Only a few carriages were left in front of the Great Lawn, their coachmen huddled together in a small group around a nearby torch. It wasn’t hard to spot the dark blue carriage with the golden crest on the door. I ran toward it, hoping I could hide there until Lady Françoise arrived.
As I approached the door, someone poked their head out of the window and stared at me. It was Lady Françoise’s coachman, who immediately hopped out of the carriage with a guilty look on his face and regarded me nervously.
“Mademoiselle, are you all right? You seem . . . distressed.”
“I’m fine. Where is Lady Françoise?” I asked, the words staggered as I gasped for air and clutched at my cramping side. “We need to leave. Right away.”
The coachman’s eyes were fixed on my bare foot. “I have word that Lady Françoise has become indisposed and left the ball. I was sent to escort you back to your home whenever you like. Lady Françoise wants you to know that she apologizes and promises to come for you tomorrow. Would you like to leave now?”
“Yes, please,” I said, hoisting myself up onto the plush seats of the carriage and collapsing backward with a sigh.
The coachman closed the door, and we set off, the carriage rumbling across the stones in the courtyard. My mind was a whirl of confused emotions and thoughts, and my body was in no better shape. It wasn’t just my legs that ached. My knees and palms were bloodied and sore from my fall, and it felt like someone was stabbing me in the side with a hot poker. I lay back and took in great, heaving gasps of air, every breath grating against my parched throat.
I hoped that Lady Françoise was all right, because I’d expected her to wait for me. Still, she hadn’t looked well. This was a very odd turn of events. Everything about this night was impossibly strange. I was supposed to be going home with her, not returning to the château. This change wasn’t an ideal situation, but it would be fine just as long as Lady Françoise came for me tomorrow like she promised.
* * *
My urgent need leave to the ball as quickly as possible had paid off, and the château was blissfully empty when I arrived. I had just enough time to dash up to the attic, change out of my dress, and wipe off all the makeup. It seemed a shame to shove such a beautiful dress into the bottom of my trunk, but I couldn’t risk Lady Catherine finding it in case she actually climbed up the stairs to the attic.
Ideally, it wouldn’t be there long. When Lady Françoise came for me, I would carry it out of the château in my arms, and my stepmother would know that I had gone to the ball despite her attempts to keep me away.
After hiding the dress, I lay down on my bed to get a few precious moments of rest. I would have to pretend that I wasn’t exhausted when my stepfamily returned. But I couldn’t rest, no matter how hard I tried. It didn’t feel right to just lie down when so much had changed.
My lumpy mattress was just as uncomfortable as it had been this morning. The wooden beams above my head were still dusty. The seams of the old woolen dress I was wearing were fraying. There was still only the slightest of breezes blowing through my little window, one that did absolutely nothing to cool the attic down. The banging of the front door against the wall downstairs and Severine’s shrieks of “Cendrillon! I need you!” were achingly familiar.
Everything was the same as it always had been in the château.
Except me. I realized I was still wearing the other slipper, and I sat up to remove it. It glittered in the slim shaft of moonlight, like a rare and precious jewel.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Well, I for one want to know who this mystery girl is,” Severine said with disgust, as if the very thought of said girl was repulsive to her. “Lady Cinder? What kind of name is that?”
I smothered a smile as I walked around the breakfast table, pouring hot chocolate into the cups of Lady Catherine, Severine, and Alexandre. Hot chocolate was a luxury we couldn’t afford often—a luxury I wasn’t allowed—but Severine had insisted on the treat as a reward for her wonderful performance at the ball the night before. Lady Catherine had readily agreed.
I’d been forced to stay up into the wee hours of the morning helping my stepfamily get undressed and ready for bed. Lady Catherine gushed the entire time about how proud she was of her beautiful daughters and what a success it was to have them both competing to become the next dauphine. She was behaving as if one of them had already won, planning for her move to the palace as the dauphin’s mother-in-law. Severine had been equally smug, gloating all night about how besotted the prince was with her, how he’d practically fallen at her feet after their dance. There was just one blemish marring Severine’s perfect imaginings of her marriage to Prince Louis.
“What are you smiling at?” Severine asked, shooting me a glare. “This is no laughing matter. That girl ruined our first proper introduction to the court, and she wasn’t even there. She’d left!”
“I’m not smiling. It’s terrible,” I said, hurrying to the sideboard to deposit the carafe.
As I turned away to collect the bowl of fruit and the cheese I’d brought out for them, I let myself smile for just a moment.
“There’s no use upsetting yourself about it, dear,” Lady Catherine said. “As you said, the girl wasn’t even there.”
“Exactly! The dauphin was furious. He had twenty-four other ladies he was meant to personally introduce to the court, but all he could do was focus on the girl who wasn’t there. He didn’t spend any time with us at all!”
I took the fruit and the cheese board to the table and set it down carefully. Would anyone notice that the amount and selection of cheese was sparse? I’d done it on purpose so I could spend more time in the dining room. As soon as I was done serving, Lady Catherine would send me back to the kitchen, and I wouldn’t be able to hear what else happened at the palace.
Lady Catherine picked up a slice of cheese and took a look at the rest. “There’s hardly anything here, Cendrillon. How are three people supposed to eat this for breakfast?”
“I’m sorry, Madame. I’ll add more.”
I picked up the tray and hurried back to the sideboard as Lady Catherine waved me off without another glance in my direction. Success! Normally, my negligence would have made her far angrier. She seemed completely distracted by Severine’s recounting of the events at the palace. Could I get away with slicing the cheese slowly so as to listen a bit longer? I hoped so. I picked up the knife and a block of the stinky Maroilles my stepmother prefers and got to work.
“If the girl doesn’t reappear for the events, she’ll be taken out of consideration,” said Lady Catherine. “Problem solved.”
“I don’t think the dauphin will allow that to happen,” Alexandre said, piping up for the first time in the conversation. “Didn’t you hear him demanding she be found at any cost? He threatened to tear the kingdom apart if she wasn’t. He must be quite taken with her.”