The next morning, Ella, Alyssa Rose, Lady Tremaine, and Anastasia and Drizella said their goodbyes to Sir Charles. "Remember the lace!" called Anastasia. "And my parasol!" called Drizella. "Bye! Bye, Papa!" called Ella and Alyssa Rose. "Bye, girls!" said Sir Charles. "I love you all!" Ella and Alyssa Rose followed their father's carriage to the gate and waved goodbye until it was gone. Drizella, Anastasia, and Lady Tremaine went into the chateau. Ella put her arm around Alyssa Rose's shoulder while Alyssa Rose put her arm around Ella's waist. The girls walked back inside the house slowly. When they got in, Ella and Alyssa Rose heard Lady Tremaine calling them into the parlor. The girls walked into the parlor and as they sat down, they began to cry. "Now, now, dears. Mustn't blub," Lady Tremaine said as she dabbed the girls' eyes with her handkerchief. "Yes, Stepmother," said the girls together. "Oh, you needn't call me that. "Madame" will do." Ella and Alyssa Rose looked at their stepmother, then at each other. Why would she want us to call her that? Alyssa Rose thought. I don't know, Lissie. Ella thought back. Then, the girls and Lady Tremaine heard Anastasia and Drizella arguing. "There isn't room for me and all of your clothes!" Drizella shouted. "Well, then make yourself smaller!" Anastasia shouted back. "Anastasia and Drizella have always shared a room," Lady Tremaine explained. "Such dear, affectionate girls." Alyssa Rose tried to stifle a giggle. She and Ella never fought like those two. There was another crash in the stepsisters' bedroom. "Or…or better yet, disappear entirely!" Anastasia shouted to Drizella. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Drizella asked sarcastically. "Ooh, sometimes I could scratch your eyes out!" Anastasia shouted again. "I think they're finding the sleeping quarters rather confining," Lady Tremaine commented as a piece of glass from Anastasia and Drizella's room shattered, then their bedroom door opened again. "Oh, well, our bedroom's the biggest besides yours and Papa's," said Ella. "Perhaps they'd like to share it," Alyssa Rose offered. "What a wonderful idea," said Lady Tremaine. "What good girls you are." "We can stay in the…" Ella tried to say. "The attic," Lady Tremaine finished. "Quite so." "The attic?" Alyssa Rose asked. "Yes," Lady Tremaine answered. "Oh, only temporarily, while I have all of the other rooms redecorated. The attic's so nice and airy and you two will be away from our fuss and bother." Ella and Alyssa Rose nodded. What they didn't know was that Anastasia and Drizella were eavesdropping through the whole conversation. "You'd be even cozier if you two kept all this…" Lady Tremaine looked at Lady Eleanor's sewing machine and her pictures. "…bric-a-brac up there with you. Keep you amused." Anastasia and Drizella giggled out loud. Alyssa Rose gave them an annoyed look.
That afternoon, Ella and Alyssa Rose were moving trunks and crates from their old bedroom to the attic. During their walk upstairs, Alyssa Rose would stop halfway to sit down and catch her breath. Ella would stop and sit down with her to make sure she is alright. When Alyssa Rose caught her breath, the girls continued towards the attic. When they walked in the doorway, Ella and Alyssa Rose looked around. Alyssa Rose felt the attic was stuffy so she opened a window. She and Ella could hear the birds chirp. "Well…no one will disturb us here," Alyssa Rose said. She heard her sister gasp. She turned around and saw their mice friends scurrying towards them. Alyssa Rose and Ella smiled. "Oh, hello, Gus-Gus," the girls said at the same time. They looked at their mouse friend with concern as he tried to get up to one of the trunks. "Go on, Gus-Gus, you can do it," Ella encouraged him. As Gus-Gus finally pulled himself up to the trunk, Jacqueline, Matilda, and Teddy, climbed up next to him. Ella sighed and said, "So this is where you take refuge. Us too, it would seem." The mice squeaked. "Right," Alyssa Rose agreed. "Who's going to help us?" Anastasia and Drizella were walking to another room in the chateau when they heard Ella and Alyssa Rose talking. "Simpletons. Our little sisters, up there, talking to the woodworm," Anastasia snickered. A while later, the attic has finally been cleaned up. "How very pleasant," said Alyssa Rose. "Yes," agreed Ella. "No cats and no stepsisters." "We have halfwits for sisters," Drizella snorted. "Who are they talking to?" "They're mad," Anastasia said, giggling.
As time went by, Ella and Alyssa Rose worked together doing their chores. One day, they were outside drying the laundry. "Oh, sing sweet nightingale. Sing sweet nightingale," Ella sang in a soft voice. She then heard someone say, "Good morning, Miss Ella! Good morning, Miss Lissie!" It was Farmer Tom. He was a kind-hearted old farmer with a long grey beard and brown eyes. After Farmer Tom went off to take care of the cows and horses, the girls went inside the chicken coop to help collect the eggs. Alyssa Rose started up a conversation with the chickens as she filled her basket. Ella laughed, "I declare, Lissie, you always make me double over with your clucking and strutting around." Alyssa Rose jokingly clucked in reply. Ella shook her head. "Oh, Lissie," she laughed again. Ella continued filling her basket. "Oh what a lovely, Chantecler," Ella said to one of the chickens. "Well done." After their baskets are filled, the girls went into the kitchen to give the eggs to the cook. "Good morning," they said to the cook. "Good morning, girls," said the cook. "Thank you." When they think she's not looking and trying to stifle giggles, the girls each took a swipe of porridge the cook's making. The cook turned around and gasped, "Girls!" Ella and Alyssa Rose laughed as they left the kitchen. That afternoon, Drizella was having her music lesson with her music teacher while Anastasia was working on her drawing of her mother. Alyssa Rose was reading one of her books. Both Ella and Alyssa Rose could see that Anastasia and Drizella have no talent with the arts, no matter how hard Lady Tremaine tried to encourage them. Meanwhile, when Ella's back was turned and Alyssa Rose turned to another page in her book, Lady Tremaine pushed her plate to the floor on purpose. The crash made everyone jump and look at Lady Tremaine. With her eyes fixed on Alyssa Rose, she said, "You clumsy girl! Pick it up." "Madame?" Alyssa Rose asked. "I couldn't have done that. I was sitting right here." "I said, pick it up," Lady Tremaine hissed. "As you wish, Madame." Alyssa Rose got up from her chair. She picked up what was left of the plate and ran out of the room feeling embarrassed. She took the plate into the kitchen and threw it into the garbage. Ella came into the kitchen. "Lissie, are you alright?" she asked. "No, Sissy. I'm not," Alyssa Rose answered without looking at her sister. "Sissy, I know I didn't drop the plate on the floor. I really didn't." "I know you didn't, Lissie," Ella assured her. "No need for tears now. We should be receiving a letter from Papa very soon." Alyssa Rose began to smile. "Do you think it will come today?" "We'll see," said Ella. "I wish Papa would be home soon," Alyssa Rose said as she gave her sister a hug. "So do I, Lissie." Both the girls loved reading the letters Sir Charles sent them, but they hope that he will be home safe and sound so he could tell them about the places he has seen once more.