Cinderella: The Cinder from the Ash

Chapter Six

“Where izzzz sheeee?” Ella heard Esame growling as she approached the house. It was too late. “Hungggggry…” the cry continued.

Evangline stepped outside on to the porch, looking back over her shoulder. “Esmae, shut your mouth! The world can hear you!”

“Donnn’t care.”

“Mama cares, and I care! Cinder will be…” the older step-sister trailed off, and her head snapped around to stare straight at Ella. “You are late.”

“I was delayed.” Ella held out the basket, praying her step-sister would have some compassion and allow her to keep the carrots. “Is Mama angry?”

“Mama is hungry, as we all are,” Evangline replied. “If you wish your back to be spared, you had best hurry to the kitchen.” Her nostrils flared. “And get rid of those blasted vegetables first!”

“Thank you, Evangline.” Ella hurried into the house and up the stairs to her room. Only once the door was shut did she take the carrots out of the basket and set them on her bed. No time to wash them, or place them into the special container under her bed. She had to take the raw brains to the kitchen before Esmae came looking for her. Closing the bedroom door carefully behind her, Ella scurried downstairs and into the kitchen. There was no sign of her youngest step-sister, or her step-mother. Her shoulders sagged in relief. Celina was very likely tending to Esmae’s temper tantrum, which gave Ella a chance to slice the brains into thin steaks and place them on the silver platter her step-mother insisted they use for every meal.

“Cinder, where are you? Evangline told me you were here!” Her step-mother’s strident voice echoed off the wood paneled walls.

“In the kitchen, Mama. I am just now ready to serve lunch,” Ella called out, her voice deliberately cheery.

“Your step-sister cannot join us, due to your indulgent behavior. She will be eating in her rooms. Take her a plate, then return. I would love to hear what kept you away from us for so long,” Celina ordered.

A plate delivered to Esmae in her current state meant risking her life, but there was no other choice. Ella lived by Celina’s sufferance. She reached up and took a blue stoneware plate out of the cupboard, placing it first on the sideboard next to the silver platter, then adding one slice of each brain type. “I will return shortly, Mama.”

“Perhaps,” Celina, looking radiantly dead in a gown of deep eggplant, peered around the doorjamb. Ella met her steady gaze, and looked away. The whites of her step-mother’s eyes were a faint green, a sure sign of her encroaching hunger. “Esmae took the cat upstairs with her.”

Ella shut her eyes briefly to keep the tears that sprang up at bay. The cat was not a pet, but a whip with nine very painful ‘tails’, and Esmae liked nothing better than to use it on her human step-sister. She was a master at delivering pain, as the scars on Ella’s back could attest to. Steeling herself, Ella picked up the plate with shaking hands and crept up the stairs to meet her fate.

“Esmae, I have lunch prepared.” Ella knocked at the door of what used to be her room.

The door cracked open. “Innnnsssside,” came the low growl.

“I—I must go back downstairs to Mama,” Ella protested. “But I can leave the plate just inside the door.”

“Now!” Esmae’s voice cracked like the whip Ella was afraid she held. Pushing the door open with one shoulder, she walked inside.

***

Tears trickled down Ella’s cheeks in a stream, smearing the make-up she had so carefully applied earlier that morning. Her right ankle throbbed under its layers of cool cloths, but at least her back was not suffering from the whip’s abuse. Shifting on the bed, her left ankle brushed against the right. She moaned deep in her throat. Esmae had been too hungry to apply the whip effectively, and so Ella had been able to dodge most of the blows directed her way. The last one had twined around her right ankle before being pulled away, taking strips of her skin with it. Esmae had just laughed and continued to shove handfuls of raw brain into her mouth.

“Cinder, where is the face powder?” The shriek outside her door belonged to Evangline. “And the hair combs! Stupid girl, I am sure you forget things on purpose!”

“I…” Ella cleared her raspy throat and tried again. “I did not forget intentionally, Evangline. I would never deliberately do that to you.”

“Well, tomorrow we must visit the solicitor, so while we are out you will purchase what you have so carelessly forgotten.”

“I am not sure I can walk without limping, Evangline.” Ella protested. “I do not think I can make it to the meeting this month.”

“Then limp,” her step-sister snapped. “You know very well Mama cannot access her accounts if you are not present! If you are questioned about it, blame your inattentiveness, since the fault lies with you. After all, if you had not been late, Esmae would not have been angry and Mama would not have allowed her to use the cat.” She paused. “Oh, and stop that sniveling! It is quite annoying.”

Ella forced her voice to calm. Her lacerated ankle throbbed in time to her heartbeat. “Evangline, please, let me be. For pity’s sake, for tonight, just let me be.” She could hear her step-sister’s sigh through the door.

“You are such a fragile creature. Very well, since lunch has been served and Mama is resting, I suppose you will not be needed.”

Ella sighed her relief. “Thank you, Evangline.”

“Dinner is at six sharp, however, and I expect you downstairs to serve me.”

“Can I—would it be all right if I left the brains on the table, and you served yourself? Just for one night?”

The door crashed against the wall with the force of Evangline’s rage. “Absolutely not!” Her oldest step-sister barged into the room. “I am an Adler, and we do not serve ourselves!”

Unbidden, the words rose in Ella’s throat. “Adler is not your given name, Evangline, and I am not your servant!”