Wicked Stepmother

Laced too tight

Getting rid of a child is more easily said than done. Kiora had begun to dabble in "the Arts" but there was still more she didn't know than anything she did. She had heard of cures for an unwanted pregnancy of course but most of them sounded more brutal and dangerous even than childbirth.

"It's supposed to be dangerous to wear your clothes too tight" she told me, "What if we lace your corset really tight. We went into the house and I removed my overdress so she could pull tighter the lacings on my corset. They were frayed and old and she replaced them with the lacings from her own corset.

"Purple silk" I said scandalised

"I'm on your team Clovis" she said, her face serious almost to the point of grimness and I felt happier and safer than I had for many weeks. I let her lace my corset with her luxurious ribbons and she dropped my worn lacings on the floor.

"If this works...I will be back in a week and take you home" she told me, more a command than a promise. When did she get so bossy and queenly? I'd always had the better of her before (I hid a smile as I decided I would again, when I got back to my old life. I would run rings around her but for now the bossy big-sister act was what I needed). She laced me so tight I couldn't breathe.

"It's too much" I choked out,

"You'll have to leave it like that for a while"

"How long?"

"I don't know. At least four hours. A day. Maybe longer." It was past noon and I told her I had to finish the laundry and dinner before the seven came back. She looked like she was about to say something scornful and I braced myself. But she simply nodded seriously.

"Be brave Snow White. Remember you are the future queen" she said and kissed me on the forehead, and then she was gone. I wanted to sit and think about her, to savour the kiss and maybe to cry about a few things (again with the crying...what was wrong with me?). Instead I went and lugged more firewood to reboil the copper. The heat, the steam, the hard work got to me, as tightly laced in as I was and I felt myself get light-headed so that my vision swam.

"Good that will lean out my...system" I said to myself, not wanting to dignify the unwanted events colonising my body with a human word like "baby". It was not a baby, not a person yet and I had no interest in growing it into one. My head swam. I was sweating and shaking with chills at the same time. "Good" I said again and worked harder. The world tilted and I honestly could not breathe. It was dark.

Luckily it was kind-hearted Pan who found me. "What happened?" Pan asked

"Too tight" I gasped and Pan loosened my corset again, it was already looser than it had been.

"These are new laces, and so tight. Who did this to you?"

"My stepmother. The queen" I gasped out, too woozy still to speak in whole sentences, or to consider before I answered properly.

"Is this the same person who cast you out of home for being with child?" Pan asked.

"She didn't know..."

"You are still too weak to talk to me." Pan said in a compassionate voice" but you will need to be more careful. You might have lost the baby! Don't let your stepmother into the cottage. Be very careful as next time she might come in disguise. At the first sign of anyone lock yourself in and do not even give them the time of day."

I shook my head angrily but words would not come.

"The most important thing is to keep you safe" Pan said, meaning it kindly I daresay. Oh Kiora! I thought with a fierce focus, closing my eyes. I hope it has worked. At least now I knew to count down the days until she returned.