Cinderella

Chapter 1

Most Cinderella stories start Once upon a time but this one doesn’t. Even how the characters are related is different. Cinderella isn’t the daughter of a wealthy merchant; she’s the daughter of a male servant who works for a wealthy merchant. The girl’s name isn’t even Cinderella, its Katie.

Katie was a happy girl; she lived with her mother and father in a small house. Her family worked for a rich family whose mansion was right next to her home and it made it look tiny. Everyday her father worked in the field that the merchant’s family had owned for generations.

Katie’s mother was a kind and caring mother. Her hair was chocolate brown whereas her eyes were sky blue. Her skin was fairly pale. Her father was the total opposite in looks. His hair was dark blonde and his eyes were green like the colour of grass. His skin was golden. Katie is a mix of her parents. Her hair is auburn, a very deep red and very long, her eyes are green, but with w blue ring. She has golden skin. Katie and her mother worked in the mansion and they were very happy. But sadly happiness doesn’t last forever and Katie’s future was covered in darkness. One winter an illness swept across the village. It had been a lean year; the harvest had been half of what it should have been. The animals were dying in the streets, the villagers too weak to help themselves let alone others, while the merchant’s family lived a life in unimaginable luxury.

That Christmas, poor as they were, Katie spent it with her parents but never one since. The merchant family, the Fairfax’s, found replacing the space her parent’s had left as easy as breathing. But for Katie the scar of the pain never truly faded. The family did however take a small pity on her; she moved into a small attic room at the top of their mansion. Katie came to be known as ‘Grace’ by her masters because it was easier for them to remember. Her bed was by the fireplace and days were spent by it too, making her golden skin turn to a dark shade of soot grey. The dirt made her eyes almost glow.

Our story begins when Katie is eighteen…

It was a fine summer day, slightly hotter than usual and she was uncomfortable in her work clothes. She is wearing a light blue dress which has three quarter length sleeves. The skirt is long. She is also wearing an apron that starts at her waist and ends just above the bottom of her dress. The apron is tied in a neat bow just below her back. Her auburn hair is plaited from the bottom of her head.

On this day the market place is full of people shopping. There are shops and stalls all over the area.

Katie is walking around the market place seeing what is for sale after finishing the Fairfax’s shopping. She catches the odor of fresh fish as she walks past a fish stall. She walks quickly past it, hoping to find a sweeter scent. Next she stops at a confectionary stall to smell them. Sadly she cannot purchase any as she doesn’t have any money. She then passes a stall selling fresh fruit that is next to one selling fresh vegetables. She catches the scent of freshly baked bread coming from nearby. She stops for a moment. The chorus of buyers and sellers is sounding everywhere, rising up like a leaf caught in a summer’s breeze, surrounding Katie as she goes. She wanders over to the bread stall which has a light brown cover. The seller is a coloured man wearing a baggy and old white shirt and a small cap on the back of his head. He has a long, dark brown, curly beard. He has a full head of the same colour hair. The stall owner is a friend of Katie’s.

She walks up to the stall and greets him.

“Good morning sir” she says.

“Good morning Katie, it’s lovely to see you out and about on such a fine day, you must be sweltering in those” he says pointing to her clothes.

“It’s lovely to see you to, yes I am hot in this but it’s all I’ve got. How’s your family?” she asks.

“They are fine, it was my son’s birthday yesterday, he’s five now, now do they need any bread today” he asks.

“No not today, I’d buy myself some but I don’t have any money, tell your son I said happy birthday, I need to get going, I’ve been gone too long” she says.

“Here” he says cutting a small piece of bread “for the kindness

You have shown my family for years”.

“Thank you” she says. He hands her the bread and she puts it in the basket. She bids the man

Farewell and walks away.

While walking away she notices a young dark haired boy walking shiftily around, like a fox about to pounce on its prey. Suddenly he grabs a loaf of freshly baked bread and runs for it! Two big and beefy guards are on patrol in the vicinity when they hear the cry of the stall owner. They rushed up to the stall owner.

“What’s the problem sir?” enquires one of the guards.

“That kid just stole a loaf of bread from me” cries the stall owner while pointing to the thief. They run after the kid, who takes a sharp turn down an alley way, but the guards keep running in the same direction.

“Stop, you’re chasing the wrong person” the stall owner yells to them after seeing the thief change direction.

Katie stands where she is, curiously wondering who they are chasing after as the thief has vanished. After a minute she shrugs off her curiosity, turns around and starts heading back to the mansion. All of a sudden someone viciously grabs Katie’s arm. She turns; suddenly her heart skips a beat as she sees that the person who grabbed her arm was one of the guards who were chasing the thief.

“Stay where you are thief, you’re under arrest” says one of the guards.

