Ella_an Everland Ever After Tale by Caroline Lee

Author:Caroline Lee [Lee, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

Ella called it “the magic hour”; that brief amount of time in the early afternoon between cleaning up from lunch and getting ready for supper. She tried her hardest to get her daily chores done in the morning, and as much of the cleaning as she could squeeze in. Usually, after making up her stepsister’s beds and readying their wardrobes for the following day, she had to dust at least one of the downstairs rooms, and tidy the parlor behind her stepsisters. But then, right around two o’clock, she had an hour or so to focus on one of her own projects. Usually that was some sort of sewing.

She loved to sew. It had been something that Mama had taught her, all those years ago, to give her something to do to help support them. Some of her fondest childhood memories had been spent by Mama’s side next to the warm hearth, bent over her tiny stitches and listening to Mama sing. Once they’d come out here to Wyoming, Mama had still sewed, only then it was for four little girls instead of clients. Ella helped her, and when she died, the little girl took over her mother’s duties.

The house was suspiciously quiet as she climbed the big stairs. She hadn’t been aware of any social events this close to the big July Fourth celebration, but perhaps her sisters had found someplace to take themselves off to. Or they were ensconced in their own rooms, napping from the strenuous morning activity of giving her their demands for their picnic baskets. Mabel and Eunice insisted on everything being fresh, so Ella hadn’t been able to get started on cooking yet. Tomorrow—the third of July—was going to be brutal.

For now, though, she had just enough time to put the finishing touches on her yellow dress. She’d finished Eunice’s dress right after Mabel’s, even though she’d been so horribly distracted by Papa’s ultimatum. Hopefully, her sisters hadn’t noticed, and Eunice had been as pleased with her fringed green silk gown as Mabel had been with her pink lacy one. Since Sibyl’s had been finished as well, Ella felt okay staying up late to work on her own. It was… odd, to be spending so much time on a new dress for herself, rather than just fixing up ripped hand-me-downs. For the last few nights, she’d had to pin herself together, and then transfer the whole thing to her mother’s wickerwork dummy to finish. It had been awkward and exhausting and wonderful. She’d never had a dress as lovely as this one, with its crisp white ribbon and the bits of lace at the wrist and waist.

Of course, thanks to Papa’s new ruling, she had no place to wear it. She’d hoped to be able to ask—beg even—to attend the picnic, now that she’d have a gown worthy of being seen in. Papa and her sisters had always called her “dark and ugly” and didn’t want her associated with them. At least, that was

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