Halia: Daughter of Cinderella

by Armitage, J. A

  Madam’s nostrils flared. “How dare you suggest such a thing? You are supposed to get them and return here on time.”

  “This is a very extensive and precise list. I did my best to fulfill this task in my free time to start my shift punctually.”

  Before Madam could retort, the front door opened, and a young man peeked his head in.

  “We have no free rooms,” Madam snapped.

  “Oh, I’m not here for boarding.” He smiled at me. “I was wondering if I could get an autograph, Halia.”

  I shot him a pained smile and whispered, “Later.” This was the worst timing ever.

  “An autograph! Is this a joke?” Madam advanced, and the young man quickly rushed out of the door. She whirled on me. “That’s it. I’ve had enough. You are suspended from room service. From now on, you’ll be working in the kitchens.”

  “But—”

  “Because of your disrespectful attitude, your friend is demoted to kitchens as well.”

  “But she hasn’t done—”

  “Not another word unless you want to get fired immediately.”

  No, she couldn’t do that. Our meager salary had made it impossible to save up any money while working here. If she kicked us out, Tia and I would have to live on the streets until we found work somewhere else.

  Madam smirked. “I didn’t think so.”

  “Go and tell your friend to finish up the rooms by herself. When she’s done, she’ll join you in the kitchen.”

  I didn’t trust my voice, so I left without a reply. I climbed up the stairs to the second floor and found Tia in the third room.

  “You’re back!” she exclaimed. “I tried to clean as fast as I could, and so far, Madam hasn’t checked up on me.” She stopped as she noticed the look on my face. “What happened? Were you not able to get the items on the list?”

  “No, I got them, but Madam threw a fit; she said I was late. Then a guy walked in, asking for an autograph.” I shook my head. “I got demoted to the kitchen. And you as well.”

  Tia’s jaw clenched. “What? I’ll go talk to her.” She tried storming past me, but I grabbed her hand.

  “If you do, she’ll fire us both.”

  “She can’t do that!”

  “She can, and she will. It’s her boarding house. Tia, we can’t argue with her. We need this job unless we want to live on the streets.”

  “Yes, but working in the kitchens will cut our pay significantly. We’ll be barely able to scrape by.”

  “I know.” My voice broke. “I’m so sorry.”

  “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.” She pulled me into a hug, and unable to hold in my tears any longer, I released a sob.

  “If I hadn’t argued with Madam, if I had apologized, it wouldn’t have come to that. I should have never given an autograph to the girls at the market. What if somebody else comes around asking for an autograph?”

  “Then we’ll figure it out. This isn’t your fault. It’s Madam’s. Can’t you see, she’s filled with anger and she’s looking to unload her misery on whoever is close by? It’s unfortunate that it was you who crossed her path, but it isn’t your fault.”

  I pulled out of the hug, appreciating her trying to make me feel better, but knowing that if we were caught not working, we would lose our jobs immediately and be thrown out onto the streets.

  “Madam wants you to finish up the rooms before you help me in the kitchen,” I said in parting.

  With heavy steps, I trotted downstairs. Was I making everything worse for Tia and myself? It had felt good in the moment to stand up for myself, but if I hadn’t, Madam wouldn’t have become so furious with me. If I had backed down, I might have run into the young man by myself and given him an autograph without her knowing. If only I had returned earlier from Acacia’s instead of dawdling, I could’ve run the sisters’ errand on time. I sighed. There were so many “coulds” and “shoulds" in my head, but they wouldn’t help me now. I couldn’t turn back time. I had gotten myself into a serious mess, and now I needed to find a way to dig myself out of it.

  I had thought that I would be all by myself for kitchen duty, but when I entered, I found a middle-aged woman I hadn’t met before standing by the sink, scrubbing a deep dish.

  “Hi, I’m Halia. I’ll be working with you today.” And hopefully, not forever.

  She nodded but didn’t respond. Her shoulders were hunched, and she worked quietly as a mouse. I gently prodded, “What’s your name?”

