Chương 13: Sweets and Crime

After I told Cinderella the simple steps to marry a prince, she just believed me—because, well, she was Cinderella. She went outside the chateau to wait for the Grand Duke to arrive. She would get her half-day of happiness and excitement. It wasn't much, really, but it was still rather nice of me, I think. My door was thrown open again. This time it was Mother.

"Oh, you're already awake, good," she said hurriedly.

"Quick, come with me to your sister's room!"

"Yes, Mother…" I strode along behind her. Didn't she say she was going to punish me when she got back? Ah well. Now we were all supposed to be terribly excited about the Grand Duke arriving to try the slipper on us. Well, almost all of us. I wasn't the least bit interested in that. In fact, I had arranged things so the Duke wasn't even going to knock on our door, as he would find Cinderella outside the house. But I still had to put up with my annoying mother.

"Anastasia? Anastasia!" I heard Mother in my sister's room.

"Get up, Anastasia!" I walked slowly toward the room. Mother drew the curtains back there, too.

"Oh, everyone's speaking about it!" she said excitedly.

"The entire kingdom! Hurry now! He'll be here any moment." Now Mother would want us to wear those horrible dresses for the Duke's visit. The fact that I wasn't even at the ball probably wouldn't matter much to her. I was trying to work out some excuse, and then it struck me. I really didn't have to work out excuses. Nothing I do here will have any long-term consequences. It was a simple truth, yet it was hard for this fact to truly sink in. But… I think I finally got it.

So, right in the middle of Mother's explanation about the glass shoe and the search for the mystery girl, I simply turned around and walked off.

"Drizella?" Mother called, totally baffled by my action.

"Drizella! COME HERE!" I ignored her. I went to my room, grabbed a copy of The Adventures of Fifi LaRousse, volume 6, took some apples from a fruit plate, and walked out of the chateau to a nice stone bench beneath a large oak tree nearby. I heard Mother yelling my name like a madwoman, which made me smile. I sat comfortably outside; it was lovely weather and a pretty day. From my spot, I could see the road and watch things unfold exactly where the Grand Duke's carriage would spot Cinderella.

In the meantime, I read my book comfortably. In this volume, Fifi arrives in a watery Italy and targets Giovanni—a sun-kissed, olive-skinned gondolier with a dangerously unbuttoned silk shirt, rippling arms, and a voice like melted chocolate. She seduces this bronzed god while he serenades her. Then, after a night of scandalous passion on a gondola full of stolen pasta, she frames him for murder, uses her corset strings to tie him to a marble statue, steals his hidden gold, and leaves him weeping in the canal.

Really, I thought, she had no reason to tie him to that statue! Fifi could be mean like that. After an hour or so, the Grand Duke's carriage came. Cinderella was just standing by the road, servant clothes and all, still looking dazzling. The Grand Duke immediately stopped the carriage, stepped out, and gave her a wide smile and a deep bow. He recognized her, clearly. And why wouldn't he? He saw her at the ball, and there was nothing wrong with his eyesight.

He wasted no time putting the shoe on her, and to everyone's surprise, she pulled out the other one. A lot of excitement ensued. He then led her by her delicate hand to the carriage, and they drove away. A happy, bloody ending. I kept reading my book until I grew tired of it and put it aside. I started thinking about what I should do next. Until now, my main purpose had been to play detective and solve the mysteries surrounding Cinderella.

But now that all the major issues were resolved, I needed something else to occupy my time. Should I train hard each repetition to become perfect in every craft? Yes, sure, I will definitely do that. But before that, I need to rest for a few repetitions. Manipulating all those people, changing the future, playing the role of a goddess—why, these things were terribly tiring. I decided I would idle away my hours today, and perhaps the next few repetitions as well. Hmm, I was thinking...

how can I make future repetitions as simple, easy, and relaxing as possible? Who should I inform about the ball each time, to ensure I have as little pressure and headache as possible? Should I just send Mother and Anastasia off to the palace, and stay here with the servant girl, allowing me to be served alone and have some blessed freedom from Mother and Sister's endless screeching. Or maybe… I could just leave. I could just take my savings, maybe Anastasia's savings too, and go into town. Spend it all on sweets!

Maybe I would fetch Josephine for a nice cup of tea as well. Yes, I could do all sorts of things simply to have fun. I could actually do that today. I was… well, free. I went back inside and searched my coin box. I had 12 francs and some copper sous. That was… not a lot. I went to Anastasia's room; she had another 18 francs in her box. Well, if I spent it all in one outing, it should suffice. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I knew Mom had some serious cash hidden somewhere in the chateau, and I will definitely invest the time in finding it during some repetition when I'm completely alone in the house. But right now, I was going to spend 30 francs in a few hours! Author note on early 19th-century French currency: A loaf of bread cost 0. 25 francs, common wine 0. 5, and fine boots 30 francs. You can think of a franc as roughly $10 in today currency. 1 Louis (gold coin) = 20 francs.

1 franc = 20 sous I walked to Josephine's house, which wasn't far away, and knocked on the door. An old servant with a stiff, waxed mustache opened the door, looking the absolute picture of a proper, professional butler. Josephine's family fared much better than we did, I knew; they had two servants and a cook, while we only had Cinderella. Oh, and they actually paid their servants, too!

The butler directed me inside to the formal parlor, offered me tea, and went to announce my arrival to Josephine, as was the proper etiquette.

"Drizella! What a nice surprise," she said to me as she entered.

"And without your sister, too."

"Anastasia is of the loud sort," I said.

"I thought about going to town, just the two of us. I have some coin on me for spending. Something sweet was on my mind."

"Really?" she said.

"Parting with your allowance is quite out of character for you. But I must admit, the Grand Duke visited not much earlier, and I did get my hopes up about that glass slipper! Alas, it didn't fit at all! Did you try it?"

