Nora's room was filled with bright, cold light hinting at the late hour, streaming inside through the gap between the curtains, when she opened her eyes the following day.

What had woken her up? she wondered, pulling her covers above her head, shivering slightly. She really should get up and rekindle the fires before the cottage gets too cold... But she had nothing to do today, nowhere to rush, she could as well stay in bed and read the whole day, there were enough blankets in her wardrobe to keep her warm...

There it was again, the sound that had woken her up, and this time, she recognised it as a decisive and impatient knocking on the door.

She sighed. The only person whom she would want to see now was Martin, and it couldn't be him. He would be too busy with the ball. It must be Eric then... Right, even though she didn't feel the need to tell him about the long gone feelings she had held for him for her own sake anymore, she might have to do it for him. The sooner, the better; he might as well hear it now and then step back and leave her alone. He belonged in her past, and that's where she wanted him to remain.

She got up and grabbed her dressing gown off the bed, wrapping it around herself as she rushed down the stairs, summoned by another round of impatient knocking, unlocked and opened the front door blowing a few stray strands of unbrushed hair from her eyes at the same time.

"Cle... Clelia," she stammered, spotting her godmother behind the large box she was carrying. "I... thought it was someone else."

"Well, your Martin is busy, but you must know that, the ball is such a nuisance to organise, only a man as patient as he could put up with it year after year," Clelia mumbled as she pushed past Nora to get inside. "Have I just woken you up? It's almost twelve!" she exclaimed as Nora found a pair of slippers for her while the old woman removed her shoes, still clinging to her silvery box.

"Why are you here? What's in that box?" Nora asked, utterly puzzled, as she trailed behind Clelia into the sitting room where she finally deposited the mysterious box on the sofa.

"And she was sure you'd guess the moment you saw me because of the stockings. Oh, Nora, it takes you a while to put things together sometimes."

She chuckled, and Nora frowned at her. "What's in that box?" she repeated.

"Your ball dress, of course. Magdalena left it with me last night; she said you never came to pick it up. And there's mine too, I didn't want Martin to see me already dressed..."

Nora caught at the only word that made sense. "Martin?"

"He came to pick up Daniel early this morning. Goodness, when does that man even sleep? He has so many responsibilities! He said that he would send for us at six."

"But I wasn't going to the ball, I don't have a dress..." And why Martin didn't come to see her in the morning? Her phone was still off... Leaving Clelia staring after her, she ran upstairs and switched the phone on, receiving two texts from Martin the moment it came to life.

'Are you up? I'm going to get Daniel, would you like to walk with me?" Asked the first, sent before seven in the morning. 'We'll see you later then.' The next, sent twenty minutes after the first informed her.

"Nora! Where have you gone to? Come and have a look, it's wonderful," her godmother's voice reached her from downstairs as she typed a reply. 'Hi. I'm sorry, I overslept. Clelia just woke me up.'

"I'm coming!" she called even as her phone vibrated with immediate reply. 'Whatever you wear, I'll recognise you the moment I see you.'

She laughed, recalling their game. 'No, you won't.'

She slipped the phone into the pocket of her dressing gown as she returned downstairs to Clelia.

"We should fix ourselves a lunch. I'd do with a cup of coffee too, gosh, it's so cold here! You should definitely invest in central heating, Barbara's fireplaces won't keep you warm..." she kept complaining as she removed the Cinderella dress Nora remembered seeing at Magdalena's shop from the box first, followed by a lilac hooded cape and a... magic wand.

Nora gaped at her. "Are you the Fairy Godmother?" There was no way Martin would not recognise her with Clelia in tow. He couldn't see them side by side.

"I thought it was most fitting when Magdalena said you picked the Cinderella gown. Now, I'll make us coffee, you go and do what you need to do before I put that dress on you," she instructed, vanishing into the kitchen area, leaving Nora to stare at the sky blue gown, perfectly matching the stockings she had received the day before, a gown she hadn't chosen.

