Cinderella's Shoes

by Shonna Slayton

  Kate’s mouth dropped. Nessa commanded her? Speechless, and feeling a new wave of nausea come over her, Kate did as she was told. She stood on the bed so she could lift the bulky material high enough to get it over Nessa’s head. At least dressing Nessa was easier than dressing the manikins at Harmon-Craig. No trick arm that would fall off if you moved it the wrong way.

  Her fingers fumbled as she did up the tiny clasps. She was shaking more out of anger than out of awe for the dress. This would not go well. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Nessa said, glancing over her shoulder. “You look like you’re about to drop over.”

  Kate started to protest when the boat pitched again, and her stomach with it. There was no way she could smell the fancy food and not be negatively affected. She finished fastening up the dress, flounced the large gathers in the back, and pronounced Nessa dressed.

  The stateroom lacked a floor-length mirror, so Nessa bounced and preened as much as she could in front of the vanity mirror. Frowning, she turned to Kate.

  “What?” Kate asked, wary of Nessa’s expression.

  “Is this it?” she asked, lifting her skirts. “I expected, I don’t know. More.”

  Kate raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean, more?”

  “Shouldn’t it feel magical? I feel the same. Like this is an ordinary dress.”

  That dress could never be ordinary. Kate tried not to smirk. She didn’t know if Nessa understood her warning about the dress’s “personality.” She watched Nessa fluttering about the room and debated whether or not to remind her.

  “Do you have a wand or something you need to wave over me to start it up?”

  Kate groaned and rolled over, finding a cool spot on the pillow. The girl would find out on her own.

  Sometime later, there was a soft knock on her door. She tentatively sat up, and feeling no increase in ill effects, opened her door. It was Johnny, looking very dapper in a suit coat. Her stomach did a flip-flop. The good kind.

  “You’re up,” he said. “How’s the tummy?”

  “Better.” Kate smiled. Actually, swirling with butterflies. She took in the crisp lines of the suit and how it accentuated his shoulders. He looked so handsome. “Did you go to the formal dinner, too?”

  He leaned against the doorframe. “Sure did. I’d tell you all about it, but I’m afraid to talk about food in front of you.”

  “Did you see Nessa?”

  Johnny’s eyes opened wide as he took off his glasses and cleaned them with his pocket handkerchief. She liked when he took off his glasses. His blue eyes were so striking, but the glasses hid them.

  “Did I ever. Was she wearing the dress?”

  Kate nodded.

  “Whoo-wee. That girl was out for some fun tonight. She paraded through the dining room, stopping to chat with guests like it was an event in her honor. During the meal she spilled her soup when a big wave came along, and made a big fuss about having a waiter come clean it up.”

  A wave of nausea hit Kate that wasn’t caused by the rolling ocean. “That’s what I was afraid of. She’s calling too much attention to herself and risking stains.” Kate put a hand on her stomach. She might be able to handle an appearance and keep an eye on that dress. “I’d better get up there.”

  Johnny waved his hands, stopping her. “You’re making too big a deal about it.”

  Kate started to protest when he stopped her again.

  “Don’t worry about Nessa. Everyone thinks she’s delightful.”

  Kate slid her hand from her tummy to her hip. “Did you just call her delightful?”

  He laughed, leaning in close. “I only meant that she’s got everyone wrapped around her finger. When I left, she was starting in on the captain to push the tables back and open up a dance floor.”

  Now she was feeling faint. It was one thing to be sitting down to a dinner, but another for Nessa to be waltzing around the room drawing even more attention to herself. “Is he going to?”

  “They do every night, apparently. The carpet rolls up and out comes the band. I had no interest. It wouldn’t be the same without you stepping on my feet.” He grinned, disarming her growing anger.

  “Hey. One time,” Kate protested, giving him a playful slap on the arm.

  “There’s my Sparky. Glad to see you’re alive. If I wasn’t afraid of setting you back, I’d take you out for a spin around the dance floor.”

