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s she took them to the morning room. The room was infused with light, and tea was set at the center table, where Snow patiently waited to meet her cousins.
Verona motioned to the maid to rearrange the chairs so the sisters might sit together across from Snow. They nodded appreciatively to Verona as they took their seats. The scene looked like a macabre tea party hosted by a beautiful cherub and attended by overgrown dolls dressed in funerary garb.
“If you could pour, Snow, I have to see to your cousins’ new room,” Verona said.
Snow smiled. She liked the idea of playing the lady.
“And ladies, if you could please excuse me? I must be off,” Verona said, curtsying slightly and then leaving the room.
As soon as Verona was out of sight, the sisters each put their hands on the table, clasping each other’s, looking to Snow expectantly.
Snow poured the tea for her cousins, happy that she managed to do so without spilling a single drop.
“Would you like cream and sugar?” Snow asked.
“Yes, please.” The sisters responded in harmony.
“So tell us, Snow—”
“How do you like—”
“Your new mother?” they asked.
“I like her very much,” Snow replied.
“She isn’t ever—”
“Cruel to you?”
“She doesn’t lock you away—”
“To shield herself from your beauty?”
Snow was confounded. “No. Why would she do that?”
The sisters looked at each other and smiled.
“Why indeed?” they replied in unison, then broke into a cackle. “She isn’t the stepmother—”
“Of fairy-tale myths then?”
“Lovely.”
“Though a bit boring—”
“If you ask me.”
“We hoped for—”
“Some excitement, some intrigue.”
“We will make our own then!” they said together. “Yes, we will make our own.” And they giggled uncontrollably, high-pitched, and wickedly.
Snow laughed nervously, too. The three sisters stopped their laughter and turned their steely eyes back to Snow. They could have been statues that had been left in the wind and rain for too many years, the weather leaving cracks in their faces. Snow couldn’t help but feel a little frightened of them.
“I would hide her away,” said Ruby.
“As would I,” said Lucinda.
