More Than a Servant (Cinderella AU)

Chapter 3

All morning and afternoon Astrid washed, ironed, stitched and fitted her sister's dresses so that they could look just like royals. She did all the chores Alvin flung at her including cleaning all the dragon stables, even the ones that were empty. By the end of the day, she stunk of dragon dung and her skin was all dirty with dirt and ashes after she was done with her chores.

'I guess I'm not going to the ball after all.' She thought glumly as she walked back into the house. Her back and feet were sore from the hours spent trying to clean every bit of the house, and now she had no time to fix the dress as she planned to and no time to take a bath either. She was just too tired to do anything at this point and all she wanted to do was collapse on her bed and fall asleep until the next morning.

Heather and Ruffnut were waiting in the foyer, dressed to the nines in beautiful silk dresses she spent hours trying to fix up to look nice. The sight made her smile a bit, especially since her sisters had been trying to help her with the sewing so she could get to do her chores. But her smile faded away when she saw Alivin watching her with a smug expression on his face that made her want to smack him with the dung shovel from the stables.

"Why Astrid, the carriage is already here and your sisters are all prepped up. Why aren't you ready?" Alvin asked in mock concern when she walked past him.

"I don't have anything nice to wear, sir. So I'm not even going." She states bluntly and turned to her sisters. "You two have fun, and I hope either of you gets to snag a dance with the prince or someone worthy of your affections who'd make a nice husband."

"Oh father can't we just wait a bit for her?" Ruffnut begs. "It's not fair, Astrid hardly had any time to make herself something nice, Heather or I could lend her something from our closets and jewelry boxes!"

"Just go take a quick bath Astrid, I'll go grab a gown from my closet!" Heather says as she and her sister start to walk to the stairs.

"No it's fine girls, I really don't feel like going." Astrid says quickly before they could move. "I'm just... really tired. I'm going to go to bed, you three go without me and have some fun."

"Are you sure?" Heather asks and Astrid gives her a nod with a sad smile. "It's not going to be fun without you Astrid!"

"I'll be fine." She assures her before walking off.

Astrid made her way to her room, not caring about how cold she was feeling. She walked upstairs and opened the door to her chamber, feeling a bit relieved to at least be back in her room. She walks over to her opened window to close it, stopping to gaze out at the palace.

"Oh it would have been nice to go to the dance." She sighed as Sneaky lands on the windowsill in front of her. He gives a little chirp and nudges her hand affectionately. Astrid smiles and gives her little friend a scratch behind his horns, glad that she at least wasn't going to be alone tonight. She heard several grunts from her bed and turns to find the Terrors standing around it with excited looks on their little faces.

"And have have you all been doing while I was gone, not causing any trouble I hope?" Astrid asks as one of the Terrors climbs onto her drawers and coughs on a candle to light it, illuminating the room. She gasps in shock at the sight on her bed, the dress she had wanted to fix laying on her bed all neat and fixed perfectly. Who did this? Did Ruffnut or Heather fix this for her while she was cleaning the house? Or...

"You fixed it for me?" Astrid asked the Terrors as she held the dress up to examine it. The Terrors nodded and cooed happily. "Oh thank you so much!" She squealed and dropped the dress to gather them in a big group hug. "Oh thank you, thank you! Oh I need to wash up before the carriage arrives!"

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"Now remember you two, you must be on your best behavior tonight. Even if you don't get the prince to fall in love with either of you- I hardly doubt it- you both still might have a chance to find a suitable and rich husband." Alvin said to his daughter's as they were preparing to leave.

"Yes farther." Ruffnut and Heather said in unison. The both glanced up the stairs, sadly wishing that their poor stepsister would come with them.

"Now that we are ready let us be-"

"Hold up!" The three of them looked up to see Astrid coming down the stairs. She wore a pretty blue dress with a belt that had the Deadly Nadder symbol on it and a strip of leather with two small feathers on the band with her hair in a neat braid over her shoulder and a little leather band around one arm.

"I thought you said you weren't going to the dance Astrid." Alvin states trying to hide his anger. "You said you were too tired."

"I managed to find the perfect dress and fixed myself up at the last second. It's a bit old but I like it. It was my mother's." Astrid says as she reaches the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh Astrid you look absolutely beautiful!" Heather gasps as she and Ruffnut rush over to their stepsister. "You know what? I have a feeling tonight you actually might be the one to get a husband instead of us!"

"I bet she will!" Ruffnut agrees with a laugh. "When did you did the time to fix this? I remember your mother wearing this before, but it had so much lace and puffy sleeves!"

"And where did you get the jewelry? Did you steal it? I think Ruffnut had jewelry like that." Alvin asked taking a step towards her.

"What? N-no I would never steal anything!" Astrid said looking shocked.

"And where did you get those shoes? I recall seeing them in Heather's room earlier as she was dressing."

"Wait what?" Astrid had at first hadn't really questioned where her little pets got the jewelry and shoes, assuming they had found them somewhere at the bottom of the trunk. It then took her a moment to realize they 'borrowed' it from her sisters.

"You rotten little thief!" Alvin spat. "I should have thrown you out a long time ago but after you sisters convinced me to let you stay this is how you repay their kindness?" Astrid barely had time to react as she felt his fist slamming into her face and knocking her to the floor.

"Father!" Heather screamed and tried to grab his arm to pull him away. "Please stop it!"

"She didn't know! We were going to get rid of that stuff anyways!" Ruffnut said trying to help her sister pull their father away from Astrid but Alvin just pushed them away.

"I should have never listened to them!" Alvin roared and Astrid prepared to defend herself when there was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Alvin yelled then quickly composed himself.

"The coach has arrived sir!" Yelled someone from outside. Heather and Ruffnut sighed in relief and quickly moved to help their sister up bust Astrid batted their hands away. Her face was really hurting right now, but the last thing she wanted to do was give Alvin the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"Next time I won't let you go so easily." Her stepfather sneered and turned away to leave, followed by her sisters.

Astrid looked down at her hard worked dress to see it torn in several places. Her hair was pulled out of it's braid and one of the shoes was missing from her feet. The places where Alvin hit her hurt so much but she refused to cry. She got up slowly and made her way to the garden outside. She walked over to a bench where she remembered that that was where her father would sit with her and read stories together. She sunk to her knees and laid her head on the bench over his spot and began to cry.