She heard Nell come in again and heard her set down a plate before her.
“Your breakfast,” came Mrs. Clerefall’s sarcastic voice.
Andrea raised her eyes. Before her was a china plate and on the plate there sat a strange object.
With its odd blackened shape, it was a moment or two before she realised what it was.
A slipper!
The golden slipper that she had worn last night, its toe now scorched and curled, its delicate leather burned beyond repair and beyond hope, like the dream that had carried Andrea through the long night.
*
There was nothing that Andrea could say or do that would appease her stepmother and her daughters.
The very moment a puzzled Nell showed them the slipper found in the kitchen that morning they had guessed what lay behind it.
The Andrea they were so used to see
