Cinderella: There's No Happy Ending

Punishment

Once she had put most of the bags into the carriage, Alice turned around to make another trip upstairs to grab the final two bags. However, standing in front of her with a stern look on his face, was the Master of the house himself. Alice dropped into a curtsey and noticed the final two bags sitting on the ground by his feet. "Sir, I apologize for not getting your bags quicker. You should not have had to carry them yourself." The man laughed, causing Alice to look up at him.

"I am more than capable of carrying my own bags Alice. Besides, that is not what is important. How many times have I told you to allow the men to carry the bags? Let me see your hands." Alice sighed softly and held her hands out, palm up to show him. She expected him to grab the riding crop and snap it down on her hands as punishment for disobeying him. However, his hands grabbed hers gently and his fingertips ran over the imprints on her hands from the bags. There were also multiple cuts on her hands from all her work that looked as though they would reopen any moment and start bleeding. He sighed, as though this is what he expected to see before dropping her hands and stepping back.

"Go to the cook, you know what has to be done. Twenty minutes should be enough." Alice looked up at him in shock, anger boiling deep in her eyes. "Sir please! I won't do it again, I swear! Don't you think a better punishment would be to make me finish my task, or scrub the bricks, or I could even brush down the horses again?"

The Master laughed and shook his head before pointing in the direction of the kitchen. "No, Alice. You have received your punishment. Now go endure it." Pouting slightly in spite of herself, Alice marched her way to the kitchen and sullenly showed her hands to the cook. The woman had a hard time keeping the smile off her face as she directed Alice to sit at the table. "How long did he say you had to do this?" Alice growled out the answer as a steaming bowl was placed in front of her before she dipped her hands in. The water smelled strongly of honey, rose, yarrow root, and multiple other herbs that were meant for healing and numbing pain.

The Master and everyone else on the property quickly figured out the best way to punish Alice was to make her sit still. There had been many days that she had worked her hands past the point of bleeding and the cook had quickly found a remedy to help them heal. Alice enjoyed working so making her work harder only encouraged her thinking that she wasn't doing enough but making her sit with her hands stuck in a bowl of healing water, was enough to drive her crazy.

This time, Alice knew that sitting here for twenty minutes would be enough time for the men and the other servants to finish packing the carriages and get everything ready to go. "Why do you do this to yourself miss? You know this is going to happen every time you overwork yourself. Is it that you don't trust the others to do it right?" Alice looked at the cook and smiled at the woman while shrugging. "It's not that I don't trust them. I know they're perfectly capable of doing a wonderful job. However, I owe my life to the Master and his family. If I don't give them everything I can in my work, I feel like it is a horrible repayment of my debt. My mother died when I was young and I was taken into this household as a worker. I would've become a street urchin otherwise, so I'm extremely thankful for everything they've done for me."

Once her twenty minutes was over, Alice pulled her hands out of the water and dried them on a small towel before examining them. The cuts were almost healed now and the welts from the bags were gone. Her palms were soft again, not work hardened like they were before the water dip. Her hands would stay like this for another few days before the work load would catch up with them. Saying a quick thank you to the cook, Alice made her way to the drawing room where she pulled a rag from the pocket of her dress and began dusting. This was an easy task but all the other servers hated it because it took so long and Lady Tremaine always criticized their work. Alice however, seemed to have a talent for it along with a small place in the Lady's heart. She never criticized Alice's work though she always watched her carefully.