So This is Love (Disney Twisted Tales) - Elizabeth Lim Page 0,105
“Well, young man, are you going to hold the slipper all day long?”
“Pardon?” Startled, Charles looked down and found Cinderella’s glass slipper on his palm.
“If I recall, you were going to give it back to her at the ball. This is as good a time as any, after all!”
Extending his arm to help Cinderella keep her balance, Charles knelt, tilting the slipper toward her foot.
It was a perfect fit.
“But where is the other slipper?” asked the king.
“It’s gone,” said Cinderella softly. “I had to—”
“Say no more.” Lenore winked. At the wave of her wand, the missing slipper appeared on Cinderella’s foot, and a gentle rush of wind swept across the palace.
When Cinderella blinked next, pink and white roses decorated the hall on white trellises. And not just inside the palace, but outside as well! Everywhere she looked, pink and white roses bloomed across the kingdom.
“An early wedding present,” said the fairy godmother triumphantly.
The king leaned out the window, inhaling the fresh air. With a happy sigh, he looked up at his sister. “Seems like I’ve left the kingdom in good hands, doesn’t it? It’s high time I retired to the country, or—what do you say to a visit in Orlanne?”
“I’ll give you three weeks before you come running back to Valors,” said Genevieve. “I know you, George. You won’t be able to stay away from the palace, especially if there are grandchildren in your future.”
A deep blush reddened Cinderella’s and the prince’s cheeks.
“You’re in the business of granting wishes, aren’t you?” the king asked, nudging Lenore, a joking gleam in his eye. “Make sure these two continue the royal line! There’s plenty of space on the palace walls for portraits of ten grandchildren. Or more!”
“For goodness’ sake, George,” scolded Genevieve, “let’s get on with the wedding first. At this rate, you’re going to frighten the poor girl away.”
“No, she’s here to stay. I can tell.” The king cocked his head at his son and Cinderella, who were by the window murmuring with their heads close.
Oblivious, the couple shared a tender kiss. As Cinderella’s heart swelled with happiness, a burst of rose petals swelled up from the gardens and danced into the sky: a celebration of magic, love, and hope.
She touched her forehead to Charles’s, both of them smiling at the sight.
By the end of the day, all of Aurelais would know that the prince had finally found his princess, and that magic had returned to the country.
The next week, Cinderella and Prince Charles were married. It was a magnificent affair: Cinderella wore a lustrous white gown—sewn by none other than Louisa and her mother—that went beautifully with her sparkling glass slippers. Duchess Genevieve walked her down the aisle, and Bruno proudly bore the ring—balancing it on a velvet cushion on his head.
Out of the goodness of her heart, Cinderella even invited Lady Tremaine and her stepsisters to the wedding. She didn’t want the happiest day of her life to be marred by any bitter feelings toward her stepmother. Though Lady Tremaine did not attend, Anastasia and Drizella did, and over the years, Cinderella and her stepsisters developed a civil if not warm relationship.
The king never did retire to his estate in the countryside, but instead, he relished his new freedom by visiting Genevieve in Orlanne and traveling to Aurelais incognito, often borrowing his son’s university jacket during his stolen evenings out even though it was far too large for him.
Magic returned to Aurelais, fairy godparents bringing hope and little miracles to those in need of it, and the Grand Duke of Malloy was exiled far from the kingdom, never to be seen again. King George and Genevieve took over the duke’s former quarters, using it as an office to help newly reinstated magical beings return to Aurelais, while Cinderella and Charles dismantled the council, putting in its place an assembly of forward-thinking men and women, regardless of rank or wealth, to advise them as they ruled the country.
The story of Cinderella and her glass slipper had spread far and wide, and many wished to hear it from her own lips. But as she and the prince traveled the far corners of the world, recounting how they’d met and come to fall in love, they emphasized that their story didn’t end with the glass slipper being found and returned to Cinderella. No, their fairy tale continued on, with each day together and later with their children.
As for the glass slippers, Cinderella and Charles kept them displayed in the garden for all to see—as a reminder that magic, as wonderful as it could be, was never the key to making one’s dreams come true or making one happy. After all, spells were fragile, hopes could shatter, and dreams could stay dreams, never given a chance to take wing.
If one looked very carefully, sewn onto the cushion upon which the slippers stood was the word for what Cinderella and the prince found to be even greater than magic, than dreams, than happily ever afters, than even hope—