Ella Enchanted - By Gail Carson Levine Page 0,46

other. What else matters? Besides, when I travel again, I'll earn back all I lost and more."

She paid no attention. "I will not have that pauper live like a lady in my house.

She can earn her keep."

"Olga, my heart, I expect Ella to be treated with respect," Father said. "She is not to be a servant in her own home. Do you understand, my sweet?"

Mum Olga nodded, but she sent me a look of pure venom.

"Mama, I'd hoped when we were richer we could--"

A footman opened the carriage door. We had arrived at my new home.

My trunk was carried through shadowy hallways to a guest room that was richly furnished but oppressively dark. The chambermaid lit three lamps, which illuminated but did not lighten the effect. She turned down the bedclothes and left me.

I wished Mandy could come in to say good night, but she wouldn't arrive from our old home until the next day. I was alone with my fears. What would happen to me here? How would Mum Olga punish me for Father's deception? And how soon would Hattie resume her tyranny over me?

I didn't have long to wait for Hattie. She issued her first order the next day. She gave it when one of the menservants announced that Char had come calling.

He'd come to see me, but she told me to keep to my room while she entertained him.

"You'll only be in my way, dear."

"He wants me. You'd be in my way."

"Go to your room, Ella." She patted Mother's necklace. "The prince belongs to me too."

In my room, I banged on the floor, hoping Char would come to investigate the noise. But the walls and floors were too thick for him to hear me.

Afterward she said, "At first he may have wanted to see you, but I won him over. When he bid me goodbye, he said our conversation would stay in his memory forever."

He came the next day too, and I was again confined to my room.

I passed half the time of his visit standing at my door, trying to force myself to emerge from the room and from the curse. The other half I spent at the window, watching for him. When he left, he glanced back for a final view of our manor. I started to wave, but he turned away.

An entry from his journal appeared in my magic book the night he left for Ayortha. He had seen me.

Ella is avoiding me. Twice I visited her house, only to be told she was out calling. On both days her stepsister Hattie said Ella would return shortly, so I waited for hours, but she never came.

When I gave up yesterday, I looked back for a last glimpse of her manor, since I couldn't have a last glimpse of her. But there she was, standing at an upstairs window.

I should have returned immediately and insisted on seeing her, but I was too confused. Why was she there? Was she hiding from me? Was she angry? If she was, she should have come into the drawing room and told me. I thought her forthright enough to do so.

I resolved to visit again in the evening and demand to see her. But when I got home, Mother had a surprise family party waiting to bid me farewell and I couldn't leave. This morning I would have gone too, but Father was impatient to be off, and there was no delaying him.

Perhaps she's embarrassed about sliding down the stair rail and blames me for encouraging her. Perhaps her father and his new wife were displeased.

I had wanted to tell her about the afternoon I spent flying down the stair rails at home, never noticing the gradual shredding of my breeches.

That would have made her laugh. She makes me laugh so easily, I always wish to return the favor.

Instead, I had to listen while Hattie chattered endlessly. I don't know how she managed to pour the words out while smiling so hard, revealing the largest teeth I've ever seen. She must be excellent at cracking nuts. This is unkind of me. Her teeth are on the large side, nothing exceptional.

The younger stepsister, Olive, said little, but the little was astonishing. She wanted to know whether people had to give me their wealth if I told them to.

When I asked her why I'd want to take my subjects' money, she was surprised

"To become richer," she said as though stating the obvious.

All this I endured while Ella hid. And now I