Roses and Black Glass: a dark Cinderella tale (11 page)

“There isn’t
someone else?” he asked with the shake of his head.

“Of course
not,” she said, trying to think of something quickly, “but don’t you think it
would be a bit hard for me to see you again with my sisters being as obsessed
as they are?”

“I suppose,”
he said thoughtfully.

“Besides, you
need your inheritance if you are to be a surgeon.  I could never ask you to
give that up for me.”

He turned to
her slowly.  “You know about that?”

She smiled.

“I hear of
everything about you,” she said.  “I do live with Isabella and Charlotte, you
know.  They say you are coming along with your schooling quite well.”

He nodded,
pleased that she knew this.  “Yes.  I have a mind for it, I think.  I owe it to
your father, I suppose – to that day.  I was fascinated with that life, and I
wondered what could be discovered within the body if we were simply allowed to
study it.  Of course, my parents don’t approve.  The truly rich don’t work, you
know.  What a strange way of thinking.”

More silence
rested in the night air.  Neither of them spoke, just staring at each other.
Both were lost in their own separate thoughts, but both sets entwined about the
other.  Perhaps if she hoped long enough, Amanda’s magic would allow this night
never to end, but that was quickly taken away. 

Hearing a
chime, Cindy lifted her eyes to the clock tower in the distance.  She could
clearly see it in the night sky.  The glass face with the torches lighting
behind it let the entire town know the time of night. 
Eleven-thirty.
 
It was time to leave.

Christian
seemed to sense that she was going to go away from him now.  He didn’t want
that to happen.  Before she could dismiss herself from the bench, he was
touching her face, feeling the curvature of her cheek and neck.  She didn’t try
to get away.

“Allow me one
kiss,” he whispered to her.

“If I give you
one
, you will want another,” she said knowingly.

“So be it.”

His hand slid
to her back, cradling her in closer.  He tilted her face toward his, lowered
his lips to hers – and yet could not even manage to kiss her.  She could see
the truth in his eyes.  His desire and need were too great for simple kisses. 
If he couldn’t have more, he didn’t want anything.

“Come upstairs
with me,” he said, speaking into her awaiting mouth.

A jolt of
excitement ran through her at the notion, but she quickly realized how foolish
it was to think about.  She had to leave. 

“You are
scandalous, aren’t you?” she gasped, but she couldn’t say she didn’t have an
agreeable urge deep within her.  “As if we could get there without being noticed.”

“We could
try,” he pleaded, unrelenting.  He did kiss her then, against the corner of her
mouth, and waves of pleasure rolled across her flesh at the moist touch. 

“I have to
go,” she forced herself to say as he kissed the line of her jaw.  She tried to
rise out of his touch.  “You should get back to the party and distract my
sisters so that I can get home before they know I was gone.”   

Christian was
unhappy with this turn, but he allowed her to pull from his embrace. 

“Are they
really that bad to you, Cinderella?”

She said
nothing, but turned to walk away.  She had to get away from him before he could
make her beg for salvation.

Yes,
please, Christian.  I’ll be yours and never leave your side if you will make it
all go away.

I can’t do
this.  I can’t let him save me.  I have to do it myself.

“Wait,” he called. 
His voice stopped her automatically.

He walked into
her path, placing his hands on her arms.

“You won’t see
me again, and yet you won’t tell me why,” he began. “I won’t have you walk away
from me like this.  I must take it by your silence that they do treat you
wrongly.”  He paused and then added:  “I saw your room.”

She was
shocked further into silence by these words.  When had he been in her room? 
She felt her face flush with embarrassment. 

“Let me just
say this,” he said carefully, slipping into her thoughts. “If there is ever
anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask.  I think there is something
between us.  I
know
.  I think we were meant to have met, but since you
deny me, I can only assume there is another reason for our meeting.  There is
something we are meant to do together, so promise me you will ask.  I will not
turn you away.”

Though she’d
been embarrassed, she couldn’t overlook how genuinely he was reaching out to
her.  Cindy smiled as she watched the soft wind play with his hair. Tilting her
head, she pushed herself upward and pressed her lips to his.  He did not try to
get more from her than she wanted to give him, and when she pulled herself away,
he did not urge her back.

“I promise,”
she whispered.

Cindy then
took her eyes away and walked past him to exit the grounds through the far end
of the courtyard.  She felt she had done what she had come to do.  They had
certainly reconnected, and she had his ring in her hand.  Now there was only to
get home by midnight - before the magic of the roses was done.    

4

“My, they sure
do seem cozy, don’t they?”

