The ballroom was packed when they got there. The footman who had been announcing all the guests was still at the door, stifling a yawn and looking grumpy and exhausted. He recognized Tilly and waved her inside impatiently without bothering to announce her, but he clearly expected to formally introduce Ava and her father.
Ava’s dad grinned – looking unusually playful all of a sudden as he murmured something to the footman.
‘His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Otto and his daughter, Princess Ava!’ the servant boomed out as they entered the ballroom.
Ava gaped in disbelief at her father.
‘That’s what I called myself when I came here fifteen years ago, so I decided I’d better stick with it,’ he told her. Once they were inside the room he seemed to know exactly how to deal with all the other guests, she noticed, as she watched him bow his head politely to an elderly duke and kiss the outstretched hand of his rather haughty-looking, much bejewelled wife.
The ball was now in full swing even though the royal family had yet to arrive. The musicians were playing a fast waltz very energetically, and the couples on the dance floor were whirling round the room – a mass of shimmering colours.
Tilly had already gone over to the table where the fairy godmother was sitting. There was only one other young girl left in the queue, waiting to have her dress tested.
Ava waved to her friend, mouthing, ‘Good luck!’ and Tilly gave her a nervous smile of thanks back.
Ava looked across to where the other contestants were all gathered together waiting for the competition to begin. ‘I don’t think any of the other dresses are as beautiful as Tilly’s, do you?’ she said to her father.
‘Maybe not, but don’t get your hopes up too much, Ava,’ he replied warningly. ‘We don’t know for sure that she’ll win.’
‘Now you sound exactly like Dinah,’ Ava complained, pulling a face.
Dad laughed. ‘Oh dear.’
Over at the table, the fairy godmother was already pointing her wand at Tilly and for a few seconds Ava held her breath – but there was no need to worry. Tilly’s dress passed the test and she was soon being waved across to stand with the other contestants.
The fairy godmother then raised her hand to signal to the musicians. The music stopped at once and all the guests who had been dancing were asked to leave the floor.
The fairy godmother waited for the dance floor to empty completely before going to stand in the middle of it. ‘If I could have your attention, please, lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses, princes and princesses, counts and countesses, earls and . . . hmmm . . . yes . . . well . . . For the next dance I would like only the girls in our dress competition to take to the floor. I need to see their dresses more closely before I can decide which six are good enough to make it through to the final – which Cinderella is to judge herself.’
‘Where is Cinderella?’ one of the male guests called out.
‘She and the royal family will be here in their own good time, Duke Drink-a-lot,’ the fairy godmother replied sharply.
‘Yes, well, it’s taking them a very long time, if you ask me,’ muttered the duke grumpily, as he tipped his champagne glass up and downed it in one, before snapping his fingers for a servant to bring him some more.
‘He’s got a very silly name, hasn’t he?’ Ava whispered.
Her dad grinned and pointed to a fat man in a gold-trimmed blue velvet suit, who was eating his way through a whole tray full of pork pies. ‘That’s his friend Earl Eat-a-lot over there. They both looked a lot younger – and a lot slimmer – fifteen years ago.’
Ava giggled as the earl let out a loud burp.
The head footman suddenly stepped into the middle of the floor beside the fairy godmother and cleared his throat loudly. He was holding a scroll of paper in one hand. ‘The King has asked me to make some announcements before the royal family make their entrance.’ He cleared his throat again before unrolling the paper.
‘By royal decree, there is to be no burping or wind-breaking of any description in the presence of the royal family,’ he declared, looking pointedly at Earl Eat-a-lot.
This brought an amused titter from the audience and an indignant ‘Well, really!’ from the earl.
‘By royal decree, no one must tread on the toes of any member of the royal household while dancing,’ the footman continued.
‘I say, do we get thrown into the dungeons if we do?’ exclaimed Duke Drink-a-lot jokily – but nobody else laughed.
‘By royal decree, no one with bad breath is permitted to dance with their royal highnesses,’ the footman added, fixing his gaze firmly on the duke so that nobody could be in any doubt as to who that announcement referred to.
The footman went on making announcements, which Ava barely took in because she was so excited. ‘I can’t wait to meet Cinderella,’ she whispered to her dad, who was looking at his watch. ‘Do you think I’ll be allowed to actually speak to her?’
But before her dad could reply there was a loud crash as a tray of champagne glasses clattered to the floor just behind them.
‘Mouse!’ a terrified princess shrieked, stamping her feet up and down to try and crush the creature that had disappeared under the long skirt of her gown.
