“Fremont, I should have had your head the first time you coupled with my daughter,” growled Lucio. “The only reason I didn’t was that I did not want the word getting out she was no longer a virgin.”
“Then we made love before?” asked William excitedly.
“Aye, you did, years ago. It was right before the incident with the milkmaid. When Ella walked in to see that, it hurt her deeply. I had no choice but to break the agreement of a marriage between you.”
“Did you have anything to do with me being sent overseas to fight for the king?” asked William.
“Aye, I admit I put the bug in the king’s ear. I needed you away from Ella to give her time to think. Plus, I wasn’t thrilled with your actions at the time either. However, afterward, I realized my mistake. Instead, I should have insisted you two marry right away.”
“It was the milkmaid’s fault – I didn’t do a thing,” William reminded him.
“Why was Ella wearing that glass shoe?” asked Lucio.
“She looked like a princess last night.” William closed his eyes partially, reliving the moment. “Her gown was made of pure, pink silk and she wore glass slippers and diamonds. It was almost as if part of me remembered it was the way she always looked before the curse.”
“What are you going to do about it?” asked Terris.
“I am going to go to Inglewood Manor and find her and bring her back to me.” William was insistent about this.
“It doesn’t sound like she wants to be with you, Fremont.” Lucio took the glass slipper and inspected it.
“Nay, I guess not,” he said. “But I have to find her. I can’t let her walk out of my life forever. I lost her once and, by God, it will not happen again.”
The chair Terris sat on started moving and contorting. Terris fell to the ground as the chair turned into Hecuba. “Stop putting your lazy arse on me every time you come into this room,” grumbled the old woman.
“Hecuba! Stop spying on us,” said Lucio with a frown.
“I am not spying. I am here to tell you that it is too late. The curse has continued for so long that in an hour, everyone except the Trevanes will have forgotten that your dear Cinderella even exists. William and the others will have no idea who I am. They won’t know Medea either. So don’t bother trying to remind them, Lucio. It will be as if none of this has ever happened.”
“I won’t forget Ella,” said Lucio. “I made sure of that. Neither will Ella’s siblings. I put a protective spell on us all.”
“Yes, you did do that, although you’ve done nothing to break the curse,” Hecuba was sure to point out. “I am almost getting bored with this, Lucio. I’m disappointed in you. You are normally much more entertaining.”
“Remove my daughter’s curse, Hecuba. Now!” Lucio crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
“Nay,” she spat. “I want to have a little more fun first. And I have an idea just how to do that.”
“Mother, are you here?” Medea appeared in the room in her usual puff of black smoke.
“I’m not happy with you, dearie,” grumbled Hecuba. “Why did you have to play fairy godmother to Cinderella?”
“Ella is my sister,” said Medea. “Besides, I felt like having some fun, too.”
“Don’t help her again, do you hear me? If so, you are going to be sorry.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” said Medea with a sigh. “Ella is boring. At least with Rap, we had a few good fights.” She spoke of Lucio’s other daughter, Rapunzel.
“Medea, come back to Babeny and live with me and your brother, Wolf,” begged Lucio. “You can meet all your siblings.”
“She’s already seen them all at Rapunzel’s wedding,” said Hecuba. “She’s going to live with me and rule Tanglewood Castle from now on.”
“Medea, Hecuba is evil and uses dark magic,” Lucio tried again, giving the glass slipper back to William and walking closer to his daughter. “You are a good girl, Medea. I’ve seen it by the way you helped Ella.”
“She’s got half my blood in her no matter how good you think she is,” Hecuba reminded him. “Sometimes a person’s true nature takes time to emerge.”
“I haven’t seen my brother, MacKay, yet,” said Medea, almost sounding interested in Lucio’s offer.
“He’s somewhere in Scotland. I will find him and bring him to you if you promise to come live with me.” Lucio tried to make a deal with his daughter.
“I’ll think about it,” said Medea with a smile. Her eyes glanced over at her mother who was scowling at her. Then she spoke to Lucio. “Bring MacKay to me first and then I’ll decide.”
“I will do it, but I want Hecuba to take the curse off Ella,” said Lucio.
“I told you, no!” Hecuba shouted.
“Then at least promise me that my daughter and William will be married.”
William watched Hecuba’s face scrunch up. He was sure she was going to object. But then she got a devious look about her and answered. “Yes, I will promise you that your daughter and William will be married.”
“Now, will you go find MacKay, Father?” asked Medea.
Lucio touched his daughter on the arm, and she let him do it. “I don’t know where he is, and it might take a while, but I will bring him to you, I promise. Now, let us all leave at the same time.”
“I would be more than happy to do that,” said Hecuba.
Lucio and Hecuba left, but Medea stayed. She smoothed back her long, black hair and strolled over to William.
“You are quite handsome,” she said, in a seductive voice. “I can see why Ella fancies you.” She reached out to touch him, but her mother’s voice resounding in the room stopped her.
“Medea, let’s go!”
Medea sighed and rolled her eyes. She disappeared with a wave of her hands over her head leaving a cloud of black smoke.
