Ella Enchanted - By Gail Carson Levine Page 0,48

room in the servants' wing.

With a tiny window and no fireplace, it was more cell than room, just large enough for a pallet on the floor and a small wardrobe. It was cold now in late November. In winter it would be a chamber of ice.

After my things were moved, Mum Olga sent for me. Hattie and Olive were with her in the rear parlor that faced the garden. I took a seat near the door.

"You are not to sit in the presence of your betters, Ella."

I didn't move.

Mum Olga sputtered. "Did you..."

"Stand, Ella," Hattie commanded.

I fought for a moment, then rose.

Hattie put her arm around my shoulders. "Ella will be obedient, Mama. Tell Mama how obedient you'll be."

"Very obedient," I mumbled while grinding my heel into her toe.

She yelped in pain.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mum Olga asked.

"The meaning, Mama, is that Ella does whatever she is told. I don't know why, but she does."

"Really?"

Hattie nodded.

"You mean she would have listened to me too?" Olive said.

"Clap your hands three times, Ella," Mum Olga commanded.

I clutched my skirts and stiffened my hands at my sides.

"It will take a moment," Hattie said. "She tries not to. See how red her face is."

I clapped.

"What a clever daughter I have." Mum Olga beamed at Hattie.

"As clever as she is beautiful," I said.

They both began to answer me and stopped, confused.

"Hattie isn't pretty," Olive said.

Mum Olga rang her bell. In a few minutes, two housemaids entered the room, followed by Mandy and the rest of the servants.

"From now on, Ella will be one of you," Mum Olga said. "Teach her to be a good servant."

"I'll take her for my helper," the laundress said.

I stifled a cry. On my first day in Mum Olga's manor, I'd seen the laundress blacken the eye of a housemaid.

Mandy spoke up. "I need a scullery maid. I know the lass. She's stubborn, but trainable. May I have her, your ladyship?"

Since the wedding, Mum Olga had been eating Mandy's cooking, in ever-increasing helpings. By now, she would probably have given Mandy fifty scullery maids to keep her happy.

"Are you certain you want her, if she's so obstinate?"

"I'll take her," Mandy answered. "The chit means nothing to me, but I loved her mother. I'll teach her to cook, and your ladyship can train her for other service, but I'll allow no harm to come to her, if your ladyship takes my meaning."

Mum Olga puffed up to her full height and girth. "Are you threatening me, Mandy?"

"No, mistress. Bless me, no. I want to keep my situation. But all the fine cooks in Kyrria are my friends, and if anything happened to the wench, I don't know who would cook for you."

"I won't have her spoiled."

"Spoiled! I'll work her harder than she ever worked in her life, and give you a fine cook into the bargain."

The bargain was irresistible.

* * *

MIDMORNING of my second day of servitude, Olive joined us in the kitchen.

"I'm hungry," she said, although breakfast had been only an hour earlier. "Make me a white cake."

Mandy began to assemble the ingredients.

"No, I want Ella to do it." She stood at my side while I measured and mixed.

"Talk to me."

"What should I say?"

"I don't know. Anything."

I told her a fairy tale about a prince with a long nose who loved a princess with a short nose. The tale had humor and grief, and I enjoyed telling it. Over her cooking, Mandy chuckled and sighed at the proper moments. But Olive only listened silently, her eyes riveted on my face.

"Tell me another," she said when I announced the end, suspecting she wouldn't recognize it otherwise.

I recited "Beauty and the Beast." My mouth was getting dry. I pumped water into a cup.

"Give me some too," she demanded.

I refilled the cup. Was I going to pass the rest of my life catering to this...

this... this appetite?

"Another story," she said when she finished drinking. She said the same after

"Rapunzel" and "Hansel and Gretel." Before she could order one more after the tale of King Midas, I asked her hoarsely if she'd liked the story.

She nodded, and I persuaded her to tell it back to me. "A king turns everything into gold and lives happily ever after. I want more."

Not a command. "I've told every story I know."

"I want money." Perhaps she was thinking about Midas. "Give me your money."

I had gotten only a few KJs from Father before he went away, which I hoped to keep in case of need.

"Don't you want Ella