Will, downstairs sweeping the kitchen floor, sighed. 2
“At least she’ll be thinking the truth,” he muttered to himself, setting the broom down and heading for the stairs. Entering his brother’s expansive room, he glanced around, seeing no one. Picking his way across the clothing-strewn floor, he found his stepbrother in the large closet, rummaging through his vast amounts of clothes. 3
“What is it that you wanted, Andre?” he asked. His brother turned to face Will, a scowl marring his otherwise angelic features. Features of an angel on a man with a demonic nature, thought Will, not for the first time. 4
“Those clothes,” he said imperiously, indicating the large room with a sweep of his arm. “I told you to pick them up earlier.” 5
“I thought I’d wait until you were done dressing,” Will said. “That way, you wouldn’t drop more clothes after I was done picking them all up.”6
“You’re not being paid to think, Cinderwilly. And I’ll drop more clothes whenever I feel. Now, pick them up, or else.” 7
I’m not being paid at all, Will thought rebelliously as he got to work, acutely conscious of the tattered and stained state of his own clothes, a sharp contrast to Andre’s finery. In fact, this is my house, not yours. I should be the one sleeping in this bedroom, not on the hearth where my clothes get smudged and burned with cinders. Someday, I will claim what is rightfully mine, and have you thrown to the streets. If only Mother were still around. She would have never let them get away with this. The appearance of his other stepbrother in the doorway interrupted his thoughts. 8
“Willy,” he said, lounging against the doorframe, “Father says you have done an inadequate job sweeping the kitchen floor, and now you must sweep the entire house and wash all the floors as well.”9
“But I swept the whole house yesterday!” Will protested angrily. “And I wasn’t done down there anyway. Andre called me up here to clean up his clothes.”10
“Well, then,” Andre said, poking his head out of the closet, “you obviously should have done it earlier, when I first told you to.”11
“And the whole house is dirty again,” pointed out Edward from his position in the doorway, an evil grin playing across his face. “You sully it with your mere presence.” Will fumed, but he knew from experience that more protests would only be met with painful punishments. The lash marks on his back from last week’s fiasco were only just beginning to fade. Will heard heavy treads on the stairs and knew his stepfather would soon be joining them, so he quickly hid his anger and got back to work. As expected, Mr. DeRossa appeared behind Edward, what looked like a formal letter from the Palace in his hands.12
“Boys, get out your formal wear,” he announced. “The King is holding a ball tomorrow night in the hopes of finding a husband for his daughter, the beautiful Princess Karianne.” Andre tumbled out of the closet as Edward snatched the paper from his father’s hands. 13
“Let me see that,” he said in disbelief. A grin spread across his face as he read the letter. “We could be royalty!” he said to Andre, who had come over to look as well. 14
“Well, you could be the brother to royalty,” he corrected Edward. “The princess will obviously swoon for my good looks as opposed to yours.”15
That’s if she makes it past the arrogance and attitude, Will thought disgustedly. Andre started to read the letter aloud, having successfully wrestled it from Edward.16
“‘To all members of the Family DeRossa,’” he read, then dodged away as Edward tried to snatch it back. 17
“Wait a minute,” Will interrupted. “All members? That includes me, you know.” All motion in the room stopped as three sets of eyes focused on Will, ignored until now. Then the commotion started.18
“Father, you’re not going to let him come, are you? He’ll make fools of us all!” complained Andre.19
“Look at him! He’s not fit to be seen in public! Why, his clothes are covered in cinders and soot! We’d be a laughingstock!” Edward whined. 20
“It says all members! That includes me!” Will snapped.21
“Father-” Edward began again.22
“Silence!” Mr. DeRossa frowned, scrutinizing Will with narrowed eyes. Will wondered what the older man was calculating behind those cold grey orbs. “If you can get all your jobs done, and if your appearance passes my inspection, then you can go.”23
Edward and Andre immediately began to protest again, but Will didn’t hear any of it. He could go! He set to work cleaning the room at once. 24
