“Wake up Ella! Cinderella! I’m hungry!â€? came a cry from the stairs to the attic.

“Coming Olivia!â€? she shouted back. If she were someone with status she would stay in bed until noon she thought to herself. Rushing down the stairs she tripped and fell upon her hands and knees. Olivia looked down at her as she might look down at dirt.

“Well… get up!â€? and then an aside loud enough to be heard, “Such dim-witted maids.â€?

“Mmmhmm,â€? Cinderella mumbled.

Olivia turned on her heel and padded down the hall to the dining room. The threshold of the kitchen greeted her with a hard stone floor as her worn feet picked their way across it. She warmed a pot of water over the fire for tea and lost herself in the depths of its flames for moment. The drumming of Olivia’s fingers on the table brought her back to reality and she stumbled into the dining room.

“What may I get for you, Olivia?â€?

“Some cereal. And I’ll have a cup of tea with two cubes of sugar, not three, not one, two,â€? Olivia ordered.

“Yes ma’m.â€?