CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A/N: the Step Mother is up to no good, and Trillion is busy with another's problems, courtesy of Max. This chapter is edited from the first version, just to let you know.
The Step Mother ambled around the various stands and shops set up for her perusal until she found the one she had been looking for. Behind her, Griselda struggled to keep up with her mother's brisk pace.
"Mother!" Griselda wailed. "I'm tired and hungry, and I don't see why we're here!"
The Step Mother gave no indication that she'd heard her daughter. "So…" she said more to herself, her seemingly calm voice belying cold fury, "she wishes to be with the Prince, eh? How dare she!"
"Mother!" Griselda shouted, much louder this time. "Have you paid attention to anything I've been saying?! I need to eat something!"
The Step Mother finally regarded her daughter. She cruelly grabbed Griselda's arm and, ignoring her cry of pain, jerked her over to a store window. "Silence, child! You'll not get one bite to eat until my task is finished here!"
Griselda was mute, rubbing her sore arm as she followed her mother. Presently, they stopped at a glass shop, which pronounced that the persons therein could make glass into any shape desired. The girl looked at the shop in utter confusion, wondering what her mother was plotting. It was often frustrating to her; she never knew what her parent planned in that mind of hers, and it galled her that she possessed not one whit of strategy like her mother had.
After all, Grissy had been raised to want everything everyone else had that she could not; every luxury, every talent, and each time she found herself wanting something and not being able to get it, she grew more contemptuous of society and even her own family. She thought about her step sister, Cinderella just then, and how she'd like to pay the chit back for all the misery the Little Cinder Girl had wreaked on her family ever since they'd moved in with their step father, Paldrine, on Cinderella's seventh birthday.
At least, her mother had taken care of one problem: she had arranged for Grissy's step father to meet his untimely end, and for that, the fat older sister was extremely grateful. One less person in the world meant that there was less for Grissy to have to share and more that she could possess.
Grissy remembered how she had discovered her mother's duplicity. She had been looking for a new dress for Cinderella to outfit her chubby frame with, and she had come across an old trunk she had never seen before in one of the seldom used rooms for storage. The trunk contained a dress which, upon trying it on later, had fit her. As she explored the trunk further, she also saw a loose bottom. The very next day, her curiosity seizing her with a vengeance, she pried open the bottom carefully and saw a book.
Griselda jerked her head around to make sure no one, not any servants, Cinderella, nor her true family saw what she was doing. Begging off a trip to the farmer's market with her sister and mother, Griselda waited until they'd left, with the servants and Cinderella atop the coach to drive it. Taking the book in her hands, she opened the tome to her mother's crude handwriting and began to read.
November 5th: I can't believe it has been done, but it has, and that sad chapter in my life that was that miserable excuse for a husband is now concluded to my satisfaction! Now that he is dead, he will not cause myself and my two precious angels any more trouble. Now, if only Cinderella could follow him to the hereafter...
Griselda had returned the book that day very carefully so that it looked as though no one had disturbed it. She also placed the piece back into the trunk and, when her family returned, and Cinderella came to steam the wrinkles out of the dress Grissy had chosen, the older sister looked for all the world like she had not stumbled onto any consequential news.
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The older daughter jerked her mind to the present as she heard her mother call, "Griselda! Come here!"
Grissy followed her mother to a bench and a wooden slab on an angle in front of her feet. "Now, my good man…" the step mother said to a portly gentleman who took her daughter's large foot into his hands, "you will craft a slipper of glass just like this shoe!" The step mother took the remaining glass slipper Cinderella had worn and gave it to the glass tinkerer.
The man turned the shoe left and right in his hand as the step mother handed him a scroll with Magdalena's foot measurements on it. "You will construct a pair for my eldest daughter after you have measured her foot, and a pair for my youngest after these measurements on this scroll."
The step mother tossed a small sack of coins to the man, adding, "And, you will keep silent about this business."
The man took one of the coins out of the small sack and held it up to the light. He nodded his satisfaction and began to sketch an outline of Griselda's foot. As he painstakingly drew the outline, Grissy's thoughts returned to another entry in her mother's diary that she had read.
October 30th: Imagine my excitement when I received word that my husband was going out of town on urgent business today instead of next week as originally planned! I sent my man to ensure the services of the driver who would cause his ultimate destruction. This man also was certain to fix the carriage which would transport my husband to the town of Shondechanze. I realize that writing this is not exactly the best course to take, but I love boasting about what is, in my opinion, my best plan to date!
The driver, a man of little consequence, was a drunken fool. Better yet, even when he was not drunk, he had not the training to navigate the treacherous mountain passes, which I am told was the only way to get to Shondechanze. I cannot wait to receive the tragic news of my husband's death…
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The cobbler sketched Grissy's opposite foot. The haughty step sister thought back to the day her mother, Magdalena, and Cinderella had opened the door to two men dressed entirely in black raiment.
"Aldemyne, wife of Paldrine, the Wine Merchant?" one of them asked hesitantly.
"Yes," the step mother replied, outwardly composed, yet inwardly impatient to receive the news she wanted so desperately.
"It is our sad duty to inform you that your husband, Paldrine of the 'ouse of Paldemine met with an untimely death late yesterday afternoon," one of the men said.
Cinderella's hand flew to her mouth. She spun around, away from the men and her step family. Her step mother and Griselda had paid little mind to her loud sobbing and they themselves shed no tears. Griselda had seen her younger sister out of the corner of her eye. Dalena was crying a single tear slide down her cheek, but then she stopped.
Inside, Aldemyne could feel her heart skip a happy beat as she asked quietly, "How? How did he die?"
"Carriage accident, milady," the other man reported. "His wheel was loose."