William had a bad feeling about all this. Hecuba gave in way too easily. Something wasn’t right. He could only hope that Lucio found MacKay quickly and returned. Because in another hour, he would have no recollection of Ella at all.
“Medea, where were you last night when I needed you?” asked Ella, down on her hands and knees removing the ashes from the hearth in the great hall. No one else was around and she was thankful. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to her stepmother yell at her, or her stepsisters cry that no one chose them to marry at the ball.
“Mother didn’t like the fact I helped you, so I had to stop.” Medea fussed with her hair.
“Weren’t you the one who told me to stand up to people?” asked Ella. A few mice ran out of the ashes, scaring her. She jumped back and held her hand to her chest to still her heart. “All right, point taken.”
“So, since you don’t want William, I’ve decided I want him,” announced Medea.
“What?” Ella stood up, brushing her hands off on her apron. “Who said I don’t want William?”
“I heard you left him. Besides, it doesn’t matter. Mother has strengthened the curse. Right about now, William won’t even remember who you are. Only the Trevane family will know you.”
“They’re not even my family. And what do you mean William won’t know me? We made love last night. Certainly, he won’t forget that.”
“You made love to him? Just like Rapunzel made love to Marco?” Medea didn’t look happy. “I want to make love to a man, too.”
“Medea, you are too young.”
“I am eighteen years old.”
“Well, I am twenty. I think. I can’t remember. And I don’t remember Rapunzel, so I’m not sure how old she is, but I’m sure she is older than you.”
“Rap is twenty. You are twenty-one.”
“Thank you for telling me. Now, I have to ask you to leave William alone. I am going to talk to him and try to work things out.”
“You can’t tell me what to do. My mother has a plan that will make certain you don’t marry William.”
“Medea, what are you saying? Why are you acting this way?”
&n
bsp; “I am tired of being good. It is boring. I am going to have fun now, just like my mother.” She disappeared without another word. Ella didn’t know what she meant, but if Hecuba was involved, there was sure to be dark magic.
Chapter 17
All day long, William kept wondering why there was a glass slipper in his chamber.
“Are you sure you don’t know why this is here?” he asked his brother, Terris.
“Haven’t got a clue.” Terris went to sit down, but then for some reason decided to stand instead.
“How about you, Troy? Do you know?”
“My guess is that someone must have forgotten it at the ball.” Troy sat on the bed shining William’s sword.
“Perhaps you are right,” said William, turning the shoe over and over in his hand.
“Your sword is polished, my lord.” When Troy slid it off the bed, something fell to the floor.
“What was that?” asked William.
“I’m not sure. It seems to be a small wooden box.” Troy picked it up.
“Let me see that,” said Terris, holding out his hands. Troy threw it to him, and Terris caught it. “William, this looks like one of those boxes you used to carve before you went to campaign for the king.”
“It is? I don’t remember having any of them in here. Let me see that.” With the glass slipper in one hand, he took the box in the other. When he did, a flash went through his mind. He saw a woman’s hands giving it to him. Then he saw himself not only kissing a woman but making love to her as well. The last thing he saw was the back of the girl running from him as she lost a glass slipper along the way. “I know now where this came from.” He studied the box and the slipper. A woman was involved, and he felt as if he loved her. But the problem was, he couldn’t remember who the woman was.
“Where did it come from?” asked his brother.
“I must have been well in my cups last night because I don’t even remember the girl,” explained William. “What I do remember is that I love her and want to make her my wife.”
His squire looked up in surprise. “Pardon me for saying that it sounds ridiculous, my lord. How are you going to marry her if you don’t know who she is?”
“I am going to find out who belongs to this glass slipper.” William felt more determined than ever. “When I do, I will make her my wife.”
“Oh, good,” said Terris. “I was getting a lot of questions from the guests as to whom you chose for a wife. How do you propose we go about this?”
“Easy,” said William. “Terris, send out my messenger at once. Send out several. Have them take missives to everyone who was at the ball.”
“A missive? Saying what?” asked Troy.
“It’ll say that I will try this glass slipper on the feet of all the women who were at the dance. When I find a perfect fit, I will know that woman is my lover, and I will marry her.”
“I’ll send the messengers at once,” said Terris, heading for the door. “Finally, my brother is going to get himself a wife.”
Ella was cleaning her stepmother’s room the next day when she overheard her stepsisters talking to their mother.
“I don’t know whose shoe it could be, but I will make sure it fits my foot,” said Greta.
“I’ll cut off my toes if I have to, but that glass slipper is going to fit me,” said Beatrice.
“Glass slipper?” asked Ella, sidestepping a mouse that got in her way. “What are you talking about?”
“Never mind, Cinderella,” said her stepmother. “This only pertains to the ladies who were at Sir William’s ball.”
“It does? Why?” she asked curiously, wondering why William hadn’t come looking for her.
“Sir William is going to marry the lady whose foot fits into a glass slipper that was left at the castle after the ball,” Beatrice told her.
“He is?” Ella’s heart soared. “When will this happen?”
