Fairy Dust Read online

  ‘I might have,’ Rosie laughed, and she headed back towards the moor with her new friend balanced on her shoulder.

  Rosie stayed inside with Snowdrop for the whole of the next day. The day after that she still hadn’t left the house and her mother was starting to get worried.

  ‘You’re spending a lot of time in your room, Rosie,’ her mother said, taking a break from her painting to put her head round the door. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Just playing,’ Rosie said. She was sitting on the floor beside the dolls’ cot, where Snowdrop was sitting eating a slice of cake. Rosie had baked some fairy cakes that morning while her mum was busy painting and she had brought one upstairs for Snowdrop to try.

  ‘With what?’ her mum asked, staring at the dolls’ cot which, to her, seemed empty.

  ‘Can’t you see?’ Rosie really wanted her mother to see the fairies too.

  Her mother sighed. ‘All I can see is you sitting on your own in the house when it’s a beautiful day outside. I think you need to get some fresh air. After I’ve done a bit more painting, we’ll go into Portree to do some shopping.’

  ‘I don’t want to,’ Rosie said. ‘I want to stay inside!’

  ‘Rosie—’ her mother began, like she was about to deliver a lecture. Then she obviously thought better of it. ‘I won’t be long, I promise,’ she said. ‘Then we’ll go into Portree.’

  ‘She will be long,’ Rosie said, stroppily, to Snowdrop after her mother had gone. ‘She’ll be ages. She’ll probably be so busy painting, she’ll forget all about going to Portree. All she does now is paint.’

  ‘Did she paint all the time before?’ Snowdrop asked.

  Rosie nodded. ‘Mum said it was the only thing that made her feel better when we lived with Dad. They were always arguing. That’s why they had to separate.’

  ‘And do they still argue?’ Snowdrop asked.

  Rosie nodded. ‘They can’t even speak to each other on the phone any more without one of them getting cross.’

  Snowdrop looked thoughtful. ‘I could fix that, if you want.’

  ‘Fix it?’ Rosie stared at her. ‘How?’

  ‘I could use a little fairy dust on your mum to put her in a better mood with your father. Then she won’t get so angry with him on the phone.’

  ‘Could you really do that?’

  ‘Of course.’ Snowdrop twisted round and started to shake off the poultice from her damaged wing. ‘This must be mended by now.’ She stretched both her wings to test them out, then flew straight up in the air above the cot and hovered there until she was sure her torn wing was properly healed. ‘Perfect!’ she grinned, starting to fly towards the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Rosie asked.

  ‘To sprinkle some fairy dust on one of those cakes you made this morning. Then you can take it out to your mother and, when she eats it, she’ll start feeling all romantic again towards your dad and she’ll totally forget all the things that annoy her about him!’

  ‘But—’ Rosie was about to say that she wasn’t so sure they ought to make Mum have romantic thoughts about Dad, but Snowdrop was already halfway to the kitchen. By the time Rosie caught up with her, Snowdrop was hovering above a cake with yellow icing and an orange jelly tot on top, rubbing the tips of her fingers together and releasing a scattering of golden dust over the icing.

  ‘Wow!’ Rosie gasped, as she gazed in awe at the cake which had now started to sparkle. ‘But Mum’s going to notice that it looks weird!’

  ‘No she won’t,’ Snowdrop reassured her. ‘People who can’t see fairies can’t see fairy dust either, so don’t worry. Just take it out to her. Go on!’

  ‘It won’t hurt her, will it?’ Rosie asked nervously.

  ‘Of course not! It will just make her think lovely happy thoughts about your dad.’

  So Rosie carried the fairy cake carefully outside to where her mother was sitting at her easel, painting a picture of the cottage. ‘I’ve brought one of my cakes for you to try,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, thank you, darling. It looks yummy!’ Her mother smiled as she took the cake from Rosie. She put down her paintbrush and peeled the paper cup from round the edges before biting into the sponge and icing. ‘Delicious!’ she declared, picking up her paintbrush again and continuing to munch as she worked.

  Rosie watched her for a few moments, then left her to it.

