Cinderella Unmasked by Bonnie Dee

Author:Bonnie Dee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2009-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Ella sat on her throne with Euphemia on her right and Almeda on her left. Prince Theodore lounged in a chair on the other side of his wife while Hortense had been banished to stand with the ladies of the court. Ella searched the room for Sebastian, but didn’t see him. He hadn’t been around since earlier that afternoon when he’d told her he must take care of a few final details for the ball. She longed for his steady presence close by, for seeing her stepfamily again had been much harder than she’d thought it would be.

“An…interesting theme this evening.” Almeda leaned close and spoke from behind the flesh-toned mask that perfectly simulated her face except for making it about twenty years younger. “Come as you are, so to speak. Clever.”

As always, her words dripped sarcasm. Ella doubted her stepmother could speak any other way after so many years of inflecting her tone with scorn. But even understanding what a shallow, horrible person the woman was, she couldn’t help cringing inside at the tiny cut—one in a series of cuts Euphemia and Almeda had been administering since they’d arrived several days ago.

The child inside Ella had reacted with an ingrained response, losing more confidence at every slight. Worst of all, she’d found herself explaining her actions to her stepmother, who deserved no excuses or explanations.

“Yes, I’m aware the slates on the castle roof need replacing, but road repair comes first.” “No, I don’t intend to have the carriage gilded gold. I don’t believe the people need to see trappings of royalty to know who I am.”

And now. “Dressing as our inner selves was meant to give each of us an opportunity to look within and see who we really are, to strip away the daily masks we wear.”

“So that’s what you see when you examine yourself?” Almeda gazed at her with aging eyes behind the youthful mask.

Ella knew her mask must look strange not only to Almeda, but to everyone. It was the most elaborate part of her costume, her dress being a plain, white shift tonight. The construction of her mask had been a much more painstaking business for the artisan who’d made it. After painting a mask of her features, he’d fragmented the image so her face was shown in scattered bits as chaotic and confused as she often felt.

Her reflection had showed her quite an eerie image that suggested a woman in turmoil and Ella had wondered whether this was really the face she should reveal to her subjects and the Malevolin contingent. Did they all need to know she felt so uncertain inside? It would hardly breed confidence in her as a monarch.

Nevertheless, she’d worn the mask for herself and for Sebastian so he’d see her as she truly was. Unfortunately, he seemed to have decided to forego the ball tonight—or maybe he simply hadn’t arrived yet and she could expect him any minute in some new disguise.

Euphemia leaned toward her now, smelling of the peppermints she sucked constantly which didn’t quite mask the odor of her breath.

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