-The Prince-
Charles walked into the dining room for breakfast and Lydia was already telling war storries from the night before.
He managed to sit down and serve up his own plate from the table without anyone drawing any attention away from Lydia's story. He half-listened to her wild tale about the ministers wife dancing with the town drunk until the minister himself stepped between them and a fight broke out.
"Ridiculous!" Their mother commented. "and in front of royalty too! They ought to be ashamed of themselves." She said, staring at her eggs as if they were the ones who had offended her sensibilities.
"They couldn't have fought a very good fight. I didn't even notice any ministers rolling around with any inebriates." He added between bites.
Lydia shot him a wide grin as if she was waiting for him to say something. "That's because you spent the entire night paying special attention to a particular young woman!" She said triumphantly.
His mother turned to him accusingly and his father even raised his head from his breakfast.
"So?" His mother asked after a long pause. "Who is this woman Lydia is talking about?"
The Prince opened his mouth to respond, but Lydia beat him to it.
"He danced two songs with her. Even with the minister throwing punches, Charles was still the talk of the ball."
"Dancing with the same woman more than once hardly qualifies for the talk of the town. Even if it is the Prince! Who is she?"
The Queen asked again, but Lydia wasn't done with her story.
"It wasn't the dance. Right near the beginning of the night she ran right into him and poured wine all over his jacket." Her mother gasped in horror, but Lydia still wasn't done. "Then at the very last dance Charles asked her to dance and not even two whole minutes into the dance she turned tail and sprinted out of the dance hall, and I mean she ran like death was on her heels. It was quite the event."
Lydia sighed and sank into her chair and beamed a smile at him.
"Is she serious?" His mother demanded.
"I wonder what kind of jam this is." He said while using his knife to poke at the dish. He tried to look extremely interested in his toast, but his mother would never let anything go so easily.
"She poured a drink on you and you still danced with her? You shouldn't have even danced with her once much less twice. It's clearly some sort of new scheme to try and grab your attention. She must be one of these royal chasers who have nothing in mind but the crown." She said.
"It wasn't like that." He sighed, putting down his toast, "I was the one at fault. I was the one carrying the drinks. No one can pour a drink on someone when they weren't holding a drink to begin with."
"She still ran out on you during your second dance." Lydia said matter-of-factly.
"maybe she left her lanterns burning next to her firewood." His father chimed in, taking an interest in the conversation.
"Maybe she just realized how obnoxious my sister is and decided to run for the hills." The Prince retorted.
"Well I for one am happy she ran out. She sounds horrible." His mother said finally.
"She wasn't horrible. She was- beautiful." Charles said, beautiful didnt do her justice, but he couldn't find the right words. He was fighting a losing battle. To his mother, everyone was horrible unless they came from fine breeding, had impeccable manners, and a fawning personality.
"Of course she was beautiful. Those feminine vultures usually are." The Queen said.
"If our son can still have a positive opinion on someone after she poured wine on him and then ran out on him, I would really like to meet her!" His dad replied.
"Henry! Don't encourage this behavior."
"What behavior?" His father asked. "He's been to nearly a dozen events this year and he hasn't shown any interest in anyone. All I'm saying is that it's probably someone worth meeting."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing. You're saying you'd be fine with our son marrying some blood-sucking minx as long as she was interesting?" His mother demanded.
"Well, he's going to be king one day and he should be able to make his own decisions, including the decision to dance with who he wants."
"Unbelievable!" She scoffed, pushing her plate away from her. The Queen was someone who was easily worked up, especially when it came to her children.
"Mother, calm down. She isn't that way. If you could just meet her you'd-"
"Who is she?!" His mother asked for the third time, "Can anyone even tell me that?"
Charled looked to Lydia, but she just shrugged.
"I don't know." he admitted.
"You don't know? How do you not know? Didn't you introduce yourself?" Lydia asked before his mother could get to it.
"I don't know." That was his only answer and he hated it. He had been beating himself up since last night.
"Well do you know anything about her? Maybe I can ask you know where she lives or anyone in her family?" Lydia asked.
"No. The only thing I have is a shoe."
His dad nearly spit out his breakfast across the table, "A shoe?! Where did you get her shoe from?"
Charles slumped in his chair. "She left it behind when she ran."
"And you kept it?" His mother asked in disgust.
"yes."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"I was thinking that I could gather everyone from town and have them try it on so that I could find her." Charles said. That was the scheme that he had came up with so far.
His father and his sister burst into laughter.
"That's the worst idea I've ever heard!" Lydia chortled.
"You will not be doing that!" His mother said, completely serious and stoic.
"What are you going to do with the two-dozen woman who all have the same foot size as your mystery girl? Are you going to have them fight to the death in the arena and declare the victor your wife?"
Charles laughed, "No, I didn't say it was a good idea. It's just the only one I've got." He said.
His sister sobered up some from her fits of laughter.
"Do you really want to find her Charles? Even after she ran out on you?" She asked.
"Yes, I do." He said, more sure of that than anything else. He had to see her one more time, even if it was just to realize that the night they had at the ball last night was just a trick of his mind.
"Ok, let me talk to the girls. If anyone in town knows who that woman was, then we'll know by the end of the week." She said.
"and if she ends up being some sort of money-grubbing harlot don't come crying to me!" his mother added.
"Of course not mother, I only have interest in the regular types of harlots." He said and his father and sister broke out into laughter again as his mother berated him for his indecency.
