Majesty had slipped the ring onto her finger.

I've lived all of this before. I don't want to live it all again.

I'm not the frightened girl I used to be. Except that she was frightened.

"I am a princess," Cinderella whispered to her reflection. "I am the princess of Armorique. I am Princess Cinderella."

But what did that really mean, at this moment?

"Cinderella?" Eugene said, from where he sat on her bed. She could him in the mirror, watching her anxiously. "I…it may sound absurd to hear this, but I don't want you to worry too much about it."

"No?" Cinderella asked in a voice so soft that she wondered if he would actually be able to hear her.

"No," Eugene replied with almost equal softness. He got up from her bed and crossed the bedroom floor. His chest filled the mirror behind Cinderella as she came to stand behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I won't let her hurt you."

She wanted to believe him. It would be so wonderful to believe him, and let all her worries fly away in consequence. And Cinderella did believe, with all her heart, that he would never knowingly stand by and watch her come to harm…but not all harm could be protected against by having a strong man around.

That was something Cinderella knew too well.

She prayed it would not be as she feared it would be…but she feared it nonetheless.

Cinderella let out a deep sigh. "I feel so tired, Eugene."

"Do you want me to go, and let you get some rest?"

"No," Cinderella said quickly and more loudly than she had spoken before, as she reached up and grabbed one of Eugene's hands before he could take it away from her. "No, please stay. Please don't leave me."

Eugene reached down and kissed her on top of her head. He knelt beside her, bringing him closer to her height. "Never."

Cinderella managed a faint, slightly wan smile at him.

Eugene smiled back, and with one hand he cupped her cheek and began to stroke it. "What are you afraid of?"

"I don't know," Cinderella said. "I just know that I'm afraid and I'm so tired of it. I'm tired of enemies and plots and people who hate me; I'm tired of being the sort of girl who can smile in spite of all her troubles; why can't I be the girl who smiles because she's put all her troubles behind her and her life is perfect, even if its only for a little while? Haven't I earned becoming that girl, even if it only temporary?" She bowed her head. "I suppose you think I'm whining."

"No, God no," Eugene said. "I don't think I've ever met anyone who complains less than you. You bear everything…and you're right, you shouldn't have to bear so many troubles, it isn't fair and I'm sorry. I…I wish I could tell you how I was going to make this better, but right now I don't know how."

The bedroom door creaked open by the smallest of margins. "Cinderella," Angelique hissed from the other side of the door. "Are you awake?"

Cinderella couldn't help but snort, in spite of everything. "I'm afraid I haven't even started to get ready for bed, Angelique."

"Oh, okay," Angelique said, in a more normal voice now. "Can I come in?"

Cinderella glanced at Eugene, who nodded by way of acquiescence.

"Of course you can," Cinderella said.

Angelique walked in and shut the door behind her. She wasn't ready for bed either, Cinderella saw. They were both still dressed in the gowns they had worn to the ball, albeit Angelique didn't still have all her jewels and makeup on as well.

"Your highness," Angelique said with a nod to Eugene.

"Lady Bonnet," Eugene said as he got his feet. "Would you like me to leave you in peace?"

"No," Angelique said. "Best if you both stay for this, it's actually quite good you're here. I'm not interrupting, am I?"

"No, I don't think so," Cinderella murmured. "I should be getting undressed but…I can't seem to do anything."

"I could help you, if you like," Angelique said, taking a step forward. "I mean, I could try. After…first it would be easier to talk to your face than a reflection in the mirror."

Cinderella turned around on the stool, and once again she felt Eugene place his hand upon her shoulder. "What is it?" she asked. "Is something the matter?"

"I think we all know the answer to that, don't we?" Angelique said.

Cinderella bowed her head. "Yes, I'm afraid we do."

Angelique clasped her hands together. She didn't quite meet Cinderella's eyes. "Oscar and Penny wanted to talk to me this evening; they didn't think that Vanessa was acting like someone from her background should. She didn't act like a shepherd girl should."

"I'm afraid I wouldn't really know," Eugene said. "Where they right?"

"I was never a shepherdess myself, but when they say that no poor girl would ever dare lay hand on a princess the way that she did I can believe it," Angelique said. "I mean, you didn't go around pushing your stepsisters all over the floor did you? Wait, don't answer that, I already know the answer." She smirked, and Cinderella found that one corner of her lip was twitching upwards as well.

The smile faded from Angelique's face. "Well, anyway, they talked a good deal of sense so I…I asked the mice to keep an eye on her for me; now I know what you're going to say but I was worried about you and so were they. And I was right, too, they've just told me something, something important, something that you both need to know. She's out to get you that Vanessa is. Both of you."

Cinderella drew in a sharp intake of breath. She was not shocked. That was perhaps the thing that shocked her the most. How very little surprise she felt at this revelation. It was something that she had known from the moment she had looked up from where she lay on the floor and seen the coldness in Vanessa's eyes.

She felt Eugene's grip on her shoulder tighten, though not enough to become painful to her.

"Tell us everything," Eugene said.

Angelique told all she knew, about how Vanessa wanted a quick marriage, and about how she intended to 'prove' that Eugene and Cinderella were plotting against the king.

Although she wasn't surprised to learn that Vanessa hated her, Cinderella had to admit that what Angelique had to say on what Vanessa intended to do about it did take her by surprise.

"But she can't," she said. "I mean she can't possibly…there's no proof to be found!"

Eugene closed his eyes for a moment. "It makes a twisted kind of sense. If Vanessa intends for a child of hers to inherit the throne then I, my father's heir, must be removed. And my heirs. Be careful, Cinderella. Be very careful, please."

"I will," Cinderella murmured. "But by the sound of it she isn't going to just attack me. She's going to…I admit, I don't understand what she's going to do."

"Neither do I," Angelique admitted. "I understand the words, but…how can she prove that your traitors when you're not. It makes no sense to me."

"Nothing about this makes any sense from the moment she arrived," Eugene growled. "Why should it start now?"

"I'm not sure what should concern us more," Cinderella said. "How she means to prove that we've betrayed your father…or what she'll do when she finds that she can't." Her eyes widened. "Philippe! Do you think she'll try to hurt Philippe, too?"

Eugene scowled. "I don't know. I'll assign a man from my guard to look after him, and his grandmother too."

"I wish there was something I could think of…but I can't," Angelique said. "I'm worried that there's a trap in there somewhere but I can't see it; I can't think how you can avoid doing something you wouldn't do…and I can't think how to take the fight to her."

"It's not your job to protect me, Angelique," Cinderella said. "But…I'm very glad that you do, and everyone else as well."

Angelique smiled briefly. "So…you're not upset."

"I don't think I have the right to be upset," Cinderella replied. "Only grateful that you all care for me so much that you're willing to do all of this for me."

Angelique took a couple of steps forward. "When I first met you…when you first took me in here and gave me so much…I thought that I had to look out for you the sake of looking out for me, and Jean. I was worried that if anything happened to you then something would happen to us as well, and very quickly."

"But not now?" Cinderella asked.

"No," Angelique said. "Now I want to look out for you because you're my friend. I don't understand exactly how Vanessa plans to get at you…but I know that she won't succeed. Together we'll stop her. Somehow, everything is going to turn out alright, I promise."