‘I say – that servant over there just vanished!’ called out another guest in a high-pitched voice. ‘Look – those are his clothes!’ He was pointing to a pile of servant’s clothes on the floor, close to where the tray had fallen.
Other guests started screaming too as panic quickly spread about the room.
‘Dad – look!’ Ava said, pointing to the servant who Cindy had attacked earlier. She had just noticed him standing very still amid all the activity and his appearance was changing as they watched. Grey hair was growing on his face, and long white whiskers were growing out from either side of his mouth. Two pointy grey ears were sprouting from the top of his head, his nose was turning black and wet, and his eyes seemed to be shrinking. And poking out from underneath his jacket was a very fast-growing tail.
A few seconds later the servant was gone and in his place was a second heap of clothes and another small squeaky mouse.
‘Catch him!’ yelled the fairy godmother.
The dress competition was totally forgotten as chaos descended on the ballroom, with the fairy godmother tearing round the room in a frenzy, lifting up the skirts of all the ladies to see if there was a mouse hiding underneath any of them. As all the lady guests shrieked with indignation, their husbands and fathers shouted angrily for the fairy godmother to stop.
In all the commotion, nobody noticed that the footman at the door was trying to make an important announcement. ‘Pray be upstanding for His Majesty –’ he began, but nobody heard him. ‘His Majesty the –’ he tried a second time – but still no one was listening.
‘WHAT is going on here?’ a loud voice suddenly bellowed above the din.
Immediately the whole room froze, for it was the King himself who had spoken.
‘For His Majesty the King!’ the footman finally burst out.
Ava found herself staring in awe at the large man in the glittering crown standing in the doorway as the hushed words, ‘Your Majesty,’ echoed round the room.
The King nodded regally at his guests as they curtsied and bowed to him, before turning to glower at the fairy godmother, whose face was flushed as she got up from looking under a nearby princess’s skirt. ‘Well, madam?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘What is the meaning of this?’
‘Your Majesty, there’s been a small problem with the servants I brought to help out at the ball,’ the fairy godmother replied breathlessly. ‘I’m afraid my spell has worn off too soon and they’ve already turned back into . . . well –’ she coughed politely – ‘their original forms. It’s really most inconvenient and I have to find them straight away.’
‘I do believe she’s talking about those mice,’ said an anxious-sounding princess.
‘If you ask me, the only good place for mice is cooked inside a pie!’ declared Earl Eat-a-lot heartily.
‘Hear! Hear!’ agreed Duke Drink-a-lot. ‘Though a mouse-shake is even better in my opinion!’
‘If there are mice at this ball, I think I’d rather go home,’ exclaimed the nervous duchess standing next to him.
As several of the more panicky guests started to agree with her, the King spoke again.
‘There will be no more talk of mice, Fairy Godmother!’ he ordered. ‘I will not have my guests upset like this! You will forget about your spell and get on with judging the dress competition. The Queen will be here shortly with Prince Charming – and of course Cinderella.’
As he went to sit on the largest of the throne-like chairs, Ava whispered urgently to her father, ‘Dad, what about Cindy? If the mice have changed back already . . .’
‘I was just thinking the same thing,’ her dad replied. ‘Dinah’s with her of course, but I still don’t think we should stay here much longer. I’m starting to get rather a bad feeling about this ball.’
‘What do you mean?’
But before he could answer, the fairy godmother appeared as if from nowhere at Ava’s side. ‘Princess Ava – what have you done with my maid?’ she demanded angrily.
‘Cindy’s not your maid! She’s my cat!’ Ava protested.
‘Maid or cat – I want her back!’ the godmother snapped. ‘I must find out if she has changed back too soon like those wretched mice!’
‘We can certainly find that out for you,’ Ava’s father said quickly, ‘if that’s all you need to know.’
‘Of course it’s not all I need to know,’ the godmother replied, sounding irritated. ‘I shall have to conduct further experiments on Cindy to help me perfect my spell. Princess Ava may have her back when – and only when – I am finished with her!’
‘If she’s still alive by that time of course – which I seriously doubt!’ came a snooty voice from behind them.
Ava turned and gasped in shock as she saw the two ugly sisters standing there. They weren’t so much glaring at her, Ava realized, as at the fairy godmother.
‘What are you doing here?’ the godmother snapped at them. ‘I thought I banished you from the ball!’
They were wearing different ball gowns now, and Astrid was sneering boldly at the fairy godmother as she replied, ‘We’ve spoken to Cinderella about how you humiliated us in front of everybody, and she felt so sorry for us that she’s given us permission to come tonight after all.’
