Cinderella: A Retelling of an Old Classic

The Coming of the Matriarch - Chapter 19

"Oh heavens!!" Becca was fluttering around the kitchen with an urgency that would have put a hummingbird to shame. "Take these sheets up to the guest room dear and make sure you fix the corners of them the way mistress like it. Otherwise we will both be in trouble."
"Alright!" Ella dashed up the kitchen stairs into the drawing room, through the hallway, up the grand-staircase, down another hallway and into the enormous room which was to house her newly found grandmother for the remainder of her stay at the manor.

She and Becca were in a state of constant readiness for at any moment the coach was expected to come clattering down the drive bringing with it the Dame and her mother.

Adela hurried to make up the grand bed and fix the sheets to her step-mothers liking. She knew that as soon as she stepped into the house all her work would be scrutinized with nothing short of a magnifying spectacles. Suddenly she heard it! The sound they had all been worked towards yet dreaded. The sound of pounding hooves and clattering chains, the coach had arrived. 

"Come mamma," she heard someone say in the hall as she hurried to finish the last chore. "Let me show you to your room. Our serving girl seems to be missing."
A murmur of ascent was all she heard as she struggled to pin the sheet into the corner. She was so small however and the bed so large that even if she had had Becca with her they could not have lifted the mattress for anything.

"Here we are," Regina glided into the room, her silken dress making a subtle swooshing sound on the wood panels. "And here she is apparently..." haughty disdain and disapproval filled her eyes as she caught Ella with the sheet in her hands trying very hard to stuff it under the mattress somehow.

Someone breathing heavily entered the door and stood for a few moments her hand at her breast. "Really Reggy I can't understand why you couldn't have given me one of the rooms on the first floor. I'm elderly, girl! I can't be bothered with all those stairs every time I wish to ascend or descend to the ground floor."

'Reggy?' Adela was stunned and looked at her now truly irate stepmother. She looked passed her and saw the most wonderful sight she had in some time. A stately women with white hair in a grey silken gown and eyes that sparkled merrily was looking at her with such amusement Ella nearly smiled in return.

Sharply clearing her throat Regina told the groomsman to bring in the luggage for which he was promptly thanked.

"Mother," Regina looked horrified. "They are merely the help! They should be seen not heard and certainly not spoken to!"
"Whoever put such ridiculous thoughts into that head of yours dear? I am not so old nor so deaf that I cannot both hear AND see them." with that the elderly women came into the room more fully.

"And who is this Reggy? You have yet to introduce me." she asked.

Ella froze and looked down at the floor paralyzed. She didn't know what to do, what her stepmother would do. The main rule in the house was to do your work quickly, quietly and invisibly and she had failed miserably.

"That? The little thing I can only describe as the chimney sweep for the amount of dirt on her is called Adela."
"Adela? Wasn't that the name of your husband's child? The one you sent to school last summer?" her grandmother asked shrugging off her shawl and removing her hat.
Ella looked up in surprise and saw the last of an alarmed look on her stepmothers face.

"Oh well, yes, I suppose so, of course." her stepmother actually nearly stuttered the last word. "What a coincidence."
"Hmmmm," her mother looked Ella up and down more closely. "You know she does quite resemble him as well dear."
"Another coincidence I'm sure. All fair-haired people look alike to me you know so I've never noticed. And we never call her Adela... I would only have her confused with my dear stepdaughter."

The older of the two looked at her daughter shrewdly. "Well, what do you call her?"

Adela again looked up in shock only to see a horrid grin on Regina's face.

"We always call her Cinderella."
"Cinderella? How on earth did you choose that name? Why not Jane or Mary or something of that sort?"

"This dirty little girl always sleeps near the cinders and wakes up with her hair full of ashes. Its quite comical really to see her scurry about in the morning with her hair full of soot. The girls took to calling her Cinderblock but what with the kitchen maid calling her Ella all the time Cinderella became the preferred choice."

"Oh I see, well as long as the girl doesn't mind I can't see the harm. Though really Reggy must you berate the girl so. Her room must be too cold to sleep in if she sleeps so close to the fire at night."
"Oh no mother, she is simply too lazy to climb the few stairs to her room at night."
Adela listened to all of this in shock. Her eyes were filled with tears. Here she had thought to find another family member, perhaps even someone she could love again and her stepmother had ruined everything yet again.

After a few more trifling words were said Regina swept out of the room leaving her to unpack while her grandmother sat reading by the fireplace.

Many gowns and chemises and handkerchiefs with lace were carefully unfolded and put into their proper place with silent tears staining the hems. She couldn't help it. Her heart broken again she studiously worked, all the while her tears were flowing freely down her cheeks.

At the sound of a quiet sniffle or two the stately lately set down her book and donned a delicate pair of spectacles. 

"Goodness child are you crying?" she asked in astonishment.

Adela jumped and quickly wiped her eyes trying her utmost to conceal her emotions. With her face turned against the fire she quickly replied, "no madame."
"But I say you are! Come." the last word was a command not a suggestion and Adela had no choice but to comply.
"Yes, I see the tracks down your cheeks. You have been crying most certainly."
"Oh no Ma'am." Adela tried once more to wipe at her eyes. "Some dust must have flown into my eyes when I was unpacking."
The lady looked at her with piercing eyes. "Are you telling me my clothes were full of dust?" she asked coolly.

Ella was so nervous that she did not see the twinkle in woman's eye.

" Oh no! No madama I did not mean to say such a thing. I..." with a shamed face Ella repeated something she had just heard. "I must have had some cinders still in my hair."
"Ahhhhhh," was all she replied.

Adela got back to work and she had finished she moved to leave the room.

"Do you like to be called Cinderella?" she was asked.
Ella whirled around in a flash and said, "No," before covering her mouth with her hand. Expecting to be reprimanded she was astounded when the gracious lady laughed instead and stood.

"Then I shall not call you by that name. I shouldn't have liked it either. I will call you Adela if you would like it more."
She could only nod, her eyes filling with tears again. "Thank you." she whispered softly before leaving the puzzled lady in a flurry.