Ashes and Lavender

By Rebecca Hillary

ASHES AND LAVENDER is a trilogy of short stories loosely inspired by fairytales, but these are definitely not the fairytales you would tell your children. These alienated fairytale heroines all know that there's more to life than fluttering your eyelashes and wearing pretty dresses if you want to get your happily ever after.

ASHES When Eleanor meets Adam Prince, he promises her that her world is going to change but what she never could have dreamed of is just how much it is about to change.

LAVENDER Gwen is dreading the camping trip her father has arranged for the family, and will do anything to get out of it, a fact that her father knows only too well. When her father goes back on his word she finds herself running for her life into the woods.

LOVE NO OTHER Lena has news for her parents and has driven several hours to give it to them in person. She knows her father will take it badly, but she is not prepared for how far he will go to stop her having the life she dreams of.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781326197292

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Copyright © 2015 Rebecca Hillary

All rights reserved.

You may not use this book or any part thereof without express written consent from the author, except for short quotations used for the purposes of reviews.

All characters and events contained herein are fictional and any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely co-incidental.

ISBN: 978-1-326-19729-2

For Rebecca Briggs, who has made certain that we can never talk about strawberry ice cream with a straight face ever again.

Ashes

Eleanor, you lazy little cow, I told you to tidy my room and wash my school uniform. What the hell are you thinking, just lying there doing nothing when I’m going to be late for school?

Christ, Charlotte, what’s stopping you from doing it yourself. You have hands don’t you? Eleanor sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes just in time to see Charlotte’s fist swinging down to connect with her upper arm.

Your daddy’s not here to protect you now, Little Miss Perfect, Charlotte sneered. I’m taking your uniform, since you didn’t bother washing mine. And just so you know, there’s a stain on my skirt that you might want to wash off if you don’t want everyone to believe the rumour that you’re giving hand jobs for money.

Eleanor rolled her eyes. I wonder who gave people that idea. It’s funny that the source of that rumour is the actual culprit.

I don’t do it for money. Charlotte leaned in close and whispered in Eleanor’s ear. I do it because I like it, and I mean I really like it. I don’t need the money like you do, you pathetic little waste of space.

Yeah, well we all know what you do need. It’s not exactly brains that keep getting you good grades is it? Another heavy blow to Eleanor’s shoulder told her that it was time to quit while she was ahead, although to say that she was ahead was probably rather optimistic.

Char, leave her alone, Rose told her older sister as she walked into the room. Ellie, I’m meeting Robbie after first period and I need to look amazing. Could you braid my hair for me?

Of course I can, Rose. Eleanor smiled at her. You already look amazing though.

I’m going to be sick. Charlotte picked up Eleanor’s uniform and swept from the room, glaring at her younger sisters.

You know that’s how she stays so thin, right? Rose said under her breath. I know she was joking just now, but she makes herself sick to stay in shape.

She’s insane, Eleanor muttered, her hands already working on the tangle of Rose’s hair. So things are going well with you and Robbie?

Oh, Ellie, he’s an absolute dream. I’ve never felt this way about anybody. I know you think I’m like my sister and just use boys for one thing, but you couldn’t be more wrong. I adore Robbie. Thank you so much for introducing me to him.

It’s nothing, really. Eleanor tried to sound sincere, but the truth was that she had been heartbroken when Robbie had started dating her stepsister. He had been her best friend since they were toddlers, but he never made time for Eleanor now, and it was like watching her life falling apart in front of her eyes.

With her hair braided and tied back, Rose got to her feet and looked at herself in the mirror. Ellie, you are an absolute star. She grinned as headed for the door. I’ve got a spare skirt in my room if you want to borrow it.

Eleanor got to her feet and brushed of the dust from her sleeping bag. With only three bedrooms in the house and her stepmother’s insistence that her precious daughters should each have a room of their own, Eleanor had the unfortunate luck of bedding down in a sleeping bag under the back staircase. She checked the time on her old Swatch watch, which by some miracle was still just about working properly after ten years, and was horrified to see that she had only ten minutes before the school bus was due.

Racing up to Rose’s room, she ran smack into her stepmother on the landing, and had to grab the banister to stop herself falling back down the stairs. She steadied herself and glared at her stepmother.

Eleanor, what do you think you are doing? Her stepmother fumed, straightening her pantsuit and trying to regain her composure. You could have caused me to fall down the stairs and then where would this family be? Me in the hospital or worse, and no income, that’s where we would be.

I’m the one who almost fell down the stairs, Eleanor said in disbelief. I might ask you what you were doing skulking at the top of the stairs in the first place.

Eleanor, I am on my way to work, so I will overlook that outburst for now, but I warn you that if you ever speak to me like that in my house again, I will make sure it’s the last thing you say to me under this roof.

This is my father’s house, Nora, Eleanor spat. You may think you’ve won by getting him to marry you, but I know this is not what he wanted. I refuse to be spoken to in this way in my father’s house. She barely had time to notice her stepmother reaching out and pushing her squarely in the chest. There was a sickening moment in which Eleanor fully felt the effects of gravity, and she grasped at thin air for anything to stop her from falling down the stairs. As she sat quivering on the third step down, her stepmother kicked her as she passed, laughing at the sight of Eleanor’s terror.

Eleanor watched as her stepmother sashayed out through the door and heard the sound of the car tyres on the gravel as she drove away. She was used to Charlotte and Nora beating her, used to them making her life a living hell and more, but this was the first time she actually felt as though her life was in danger. Rose’s room was awash with sickening pink and lilac shades, which hurt Eleanor’s eyes as they reflected and refracted the sunlight around the room. The skirt was on Rose’s bed and she leaned down to pick it up, catching sight of the phot on Rose’s nightstand. Her stepsister and her best friend were so perfectly in love and gazing into each other’s eyes. It made her sick to her stomach and she felt like hurling the photo against the wall, but she simply walked from the room and closed the door behind her.

By the time she had put on her uniform, she was already late for the bus, so she gathered up the laundry and put it in the washing machine. She grabbed her bag and headed outside, thankful that it was warm enough for her to walk to school without getting drenched in rain. Within minutes, she was trying to pull down the hem of the skirt to make it less revealing. She hated the tiny skirts her sisters wore for school, and abhorred the fact that the vice principal was such a pervert that he had done away with the policy of knee length skirts. She was in the middle of attempting to stretch out the skirt when a limousine pulled up beside her and a boy about her age