  She just shook her head.

  “You don’t have a name?”

  The corners of her mouth turned downward and trembled. Was she painfully shy or a mute?

  “I don’t mean to upset you, but I need to know what I can call you.” She still didn’t respond, and I decided there was a reason why she didn’t want to share her real name. Taking a moment, I tried coming up with a pretty, temporary name she might like. “How about Doris?”

  She smiled, and I felt a bit better. “Doris, it is. Now, let me help you.” I stood next to her and began cleaning the dirty pans, scrubbing away the grease and the food morsels stuck to them.

  Since Doris didn’t seem in the mood to talk, I began to hum a tune, which soon turned into a song.

  You say I should dare, you say I should put myself out there, but when I do, I’m met with closed doors, when I do, I’m met with nos.

  You say to believe in myself, you say to try, try, try again, but what if I can’t go on? What if I can’t?

  It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s that I’m not sure I’m strong enough.

  I want to be stronger; I want to be better, but I’m not sure how.

  Can you teach me the way? Please, teach me the way.

  When I stopped singing, Doris squeezed my hand, her eyes filled with joy. Even though she hadn’t spoken a word to me, I didn’t think she was mute. The haunted look on her face told me something bad had happened to her and led to her not speaking. What horrible fate could’ve befallen her that she lost her voice? I wished I could find a way through to her, to tell her that if she shared her pain, it would grow lighter.

  Was that how Tia felt about me when I had difficulty speaking up? How many steps had I been away from becoming someone like Doris?

  Right then and there, I decided I didn’t need anyone to show me the way. I didn’t need anyone to teach me how to be brave. I had to find the strength within me. If people like Doris and I remained silent, people like Madam would only become louder, and the world would hear only their words. I didn’t want to live in a world run by Madam, so I needed my voice to be heard.

  I cleaned the dishes on autopilot, thinking about the set I would play at Daydream. I came up with a list of five songs. As soon as I was finished here, I would head to the bar and practice each of the songs with Lorenzo. Hopefully, he would agree to accompany me on the guitar again.

  Doris and I were on the last dish when Tia came through the door. Her hair was a mess, and her hands were red from the cleaning supplies. Still, she asked, “What can I help you with?”

  “We got it,” I said. “Tia, this is Doris. Doris, meet Tia.” The two exchanged nods. “How did you get on with the rooms?”

  Tia collapsed onto a chair and rubbed her lower back. “It was awful. Madam expected me to be done at the original time, so I had to work twice as fast.”

  I cringed. “I should have never confronted her.”

  “I’m glad you did. Being demoted to the kitchens is the push we needed to finally leave this place.”

  I put the clean dishes away and dried my hands. “We need to find a new workplace first before we hand in our resignation.”

  “We have one. Daydream.”

  I shook my head. “Even if Lorenzo agrees to let me perform regularly, I doubt the money will be enough to make a full-income salary.”

  “So work with me behind the bar. I’m sure there are lots of things you could do.”

  I chuckled. “You don’t even have a job at Daydream, yet you are already
offering me one?”

  She smiled, some of her weariness melting away. “I believe in us. I know there’s something better for us in this world than scrubbing dirty dishes in the kitchen.”

  I glanced at Doris, hoping Tia wasn’t offending her, but Doris showed no signs of listening to our conversation. She had retreated to the corner and was staring into empty space.

  “All right,” I said. “I wanted to head over earlier anyway to practice my setlist with Lorenzo. I suppose we can leave now, and see if he has work for us at the bar or if he knows of anyone who would employ us.”

  “Great, we need to stop by the clothes donation shop on our way.”

  At my confused look, she said, “A couple left their suitcases behind.”

  “Which room?”

  “The one that the sisters are staying in now.”

  Doris trembled, and I put on a pot of water for her. Hopefully, she wouldn’t get sick. “Wasn’t the couple in that room supposed to stay until the twenty-fourth?”

