Dancing on Glass

His Highness

Cinderella was lucky.

Incredible lucky, as the doctor put it.

Incredibly lucky to walk away with nothing more then bad bruising and shaken nerves.

She could have cracked her skull open if she had collided with the marble floor. She could have snapped her neck from the angle she landed at. She could have broken a rib when she slammed into the edge of the steps.

But no.

She walked away with bruising along her chest and on her jaw. It would damage her looks for a time but that would heal.

She didn't even crack a bone.

Luck had truly been on her side.

On doctor's orders, her stepmother had told her to rest for the day. She had fully expected Lady Constantia to retract that order the second the doctor was gone – saying it was her own fault for falling down stairs and there as no one else to blame.

But no.

She ordered her to bed and told Dia to be the one to keep and eye on her, in case any missed symptoms appeared.

She found this appearance of worry and – apparently – genuine concern almost more disturbing then the notion that someone had pushed her down the stairs.

Because someone had most certainly pushed her.

She could still feel the pressure of two solid slender hands on her back.

Slender. Small. Delicate.

A woman's hand.

Edgar, Collins and Gozer had been ordered to search the house – Gozer very half-heartedly – to see if there was any evidence of someone breaking in. Her stepmother and sisters referred to the mystery attacker as a man – as 'him' or 'he' – every time they brought it up.

But it hadn't felt like a man, even a small man.

The notion that it was almost certainly a woman scared Cinderella more than the idea of an intruder.

If an outsider had attacked her, so be it – terrifying as that was – they were gone, run away, out of the house to hopefully not return.

But a woman?

A strange woman breaking in to push her down the steps and leave without taking anything? No.

So it was someone in the house.

Dia had been out of the house at the time, and Cinderella didn't believe she'd ever hurt her former mistress.

Her family on the other hand...

The idea didn't even bare thinking about, at least not while she was in the house, it was impossible for her to keep the look of suspicion out of her eyes. So she left the house. She was confined to her room the first day. The second day, she was told fresh air would do her good after the doctor's second visit to check nothing worse had come to light over night. Unsurprisingly, her stepmother's care quickly dwindled. Though she agreed to allow Cinderella to go out for fresh air, she said she might as well do a little shopping while she was at it.

So Cinderella made her way to town to collect some extra fabrics for the gowns that would be worn to the next ball.

Even with a cape to keep her face concealed for most of the journey, by the time she reached her usual haunts, people recognised and noticed her and were horrified by the sight of the bruising along her jawline.