  When her mother came into the house ten minutes later, she looked flushed. She went straight to the kitchen sink and filled herself a glass of water.

  ‘Are you all right, Mum?’ Rosie asked.

  ‘I feel as if . . .’ her mother faltered, looking confused. ‘I feel as if . . .’ She raised the glass of water to her mouth with a shaky hand and took a large gulp.

  ‘She feels as if she’s fallen in love with your father all over again,’ Snowdrop whispered.

  ‘I’m just going to make a quick phone call,’ her mother said. ‘Then we can go into Portree, OK?’

  Rosie nodded. She was so nervous she was starting to feel sick. Was her mother about to ring her father? What would happen if her parents spoke to each other? Would Mum tell Dad she felt as though she was in love with him all over again?

  The telephone was on the little table in the hallway. It was one of those old-fashioned phones where you put your finger in the holes and pull the dial round once for each number. Her mother went out into the hall and closed the door behind her.

  Rosie crept up and put her ear against the door to listen. She felt her spine go all shivery as she heard her mother’s voice say, ‘James? It’s me – Maggie.’

  Rosie was so excited and nervous at the same time that she could hardly breathe as she waited to hear what was said next.

  ‘Listen, James, I’m phoning because . . .’ Her mum suddenly sneezed. ‘Because . . . well . . . because I suddenly really wanted to talk to you.’ Her mother sneezed again, louder this time. ‘What? Oh . . . but surely . . .’ She sneezed again, three times in a row.

  ‘It must be a side effect from the fairy dust,’ Snowdrop whispered to Rosie. ‘Some humans are a bit allergic to it.’

  There was a long silence, broken only by her mother sneezing again, then her voice said, in a stilted sort of tone, ‘Well, if they’re important clients then, no, I suppose you can’t really be late for your appointment with them, but—’ She sneezed again. There was another pause while her mother listened. Then she spoke again, clearly angry now. ‘Well, I thought that since it was Saturday . . . Aatchoo! . . . you wouldn’t be working, but . . . Aatchoo! . . . how silly of me! Aatchoo! I forgot that you’re always working. What? No, I haven’t got a cold! Aatchoo! It must be the pollen. We have pollen here you know, not filthy petrol fumes . . . . AATCHOO!’ And she slammed down the phone.

  Rosie stared at Snowdrop in horror as she heard her mother running up the stairs. ‘Oh, no. We’ve made everything worse. Mum’s really upset now.’

  ‘Oh, dear.’ Snowdrop fluttered about anxiously, trying to think of something that would make up for what had happened. ‘Rosie, listen! The day after tomorrow there’s going to be a special fairy party on the island out on the loch. What if I ask if you can come?’

  Rosie stared at her, temporarily forgetting about her mother. ‘Come and meet all the other fairies, you mean?’

  Snowdrop nodded. ‘Queen Mae doesn’t usually like us to invite humans to our parties, but when I tell her how you’ve helped me, I’m sure she’ll say yes.’

  ‘Oh, Snowdrop, do you really think she will?’ Rosie gasped.

  Snowdrop grinned. ‘I’ll come back and leave her answer on your window ledge tonight. I’ll leave a sprig of heather if the answer is yes, and a dandelion if the answer is no.’

  As Snowdrop flew away, Rosie crossed her fingers and wished as hard as she could for the answer to be yes.

  A fairy party! She could hardly believe it. But before she could get much more excited about it, she remembered how upset her mother had sounded. First she had to go upstairs and see wh
at she could do to make her feel better. And for the umpteenth time, Rosie wished her mother could see the fairies too.

  Rosie rushed to her window ledge the next morning and let out an excited shout. A sprig of purple heather was sitting there. Queen Mae had said yes!

  The fairy party was going to be held the following night on the island out in the loch. Rosie could hardly wait and she had lots of questions to ask Snowdrop, like how would she get to the island and would Snowdrop come and tell her when it was time to go?

  For the whole of the next day, Rosie kept a sharp lookout for her new friend but she didn’t appear. Rosie had chosen her favourite purple dress to wear to the party and that night she lay awake waiting for her mother to go to bed, then changed into her party dress and waited. What if Snowdrop had forgotten about her? Or what if she’d changed her mind about taking her to the party?

