Ella: An Amish Retelling 0f Cinderella (An Amish Fairytale Book 2)

by Sarah Price

  “Ah!” He held up a finger, pointing it toward the sky. “Things don’t always look as they appear, remember? Besides, don’t think I didn’t time my return trip to coincide with the charity auction. Like I said, I have a hankering for some fresh-made pie . . .”

  She blushed.

  “Anyway,” he said, taking a step backward. “I bought something for you.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “For me?” She couldn’t remember the last time that someone had bought anything for her.

  He reached into the buggy and opened the little door to the compartment in the dashboard. “Ja, you.” With a closed hand, he turned and held it in the air before her. “Close your eyes.”

  Quickly, Ella scanned the street. The last thing she needed was for anyone to witness this exchange. Gossip would fly quicker than bees to honey! “Oh, I . . .”

  He tilted his head and gave her a sideways glance. “Close them . . .” he said in a low voice.

  Obediently, she did as he said.

  “Now hold out your hands.”

  “Both of them?”

  He laughed. “Ja, both of them. And no peeking.”

  She knew that her hands trembled as she cupped them together and held them before her. For what seemed like minutes, instead of the few short seconds that it actually took, she waited. She felt silly, standing there in the street, her eyes closed and her hands outstretched.

  Finally, Hannes placed something small and cool into her hands. “You can open them now.”

  Her eyelids fluttered open and she looked down at the tiny object that he had placed on her palm. She caught her breath when she realized that it was a small glass figurine. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was the bloom of a morning glory. “Oh, Hannes!” She held it up so that she could see it better. “It’s . . . beautiful.”

  “If you hold it to the sun, you’ll see all of the colors of a rainbow.”

  She did as he instructed, and after shutting one eye, she stared through the crystal at the sun. “Look at that!” Sure enough, little rainbow colors could be seen in the figurine. “Wherever did you get this?”

  “I saw it in a catalog and knew you should have it. So I ordered it and had it shipped to my daed’s store in Blue Springs.”

  Stunned, Ella stared at him with a look of incredulity. “You ordered this for me?”

  Clutching his hands behind his back, he rocked on the soles of his feet. “Ja, I did.”

  “Oh my!” While she appreciated the gesture, she felt it was too dear a gift and was about to tell him so. But he seemed to sense her reservation.

  “Now, now, don’t make a fuss over it. It’s just a small token of my affections, Ella Troyer.” He reached up to remove his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’d be honored if you’d keep it and, mayhaps, when you look at it, think of me.” Taking a step backward, he reached up and touched the side of the buggy. “Reckon I best let you go.” He climbed into the buggy and gave her one last smile. “See you on Saturday, ja?”

  Ella stood there, the pretty glass flower in her hand, watching as he drove away. It was only when the buggy disappeared that she looked up and saw that her two stepsisters were standing on the other side of the street, having witnessed the entire exchange between her and Hannes. And they looked none too happy about it. With angry expressions on their faces, they turned and stormed back into the store.

  She could only imagine what they were saying to Linda at that very minute.

  Embarrassed, Ella closed her fingers around the figurine and turned away from the memory of their reproachful eyes. Oh, she knew that she’d hear about it later, probably over supper. She’d get quite the tongue-lashing and probably be given a dozen senseless new chores. But in the meantime, she didn’t want anything to spoil the moment. Hannes had not only returned to Echo Creek, but he had done so with this very special gift just for her. While she didn’t want to read too much into it, she could feel that small seed of hope beginning to grow, once again, inside of her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Now, Ella,” Linda said in a feigned tone of sweetness. It was a tone that, unfortunately, Ella had grown far too familiar with. Especially recently. It was the tone of voice that usually came with some unreasonable demands. “I have a few special things for you to do.”

  Ella looked up from the sink, where she stood washing the dishes from their Friday supper. Linda stood by the table, already dressed for the day in a dark brown dress, with her white prayer kapp neatly pinned to her head. There was a smug look about her stepmother.

