Fairy Treasure Page 2

  ‘How did you get those?’ Connie gasped, staring in amazement at the swans and completely forgetting to offer them any bread.

  In answer, a cheeky-sounding giggle came from behind her. She turned round quickly to see who it was, but there was nobody there.

  The next morning, Connie woke up with a start. She had been dreaming about Emma. Emma had been her best friend since nursery school and they had always been inseparable. Then, just before the summer holidays had started, Emma had moved to Canada to live. Connie could hardly believe her friend was gone and, every time she thought about it, she felt like crying. The worst thing was that Emma had seemed excited about going. She had aunts and uncles and lots of cousins in Canada and she had been there on holiday. Connie had felt like Emma hadn’t really minded leaving her behind at all.

  Just before Emma had left, they had had a silly argument because Emma said she had lent Connie a book that she wanted back. Connie was sure she had given the book back to Emma ages ago.

  In the dream, Connie had taken Emma into the library of the old house and they had found the missing book. Then they had opened it up and lots of bright sparks had started jumping out of it, fizzing like sparklers on bonfire night – except these ones weren’t on the ends of sticks but in the air, whizzing around. Emma was laughing happily as she turned to Connie and said, ‘They’re fairies, Connie. Look! I told you fairies were real!’

  That was the moment Connie had woken up.

  Connie looked at her bedside clock. It was ten past seven. She knew that her aunt was probably still asleep and her uncle was probably already in his study writing, since he tended to start work very early. She quickly got dressed, opened her bedroom door and crept outside.

  Connie was a practical child by nature – not a particularly imaginative one. She had never believed before that her dolls could come to life at night and throw tea-parties (as Aunt Alice had once tried to tell her when she was little) or that there was any such thing as fairies (as Emma had often tried to convince her). But the dream had left her with a funny feeling. She felt as if, all of a sudden, she wasn’t so certain about everything any more. And she really wanted to go back to the library.

  The library window had been shut and locked by the estate agent – Connie had seen him do it herself – but now it was open again, so she climbed in.

  The curtains were still closed so the room should have been dark inside, but it wasn’t. It was lit up with dancing specks of light, as if a mirror ball were hanging from the ceiling.

  Connie could hear a small, tinkly voice singing: ‘Dust, dust, go away! Come back another day!’ And high up on one of the shelves she could see something red moving about. For a moment she wondered if she were still in bed, still dreaming, then the little voice called out, ‘Ah! You can see me now! Good! Hang on! I’m coming down!’

  And suddenly, flying right in front of Connie’s face, was a tiny fairy-girl. Connie gasped and stepped backwards.

  The fairy had a smiling face with rosy cheeks and long red hair tied back with a ruby-red star-clasp. Her dress was a pinkish-red colour and seemed to make a rustling sound as she flew. When Connie looked more closely, she saw that it was made of crêpe paper that had been cut in a spiky way at the hem. Under the skirt was a petticoat made from several layers of delicate tissue paper. She had shimmery wings that flapped behind her, and she was holding something in her hand that Connie at first thought was a fairy wand, but then saw was a tiny feather duster.

  ‘Hello,’ the fairy said, cheerfully. ‘I’m Ruby. Who are you?’

  ‘C-C-Connie,’ Connie spluttered.

  Ruby giggled. ‘That’s a funny name, C-c-connie.’

  ‘It’s Connie,’ she managed to say, without stammering this time.

  ‘That’s a funny name too!’

  Connie was about to argue that it wasn’t – and that she liked her name – but it seemed ridiculous to start arguing with a fairy. After all, she could still hardly believe she was really seeing one.

  ‘Ruby is a nice name, don’t you think?’ the fairy continued. ‘I’m called it because of my red hair and because, when I wear red, I sparkle like a red jewel – at least I used to at home. Everything sparkles where I come from – even the dust!’ The fairy broke off, looking less cheerful. ‘Of course, I’m stuck here now. Nothing much sparkles here.’ She looked down at her yellow feather duster and sighed.

  Connie looked round the room. There had to be hundreds of books here and none of them looked like they had been dusted in a very long time. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked. ‘And how did you get stuck?’

