Aurore le soleil: A Cinderella story.

Chapter 11

Camille was waiting for me at the door when I arrived home, cloak and hair flying.

"You must hurry. I have told my mother that you are so ill you cannot move, and that you lie upstairs. She has insisted she check on you as soon as she finishes her dinner. Quickly, run upstairs and look pale in your bed."

I rushed up the stairs without saying a word, my boots tapping double time on the stairs my sweat and tears had gone into polishing so many times. I ripped off the cloak and shoved it in a pile in the corner. I doused my face with water to make it look like I was sweating, and jumped into the bed. I pretended to be immobilised, the pale lids of my eyes shut over my dilaing pupils. My hair fluffed on the pillow, and I heard large thumps as Ethel climbed the stairs. Over the years, with all the expensive food she ate, she had become fatter by the day, and spent quite a lot of money on dresses because the rolls of fat that lay on her stomach could no longer be contained in the petite dresses she already had. Even corsets could not help the fat woman. Her beauty was no more, for most of her features were hidden by fat. I heard her heavy breathing as she lingered at the door, listening for any unusual sounds. After waiting for a while, she opened the door to see my pale and emaciated face lying on the bed. I did not move any of my limbs while she studied me, disgust etched into her face. Chantelle was standing behind her, her hand lying on the doorknob. Finally she said

"She is to stay in bed until she has recovered from this...illness"

"Yes my lady" Chantelle said and I saw her curtsey out of the corner of my eye. As soon as Ethel left the room in a swish of skirts Chantelle rushed up to the bed.

"I know you are not really ill." she muttered stroking my hair.

"Aye, but I must fake ill if I am to see..."

"See what?"

"See somebody"

Understanding spread over Chantelle's face.

"You have met his royal highness?!"

"Aye, but you must keep it a secret"

She nodded and tucked my quilt up to my chin.

"That I shall do"

The soft fluffy bed eventually comforted me into oblivion.

Every day I would travel to the ruins, to meet with him. We began a sort of informal courting, kissing and lounging on the grass together. I could only stay for a few hours at a time, else I would be caught. One day, when we were lying in a field of daisies, his hand playing with my hair, he whispered in my ear

"What do you do during the day Ella?"

"What?"

"I am curious as to how you live."

"I-I sew and...I eat and I sleep and read"

"You lie."

I stood up and walked away, but his arm caught me.

"I am sorry if I offended"

I sighed. The time had come where I would have to tell him about my enslavement.

"When my father died, I became a slave in our house. I was hit and kicked and when  I was eight they shut me in my mothers room and hacked off all my hair"

Tears trickled down my cheeks as I recountered all the horrible things in my life and by the end I had collapsed on the ground in tears.

"I-I may as well leave. You will not want me now." I sniffled as I headed toward where I picketed the horse. Just as I had almost reached it, he caught me by the waist and turned me around.