Grimm Fantasies: Cinder Princess

Wedding

  "Stop moving Ashley you'll make it worse, don't you want to look pretty for your father?" Perla asked with a ghost of a smile on her face. Ashley fidgeted in the frilly blush pink dress and frowned as the giant bow around her neck kept brushing against her throat and making her skin itchy.

  "I don't care; father doesn't look at me anyway." Ashley noticed the look Suzy and Mary shared while Perla looked up at Ashley's face; her hands going still as they mended the hem of Ashley's dress.

  "Why do you say that?" Perla questioned. Ashley looked down frowning again as the bow yet again got in the way.

  "...Because he doesn't. He only cares about Ella and Annie now...And Ms. Bellerose..." Ashley told them. Perla and the others were quiet for a moment before they started moving again. Perla sighed and finished up Ashley's dress before touching her shoulder.

  "Go play princess and we'll find you when the ceremony starts." Ashley nodded and hopped of the pedestal before hurrying out of the room. Before the door shut she herd Suzy speak.

  "He's not happy here. What should we do?"

  "It's a shame we're cut off, or we could ask the Queen for help." Mary responded. Ashley paused for a moment to listen for more but Perla simply sighed and said, "Just get back to work I'll figure something out." The conversation was over after that so Ashley walked away and down the hall to the stairs. Ella and Annie were there speaking to each other about what they usually talk about,

  Killing things.

  "Then you just cut down its belly and yank out the guts." Ella said to her younger sister who listened with mesmerized anticipation. Ella stopped talking when she noticed Ashley stepping down the stairs. A bright mischievous grin slipped across her face as she greeted her step-sister-to-be.

  "Hello Ashley did you sleep well?" Ashley stopped halfway down the stairs and looked up at her.

  "That was you?" She asked quietly, knowing full well what the answer was. She'd been awake when Ella and Annie snuck into her bed room and planted the fake spiders under her covers.

  "What was me?" Ella asked innocently. Ashley shook her head and stepped down the rest of the stairs.

  "Nothing, never mind," Ashley said. Ella narrowed her eyes, the smirk only widened on her face. Annie stood next to her older sister quietly with the same trickster grin as her sister.

  "So as I was saying." Ella turned back to her sister. "After you gut the fish you can see if it's a girl or a boy if you find eggs inside." Ashley turned and walked away, she had little interest in learning any more than that.

  She headed outside to the back yard. There were workers everywhere, getting the yard ready for the ceremony. It was still early in the day and the sun was still just barely over the tree tops. Ashley looked around at the rows of chairs and floral decorations being hung up. The works ran about, diligently setting the stage for the wedding.

  Everything seemed bright and cheery on this day, Ashley was getting a new mother and two older sisters but she felt alone. Ashley watched quietly as Eleanora, her father's fiancée, speak with the wedding planner, a fat woman with round glasses scribbling on a clip board and nodding every so often.

  Ashley let out a slow sigh and wondered off, heading to the forested area of her father's land. He had a lot of land and a lot of people working for him. Ashley spent countless hours exploring and still hasn't seen it all.

  As Ashley passed by two workers she overheard them talking, not a lot of people noticed her. Ella and Annie were the only ones to acknowledge her on a regular basis and it was usually to find new ways to make her cry, so it was no surprise the workers spoke about Ashley with her standing right there.