  Tia shrugged. “Something must have happened for them to leave so abruptly and not even bother to take their suitcases.”

  I didn’t like this one bit. It sounded like our guests were on the run from someone, and they had been discovered in Arcadia. Acacia was right. Whatever spell had been protecting Arcadia and made it a joyful, safe place was falling away. Dark times were ahead for us.

  7

  21st July

  After dropping off the clothes at the donation shop yesterday, Tia and I had headed to Daydream only to find it closed. We waited outside for half an hour, hoping someone would let us in or respond to our knocks, but no one did, so eventually, we left without talking to Lorenzo.

  Even though a lot of establishments were closed on Mondays, I was stressed all of last evening and tossed and turned through the night. What if Lorenzo had left town? What if I wasn’t performing today after all? The worries stayed with me as I scrubbed plates in the kitchen.

  Tia was uncharacteristically quiet, probably practicing her speech for why she should be hired as a bartender or barback. Doris still wasn’t talking to either of us and scurried around like a mouse.

  There was something familiar about her, but try as I might, I couldn’t place her. Was it her eyes? Or face? Had I seen her at the night market before? Perhaps she had worked at one of the stalls. Or maybe she had been a guest once at the boarding house? Either way, even though she was working efficiently, her soft hands didn’t make me think she had led a life of manual labor. What had happened to her for her to become a kitchen maid?

  I shook my head. It was none of my business. She would tell me when she was ready, and right now, I had more pressing matters to attend to anyway.

  The setlist I had created yesterday didn’t sound good any longer. I hummed through all the songs I had ever written, tweaking and rearranging, trying to come up with the best flow while wondering if the concert was still happening. Of course, it was. It had to be. It didn’t mean anything that Lorenzo hadn’t been at Daydream the night before, right?

  Distracted and worried, I spilled soapy water all over my clothes and the floor, creating more work for myself. By the time my shift was finally over, my hands were red and cracked from all the dishes I had washed and my mind was a wreck.

  “Tia, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a walk before going to Daydream.” I needed to get rid of the nervous energy coursing through me.

  Tia nodded. “No worries. I’ll see you at Daydream.”

  “Are you still going to ask him for a job?”

  She gave another nod, but her face stayed weary. Being demoted to the kitchens had taken a toll on us both. It didn’t help that the boarding house had practically radiated tension ever since the sisters’ arrival. This place was toxic. We needed to get out.

  I took off my apron and pulled my hair out of its braid. “I’ll freshen up, and then the room is all yours.”

  I was at the door when Tia said, “Good luck. You’ll do really well.”

  “Thanks,” I said, even though what I really wanted to ask was, “Aren’t you going to be there earlier? I need you there.” I swallowed my words. Tia had enough on her own plate. I had to find the strength within me to weather nerve-wracking situations, not use my friend as a crutch.

  I rushed up the first flight of stairs only to halt on the guest floor as the two sisters came my way. I pressed myself into a shadowed alcove, my gut telling me I needed to hear this, needed to understand why they were here.

  “I can’t wait to get out of this pigsty,” the shorter and rounder one said.

  “Patience, Bernadette.”

  “Get off your high horse, Georgette. I know you want it too.”

  “Shush.” Georgette smacked her sister on the hand. “At least, I’m not pathetic enough to dance around with a diadem on my head, practicing court etiquette.”

  Bernadette pouted. “There’s nothing wrong with having some fun.”

  “There’s no room for fun or balls. This time, everything will be different. Being an airhead won’t get you anywhere. That was cute eighteen years ago when the prince was searching for a bride, but there’s no prince anymore. To live at the palace, we won’t need to look pretty, fake niceties, or force our feet into stupid glass shoes. It’s all about power now. Survival of the fittest.”

  Bernadette perked up. “Yes, we’ll be powerful. Mother will see to it.”