It was their
mother’s voice that disrupted the van Burren sisters as they stared out into
the courtyard.  Charlotte turned to glance at her mother before looking back. 
Isabella did not move.

Christian was
off chatting with some young woman, and while many had noticed, most of them
had withdrawn from their curiosity and gone back to the party.  Others had simply
left.  This particular group of three would not leave until the last person was
gone, and Isabella and Charlotte were content to do nothing but stare on at the
woman who might have stolen their prince from them.

They could
only see her from the back where she sat on a bench far across the courtyard,
noticing that she was wearing a red dress and had exquisite black hair. 

“They’re
talking like he’s known her forever, and yet I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her
before,” Charlotte said quietly.  Isabella said nothing.

“You have no
idea who she is?” Anna asked, looming over her girls.  They were so used to it
that they thought nothing of it.

Charlotte
shook her head in desperation.  Isabella also shook her head slowly with a
sharp expression on her face.

“I’ll see if I
can find out anything,” Anna told them, passing back out onto the floor to try
and pick up some gossip.

The sisters
only stood there, staring as the gentle wind blew into their faces. 

“Christian
will return to us eventually,” Charlotte ventured. “He always does.  Perhaps we
should just try to enjoy the party?”

Isabella
didn’t respond, still staring off at the girl who she did not recognize.  How
could she turn away?  Here was this man she loved, sitting with another woman. 
Perhaps it was just to spite her?  No; Isabella was beginning to see the
truth.  He had no interest in her other than the way he was able to cause her
distress, but she had never thought that he would have anyone else either.  She
watched Christian with this girl now, her gaze affixed with unrelenting
scrutiny. 

She saw him
sit down beside her; so close.  Too close.  She watched him move in to kiss
her.  Isabella grew hot beneath her skin.  She watched the young woman with
dark hair rise up and try to leave.  He stopped her.  She kissed him before she
departed through the courtyard, vanishing into the dark countryside as if she
had only been a ghost.

Christian
watched the woman until she was out of sight, and then he was coming back
toward the house.  Isabella withdrew back inside so that she would not be seen
through the window.  She hadn’t even noticed that Charlotte had left her side. 
Her mind was filled with thoughts of fury, but she tried to calm herself.

In the end,
Christian would choose her.  She was not going to give him a choice.

Some time
passed after Cindy had left the Charming manor, and she had made her way home
in the black carriage with black horses that had been waiting outside for her –
another gift from Amanda’s roses.  Her head was filled with fond thoughts of
Christian, his kiss still fresh on her lips.  Part of her still wasn’t sure if
it had been merely a dream, but even if it had, she believed that she and
Christian had seized their moment, and she would hold onto it for as long as
she could.

Cindy’s dress
had faded away after midnight, which had only been a few moments before she had
gotten to her home on the hill.  The carriage floor had been covered with
bloody rose petals, leaving her naked, but she had managed to get into the
house without anyone seeing her.  She’d arranged herself back in her work
clothes and looked like her usual, unpainted self as if the black magic had
never touched her.  She had beaten her family home, and they would be none the
wiser.

Her heart had
settled, she took a deep breath and grasped Christian’s ring in her hand,
moving toward Amanda’s room.  Cindy couldn’t say that she was entirely
satisfied with the night’s events, but for a moment, perhaps she actually had been
happy.  The girl had enjoyed seeing Christian again. 

Perhaps too
much.

Coming around
the dark corner, Cindy peeked in through the cracked door of Amanda's room. 
Everything was quiet inside and Cindy wondered if the woman was even present. 
Could she have deserted her?  Soon, a voice reached the creeping girl’s ears.

“Come in. 
Don’t be bashful,” Amanda’s voice instructed.

As the girl
entered, she saw that Amanda was positioned on the bed near the nightstand. 
Her back was turned to the door and her eyes were closed in concentration.  As
Cindy came closer, she could plainly see an object lying on the blanket.  She
recognized it quickly as her step-mother’s broach.  For a moment, the sight of
it troubled her.  If Amanda stole from the house, Cindy would be blamed for it.

“That’s
Anna’s,” she said, staring at the broach as it glistened in the candlelight.  

“Don’t worry
over it, dear.  Did you have a good time at the party?” Amanda asked, still
refusing to open her eyes.

“I – yes, I
did,” Cindy said, deciding to be honest.  “Christian and I talked quite a bit. 
He seemed glad to see me.”

“Of course he
was.  Did you get the ring?”

“He gave it to
me.  All I had to do was ask for it.”  Cindy placed the ring on the quilt.  The
woman with the locks of wine folded her hand around the ring, grasping it tightly. 
She did not explain what she would use it for.

