Into Eden

"Are you really a witch?" Thomas asked. It was the first thing he had said to Cinderella all day. "Because Olivier said that you were a witch, but Jean said that you weren't."

"No," Cinderella said with a smile. "I'm not a witch." She leaned towards him a little, and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. "But I do have a fairy godmother."

Thomas' eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes," Cinderella said. "How else do you think I was able to find the most beautiful dress to wear to the ball?"

"I can't say that I've given it much thought," Angelique replied. "Believe it or not we don't all spend all our time thinking about you, your highness. The most urgent question on my mind was not how you managed to find the most beautiful dress to wear to the ball."

Cinderella didn't reply. It had been a few hours now since Jean had brought her to this hideaway he shared with the others, and he had left a little while ago to see if the coast was clear around the palace for her return. Angelique was watching her, and the children, although she gathered that there were times when they left them unattended. Cinderella might not have thought that was wise, but she could see that there might be occasions when they didn't have any other choice.

"I knew that you weren't a witch," Marie declared.

"Really?" Cinderella said. "And how did you know that?"

"If you were a witch, you could disguise yourself better with magic," Marie said. "All you've done is put on different clothes."

Angelique chuckled.

"You really don't like me, do you?"

Angelique regarded her evenly. "I'm sure that's very unusual, for you."

"Not really," Cinderella said. "My stepmother and stepsisters didn't like me either. Even now I'm not sure how many people would care for me if I weren't a princess."

"You're not looking for sympathy, are you?" Angelique said. "Because don't expect any."

"No, I'm not looking for sympathy," Cinderella said. "I'm just looking to understand."

"Understand what?"

"Why you don't like me," Cinderella said.

Angelique was silent for a moment, looking away from Cinderella. They were both sat down, Angelique squatting down while Cinderella sat more demurely, with her legs folded beneath her.

"It's nothing personal," Angelique said. "I just don't like the rich very much. Why should you have so much when we have so little?"

"Honestly?" Cinderella replied. "I don't know. I...I don't know. But I promise, I will do everything I can for you, and Jean and the others. And for people like you."

Angelique glanced at her. "Jean trusts you. Maybe he's right, maybe I'm right, but if you hurt him I won't forgive you."

"I have no intention of doing anything but helping him," Cinderella said.

"Say that when you don't need our help," Angelique murmured.

"Cinderella!"

Cinderella rose to her feet, summoned by Eugene's voice and by the sound of hooves clattering upon the cobblestones. Eugene reined in his horse at the entrance to the alley, leaving a column of hussars behind him as he ran to her and embraced her tight, pressing her against his chest.

Only when he released her a little - though his hands remained upon her shoulders - could she see from his eyes that he was both scared and angry.

"Why?" he demanded. "What were you thinking?"

"You don't know?" Cinderella asked.

"How can I know when you disappear without a word?"

"Without a word?" Cinderella said. "I left a note for you, explaining everything."

"A note?" Eugene said. "There was no note."

"No note?"

"No, just an empty room and an unused bed," Eugene said. "I thought...I was afraid that...I didn't know what had had happened to you. Why?"

"I told you that I wanted to do this," Cinderella said.

"And I told you it was too dangerous," Eugene replied, his voice rising.

"I had to," Cinderella said softly.

"Why?" Eugene shouted. "Why was this so important, why was this worth risking yourself?"

"Because now I know what I need to do," Cinderella said.

"What?" Eugene said. "I don't understand. Please, help me, Cinderella, help me to understand why it was so important that you do this? What is that you need to do that you have just now discovered?"

"Look around, Eugene," Cinderella said. "Look at these children. Do you remember when we went to the ball, and the newspapers criticised us for dancing while people starved. You said that they were exaggerating, but they weren't. Look at them. How can we allow people to live in such a manner?"

Eugene glanced at Angelique and the others, but he could only look at them for a moment before their stares, though not hostile (for the most part, on Angelique's part her look had something of a glare about it), drove him to look away with embarrassment upon his face. Cinderella did not think it would have been possible for anyone, facing those barefooted children in their rags, to have stood in fine clothes, having just dismounted from a fine horse, and not have felt embarrassed and ashamed. Or, if someone could, they were not a man Cinderella would wish to be married to.

"There are workhouses," Eugene muttered.

"And jails too, no doubt," Cinderella said forcefully. "I will see them for myself, but from what I have heard I expect to find them awful places, unfit for anyone to live in, especially children. These conditions...they make my stepmother seem kind for not throwing me out onto the street after my father died. I am starting to think she was kind for not doing so, for all that her manner was cold and cruel. For all that she did to me...she never made me live like this." She looked into Eugene's eyes. "I want to do something about this. For these children, and for others. I want to make it so that no one, especially not a child, must live like this."

