Chapter Five: Ugly Stepsister No. 2

Lucinda sank down by the window, alone at long last. One of the worst parts of this job was having to be "on" all the time. She pulled a lacy ribbon out of her hair and laid it on the pretty table. They did have some nice things, she had to admit.  But if she had to simper and scream about Prince Edward one more time, she'd just lie down in a good old-fashioned fit. She sighed and opened the window, letting the light evening breeze come in and lift her hair - and her spirits - lightly. 

She wondered what would happen when this was all over. If everything went to plan...but then, often nothing went to plan, so they had to be prepared with a Plan B...and C, and D...

Lucinda rose from the window and swished her way out the room and down the winding staircase. This house was creepy - she needed an out.  She peeked her head round the corner of a small room off to the left, where her "stepmother" sat writing at an even smaller table.

"I'm away for a walk, Mother," Lu said, wrapping a coat around her as she spoke.

Dame Montel raised an inquiring eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak.

"I know, I know," Lu said impatiently. "I'll be careful."

Diana frowned, glanced backwards, and then shrugged as if to say , "On your own head, then," and went back to her writing. Lucinda never ceased to be impressed by the woman's ability to centre all her energies on herself. There was hardly a matronly bone in her body. Lu lifted the latch and went out.

The night was cool and clear, with a sprinkling of stars. Despite everything else that was difficult about this assignment, Lu loved the country. She set off on a makeshift path that headed to a clearing not far away. Even Dame Montel couldn't rebuke her for that. She did wish she had brought one of the transmitters they had set up for the ball, but it couldn't be helped. She was a bit spontaneous, Lu was - and most of the time that wasn't a bad thing. Spontaneity also meant quick first impressions and followed hunches, and she was very rarely wrong. She admitted she looked like a bit of a fluff sometimes, but she got the job done.

Lucinda took another deep breath as she reached the clearing. Everything was still....almost too still. She frowned slightly, and glanced around. No wind, no movement in the trees, no animals....no animals. She repeated the last to herself and was suddenly a little afraid. Shed never seen the woods like this, which meant....

There was a loud whooshing sound, a flurry of sudden wind, and then the clearing stilled again. Only now Lucinda was not alone.

"Carlos," she breathed, almost inaudibly, and he grinned, as though they had planned to tryst here, and he was merely showing up. He was the perfect villain. Tall, lithe, slicked-back dark hair, dressed in black leather, everything about him proclaiming, "Money." Ill-gotten money. Blood money. He had long thin hands, and on the left a garish ring with a blood-red ruby sparkled in what was left of the starlight. He wasn't good looking in the slightest, thought Lucinda, but it was impossible to see the man without his ever-present haze of evil. The words "murder", "viciousness", "cruelty" seemed to literally hang in the air before him. He carried nothing, yet always managed to have everything he needed, when he needed it. He was often all in black, though Lucinda had seen him in white more than once. Evidently he also enjoyed prowling around under guise of am angel of light. He was in black today, all the way down to black boots, seemingly polished only moments ago even though it was to be presumed he walked here like everyone else. Of course Carlos wasn't like everyone else. Or like anyone else.

She scowled.

"What in the kings name are you doing here? I ought to call out the royal guard," she snapped.

"Ah, but it's so pleasant, just you and I," Carlos said pleasantly, linking his arm through hers and beginning to walk down the path. Lucinda snapped it back with a strength that surprised even her. Carlos too looked at her almost in surprise, although she was aware that it was unlikely anything truly caught him off guard. She certainly wouldn't mind doing the job.

"well, well," he said after a pause, smile wiped off cleanly. The pleasantries were apparently over. "and here I thought I'd picked the clever one."

He always knew his enemies' weaknesses, Lucinda thought wearily. They were always calling Dru the clever one and her the pretty one, and Carlos knew she hated it.  She was weary of this battle already and it hadnt even begun.

"You're welcome to try your luck with Drusilla," Lu retorted, "but it appears you already knew you'd lose there."

Carlos just laughed. "Well, my pretty, what say we just get to the point?" Lucinda was about to speak when she realised he meant his words fairly literally, and she was looking at the sharp end of a very evil-looking dagger. She schooled herself carefully not to react with fear, and met his black eyes unquailing. She felt she had passed perhaps a second test - but with Carlos, the tests never ended until you were dead.

"let's", she said, and Carlos nodded.

"Here's the deal," he said. It was amazing how his voice could change in an instant. It was demanding, harsh. No room for compromise, said this voice. "I don't care what you do on the night of the ball, and I sure as the prince is currently alive don't care if be stays that way. I want Cinderella dead."

Lucinda had been schooling herself for a surprise, but this was well beyond anything she had anticipated. Cinderella? Wasn't she supposed to be in league with Carlos? In rapid-fire thinking, Lucinda realised that no one was, really, in league with Carlos. He was in league with only himself (and even that was debatable).

"Well." Lucinda said, after a pause, and then stopped helplessly. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't - and wouldn't - promise Cinderella's death, even if it wouldn't be true. Lucinda was a real truth teller and a horrible liar (and Carlos knew it, which is why he had come to her, she figured). She looked at Carlos with loathing and he smiled horribly.

"Just see it's done," he said as though they were discussing what was to be served at dinner. "Or else -" He drew his dagger thinly, finely across her neck with such practised ease that it left a red line but didn't break the skin. "Or else next time you won't be walking away with this pretty little head intact." He smiled again, almost pleasantly, and Lucinda swallowed hard and tried to keep her eyes calm.

There was nothing more to say, and Lucinda knew that Carlos was capable of waiting things out all night, so she simply sighed, pulled her skirts together, and walked back the way she came, conscious of Carlos' dark stare following her all the way round the bend - and, it felt, long after she finally entered the house.

The plot, as they say, thought Lucinda, thickened.

Next Up - Chapter Six: Carlos