  ‘My job is to rearrange these books,’ Ruby said. ‘I have to sort them into categories to make it easier for people to find the book they want. I’m arranging them in order of excitingness. I’ve already designed the labels. Do you want to see?’ Before Connie could answer, she had flown up to the shelf above her and was pulling out a piece of paper from behind the row of books.

  She let go of it and it fluttered down into Connie’s hand. On the paper Ruby had printed the following four headings:

  1) Unputdownable,

  2) A pretty good read,

  3) OK – but you won’t want to read this all in one go,

  4) This book makes you fall asleep.

  ‘Of course, I’ve got to read them all first before I can divide them up,’ Ruby added.

  ‘But that’ll take you ages!’

  ‘I know, but I have to do a good deed for humans to make up for something else I did that was bad,’ Ruby said, flushing slightly. ‘I didn’t mean to do the bad thing, but I did – so the fairy queen says I have to make up for it by sorting out this library for any humans who might come here in the future.’

  Connie wanted to ask what the bad thing had been, but she didn’t quite dare. Not yet. She gave the sheet of paper back to Ruby and sat down on the rug with her legs crossed. ‘I still can’t get my head round this!’

  Ruby sat on the floor beside her, folding back her wings. ‘Round what?’

  ‘Round the fact that I’m seeing you! That I’m talking to a real fairy!’

  ‘It’s not so strange. You’re in the right mind to see me now. You weren’t the other day – at least not for very long. That’s why you couldn’t see me after Emerald dropped that book on your head.’

  ‘What happened to the book?’ Connie asked. ‘It seemed to just disappear.’

  ‘I lifted it back on to its shelf when you were opening the curtains. I used some fairy dust. It practically flew back up by itself – all I had to do was give it a prod in the right direction. Emerald didn’t mean to hurt you, by the way. She just wanted to distract you. We’re not meant to let humans see the—’ She broke off abruptly. ‘See us, I mean. Especially not ones like you.’

  ‘How do you mean? Ones like me?’

  ‘Ones who don’t believe in fairies. They’re the ones you have to watch out for. They get such a fright when they actually have a lapse and see us, that they act in very unpredictable ways. It can be most unpleasant.’

  ‘But I would never hurt you,’ Connie protested. ‘You don’t need to be afraid of me.’

  ‘I know, but Emerald is very jumpy. An old lady threw a saucepan of tomato soup at her once and it’s made her very nervous around humans ever since. That’s why she panicked.’

  Connie looked around the room, suddenly wondering if jumpy Emerald was hiding somewhere right now, getting ready to launch another book in her direction. ‘Where are the other fairies today?’ she asked.

  ‘At home in fairyland. That’s where I used to live too. But now I have to live here and I can’t go home until I finish sorting out all these books – or until I make right the wrong thing that I did.’

  Now Connie couldn’t stop herself asking. ‘What was the wrong thing that you did?’

  But Ruby shook her head and looked away. ‘You might not like me if I tell you and then you won’t come to see me again. It gets so lonely stuck here on my own. Emerald and Sapph
ire are only allowed to visit me once a week.’

  ‘Of course I’ll come and see you again!’ Connie protested. ‘I’m lonely here too.’

  ‘Are you?’ Ruby looked surprised. ‘Haven’t you got any friends here either?’

  ‘No.’ Connie swallowed. ‘I had a best friend, Emma, back at home, but she moved to Canada with her family last month. She’s the same age as me – well, she will be next week when she has her ninth birthday.’ Connie felt her eyes filling up with tears as she thought of her friend enjoying her birthday without her. ‘I was going to give her a really special present before she left, but we fell out about something really silly and I thought she didn’t care about leaving me any more, so I didn’t buy her anything. I was wrong though. I really wish I’d got her something now.’

  Ruby didn’t speak, but watched as a big tear spilled out on to Connie’s cheek. ‘Don’t,’ she ordered, as Connie reached up to brush it away. Then Ruby flew up until she was level with the tear, leaned forward and kissed it gently. ‘Now catch it in your hand,’ she said.