  “Don’t say spin.” She held her hand to her head in mock dizziness.

  “We’re wrapping up the work we can do on this tin can and I’m hoping to have some fun tomorrow. Will you be up for a swim?”

  She nodded. “I think so.”

  They were interrupted by the thump, thump, thump of someone running toward them. They looked down the long hall to see Nessa in her stockinged feet, her shoes in hand.

  “Kate, are you well?” she called out as soon as she saw them. “I’ve got a stain for you to fix.”

  “What?” Kate narrowed her eyes at Johnny. She knew it. Nessa wrecked the dress. She never should have let her wear it to dinner on a ship that rolled and pitched with the waves.

  Nessa pushed them out of the way and tumbled into the room.

  Kate turned to see how bad the damage was, but Johnny grabbed her hand.

  “Look, I’d better go,” he said. He gently took hold of Kate’s chin and returned her focus to him.

  Kate frowned in exasperation. He just didn’t understand.

  “I’ll check in on you tomorrow morning. Maybe we can have breakfast together.” He kissed her forehead. The sweet gesture made her feel like he was tucking her in for the night, and it melted her insides.

  She watched him amble down the hallway. Easy for him to walk away. He didn’t have a fairy-tale legacy resting on his shoulders. She couldn’t mess it up. But he was right, the dress belonged to Nessa’s family, and Nessa would have to take some of the responsibility, too.

  It would serve the girl right if Kate walked off with Johnny for a moonlit stroll under the stars where they could talk about anything, everything, nothing.

  She reluctantly closed the door.

  Nessa stood in the middle of the room, studying the skirt. “Oh, I hope it comes out.”

  “What happened?” she asked, not holding back her exasperated tone.

  While turning around so Kate could undo the back, she spilled the story out of her. “I was only having fun, giving my dress a little twirl—the skirt fans out beautifully. And there was a wineglass on the table that tipped and splashed on me. I don’t know how it happened. It is not like there was a wave or the tipping of the boat.”

  Kate’s heart fell. She stopped unfastening the dress and began searching for the wine stain. The first time Nessa wears it, and she gets a stain. There it was, on the side, near the bottom of the white skirt. A bright red splotch like a splash of blood on a nurse’s uniform.

  “You can get it out, right?”

  “You’re the one who got a stain on it; don’t you think you should try to get it out?” she retorted.

  Nessa huffed. “It’s your job as Keeper.”

  “You shouldn’t have worn the dress in the first place,” Kate said. “None of this would have happened if you had worn something sensible to the dinner.” Even as the words left her mouth, Kate realized she was being unreasonable. The only way to keep a dress spotless would be to never wear it at all. She didn’t know what had overcome her, but she couldn’t stop feeling put out, jealous even, over Nessa wearing the ball gown.

  In icy silence, they managed to remove the dress. Nessa put on a robe and proceeded to prepare for bed, leaving Kate to figure out how to clean the stain.

  Aunt Elsie had given her a special recipe for washing the dress that involved a powder made from lavender and poppies. Kate searched the trunk but couldn’t find it. Hopefully it was in her suitcase, which had been put in the hold with the Kolodenkos’ forty-six other bags. She shook her head every time she thought about how much luggage
they brought with them. Nessa even had ten bags with her in the suite.

  Kate dressed and set out to find a bellboy who could bring up her bag for her. She walked down the corridor, focusing on the wood paneling on the walls so she wouldn’t look at the physical bend in the ship that had the odd effect of making her stomach dip. She held on to the plastic railing, fearful of an unexpected pitch. At the stairs she found a man pushing a food cart piled with empty room-service dishes. She stopped him and explained her predicament. “Can you find someone to bring up my luggage?

  “No need the luggage,” he answered in an Eastern European accent. “I know how to get wine stain out of silk. Follow me.” He took her to a cleaning closet and presented her with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. “Use this, with the cold water,” he said.

  “Thank you.” On a whim, Kate asked him, “Where are you from? You talk like my babcia.”

  “Czechoslovakia,” he said.

