"I'm just a blast of nerves," Essie defended. The self-disgust in her tone was rivaled by the apparent anger at circumstances beyond her control. "The instant the prince is anywhere about you'd think a storm had blown off the Mediterranean Sea. My eyes bat like I'm about to take flight…I…I start to stutter." Her embarrassment tugged at Cinderella. "Can you imagine a union where your husband wondered if the crops blew away simply because he walked up and asked you some mundane, perfectly ordinary question? Like 'how was your day, dear'?" The throb pulsing in Essie's neck was testament to her inner torment.
Pricilla stared at her sister astonished. "B-but you have dainty feet!"
Cinderella let out a gurgle of laughter, drawing Pricilla's attention. "What are you snickering at?"
Cinderella shrugged. "I have dainty feet, too," she sniffed.
"What is that supposed to mean?" It was plain Pricilla's patience had worn through and her temper grew threatening. Yet, Cinderella fought the urge to shrink away.
Impatient, Essie spouted, "Oh, think about it, Cill. How many maidens throughout Chalmers must have dainty feet? For surely, I cannot be the only one in all the land. I venture not, as the shoe clearly did not belong to me." Then musing, more to herself Cinderella thought, Essie said, "His Highness did not quite think that one out, non?"
Cinderella's laughter could not be contained, bursting forth. The contagion took hold, because Essie's unfettered laughs soon followed suit.
Pricilla stared at the both of them as if they actually held their laughing heads in their hands. Pricilla narrowed her eyes on them. "I fail to understand the hilarity of the matter."
Cinderella patted tears from her eyes with the back of a gloved hand and met Essie's. She lifted her chin. "Esmeralda and I have come to a truce of sorts."
Pricilla looked at her sister, her eyes swinging back to Cinderella, disbelief clear.
Essie's eyes never broke with her own, nodded.
"We have, Cill. 'Tis much more pleasant than being mean all the time." Her full mouth softened into a wide smile. Cinderella thought she'd never looked more beautiful.
Cinderella spared Pricilla a glance, almost bursting out in laughter again at Pricilla's flabbergasted surprise. Her mouth gaped; opened and closed like a fish spouting bubbles.
"But…but Maman will be furious!" Pricilla stuttered.
For a moment, Cinderella studied her stepsisters, contemplating this new tribulation, each daring a glance at one another.
True! Stepmama hated Cinderella with an unnatural passion. Cinderella shuddered at what punishment she might bring over Cinderella's head when she learned of this current evolvement. Cinderella blew a strewn strand of hair from her face through pursed lips.