Or Else Let Her Be Mine And Mine Alone

A Cinderella Story?

'Why are you upset?'

'Now I will have to live with him,' she agonized. It wasn't all that was troubling her, but it was the most urgent issue.

Gudule looked at Esmeralda with pity. 'I left my work in the Rheims so you wouldn't have to go through what I did. So you won't have to meet the kind of men I did. My wish failed. But I...I never thought Judge Frollo would do something like this, that too with a girl as young as you?'

'I don't know,' was all she could say. 'I still can't forget Phoebus.'

Gudule pressed Esmeralda's head closer to her chest. 'It's ok. At least we have each other now, right? I will defend you.'

'I'm afraid of him. I don't want to be with him,' she agonized in a shaking voice.

Gudule consoled, 'I will keep seeing you. Keep telling me about what is happening, alright?'

Esmeralda nodded silently. She didn't have the energy to bring up her father.

--

That evening, she heard the guards whisper to each other outside her cell. Had Frollo forgiven her yet? After some time her cell opened, finally. A guard came in, but his demeanour was strangely different. This time he appeared... courteous?

'Minister Frollo has ordered us to take you to the palace, madame.'

She blinked. After six months of being berated and cursed by the city, this respect almost made her uncomfortable.

The guard seemed just as discomfited. 'Do you, wish to come upstairs?'

'Um...yes. Sure.'

He stood aside, making way for her. She walked outside, processing everything around. Some guards were looking at the floor, some elsewhere, but none at her. One led her out. As she walked through the series of dungeons again, she heard a loud crackling sound of a whip. It was some prisoner in a nearby cell. Crossing it, the howling, miserable creature gradually entered her vision. He looked up at her, confused.

'Aren't you the gypsy witch who was about to be hung?' he taunted, before screaming from another lash. The guards ignored him and continued taking her upstairs. She heard him laugh from the back, 'Of course. That spalpeen Frollo is still a man, isn't he? Very nice. Go make him happy, Egyptian.'

At last, the guards reached the gate of the dungeons, and opened it.

--

It was like a different world. The Palace of Justice was undeniably stunning. She had heard about the riches the powerful of the country possessed, but here she was witnessing them. And she admitted, it was every bit as different and excessive from the commoner's world as rumoured to be.

'There you are.' A maid appeared from another corner, surveying her. 'Those dungeons are rather harsh, aren't they? But don't you worry, madame. We shall get you dolled-up in no time.' She came off as amiable. The guards left and she proceeded to lead her upstairs.

She stopped at a room and opened it.

The material wasn't gold: this wasn't the Versailles after all. But it surely looked like it. Sunlight emerged from the window-panes, casting golden rays all around. There was a vanity with a framed mirror, along with some other chambermaids.

All her life she had lived in the slums of Paris. Seeing all this was a bit overwhelming for the girl. She wondered how Frollo managed to be so peevish and hateful living in a home like this.

'Breath-taking, isn't it?' the head maid who had brought her remarked. 'It's our first time here too,' she confessed, smiling nervously at Esmeralda.

They gave her a bath first, which was needed. Her hair was washed with some flowers she didn't identify, and her face got doused with rosewater, which felt nice. She wondered if the maids cared that they were attending to a gypsy, whether they noticed any difference.