Cinderella: A Retelling of an Old Classic

Chapter 26

****** Hey all....so sorry I haven't updated IN SO LONG!! I got really super discouraged because, and I know this sounds silly, I had written such an awesome chapter and a family member accidentaly deleted it all!! I was so upset. Anyways, now that I have had forever to stew about it hahaha I really feel like I need to move myself out of this hole of non-inspiration. HERE GOES *****

In shock Ella tried to process the chain of events that led to her present situation. She couldn't really find any reason that was even remotely logical for her being locked in the cellar. What was even worse was the fact that there had been a true and real hope that she could attend that ball. Ella had found herself wishing upon that wishing star more than ever before as she attended her stepmothers duties and any errands her stepsisters flung upon her. Even in those secret moments of peace and excitement as she stole away to rehem and fit her beautiful gown she dreamed of impossible possibilities. 

Now, she felt like such a fool. 'What was the point,' she thought to herself, 'of wishing and hoping for something that would never happen. It just made the sting of that loss so much more painful.'

There was no hope that she could escape either. For the first hour of captivity her mind had functioned at amazing speed trying to conjure up ways of escape. But as each theory became more and more illogical than the last Ella soon abandoned hope. There was simply no way she could see to get out of a room carved deep into the bedrock her home had been built on with no windows and only one iron-wrought door which was locked from the outside. She had tried calling for Rebecca but there had been no answer. She assumed the loving cook had gone on some sort of errands to the village so there was really no hope of being rescued at all. 

From where she was she could hear scurrying and rushing of feet over her head and the occasional screech from one of Regina's daughter when their hair had been pulled a mite too sharply. They had not left as of yet but as the scurrying became more and more hurried it was easy to guess that the time for departure was nearing. As the moment drew nearer and nearer Ella became more and more despondent. All the hopes and dreams she had pinned to this one moment were evaporating like the morning dew. Leaning her body against the metal frame of the door Adella closed her eyes and tried to picture in her mind the face that had comforted her on so many occasions.

Her father's smiling eyes and weathered face filtered into her mind as she tried to regain some small bit of control over her emotions. He had always encouraged her in everything she wanted to do and there was never a time that he had not praised her accomplishments. No matter how small or trivial they appeared to her, she had always been encouraged and loved. 

Ella recalled her father saying to her one day, 'in every dark cloud there is the potential for a rainbow.'

It had been one of her mother's favorite sayings and her father had adopted it as his own motto after she had passed away. Whenever something happened that made her cry or frustrated he had always pulled that saying to the front of her mind.
'Papa, help me find the rainbow,' she thought as she cried silently.

Eventually she heard the carriage pull out of their gravel drive the horses clip-clopping their way to her secret dreams without her. Her tears became even more bitter as she cried her way through years of frustration and unrealized hopes for the first time since her mother's death. Oh she had cried of course but not those really cleansing tears that seem to exhaust and alleviate simultaneously.

She knew she had little hope of being rescued. Rebecca was out and about with friends and merchants in the village and she would not be home until it was too late. The other servants were either attending the carriage or in the fields so there was no one else Ella could rely on to rescue her.
As she surveyed her surroundings she was thankful for the first time for the small gas lamp in the corner shedding some small amount of light into the dingy, windowless, square room. For all intents and purposes this little garrett had always been used as storage space and, at times, as a sort of cooling room for any produce that had not been used at mealtimes. 
There were shelves along each wall and as Ella looked she saw the remains of the winter pickling and sacks of grains sitting, lonely and unconsumed. Bags of winter potatoes, carrots and the like littered the floor and the ceiling was festooned with dried herbs and flowers giving the place an earthy, pungent smell that was not all together unpleasant. In fact, there was some comfort to be had in being surrounded by the mundane, every-day, ingredients that had become a large part of her world.

Ella had her back to the large, wooden slat door that was the only thing between herself and freedom. She sighed heavily, wiped her tears with her sleeves, leaving streaks of dirt in their wake. Suddenly she bolted upright. The door had moved.
Being well acquainted with this side of the house she knew that this door was as solid as they came. If it had been properly secured it would not have budged an inch. She did not dare hope but frantically pressed her face to the seam between door and wall. What she saw made her gasp, but with excitement or frustration she couldn't tell.
Her stepmother had fasted the door shut, that much was true, but she had not used the lock. Instead she had used the small loop of rope that fastened to a metal hook keeping the door shut but not securing it in any fashion. Thank God for Rebecca's lazy thinking! She had complained about always having to lock and unlock the pantry every time she wanted something and so the gardener had set this up as an easy alternative. Perhaps that idea would save her now!
If she could only find something that would wedge itself between the door frame and the wall so that she could lift the rope she would be free!

She looked around desperately hoping to find something long and thin that she could use as a make shift instrument of sorts. The herbs were too flimsy and any vegetables that were in the sacks were root vegetables...not at all what she needed. She scanned all of the upper shelves hoping and praying her search would not be in vain. Her angels were with her that day because as she began to despair at the last shelf her hand brushed against something cold and unyielding. God bless Rebecca, she must had left one of her knives there while looking for her carrots and celery. It was long and thin, the kind one would use to fillet a fish and Ella thought she had never seen something so beautiful in all of her life. Quickly grasping the knife she desperately forced it in between the door frame and lifted with all of her strength.
The rope easily came off the hook and the door flung open depositing a very rumpled Ella onto the floor of the kitchen.