Cinderella (Faerie Tale Collection) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her and put her hand upon Ella’s head. Ella refused to meet her glare, instead she kept her eyes focused on the patchwork bedding under her as her stepmother leaned over and whispered, “You most certainly did not need your grandmother’s pearls.”
    Ella gasped, her whole body going rigid.
    “And if you are not careful, I will remind myself how you do not even need this bedroom and you can sleep near the fireplace and ashes in the kitchen and be truly a Cinderella instead.” Lady Dashlund suddenly whipped her hand back and slapped Ella’s cheek, the sound echoing around the room like a great sharp bell gong. “If you ever disagree with one of my daughters again, you will lose everything. Do you understand me?” she whispered.
    When Ella did not respond, she slapped her again. “Do you understand me?”
    “Yes,” she whispered, her cheek stinging.
    “Good. And remember, things can always, always get worse.” She stepped away and walked toward the door. “Until you learn to behave around those you owe your life to, then things will continue to be bad. Do not tempt me, Eleanoria, or you will truly know what it is like to lose all. For now, you will not eat until I say so. I want to be sure you are repentant of this little episode. Get your chores done.” The door closed with a quiet ominous click.
    Ella looked at the back of the door for a minute and then brought her hand up to touch her her cheek and feel the warm skin. She knew those pearls had been her mother’s. She knew it. Bringing her knuckles over to her mouth, she rubbed it a bit and willed herself not to cry. Bit by bit she turned over and gradually crawled her way up to her pillow upon the bed. Clutching the padding in front of her like a shield, she lay on her side and stared blankly at the wall. It was just a mere twelve inches from her.
    She held her hand out, allowing each of her fingers to touch the small bumps and cracks within the white wall. Following the lines, her fingers played absentmindedly in front of her, while her mind shifted and sorted through thousands of memories to find her favorites.
    The one when she was first given her sweet mare on her ninth birthday. Her father had made her wear that silly blindfold and then teased her the whole way out the door and across the graveled walk to the stables. She had no idea where she was going, she only knew it was certainly too far to be traveling blindly. But when he removed the blindfold to reveal the most beautiful horse she had ever seen—oh, the joy that had coursed through her then—the surprise! The giddiness.
    Ella had dashed to the horse and wrapped her arms as far around the wide tummy she could get them and hugged her. It was only a matter of minutes before she had the perfect name. “Sunshine.” She had spoken so clear and sure of herself. “She looks just like sunshine with her golden coat and she is quite the most happiest gift I have ever been given! She will bring me sunshine every day of my life.”
    “So do you like her then?” her father had asked, his hands in his coat pockets looking mighty proud of himself. “Am I your favorite too?”
    She had giggled then and ran over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I love you, Father. There is not a better father in all the world. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
    Not one for too much affection, he had patted her back and then pulled her up to plop her on the horse himself. Bareback and all. Many of the stable boys and Father’s friends had thought a girl just nine was too young to be given such a great big horse, but her father smiled and said, “You do not know my Ella, if you think that. If there was ever a girl who could ride a big horse, it was her!”
    Ella had laid her tummy right down upon that horse and wrapped her arms around her neck, rubbing her face into Sunshine’s golden mane. “I love you,” she had whispered to the beautiful mare right then and there. “I love you so much! I have waited