  “Special things?”

  It wasn’t that Ella was surprised; she had expected to be given a long list of chores. No, she had expected that. It was Linda’s favorite thing to do: bombard Ella with long lists of useless chores in order to punish her or, in some cases, just to keep her busy.

  This time, however, what surprised Ella was how Linda appeared to be making the effort to be nice about it—if such a thing was actually possible.

  The previous evening, Ella had been surprised when no one had mentioned Hannes’s return to Echo Creek and, therefore, no one reprimanded her for having spoken to him in the center of town. Supper had been a normal affair, with Drusilla and Anna talking about nothing other than the charity auction on Saturday. No one had thought to include Ella in that particular conversation.

  While Ella didn’t care, she had found it hard to believe that her stepsisters hadn’t wasted one minute tattling to their mother. Surely they would not have wasted the opportunity to make Ella look bad. After all, if she had time to talk with Hannes, she was not spending time on chores. That was when Ella realized that Linda didn’t seem to care.

  For once.

  Now, however, Ella wondered if she had been mistaken.

  “Ja, indeed. Special things.”

  Bracing herself, Ella slowly reached over and shut off the faucet, her eyes falling upon the pretty glass flower Hannes had given her. She had placed it on the windowsill over the sink so that, when the sun rose in the mornings, she could see the rainbow colors shining through the glass. And, just as Hannes had requested, every time she looked at it, she thought of him. Those moments gave her a secret sense of joy that not even her stepmother could steal from her.

  Facing Linda, Ella watched as her stepmother took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “Both of the girls need new dresses.” Linda pointed toward the other side of the kitchen. “I’ve left the fabric on the mudroom counter.”

  Ella wanted to ask why Drusilla and Anna never made their own dresses, but she didn’t. She already knew the answer: they simply couldn’t. Neither girl could sew if her life depended on it. They had never made a quilt, didn’t know how to knit, and certainly couldn’t crochet. Whenever their dresses were torn, it was Ella who repaired them. And to make their own dresses? No, they would sooner wear torn and tattered clothing than learn how to cut a pattern and sew it.

  Not for the first time, Ella wondered what Drusilla and Anna would do when they finally did marry. They never cooked or baked, cleaned or washed, and they certainly could not manage a household! How on earth would they ever survive? An Amish husband would never accept a wife who merely sat around and expected others to do everything for her.

  Glancing over her shoulder toward the open door of the mudroom, Ella saw the fabric and caught her breath.

  The fabric was the very bolts of material she had seen at the store! In fact, when Ella had unpacked it, she remembered having admired the fresh, new colors. But she had not admired the cost on the receipt from the vendor. At seventeen dollars a yard, the price was far too dear for anyone in the community to actually purchase the fabric, even before Linda marked it up for resale.

  Now that the fabric was staring at her from the mudroom, it dawned on Ella that Linda had known that no one could buy it when she originally purchased it and displayed it for everyone to see at her store.

  While the price was too expensive for the regular young women
of Echo Creek, nothing was too exorbitant for Drusilla and Anna.

  “I . . . I suppose I can work on them next week,” Ella replied, a pit forming in her stomach. When was the last time she had had a new dress? Linda never bought her any fabric, and Ella knew better than to complain. Linda would tell her to spend her own money, knowing full well that Ella had few, if any, opportunities to earn spending money.

  Instead, Ella was given hand-me-downs, the old, worn-out dresses of her stepsisters. Fortunately, she always managed to fix them, sometimes patching them so that they did not look so threadbare. Still, it sure would have been nice if for once she, too, could have a new dress.

  While new clothing was too good for Ella, nothing was too good for her stepsisters. But that fabric was very fancy. Where on earth would Drusilla and Anna wear those dresses?

  She quickly found out.

  “Oh, no.” Linda shook her head and clicked her tongue. “Next week won’t do, I’m afraid.” She leveled her gaze at Ella. “The girls must have them for tomorrow’s event.”

