- On the last day of their journey to Jenn (where the finishing school is), it's so hot that Hattie's only command to Ella is to fan her.
- Olive wants to be fanned, too.
- Olive has worked out that Ella will do what Hattie says, and that Olive can command Ella to do something for her that she's already doing for Hattie.
- That seems to be about as far as Olive's mental capacities extend.
- Ella's stomach and arms are hurting, and she wishes something would happen to distract Hattie.
- Surprise! Some ogres show up. Okay, not exactly what she had in mind, but it'll do for now.
- The ogres call out with sweet words and promises, and the coach starts to slow down. Fortunately some sheep start bleating loudly enough to cover the ogres' honeyed voices. Ella recovers her wits and shouts at everyone to yell as loudly as possible.
- The yelling drowns out the ogres, and the coach escapes. Olive, of course, continues to scream even after the threat is gone. The coachman even has to slap her to get her to quiet down, although he apologizes later.
- Whew. Finally, they've arrived at finishing school. It's a large wooden house with bushes pruned to look like girls in big, flowing skirts.
- After Ella introduces herself to the headmistress, Madame Edith, she hands over the letter from her father and a large pouch of money.
- Maybe Ella can finally get something to eat, now? Nope. They've missed lunch, and it's time for an embroidery lesson.
- The girls join up with the other pupils. Everyone's wearing pink gowns and yellow hair ribbons, and Ella is aware of how dirty and rumpled she must look.
- Sitting down, Ella meets the eyes of a girl who smiles and winks at her. Then she's given some embroidery to work on, but she's never done it in her life, so obviously she's terrible at it.
- The Sewing Mistress marvels at Ella's lack of sewing skills, speculating about whether she'd been raised by ogres.
- The girl who'd smiled at Ella offers advice and help. She's got an ornately braided hairstyle and skin the color of cinnamon. She's from Ayortha, the next kingdom over, and her name is Areida.
- Ella greets her in Ayorthaian, gambling on a phrase she'd learned from a parrot. Luckily it turned out to be polite, and Areida starts teaching her more of the language.
- The Sewing Mistress is appalled that Ella's only done three stitches (ugly, messy ones at that) in all this time, so she sends Ella to bed without dinner. Because that makes sense. Not.
- Hattie smirks at the punishment, prompting Ella to announce that she wasn't hungry anyway. Big mistake. Now she'll get no breakfast, either.