Storytellers, they get me every time. I never had a fairy godmother—fairies don’t exist. Well, at least as far as I knew then. All I had was a kind woman who’d never had a daughter and was sympathetic enough to not send me back to the Wickeds. I hadn’t known kindness like that before. My father loved me, yes, but that wasn’t out of kindness. People respected me when I was still a high society young lady, but that wasn’t close to what Georgette gave me.

She gave me a place to sleep, she gave me good food to eat. She put fine, new clothes on my back and made me feel like I was worth every penny. I asked her why she did it and she only smiled. “What else would you have me do?” she asked and I didn’t know how to answer, so I just smiled back. I spent just over two weeks with the family. I got to know the servants and Georgette’s husband and four sons. Georgette was not an incredibly beautiful woman and her husband was nothing special to look at, but their sons were quite the bunch of fine gentlemen indeed.