  Connie put up her hand to catch the teardrop as it rolled off her chin, and saw straight away that it was glittering. ‘Wow!’ she gasped.

  ‘Keep hold of it,’ Ruby instructed, reaching inside a pocket in her dress and pulling out a little gold case. Inside the case was a tiny needle and golden thread. As Connie watched, Ruby pushed the needle and thread through the teardrop and out the other side so that now the tear was attached to the thread like a pendant on a gold chain. ‘You can send her this if you like – a sparkly teardrop necklace especially for her.’

  ‘Oh . . . ’ Connie began, but she couldn’t find any words to thank her new friend.

  ‘You’d better go now,’ Ruby said, briskly. ‘I need to get on with some reading. Tell Emma that this necklace will always sparkle so long as it’s worn by a person who believes in fairies.’

  Connie promised that she would come and visit again tomorrow, as Ruby flew up towards the top shelf and disappeared behind some books. When Connie looked down again at her outstretched palm, the necklace was still there and the teardrop was still sparkling.

  When she got back, Connie found her aunt putting down the phone. ‘Oh, there you are, Connie. I thought you were still in bed. That was your mother. She’s going to phone you this evening. That was just a quick call to remind me it’s my wedding anniversary today. I forgot all about it, but your mother’s right – your uncle and I were married fifteen years ago today. I think I might make a special meal tonight to surprise Uncle Maurice. What do you think?’

  ‘That’s a great idea!’ Connie replied. ‘What are you going to make?’

  ‘Oh dear, now that’s the thing.’ Aunt Alice frowned. ‘If I make a special meal I’ll have to do a lot of cooking, won’t I?’ Aunt Alice rarely cooked proper meals because she didn’t like to waste her creative energy on anything other than writing. Since Connie had arrived, they’d eaten either tinned soup, things on toast or ready meals that only had to be heated up in the oven. Connie didn’t mind because there was always plenty of biscuits and stuff to munch in between meals so she was never hungry. (Aunt Alice had a sweet tooth and liked to nibble when she was writing because she said it helped her to concentrate.)

  ‘I could help you,’ Connie said. ‘We can make something easy and walk to the village together to get the ingredients. It’ll be fun! And then I can post the birthday present I’ve got for Emma.’

  Aunt Alice saw the excited look on Connie’s face and decided she couldn’t say no, even though she didn’t much feel like a long walk to the village. ‘I suppose I could take a break from my writing today . . . ’ She smiled at her niece. ‘Go and tell Uncle Maurice we’re going to the shops. Ask him if he wants us to bring anything back for him.’

  Five minutes later, Connie raced back downstairs again, clutching her purse and the necklace, which she had wrapped carefully in tissue and slipped inside the birthday card she had already chosen for Emma. ‘He wants some jelly babies,’ she said. ‘He says the dragon in his book has been eating them all morning and it’s given him a craving for them.’ She raised her eyebrows to show that she thought her uncle was totally mad, and Aunt Alice laughed as she led the way out the front door.

  Connie had forgotten just how much fun Aunt Alice could be when she wasn’t writing. On the way to the village they chatted about all sorts of things and played I Spy and looked at all the wild flowers, trying to guess their names. Aunt Alice told her all about the games she had played with Connie’s mother as a child.

  ‘Though we didn’t always play together,’ she added. ‘I was always a bookish type and she was always the sporty one. Oh yes, your mother was much more of an outdoor girl than me.’

  Connie thought about that. ‘I think I’m more of an outdoor girl too,’ she said. ‘At least I was until—’ She just stopped herself from saying, ‘Until I met Ruby.’

  In the village they went to the post office and Connie bought a padded envelope to put her card and present for Emma inside. Then she copied out Emma’s new address on the front and paid for it to be sent to Canada. The lady said that it should be there in time for Emma’s birthday next week. After that, they went to the butcher and the greengrocer and bought the ingredients to make a shepherd’s pie for dinner, and then they went to the little old-fashioned sweet shop to get Uncle Maurice’s jelly babies. The sweets were stored in big plastic jars on the shelves behind the counter and, when they asked for the jelly babies, they had to be weighed out. Connie asked for some chocolate raisins too. While they were waiting, Connie spotted something else on the counter. It was a little pink tube and on the outside it said FAIRY DUST SHERBET.

