“What are you doing in here?” Elodie asked, plopping down on the straw next to me. She was dressed in a servant’s uniform with a lace apron and cap. Lady Catherine insisted on it. My mother and Claudine never required it.
“What are you doing in here?”
“I’m currently looking for spare bits of fabric in the attic,” she said with a tight smile.
“Really? The attic has changed a great deal since I last saw it. When did the horses move in?”
Elodie slapped my arm playfully, and we laughed a bit. It felt nice to laugh. I hadn’t had much occasion for it lately.
“If you must know, I told Lady Catherine I was looking for fabric so I could get away for a little while. I’ve been making a whole host of new dresses for her, Alexandre, and Severine. It’s awful. I’ve been sewing nonstop for ages.”
“She’s made an awful lot of changes since she moved in, hasn’t she?” I said, my shoulders slumping.
“Did you hear she’s sending Claudine back to manage the sale of our old château?”
“Yes,” I said, tearing up again and then rubbing at my eyes furiously. I couldn’t imagine a home without Claudine in it. I’d been ambivalent about Lady Catherine until now, but dismissing Claudine and selling our old house was more than enough to spoil my opinion of her. Not to mention that she was running Elodie ragged.
“Don’t cry,” Elodie said, but she was starting to tear up too.
Elodie had known Claudine for as long as I had, and that house had been her home too. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed back, and we remained like that for a few moments, quietly trying to compose ourselves.
“Lady Catherine wants me to give my room to Severine,” I said, the words tumbling out unbidden. “I don’t want to sound like a horrid, pampered brat, and my room really isn’t that important, but she’s making so many changes, and Papa goes along with each one.”
We’d been seated at the dinner table when Lady Catherine brought up the subject of switching rooms.
“Ma choupette,” Lady Catherine had said, the dim candlelight barely illuminating the sweet smile on her face. “How would you feel about changing rooms with Severine?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, looking from my father to Severine and Alexandre as I tried to figure out what was happening.
“Your father and I have been talking, and Severine’s chambers are quite small. She doesn’t have nearly enough room for all her dresses, and some of her furniture would need to be put into storage. Because you don’t have as many things as she does, economical girl that you are, we thought the smaller chambers would suit you perfectly.”
I turned to look at Papa, hoping that he would intervene and say it wasn’t true, that he never told Lady Catherine any such thing. But he just smiled at me as he sipped from his cup of tea and said, “I think it would be an awfully nice gesture, Cendrillon. It’s important to make your stepsisters feel comfortable here.”
Once again, Papa wasn’t going to support me, an occurrence that used to be unheard of but was becoming more and more common. Severine smirked at me from across the table. I felt sick, the lamb on my plate now wholly unappetizing. Everything was coming unmoored around me, and I had nothing to hold to keep me steady.
The horses neighed quietly. At least their lives hadn’t changed. Unlike some people’s.
“Severine is a piece of work, isn’t she?” Elodie said with a roll of her eyes.
“Yes. She’s as awful as ever, but not when my father is around. Then she’s a perfect angel.”
I also couldn’t find Lady Françoise, but I wasn’t comfortable revealing that to Elodie just yet. I was too worried about her to be able to talk about it. Lady Françoise wasn’t staying at her lodgings in the palace, and I got no response after writing to the housekeeper of her château in town. I even asked my tutor, Lady Celia, if she’d heard anything, but she knew only that Lady Françoise hadn’t appeared at court in a while.
First Auguste disappeared on me, then Lady Françoise, right when I needed her the most. I suspected it had something to do with my father’s wedding, but it felt like a betrayal to Papa to think that.
“I haven’t interacted much with Lady Catherine,” said Elodie. “She doesn’t come to the servants’ quarters and never speaks to us unless she needs something.”
“But I suppose Alexandre has changed, hasn’t she? You two have been spending quite a lot of time together.”
Elodie blushed a florid pink and smacked me again.
I scooted away from her, laughing. “Ow! What was that for?”
“We have not been spending a lot of time together. She sometimes visits the sewing room while I’m working, that’s all. We mostly talk about fabrics and patterns, or what people are wearing at court. She’s interested in fashion.”
“Of course. Fashion is what Alexandre is interested in,” I said with a wink.
Elodie made as if to topple me over, but we were interrupted by Alexandre bursting into the stables, slightly sweaty and a little out of breath.
“Oh! Hello, Cendrillon. I didn’t realize you were in here. I was just looking for Elodie. I saw her come in here and—” Alexandre said, gasping between each word.
“Did you run here?” Elodie asked, bemused.
“Well, yes. I saw you come in and I didn’t want to lose sight of you, so I did . . . run.”
Alexandre and Elodie made a perfect blushing pair. They both looked as if someone had daubed their cheeks in far too much rouge.
“I was hoping—well—that you might . . .” Alexandre was stuttering over her words and looking anywhere but at Elodie. It was quite adorable. My opinion on Alexandre had continued to change over the short time we’d been living together. She was actually quite sweet-natured, like Elodie. We didn’t interact much, but she tried to calm Severine during her outbursts and even apologized for her sister’s behavior.
“Do you mind coming with me for a walk around the grounds?” Alexandre asked while staring at a particularly fascinating piece of straw on the ground. “I haven’t been able to explore properly yet, and I thought you might show me around.”
“Me?” I balked.
“No!” Alexandre blurted. “I meant . . .”
I didn’t think that Elodie’s face could get any more red. I was wrong. For a moment I was afraid that I might have to call for a doctor. When she didn’t respond beyond a blank stare, I poked Elodie in the back and nodded toward Alexandre. “Oh! Of course. Please go. You’ve been working so hard—you deserve a break. I know you don’t want to be sitting in the boring old stables with me.”