A long, long, long way away, Joderick’s father, King Poderick Porenson Picklebottom, was not thinking about Cinders or Joderick, or even the Huntsman. He was sitting on his throne, playing a game on his mobile phone. The queen sat beside him on a throne of her own, reading a book she’d been looking forward to for ages. She wasn’t exactly thrilled that Joderick had gone missing, but it was nice to have a bit of time to herself.

‘Your Majesties!’

The doors to the throne room flew open and two pages appeared, flanked by four of the king’s guards.

King Picklebottom held up one finger for everyone to be quiet while he finished his game.

‘Score!’ he yelled happily before turning his attention to the pages. ‘Now, what have you got for me?’

‘We have news—’ began the first page.

‘About your son,’ finished the second.

‘Have you found him?’ the king asked.

‘No,’ said the second page.

‘But he was spotted,’ added the first.

‘By a baby bear,’ they chorused.

‘And did this baby bear provide any proof?’ the king asked, looking back at his phone. He was getting good at this game. If only he could manage one hour of the day without any interruptions, he might finally be able to get up to the next level.

‘No, Your Majesty,’ the pages confirmed as one.

‘Then he’s not getting the reward,’ the king grumbled. Ever since they announced Joderick was missing, he’d been spotted everywhere – down the supermarket, up a beanstalk, living in a shoe. It was all a complete load of tosh.

‘We believe the bear is telling the truth,’ said the first page.

‘He said the prince was looking for a girl called Cinders,’ said the second.

At last, the king put down his phone and the queen looked up from her book.

‘Cinders? CINDERS?’ King Picklebottom leaped out of his throne with a roar. ‘What else did he say?’

‘He said his mum offered the prince a sandwich,’ began the second page.

‘And sent him on his way,’ finished the first.

The queen gripped the arms of her throne so tightly, her fingers turned white.

‘Did they say what kind of sandwich?’ she asked.

‘It doesn’t matter what kind of sandwich!’ the king bellowed.

‘Yes it does,’ argued his wife. ‘Joderick likes his cheese sandwiches cut into triangles with no crusts, but, if it’s a ham sandwich, he likes the crusts left on and cuts it into squares and, if it’s a tuna sandwich, he’d much prefer it in a roll—’

‘That’s quite enough about sandwiches,’ the king declared as the four guards looked at each other hungrily. It was ages since breakfast and they all fancied a sandwich. ‘Where are these bears?’

The first page answered the king. ‘In the Dark Forest.’

And the second page added, ‘Near the Alabaster Tower.’

The king gulped. It was a long time since he’d heard talk of the Alabaster Tower. And even longer since he’d seen it.

‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ he insisted, resting back against his throne and putting on a brave face. ‘The Huntsman will find both Prince Joderick and that girl in no time. Now, who fancies a cup of tea?’

The queen didn’t look quite as confident as the king sounded, but she also really wanted to get back to her book.

‘If you’re sure, dear,’ she said, flicking through the book to find her page. ‘I hope he’s back by teatime. I don’t like the sound of my son accepting sandwiches from strange bears.’

‘I’m sure he will be, I’m sure he will be,’ said the king, waving the pages away and going back to his game.

But there was someone else listening in the hallway. Someone who was not quite as sure about things as the king appeared to be.

Margery, Cinders’s stepmother, curtsied at the guards and the pages as they trooped down the hallway, away from the throne room.

‘We need Joderick to come home to the palace and we need Cinders to stay far away,’ she said, speaking quietly to her dutiful daughters, Elly and Aggy. They were close behind her, as always.

‘We do,’ agreed Aggy.

‘We do?’ echoed Elly. ‘Why’s that?’

‘Because, if the prince doesn’t come back, how can he fall in love with one of you and make you his queen?’ Margery replied.

‘I don’t know,’ Elly replied, puzzled. ‘Is that what we want?’

‘It is,’ her mother insisted.

‘It is,’ Aggy agreed. She was quite excited about the idea of being queen. She’d already seen a nice white dress with lots of ruffles at the shoulders and it had royal wedding written all over it.

Her younger sister still looked a little confused.

‘But how will you convince Prince Joderick he wants to marry me or Aggy if he’s already decided he wants to marry Cinders?’ she asked.

Margery smirked and tightened the bow in her youngest daughter’s hair, pulling until Elly squealed.

‘You leave that with me,’ she said. ‘Just you leave that with me.’