  Immediately, Ella’s mouth opened in surprise. Had Linda actually said she wanted both dresses made by tomorrow? With all of the chores that Ella already had been assigned to do, sewing new dresses for a charity auction that was less than twenty-four hours away was simply not realistic.

  “That might be a little difficult,” Ella said slowly. When she saw Linda’s expression darken, Ella continued, “I mean, what with baking the cakes in the morning for the charity event, along with my other chores, and then getting ready to help at the auction . . .”

  Linda interrupted her. “Help at the auction?” she echoed with an incredulous tone in her voice.

  That pit in Ella’s stomach felt as though it grew even bigger. “I . . . I told Elizabeth Grimm that I’d help her and Anna Rose with preparations for the auction. You know, setting up the tables and placing the baked goods out for display. And, of course, I offered to help collect the money afterward.”

  Lifting her chin just enough so that she could stare down her nose in a haughty manner, Linda gave her a condescending look. “I’m afraid that might be a little difficult . . .” she said, borrowing Ella’s words from a few moments earlier.

  Her mouth suddenly dry, Ella swallowed. “And I . . . I was planning on baking a pie for the event.”

  “But you already are.” Linda’s mouth twitched as if suppressing a smile. “For your schwesters, ja?”

  “Ja, of course. I promised them I would bake their items for donation.” She wanted to add that it was unfair that neither Drusilla nor Anna had not even offered to help her when she baked their cakes. Instead, they were apparently more concerned with what they were to wear while Ella was being forced to make their new dresses.

  “So there you have it, Ella. You are already donating to the cause.”

  “But I thought I would bake and donate my own pie, too.”

  Linda’s masquerade of kindness evaporated before Ella’s eyes. She watched as her stepmother’s jaw tensed and her lips tightened. Gone was the facade of calm. In its place was a look of complete hostility and anger. For a moment, Ella was frightened. While she had witnessed Linda’s fierce temper in the past, this was a new level of fury.

  Ella’s fear only increased as Linda leaned forward, her face just inches from Ella’s, and she glared at her. “Then you thought wrong!” Linda snapped, her voice filled with venom as she enunciated each word. “You have enough to do here. We have enough pies to auction off, anyway. And you will not be going to that auction.”

  Ella felt light-headed, wondering if she had imagined her stepmother’s harsh words. After all, how on earth could her stepmother think that there could ever be enough items to auction for charity? And, to make matters worse, Linda had basically outright forbade Ella to attend the event. What Ella couldn’t understand was why. Why wouldn’t her stepmother want her to attend? Surely there was something else going on that Linda was not telling her.

  “I . . . I’m sure I don’t understand,” Ella stammered.

  Linda leaned her hip against the table and raised her hands. She began to count on her fingers. “First, you need to finish making the dresses for Drusilla and Anna.” A second finger pointed upward. “Next, you need to clean that basement.” A third finger joined the rest. “You have to weed that garden.” Finally a fourth finger was raised. “Lastly, you have all of your regular chores to do, including baking the bread for the store, tending the animals in the barn, and cleaning the house.”

  Ella took a deep breath, willing herself to not cry. But her throat constricted, and she felt a stinging in the corners of her eyes. Why would her stepmother do this to her? Give her so many chores for one day? And why were Drusilla and Anna excused from helping? It was a question that Ella asked herself not for the first time.

  “That’s so much work,” she mumbled.

  Linda feigned concern. “Unfortunately, those things must be finished, Ella. Work before play. Isn’t that the way the expression goes?”

  Something stirred inside of Ella. It was as if a little voice had whispered in her ear that nothing was impossible, including finishing all of her stepmother’s seemingly endless list of chores. All she had to do was believe in God, that he would not let her down. Hadn’t her mother told her so?

  Straightening her shoulders, Ella lifted her chin and decided to listen to that little inner voice. Determined to not let Linda get the best of her—not this time!—Ella met her stepmother’s superior gaze with one of her own, one that was filled with defiance and determination.