  ‘I’ll have one of those too, please,’ Connie said, thinking that it was the perfect gift for Ruby.

  They left the shop and Aunt Alice suggested that they went to the little teashop in the village for lunch. Connie had a cheese and ham toastie from the lunch menu and an ice cream afterwards, and Aunt Alice, having a sweet tooth, ordered the cream tea for two for herself. They were both pleasantly full when they walked home together and Connie felt like this was the best time she’d had with her aunt since she’d arrived. And as she had also found out today that fairies were real, she reckoned this had to be one of the best days in her whole life.

  When Connie’s mother phoned that evening, Connie was feeling so excited about meeting Ruby that she nearly told her mum about it. But before she could, her mother told her that a postcard had arrived that morning from Emma and she started to read it out to her over the phone.

  Dear Connie (her mum read), I hope you are OK and having a good school holiday. I really like Canada and there is a girl my age who lives next door, and guess what? She’s called Connie too! I hope that we are going to be really good friends. I am having a birthday party next week. All my cousins are coming and so is Connie. Write soon! Love from Emma

  After that, Connie felt less excited. For the rest of the evening she couldn’t stop thinking about that card – and the other Connie who was going to Emma’s birthday party instead of her. That night she found that she couldn’t sleep.

  Her aunt and uncle had gone to bed too and the house was in darkness. She got up and put on her dressing gown and slippers, then crept out of her room, picking up the paper bag of sweets on the way. The front door creaked a bit as she opened it, but it didn’t seem as if anyone had heard. The moonlight was strong enough to light her path as she crept round to the main part of the house. She paused to look at the grassy bank that sloped down to the lake. The whole bank seemed to be sparkling, but it could have just been the way the moon was shining on it.

  ‘Ruby!’ she whispered, poking her head inside the open library window. ‘Are you there?’

  ‘Come in!’ a laughing voice said.

  As soon as she climbed inside, a set of fairy lights was switched on and Ruby flew forward to greet her saying, ‘I found these in one of the attic rooms. What do you think?’

  ‘Very
pretty,’ said Connie. ‘Here. I’ve brought you a present.’ She pulled out the sherbet fairy dust and gave it to Ruby. At the same time a chocolate raisin fell out of the bag, and it was that which made Ruby shriek with delight.

  ‘Chocolate! You’ve got chocolate! Oh, please can I have some?’ She quickly explained that chocolate was something that all fairies loved, but which you couldn’t get in fairyland. ‘It must be wonderful being a human and getting to eat chocolate all day!’

  ‘We don’t eat it all day,’ Connie laughed.

  ‘I would if I were a human!’ Ruby was almost drooling now, in a very unfairy-like way, as she hovered over the top of the bag.

  ‘You can have them as well as the sherbet if you like,’ Connie said. ‘But don’t eat them all at once or you might get sick.’ She wondered as she spoke if it was actually possible for a fairy to be sick.

  ‘Oh, Connie, you’re my best friend ever!’ Ruby gushed, diving headfirst into the bag and pulling out a chocolate-coated raisin that filled both her hands. After they had sat together for a little while, munching the sweets, Connie told Ruby about Emma’s postcard.

  ‘She’s got a new best friend now who’s even got the same name as me. Emma won’t miss me now that she’s got her, will she? She’ll probably forget all about me.’

  Ruby stopped licking the chocolate shell of her raisin. ‘Will something bad happen to you if she forgets about you? Will you get sick or die or disappear or something?’

  ‘Nothing will happen to me,’ Connie said, impatiently. ‘But—’

  ‘That’s OK then,’ Ruby interrupted, sounding hugely relieved. She went back to licking at her chocolate.

  ‘No, it’s NOT OK!’ Connie snapped, feeling her bottom lip start to tremble.

  Ruby looked up again in surprise. ‘I’m sorry. I just meant . . .’ She broke off, frowning. ‘Look, let’s just forget about that friend of yours. We’ll never talk about her again, OK?’