Who knew that Prince James would be so stricken so quickly? He had followed her out of the ballroom and picked up her shoe. Now he was sending out announcements throughout the kingdom that he planned to marry the owner. “She whom the shoe fits shall be my bride,” he avowed.
Margaret’s daughter had the same wide-toed foot as Margaret herself had had. They were the only less than perfect feature about my darling friend. Few people have that particular feature and it was so difficult for her to find well-fitting shoes. The shoes that Eleanor had worn to the Ball was the same pair that Margaret had specially made for her wedding day. She had given her entire wedding day ensemble to me for safekeeping as soon as she knew she was ill. “Bertram won’t take proper care of it for our daughter. I know you will.”
I would wish that I could have seen the look on Giselle’s face when she was commanded by Prince James to bring her ‘other daughter’ forth to try on the shoe. And then when Eleanor pulled the other from behind her back. And when James asked Eleanor herself if she would agree to marrying him and her reply was, “If my Godmother Georgia approves of you.”