For the rest of the morning, Gus was very nervous. When would Cinderella go up to the attic and find the surprise? But Gus soon realized that she was much too busy to go to the attic during the day. She had to scrub the floors, sweep the halls, wash the clothes, clean the kitchen, do the mending—and, of course, cater to her stepmother and stepsisters. Phew! Gus was tired just thinking about it!

Oh, well, Gus thought. Cinderelly’s gotta go to sleep at night. Then she’ll find the flowers and have sweet dreams! He closed his eyes as he imagined how surprised she would be when she found the roses. He really hoped that she would love them!

But Gus’s daydream was interrupted by a loud shriek. “My roses! My beautiful, prize-winning roses! Gone!” he heard a woman suddenly scream.

Gus’s eyes grew wide. Uh-oh, he thought. That doesn’t sound very good!

The entire household rushed to the garden, including Gus. Cinderella was the first to arrive. There, she found Lady Tremaine staring at the bare rosebush. Her mouth had dropped open in shock.

“Oh, no!” gasped Cinderella. “The pink pearl roses! Who would have done such a thing?”

“I don’t know who would have done something like this,” Lady Tremaine replied coldly. “But I intend to find out. Look!” she suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the ground. “Some pink petals from my beautiful rosebush. It appears we have a clumsy thief on our hands! And I’m going to get to the bottom of this right now!”

“Yeah!” sneered Anastasia. “Clumsy and foolish!” She laughed gleefully.

“Are you saying that you stole the roses?” Drizella asked her sister nastily. “Because you’re the clumsiest fool I know!” She gave Anastasia a mean look.

“Girls! Girls!” ordered Lady Tremaine. “That is not going to help us find the thief.” Then Lady Tremaine looked at Cinderella suspiciously.

“Me? But how can you—” Cinderella began. “I would never—”

“Follow the petals!” Lady Tremaine shouted angrily. “They will lead us to whoever is responsible for this!”

Everyone quickly walked across the garden. The trail of rose petals led them through the garden, across the courtyard, into the château, and up the creaky, winding staircase that led to the attic.

Gus’s heart started to pound wildly. They would find the roses in Cinderella’s room—and think that she had taken them! He didn’t want her to get in trouble.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Cinderella exclaimed as she followed Lady Tremaine up the attic stairs. “I didn’t cut the roses! I’ve been busy doing chores all day!”

But Lady Tremaine didn’t even bother to answer her. With a loud slam, she flung open the door to Cinderella’s bedroom. It was filled with Lady Tremaine’s roses!

“Then how do you explain this?” Cinderella’s stepmother asked her.

Tears filled Cinderella’s eyes. “But I didn’t steal the roses!” she cried. “I would never do that. You must believe me!”

“Oh, so I suppose someone else cut down my precious blooms and decided to hide them in your bedroom?” Lady Tremaine snapped.

“But Stepmother—” Cinderella began.

“Silence!” Lady Tremaine barked. “Not another word from you until you are ready to apologize. And until then, I’ll just have to find more chores for you to do.”

“Wait! Stepmother, I didn’t—” Cinderella started.

But with a swish of her silk gown, Lady Tremaine swept out of the attic. Anastasia and Drizella quickly followed behind her.

Cinderella sat down on her bed and started to cry. “I would never steal Stepmother’s roses! Why won’t she believe me?” she said aloud.

From the doorway, Gus gulped nervously. He crept across the room to Cinderella, then climbed up the wooden bedpost and sat next to her on the bed. “There, there, Cinderelly,” he said, patting her shoulder. “Don’t cry.

Everything will be okay.”

Cinderella looked down at Gus and smiled. “Thank you, Gus. What a kind mouse you are,” she said. But then she noticed how worried he looked.

“What’s wrong, Gus?” she asked. “Do you know who stole the roses and then put them in my room?”

Gus nodded miserably. “It was—it was—it was me,” he stuttered.

“You?” Cinderella asked. “Oh, Gus, why did you do such a thing?”

“Because I wanted to do something nice for you!” Gus exclaimed. “I didn’t know the roses belonged to anybody.”

“It was very sweet of you to want to do something nice for me, Gus,” Cinderella told him. She looked at him kindly.

Gus beamed up at Cinderella. He was so glad that she wasn’t mad at him!

“But we must always be careful not to take something that belongs to someone else,” Cinderella continued. “Those roses were very special to Stepmother. In fact, every June she enters them into the village gardening competition. She’ll be so very disappointed when she can’t enter the contest this year. We have to do something.”

Gus looked down sadly. He never wanted to cause such trouble.

Cinderella stared into the distance. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “I know! We’ll go to the village and buy a new rosebush for Stepmother as a surprise!” Cinderella exclaimed. “She’ll be so happy to have her special roses growing in the garden again!”

Gus’s eyes grew wide. “Village? What’s that, Cinderelly?” he asked.

“Oh, Gus! The village is a wonderful place!” Cinderella exclaimed. “There are rows of shops and houses right next to one another. The streets are full of carts and carriages and people and horses!” Cinderella took one look at Gus’s excited face and smiled.

Cinderella thought for a moment. “I know,” she said. “Since you’ve never been to a village before, you’ll have to come with me and help me pick out a new rosebush,” she told Gus.

“Okay!” Gus said excitedly. He had just learned what a village was, and already he couldn’t wait to go!

Cinderella hurried over to the table and picked up a small basket. She lined it with a pretty silk pillow and a soft handkerchief.

“Here, Gus, hop in the basket,” she told him. “We should leave right away. The sooner we get back, the sooner we can surprise Stepmother with a beautiful new rosebush!”