When Cinderella arrived at the palace, the whole room fell silent. Everyone turned to look at the beautiful stranger in the shimmering dress. Nobody recognised her — not the guests, not the courtiers, and certainly not her stepsisters, who stared at her with jealous eyes and whispered, "Who IS she? She must be a foreign princess!"

The prince saw Cinderella from across the room and could not take his eyes off her. He walked straight to her and asked her to dance. She took his hand, and they danced together — waltz after waltz, song after song. The prince did not dance with anyone else all evening.

They talked between dances. Cinderella was charming, intelligent, and funny. She asked the prince about his life, and he asked about hers — though she was careful not to reveal too much. They laughed together. They shared secrets. The hours flew by like minutes.

The stepsisters watched from across the room, green with envy. "The prince hasn't even looked at us!" the first stepsister complained. "It's that mysterious girl's fault!"

Cinderella was so happy that she almost forgot the fairy godmother's warning. She was dancing with the prince, looking into his eyes, when she heard the clock begin to strike.

BONG... BONG... BONG...

She counted the chimes. Ten... eleven... twelve!

"I must go!" she gasped.

"Wait! You haven't told me your name!" called the prince.

But Cinderella was already running. She ran through the ballroom, down the grand staircase, and across the courtyard. As she ran down the palace steps, one of her glass slippers fell off her foot. She looked back, but there was no time. She could already feel the magic fading — the dress was beginning to change, the carriage was starting to shrink.

She left the slipper on the step and jumped into the carriage just as it turned back into a pumpkin. The horses became mice. The coachman became a rat. And Cinderella stood in the road in her old grey rags, with one bare foot, holding a single glass slipper — the only piece of magic that had not disappeared.

Behind her, the prince stood on the palace steps, holding the other glass slipper, staring into the empty night.