“Tonight,” said Lady Trevane. “Why do you care?”
“Because I want to go, too.”
“Nay, Cinderella, this is for ladies,” said Greta.
“I am a lady!” Cinderella threw down the rag she was using to clean.
“Cinderella, watch that tone of voice,” warned her stepmother.
Ella had all she was going to take. She should never have run from William without giving him a chance to explain the vision she had. She’d been so afraid of her stepmother, all she had on her mind was getting back to the manor before the woman did. It didn’t matter since her stepmother found out anyway and she was punished and given more chores than ever.
“I will not,” she said, standing up to Lady Trevane. “I might not remember my past, but what I do know is that I am a lady just the same as those two.” She pointed at Greta and Beatrice. The baron appeared in the doorway but stayed silent as she continued. “I am going to the castle tonight and trying on the shoe, just the same as anyone else.”
“Nay, it is only for those who went to the ball,” said Greta.
“I was at the ball. That is why you found me on the road. I was trying to return before all of you.”
“You expect us to believe that?” asked her stepmother.
“She did go out,” said the baron, stepping into the room. “I can’t say where since I didn’t follow her but she was not here at the manor that night.”
“That’s what I told you,” said Ella.
“We were at the ball and didn’t see you,” Beatrice pointed out.
“I was there,” she insisted.
“I am sure someone would have noticed if you showed up at the dance looking like that.” Greta looked down her nose at Cinderella.
Not wanting or needing to explain herself, Ella decided this was the end of her life as naught more than their servant. “I am done doing all these silly chores that are meant for a servant and will never do them again,” she told them. “I should have stood up to all of you long ago, and regret that I didn’t. I am going to get cleaned up and dressed. When the carriage leaves for the castle tonight, I will be in it, no matter what any of you say.”
“Well spoken,” said the baron, clapping his hands as she passed him, heading out the door. Ella ran down the corridor, not seeing a mouse in sight.
William waited nervously as the guests started to arrive. He watched out the widow of his solar, hoping to spot the woman who lost the glass slipper. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he couldn’t seem to remember much about that night. His squire and brother told him he had been acting odd and even talking to and dancing with himself at the ball. He never felt so embarrassed in his life.
“Do you see her?” asked his squire, shining William’s boots.
“Hard to say.” He watched as one after another, the beautiful ladies were escorted to the castle and brought to the great hall. It could be any one of them. He held up the glass slipper again, perusing it, and then looking back out the window. Even though it could be any of these ladies, he didn’t feel anything for them at all.
A knock at the door caused him to turn around. Terris entered. “Come, Brother, it is time you find your princess and choose your wife.”
“I only wish Lucio were here,” said William. “Mayhap he could shed some light on this situation.”
“Where did he go?” asked Troy.
“I can’t be sure, but I think he went to Scotland. It had something to do with finding his son, MacKay, I believe.”
“William, the ladies are waiting. Do you have the shoe?” asked Terris.
“Yes, I have it right here.” He released a deep breath and straightened his tunic. “Shall we go find me a wife?”
He entered the hall with Terris and Troy, overwhelmed to see so many beautiful women in one place.
“Sit here,” said Terris, leading him to his padded chair from the dais. It was in the middle of the room with another chair on each side. “I’ll sit next to you. The ladies can approach one at a time and sit in the third chair. Troy can kneel on the floor and try the shoe
on each lady’s foot.”
“I’d be happy to do that,” said the squire, taking the glass slipper from William.
“Quiet please,” said Terris, lifting his hand above his head. “Ladies, line up. One at a time the glass slipper will be tried on each of you. The one with the perfect fit will be the girl Sir William marries.”
“Let us through,” said a voice he knew only too well. William cringed as Lady Trevane from Inglewood Manor stormed up to the front of the line with her two obnoxious daughters at her side. If he were going to forget anything, why couldn’t it have been them?
“Please go to the back of the line with your daughters, Lady Trevane,” he commanded.
“That glass shoe belongs to my daughter.”
“Really? Which daughter?” he asked.
Both her daughters stared at her, almost as if they were daring their mother not to choose them.
“Either of them,” she said. “They both wear the same size.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then their feet aren’t going to change in size before they get up here. Now, please go to the end of the line, or I will have my guards throw you out of here.”
She begrudgingly took her daughters to the end of the line. William hoped he would find his mystery lady long before it was their turn.
One after another, the ladies sat in the chair at the front. But each time Troy tried to fit the glass slipper to their feet, it wasn’t the right size.
“It looks like the only ones left are the Trevane sisters,” Terris whispered as they came forward with their mother.
William leaned over to speak to his brother in a low voice. “I would never be so deep in my cups that I would take one of them to my bed.”
“We’re about to find out, aren’t we?” Terris answered with a chuckle.
William held his breath when Troy tried the slipper on Greta’s foot first. She was a big girl, and William knew it wouldn’t fit her.
“It doesn’t fit,” announced Troy.
“It does too,” said Greta, jamming her foot into the slipper. Her heel stuck out the back.
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