Ella Enchanted

chapter 23

THREE DAYS after Char left, Father went too, off to be a merchant again.

Before leaving, he spoke to me privately in the small parlor he had converted into his study.

"I leave at noon," he said. "Thank heaven the fairy left me my will and my reason so that I can leave, although I shall long for my Olga every moment I'm gone. What a gift! If I could take this knife" -- he touched the scabbard at his waist -- "and carve out the part of my heart that belongs to my wife, I should do it."

He would never hurt himself. "Why must I stay with them?" I asked.

"Where else can you go? You fled finishing school, and you'll be in better society here than you would find with me. Including me. Don't run off again."

"You are better society than they are," I said. It was true: There was a little honesty in Father but none at all in Hattie or Mum Olga.

"This is praise indeed. Come, tell your father good-bye."

"Farewell."

"I shall miss you, child." He kissed my forehead. "I prefer to love my wife from afar. I shall not soon return."

"I don't care."

But I found that I did.

As soon as Father's carriage disappeared from view, Mum Olga swallowed her tears and directed a manservant to transfer my belongings to a 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 to finish making your cake?" Mandy asked. "I thought you were hungry."

"No! I want her money." Olive's voice rose.

Mandy tried again. "What does a rich young lady such as yourself want with the wee savings of a scullery maid?"

"To make me richer. Mother and Hattie have much more than I do." She started to wail. "It's not fair."

My head hurt from not obeying, as well as from Olive's noise. I pushed the mixing bowl away. "Come with me."

My money was in my room, at the bottom of my carpetbag. I hunted through it without letting Olive see my Agulen wolf or my glass slippers. She probably wouldn't have recognized their value, but she might have talked about them to her mother or to Hattie.

I had only three silver KJs, enough to buy a few meals or a night at an inn.

Olive counted them twice.

"I have to put them away." She closed her fists over them and marched off.

I was penniless, stripped of the power that even a few coins bestow.

For a quarter hour I sat on my bed, enjoying the quiet and trying fruitlessly to think of new ways to break the curse. Then I returned to the kitchen to help Mandy with lunch. When I entered, Olive was there.

"Talk to me," she said.

IN THE EVENING, there was to be a formal dinner to console Mum Olga for Father's departure. I had to wash the floor in the hall in preparation while Mum Olga came by frequently to supervise.

"You must scrub on your knees, and add lye to the water. It scours best."

As soon as I submerged my hands, they smarted and burned. I drew them out of the bucket.

"Don't stop before you've started. The dinner is tonight, not next week."

The task took three hours, but my knuckles were bleeding in a quarter of the time. Occasionally other servants passed by. Some gawked, some seemed sympathetic. Nancy, the serving maid, came during one of Mum Olga's inspections. She crept behind Mum Olga and pantomimed dumping a pail of water over her head.

"Something amuses you?" Mum Olga asked.

I shook my head and stopped smiling.

At last I finished. In addition to bloody hands, my knees were bruised, and my arms ached. I wished I were a real servant, the sort who could quit one situation and seek another.

I returned to help Mandy in the kitchen. Fortunately, she was alone. As soon as she saw me, she rushed to her store of herbs and unguents and to the jug of Tonic.

"Sit down, sweet. I'll have you good as new in a minute."

Her remedies worked miracles, but better yet, during dinner I had revenge.

Mandy had just sprinkled parsley over thing servings of trout, and Nancy was ready to convey them to the guests.

"Wait!" I dashed to the herb cabinet. "Here." I scattered ground passiflora over one of the plates. "Give this one to my stepmother."

"What..." Nancy looked startled.

"Don't do it," Mandy said. "I won't have her ladyship blaming me when she starts snoring in front of her guests."

"Oh, is that all? Serve her right." Nancy took the plate and was off.

"A good lass, Nancy," Mandy said, grinning at me when she had gone.

Two servants had to carry Mum Olga to bed before the meal ended. But the festivities continued, culminating in dancing. I witnessed the dance because Hattie called me to tend the fire, and everyone saw me in my greasy, sooty state.

Afterward, while I undressed in my room, I thought about escape. Mandy would only use small magic, which was smaller help than I needed. And Char was hundreds of miles away and mustn't know of my troubles anyway.

Father. I hated to ask him for anything, but he was the only one who could help. I would write to him.