-Cinderella-
Ella returned home the night before with her tattered dress barely hanging on and with bruises on her heels from her long barefoot walk, but she was incandescently happy.
She quickly snuck to her room as her family finally returned from the ball and she got in bed. Usually she couldn't wait for her fantastical dreams to take her away, but that night it took her hours to fall asleep. The ball looped through her head over and over again. She cherished every memory she had gotten that night. The music still played fresh in her ears and the smell of perfume was still hanging onto her clothes, but the real memory that kept her tossing and turning all night was a fine pair of green eyes that she couldn't drive out of her mind.
Those eyes and the person behind them kept her up half the night. She replayed their conversation until she finally drifted off to sleep.
Screaming woke her up and she jumped up immediately, wide awake.
She had forgotten to change out of the tattered ruins of her dress and she was now struggling to get out of it before her stepmother threw open the door. She had slept in, and now she was late. It was her responsibility to make breakfast and the morning tea. The entire house had most likely slept in, but now everyone was awake and they were all screaming her name.
She hurried straight to the kitchen without answering her stepsisters who were both yelling her name from their bedrooms.
In the kitchens she nearly ran into Joe.
"Let me get out of your way!" He said, stepping back from the kitchen. Joe was a big man who took up nearly the whole kitchen. He had to duck his head to stand in the kitchen, and the pans and untensils looked like toys in his hand, but breakfast was already underway.
"I didn't know how you cook omelets so good. I didn't want to burn anything and get you in trouble over the smell." He said quietly. Ella grinned and reached up on her tippy-toes to pres to Joe's cheek.
"What you've done so far is perfect. Thank you."
She took a spatula from his hand and he moved to leave, but he stopped himself before he went out the door.
Joe was one of the last staff members that survived after her stepmother began firing her father's old staff. She would have fired him too if he hadn't agreed to take a cut in his wages. Her stepmother couldn't scare him away. He had been the groundskeeper for the house ever since her father bought the property, and he was her only friend. Not to mention that if he left all of his duties would fall onto her shoulders and if that happened she'd be doomed.
"I wish I could've done more. I heard you didn't have a very good night last night." Joe said stiffly.
Ella burned with shame. He had probably overheard her step mother and step sisters as they mocked her. He lived in the stovehouse just outside the front door where they had picked her apart until she was nothing.
"I'm not a very smart man, but it doesn't take a philosopher to see that they're jealous." He said.
Ella began busying herself with breakfast to ignore the feelings of hurt that came with remembering their words last night.
"Thank you Joe." She said.
"who's just jealous?" Her stepmother asked.
They both turned and saw Lady Tremaine standing in the doorway. Joe started to stutter, but Ella interupted him.
"The Pepperman's next door. We've got much better laying hens than them." Ella said, cracking a few eggs into a pan for effect.
Her stepmother frowned at the both of them, but she didn't bring up Joe's comment again.
"We've been calling you Ella." She said. "Bring breakfast up as soon as you're able." She stormed out of the room.
Joe leaned over and whispered, "It's scary sometimes how quiet she is." He said.
Ella laughed, "Be careful what you say. You never know when she'll be lurking around a corner!"
Joe left the kitchens leaving her to finish breakfast. She collected all the dishes and then brought everything to the tea room where they were all waiting around the table.
"Finally!" Drisella said, "about time! I've been starving to death!"
"Me too! I think she does it on purpose. She's probably just trying to starve us to make up for missing the ball." Anastasia said, talking to her sister as if Ella wasn't even standing there.
They both cackled and their mother smiled as Ella laid the food out on the table.
"I am sorry I'm late." Ella said. Ignoring their callous remarks was just a normal part of her mornings.
"Did you all enjoy the ball?"
Anastasia snorted, "it was a complete waste of time. The prince wasted all his attention on others. The closest I got to royalty was when the grand duke asked me to dance."
Cinderella's eyes turned to her stepmother.
"I thought-" She cut herself off the moment she realized what she was about to say
Why had her stepmother lied to her at the masquerade?
"You thought what Ella?" Lady Tremaine asked, staring straight ahead at her.
"It's just that both the girls had the most wonderful dresses. I thought that for sure you would catch his eye this time."
Lady Tremaine narrowed her eyes, "you understand nothing Ellanore."
She turned to her two daughters,
"Try harder next time. I don't spend my money and time at these events to walk away with nothing." Lady Tremaine snapped. Anastasia and Drisella looked at their plates trying to avoid their mother's anger.
"You're excused." Lady Tremaine said to Cinderella and she fled the awkward tension gratefully.
She brought out a tray to Joe in the barn as he started on his morning chores and then she finally sad down at the table in the corner of the kitchen to eat what was left of the food she had prepared.
-The Fairy Godmother-
This was a disaster. She had set them up beautifully only to watch as they both ruined everything. How could two people who were soul mates have such a disastrous first meeting? The two idiots managed to fall in love and didn't even get eachothers names?
She had promised Cinderella that the ball would change her life, and now she was back with her evil little family. She brainstormed over ways that she could get the two to cross paths again. If only she could break protocol and just pop up in front of the prince and tell him 'hey, remember that girl from last night? You can find her at bellview in the tallest tower!' Unfortunately, things are never as simple as all that.
It was supposed to be such a simple job. She was beginning to realize that this wouldn't be as easy as bippidi-boppidi-boo.