Evermagic Shorts

After Ever After

Nicolette has won her story in The Masked Slipper. To do so, she went from Cinderella to a character she'd never heard of. Now, she is living contently with a husband who adores her and a child on the way. As for her best friend, Rose the Snow White. She's just killed some zombies and been rescued by her true love's kiss. Now it's time for a wedding.

But can a heavily pregnant Cinderella make it to the next kingdom for the party?

"Highness." A servant knocked on the door to Princess Nicolette's room. He waited a moment and then entered when he heard her voice beckoning him in. He paused and smiled fondly at her. The poor woman was propped back on the couch with her swollen legs resting on the foot rest. She was alone with a book and hadn't bothered to make herself presentable by sitting up and acting lady like. He glanced down and smirked at her shoes discarded on the floor. She'd let them fall near the stool's legs, each indented itself into the floral carpet beneath it.

She had always preferred comfort over making a show of being proper. So on occasion, she let the servants see her in that kind of mood. It made them like her all the more. He came to her and bowed with a tray in his hand. She glanced at him over her monstrous belly and then at the letter on the silver tray.

"My," she said and taking the envelope. She glanced about and then frowned. "Will you bring me that knife?" She asked, pointing vaguely at the desk. There, he presumed a letter opener was among the antiques and baubles she'd collected.

Since returning to the castle from fighting a witch with Gladwin, she'd become a collector of anything she thought was pretty the way her stepsister collected prisms. He went to the desk and retrieved the only knife he saw there. When he returned, he handed it to her so she could grasp the handle without fear of the blade in his gloved grasp.

"Is that all, my lady?" He asked, tilting his head at her a moment as she started to unseal the letter with a quick slash through the paper.

She glanced at him and then nodded. "Yes, thank you. I won't bother you."

"No bother, my lady," he said, smiling kindly with a bow. She grinned back at him and he started out the room. But he only made it to the door before the lady squealed and got up from the couch she'd been comfortably sunk in. "Princess?" He whirled around, alarmed by her lumbering to her feet and hurried to her. He held out his arms, fearful she might lose her balance and tilt over.

She waved him off when she caught her footing and shoved the letter in his face. "It is an invitation to Rose's wedding!" She cried with delight. Then she became terribly serious and withdrew it from him so he hadn't a chance to focus on the fancy letterings of the invitation. "Fetch my husband," she called, fighting on her shoes and then whirling around to start out the room. She paused then and gasped. "Abigail! Go get Abigail. She doesn't know. Or does she? Oh..." She started out the room, going much too quickly for the poor servant's comfort. She was so heavily pregnant just standing seemed a danger, so he went after her.

"Highness, please!" He called, catching up to her as she glided on. Even in her current state she was graceful like a floating cloud over the mountains. "If my lord, Gladwin, knows I've let you out like this without an eye on you he will scold me most severely." It was no lie. Gladwin was extremely protective of his wife and punished any whom he thought neglected her safety.

"Oh, he worries too much," she sighed, pushing back her hair and not slowing. For one who was about to give birth she did waddle quite quickly.

"My lady, please slow down!" He tried, having trouble keeping up with her himself.

"Gladwin!" Nicolette called, seeing him crossing from one room to the other. He was seapking with his friend Alexis and looked rather serious. But when he heard her voice, he paused and smiled at her softly. And then his tender expression turned to panic when he saw she'd broken into a run toward him. She was plodding dangerously. It was just like the elephant she had warned him she'd become during her later months of pregnancy. With that smile on her face though, she reminded him much more of an excited calf swinging its trunk around. And about to hurt itself in the process.