“See? Ridiculous!” Severine spat.
I heard porcelain rattling roughly as Severine slammed her cup onto the saucer. The dauphin of France really demanded that I be found?
Escaping with Lady Françoise was still a superior option to competing with other girls—including Alexandre and Severine—to marry a spoiled princeling who made threats when I didn’t show up to his little event.
As if I would be successful at winning the dauphin’s heart anyway. No. My marraine would be arriving any minute now. I’d found time earlier in the morning to tell Elodie all about the magical and confusing events of the previous evening. She had good and bad news of her own. The good news was that Marius was okay, sore but nothing broken. The bad news was that the servant positions at the same household were no longer available. Elodie also told me there was a rumor around town that Lady Catherine’s servants were to be avoided at all costs. Lady Catherine had started the rumor herself, essentially guaranteeing that no one would hire us. But Lady Françoise was about to rescue us, and I told her to start packing her things.
“I wonder who she is,” Alexandre said, a little dreamily. “I didn’t see her, but Diane saw her and the dauphin dancing and told me all about it. She said the girl wore a shimmering dress of the deepest blue, and had golden-brown hair studded with sapphires that tumbled down her back in lustrous waves. She danced with the utmost grace.”
Severine snorted and muttered something under her breath that I couldn’t make out.
“Oh, hush. Don’t you want to hear? You didn’t see the girl either,” said Alexandre.
I hoped that Severine would shut her mouth just as much as Alexandre did. It was immodest, but I wanted to hear what people were saying about me.
When her sister remained silent, Alexandre continued. “The girl is quite beautiful and mysterious. Apparently, she gave the dauphin a false name and fled from the Hall of Mirrors before she could be called to the dais. All that was left of her was a brocade slipper encrusted with glass crystals. No one knows who she really is! Isn’t it exciting?”
I smiled at the delight in Alexandre’s voice. It was almost unbearably strange to hear myself talked about in this way. Briefly, when I looked in my godmother’s mirror, I’d imagined myself as a grand, mysterious noblewoman, but that was just pretend. To know that courtiers actually thought of me like that . . . it was terrifying. And exhilarating.
“No, it isn’t exciting!” Severine exclaimed. “Why are you fawning over this girl? She could be anyone. Even . . . a peasant.”
Everything would be ruined if I started laughing at Severine’s horror of the girl being a peasant in disguise. She even whispered peasant, as if it were a dirty word. Would my stepsister be more offended if the mystery girl was me or a peasant? It was hard to say.
“And the dauphin is completely consumed with finding her, taking attention away from us. Mère?”
“Severine is right,” Lady Catherine said, her words slow and contemplative. “If the girl is found, I don’t want you associating with her, Alexandre. Don’t romanticize this. She is a threat to you and your sister, and you are far too naïve and trusting to realize it.”
“Yes, Maman,” Alexandre said quietly, the enthusiasm stripped from her voice.
Every time Alexandre tried to exert even a small amount of autonomy, her mother reeled her right back in. In the long run, her having more courage would benefit Elodie as well. Nothing could turn out well between them while Alexandre was so firmly under her mother’s thumb.
The door knocker thumped loudly against the front door. I jumped, and the knife slipped out of my hand and clattered onto the sideboard. The knocker thumped again and again, just as insistently as it had last night.
The knock was Lady Françoise’s. It had to be.
“Answer the door, Cendrillon, and tell whoever it is to call again tomorrow. I’m in no mood for visitors.”
I wiped my hands on my apron and walked out of the dining room. As soon as I was out of their line of sight, I sprinted to the front door and threw it open. Standing in the doorway was a tall, rail-thin man peering down at me through a small pair of spectacles. The man had a stark, stern appearance, dressed as he was in an unadorned gray justaucorps that perfectly matched the gray of his hair. Most curious of all was the carriage in the courtyard that bore the seal of the king. That couldn’t mean anything good. Where was Lady Françoise?
“Are the Ladies Catherine Monvoisin de Louvois and Cendrillon de Louvois at home?” he asked. “I have urgent matters to discuss with them. I am Lord Bernard and I have come from the palace.”
I froze in the doorway at the sound of my name. I think I knew what this man was here for. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. No one was supposed to know who I was. How did they find out? And where was Lady Françoise?
But I had to remember my manners. I curtsied to the visitor. He was a representative of the king, and one always bowed to the king.
“Lady Catherine is in the dining room. Please follow me,” I said, leading Lord Bernard down the hallway.
I wrung my hands on my dress and tried to calm myself. Lady Catherine wouldn’t do anything to me while Lord Bernard was here. All I had to do was weather her rage long enough for Lady Françoise to get here. She promised me that she would come. She promised.
“Lady Catherine, there is someone here to see you,” I said as I opened the door to the dining room.
“I said no visitors, you stupid child. Don’t you ever . . . Oh! Lord Bernard,” Lady Catherine said, her tone changing instantly from one of disdain to the paramount of sweetness. “I didn’t realize you were our visitor. Please, sit down. I can have refreshments brought to you.”
“No, no, Madame. I cannot stay long. I’m just here to inform you of your daughter’s admittance into the competition. It was brought to the dauphin’s attention that you and she might not have been made aware, explaining her absence from the palace yesterday.”
“I do know that my daughters are being courted by the dauphin. They were both at the palace last night. I don’t understand.”
I winced and shrunk back as Lord Bernard said, “Your stepdaughter, Madame. Lady Cendrillon de Louvois. She has been chosen by the dauphin as well. It seems that the king was right to assume that you were both absent when her name was called. In any event, her presence is required at the next courtship event. If I could just speak with the young lady, I will then take my leave.”
Lady Catherine carefully placed her hands on her lap and smiled at Lord Bernard.
“That’s impossible. Cendrillon was not at the ball, so she could not have been chosen by the dauphin.”
“Madame?” Lord Bernard sighed and began tapping his foot impatiently. Lady Catherine wouldn’t even look at me. It was like I wasn’t in the room. I couldn’t decide whether the disregard was intentional or whether she actually forgot I was there.