  “I’m looking for a woman named Malwinka. Is that a common name in those parts?”

  The man’s expression was blank. “If you have lost her, you can ask they call her on the loudspeaker.”

  “Oh, no, she’s not on this ship,” She lowered her eyes, feeling foolish. “I’m hoping to meet her on my trip.”

  “You not know where she lives?” he asked, a small smile playing on his lips. “Europe is bigger than you think.” He shook his head as he went back to pushing his cart.

  Kate let out a breath. The Burgosov man’s instructions were ridiculous. He sent her on a goose chase instead of a shoe hunt. What if the name Malwinka was as popular as the name Smith in America?

  By the time Kate returned to the stateroom, Nessa was fast asleep. Kate spread out the dress, looking for the stain. She pawed through the fabric again and again, but couldn’t find a mark.

  Stunned, she sat on her bed, staring at the clean silk dress, and asked it, “What did you do now?”

  Chapter Twelve

  By the next morning, Kate had found her sea legs and was so happy to be well and eating, she left all grievances against Nessa back in the cabin. Johnny had joined them in the first-class dining room before having to go to a brief meeting with the movie people, so in all, the morning had been glorious. The two girls sat at the table enjoying the last of their omelets, along with a final glass of orange juice. Princess Kolodenko continued to eat in her cabin, but Kate suspected the elder Kolodenko would probably be feeling better soon, too.

  “What was it like growing up for you?” Kate asked Nessa as they left the table. “No one ever told you your royal heritage?”

  “Oh, it wasn’t like that. I know all the old stories.” She led Kate over to the map at the end of the room. It went from pillar to pillar and all the way up to the ceiling. Made out of inlaid wood of various shades of brown, it pictured New York on one side and Southampton, England, on the other. A hidden light behind the map lit up the setting sun and the crystal ship that slid along a groove, tracking their progress across the Atlantic. “Let’s see where we are today.” She pointed. “There’s our little ship bravely making its way across the ocean.”

  “We’re mostly there,” Kate said eagerly.

  The girls continued out to the Promenade Deck while Nessa picked up her story. “I was told all about how my ancestors used to be royalty over a small kingdom in what is now modern-day Poland. There was a terrible war when the neighboring kingdom invaded and my family had to go into hiding. Though they made several attempts to take back the kingdom, they never fully succeeded, and another invader came and took over both kingdoms. The two warring kingdoms lost everything because of their feud.”

  The Promenade Deck was a popular place for strolling. It gave passengers a place to stretch their legs and get some fresh air. Several lounge chairs were pushed up against the wall, and the girls kept walking, looking for two empty chairs out of the wind.

  “What was missing was the name Kopciuszek,” Nessa said. “Her story sounds very normal, historical even, until you attach that fairy-tale name to it. When I found out who we were descended from, I could read between the lines on all those old stories.”

  “Cinderella changes everything,” Kate said.

  “Is that the way it was for you, too? Did your family history finally make sense once you knew? Everything taking on a new meaning?”

  “We had a small family feud of our own, and so when I found out, the problems between my grandmother and her family finally made sense. She left everything behind when she emigrated to America, and there was always a mystery about the family. She kept me interested in my Polish heritage, though she herself let most of it go. I guess she was preparing me, in case.”

  They found two deck chairs set apart from the others and claimed them. Nessa lay back and let the sun shine full on her face. “Look at us. We’ve spent our whole lives thinking we were just regular girls and here we are, the descendants of a famous story.” She squinted an eye as she looked at Kate. “And we can’t tell anyone. Which reminds me, Babcia wants you to call her by her married name in Italy. She doesn’t like to be called princess in public. She lets Elsie do it because of their relationship, and we were in America, but it is easier for her not to have to explain to others. At home she goes by her husband’s name, De Luca.”

  “Sure. I understand.”

  Nessa returned to her sunbathing. “There’s one girl in particular I’d like to tell at my old school. She’s always acting like she’s so much better than me. She’s had it in for me ever since we met for no good reason at all. Wouldn’t she like to know who I really am.”