  “But if I finish all of those chores?” Ella asked, an unusual sense of resolve in her voice. “Then may I go?”

  To Ella’s surprise, Linda laughed. It wasn’t a happy or cheerful laugh. No. It was a laugh full of malice. The sound of it sent a chill down Ella’s spine. “Oh, Ella. You always were such a foolish child. Optimistic, perhaps, but foolish.”

  Her stepmother’s words stung. What was wrong with always trying to make the best of even the worst situations? And she had encountered the worst situations possible, especially after her father had passed away.

  Feeling a sense of defiance, Ella stood her ground, stoically waiting for a response to her very reasonable question.

  “Why, Ella, of course you may attend the event if you complete all of those chores.” But the tone of Linda’s voice made it clear she did not believe it was possible. Without another word, Linda turned her back to Ella and left the kitchen.

  Standing there, alone, Ella made a silent vow that she would do everything Linda wanted and more. Not even Linda and her outrageous, never-ending demands would stop Ella from attending the charity event. She would bake the bread, the cakes, and her own pie while somehow finding a way to do all of the cleaning so that the house sparkled, even if it meant that she stayed up all night and worked all the next day. And somehow she would make those dresses for her ungrateful and undeserving stepsisters. She would ensure that Linda couldn’t find one thing to complain about, and she would go to the event after all.

  For once, Ella would not give her stepmother the satisfaction of ruining this fun event that was being held in Echo Creek.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The wall clock chimed twelve times, each chime reverberating in the empty house. Ella waited until it stopped, as if the twelfth chime were some magical cue. When the last chime finished resonating, she packaged up the cakes and pie in a basket, placing a horizontal wooden divider between each item so that not one of them would get damaged in transit. First went the poor man’s cake, then the lazy-daisy oatmeal cake, and finally, on the top, she carefully placed her own apple crisp pie.

  Pushing aside the feelings of guilt for disobeying her stepmother, Ella covered the basket and hurried out the door so that she could drop off the treats at the schoolhouse and quickly return home before she was even missed.

  The previous night, while trying to sleep, Ella had tossed and turned, debating with herself whether or not she should
disobey her stepmother’s orders. And yet, every time she almost convinced herself to forget the whole thing, that defying Linda was certainly not worth the inevitable mistreatment that would ensue, Ella’s mother’s words echoed in her ears: Be kind and good, no matter what happens, for God has a plan for you.

  And that was when Ella made up her mind.

  Baking a pie for charity was a good thing. Her stepmother had no right telling anyone—never mind her own stepdaughter!—not to participate. Even if Linda insisted that she couldn’t attend the event—something else that was ridiculous!—Ella had every right to donate a pie, especially since she had already agreed to bake Drusilla’s and Anna’s cakes.

  So she had arisen extra early and finished baking the bread for the store long before the others had woken. Then, when everyone had left the house for the day, Ella had quickly baked not just the cake for Drusilla’s donation and the cake for Anna’s donation, but also her favorite pie from her mother’s secret recipe.

  No one would stop Ella from doing the right thing, and donating the pie was just that: the right thing to do.

  However, the entire time that she had been baking the pie, her heart beat rapidly and her nerves were on edge. Oh, how she felt deceitful and underhanded, as if she were doing something terrible and not merely disobeying her stepmother! The only way that Ella had managed to follow through with finishing the pie was that she continued to remind herself that she was an adult and Linda was not her mother. Just like every other baptized woman in the church, Ella had the right to make up her own mind over something as simple as baking a pie for a charity auction.

  And yet, Ella had still felt anxious and skittish. When the wall clock had begun chiming at noon, she had nearly jumped out of her skin, as if she expected her stepmother to magically appear, catching her in the act of packing up the baked goods.

  But no one had returned to the house.

  Relieved, Ella secured the lid on the basket and hurried to the door.