  The two sisters strutted past me, and I looked after them, unsure whether they were delusional for thinking they would ever live at the palace or if they were a threat to the crown. Should I report their conversation? If they truly planned to act on what they had said, they were committing treason. I bit my lip. If I told one of the patrolmen, they would laugh at me and tell Victor, who’d admonish me to mind my own business. I needed to keep an eye on the sisters and Madam and wait until I had proof before I said anything.

  I sighed. How could a woman that was running a boarding house be a threat to the king? Madam was mean, but I had never seen her use any magic. The only threat she presented was if she rallied together a group of demons and fae that were willing to rise against the king. I shook my head. Why would demons and fae help Madam Fontaine? I was over-thinking this and putting my nose where it didn’t belong. If I didn’t want to remain a kitchen maid forever, I needed to focus on my concert tonight, not on the real or imagined machinations of my employer and her daughters.

  Banishing the drama of the boarding house from my mind, I freshened up and put on a pair of jeans that were fashionably torn in the knee area and a green top with a tropical pattern that I tied around my nape and mid-back.

  I left my hair loose and slipped into a pair of second-hand wedges I had snatched up a month earlier.

  Not giving myself the chance to rethink my ensemble, I left the boarding house and made my way to Daydream. I hummed, going through the songs I was planning to perform when a hand grabbed my shoulder. Startled, I let out a yelp.

  “Relax, Halia. It’s just me.”

  I turned around and met Victor’s gaze, which hardened as he took in my outfit. “You’re going to Daydream.”

  I straightened. “I am. This is really important for me. I understand your concerns, but I need to do this.”

  His jaw tightened, and he didn’t respond for several seconds. “Fine. I’ll come with you to ensure nothing bad happens.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “What? Are you telling me you don’t want me to be there?”

  “I think it’s best if we take a break, Victor.” Only when the words left my mouth did I realize how much I meant them. I needed to breathe, find out who I was, and I couldn’t do that with Victor around.

  He puffed his chest out. “Break? Do you know how many women would be honored to be with me?”

  “I’m sure there are a lot of ladies who would welcome being courted by you. I understand if you want to pursue them.”

  “Is this because of th
e fight we had last time? This is stupid.” He tried to take my hand, but I disentangled myself from his grip and stepped backward.

  “We have a lot of disagreements. You’re used to me giving in, but I’m done doing that. I want to pursue my passions. I want to be able to do what I love without having to apologize or worry about how you feel about it.”

  “You want to be selfish. Everything I did was for your own good! You’re being very ungrateful.”

  “I need to be on my own. Goodbye, Victor.”

  I started turning around, but he grabbed my shoulder again. “If you leave now, Halia, there’s no going back.”

  I removed his hand from my shoulder. “I know, Victor. And I’m ready to accept the consequences of losing you.”

  “You’re throwing away everything we built in the last few months. You’re throwing away your future for one stupid night of singing.”

  “I’m no longer willing to give myself up for security, love, or acceptance. You want somebody who is subservient to you, and I’m not that person. I would rather have no support than be with someone who doesn’t allow me to express myself.”

  “You’re an ungrateful bitch!”

  As I walked away, an unexpected smile curled my lips. It was good to finally hear the words out loud that Victor had silently communicated to me so many times. It wasn’t just in my head. I wasn’t too sensitive. Victor was controlling. His facade had finally cracked to reveal who he truly was.

  I reached Daydream but didn’t step inside. If I asked Lorenzo for a job at the bar, I would be binding myself completely to him, almost in the way I had done with Victor.

  I didn’t want that. Also, I wasn’t interested in bar work, and I didn’t want to abandon Doris. I needed to find a job that allowed me to stay in touch with her while also giving me insight into the developments of Arcadia. Something bad was happening to our kingdom.

  Perhaps I couldn’t do much, but it was my obligation to help my country in whatever way I could. Also, I had the feeling that the mystery of my eye color would be revealed soon. I wanted to know what the golden rings meant. I wanted to know why I was different.