Page 21 of Once Upon a Midnight Clear

“Your shoes,” she said with a menacing tone. “Show me your shoes.”

“M-my shoes?” the girl stammered.

“I believe my request was clear,” she snapped.

The girl cut a glance to her mother standing next to her who clutched her arm. Swallowing hard, the girl lifted the hem of her skirt and showed Malvina her boots with a dusting of snow.

Nicholas edged his way around the bonfire, eyeing the village exit to the snowy forest beyond. He had to find Ella.

“What about you?” Malvina pointed at the next young woman who shivered.

Without asking, she showed the dark queen her feet. She tested several more young women until she came to a girl with blonde braids on each side of her face ending in festive red bows. When the girl failed to produce the shoes Malvina was looking for, she emitted a deep frustrated growl.

“Where is the young woman with the slippers?”

She moved through the people, who were mostly backing away.

“There is a young woman among you who has something I want. One of you knows where she is.”

Her furious strides echoed through the silence as she stalked down the length of the group. The towering flames of the bonfire danced wildly behind her, casting an ominous glow matching her simmering rage. She came back to the girl with the braids, her narrowed focus fixed on her.

“And if you won’t tell me where she is willingly, I willmakeyou tell me.”

The dark queen launched forward and wrapped her arms around the girl with the braids. Several gasped. Others cried out in fear. She spun the girl around in front of her with one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders to keep her in place, close to her.

“This one goes with me, until such time one of you decides to confess and bring me the one with the glass slippers. And if youdon’t…I will return for another!”

She laughed and then she was gone in a puff of red smoke.

The mother of the girl with the braids cried out as if in pain and collapsed to her knees. A man, presumably her husband, kneeled beside her and patted her back, trying to calm her with quiet soothing words. But Malvina had ruined the celebratory atmosphere by stealing the girl.

A sense of hysteria and fear trickled through those left. Others had taken their children and returned to their homes, some on the outskirts of the village.

His mother had mentioned she had stolen the shoes from Malvina. Why did the dark queen want them? They must have some powerful magic inside them if she wanted them enough to steal a girl from the village.

One more scan of the gathered people, but it told him Ella wasn’t there. She was a stranger to these people, after all. If there was a stranger in their midst, they would make a show of welcoming them into the fold.

He hurried to the edge of the village with no idea of how to find Ella and the glass slippers.

Ella awoke in a dreamy haze. It had been so long since she’d slept in a proper bed with proper blankets, she had forgotten how cozy it was. She burrowed deeper under the thick quilt just for a moment longer.

She’d eaten so much stew last night, she thought her stomach would burst. But it hadn’t. And this morning when she awoke, she still wasn’t hungry. It made her heart smile to know there was still kindness left in the world.

Or, wherever this place was.

She was fairly certain she was no longer in her world.

With a yawn and a stretch, she sat up. The tiny room was chilly but she didn’t mind. She was happy she had a place to sleep that wasn’t in a snowbank. She couldn’t stay there forever, though. She had to figure out how to get back home. But how would she? She needed help, but she was certain neither Agnes nor Lukas would be able to help her. Where would she go? Who would she ask?

After she retired to the room last night, when she was alone, she tried calling out—softly, of course—to Noella. But her fairy godmother refused to answer. Or she wasn’t able to hear her.

She pushed aside the blankets and rose. Getting out of the warm bed was difficult, but necessary. The one window in the room was covered with a thick drapery. She shoved it aside to peer out through the cold panes of glass.

The ground was covered in a thick blanket of fresh snow, glistening in the morning winter sun. She pressed her hand against the glass and shivered. It was as cold outside as it looked. She dressed, putting on the tall warm socks, the tunic and wool overdress and finally pulling on the boots. She picked up the glass slippers and her old gown and cradled them against her chest as she exited the room.

Agnes was in the kitchen humming a nameless tune. Lukas was nowhere to be found. A fire flickered in the hearth, warming the small confines of the common areas. Agnes turned from kneading her dough and smiled when she saw her.

“Good morrow, Miss Ella. How did you sleep?”

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