When Ella, was born, she was given the ‘gift’ of obedience by a fairy. Her mother forbids her to tell anyone, including her father, so that it will not be used against her. When she is fourteen, her mother dies. At the funeral she talks to Price Charmont. After the funeral Ella meets Dame Olga and her daughters, Hattie and Olive. Ella's father decides to send her to the school with Hattie and Olive. The night before she is sent away, Mandy, who is Ella's fairy godmother, gives her a magical book that can show many things. On the way to finishing school, Hattie notices that Ella will do anything that she says and begins to take advantage of the curse. When they arrive at finishing school, Ella befriends an Ayorthian girl named Areida and the two become very close until Hattie orders Ella to end their friendship. From her magic book, Ella learns of a Giant's wedding which both her father and Lucinda will attend. Eager to be free from the curse, she flees from finishing school in the night and makes her way to the Giant's wedding. On the way there, she's kidnapped by ogres who eat her horse and make plans to eat her. However, after learning the Ogres' language, she hypnotizes them and is soon saved by Char and his knights. They capture the ogres, and one of the knights take her to the wedding. Ella meets Lucinda and begs her to remove the curse but Lucinda refuses and orders her to be happy about the curse. She meets her father at the wedding, and they return home. He is now a ruined man for selling an estate that did not belong to him. In order to keep his family from being thrown into the streets, he plans for Ella to marry a rich man. At first Ella is happy, as Lucinda ordered her to be, and meets one of her suitors at dinner. However, Mandy orders her to feel however she feels about her curse she changes her mind. Her father refuses to give Ella's hand to the man who came to dinner after finding out that he lost most of his wealth in a fire. He decides to marry Dame Olga instead, as she is very wealthy. At the wedding, she meets with Prince Char again. They find glass slippers in a garden and Ella wears them as they dance together. It is the last time they see each other for some time, for he has to leave for Ayortha for a year, but they promise to keep in touch through letters. Lucinda arrives at the wedding and bestows a curse on the married couple, granting them eternal love. Any chance of Ella's father leaving Dame Olga has now been ruined, although he decides to spend as much time traveling and being away from his wife as possible, despite their newly-bestowed love. After he leaves Ella is turned into a slave in her own house, working with the servants and following Hattie and Olive's petty and ridiculous orders - including when Hattie, jealous, had ensured that Char saw Ella as little as possible before he left, by ordering her to stay in her room whenever he calls. After six months of correspondence with Char during which their easy friendship blossoms, Ella receives a letter from him in which he proposes to her. Having been in love with him for quite some time, she is ecstatic, but soon realizes that marrying Char would make things much worse. Her stepsisters would completely take advantage of her position as queen, and enemies could force her to reveal state secrets, not to mention someone ordering her to kill Char. Ella forges a letter to him from "Hattie" attached with a note from herself, saying that she, Ella, has run away with a wealthy man and will be "smiling at her jewels and laughing at the world." Her fairy book shows a picture of Char burning her letters as well as a page from his journal stating how he despises her. It breaks Ella's heart, but she is happy that he is safe. Mandy, fed up with Ella's torment, challenges Lucinda to a small game. She tells her to spend three months as a squirrel and three months cursed to be obedient, just to get a taste of what her "gifted ones" go through for their entire lives. At the end of this time, Lucinda has learned her lesson and no longer wishes to do "big magic." She does not undo the curse, since this would require big magic, but tells Ella that she will help whenever Ella calls. Char, returned from Ayortha, holds a royal ball that lasts for three nights. It is rumored that Char will pick his future queen at the end of the third night. Lucinda uses her magic to turn mice and pumpkins into horses and a coach, jewelry, and Ella dresses in beautiful dresses her mother had owned, altered by Mandy with "small magic," and the mask from her father's wedding. Ella, Ella wears a mask and pretends to be ‘Lela’. When her disguise is unveiled, Ella flees from Char, who is in complete and utter shock, and runs to the manor. Ella and Mandy plan to run away and make their living as cooks, but Char and his knights come to their house before they can leave. Char asks Ella to marry him. Ella realizes that she has put him in danger and fights the curse to refuse their orders. In the end, her love and her willpower break the curse. In the end, Olive marries a count only for food and money, Dame Olga and Sir Peter are left still in eternal but long-distance love, and Hattie never marries; Ella and Char live happily ever after.
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