Me, Cinderella? by Rose Aubrey

Author:Rose, Aubrey [Rose, Aubrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-06-21T22:00:00+00:00

The next morning I woke earlier than Eliot and dressed in my new warm clothes. Venturing outside, I stayed well within the immediate grounds, hoping to avoid repeating the shock of yesterday’s discovery. My dreams had tossed me through the night in fitful starts, filled with images of death—deer skulls and rotting corpses, and a man hooded in black.

To my surprise, Eliot emerged only a few minutes after me. His breath left white puffs in the air as he trampled through the snow-beaten trails to where I stood among the low garden hedges.

“I brought bread,” he said. He held out a fist of crumpled crust, and I must have looked at him like he was crazy, because he burst out laughing.

“Not for you,” he said. “For the birds.”

“What birds?” I looked around. Earlier I’d heard chirping from the hedges, but now the grounds were silent. In the middle of the gardens, scattered in places, were large stone bird baths, but there were no birds in sight.

“Hold on,” he said. “They’ll come.”

Pursing his lips, he let out a high whistle, and threw a few crumbs into the air. I looked around.

“I think the birds are all asleep,” I said.

“Ye of little faith,” he said. He whistled again, and again threw a piece of bread into the air. My hand shaded my eyes and I watched as a small bird darted up from inside of one of the hedges and caught the bread in midair.

“Ha! Did you see that?” Eliot’s face shone delightedly.

I threw bread in the air, coaxing a few more of the small birds to come out.

“What are they?”

“Wrens, I think,” Eliot said. He scattered bread on the ground, and soon the air was filled with the whirring wings of the birds stealing crusts from each other.

“Can I have some more?” I said, turning to Eliot.

“Here.” He took my hand, and I tried not to blush as his fingers touched my wrist. He held my hand out in front of me, toward the wrens, and placed a few crusts in my palm.

“Be very steady,” he whispered, and I blushed. His body was so close to mine; even through my coat I thought I could feel his heat.

The birds, at first wary, soon realized that we were nothing to fear. A small wren with eyes like tiny black beads flew up and landed on my outstretched finger.

“It doesn’t weigh anything!” I said. Its tiny claws scrabbled at my fingers for hold, tickling me into giggles. The wren pecked a crumb from my hand and flew away, but was soon back. So were a half-dozen other wrens, all vying for attention and crust on my palm. I could have squealed in excitement but I didn’t want to scare away the little birds. Soon all of the bread was gone.

“Do you have any more bread?” I turned to Eliot; he had an odd expression on his face that fled the moment he met my eyes.

“Sorry, no more.”

I held out my empty hand anyway, and a larger bird flew up to my hand.

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