‘I really do think something a bit looser might be more appropriate for dinner,’ Cinders said as Andy, Mandy and Sandy helped her downstairs to the dining room. Candy and Tandy were already preparing her chamber for bedtime while Sparks resumed his very important nap. ‘Not that it isn’t a lovely dress, but come on – don’t you think it’s a bit much?’

The dress was a bit more than a bit much. Canary yellow and with fourteen layers of silk skirts, Cinders felt as though she were drowning in it.

‘The queen specifically asked that you wear this dress,’ Mandy replied, slapping Cinders’s hand away from the very, very, very tight corset. ‘And you look so pretty. I’m sure you’ll get used to it very soon.’

‘If it doesn’t squeeze the life out of me first,’ she muttered. ‘Death by ballgown. I can see the headlines now.’

‘Cinderella.’ The king stood as she entered the room and she tried very hard to give a small bow without dropping the ridiculous wig Andy had insisted she wear. ‘Don’t you scrub up nicely?’

‘I feel a bit …’ She paused and turned her head to look at the queen.

There she was, sitting at the head of a long, narrow, gilded table, wearing an almost identical dress and wig.

‘… I feel beautiful, thank you,’ Cinders said, smiling so brightly that the king began to wonder if there might be something wrong with her. ‘This is the most glorious dress I’ve ever seen, and who knew wigs could be so much fun?’

They weren’t fun, not in the slightest. She was hot and sticky and she could barely hold up her own head, but she was also starving and, as every right-minded person knows, food comes first. Cinders was quite prepared to suffer a corset and a sweaty head if it meant filling her belly.

‘You look lovely,’ Joderick whispered from across the table as she trotted down the length of the room. ‘But the wig’s a bit much.’

Cinders smiled and took her seat across from the prince. The king and queen were so far away from them at the other end of the table that she could barely even hear them.

‘Have you had a nice day?’ she asked, really hoping he had. This wasn’t Joderick’s fault after all, and she really did want at least one friend in the palace.

‘No,’ he admitted. ‘I was in a very important meeting all day. It’s supposed to be top secret, but, since we’re to be married, I’m sure I can tell you.’

‘Ooh!’ Cinders was terrible at keeping secrets, but she hated to be left out of the goss. ‘Tell me everything.’

‘It’s the fairies,’ Joderick whispered. ‘It turns out they’re real and something must be done about them.’

‘Fairies?’ Cinders gulped. ‘What’s wrong with fairies?’

‘What’s wrong with fairies?’ Joderick looked shocked. ‘They’re terrible things. Monsters even! Didn’t you know?’

Cinders reached across the table and grabbed a big iced bun.

‘I did not know that,’ she said, shoving the bun in her mouth and trying not to look too scared. ‘Please tell me more.’

‘The fairies want to take over our kingdom,’ the prince explained. ‘And we have to keep them away before they sneak over the mountains and eat us all up in our beds!’

‘Eat us all up?’ Cinders gulped. Fairies wanted to eat people? Brian was weird, but she’d never given off much of a cannibal vibe.

‘Yes,’ Joderick confirmed. ‘They have long claws and sharp teeth and they steal naughty children out of their beds at night.’

‘Blow me down,’ she said. ‘Is that right?’

‘They’re terrible things, the fairies,’ said Joderick, shaking his head sadly. ‘We’ve managed to keep them away for generations, but my father is worried they could come back and attack any day. Jack suggested we all go up the beanstalk and live in the sky, but that’s hardly practical.’

Cinders was still thinking hard. None of this fairy business made sense to her. Brian was a fairy and Brian didn’t have claws or sharp teeth, and the only thing she’d tried to eat was a plateful of sausages. Admittedly, she had very questionable fashion sense, but that didn’t make her a monster.

‘Have you ever met a fairy?’ she asked Jodders as he loaded his plate with broccoli, peas and runner beans. ‘Maybe they’re not as bad as you think.’

‘No one has met one, not for more than one hundred years,’ he replied. ‘Not since my great-great-grandfather made a pact to stop them coming to our land and I think I’d like to keep it that way, thank you very much.’

Cinders didn’t know what to say. Could it be true? Could Brian really be so wicked? It seemed rather unlikely. Not lovely Brian. Flaky, yes. Unreliable, absolutely. But a kiddy-eating monster? Not so much.

‘What are you two whispering about?’ the king called down the long golden table.

‘Nothing,’ Joderick piped up quickly. ‘We definitely weren’t talking about fairies.’

‘Oh, good,’ the king replied. ‘Keep that stuff to yourself, son.’

‘Thank you for dinner,’ Cinders said, pointing at all the food on the table. ‘I say, this is a lovely spread, isn’t it?’

‘This is nothing,’ the king said. ‘Wait until you see the whole suckling pig Cook is preparing.’

‘Ooh, that sounds nice,’ she said, rubbing her still-rumbling tummy. Without thinking, she added, ‘I wish it was ready now.’

Quick as a flash, Cook walked in, carrying a whole suckling pig.

‘Dinner is served,’ she declared, looking a bit surprised when met with a round of thunderous applause.

‘What a coincidence,’ Cinders said, covering her sparkling hands with a napkin. Why were her wishes coming true now? She shoved another iced bun in her mouth. At least if she was eating she couldn’t make any more accidental wishes.

‘Bravo, Cook,’ the king said as Cook prepared to carve. ‘It looks so good I wish it would run down the table and jump right into my mouth!’

Underneath her napkin, Cinders felt the familiar fluttering feeling in her fingers. Golden sparkles flew from her hands all the way down the table and showered the suckling pig. With an indignant OINK!, it opened its eyes, jumped up from the plate and ran down the table, directly towards the king.

‘Somebody stop that pig!’ the king wailed, leaping out of his seat and running away. ‘Stop the pig!’

The queen leaped towards the regicidal hog with a look of determination, only to slip in a puddle of apple sauce and fall right back down on to her queenly posterior. Cinders stared in horror as the pig bore down on the king and bit him right on the bum.

‘I wish the pig would STOP!’ she yelled, sending another scattering of sparkles towards her dashing dinner. At once the pig froze, one trotter in mid-air, just as he was about to take another big old bite out of the king’s royal bottom.

‘You!’ The king turned to stare at Cinders, two bright red spots appearing on his cheeks. ‘It was you!’