Page 42 of Ella and the Enchanted Bookshop

I followed her out to the barn, lifting my skirt so it wouldn’t trail in the dust and mud. “What’s wrong? Is Trudy all right?”

“She should be progressing faster than this,” Casey said, coming to a stop in front of Trudy’s stall. “I need you to stay home and watch her.”

I turned to look at my stepmother as the depth of her demand hit me. “Casey, I can’t stay home tonight. Asher’s back, and I have to talk to him.” I hadn’t let on that I knew what Casey had done. Doing so would have either made her very smug, allowing her to reinforce that she held the power in our dynamic, or it would have pushed her faster toward kicking me out.

And allowing her to kick me out without my horse did not figure into my plans.

Unfortunately, it seemed like she was determined to have a power struggle here and now.

“Well, you’ll just have to contact him later,” Casey said, crossing her arms. “You’d really leave one of your horses alone like this? What if something goes wrong? What if–”

“I thought they were your horses,” I interrupted, mirroring her stance and trying not to shiver from the cold.

Casey went completely still. “Since when do you not care?” she finally asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

“It’s not that I don’t care,” I said, lifting my chin. “It’s that I have other things right now that I have to care about more.” Then I huffed. “Casey, good grief. This isn’t hard! Call Derrick! He’s not planning on going to the ball. Have him stay with her.”

But rather than taking my easy solution, Casey’s expression only darkened. And I saw it the moment something inside of her changed.

“Ella Verre,” she said in that same quiet voice. “If you go to that ball tonight, you might as well not come back at all. And don’t expect to see any of those boxes in your closet or that horse over there ever again.”

22

The Color of the Sky on a Cold October Day

Istared at my stepmother, unable to accept what she was saying.

“So if you ever want to ride your horse again,” she continued, a small smile on her lips, “then go take off that ridiculous dress and crown and stay with Trudy tonight.” And with that, she walked away.

Fury pulsed through me as I watched her go. She knew what she was doing. Just as she had done with my father, she was doing everything in her power to assert dominance. It had often occurred to me after his death that he might have died of a broken heart. He’d been young and healthy–the unlikeliest of candidates to fall prey to a heart attack. After losing my mother, however, he’d joined himself to a ruthless harpy with a pretty face and a good eye for horses. And he’d never been the same again.

But I wasn’t about to be cowed into submission, I thought as I stomped back into the house and changed clothes. I would just need… help.

Casey, who was still waiting for Harper, it seemed, smiled with satisfaction when I reemerged from my room in jeans and a flannel shirt. I glared at her before stomping back out, hoping she would buy my act of submission. For while I was every bit as angry with her as I appeared to be, I was in no way about to play her little game.

The first thing I did as soon as Casey’s car pulled away from the house was to call Derrick.

“Ella!” Derrick sounded somewhat alarmed when he answered my call. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the ball?”

“About that,” I grumbled. Then I told him what Casey had threatened.

“Oh, I don’t think so,” he growled when I was done. “My best friend’s daughter is not missing a ball for that. Hold on, darlin’. Just let me grab my coat. Brianna’s already at the ball with her boyfriend, but I can be there in ten minutes.”

It was decided that as soon as Trudy had her baby and was safe, he would sneak Nevada’s equipment out to the trailer. Then he would wait for me to come back and join him so he could take her as well. As long as I was careful not to stay too long, it should all flow like clockwork.

While he made his way over, I went back into the house to change into my costume.

Which was no longer anywhere to be found. I searched for five minutes before realizing that it was definitely not anywhere in my room. I was about to go check out my stepmother’s room when I had a sudden hunch. Running back to my room, I pulled the storybook out and found the last page. And groaned.

Sure enough, the stepmother had taken the girl’s dress and shredded it to pieces so she couldn’t go to the ball.

Which meant it was time to call Margaret. Because the more time I spent in that storybook, the more I realized she had a very particular role to play in it.

“Margaret?” I asked as soon as she answered the phone. “You know how you said to ask if I ever needed help?”

Margaret’s answer was sharp. “What’s wrong?”

“Long story short, my stepmother tried to leave me at home by threatening to kick me out without my belongings or my horse if I went to the ball. She wants me to stay with a horse in labor.”