“Now, Cindy,
there is something I must say to you, which is the main reason I have come to
this house and shown you all of this.”

“What is it?”
Cindy asked as she sat down politely on the floor so as not to dirty the bed.

Amanda took a
deep breath to cleanse her mind.

“There is a
place,” she began, “where you and your father used to leave each other things. 
This place was secret to everyone else and you used to leave notes and such
there, correct?  It was in a dark place.”

Cindy knew
what the woman spoke of.  The secret place – it was in the morgue.  She and her
father had a special box there where they would leave each other notes that no
one else knew about.  It was how they communicated without Anna knowing what
they were planning.  This was how they planned all their special outings for
just the two of them, and where Cindy would complain about her new sisters.

“Yes,” Cindy
acknowledged. “There is a place.”

Amanda took
another deep breath.  “Something is there for you now.”

“How?” Cindy
asked. “It's in the morgue.  The mortuary is shut away.  No one can get
inside.”

“There was a
door beside the stairs,” said Amanda, eyes closed.

“Yes, but it
is sealed now,” Cindy said. “There is no way inside the place.”

“How long has
it been since you have checked for the door?” the woman asked.

Cindy
contemplated this a moment.  She had not needed to check for the door, because
she knew that it wasn’t there.  Anna had replaced the wall over it just after
her father’s death.  But Amanda had shown her impossible things already, and
Cindy had no reason to doubt. 

“Do you mean
to say that if I go back and check, the door might be there?”

“Perhaps,”
Amanda confirmed slyly. “You should go and look.  The thing that is down there
for you is very important.”

Cindy didn’t
know how she could believe this, but she turned to leave the room.  She was
stopped at the door when Amanda spoke up again.

“Take great
care that you keep yourself under control when you find what you are looking
for,” Amanda warned.  “It will not be easy.  When you have found it, come back
and speak with me.”

Cindy thought
her words strange, but now her curiosity grew more and she knew she had to
venture to the stairway.

Stepping down
the hall, she could see the impossible door in front of her before she reached
the end.  It looked as if the plaster had been peeled away, the edges jagged. 
Tiny pieces still crumbled away and fell as she approached with small steps. 
Her heart began to beat faster in anticipation.  What would she find behind the
door in the secret place?

Hidden in a
drawer, there was a small box where notes would be left by her father to her
and likewise, from her to her father.  She had not been able to check it after
her father had died - not that she'd thought there would be anything there.  It
had never occurred to her that there might have been something she'd missed. 
Now, clenching the doorknob, Cindy pulled open the door to let herself in,
unsure of what exactly she would find.

She went down
the weakened steps into the waiting hall.  The air was damp and musty.  It was
dark and the spiders had already made their presence known.  Cindy pushed
through the cobwebs and made her way to the windows, pulling the drawn curtains
away.  The full moon outside illuminated the area through the dust-covered
panes.

Taking unsure
steps, Cindy crossed the hallway and went on to the mortuary door.  Turning the
handle, she pulled it open and waved the dust from her face.  Within, she could
see a faint light, and she noticed that a lantern on one of the tables was
lit.  How…? 

Trying to
ignore the sour smells, Cindy crossed the room and went towards the light,
under which was the drawer with the box.  Her heart sped once more in worry as
to what she would find.  What had her father left for her?

Looking at the
dresser top, her eyes fell across some of her father’s old tools, some still
covered with dried blood.  She smelled the metallic scent that she was so
accustomed to and sorted through the things to find the drawer key.  Locating
it and taking it in her hand, she unlocked the drawer and pulled it out
quickly.  The box was still there, covered in dust.

She took a
deep breath as she lifted the lid to reveal the secret item.  Staring up at her
was a folded letter.  The paper had been bound with string and was obviously
several years old.  For a moment, she wondered if she even wanted to read it,
for she feared the worst.  An unsettling feeling hung in the air.  

I have to,
she told herself. 
I have to see what he left me.  I owe him that.

 Breathing
deeply to try and ease herself, dread filled her as she lifted the yellowed
paper and began to read the scribbled writing.

My dearest
Cindy,

If you are
reading this letter, I am already gone from you.  I have died, but do not
fear.  I’m sure I am happy in death.  I am with your mother, after all.

I’m sorry
that I must give you this burden, but I felt that you should know the truth. 
It was hard for me to accept as well, but here I am, face to face with death
and I finally believe – only it is too late.  I feel myself growing weaker by
the day.  I fear I will not last much longer.

