the girl ran off to the kitchen. ‘And to think you were going to marry that little witch,’ she said, patting the settee beside her. With the greatest of reluctance, Joderick sat down. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something off about this woman. No wonder Cinders didn’t like her, he thought to himself.
‘You must be heartbroken,’ Margery said sympathetically.
‘Something like that,’ he agreed. ‘I’m more worried about Cinders than anything. I don’t really know what’s going on, but I don’t believe she’s a witch, no matter what my father says.’
‘Cinders couldn’t possibly be a witch,’ her dad repeated, staring into space. Joderick thought he looked awfully pale.
‘Now here’s the thing,’ Margery said as the prince took a glass of water from Aggy and a biscuit from Elly. ‘You say Cinders has been exiled?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And you say she rode off into the Dark Forest?’
‘She did.’
Joderick took a big bite of the biscuit. Eurgh. Raisins. He was an excellent baker and this was definitely not an excellent biscuit.
‘But what’s to stop her coming back here?’ Margery asked, suddenly looking very frightened. She grabbed both of her daughters by the collars of their pink, frilly dresses and held them so tightly that Aggy’s eyes began to bulge out of their sockets. ‘What if she returns to the cottage to cast spells on my beautiful daughters?’
Beautiful was pushing it a bit, Joderick thought, eyeing the two girls with their perfectly curled hair and high, high heels. Mostly, they just looked uncomfortable.
‘I think we should come back to the palace with you,’ Margery said. ‘It’s the only way to keep my daughters safe.’
‘We’re going to live at the palace?’ Elly gasped with bright, excited eyes.
‘Only until we’re certain that Cinders is never, ever, ever coming back,’ her mother replied, completely ignoring her grief-stricken husband.
‘I’m sure Prince Joderick will keep us safe,’ Aggy said, gazing at the prince with big eyes. ‘He’s so strong and brave.’
Said prince gulped hard and took a big sip of water.
‘That sounds lovely,’ he said, ‘but I’m not sure there’s room.’
‘There’s plenty of room – it’s a palace,’ Margery replied dismissively. ‘Elly, Aggy, go and pack a bag. We must leave tonight. Before that witch comes back home.’
‘Cinders couldn’t possibly be a witch,’ repeated her husband in rather a weak voice. ‘She’s the double of her mother and her mother was no witch, believe me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I must go and find her.’
Joderick turned his attention to the older man, kneeling down beside his chair. ‘Excuse me for saying so, sir, but I’m not sure it’s a terribly good idea for you to go off into the Dark Forest. It’s awfully dangerous.’
‘There’s a very good chance she’s already been eaten,’ added Margery. ‘The prince is right. You must come to the palace with us where you’ll be safe.’
‘Absolutely not,’ her father said, using all his strength to stand upright. ‘I will not leave my little girl alone in that forest. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find her and bring her home safely. Then we’ll explain everything to the king.’
Margery lifted an eyebrow. ‘Explain what exactly?’ she asked.
‘It’s my own fault,’ her father whispered to Joderick. ‘I never should have kept it a secret.’
Joderick looked at the frail man. He seemed to have aged fifty years since the first time they’d met – there was no way he could ride off into the Dark Forest.
‘I think we should all go back to the palace,’ Joderick suggested.
Margery, Elly and Aggy cheered.
‘And then I will go into the Dark Forest to find Cinders,’ he added bravely. ‘I’m the prince. I’ll be safer.’
Margery, Elly and Aggy gasped.
‘Are you … sure?’ said Cinders’s father.
‘Yes,’ said Joderick.
‘Very well. I would like to go myself, but … my strength is not what it was. You will make a great king one day,’ said Cinders’s dad.
‘Not if he gets eaten by a munklepoop, he won’t,’ Margery pointed out.
Joderick took another bite of his hard, dry biscuit. If a munklepoop comes after me, I can just throw this at its head and knock it out cold, he thought. But he didn’t repeat this out loud – he’d been raised to be polite, even when people didn’t deserve it.
‘We’ll find Cinders,’ he said to her father. ‘I promise.’
The next morning, Cinders woke up to sunlight streaming in through the window, the sound of Sparks snoring gently beside her and three not-at-all-happy-looking bears standing in the doorway of the bedroom.
‘Who’s been sleeping in my bed?’ the largest bear roared.
‘Not this again,’ said a medium-sized bear, who was wearing a very fetching floral sundress. ‘You can see very well who’s been sleeping in your bed. It’s a human boy. He’s still there.’
‘Good golly gosh!’ Cinders cried, suddenly wide awake. ‘We’re so sorry. We were riding through the woods, and it was late and—’
But the largest bear didn’t want to hear it. He tore the duvet from Hansel’s bed with a huge paw. ‘This is my house, this is my bed and I shall EAT YOU UP!’
‘Five more minutes, Cinders,’ Hansel muttered, rolling over and planting his face in the pillow.
‘No, I think it’s time to get up now,’ she said as she grabbed his hat from the bedside table.
‘I cannot believe this is happening again,’ the mummy bear muttered. ‘Didn’t I tell you to check the lock before we left? Do I have to do everything around here?’
‘I did check the lock,’ the other bear said, planting his hands on his hips indignantly. ‘They clearly broke in.’
The littlest bear, who was still just a baby, ambled over