‘Yes – and when she hears about the chaos you’ve just caused, I expect you’ll be the one banned from the ball – not us!’ Ermentrude put in.
Astrid laughed as she continued cattily, ‘Even Cinderella is getting tired of the mess you always make with your ridiculous spells! And as for the Queen and Prince Charming – well, they’ve quite lost patience with you! In fact, they seemed quite interested when we suggested that you be sent away to one of those boarding schools where clumsy fairies are taught to do magic properly. The Queen thought you were too old to get a place in such a school, but we told her that we know of one that will make an exception for particularly stupid fairies!’
Astrid and Ermentrude both burst out laughing, watching gleefully as the fairy godmother’s face turned bright red with rage.
‘You . . . you . . . wicked girls!’ the godmother exclaimed angrily. ‘I’ll show you how good my spells are! I shall banish you to a boarding school right now – a school on the other side of the kingdom where they specialize in teaching nasty, rude girls better manners!’ And before anyone could stop her she was waving her wand high above her head as she shouted out a stream of unintelligible words that seemed to be causing the air around the ugly sisters to sizzle with orange sparks. At the end of her spell she spat dramatically on the end of her wand, at which point there was a loud bang as a cloud of orange smoke totally engulfed the screaming Astrid and Ermentrude.
‘Look! They’ve vanished!’ several of the stunned guests exclaimed as the smoke cloud started to clear.
For several seconds nobody spoke. The whole room was staring in amazement at the fairy godmother – who was still shaking with rage.
Then the silence was broken by a loud, slow clapping. The King had risen to his feet and was actually applauding the fairy godmother. ‘Good riddance!’ he announced. ‘Well done, Fairy Godmother!’
And little by little the whole room started to clap along with the King.
Ava was hugely relieved that the ugly sisters were gone, but suddenly she found herself feeling even more afraid for her cat. ‘Dad, we can’t let her have Cindy back to experiment on her!’ she hissed fiercely to her father – but unfortunately the fairy godmother overheard her.
Quick as a flash she turned and pointed her wand at Ava. ‘You’ll do as you’re told, young lady – unless you want to join Cinderella’s sisters.’
‘Now, now . . . there’s no need for that,’ Ava’s father intervened hurriedly. ‘You can have Cindy back if you want her that badly, Fairy Godmother – of course you can.’ He ignored Ava’s protests as he continued, ‘But don’t you have to judge this dress competition first? Look – it’s already begun.’
The King had just signalled for the music to start and all the girls whose dresses were to be judged had started to dance.
The godmother frowned. ‘Wait here,’ she ordered them before sweeping across the room to take her place as competition judge.
‘The fairy godmother isn’t a totally good character like she is in my fairytale book, is she, Dad?’ Ava said shakily as they watched her go.
‘She’s certainly someone you don’t want to get on the wrong side of,’ her dad agreed. ‘Come on, Ava. We’d better leave now, while she’s distracted.’
But Ava had also become distracted by what was happening on the dance floor. In particular she was distracted by Tilly, who was twirling round very fast. Some multicoloured sequins on her dress, which had been barely noticeable before, were now catching the light, and she reminded Ava of a beautiful rainbow sparkling in the sun.
‘Can’t we just stay long enough to see if the fairy godmother picks Tilly?’ Ava begged.
‘Ava, there isn’t time,’ her dad replied firmly. ‘If we’re still here when the fairy godmother has finished the judging, she’ll make us give up Cindy.’
‘No, she won’t,’ Ava said defiantly. ‘She can threaten me all she likes, but I still won’t tell her where Cindy is!’
‘That’s very brave, Ava, but the next time she threatens you with her wand, then I shall be telling her straight away,’ Ava’s dad said, taking hold of her hand before she could protest any more. ‘Now come with me, please.’
As the fairy godmother requested a temporary halt to the music so that she could shout instructions to the contestants, Ava and her dad began to edge cautiously around the room towards the door. At the open doorway they saw the footman, who seemed to have fallen asleep on his feet. His eyes were shut and he was swaying alarmingly.
As Ava and her dad attempted to slip past him unnoticed, he woke up with a start, took one look at them, and in his half-awake state mistook their exit for an entrance. Even half asleep he clearly had an excellent memory for names because he immediately boomed out at the top of his voice, ‘His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Otto and his daughter, Princess Ava!’
Ava and her father froze as everyone in the ballroom turned to look in their direction.
They stayed like that for only a few seconds. As the furious fairy godmother raised her wand to point it at them, Ava’s dad clutched her hand more tightly and shouted, ‘RUN!’