A Curious Fascination

Chapter 1

(Once Upon A Time)

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Once upon a time there was a girl name Helen. Now this girl was very pretty and many men would walk past the house where she lived to try and catch a glimpse of her. But when they did it was not of her walking past a window in beautiful dresses or reading a book or sewing, as was common for a young lady to do. No they would see her in rags washing dishes or sweeping or perhaps carrying water.

Helen was a slave. She lived in a grand house with her three mistresses. The head of house was the Countess of Rendberg. And the two others members of the family were her two daughters, Antonia and Diane. Now really Helen was the Countess's slave but the Countess had given her to her oldest daughter Antonia to use as a personal slave. And you can be sure Antonia used Helen to do everything short of breathing for her.

There were other paid servants in the house to do some of the other tasks but if something had to be done and Antonia wasn't using her then the task fell upon Helen. And so it had been for eleven years. Helen could not complain or she would be beaten. She could not leave or she would be caught and sent to prison. And the other servants dared not help her or befriend her for fear of being treated like her. It was a hard life but what could she do?

One day a special letter arrived in the post. The butler took it upstairs immediately to the Countess. Helen was busy scrubbing a stain of wine out of the carpet and so did not notice the life altering letter go upstairs.

"A Royal Summons!" The countess exclaimed. "From the Queen!"

"What does that mean mother?" Asked Antonia as she put down her sewing to come stand behind her mother.

"It means that we have been invited to live at court! Finally an excuse to leave this horrible place and go back to court! We must send a reply immediately. Butler! Fetch me my writing box."

And so it happened that the acceptance letter was written and immediately things began to be prepared for the move. Helen felt the load worst of all as she was responsible for seeing all of Antonia's things packed as well as Diane's. She then had to carry all the things down the stairs and to a line up of carriages that were sent from the palace courtesy of Her Majesty.

"Diane hurry!" Antonia called from the carriage where she and her mother were waiting. Diane was taking a last look in the house she had lived in since she was only five years old. So many memories had been made in this house that she hated to leave it. But her sister's voice shouting at her from outside broke her trance and she reluctantly left the house and closed the door behind her.

Much of the furniture was still in the house but al the clothes and personal belongings were to go to the palace with the family. Even the servants were going, including Helen. Helen hated leaving the house even more than Diane did.

It was her only home. Her parents had both lived and died in that house and she had been born in it. Everything that meant anything to her was in that house. When she had brought out a small sack containing her only belongings and a change of clothes Antonia told her there was no more room for her things so she'd just have to leave them. The only thing she was allowed to bring was her only other dress.

The convoy of carriages waited restlessly as Diane stepped up into the carriage with her sister and Helen, the Countess had her own carriage. As soon as the door to the vehicle was shut the driver shouted that all was ready and the convoy began to lurch forward.

"You're not fanning hard enough!" Antonia growled. Helen began fanning all the harder even though her arm was already starting to get sore from holding the fan up. The trip had barely begun and already Helen hated it.

The day grew hotter as they drove on. At one point the stopped at the side of a stream to rest the horses for an hour. Stopping only made Antonia grumpier as there was no more breeze created by their moving forward. Helen's arm felt as though it was about to drop off. Diane began to sweat something terrible and Antonia told Helen to fan her sister as well.

"No I don't want to be fanned. That will just make it worse, I'm going to step outside for a moment to get some real air." Diane huffed opening the door and stepping out not waiting for the footman. The left the door open and when her sister wasn't looking she nodded to Helen who nodded back at her gratitude.

"We're ready to move again Miss." Said the driver some time later. Diane got back into the carriage, again ignoring the footman, and they were off.

"Honestly Helen, I gave you a simple job of fanning me and you can't even do that!" Antonia shouted striking Helen on the cheek. Being used to her temper Helen just switched hands and fanned harder.

"You know what that means don't you?" Antonia continued. "It means that you're getting weak and that means you aren't doing enough work. And if you are slacking in your work we'll just have to leave that much more on your debts to my mother. Honestly!" She cried again.

"Maybe if we talked it would take your mind of the heat." Diane suggested.

"That's dumb Diane. Talking with you only makes me frustrated at how simple minded you are about life. No I don't feel like talking right now."

"It was only a suggestion Tonia."

"Don't call me that! When we're at the palace you must call me Antonia so that everyone knows my true name. How else will they know who I am if you keep calling me Tonia. We're not children anymore." Antonia lectured her younger sister.

"Well unlike you I don't want everyone to know my name so it really doesn't matter to me." Diane retorted. She scooted to the other side of the carriage and looked out her window.

The week long journey seemed like a lifetime. At night they had to stay in a less than satisfactory inn by the side of the main road. Messengers had arranged for three rooms which meant that all the servants had to stay somewhere else while each lady had their own room. Helen was required to sleep in Antonia's room so that if she required anything during the night Helen would be readily available.

On the second day they passed through the fields where farmers were planting their crops and working on irrigational systems. On the Third day they passed more fields. By the fifth day Antonia was sick of looking at fields and she let both Helen and Diane know that.

