Free Ella: an Everland Ever After Tale by Caroline Lee Page B

but knowing that it wouldn’t make a lick of difference. Mabel didn’t think that was the appropriate response. “ What? ”
    “I said—” Ella moved the pins to one side of her mouth, her hands still working quickly. “That’s fine. What does Eunice want in her basket?” Their middle sister was resting in her room with one of her frequent headaches, and the question was easier than asking what Mabel wanted, because she was sure to have a long list of demands.
    “It doesn’t matter what she wants, because you’ll be making fried chicken for my basket. It’s the least-terrible of the meals that you make, and would go well with potato salad, if you think that you can manage to make that without blundering completely.”
    The hateful words were easy to brush off. Everyone always enjoyed her fried chicken; Lord knows Ian had.
    At the thought of Ian, her hands stilled. As always. She couldn’t help but remember the intensity of his gaze when he’d held her hand there in his storeroom, and the way the heat had traveled up her arm and into her chest. He’d talked to her in a way that no man ever had. He treated her the way Maisie treated her; as a friend. And Ella loved every second of it. Loved seeing his smile, loved his teasing. She was still dreaming of him, but this time, her dreams were of more than just his kiss. Now that she did know what his touch did to her, she dreamed of grander things… a future together.
    A sharp jab pulled her from her silly wool-gathering. Wincing, she carefully pulled the pin from her finger, careful not to get the drop of blood on the pink silk. A future with Ian? She had to scoff at her silliness. The man was handsome, successful, and well-off. She was a nobody.
    “What are you doing with this, Ella?” Sibyl’s question distracted Ella from her less-than-pleasant thoughts. Her younger stepsister was stroking a bolt of yellow-and-white cotton that Ella had been foolish enough to leave out. Her mouth went dry at the realization.
    “Nothing,” she managed to squeak out. Luckily, her work was hidden away at the back of the bottom drawer of the sewing bureau, where her sisters probably wouldn’t think to look. Eunice had ordered the material last year, sight unseen, and when it arrived, Mabel had absolutely forbidden her to wear it. She said that with the Miller sisters’ pale hair and skin, it made them all look like sallow corpses. Sibyl had obviously been disappointed, so Mabel relented and allowed Ella to make them all third-best summer nightgowns out of it.
    There was still plenty of material left on the bolt, though, and Ella had thought that they might’ve forgotten about it. With the little bit of leftover lace from Mabel’s gown, and a few feet of the leftover white ribbon from Eunice’s gown, she’d thought that she could make a serviceable—but pretty—church dress… not that she was ever allowed to go to church with the family anymore.
    Perhaps, in the very back of her mind, was the thought that—assuming her sisters’ dresses were completed successfully, and that their food was packed—she might be able to go to the picnic too, if she had a dress fit for the occasion. Not nearly as fancy as her sisters’… but nice enough for Ian—
    She bit her tongue, giving herself something to think about besides him .
    Unfortunately, Mabel was able to sniff out secrets. “What do you mean, ‘nothing’?” Her sharp tone sent a spike of pain through Ella’s forehead, but she didn’t let it show. “It’s out, so it’s obviously for something . What are you doing with it?” She tried to turn, to look at the fabric, but Ella held her ankle with her free hand, keeping her still so that she could finish the hem.
    She pinned up the last few inches, frantically wracking her brain. Curtains! “I was thinking about using some of it to put up curtains in the kitchen.” There was only the one window in there, and Ella definitely didn’t need it covered—the more