“I’m not a thief” exclaims Katie. She slaps the guard’s hand which makes him let go and runs off.

She runs as fast as she can dodging people, stalls and other objects. She hears screams as she is running. She dodges people wearing different coloured clothes and stalls that have a variety of coloured tops. She looks back for just a second to see if the guards are following her. All of a sudden she bumps into something; a man. He is wearing a long black cloak so Katie can’t see his face. Underneath the cloak she can see a plain shirt with the top two buttons undone and the long sleeves turned up. He is also wearing a pair of plain black trousers that are dirty and torn. Katie looks back again and sees that the guards have caught up. One of the guards grabs hold of her arms and starts dragging her away.

“Hey” yells the stranger. The other guard pushes the stranger but then suddenly stops for some reason. The guard holding on to Katie lets go and the guards walk off while apologizing.

Katie stands where she is, completely confused by what just happened.

“What was that all about?” quizzes Kate.

“Nothing, it’s not important” replied the stranger.

“Well whatever it was, you just saved me, thank you” she says.

“It was nothing, really, sometimes guards arrest the wrong person” he explains.

They stand in silence for a minute looking in the direction the guards walked in. The stranger turns to Katie.

“So what’s your name” he asks. Katie turns to look at him.

“I’m Katie Desmond” she answers.

“Richard Hawkiyes” he says while holding out his hand for her shake. She takes his hand and shakes it. While shaking his hand she says

“It was nice meeting you, but I really have to get going” Katie says.

“I could walk you home if you wanted” suggests Richard.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to be a nuisance” Katie says.

“Yes I’m sure, it’s not like I’m in a rush to get anywhere” Richard explains.

“Okay, sure, you can walk me home” says Katie while brushing a loose piece of hair behind her ear. The two of them set off back to the mansion.

They walk out of the village and into the woods. The trees are shading them from the bright sunlight of midday. There is warm breeze flowing around them. It is carrying the sweet smell of the flowers with it.

Katie thinks there’s something strange about Richard but she can’t put her finger on it. She knows she’s heard the Baroness say the name Richard Hawkiyes but she can’t remember when it was or what she was talking about that was associated. She’s not even sure the Richard she’s with and the Richard the Baroness was talking about is the same person. For all she knows there could be more than Richard Hawkiyes with that spelling of surname. She just has a feeling that Hawkiyes is not a common surname.

“So what happened back there?” asks Richard.

“I don’t really know, one minute the guards were chasing a thief, the next they were chasing after me” explains Katie.

“So, tell me about yourself” asks Richard.

There’s not much to tell really and I don’t want to sound horrible but I barely know you. I don’t even know if I can trust you” she says. Richard notices that Katie is struggling with the two baskets that she’s carrying.

“You look as though your arms are going to drop off, can I help you with those?” he asks.

“No I’ll be fine” she replies. They continue walking. For the whole time they were walking, Richard just can’t take his eyes off of her eyes. To him they seem to almost glow. They were mesmerizing. He suddenly sees something sparkling around Katie’s neck.

“Katie, what’s that around your neck?” he asks. She pulls the chain around her neck to reveal a gold heart locket.

“This was my mother’s” she says. She puts it back inside her dress. Katie continues thinking. After a minute she realizes why the Baroness was talking about Richard Hawkiyes. It’s the prince’s name. She had been talking about how it’s his birthday coming up and that’s he’s come of age. Katie decides to ask him.

“Richard there’s something I need to ask you” she says.

“What is it?” Richard asks her.

“I know this is going to sound dumb but” Katie begins.

“What’s the question?” Richard asks interrupting her. Katie takes a deep breath.

“Are you the prince?” she blurts out. Richard stops shocked by the question.

“What a strange question, why do you ask?” he asks her.

“Well you have exactly the same name as him” Katie answers.

“Yes but that doesn’t make me the prince, after all there are lots of people in the kingdom so there’s bound to be people who have the same name” Richard says. Katie thinks for a minute.

“I suppose you’re right. You can’t be the prince any way because I’m sure the prince doesn’t a, walk around a market place wearing a cloak, b, save peasants from being arrested and c walk peasants home. He probably doesn’t even talk to peasants or leave the palace accept on royal business” Katie says. They come out if the forest and arrive at the entrance pathway to a huge mansion. There is an outer wall with a huge pair of enormous brown gats. They stop.

“Thank you” says Katie.

“Goodbye” says Richard. He then kisses her cheek. She blushes and walks through the gates. What Katie doesn’t know is that her suspicions about Richard are true, he is the prince. He was wandering around wearing a cloak so that he wouldn’t be noticed.

