Read Online Cinderfella by Linda Winstead Jones - Free Book Online Page A

Charmaine did what she could to help her mother, taking care of the details that inevitably came up when organizing an affair of this size. Making certain that there was a sufficient amount of good silverware and china, hiring extra help for the evening, checking to see that the cabin was prepared for the musicians who would arrive on tomorrow’s morning train.
    Eula, an excellent seamstress since the age of twelve, had taken a hand in preparing the masks that would be handed out at the door. Goodness knows when she’d had the time! All the guests would be in disguise, and if they arrived without a mask, one would be provided.
    Charmaine looked in wonder over the array of fancy masks in the box on the counter. There were feathers and beads of every color, silver and gold thread, the finest silks and velvets.
    â€œYou’ve done a magnificent job, Eula,” Charmaine said as she lifted the mask nearest her hand, of royal blue velvet with a silver feather and blue silk ribbons in varying shades. Beneath the royal blue was a jumble of colors both bright and muted, masks elegantly plain and frivolously extravagant. The sunlight that came through the mercantile window shone on strands of gold. “How will I ever decide?”
    Eula smiled proudly. “You’ll not have to decide at all. Yours was special-made, to your mother’s specifications, and it’s by far the most beautiful of them all. Mrs. Haley had very definite ideas about what she wanted for you.” With that, Eula reached beneath the counter and removed a bundle of brown paper. She handled it carefully, as if what was hidden inside were of the finest and most fragile crystal, and her smile widened as she placed the oddly shaped package on the counter and waited for Charmaine to unwrap it.
    The plain string that held the package together came undone first, the knot plucked loose with anxious fingers. If the look on Eula’s face was any indication of what waited inside, it was sure to be a treasure.
    The brown paper fell back to reveal a white satin mask. There was a touch of peach lace at one corner, resting on a triangular bed of a darker peach silk that would surely match the trim of her ball gown perfectly. And there were pearls everywhere. Seed pearls were sewn around the exotically slanted eyeholes and planted carefully amid the peach lace, and there were larger, oddly elongated pearls that literally dripped from the bottom edge.
    It was decadently beautiful. “Oh, this is magnificent.” Charmaine lifted the mask, carefully and with both hands, and held it against her face. She peeked through the eyeholes at a grinning Eula, squealed with undignified glee, and spun around just in time to watch Ash Coleman come sauntering through the door.
    He stopped dead in his tracks. Goodness, he filled the doorway, blocking the sunlight and evidently the air as well, for all of a sudden there wasn’t quite enough to take in a good deep breath.
    â€œHello,” she said softly. The mask fell, still protected by two cautious hands.
    Ash simply nodded, to her and then to Eula, and walked to the back of the store to do his shopping.
    He looked a little better today, without the mud covering his face. There was still the bushy beard, though, and the dark hair that was unfashionably long and untended, and while Ash hadn’t recently taken a plunge into the pigsty, he was wearing more than his share of plain Kansas dirt.
    The glee she’d felt upon unwrapping her mask vanished. How silly and unproductive it was to get carried away with plans for this inappropriate masked ball. To become breathless at the very appearance of a man . A man entirely inappropriate for her, in any case. Howard and Felicity would be mortified by her reckless behavior.
    â€œCan I help you find something, Ash?” Eula stepped from behind the counter and down the center aisle to the rear of the store. Charmaine carefully rewrapped the mask and