Cinderella: There's No Happy Ending

Chores

Alice left the party shortly after her conversation with Lady Tremaine. Many people had overestimated their ability to hold their alcohol and Alice didn't want to witness any accidents. She went to Ella's room and picked up her discarded dress before going through the kitchens and out to the servant's quarters. The others were already asleep so Alice crept quickly through the rooms. Reaching her bed, Alice slipped out of the new dress and into her night dress. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched her pillow.

A few hours later, the rooster crowed loudly and Alice sat up immediately. Last to sleep, first to rise. As it should be. Smiling to herself, she got dressed in a clean dress and laid the new dress across her bed once it was made. There were no worries of anyone stealing it; it wasn't really worth any coin. However, everyone knew Alice never bought things for herself so she knew that they would want to look at her newest item of clothing. She might never wear it again but the fact that she had it would keep the women gossiping of possibilities for days.

Walking silently to the front of the building, Alice quickly wrote out the list of chores and who they were assigned to on the large chalkboard in front of her. She wasn't technically the head of the servants but all the others thought of her that way. The elderly woman who was the official Head of Help didn't mind as Alice was always fair with her assignments. She always gave herself the most arduous tasks and spread the rest evenly among the servants and nobody ever received the same chore in the same week. The task of dealing out punishments however, was something Alice left to the older woman. She didn't like having to judge people's work and punish them accordingly.

Once she was finished, she turned and looked at her fellow workers who were still sleeping. They would need to be awoken but Alice had a few things to put right first. One man had taken another man's family ring; it was sticking out from under his pillow. Alice returned it to its owner without disturbing either of them. A woman had left a mess around her entire sleeping area and Alice used her feet to push it all into a small pile near the side of her bed. She would step on it when she got out of bed. These things, along with others, were done quickly and quietly. When they awoke, those people would know it was Alice who had kept them from getting in trouble and their faces would heat up in shame. Every person in that room knew how hard the girl worked without asking for anything in return and here they were making more work for her by allowing her to clean up their messes.

Alice left the building and left the door open to allow the nice breeze in before she rang the morning bells. The Master of the house was leaving today and everything had to be made ready as quickly and efficiently as possible. Entering the house through the kitchen, Alice set about lighting the fires in the hearths and under the stove so the cook wouldn't have to wait so long for everything to heat up. Once that was done, Alice climbed the stairs and spotted the Master's bags set outside the bedroom door. Picking the largest one up, Alice grunted softly as the weight settled on her right shoulder. It was heavier than it looked but she couldn't put it down now without dropping it.

Moving quickly, she picked up another smaller bag with her free hand and made her way down the stairs. As she had hoped, the carriages were sitting in front of the house when she got downstairs. Farmer John was just entering the house for a cup of hot coffee when Alice reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hold the door for me, will you John?" Her voice was tight from the effort of carrying all the weight on her shoulders and Farmer John's eyes nearly dropped from his face when he saw Alice. "Miss Alice you know better! You shouldn't carry so much! Why not let one of the men help you with that?" Alice shook her head and smiled at the man as she passed him. "I can do this on my own John, I promise. I'm not quite as weak as my skinny arms would have you believe!"

Farmer John, along with many other men on the farm, would never dare to tell Alice how they saw her 'skinny arms'. Where she saw thin, the men recognized strong muscles that bulged when she carried heavy things. Anyone who really looked at Alice could see that she was a beautiful woman with a body almost as strong as her will to do things. Keeping his mouth shut, the man shook his head and turned into the house to fetch the Master. He would set Alice straight as he seemed to be the only person around here that Alice really listened to, besides Ella.