"Oh… yes. Didn't fit," I said. Josephine then walked past me, took my arm, and pulled me outside.

"Let's go," she said.

"It is so boring around the house! Where did you think to go?"

"Gustave's Sweets?" I suggested.

"He has these Macarons Pastilles and Tarte Tatin I always wanted to try!"

"And we could later go to Jeanne's Cafe," Josephine added, "like ladies of high status should! But my allowance is… ah, limited."

"It's on me today," I said confidently. Catching Josephine's confused look, I quickly added, "Mom happened to come across some lucrative business opportunities recently and was generous with our allowance, so do not worry yourself."

"What happened to you?" Josephine smiled at me.

"You are an altogether different person."

"I'm definitely not." This had happened with Mother, too. I thought about how people who knew me thought I was acting strangely. I obviously was acting differently, and I had reason to, but should I maintain my older facade so as not to arouse suspicion? I had no reason to, really. It wasn't like something bad would happen if people were to know I had this… secret power. They would still forget about it all when the repetition ended. Josephine and I walked until we arrived at the bustling market district of town.

There were many people here, walking, selling this, buying that. Laughing, crying, yelling. If I want to, I could spend each repetition getting to know two or three of them well, until I knew everyone by heart. Some of them might hold secrets. Maybe they had discovered great riches, or maybe they were secret serial killers? Or perhaps they just had interesting love stories. But… that sounded like far too much boring work. I was definitely not going to do it.

We got to Gustave's store and I ordered us a tray of goods: Macarons Pastilles and Tarte Tatin. When I handed Gustave the coins, I noticed that he just threw them into a large, partially hidden box in the corner of the room. Then he discovered he had run out of Tarte Tatin in the storefront, apologized, and went to the back to get more. Ten minutes passed, and he still hadn't come back.

"How much time does it take to search for Tarte Tatin?" Josephine complained.

"I bet they weren't ready at all!"

"As long as they are heavenly good, I don't mind waiting," I said. He finally returned, and we got our tray of treasures! But I couldn't stop thinking about it. Gustave must have had hundreds of francs in that box. That unlocked box. I knew that if I came in on this day, at this hour, and asked for Tarte Tatin, he would be gone for 10 minutes. I could easily rob him. And what if I did rob him? Really, it was basically a loan, because in a few hours he would get his money back when the repetition occurred!

I could probably do it to every shop in town and get thousands of francs in a matter of hours. I smiled to myself; it was a daringly wicked idea, and I liked it. The sweets looked phenomenal, and we wasted no time partaking in the feast.

"So why didn't you come?" Josephine asked.

"To the ball, I mean?"

"I assumed it would be like a silly competition to win the prince," I said.

"He was probably bored out of his mind, needing to inspect all the ladies like choosing a horse. Don't you find that humiliating?" Josephine laughed at that.

"Yes, when you look at it that way!"

"Could you look at this differently?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Like… like a party, a ball! We get to wear our most beautiful dresses, go to the palace, dance, meet friends, and eat good food. And… there were other gentlemen at the ball besides the prince, you know. Some from really wealthy families. Some… actually really cute!" I was taken aback by that. Josephine had a whole new outlook on the ball, turning my dreadful experience entirely on its head. Even as she said it, I felt a pang of jealousy. It actually sounded fun!

"It's just my stupid mother," I told her.

"She made us all worked up about the prince.

'Must win the prince!' She also made us wear those horrible cage dresses that are about as convenient to wear as a sarcophagus!"

"I see," said Josephine.

"Then a pox on your mother! Next time, go to the ball just to have fun!"

"You are right!" I said.

"I will definitely do that." I hadn't noticed it before, but Josephine was actually quite agreeable. I was having a genuinely good time with her. It was so different from when we met with Anastasia, where the talk revolved almost exclusively around gossip. But that was probably not Josephine's fault; it was me and my sister who cared about nothing else.

Now that I was living in this repetition magic, the knowledge of which lady said what about that lady, or who kissed that lady's boyfriend, felt pretty stupid, honestly. Later, we made our way to Jeanne's Coffee House, a relatively new establishment and the latest sensation in town. We spotted several ladies of the high court there, including the haughty Duchess de Guermantes, to whom we offered polite, small nods before giggling sillily over our cups.

When we finally finished and evening began to fall, we decided to head home before dark.

"This was really weird," Josephine said to me on our way back.

"What was?" I asked.

"Didn't you like it?"

"Oh, I did," she said.

"Very much so. But you... you were just a completely different person. I mean… I liked you before—well, sometimes—but now, how to say…"

"Say it." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"You became this interesting person overnight," Josephine said.

"Nice… and fun."

"Oh," I said. I probably blushed, too. Thank goodness it was getting dark and hard to see. The thought of me drastically changing for the better in just over a week? Nice and fun was it? That was just ridiculous. Josephine was being silly. But what was really occupying my thoughts—how easy it would be to steal with the repetitions—didn't leave me. I could do it at the start of each repetition: go through every store, look for easy opportunities.

Even if I got caught in one repetition, the maximum punishment I could get was two days in prison. Well, I didn't want that, but still. I could start each repetition with thousands of francs, and buy the most luxurious dresses in this silly little town. It would be a lot of work, too, but it looked fun. A lot more fun than practicing music lessons or getting to know boring people in town. And it was a much more rewarding activity. A thousand francs rewarding, actually.

And anyway, after I was done playing the brilliant detective, flawlessly unraveling the answers to every mystery, I needed something else to occupy my repeating time. But I hadn't finished my resting repetitions! Eating sweets and drinking coffee all day would eventually lose its novelty, but that day was not today! Oh, and I think I discovered the absolutely best part about repetition magic: I could eat all the sweets I wanted without ever getting fat!