Will spent all of that day working feverishly, but his malevolent brothers, knowing the stipulations laid down by their father, kept adding job after job. They even made it into a contest, each trying to outdo the other with the most time consuming jobs they could think of. Will hated them. He had an outfit- an old formal dress set of his real fathers, and the shoes that went with it. The shoes were Will’s most prized possession. If his stepfamily knew about them, they would have taken them long ago, but Will had kept them and the outfit locked away safely, knowing full well the greed that his stepbrothers and stepfather were capable of. The shoes were soft black leather, with a hard leather sole, and were beautifully embroidered with real silver spun into a fine thread. They laced up with a thicker silver string, and were fastened at the top with a single pearl button. Will’s father had gotten them on one of his many trips to the North, and there were no other shoes like them in the kingdom. But by the time the following evening came around, he still had many jobs undone, and it was not going to be possible to finish them on time. 25
“Willy!” Edward called as he was hurriedly sweeping the ashes out of the hearth. Will dumped the ashes outside into the compost pit, wiped his sweaty forehead, and went upstairs, wondering what Edward had in store for him this time. Seeing him enter, Edward burst out laughing. “You truly are living up to your name today, Cinderwilly, “ he said, chuckling. Will caught a glimpse of himself in Edward’s mirror. He was covered in cinders, and had a large smudge of soot across his forehead where he had just touched it. “Go wash you hands, and then help me dress,” Edward ordered. Will tiredly obeyed, not having any strength to argue. 26
Later, as the three were assembling in the foyer just prior to departing, he made one last plea.27
“Can’t I come with you? Just this once?” he begged, hating himself for it. His stepfather looked down his nose at him, taking in his bedraggled state, then glanced around the house. 28
“I don’t see all your jobs done. And I most certainly do not see how you even expect to pass as a noble in that sorry condition,” he said arrogantly. Will’s temper got the better of him.29
“I am nobler than you ever were or ever could be!” he shouted at the three of them. “I am the true heir to this house, and all of my mother’s fortune! You would be merely another middle class merchant if it weren’t for her, and your sons would not even have this opportunity. Not that any sane girl would want to marry them, the arrogant pigs that they are. Well, like father, like son!” Immediately, he knew he had gone too far. Mr.DeRossa’s face flushed an angry red, and he took two steps and backhanded Will into the wall. 30
“I’ll thank you to remember that it is out of the kindness of my heart that you are even alive today,” he hissed in fury. “And that fact may change when we get back.” With that, he turned his back and swept out the door, his fine cloak trailing behind him. Will felt the back of his head where he had struck the wall and winced. Seeing a shadow fall over him, he looked up into the angry faces of his stepbrothers. 31
“Pigs, are we?” Andre repeated coldly, and then punched Will in the stomach as hard as he could. Groaning, Will slid to the floor, only to be met with Edward’s foot to his head. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the two brothers following their father out the door.32
Waking a while later, he was confronted with a scene that made him doubt his consciousness. A little man, no more than three feet high, stood before him, peering anxiously at him. He had pointed ears and seemed to be muttering to himself as he paced back and forth.33
“ohdearohdearI’vereallymadeamesshere,IknewIshouldhavewatchedhimcloser,ohdearoh
“What? Can you say that a little slower?”35
“I…am…your…Fairy…Godfather…and I’ve come to fix you up and sendyoutotheball,” he finished in a rush. “Come,come,wedon’thavemuchtime,you’vebeenoutforawhile.” The little man (his Fairy Godfather, Will reminded himself) waved his hands, and suddenly all his aches from the beating he had received disappeared and he was clean, washed, and clad in his father’s old outfit and shoes. “Now,Ican’tkeepthisupallnight,soyou’llhaveuntilmidnight-” He started again, when Will interrupted.36
“Whoa. Slowly!” The little man took a deep breath and tried again.37
“You…have…until…midnight. Then the spell wears off and you’re bruised anddirtyagain.”38
“How do I get there?” Will asked, a little skeptical.39
“Ifyoujustcomeoverhereyou’llseethatIhaveitallworkedoutnicelyanfyou’llbetravell
