The next day the poor servant girl woke up early, the tears of yesterday burried under hours of hard labour in the burning sun. She was digging in the kitchen gardens when her stepmother decided to grace the girl with her presence.
"I have it on good authority that before your rather embarrassing debut, the Grand Duchess was about to choose Violet for her bride." The Baroness spoke. Beatrice didn't grace her with a reply, only putting down the shovel and starting to gather all the turnips into a basket.
"People can be so fickle, can't they? One minute, they are spouting sonnets, ready to declare their eternal love for all the world to see, and the next, you're back to being the hired help." Irina mocked the poor girl, who was now making her way up towards the house and therefor stepping closer to the foul woman.
"I must say Beatrice, I have never seen you quite this dedicated in your chores." The woman added.
"What makes you think I do any of this for you?" The girl spat back.
"Well, my, my, my. Aren't we feisty this morning?" Irina said, blocking the child's way.
"Let me pass." Trixie requested, but the woman would not move.
"You've brought this on yourself, you know?" The Baroness told her.
"I have work to do." The young girl stated, exhausted from the last evening's events and not in any mood for her misery to be the entertainment of her stepmother.
"Let the others handle it." Irina replied, not moving an inch. Beatrice's anger grew and so in a swift motion she pushed past the older woman.
"Don't you understand? You have won! Go, move into your palace and leave us be! Leave me be!" The poor girl yelled as tears found her swollen eyes once more.
"You are not my problem anymore." Her stepmother said calmly. This stopped Trixie dead in her tracks, the child turning back to face the other woman.
"Is that what I am? Your problem?" The girl said in heartache, those words hurting her more than they likely should after all the years of abuse. Beatrice tried to calm herself, but she had no more strength to hold herself or her emotions back.
"I have done everything you have ever asked me to do, and still you've denied me the only thing I ever wanted!" The young girl cried.
"And what was that?" The Baroness said as she stepped closer, seemingly unaffected by the child's emotion.
"What do you think? You are the only mother I have ever known or layed eyes upon." Trixie said softly.
Their shared moment in her stepmother's bed chambers appeared in the girl's mind, and she could not help but ask the question that could surely break her spirit entirely.
"Was there a time... even in it's smallest measurement, that you loved me at all?" Beatrice asked, her eyes pleading the woman to admit that she held some care for the child who had lived under the same roof as her for 10 years. However her stepmother was truly heartless, and even if there had been such times, she would never admit to them.
"How can anyone love a pebble in their shoe?" The Baroness responded with a shrug, the poor girl infront her fighting to hold herself together at all as she turned to leave.
"Beatrice! My lady! Oh, come and see! It's back! All of it!" Tempest came yelling excitedly, offering a nice distraction from the harsh conversation that had just occured.
As the pair reached the entrance to the manor, Beatrice could see all the missing possessions of her late father returned in one piece, and Sir Lieven standing in front of the carriages carrying them.
"Ah, Sir Lieven, right on time." Trixie heard the Baroness speak from behind her, the young girl finally seeing and hearing the proof of her stepmother selling away all of their possessions and then blaming the staff for their disappearance.
"It's all here Baroness, right down to the very last candlestick." The man replied.
"My father's books, his paintings... you sold them to him?" Beatrice spat.
"Yes, and now they're back. I couldn't very well have us looking like paupers when the Tsar arrives." Her stepmother replied.
"Thank you, Sir. This means the world to us." Trixie told the man, thinking it had been an act of goodwill on his part.
"I'm a businessman, Beatrice, not a philanthropist." Sir Lieven responded.
"I don't understand." The young girl responded.
"I couldn't very well have you running around distracting the Grand Duchess, now could I?" Irina said as if the answer to the child's question was clear as day.
"The Baroness and I have come to, uh, an arrangement." The man said.
"You, for all this. Although I do think I'm getting the better end of the deal." Her stepmother said.
Beatrice looked at her in disbelief, the woman's words still not registering fully. Not until two men grabbed her forcefully and pulled her onto the carriage, chaining her to the railing.
"No! No! Please, no!" The young girl cried as her family of fellow servants tried to come to her rescue.
Unfortunately, it was of no use.
Sir Lieven's men were far too many and far too strong to be taken down by three frail servants. And so, the poor girl was ripped away from her home, transported into the house of a man she knew did not mean her well.
YOU ARE READING
Ever After ✔~ trixya
Fanfiction"Her name was Beatrice Mattel. And this, was her glass slipper. Perhaps you will allow me to set the record straight?" The Grand Duchess says as she picks a beautiful shoe out of the silver box. "Then it's true? The story?" The writer enquires. "Yes...
