So This is Love

The Face That I See in the Night

"Cinderelliot? Cinderelliot!" Lady Tremaine marched through the hallways and began up the stairs. "Oh, where is that..."

Elliot came out of one of the doorways. "Yes? Here I am."

"Oh...my sons. Where are they?"

He looked upstairs. "I...I think they're still in bed."

"Oh...well, don't just stand there! Bring up the breakfast trays at once! And hurry!" She hurried to Dominique's room and opened the curtains.

"Dominique! Dominique!"

Sleepily, he mumbled, "Huh...?"

"Get up! Hurry! This instant! We haven't a moment to lose!"

Next was André's room. "André? André!" She began to shake him awake. "Get up, André!"

"What? What for? Why?" he yawned, his hair falling all into his dark eyes.

"Oh, everyone's talking about it, the entire kingdom!" she declared as she flung his curtains open. "Hurry now! He'll be here any moment!"

Dominique, still stretching, entered into his younger brother's room. "Who will?"

"The Grand Duke! He's been hunting all night!"

"Hunting?"

"For that boy! The one who lost his shoe at the ball last night! They say she's madly in love with him!"

Elliot, from outside with one of the trays, overheard this and listened in.

"The duke is?" André asked, confused.

"No, no, no! The princess!"

"The princess..."

The tray instantaneously slipped from Elliot's hand, making Lady Tremaine jump. "You clumsy little fool! Clean that up, then help my sons get dressed."

He bent over, but was confused. Y/n was no princess...was she? Either way, she was his princess.

"What for?"

"If she's in love with that boy, why should we bother?"

Dominique got in next to André and that both slumped under the blankets. Annoyed, their mother ripped it off of them. "Now you two, listen to me!"

They looked at her, startled by the urgency and frustration in her voice.

"There is yet a chance that one of you can get her."

"What? One of us?" They looked at each other, then back at the woman. "Why, Mother, what do you mean?"

As he picked up the broken dishes, Elliot listened carefully, his features becoming soft with love.

"Just this. No one - not even the princess - knows who this boy is. The glass shoe is their only clue. Now, the duke has been ordered to try it on every boy in the kingdom. And if one can be found whom the shoe fits, then, by royal command, the princess shall be his bride."

"My bride..." Elliot whispered under his breath, hardly daring to believe it. Y/n...

"His bride?!"

The boys were up in an instant and throwing their clothes on top of Elliot in a huge pile.

"Cinderelliot, get my things together!"

"Nevermind him! Mend these things right away!"

"Not until he irons my pants!"

"Mend these!"

"After he's brushed my shoes!"

"But first, get my new..."

André stopped when he realized that his stepbrother, looking high as a kite, was just staring off into space, a relaxed, slightly creepy smile on his face.