letting ella go had perhaps been one of the most
difficult things melanie had ever done. at the time,
OF COURSE, she had known that ella could not
remain, not with the tremaines staying as long as
they had PLANNED. a few days was all well &&
good for hiding away in a secret room, but months
of doing so wasn’t something melanie would ever
force her friend to ENDURE.
&& so, they had parted, ella slipping away into the
night with as much food and money as melanie
could give her WITHOUT their absence being
noticed. not a night went by that she didn’t fall
asleep without worrying for her WELL-BEING,
knowing now of what ella had gone through before
arriving at the RAVENSWOOD estate.
but, life had gone on, even so. she doesn’t think
very much of it, when her father tells her of a
SURPRISE visitor waiting in the drawing room
one day. it’s probably just one of his stuffy suitors
that have been visiting more && more frequently.
so, it’s quite surprising that she’s met, NOT with
and attempt at polite conversation, but with another
body COLLIDING with hers in a flash of color.
she’s caught entirely off-guard, but, oh, there was
no MISTAKING that voice, not when she’d heard
so many of it’s inflections before.
relief and joy blossom in chest, and melanie,in
turn, wraps her arms TIGHTLY around the girl’s
slender ( not quite so much as before, however )
frame, PRESSING her face into her shoulder. ❝ oh
ELLA… ❞ she whispers, not yet taking into account
her fine clothes or even questioning why she was
here now. they don’t MATTER now, not so much
as the fact that she has her friend back again.
though life after leaving perrault had not been easy by
any means . . . ella could never regret the path that had led
her to melanie. as a child who grew up in vine-buried manor
so far away from the rest of town, most all her friends had
been the squeaking or chirping sort. and though young ella
had treasured their friendship deeply, a part of her had always
longed for a little MORE. she had dreamed of having the kind
of kinship the stories told of in their robin hood and little johns,
their ROSALIND and celias.
living like a maid for quite sometime under the roof that had
become her stepmother’s, ella would have never expected to
gain a friendship in such a manner. her stepsisters, after all,
had been ever adamant to keep certain walls of silk and laces
between them. yet it had been MELANIE who was quick to
tear down such walls, allowing ella to call her by name and the
two finding much in common by character in the hearts of each
other. so many secrets . . . so many laughs. who could have
predicted that such camaraderie could form from covertness ?
ella had shared with melanie thoughts and dreams she had
not voiced before beyond prayer and paper, and her friend’s
kindness and understanding had fostered strength long bruised
within her.
though they had been parted for a while, ella had seen melanie
in memory any time she visited the palace stables, or even
caught the light giggling between her own maids. because the
ravenswood estate was so very far from her and kit’s kingdom,
ella did not expect melanie or the baron to have heard of her
coronation ( though melanie’s father had been pleased to
learn what had become of his once-maid upon greeting her first ) .
and none of it really mattered at the moment, all she wanted was
to hear her friend’s calming voice again, to feel her warm hands
and see her SMILE.
she is even MORE beautiful than ella could remember, her dear
friend always the picture of steel grace and elegance -- not COLD
in the slightest, but admiringly firm in resolve, and unafraid. when
ella draws back from the embrace, her hands cup the other’s
elbows, lips already aching from her grin. ❝ oh , how are you ? ! ❞
WELL , she hopes, and hopes fiercely. ella does not know if lewis
still works at the household, and how everything had continued
after she fled.
❝ i’ve missed you so much, melanie, you can’t even begin to imagine, ❞
she utters with a smile still, but there’s an ache left over from the days
ella has spent wondering if she would EVER see her friend again. no
one’s quite so witty back home.
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
kianamaiart
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