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“My turn!” called Comfort, and tried to shove her foot into the slipper. “Ooh, cozy! If the slipper fits, does that mean I get to marry Hubert?”
“Oh, stop it,” said Mother gently. She took the shoe away from Comfort and returned it to Hubert, who gripped it securely in his hands and watched his brother suspiciously, wary of another attack.
Curtis grinned, then said, “Comfort, have you heard the joke about the ogre at the wedding?”
“No, tell me!”
“Well, there was once an ugly ogre who went to a human wedding long ago—"
“Ahem,” Cynthia had entered, still in her ball gown from the previous evening. She had obviously just done up her hair. She looked absolutely stunning.
Hubert and Curtis stood respectfully. Hubert stepped forward and held out the glass slipper. “You must have forgotten this when you left yesterday.”
Cynthia didn’t blush, but a faint pink tinge appeared in her cheeks. She half glanced at Curtis.
“I told him how your foot must have slipped out last night as you were leaving. You have such tiny feet,” Curtis remarked casually. I guess he hadn’t told Hubert about Cynthia’s outburst and was giving her a second chance.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Cynthia said, smiling winningly. She extended her hand for the shoe, but Hubert, taking me by surprise, knelt and guided her foot into the shoe.
He stood and said, “You may call me Hubert.” Then to everyone’s astonishment, he smiled! It looked painful for him, a mechanical upturning of his lips. Curtis and I exchanged shocked looks.
‘He is smiling!’ I mouthed to Curtis.
Hubert motioned toward the front of the house. “I have come to take you to the castle,” he told Cynthia.
“I will be there in just a moment, Hubert. I would like to speak privately to my stepsisters and stepmother before I go.”
As Curtis and Hubert left, Mother and Comfort gathered around Cynthia to congratulate her on her engagement, but Cynthia backed away to evade their embraces.
“I just wanted to say, you three have done nothing but bring me misery all this time I have lived here. Right as my engagement was to be announced, Truly was forcing herself upon my future brother-in-law, trying to upstage me and my moment. That was incredibly selfish of you, especially after all I have done—cooking and cleaning and slaving away for your every whim and wish. You should feel ashamed of forcing a parentless, penniless girl to be a servant for you while you did nothing but sit staring into mirrors, and talking about dresses and makeup and dancing. All three of you are the most vain, superficial, greedy, gluttonous people I have ever met!”
We sat, flabbergasted, unsure of how to respond to this monologue. I was shocked—is that what it looked like to everyone else in town? That we were forcing an orphan to work for us as we lazily sat in our rooms, primping and preening?
“Cynthia,” began Mother, “We really never—"
Cynthia cut her off. “Furthermore, I will not be seeing any of you again, so I can be freed from your enslavement!”
Comfort broke in, more confident in handling conflict than either Mother or myself. “Really! We have tried our best to be nice to you! Where do you think that gown came from, missy? And your shoes? Did your fairy godmother magically give them to you?” her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “You are so eager to rush off to get married to a man you met not even two days ago, and Truly and Curtis dated for a year before we moved here! They have a reason to get engaged, and you are just chasing status! Who is the superficial one now?”
Now it was Cynthia’s turn to flush, lost for words. But she held her head up and picked up the bags she had brought from her room. “I have no time for peasants. Farewell!”
Stunned, we all watched her march down the hallway and give her hand to Hubert as he helped her up into the carriage. “She and Hubert deserve each other!” Comfort said fervently.
Hubert and Cynthia swept away in their carriage, off toward the castle. Curtis stayed behind. He walked back into the sitting room after he had instructed the coachman to come back for him later. Upon his entrance, he stared at all of our faces. Mother and I were still shocked by Cynthia’s outburst. Comfort was fuming. “What happened?”
“Our stepsister,” Comfort spat “was just giving us her last endearing words before she left to marry your brother.”
“I take it that it didn’t go well?”
Comfort huffed angrily. “I have half a mind to leave the country. There is no way I will let that brat be my ruler!”
Curtis came over and took my hand. “Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested mildly. I led him along the path Algernon used to always take us on. I wanted to show him the manor, the town, the Fairy Tree, everything, but I was too distracted by what Cynthia had said to me. How poorly she viewed us! I had never thought of myself as a bad person before now. Was that how people saw me? I had intended to allow Cynthia to quietly grieve her father’s death and not force her into public before she was ready. But it clearly hadn’t come across that way.
“Truly, wait,” Curtis pulled me to a stop next to the Fairy Tree. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“What did Cynthia say to you?”
I told him everything. He looked uncharacteristically serious. “I heard what Cynthia said to you last night too,” he looked at me steadily. “I hope you know that you are not selfish. One of the things I love most about you is how you are always looking out for others. You always have done that. Just because one person can’t see that doesn’t make it less true.”
