Ella dragged the broom along the marble floor beneath her. As she cleaned, a song waltzed into her head, the one her mom loved singing to her:

Life is too precious to be spent frowning

Life is so precious to be spent crying

Dream, smile, laugh, hope and believe

Everything will be just fine

Few drops of tears fell from Ella's eyes as she ended the song.

The song said life is so precious, but in actuality, life has been unfair to her. Life took her dad away from her. Her dad with whom she spent only two months of her life as a baby with. Life brought Brian and his daughter into the story, snatched her mother from her, and now it brought her to work for the royals.

While Ella pondered on these things, she didn't realize the large area she had cleaned until someone bumped into her. She looked up to see a young girl of about fifteen or sixteen years. The manner in which she was dressed spoke of royalty.

"I'm terribly sorry, your...your...erm..." Ella stuttered.

Princess Charity watched Ella calmly and shook her head after looking Ella over.

"It's just Princess. However, you may call me Charity."

"I can't do that, we're forbidden to call the royals by their names." Ella recalled how she had been warned by Miss Myra to never call any of the members of the royal family by their names. It was a risk she wasn't willing to take.

"I insist." Princess Charity felt her hair to see if her hair has come loose from its bun.

Ella laid the handle of the brush against the wall and shook her head in rejection. There was no way she'd call the princess by her name and risk being thrown out of the palace. That'd mean she might get thrown out of the palace and every plan she and Benjamin had strung together would be crashed. That'd also mean her stepfather would carry out his evil plan. There's no way she would want that to happen.

At the same time, doing what the princess wanted might just get Ella in her right books, and that would mean a lot to Ella.

"Fine, I'll call you Charity, but I can't do that in the presence of your parents or Miss Myra." Ella said.

Princess Charity nodded in agreement. But who was Miss Myra? She questioned herself. "I was going to the library before you bumped into me."

Ella wanted to correct the princess that it was she who bumped into her instead. But she kept her mouth sealed.

"Do you mind coming with me?" Charity questioned, suddenly feeling attached to Ella because of her simplicity. "Don't worry about Myra or whoever she is, I'll make sure someone tells her that you were only acting on my request."

Ella dumped her work equipments and trailed beside Charity who spent the entire time they walked talking about some sculptures.

"I take it you don't like sculptures." Charity asked when they got to the library. A guard positioned close-by bowed as the princess opened the door to the room of books.

"No, I don't." Ella replied bluntly.

Because they're lifeless.

The only things she liked were music, the colour blue, her mother and Ben. She wasn't sure of another thing she liked.

"Tell me what you like then." Princess Charity asked as she took out a book about different countries.

"I love music." Ella took a good look at the large library that had shelves from the ceiling to the floor. The books at the upper area could only be accessed by some moveable ladders positioned randomly.

"Is that all?" Charity wondered how a person could like just one thing. She was certain that there were a lot of things she loved. She loved her family, she loved reading, she loved animals and she loved food. The latter was the reason her elder sister, Princess Annabelle, teased her because she was really chubby.

However, Charity noted the odd similarity between Ella and her brother. Prince Eric loves music too.

"Well, I love other things too. Tell me what you like."

"I like food, especially the numerous cakes and pies the cook bakes every day, they're so delicious." Charity giggled and abandoned the book in her hand on a table.

Food.

At the sound of food, Ella's stomach made an embarrassing noise. Charity glimpsed at Ella while snatching another book from the shelf close to her.

"Food sure does wonders." Charity muttered with a knowing smile on her face.

Ella's face warmed up in slight embarrassment but she remained calm, nevertheless.

Charity called out to one of the maids hurrying around the large room. She whispered something into her ear and smiled brightly as the maid nodded and hurried away to act on her instructions.

Charity glanced at Ella who had a book between her fingers. "I've sent for food. In the meantime, lets sit in those chairs."

Ella sank in one of the chairs while Charity sat opposite her. Ella noticed how bouncy the chair was and decided to ask Charity about it.

"The chairs are bouncy."

Charity looked up from the book she had opened. "Yes, they are. Since I spend almost every bit of my time here, I asked for a change from the rock-hard chairs to these."

"I like them."

