Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

Author:Sarah Prineas
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

19

MY STEPSISTERS AND STEPMOTHER HAVE BEEN INVITED to the prince’s ball at the castle. They spend the entire day getting ready. I am run ragged lugging bathwater and washing silk stockings and hanging them up to dry, and ironing acres of petticoats with lace trim, and fetching restorative cups of tea that had better not be lukewarm, or I’ll get my ears boxed for it.

Wearing silk robes—peignoirs, maybe—over their petticoats and corsets, they have a light supper that I bring to them on a tray. They eat most of it, so I am left only a few leftover crusts, which I gulp down as I carry the tray to the kitchen. Then I hurry back upstairs to watch them finish getting ready.

The dresses were made by the finest dressmaker in the city and must have cost their weight in gold, or maybe more.

Dulcie puts on hers first—it is a confection of sky-blue silk cut very low to reveal her corset-plumped breasts. It has an overskirt of lace and a bodice stitched with seed pearls, and there are shoes of silver leather fetched from the shoemaker’s shop by a footman earlier in the day. Precious fusses around her, adding an ostrich feather to her piled-high blonde hair, changing her pearl necklace for a sapphire one.

“Pen, fetch my new gloves,” Dulcet orders.

I go to the closet to get them, handing her the box. She wrinkles her nose at me and makes a shooing motion with her hands. “Go stand over there, out of the way.”

I consider giving an elaborate curtsy, but I suspect the irony of it would be lost on her.

After Dulcet has pulled on the elbow-length white kidskin gloves and fastened their mother-of-pearl buttons, it is Precious’s turn. Her dress is more modestly cut at the neckline—she doesn’t have as much cleavage to show off as her sister does—but the skirt and bodice are an elaborate swathe of midnight-blue velvet. The overskirt is sheer net covered with gleaming crystals that must have taken the poor seamstress who stitched them days to finish. The effect of the crystals over the dark velvet is of a midnight sky studded with stars. Precious’s gloves are the same midnight blue—a daring choice—and she wears no jewelry around her neck, but diamond pins glint in her sleekly braided brown hair.

They link arms and stand admiring themselves in the gilded mirror. They are both stunning. “Prince Cornelius will surely choose one of us, Dulcie, don’t you think?” Precious asks.

Dulcet gives a self-satisfied nod. “I do think so, Precious.”

Oh, so I see now what they’re up to. They both want a husband, and they’ve got their eye on the prince. I know that a prince lives in the castle, of course, but I can’t remember ever seeing him before, and I’ve never thought about him as a real person who might end up marrying one of my stepsisters. Wouldn’t that please Stepmama, if Dulcie or Precious ensnares a prince!

Still, I can’t help admiring their reflections in the mirror.

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