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

was not quite curly, nor was it straight, but it was cropped short in the latest style. No, it was not in looks he lacked, it was in brains. There were days when he wondered at how completely idiotic he had become.
    Today was one of those days.
    What imbecile in his right mind would invite a gel he barely knew to a ball he was helping to host whilst pretending to be someone completely different? Was he mad? Honestly? Could there be a bigger mess in all the kingdom? Zedekiah was worried about what the Dashlund girls would do—why worry about them when Anthony had managed to get himself into a much bigger tangle than either of them could even contemplate!
    Anthony put his hand on his hip, causing the coat to flair out, and turned around. His head shaking as his eyes looked out the splendid view toward the rolling hills and nestling village below him. His room had some of the best views in the castle. Four sets of three tall windows each lined the whole length of his room. Their glorious diamond-paned windows truly allowed him a chance to feel as if he were literally flying over the kingdom, as if he were looking down upon it all. In the distance he could make out the top of the Dashlund home. Her many fireplaces and pointed roofs did much to distinguish the large manor home from the rest of the smallish houses around it.
    What should he have done? What could he have done differently? Other than, of course, not invite her. But she needed out. She needed a chance to remember the world again and see it for the good that it was. To be forever shut in a home leads to too much silliness and graveness. Her thoughts needed to be light again. She needed to step into the world and allow them to remember her again and see the great beauty she had become. She needed to laugh and play and have enjoyment again. This oddity that she would work and dress like a servant only proved his theory that she was not allowing herself a moment to live life.
    To be forever in mourning cannot be healthy. Her life had been hard. It must be extremely difficult to live with such a family as she had been saddled with. Especially after her own father and mother were so superior. And to not have a horse? To not be able to ride and escape the world for a bit? He shook his head. Ella needed a horse, like he needed sustenance. He loved his horses—he always had—but she was born on one. Never had he seen a rider use the techniques and skills she had—and at such a young age! To be so naturally gifted.
    What a cruel thing to do to the girl—shortly after her father dies, you take her horse too! He could not fathom what would have possessed Lady Dashlund to sanctify such a thing. It made no sense. Did the woman not know how much the horse meant to her stepdaughter? How much Ella was destined to have such an animal in her life?
    He sighed and pushed away from the window and sat upon the settee near his bed. It was all a muddle. Tilting his head from side to side, he relaxed his neck from the pressures he felt mounting there. Why was he taking such an interest in the girl anyway? Why not allow things to be? She seemed happy enough. Why now, of all times, allow himself to be immersed into someone else’s problems? He had his own to worry about.
    Perhaps that was the answer right there. Perhaps focusing on Ella, he could allow himself the respite of trying to solve the affairs of his father. Heaven knew he needed a respite from that—his father’s illness only grew worse every single day.
    His mother refused to believe so—announcing loudly and convincingly to everyone that all was well with the king; that he was as perfectly healthy as he had always been. But it was not so. The strain, the pain, the confusion, it was all there within his eyes if anyone but looked closely enough to see them.
    If Anthony did not get his father to open up and speak of his ailments soon, they could all lose precious time—precious time where a physician or herb woman could be