The two girls stayed in comfortable silence as the books on their thighs kept them occupied. They only looked up when Prince Eric waltzed towards them.

"Hey brother." Charity rose to her feet and hugged her brother who was much taller than her.

With his appearance, he seemed like he just returned from an outing, Ella noted.

When Prince Eric's eyes found hers, they widened in recognition. At that point, Ella wished she could be somewhere else besides the library which appeared to be shrinking in her imagination.

"You?" Eric spoke with shock. Wasn't this the same girl he saw at Brian's home only a few days back? Did she have special ability of replicating herself?

"Your Highness." Ella curtseyed, hiding the blush that stained her cheeks.

"Is there something going on that I need to know?" Charity's voice rang out.

Ella glanced at Charity who had a puzzled look on her face. Her eyes darted to Eric who seemed at a loss of words to say.

"No. There's nothing."

Ella breathed out the air she had imprisoned in her lungs. She had thought Eric would say something about seeing her somewhere.

"Where have you been? I've been searching for you." Charity stared up into her brother's eyes.

Ella took the turn in the conversation as a signal to leave. But when she twirled around, Charity spoke up.

"Till some other time, Ella."

Without wasting much time, Ella nodded and literally fled the library leaving the siblings who were bothered with their own affairs to notice her hurried escape.

In Ella's flight, she stumbled into Star who had quite a load of clothes in her hands. The clothes fell away from Star who had landed on the floor together with Ella who lay face down in an awkward position above Star.

"Girl! You almost killed me." Star muttered with a stoic expression as Ella removed herself from the floor and extended her right hand to help the poor girl.

Ella's cheek reddened. "Sorry."

"Save it." Star ignored Ella's hand and got up on her own.

Ella just stood staring as Star retrieved the clothes from where they were sprawled across the sparkling marbled floor. Looking at the floor, Ella could not help but praise herself for a perfect work she did earlier.

"You're lucky these clothes aren't ironed and you're also fortunate I like you. I'm letting you go this time." Star spoke, peering out the side of the load she carried as the fabrics obstructed her clear vision.

Yes, Star was lacking in the height area and it didn't help that she liked carrying things beyond her proportion. It wasn't like she had a choice around here anyways.

"I apologize again." Ella bowed slightly with a smile trailing on her lips.

"Pfft, no need. Where are you coming from anyway? Or let me rephrase...where have you been? I saw your bucket and brush in the hallway where you left them. Again, you're fortunate, I put them away for you." Star spoke and placed the clothes on the table as she sensed they'd be talking a bit longer.

"The princess asked me to accompany her to the library." Ella spoke.

Star seemed like a nice person, so Ella saw no need in hiding anything from her.

Star's eyes widened. "You saw the princess? She actually spoke to you? Just who do you think you are to come here and snatching all the attention for yourself." She asked in fake displeasure.

Ella shrugged. "Call it my destiny."

Star shook her head and folded her arms over her chest. "Tell me every little detail about your adventure."

Ella laughed as she saw the excitement twinkling in Star's eyes. She wondered what Star might do if she discloses her meeting with Prince Eric. Jump off a cliff?

Star hit Ella on her shoulder. "Stop mocking me. Go on already." She urged Ella who withheld the desired information.

"Fine. So I was cleaning..."

Ella used the next five minutes to narrate to Star everything that transpired between Princess Charity and her.

Finally, when they retired to their beds for the night, Ella bade the other girls good night and turned to face Mabel who was fast asleep and already snoring lightly.

She felt a hard object prodding her right arm so she reached under her blanket for the offensive item and gasped when she felt the outline of a book.

The book was wrapped in a shiny, purple wrapper and Ella wracked her brain to figure out who dropped it on her bed. The tiny note attached to the surface of the book answered her questions.

Since you clearly displayed your love for books. I hope you find this one interesting.

Princess Charity.

~~~~~~~~•••~~~~~~~~

What a slug I am. I've been feeling a little lazy completing this chapter. Can you believe it took me almost a month to conclude it and another couple of days to decide if I should publish it. Smh.

Anyways, even though it took me so long to update, I hope this chapter was satisfactory even though there wasn't much action or anything.

Thank you for reading.