"I am so sick of looking at nothing but fields! You two are the worst company and this trip is taking forever! There had better be a hot, no a cold, bath and plenty of good food at the palace waiting for me." She grumbled loudly.

"We know Antonia! And I'm sure that the palace will cater to your every need. And I'm sure that if someone, say the prince or a lord, was in the carriage you'd find fields fascinating."

"Well there's only my simpleton sister and Helen here right now so I happen to find those fields completely awful. Honestly Diane, one would think that you had no interest in men."

Both sisters huffed and folded their arms and looked in opposite directions. And so it went all day. By the sixth day however an excitement settled in along with the anxiousness.

"Go faster!" Antonia yelled out the window at the driver.

"I'm sorry Miss but we can't go any faster or the horses will collapse." He explained. Frustrated and tired from the long and hot trip she took her anxiousness out on Helen.

"FAN you git! I'm going to melt and all you care about is your arms being a little tired? Being me is difficult."

Helen stayed silent. She switched hands and fanned. Her arms were sore and her face bruised from several previous encounters with Antonia's wrath. But she knew it would be worse if she spoke or did anything else to offend her Mistress. But that did not mean Helen would be left alone, just not hurt as badly.

That night the inn was of a much better quality being closer to the capitol of Menore. Several of the trunks had to be taken out so that Antonia and her mother could find the perfect dresses to wear for their arrival. Helen was carrying one of the trunks up the stairs and finally her arms could no longer take the strain.

Antonia screamed as she watched her trunk fall down the stairs and crash at the bottom. The trunk broke and her clothes spread all over the floor at the base of the steps. Helen soon followed as Antonia pushed her to go pick everything up.

She felt the step move from under her and she reached to try and catch on to something. But everything happened so fast and soon she way lying on top of the broken trunk with many more bruises and a split lip. She lay there for a moment trying to make everything stop spinning. No one came to help her, she was a slave after all.

But she knew better than to stay down too long or Antonia would come back and possibly do worse. The picked herself up slowly feeling shards of pain spike through her with every movement she made. She began to pick up the spilled clothes and then carry them up stairs. When she spread the clothes out on the bed she received another lecture.

"You are so clumsy Helen! You can't even carry a trunk anymore. Your behavior is getting out of control these days. If this habit doesn't start changing immediately I will have no choice but to tell mother, and she will most certainly not be happy to hear about your short comings. Now hurry up and then get my bath ready, I must look my best for our arrival tomorrow."

Helen nodded and hurriedly spread the dresses out and went to fetch the bath water. After getting enough hot water she went to tell her mistress that the bath was ready.

"Mistress, your bath is ready now."

"Finally." Antonia breathed standing up from her heavily cushioned chair. She stood as Helen undressed her and put a dressing robe over her shoulders. Then after she was comfortably in the bath Helen washed her hair and rubbed her body with soft foam soap.

After the bath Antonia went through the dresses and picked out her most exquisite.

"I guess this will have to do. When we arrive I will have to tell mother I will be needing more dresses if I am going to impress anyone at court." She mused. Helen cleared away the rest and hung up the chosen outfit for the morning, and finally she brushed Antonia's hair and helped her into bed.

"Helen you had better go outside and wash yourself before tomorrow. I give you my permission to do so, but don't take too long in case I need you here. Make yourself presentable so it doesn't look like we can afford to keep our slaves in good shape."

"Yes Miss Antonia, thank you."

"I'm glad you realize how gracious I'm being, now hurry."

Helen did hurry. She took a cloth down the stairs and out the back and removed her worn dress. Then she took a bucket of cold water and began scrubbing the dirt and sweat off her body till her medium tan skin turned a light shade of pink. Then she took a small handful of the foam she had used for Antonia's hair and rubbed it into her own long black hair. By the time she had finished she looked as much a lady as the Countess or her two daughters, except for the bruises and occasional scars that marred her soft skin.

She put on her clean dress and the washed out her old one so that it would be clean in the morning. Then she raced back upstairs and quietly entered Antonia's room. Luckily for Helen her mistress was asleep and would probably stay asleep for the rest of the night. So Helen pulled her mattress out from under the bed and lay down for a few hours of much needed sleep.

But sleep for Helen was a very different concept than what it is to us. She would go to sleep far later than anyone else so that she could finish all her work, and in the morning she would have to awaken so early that the sun hadn't even risen yet and wouldn't rise for almost two hours.

But because of the lighter work load while traveling Helen had an excellent sleep that night which prepared her for the upcoming excitement of their arrival at the Royal Palace.

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A/N: I know the rewrite of Cinderella is overly used but I don't think anyone has this plot yet. Anyways hopefully this works out because hey my mom liked it. But then she's my mom and you guys aren't so let me know how you like it. It does sort of follow the basic story but it is definitely different and more to my liking than the dumb Disney version. REVIEW!

And I'd also like to apologize for the fact that this chapter isn't formatted nicely but there's a problem with Fictionpress and my computer so I couldn't get it to work. I will try and fix it as soon as fido get's his butt in gear and fixes this problem.