Suddenly someone pops out from behind a tree. It’s John, Richard’s older and wiser best friend. Richard feels his heart skip a beat as he turns around to find his best mate standing behind him. John is a tall, well built man with golden blonde hair and sea blue eyes. His skin is fair. He is 21, three years older than Richard. Richard takes down his hood so that his friend can see that it’s him. Richard is different in appearance to John. His eyes are hazel with green flecks; his hair is dark brown, like the colour of chocolate and it is short. Like John, Richard’s skin is fair.

“John, were you following me?” Richard questions his friend.

“OF course I was. Remember? Your mother did charge me with looking after you” explains John.

“Oh yeah, I forgot” says Richard. He leans against a nearby tree and sighs again.

“Oh, Richard I hate it when you have that look in your eyes, it says that you like her, you do don’t you?” quizzes John. No reply.

“Your mother is not going to like this if she hears about it, and I can’t believe you kissed her, I mean that really says it all, you really do like her” continues John.

“She’s a peasant and I’m a prince, it wouldn’t be allowed, my parents want me to marry a princess or a wealthy woman” he groans. There are a few moments of silence.

“Richard, the carriage is parked nearby; we’d better get going before your mother gets really mad at us for being gone so long” says John. They walk the short distance to the carriage. The Carriage is dark brown with gold around the edges. The doors on either side are rectangle with large square gaps in there for a window. The edging around the doors and windows are also gold. On the bottom section of each door under the window is the royal seal, which tells people that it is royal carriage. The wheels are the same colour as the carriage. Pulling the carriage is a single brown horse. Richard glances back at the mansion before getting into the carriage. John gets in after him and shuts the door behind him. The carriage sets off and starts the long journey to the castle.

An hour later the carriage drives through the enormous brown wooden gates that mark the entrance to the palace. The carriage drives up the pathway to the palace and pulls up by the stairs that lead to the main entrance doors to the palace. The stairs are white as well as being wider at the bottom than at the top. At the top of the stairs are a set of large, pale blue doors. John and Richard walk up the stairs and through the doors as they are opened for them. Inside there is along corridor with bright carpet and deep red wall paper. The curtains are a deep purple that matches the wallpaper and carpet perfectly. There are several doors coming off this corridor. All along the corridor there are paintings of the royal family, past and present, paintings showing the prince growing up. Also there are candles on the wall are not lit as it is day time.

A small fat man who works in the palace comes up to John and Richard as they walk up the corridor. He is wearing a white shirt which is fully done up to the top and a pair of long black trousers.

“Your highness, the king and Queen Wish to see you, they are in the library” he says. John and Richard walk along the corridor and go into the last door on the left. In this room is exactly the same décor as the corridor except that there is a set of stairs that leads up to the next floor. The set of stairs is split in two, one which goes to the landing halfway between the two levels and the other that goes to the second floor from the landing. The two men walk up the stairs and through the door. Beyond the doo is another corridor identical to the one below. They walk straight across the hall and in a door.

This is the library. There are many massive book cases where the top of them reaches the ceiling. In the middle is large table with chairs around it. The king and Queen are sat at this table. From the looks on their faces Richard can see that he is in big trouble. They are scowling. The Queen is 37, has brown eyes, brown hair and fair skin. The King is like the Queen in looks but is 38 not 37. For a few moments there is silence throughout the room. It is broken by the Queen.

“Richard, where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you!” yells the Queen. Richard stands where he is, silent while staring at the floor.

“Well?” demands the Queen.

“I…I…I was in town, looking around” mummers Richard, afraid of what his parents might say next.

“Richard, we keep telling you, you’re, you can’t wander around in the open without people noticing, and I have noticed your wearing a cloak but that makes you look more suspicious” she bellows.

“What am I supposed to do? Stay in the palace all day, every day, I can’t do that” he shouts back. Suddenly the King interrupts the argument.

“Richard, we didn’t ask you to come here just to yell at you, there is a question at hand about your birthday, so would you sit down and listen to our proposal?” he says calmly.

“Alright” he agrees while pulling up a chair to the table and sitting down.

“As it’s your eighteenth we would like to hold a larger party instead of the normal small parties that we’ve done in previous years, this means inviting a few more people, getting more food etc” suggests the King.

“So it’s like a royal ball, only for my birthday instead, okay, I think I can handle a royal ball for my birthday celebration” agrees Richard.

“We’ll hold the ball in three days time, just leave the organizing to us” says the King. Richard got up and is about to leave the room when the Queen speaks.

“Richard, please don’t go wandering about the town for the next few days” she asks.

“Alright mother” he says. With that Richard leaves the library and his birthday party preparations in his parent’s hands.

Back at the mansion, Katie is climbing into her bed in her attic room after a hard day’s work.

“Someday I won’t have to work for a rich family; someday I will have a family of my own” says Katie with a sigh. With that she falls sleep.