Spellbinders Secret

Dresses and Notebooks

"Ouch!" I cry.

"Sorry," the seamstress mumbles apologetically. I shake my head.

"No, it's ok. It just hurt, that's all."

The seamstress gives me a small smile. She has dark hair and dark skin with the biggest, brownest eyes I've ever seen. Honestly, I think she's very beautiful, and she knows what she's doing, considering she's the one who makes Queen Lilliana's beautiful dresses.

"All done!" She exclaims excitedly. I turn around and stare at the most amazing dress I've ever seen. It's made of pale green silk with silver trim around the waist. It's simple, but beautiful. The straps sit off my shoulder, and the material reaches to my feet. Honestly, I can't believe that the black haired creature in the mirror is me.

It's just the dress, you're not actually beautiful, a mean little voice in my head whispers. Sighing sadly, I know it's right.

"Well miss, I'll be. That boy sure knows how to design a dress," the seamstress says in awe, her eyes travelling up and down my form. I nod my head in agreement, but something she said is bothering me.

"Boy? You mean, you didn't design this?" I ask, one eyebrow raised in surprise and disbelief. The seamstress laughs heartily and shakes her head.

"Ha! I wish! But, unfortunately, all the credit goes to young Prince Callum. His mother found a design of the dress on his desk when she visited him once. When she saw it, she took it straight to me and asked if I could make it for you," the seamstress explains. I stare at her with wide eyes. Callum designed this? But...

'You walking into a ballroom with your hair done up nicely and a beautiful ball gown. It would be green naturally...' Oh goodness. He hadn't been kidding either.

"Miss! Miss!" The seamstress waves her hands in front of my face, trying to get my attention. I snap out of my flash back and step away from her. I begin to pace around the room, as do many other Ella's in the mirrored walls. Why would Callum go so far as to design me a dress? Why?

"Miss!" The seamstress snaps. I turn around and see her standing by her table, a small notebook in hand. As soon as she sees that she has my attention she points to the notebook and says; "this is the original design. I thought you might like to see it."

I stare at the notebook as though it were a venomous snake or a bomb that could explode any second. Should I...? It's not like it's a secret any more. I cautiously walk towards the seamstress and accept the notebook from her. It's simple enough, with a brown leather cover and faintly lined paper. I gently open it, as though I don't want to disturb Callum's work. On the first page, I see the outline of a dress with some colours drawn onto it, however, the drawing is crossed out and is only just visible over the scribbles and crosses that hide it from view. I see on the side that there rips and tears from where pages were taken out. I wonder how many he ripped out before just deciding to cross them out?

As I progress further through the notebook, I find that it's riddled with crossed out dress designs and written passages that were very insistently scribbled over, until the last page. Instead of unidentifiable scrawl, I find a neat design of the very dress I'm wearing accompanied by... Oh goodness.

I stare at the words uncomprehendingly, as though they don't make sense, even though they do. My heart slams against my chest, making something as simple as standing painful. In surprisingly neat handwriting are the words;