"We also have confirmed by some witnesses that the driver who was killed with him, a commoner named Alfred Denoument, was not a trustworthy soul," one of the men said.
"Whatever do you mean?" Step Mother Aldemyne asked.
"He often was involved in drunken routs, and he had not the skill required to drive such a pass," the first man said.
"But how could my husband have trusted such a man?" Aldemyne inquired. "I mean, would he not have known about this man's less than sterling reputation before accepting a ride from him?"
The second man shrugged, saying, "We know not why your husband trusted such a man. We shall, however, find out why and we shall report any findings to you if we can...".
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"'Tis done, milady. My sketch is of an exact replica," the glass blower and cobbler was saying. "I should have these ready within a week." The step mother tossed a larger sack to the man.
"You must design and create exact replicas of the slipper of glass within three days," she ordered. The man was aghast.
"Three days?!" the man echoed. "B-but milady! 'Tis impossible to construct something made of this caliber of glass within three days! Six days perhaps…"
"Three days, and no more will you be given!" the step mother said, walking to the front door of the shop.
"But milady…" the cobbler protested in a weak voice. Aldemyne whirled on him and fixed him with the coldest stare he had ever seen.
"Three days, or perhaps you would like to return the coins I thrust at you, to say nothing of saying 'goodbye' to your reputation as a shoe maker," she threatened. "I have many that I know in this village! Imagine what would happen should I make known that you, the soon-to-be former glass blower and shoe maker, could not construct two simple pairs of glass slippers!"
The man hastened to assure his client. "N-no need for that, milady! I will construct both pairs and have them delivered by special messenger to your address by the appointed time!" he said.
Aldemyne opened the door, saying over her shoulder, "Good man! The address is on the back of the scroll I gave you."
The man turned over the scroll and, seeing the writing on the back, nodded. "Y-yes, milady!" When Aldemyne and Griselda left the glass store, the man clapped his hands, summoning his workers.
"Mes enfants!" the man snapped, showing them the slipper. "Do not do any other tasks! We have a huge duty to perform!"
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As Griselda and her mother took the carriage home, the older daughter asked her mother as she ate her pastry, "Why three days, mother?"
"Because it is four days' ride from the Prince's castle to the chateau, silly child," her mother said. "By the time the Prince and any of his party reach our domicile, all will be ready. We will substitute the false slippers for the true one! Either you, or Magdalena, shall wed the Prince!"
Grissy allowed herself a small smile between bites. Her odious step sister would be heartbroken; she might even end her own life over her doomed love affair. As for Magdalena, the older step sister was determined to see to it somehow that Grissy's slipper was the first one the Prince saw. Once Edward was married to her, she could arrange for her mother and younger sister to serve them in the kitchen, or even in the stables.
The older daughter remembered the day things had changed for Cinderella. Ashenputtal had not even had a fortnight to mourn her father's passing before she was told that she would begin a life below the stairs, and that she was no longer a privileged person in the chateau.
"You cannot treat me like that!" the tiny eight-year-old voice of Cinderella shouted. "This is my father's house!"
"Your father is dead, child! I have control of everything, as the law and your father's documents will attest to! But, you may choose your fortune: either you may have a comfortable home with us, and perform a few tasks to our satisfaction, or you may go to the orphanage, or maybe serve one of the knights in our fair kingdom! Take your pick!" Aldemyne said coldly to Cinderella.
"I've heard that the knights are very solicitous of young girls," twelve-year-old Griselda chimed in cruelly. "First, you will be broken in as a slave, cleaning their boots and what not. Then, when you have grown a woman's accoutrement, you will be broken in in a different capacity!" Griselda snickered at Cinderella's confused frown. Ten-year-old Magdalena just stared at her step sister with an icy look, her pale blue eyes challenging Cinderella to offer one more protest, which the Girl of Cinder and Ash did do.
Three whip marks later, Cinderella did as she was told that day.
Her thoughts returning to the present, Griselda continued munching on her pastry as the carriage bumped along. She thought about how she had copied various passages in her mother's handwriting like she knew how to do. After all, Grissy thought as an evil grin crossed her face, one never knew when one might need such information to get one's own mother to do one's bidding.
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"But why do I need to be present at this birth?" Trillion snapped, pacing back and forth in Max's cottage.
"Because I think it will do you some good to be away from the Cinder Girl. She's consuming your thoughts too much, and you should concentrate on other clients," Max said patiently. "You don't want to be accused of favoritism in her direction, now do you?
"No," Trillion said sullenly, realizing Max had a point but not wanting to acknowledge it. He stopped pacing and regarded the brown eyed, older fae.
"What if she needs me?" He asked Max. "What if she needs us? I haven't seen the mirror of future things or consulted HWHAK's books, but if she gets into trouble and we're not there to help her...".
"What possible trouble could happen to her?" Max asked, hoping nothing would occur while they were gone. "She will, presumably, try on the slipper and Edward will marry her. All will be as it should be."
Trillion shook his head back and forth, saying, "I still do not like this business! One tiny thing, just like her leaving past midnight, could happen and everything could go wrong...".
Max put a consoling hand on his shoulder, saying, "Or she could marry Prince Edward within a fortnight and be quite happy!"
But she is mine, not his! Trillion's mind screamed. He forced down his jealous feelings and dutifully told Max, "You are right, of course. She should marry the best human that she can, and in doing so, achieve happiness." He started packing clothes by hand and other supplies for the journey. Max smiled with satisfaction, saying to himself that he did the right thing.
He handed Trillion his white wand and took his own. "Get ready..." he ordered Trillion. Instantly, Max and Trillion vanished, flying through the air at top speed to Duckland.