Listening hard, Will worked out what the little man said and followed him to the door, where he saw a magnificent coach and horses waiting. “Imadeitmyself,outofatomatoandmypethampsters.Iwantthemback,bytheway,whenyou’re
“Right, right,” Will said, as he clambered into the coach a little dazed at the speed of events. Soon he had arrived at the Palace. He nervously approached the door, smoothing the front of his silver velvet tunic, straightening his black breeches, and settling his black cloak with its silver trim more firmly about his shoulders. He pulled open the large doors and walked in, only to realize that there was something going on at the large dais at the front, and the sound of the doors was very loud in the quiet. All eyes turned to him, including those of Princess Karianne. Seeing the stranger clad in black and silver, her heart fluttered, and she left the dais to go and meet him. The two men being presented to her at the moment watched her go in surprise.42
“Nice job, Edward,” Andre hissed. “You made her leave.”43
“Me? She was offended by your ugly face!” Edward whispered back.44
Will couldn’t believe it when she asked him to dance with her, but readily accepted, and spent a wonderful evening in her company. They were outside getting some fresh air when he finally worked up the nerve to kiss her. All was going well until he heard the clock begin to strike midnight. He broke away from Karianne and uttered a muffled oath.45
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.46
“I have to go! Please forgive me, but I simply must leave!” Will cried desperately, vaulting over the railing and dashing for the stairs to where he saw his coach waiting. 47
“But wait! I don’t even know your name! Come back!” she called after him.48
“Will!” he shouted. “My name is Will!” As he ran down the stairs, however, he realized that the pearl button on one of his boots had come undone, and it was loose, but he was in too much of a hurry to fix it. He lost the shoe on the bottom stair, but hurriedly jumped into his coach anyway and rushed back. He ended up on his front lawn amongst the smashed remains of a tomato and several hamsters which seemed intent on eating the tomato. Sighing, he got up, gritted his teeth against the renewed pain of his injuries, and staggered to his meager bed by the hearth. The following morning, he was awakened by his stepfather prodding him with his foot.49
“Now, boy, you’ll see what I do to ungrateful wretches like yourself-” he began, when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Answer that!” he snapped at Will, who hurried away, glad for the interruption. He could feel a lump on his head and a massive bruise starting on his jaw and stomach. Answering the door, he was confronted by a man in the king’s livery holding his missing boot.50
“By order of the Princess Karianne, the one who can prove that he is the man who wore these shoes last night at the ball will have her heart and hand in marriage,” he announced. Mr. DeRossa, listening in the hall, pushed Will aside and invited the man in.51
“Ah, yes, there is the shoe that my son misplaced last night!” he said gaily. “Let me just go get him.” He disappeared up the stairs. The king’s man sighed, and confided to Will,52
“I get that in every house. They never match.” 53
“Ah, that’s nice. I’ll be right back,” Will said. Quickly, he ran to the chest he had hidden away and drew out the other shoe, putting it and the rest of the outfit on and hastily cleaning himself up. He returned to the room and hid just outside of it as his stepfather, Andre, and Edward came down the stairs. 54
“Here we are,” DeRossa said, pushing Andre forward. “Show him, son.” Andre produced a black boot that had silver hastily glued on and a pearl badly attached. It fell off as Andre tried to hand it to the messenger.55
“Humph,” he said, turning to Edward. “Is yours just as bad?” Edward guiltily revealed a boot that was an even worse imitation. “I thought so. Now, if you are done wasting my time…” He turned to go.56
“Wait!” said Will. He stepped out from his hiding spot, dressed as he had been the pervious night, minus the one shoe. “It was me last night.”57
The king’s man smiled slightly. 58
“Well, you look the part,” he said as Edward, Andre, and Mr. DeRossa gaped at Will. “Now can you tell me the name the young man called to Karianne as he ran off?”59
“Will.” Will said as he smiled at the stupefied expressions on his stepfamily’s faces. “It was Will.”60
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