  Kate stifled her incredulity. Nessa was one to talk.

  She continued. “You’d probably like to tell Josie, I bet. And Johnny.”

  Kate just smiled. There was a certain comfort in having Johnny in on the secret. He was on her side, keeping her best interests in mind. When he isn’t getting irritated about my concern for the dresses.

  “You know what? I’d like to test the dress again. Of course, I can’t wear it tonight, since I wore it last night, but tomorrow I could.”

  “Are you joking?” Kate asked hopefully.

  “I hardly had a chance to test it out. I need to find out what it does before we’re home and Babcia makes you tuck it away again.”

  “What is there to test?”

  “See that boy over there?” she asked.

  The boy in question was at the rail staring out over the water. The sun was in his eyes so he raised his hand to act like a hat brim. He might have been the one eating at the table next to them that morning, but Kate couldn’t be sure. “Yes.”

  “I want to see if the dress will make him fall in love with me.”

  Kate laughed. “It doesn’t do that.”

  “Didn’t it make Johnny fall for you?” she asked.

  Kate felt her face turn red, not from embarrassment, but from anger. “No. Elsie says the dress only magnifies what’s already there, so you can learn people’s true intentions.”

  “Oh. Same thing. I want to learn his true intentions. He winked at me when I was watching the ice sculptor yesterday. I want to know if it was a good kind of wink or a bad kind.”

  It was not the same thing, but Kate bit her tongue.

  Nessa turned and looked at Kate full-on. “What do you hope to find in Italy? With the cottage and everything?”

  “If my life were truly a fairy tale, I’d say my dad. But I’d be happy with knowing what happened to him. To find out why.”

  “The why is the same for you as it was for my sister. They were protecting us. The survivors. Those who die, died for us.”

  Kate was quiet. In America, she hadn’t felt the full brunt of the fear or the brutality of war. But Nessa did. Maybe she put on an act to forget, or to force herself to move on.

  “I asked Babcia about Kopciuszek’s slippers,” Nessa said.

  Not wanting to break the magic of Nessa’s sudden openness, Kate was silent, holding her breath.

  “She told me they wer
e lost to the family,” Nessa said.

  Nodding, Kate kept her thoughts to herself. She didn’t want to tell Nessa everything yet. Maybe she hadn’t gotten over the whole dress incident yet. “Did she have any guesses as to where they might be?”

  “No, but she hedged.” Nessa quirked a smile. “When Babcia doesn’t want to tell me something, she only reveals part of the story. I recognize it now.”

  “The Burgosovs taunted me about the shoes when they wanted me to give them the dresses, but later admitted they didn’t have them. My gut is telling me there is so much more to the story.”

  “Me, too. This can be a secret you and I share, for once. Hush now, here comes the boyfriend who was not in the least influenced by the magic in the dress.” She turned and smiled as Johnny ambled over to join them.

  “Knew I’d find you here,” he said. “We are done for today. You ladies know of any place we could play some deck games?”

  Before Nessa could answer, a bellboy came by with a message for her.

  “Your grandmother told me I would find you here. She said to tell you she is feeling better, and would you please come and see her.”

  Nessa thanked the bellboy and went on her way. Johnny slid easily into her vacant chair.

  “Are we really alone?” he asked, scooting his chair closer.

  Kate glanced down the crowded Promenade Deck. Couples were strolling along, happy to pass the time in each other’s company. Two women looked like they were out for exercise and were walking at a brisk clip, and another group walked by carrying racquetball rackets, either headed to or returning from a game. “Yes, we’re finally alone.” She laughed.

  They watched the people and the ocean, content just to be together.

  Finally, Kate broke the silence. “How are you? You’ve been so concerned with me and my stomach, I haven’t asked what you think of the Queen Mary.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been on here before, but I was just a kid then. Birdy and I played in the children’s playroom. I spent hours on the slide, while Birdy couldn’t tear her eyes away from the fish in the aquarium.”