"And how will you do that?" Eugene asked.

"I don't know yet," Cinderella admitted. "But don't you see now how important it was for me to come here."

"You cannot have known this was what you would find when you did come here," Eugene said.

"No, but I had to do something," Cinderella said. "And I probably shouldn't have lied to you, but you didn't listen to me, you just told me no and expected that to be the end of it."

"I told you it was dangerous," Eugene said. "And I was right. You were in danger, and were it not for this street rat then..." he sighed. "Perhaps I should have listened to you. But you should have listened to me, too. If we had both heard each other out, we could have found a better way."

"And then where would that leave these children," Cinderella said softly.

Eugene snorted. "So all's well that ends well, is that what you're saying?"

"I suppose I am," Cinderella replied.

"And what will you do with these children now?" Eugene asked.

Cinderella looked past her husband, to where Angeliqe and the others waited. Angelique was watching her carefully. Go on, she was saying. Show me what you really are. Prove to me that you're different, that you're better than the rest. Prove to me that you really care.

Cinderella turned her attention back to Eugene. "The younger ones should be in school. Or found good tutors at least, but a school would be better, with other children."

"I am sure the money can be found for that," Eugene said. "And the older two."

Cinderella smiled. "Angelique."

Angeliqe climbed slowly to her feet, with the wariness of a dog that feared its master's moods, aware that he might dole out punishments as easily as treats. "Yes...your highness?"

"You have been very honest with me," Cinderella said. "I appreciate honesty. For that reason, I would like to offer you a position in my household, as one of my ladies in waiting."

Angelique's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"See, Angelique, I told you so!" Jean yelled from the middle of the hussar column.

"Cinderella," Eugene murmured under his breath. "This is...very unusual."

"Is it forbidden?" Cinderella asked.

"Not technically, but-"

"Then I will do it," Cinderella replied. "Angelique, what do you say?"

"I..." Angelique frowned. "Is this a trick?"

"No," Cinderella said, smiling. "This is no trick."

Angelique's lips pursed, and she looked away for a moment before she said, "Very well. I accept."

"Thank you," Cinderella whispered. "Thank you, so much."

Eugene smiled. "You are the kindest person I have ever met, and the most generous. And the boy?"

"I hoped that you might find him some position," Cinderella said.

Eugene glanced at Jean, a slight frown upon his face. "Boy, how old are you?"

"Sixteen, your highness," Jean said. "I think."

"Can you read and write?"

"A little, your highness," Jean replied.

"Then how would you like to be an officer in the guards?"

Jean gasped. "Your Highness...I would be..." He attempted to bow, which was awkwardly done as he sat on the back of a horse behind another rider. "I swear to your highnesses...I give you my word I shall not let you down!"

"Satisfied?" Eugene asked.

"Very much so," Cinderella replied. She stepped forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, for understanding."

"I can't say I understand completely, but I will try," Eugene said. "For you. Now, Etienne. Gather up these urchins and let's be on our way."

The sun seemed brighter now than it had ever been. Or so Jean though anyway, as he felt it on his face as she rode on the back of a hussar's horse, out of the streets of the rookery and towards the shining palace at the city's heart. The sun seemed brighter, the air seemed finer, the smells seemed sweeter than ever before.

I was right. My faith has been rewarded. Princess Cinderella has saved us.

And she would save others, too. Jean had been right about that as well. The King had not known how low the poor had sunk, how cruelly they were treated by those higher than them. Now that they were away, the monarchy would step in and protect them from the lords and the rich merchantmen who ground them down.

I was right, and now things are only going to get better for us.

"What are you smiling about?" Angelique asked. She was riding with a different cavalryman, her arms wrapped around his waist as she looked back at Jean.

"I didn't realise I was smiling," Jean murmured. "But it must be because I was right about her highness."

"Don't let it go to your head," Angelique murmured. "It hardly compares to all the times you've gotten things wrong."

"I'm not wrong that often," Jean replied.

"Hmm, let's run up a tally, shall we?" the look on Angelique's face was wicked. "First there was the time when-"

"Yes, well, there's no need to go into all that now," Jean said hastily. He paused for a moment. "Everything is going to change for us. For the better."

"I hope so," Angelique murmured.

"Are you going to leave us?" Marie asked plaintively.

