Once upon a time in a faraway land there lived a beautiful girl who was smart, funny, and wonderful in every way. Her hair was as brown as dark chocolate and curly beyond thought. One day her mother became very ill and died.
A little while later, her father remarried a woman who appeared to be nice but no sooner was the wedding over did she put her new stepdaughter to work. While her lazy stepsisters sat around and did nothing Victoria worked from 5am in the morning to 9 o’clock at night. And when all her work was done, she had to sleep in the garden.
With every day she grew more beautiful inside and out. And with every day her stepsisters grew more jealous of her.
Victoria’s only friends were the animals. There was a horse called Dark Chocolate.
One day, as she tried to fall asleep, a strange voice said, “Go and run away, go straight through the woods to the big house.”
Victoria jumped up in surprised and asked, “Who are you?”
The strange voice only said, “You will find out soon enough my child. Go run while you still have a chance.”
She did as the voice told her because it was true she had to run away while she had a chance. What did she have to loose? So she ran away. She ran through the woods all night until morning. All night long she ran through mud piles, climbed over fallen trees, and anything you could imagine. She was covered in dirt and her hair had twigs in it from the trees.
She continued until she found a big white mansion but now she had begun to walk.
She was about to knock on the door when a guard said, “Who are you?”
She jumped up not knowing anyone was there.
“I’m Rosy,” she lied, “and I ran away from home because my stepmother forced me to sleep in the garden and do all the work.”
“So what are you doing here?” the guard asked.
She thought for a moment about what would get her into the castle faster. She said, “I came here to become a servant.”
“Very well,” the guard said. “I’ll bring you to the cook to see what you can do.”
She was led into the mansion’s back door for the servants by the guard. The palace was beautiful with long white halls and pictures of everyone who ever ruled.
Rosy followed the guard into the kitchen where the cook asked if she could cook and Rosy said, “I can make delicious soup!”
“Let’s see what you have. Make the best soup you can.”
Rosy made the best soup she could and when the cook tried it she was amazed by how good it was. It contained just the right amount of salt. For once in her life she had nothing bad to say about the soup.
“Okay you are in charge of making all soup,” the cook finally said. “Now start another soup for the king.”
“I won’t let you down,” Victoria said quickly so she could get to work.
Two years passed and she made soup for everyone in the royal family. Everyone loved her soup and they would not have soup from anyone else in the kingdom.
In the kingdom, Rosy lived in a small room by the kitchen and every night she wondered who the person who told her to run away was. It was her neighbor she just didn’t know.
One day, she heard there was going to be a ball and everyone, even the maids, was going to be there. Rosy wanted to go but she had nothing to wear. When everyone left she just laid on her bed crying and then she heard a voice. It was the same voice she had heard that told her to run away.
“Now can you tell me who you are?” she asked.
“Now I can tell you who I am,” he replied. “Remember that horse Dark Chocolate? I’m him!”
She was so stunned and replied, “Horses can’t talk!”
“Well I’m your fairy godfather in the form of a horse,” he replied. “If you want to get to the ball you better hurry up!”
Rosy looked down and asked, “What about my clothes?”
“Oh dear. I almost forgot,” he replied. and with a shake of his mane she had the most beautiful dress as gold as the sun with the most beautiful jewelry in the land and pretty glass slippers.
“Now off to the ball but be back at midnight or everything will turn back to normal!”
She promised to be back on time.
When Rosy got to the ball everyone was wondering who was this beautiful maiden and when the prince saw her he made his way through the crowd to ask her to dance. She agreed and the prince asked who she was but Rosy only said, “I can not tell you.” The prince would not let anyone else dance with the beautiful maiden who had stolen his heart.
When it was time to eat she sat down with the prince at his table. She was having such a great time that she forgot she had to leave. When the prince turned around to talk to a duke she slipped away. He asked if anyone saw a girl dressed as a princess but they said only a maiden had left.
She ran around to the back, and used the back door and climbed up to her bedroom. That’s when she notice that her glass slipper was still the same even though her dress had turned back to normal. She must’ve lost the other one when she ran.
Back at the ball the prince ran down the stairs and tripped on a glass slipper. He thought about the girl’s slipper all night and would not let go of it. Then he got an idea! He would try the slipper on everyone in the kingdom.
The first day he tried it on the ladies but no such luck. The second day he tried it on maids then finally he got to Victoria but when they said it fits they all said it had to be wrong, that it could not have been one of the maids. But the prince said, “I will keep my word and marry this maid. I know it is her because I will never forget her smile.” Then Victoria pulled out of her pocket the matching shoe and all of a sudden her clothes turned into another even more beautiful dress.
So Victoria and the prince were married and every day after she was done with all the duties that come with being a queen she made soup for herself and the prince and the royal family.
Everyone in this far away land said that they were so fair. Victoria would treat the maids very nicely as though they were family. And the prince made the rules so fair and they all lived happily ever after.