Cinders, Stars, and Glass Slippers: A Retelling of Cinderella by Fichter Brittany

Author:Fichter, Brittany
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: The Classical Kingdoms Collection Book #6
Published: 2017-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

“When can we leave the ship, Captain?” Drake asked, hefting his wife’s large sack up on his shoulder. “We’ve been docked for over an hour!”

The old captain spit on the floor before shaking his head. “I know you’re all anxious to disembark. But before you go, I have a gift for you. We’ll start with the ladies.”

Elaina tried to stay in the shadows as two burly sailors climbed down into the hold with bags hanging from their wrists. Each one began to pull something out of his bag. The objects they held gleamed, even in the poor light. One walked over to Aspen, but before Elaina could see what he was giving the girl, the other stepped right in front of her, blocking her view.

“Your wrist.” He held up a gold bracelet. The bracelets had bands nearly the width of two of Elaina’s fingers, and a purple gemstone in the middle, as large as a thumbprint.

Elaina put her hands behind her back. “No thank you.”

“Ah, but it’ll look so lovely on such a delicate wrist as yours.” Before Elaina could reply, he had grabbed her arm roughly and shoved the bracelet around her left wrist. She cried out and fought him, kicking and punching with her right hand, but the captain was at their side in a minute, holding her down as the guard took out a small key and locked the bracelet into place.

In less than a minute, the deed was done, and Elaina could not remove the bracelet no matter how hard she pulled and pushed and yanked. The other passengers put up fights as well. Drake had to be bound by hand and foot when he threw himself on the man attempting to put a bracelet on Lilly. The two brothers succeeded in knocking one of the sailors unconscious and breaking the arm of another before the crew was able to subdue them.

But in the end, they all wore the hateful bracelets. Lilly whimpered and her little boy cried. Aspen tried to comfort her grandmother, who was so distraught she began speaking gibberish. Elaina was very close to kicking a few of the guards in the knees when all was said and done, for good measure if nothing else, but decided that helping the brothers sit upright off the floor would be a better course of action.

“My brother will hear of this!” Drake shouted, his deep voice reverberating off the wooden walls. “You’ll have the bailiffs down your throat in an instant! Your license to fish will be revoked entirely!”

“Well, that would be terrifying now,” the captain grinned down from the steps, “if the bailiffs were still here.” He disappeared through the hatch.

Most of the crew encircled the two brothers, who were beginning to stand once again. As soon as she was sure no one was looking in her direction, Elaina darted up the steps. She was nearly out of the hatch when a man she hadn’t seen caught her by the arm and jerked her back down the stairs, smacking her head on the railing in the process.

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