Free Cinderella: Ninja Warrior by Maureen McGowan Page A

wiped the smile from her face and said, “Yeah, whatever.”
    Cinderella couldn’t let her sisters spoil this moment, for her or for them. As soon as they saw the dresses, they’d squeal with glee, and her stepmother would marvel at her speed and skill. After buying dresses in town for the girls, her stepmother had handed Cinderella huge sacks of beads and sequins and feathers yesterday with an evil glint in her eyes and had insisted she sew every single embellishment onto her daughters’ dresses by tomorrow, the day before the ball. By staying up all night, Cinderella had finished a day early.
    At first, Cinderella had cringed when she saw all the beads and feathers and sequins. Not so much because sewing on every single item would be tremendously hard work, but because she didn’t want to ruin her stepsisters’ ball gowns with all that sparkle. But she’d figured out a way to save the dresses.
    “Well?” Her stepmother frowned and then snapped, “We don’t have all day, girl. What is your so-called surprise?”
    Cinderella flung open the doors to the dressing room to reveal the gowns she’d spent all night embellishing. The light from the window across the hall and the skylights above caught the crystal beading and sent sparkles shooting everywhere. She lifted the fabric of one of the skirts to show how lightly she’d applied the tiny feathers to the hem and how ethereal they’d make Gwendolyn appear as she glided across the dance floor.
    “Oh!” cried Agatha, who ran forward to touch the beading at the bodice of her dress. Her face was beaming, but then she turned and glanced at Gwendolyn for guidance.
    Gwendolyn’s eyes narrowed as if she thought Cinderella was trying to play some kind of trick. Of what sort, Cinderella could not imagine.
    Her stepmother walked into the dressing room and slowly circled the dresses, her face frozen and expressionless. She examined the dresses carefully, even checking inside, and grunted when she saw Cinderella’s even stitching and the lining she’d added under the intricate beading to protect the threads and ensure that not a single bead could get snagged.
    Cinderella had never felt more confident in her own work and although she knew it was conceited to be so incredibly proud, she was. She’d worked all night and had the bandages on her pricked and sore fingers to show for it.
    Still, in spite of her utter confidence that this was good work, her mouth dried and her smile grew heavy. Her stepmother hadn’t uttered a word, and the woman’s silence and scrutiny chilled the air.
    Suddenly, her stepmother raised her head. Cinderella jumped and clasped her hands in front of her apron.
    Her stepmother stepped forward, towering above Cinderella like a hammer over a nail, ready to strike. “Where is it?”
    “What?” Cinderella backed up, fear flooding every crevice previously occupied by pride and joy, not to mention the hope that she might be offered a reward.
    “The wand.” Her stepmother clenched her hands. “To do this so quickly, you must have used magic.”
    “No, I didn’t.” She wished she had her mother’s wand or possessed the powers to have done this with magic. Then she’d have been able to catch a few moments of sleep last night.
    “You expect me to believe that you completed all this in one night?” her stepmother asked, her voice hard and spiked. “Without magic?”
    Cinderella nodded and swallowed hard.
    “Let me see your hands.”
    Cinderella offered her hands to her stepmother, who yanked them forward, hard, pulling Cinderella off balance. Her stepmother wound the bandages off her hands and then frowned and grunted when she saw the pricks and blisters from the needle and the redness on the sides of her fingers where the chafing fabric had rubbed Cinderella’s skin raw.
    Her stepmother twisted Cinderella’s hands, flipping them over and over, studying them as if they weren’t even attached to her arms.
    When she finally dropped them and