"Go, go, go, time flies!" Clelia's order finally made her move towards the fireplace, then, after she rekindled the fire in the sitting room, up the stairs again.

Just like the swimming suit before, the gown was a perfect fit, Nora mused as she twirled in front of a tall mirror in her grandmother's room, appreciating her friend's professional eye for size.

She checked her phone again, earning herself another frown from Clelia-- she had been texting most of the day, first with Magdalena, then with Martin whose messages made her impatience to see him grow incredibly as the hours passed. Now, with only twenty minutes to the appointed time when someone from the castle would pick them up, she was as nervous as a teenage girl before the first date, and Clelia was beginning to lose patience with her.

"Keep still!" she ordered, adding another clip to her hair gathered in a chignon. "Fine, all done, let us go down and wait..." she said, shuffling off as she re-tied the enormous bow holding the lilac cap around her neck.

They heard the bells while they put their shoes on and Nora stuffed the pair of transparent stilettos matching her ball gown into her handbag even as she adjusted her mask, that, too, a perfect match for the dress.

"The sleigh," she replied to Clelia's raised eyebrow. Smiling, she put her coat on and, with one last look towards the fireplace, checked that the fire was safely banked before she ushered her godmother outside.

Martin's fairytale-like sleigh just slid to a stop under the porch steps and a man dressed like Zorro, wearing a black mask that couldn't hide his voice, hopped off and greeted them, "Good evening ladies." Nora was almost certain that he was Alan the Ranger.

The man helped them mount the high sleigh, and Clelia, seated next to him, talked to him the entire way to the castle. Nora kept quiet, not wanting him to recognise her, wondering if he had been told whom he was picking up. For some reason it suddenly felt very important that she would not be recognised; the thrill of the game, however silly it was, which she had going with Martin, the excitement of attending a fancy masked ball in the castle she hadn't cared anything about still yesterday was thrumming through her veins.

"Enjoy yourselves, ladies," their coachman greeted them once more as he helped them off the sleigh by the drawbridge.

Nora smiled and nodded her thanks, then kissed Clelia on her cheek and left her chatting with the man. She rushed towards the Entry Hall alone, certain that her godmother's chatter would give her away in five minutes. The moment she was across the bridge, she pulled her invitation from her bag and handed it to one of the two... knights in shining armour who guarded the arched doorway, then pushed through a small group of green-clad, winged elves talking in the middle of the Entry Hall, and rushed towards the sliding glass door of the hotel spilling bright lights and music into the courtyard.

All right, it was now or never, Nora reasoned with herself as she felt her excitement evaporate even as her courage faltered, she really wasn't for these things, and she was here all alone as she had abandoned Clelia... Taking a deep breath, she slipped through the sliding door the instant it opened for her, bumping into a tall... vampire, whose ready, white-gloved hands steadied her as she lost her balance. She smiled at the fanged, masked stranger in lieu of a thank you as well as apology, before she looked around, then headed towards the room on her right, from where she noticed coatless and bagless women emerging to meet the men waiting for them in the reception. She needed to get rid of her coat and change her shoes; the black boots she wore wouldn't do for Cinderella.

The moment she exited the cloakroom, trying to look confident wearing the high heels she wasn't used to, feeling strange in the ostentatious bright blue, many-layered, floor-length gown, phoneless as the dress didn't have one pocket, her reading glasses stuffed into the tightly laced corset and the elbow-high white gloves donned masterfully, a waiter stepped in her way, offering her a glass of champagne from his glass-filled tray.

She smiled and inclined her head in a mute thank you as she picked one, then looked around the room teeming with all sorts of fantastical creatures, noticing how the guests slowly strolled up a white, sweeping staircase at the other end of the room.

Taking a sip of the champagne, she followed them, certain that they knew better where the ball was held than her. She turned towards the front door once as she reached the top of the staircase, noticing a very happy Clelia, laughing as she entered the reception surrounded by the group of elves which Nora had met in the Entry Hall. She smiled, relieved that her godmother didn't mind her absence much, if she noticed her disappearance at all.