Cinderella: Slow Dance to Love

In a kingdom far away lived a girl who was sick with grief over her mother’s death and when her father married again, she showed no interest in his new wife nor her daughters. She isolated herself so much that with time, they forgot about her and treated her as nothing more than a maid.
The girl spent her days drawing water, tending the fires, gardening, cooking, and washing. When she grew out of her dresses, no one bought her new ones. Instead, she wore an apron blackened by ash, coal, and cinder. From then on, she became known as Cinderella.
One fateful day, a messenger arrived from the palace – announcing that the prince was hosting a ball to look for a spouse. Cinderella, who remembered her mother in the most elegant dresses, dancing away night after night, begged her stepmother to go, but she only said, “You don’t have a gown for such an event.”
Sitting at her mother’s grave, Cinderella cried bitterly. “I just wanted to be like you.” It was then that she spotted two doves, holding a gold and silver gown between their beaks.
When she arrived at the ball in her new dress, she danced with all the men and women of the court until she landed in the arms of the prince. Time slowed as they turned and talked. Cinderella learned that the prince loved to ride and waltz, that he could not sing but enjoyed it nevertheless. Whenever someone asked for the royal, he turned them away, telling them, “She is my partner.”
When the evening came to an end, they had grown quite comfortable with each other. The prince was sure he had found his future wife. But when he leaned in to kiss her, Cinderella turned and bolted away through the woods. At one point she stumbled over a branch, she lost her slipper then, but she just continued running.
With nothing left but her shoe, the prince went from door to door trying to find his unknown beauty. When he arrived at Cinderella’s home, her stepsisters were eager to try on the slipper. When the first’s toe would not fit, her mother sliced it right off. The bride and her groom rode off, until the doves called, “There they go, there they go! There is blood on her shoe; the shoe is too small, not the right bride at all!”
Immediately, the prince returned the fraud, and the second daughter tried the shoe. Her heel was too large, thus her mother cut off the parts sticking out. But as they galloped away, the birds sang again: “There they go, there they go! There is blood on her shoe; the shoe is too small, not the right bride at all!”
The prince, noticing the redness, returned the girl home. As he sat on the steps, devastated to have lost the girl he had intended to marry, he spotted Cinderella in the kitchen. He recognized her immediately, but when he finally spoke to her, she said, “I don’t think I can go with you.” Tears ran down the girl’s face as she explained, “I like you well enough, I think, but I barely know you. I know my stepsisters would give everything for a kiss from you, but I can’t say I feel the same.”
To her surprise, the prince smiled and kneeled in front of her, “Will you be my companion then? To dance with and talk to?”
Thus, Cinderella moved into the castle, over two years she spent every day with the royal and when their bond had grown, it was her who leaned in and kissed her prince.