“Oh, young love,” said Ferdinand, shaking his head with a chuckle. “I take it you refuse my generous proposal?” He sighed. “Then we must move on to my alternative plan.”
Ferdinand seized Cinderella’s hand, and the guards held her firm so he could remove the ring that Charles had given her.
“A pretty bauble. Our beloved queen’s, I presume? Bless her soul.”
“Give that back!” cried Cinderella.
“Not another word,” Ferdinand warned, and one of the guards immediately clamped a hand over her mouth, stifling her shouts.
The duke twirled the ring around his finger, watching the sapphire sparkle and catch the candlelight. “I think I shall include this with the message I have prepared for young Charles.”
He reached into his jacket pocket, fishing out a neatly folded note. “I had a feeling you’d decline my offer, so I went through the trouble of already preparing one.”
Alarm surged through Cinderella. “No!” she cried, but the sound was muffled. Desperately, she twisted and squirmed, trying to claw the guard’s hands away from her mouth, but he only tightened his grip.
The duke waved the note before her. “Let’s have this delivered to Prince Charles straightaway, shall we? Now I must hurry back to the ball before I am missed. Worry not, Cinderella, the prince will think of you fondly, though I regret that even he will forget you in time.”
Without missing a beat, Ferdinand deliberately dropped the ring into the envelope.
Then someone threw a sack over Cinderella’s head, and her world spiraled into darkness.
My dearest Charles,
I have had second thoughts about marrying you and becoming the princess of Aurelais. I must confess I only pretended to be in love with you to escape the dreary confines of my life with Lady Tremaine. Alas, I am overcome with guilt and cannot go on with the wedding. My mind will not be changed. Please don’t look for me.
Your Most Humble Servant,
Cinderella
Charles read the letter again and again, trying to make sense of the puzzle it presented.
There was no puzzle, really. The message was quite clear.
She didn’t love him. She didn’t want to marry him.
He was a mess of emotions. Every other time he reread the letter, he believed it.
“I have no one to blame but myself,” he murmured. He had told her, as honestly as he could, that life as the princess of Aurelais would not be easy. That if she changed her mind, he would respect it.
And yet... deep down, he couldn’t believe she’d left him. Couldn’t believe that this letter was from her. The words were formal and stilted, not at all like his beloved Cinderella.
But the greatest part of the puzzle was the ring....
Tucked between the folds of the letter, it was the same ring he had given her the previous night. He rubbed the engraving inside the band, the one that proclaimed the love his father had had for his mother.Equal in step, equal in heart. For always.
So why did he refuse to believe it was from her?
Because if she truly left, then she isn’t at all the girl I thought she was.
Clutching the letter tight, Charles rang for Pierre.
“There’s still no word of her, Your Highness,” said his attendant, responding before Charles even asked. It was the sixth time in half an hour that he’d rung for the man. Probably the hundredth time since the ball had abruptly ended the night before.
“Check everywhere. The servants’ quarters, the stables, the coach house...”
“We are looking, Your Highness.” Pierre bowed his head. “The Grand Duke has sent his entire staff in search of her. Unfortunately, so far, it appears she has vanished.”
Vanished. For the third time.
