The Masked Slipper: Tales of Evermagic, Book 1 (excerpt)

The Glass Slippers

CHAPTER 2

We weren't the ones holding a ball, but I was ordered to clean as if the prince himself was to come and whisk my stepfamily away to his castle. It was difficult work. I had few to help me. Late one evening, I sat hugging my knees by the fire and poked the charcoal that barely burned with a stick. It was how I woke most mornings—hugging my knees. I sat that evening, poking the fire, and I remembered the light again.

Fear pulled my lips into a frown. I wasn't afraid to die, and if it were an omen warning that I was to do so shortly, I was all right with that. I'd see my father and mother. There was nothing I wanted more than to have a real family again—but something in my gut told me—my sad little life wasn't going to come to an end so easily.

Nicolette followed her stepfamily out to shop for ball gowns. Since the announcing of the event, many other ladies of the town were doing the same. Each knew a spell would decide the prince's bride. But there were plenty of bachelor aristocrats that would be attending. A ball was more of a matchmaking party than it was a hunt for a princess.

"Is Lord Marcel to come?" Among the shaded vendors, a girl with alabaster skin and chestnut hair waved a fan in front of her face. It was decorated with gems and lace that matched her dress precisely.

Nicolette glanced at it with wonder and a slight fancy as she overheard some of the conversation. As much as she hated to admit it, she liked lovely things.

"It is difficult to say." Another girl, blonde, sighed. "Though it would bring some life to the palace," she admitted. "The prince is a bore," she drawled.

"You are lucky to have met the poor man," the first mumbled. "Is he as strange as the whispers say?" She asked, her fan moved in front of her face. The air about her fluttered, and her eyes quirked with curiosity behind the lace accessory.

"Hmmm." The other girl ran a hand over a string of polished pearls so they rattled under her touch. "I will have these," she said to the vendor. The man nodded and obliged the lady's pick.

Nicolette frowned. She looked beside her at Estelle who was absorbed in reading the titles of books. There was nothing within the vicinity she was interested in that was for ball planning. Nicolette sighed. She'd picked her book already, more familiar with the writers than her stepsister.

She almost felt sorry for the prince. He would be utterly ignored if he attended the ball at all. And for someone royal, she'd not heard much of him. Not that it mattered. It stopped mattering when she was twelve years old. When she was at the mercy of an evil stepmother and three uninterested stepsisters. That was before Estelle became kind.

"Mother, may I take Nicolette to find her a suitable gown?" Estelle called over the books. She didn't find one that caught her interest, though had taken delight in the smell of their pages.

Nicolette shot a glance in her direction and then slowly rested her eyes on her stepmother. She watched Claudette's brow tense and her nostrils flare. She considered and then nodded once.

"Be sure to find yourself something astounding, Estelle. Do not waste your time picking for her." She flicked her wrist at Nicolette, who frowned at the dismissive gesture. It was one of Claudette's signature quirks that secretly irked her.

Estelle nodded and took Nicolette's arm, who bit her tongue to keep from protesting. They went without speaking, Nicolette looking around wildly at everything. There was such bustle and noise they would have never been able to carry out a conversation. Something Estelle seemed to understand for trying to leave the densest part town.