Jean looked at her, riding beside him in the lap of a trooper of the horse, her eyes wide and her lip trembling. He smiled encouragingly. "Yes, we are. But...but it won't be goodbye, little Marie, it won't be an ending. It will be a new beginning, a glorious beginning for all of us. You'll be educated, and when you're done you'll be able to read and write and tell me what all the funny symbols next to the numbers mean, and no one will ever look down on you again. You'll be able to earn money, real money that doesn't belong to anybody but you. You can have homes, and throw parties and eat whatever you like whenever you like and...and anything you want. The world will be yours and no one will be able to deny you any of it."

"But what about you? And Angelique?" Marie said.

"Angelique is going to become a lady," Jean said excitedly. "A real lady, like in the stories. She'll wear pretty dresses and have jewels in her hair and serve the princess who takes care of us."

"And you?"

"And me?" Jean laughed. "I'm going to be a soldier! An officer! That's halfway to being a gentleman, you know. I'm going to have a sword and a fancy uniform with gold trim, and when I ride my big horse down the streets everyone is going to salute me, and wish they could be half as brave as I am."

Jean's rhapsody was interrupted by the laughter of the commander of the hussar detail, the officer he had first met when he had tried to deliver his message to the palace. While the prince and princess rode at the head of the column, Princess Cinderella riding in her husband's lap, this colonel of the hussars rode in the centre of things, in the midst of his men, close enough to hear Jean talking and start laughing at him.

He had a proud face, though less proud-seeming now that he was cracking up, and he wore his exquisite uniform well. He was, though Jean would not admit it, what Jean hoped to look like when he grew up.

"I amuse you, sir?" Jean asked, with a touch of chilliness in his voice.

"The fact that you have no idea what a young officer's life is like amuses me a little," Colonel Gerard said. "The truth is, boy, that until you reach captain a sergeant is more important to the running of your unit than you are, and it is by no means certain you will reach captain."

"I will," Jean declared. "I'll make Colonel, so I will!"

Gerard smiled. "I'd like to see that," he said, with sincerity and mockery in his voice in equal measure.

They passed through the palace gates, and Jean's eyes widened as he beheld the luxurious size of the gardens. So much space, used for absolutely nothing at all. This is the life, all right. What a change from what we've known. He looked around his family, a wide grin splitting his face, we have passed back into the garden of Eden. We've been forgiven, and been readmitted into paradise.

He watched as Princess Cinderella dismounted, the sunlight catching her strawberry blonde locks, the way her eyes sparkled, the way she...her. Everything about her, the most perfect creation that ever human eyes beheld.

Not forgiven. Saved by an angel.

He caught Angelique frowning at him as they were both helped off their horses. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," she murmured. "Or...nothing. We'll talk about it later."

Jean took by the arm and led her a little way off the main path, their feet trampling upon the blades of grass the surrounded the palace. "If something's wrong, Angelique, you can tell me."

"Nothing is wrong with me," Angelique said firmly. "I'm worried their might be something with you though. Or with your understanding."

Jean shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"She's not for you, nor you for her, not how you want," Angelique said firmly. "She'll never love you. Not like that. Her eyes are only for the prince, that's plain to see."

Jean laughed. "Come on, Angelique, you don't think-"

"I've seen the way you look at her."

"I'm grateful," Jean said. "Angelique, what makes you say this? Are you jealous?"

Angelique gasped. "Why I ought to smack you so hard just for asking me that. I'm worried about you, you fool!"

"There's nothing to-"

"Jean Taurillion, you look me in the eyes and tell me that you feel nothing for her," Angelique snapped.

Jean stared into her eyes, wide and angry and demanding truth from him. He looked away. "I..."

"She is beautiful," Angelique said. "But she's also married."

Jean looked at her. "Are you worried that I'll get hurt," he asked. "Or are you worried that I'll ruin this for the rest of us."

"I could care less about all of this, I'm worried about you," Angelique said. "If you give her your heart she'll break it. Not because she doesn't like you, or because she wants to be cruel; but because she gave hers away already."

"I know," Jean murmured. "I'd say I can't help how I feel, but...I am a gentleman, Angelique, you must allow me that much."

"I do," Angeliqe murmured. "You are that, for all your faults."

"Whatever I feel," Jean said. "I shan't tell. It's better that way."

"Not really," Angelique replied. "But it is the best in the circumstances."

A group of maids descended from the palace and began to flock around the princess.

"If you could please draw me a hot bath, I can take care of dressing and getting ready myself," Cinderella said. "In the meantime, please take care of these children, there. Feed them, wash them, and make sure they are given new, clean clothes to wear."

"Are you quite sure, your highness?"

"I am quite capable of dressing myself occasionally, thank you," Cinderella said, with an undercurrent of amusement in her voice. "But make sure you take good care of the children. They are under my protection, and dear to me."