Cindy, I am
writing you this note and have asked the doctor to leave it in our special
place because I know you will be the only one to find it there.  I only wish
for you to see this and no one else.  The truth is, dearest daughter, that I am
not sick by nature.

I have been
fed this illness from the spoon of your step-mother.  She and her wicked
daughters poisoned me slowly, little by little.  It was hard for me to accept,
but I smelled the poison in the food and medicine!  Now that I know, I have
stopped eating what they bring, but I fear it is too late.  I am growing sicker
and I cannot speak, but only to write these truths.

None of
them are innocent!  All three of them conspired to keep me sick!  I was blind
not to see that they were wicked women and were using me for gain.  Cindy, you
are the only one left now.  I pray they do not do the same to you.  I am
greatly troubled by these events.

I don’t
pray that you avenge me, dear daughter.  I do, however, want you to have what
is rightfully yours.  I was not able to change my will.  I tell you, take back
what is rightfully yours.  Reclaim our name!  I had no idea that this would
come about and I’m sorry for any pain I caused you.  I did not know any better.

I love you,
dearest, and send all my support with you.

Love,

Your Father

Charles
Madison

Cindy could
hardly read the entire letter for her tears of rage.  Her hands shook with fury
as burning tears rolled down her face.  She dropped the letter immediately and
clenched her hands to her head to stop the throbbing.

“This can’t
be,” she sobbed in disbelief. “This cannot
be
!”

Turning, she
ran blindly toward the hall, anger overtaking her.  Reaching the waiting hall,
Cindy stormed straight into Amanda’s awaiting arms, shaking violently.  Amanda
ran her long fingers through the girl’s hair, trying to silence her.

“How could
they?” Cindy muttered. “How
could
they?”

“Shhh,” Amanda
urged gently. “You must be silent about this now.  You needed to know, but you
must promise to control yourself.  It is not the time.”

“You knew of
this?” Cindy asked, pushing herself back from the woman who was such a stranger
to her.

Amanda wiped
the girl’s tears in a motherly fashion.  “Your father’s troubled spirit came to
me and told me of the letter he left for you.  He has watched and is greatly distressed
at how they are treating you,” she said. “All will happen in due time.  I
promise you that.  I have come to help.”

Cindy managed
to stop her shaking, but the tears still fell.  “And that is the real reason
why you are here?”

The woman
nodded, running hands through Cindy’s hair.

“I have come
to help you reclaim what is yours, and – though your father didn’t request it –
I am a firm believer in
revenge.
  They are even wickeder than
I
for what they did to you, Cindy.”

The girl
nodded.

“But not yet,”
Amanda urged her.  “You must continue to act as you were, not letting them know
that you are aware of their sins.  Bide your time.”

Cindy nodded
and wiped some of her own tears away.  Amanda continued to examine the girl’s
hair carefully.  Finally she spoke.

“Your hair is
quite lovely,” she noted. “So shiny.  It has the texture of black glass.”

Cindy could
hardly hear the words, which seemed like pointless chit-chat to her.  Instead,
Amanda spoke again.

“Would you
give it to me?”

Cindy looked
up with red eyes in confusion.  “Cut my hair?” she asked, “but I haven’t cut it
since…”

“Since your
father died,” Amanda finished for her.  "I know."

“He said my
hair always reminded him of my mother.  I swore I’d never cut it again.”

“Do you trust
me?” the woman asked.

Cindy took a
deep breath.  Of course she trusted her by now.  Though she had promised
herself she would never cut it, if it would aid them in their plans, she would
have to consent.

“Alright,” she
said. “I’ll do it.”

Amanda led the
girl back upstairs into her room.  Tying two white ribbons around her hair,
Amanda took a long knife and cut the hair evenly at length with Cindy’s
shoulders.  Cindy cried through the cutting, but not for the hair itself.  She
knew that Anna had been interested in her father for his wealth, but she had
never suspected murder.  She couldn't stop imagining Isabella and Charlotte
bringing him a cup of tea and chatting happily about their day as if there
wasn’t poison in the cup.  If she had known – if she had even
suspected
– she would have burned this place to the ground years ago. 

When Cindy was
aware that an enormous weight had been removed from her head, the girl looked
at her reddened face in the mirror as Amanda folded the hair and put it away in
a drawer.

Hearing loud voices
from downstairs, Cindy got an instant headache.  The murderers had returned.

“Go to your
room and try to get some sleep,” Amanda instructed hastily.  “Lock yourself in
tight until morning and ignore your sisters, should they come by.  Things will
be quite different tomorrow.”

Cindy nodded
and left the room, hoping to get some sleep, but sure she would find none.