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At birth, Eleanor (Ella) of Frell was given the "gift" of obedience by a fairy named Lucinda. This forces her to obey any order given to her.
When she is fifteen, her mother dies. At the funeral, she befriends Prince Charmont (Char). Soon afterwards, her father sends her to finishing school with the
snotty daughters of the wealthy Dame Olga: Hattie and Olive. Hattie realizes Ella always does what she is told, but she does not exactly know why.She starts to
take advantage of it, but Ella takes comfort from her new friend Areida.
When Ella learns that her father is attending a wedding where fairies may be present, she runs away in the hope of finding Lucinda at the wedding and asking to
have the curse lifted. On the way to the wedding, she is almost kidnapped by ogres who eat her horse and order her not to run away. However, when they are about
to eat her, she uses her knowledge of their hypnotic language to charm them to sleep, and is soon saved by Char and his knights.
She finds Lucinda and tries to persuade her to lift the curse, but Lucinda refuses. Instead, Lucinda orders Ella to be happy about her "gift", but luckily, Mandy,
her fairy god-mother, realizes it's just another order, and reverses it. Ella returns to the manor with her father, who, after failing to find a rich husband for
Ella, decides to marry Dame Olga in order to pay off his debts. She meets Prince Char again at the wedding. They find glass slippers hidden in a garden and Char
gives them to Ella. A few days later he leaves the country for a year, but they write to each other frequently.
After Ella's father leaves to continue his trading business, Dame Olga makes Ella a slave in her own house. Meanwhile, Ella and Char fall in love. Char asks if
she is too young to marry,and she responds in each letter in a different way, but avoiding answering the question directly, because she realized that while she is
under the curse, marrying him would put him and the country in danger: she could be ordered to kill him. To prevent this, she tricks him into believing she's
eloped with another man.
Char, heartbroken returns and holds a royal ball each night for three nights. Ella, who still loves him, is overcome with the desire to see him again, and decides
to go in disguise. With the help of Mandy and Lucinda (who has reformed), and wearing the glass slippers and a mask, she goes to the balls under the name "Lela".
On the third night of the ball, when she's dancing with Char, the jealous Hattie snatches off her mask and Ella flees, losing a slipper on the way. She runs to the
manor, where she and Mandy plan to run away and make their living as cooks, but Char and his knights arrive before they can leave. Char orders her to marry him,
but she fights an inner battle trying to defy the order. She succeeds; screaming she won't, but realizing she has broken the curse, she changes her mind to marry
Char, and they live happily ever after.
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