Soot & Ashes

Eight: The Stable Boy

Lady Mary Cinders was quite disappointed with how slack work seemed to be about the grand house and its grounds. Things were slipping, the stables worst of all. The wood was taking forever to be chopped and collected, dinner was almost always late, banisters were going by undusted some days. It was enough for her to grind her teeth. It was unacceptable.

She scolded poor little Cinders fiercely, for she must have been what was slowing both girls up. Oh how she cried from the beating and the harsh words.

Soot of course stood forward and admitted since catching an awful cold in the rain, she had not been doing her best either. She received a swollen red cheek for her trouble.

"Fortunately for you, I am in a merciful mood." Mary Cinders sighed, buttoning up her black lace gloves. "I will be hiring an extra hand to take care of the horses and the wood cutting from now on. I cannot have the standards of my house slip so indecently." She snapped coolly, smoothing out her dress.

A day later the proof of that help seemed to be seen. The log piles were always full, so the fires could always blaze brightly in the cold night. The stables were mucked out, the horses groomed and fed, all by a seemingly invisible entity. Until the day Arabella stumbled into him in the kitchen. Her breath was caught away.

"Sven!" She cheered excitedly, for it was her beloved stable boy who Ethel had sent away cruelly just to spite her!

When Sven turned his warm brown eyes on Arabella he was astonished. She was adorned in the prettiest dress,  her hair pulled up on top of her head perfectly with a few stray red ringlets hanging down about her silken cheeks that glowed a little pink even in the dim light. She looked every bit the lady she was always meant to be. Shaken by her appearance he dropped the logs he was carrying to rest next to the stove and rushed to her.

"Arabella!" He breathed her name like a sacred prayer as he took her up in his arms and spun her around, dizzy light and free she giggled.

When he set her back down on her feet their foreheads met, their eyes closed, trying to ground themselves again. Their hearts beat so fast, they thought they could never catch up.

"Look at you, dressed as you should be... How much things must have changed here!" He exclaimed happily.

Arabella frowned, looking down at her feet. "Perhaps things haven't changed as much as they appear to have." She sighed glumly.

"But you are free of working tirelessly for that ungrateful Ethel Cinders?!" He checked excitedly.

"Well, yes... but." Arabella couldn't help but shake with the guilt.

"Oh how I've dreamed of making something of myself so that I could come back here and sweep you from your feet and rescue you from the misery you had to endure." Sven cupped her cheeks between his warm hands gladly. "But here you are, not in need of saving and me still a stable boy through and through!" He brushed his thumb under her eye gently and stooped forward about to kiss her as he'd imagined doing for so long.

Just then Cinders came through the kitchen door carrying a bucket of dirty water and a mop. He stood straight, frowning at the old mistress of the house, covered in filth and clothed in rags. He looked back at Arabella whose expression had sunk further.

"What is this?" His eyebrows sunk with his heart, removing his hands from about Arabella's face.

She stared down at her feet. "I... She... Mother..." Arabella stuttered on, unable to complete a sentence without feeling wretched.

Cinders stood there dumbfounded, looking at the two of them. This was the stable boy she had thrown out with his parents because he continued to work. She'd thrown him out more specifically because she'd caught him being kind to Ashes. Now she was sure he would hate her, believe she deserved every little thing that she got now that she was fallen from her high pedestal. She was waiting for it, the cruel words, the justified anger and hatred. She was surprised by what he was truly upset about.

"This is what you meant about thing's not being so different? There's still hardship, just not yours?" He grumbled bitterly, Arabella's cheeks flushing red, her eyes low with shame.

Soot came in through the back door next, fresh vegetables from the back of the garden for dinner in a little basket she'd carried with her. Sven turned back to her mortified before looking upon Arabella as if he had never seen her before in his life.

 "Soot as well?" His frown deepened. "You wear these riches at their expense?" He asked incredulously.

"Of course she does, she's a smart girl who knows what's good for her." Mary Cinders voice entered the kitchen from the doorway and Arabella clamped her eyes shut tight in morbid anticipation.

Sven took a step back, his brown eyes locked on Mary Cinders, obvious fear within them. He couldn't understand the kind of mother who would permit what she was doing.

"A stable boy like you should really mind his work. Anybody like you should know that they are unworthy of speaking to a lady such as my daughter." Mary approached him with little fear that he was half a foot taller than her or that he was quite strong. Because she was far more terrifying in all her coldness.

Sven did as he was told and backed out of the door into the garden, looking back at Arabella as he left. "I don't know who you are anymore." He admitted before disappearing onto the ground.

Arabella found herself beginning to cry, she hid her face in her hands. It  was Soot's natural reaction to reach out towards her to comfort her. Only her mother was there far too quickly and struck Arabella for her foolishness.

"Get out of the kitchen, girl, and never let me catch you speaking to that boy again. He is the help. You are a lady. The two should never mix under any circumstances." Mary Cinders scolded, pointing towards the door.

Arabella burst into tears again and fled the room as quickly as she could, finding solace in her room once more.

She stared out her window as she sobbed and watched Sven as he took one of the horses out for a trot. His shoulders hung low and his face painted with sadness. She wondered if she really was so different from the girl he had fallen in love with? She felt so ashamed.