  By midnight Rosie had fallen asleep on top of the bed, still fully dressed, but she woke straight away when she felt something spiky poking at her nose.

  ‘Wake up, Sleepy! It’s time to go.’ It was Snowdrop, poking at her with the jagged edge of a fairy wand.

  ‘Wow!’ Rosie gasped, staring at the wand which was star-shaped at the end and covered in glittery stuff. ‘Is that a magic wand?’

  Snowdrop glanced down at it. ‘Oh, no, this is just to look trendy at the party. It’s the fashion for fairies to have wands – though they’re a bit of a nuisance to carry around.’

  Snowdrop had flown back to the window ledge and Rosie could see her clearly in the moonlight. She wasn’t wearing her usual white petal frock. Her skirt was made of several layers of different shades of blue petals and the bodice, a lighter blue, matched Snowdrop’s eyes exactly. Miniature daisies formed a sort of frill round the sleeves and her golden hair was swept up in an elegant knot pinned in place by several glittery hairpins. ‘Just because I’m called Snowdrop, doesn’t mean I have to wear white all the time,’ Snowdrop explained. ‘Though Queen Mae says white is my best colour.’

  ‘I think blue is your colour too,’ Rosie said, smiling. ‘You look beautiful!’

  ‘Thanks,’ Snowdrop grinned. ‘You look very pretty too. Come on. We’ve got to get going. The party’s started already. Follow me.’ She led the way down the stairs and waited for Rosie to open the front door. Then she flew ahead of her down towards the loch.

  The moon was so bright that they didn’t need any other light to guide them as they headed down to the loch-side. Rosie could just make out the tiny island in the middle of the water. Her mother had rowed out to the island on the day they had borrowed Flora’s boat and there had been nothing there but the ruined remains of a small castle.

  ‘The island just looks the same,’ Rosie said, trying not to sound disappointed. Somehow she had expected the island to look different for the fairy party.

  ‘From here it does,’ Snowdrop agreed. ‘It won’t do for much longer, though. Step into the boat.’

  Rosie saw that Flora’s boat was sitting at the water’s edge a short distance away.

  She stepped inside, looking around for the oars and wondering how the boat was going to get off the beach – when her mum had taken her out, she had worn her wellingtons and pushed the boat out with Rosie in it.

  ‘Sit down,’ Snowdrop ordered, flying behind the boat and pushing it out into the loch with apparently no effort at all. She came and joined Rosie, staring ahead at the island, which still looked deserted and uninviting.

  There seemed to be no need to row. The boat was moving forward on its own. Behind them Rosie could see a trail of golden sparks in the water that looked like fairy dust.

  Suddenly the air was filled with a loud oinking noise and their boat was completely surrounded by seals.

  Snowdrop seemed to be able to talk to them. ‘Yes . . . I know . . . What? Oh . . . this is my new friend, Rosie. Look after her, will you, while I fly on ahead to tell the others we’re coming.’

  ‘Snowdrop, don’t—’ Rosie started to say, but before she could feel afraid at being left in the boat in the middle of the loch all by herself, she saw some more movement in the water ahead of her. Some dolphins were heading towards her and soon they were right by the boat, jumping out of the water and diving back in again with a splash, then swimming under the boat and resurfacing on the other side. Rosie was so excited at being so close to the dolphins that she nearly didn’t spot Snowdrop coming back to hover just in front of her.

  ‘I forgot to tell you,’ the fairy said, sounding out of breath. ‘To make the island come to life you have to look into the water. There’s a magic reflection that will take you there.’

  ‘What reflection?’ Rosie called out, but Snowdrop had already flown off again.

  The island, which was much closer now, still looked dark and scary to Rosie. What did Snowdrop mean about a magic reflection? Rosie looked into the water and couldn’t see anything. Then, just as she was giving up hope, she spotted some twinkling lights. She stared at them. The longer she looked, the more lights seemed to be appearing and then, suddenly, she saw that the lights formed the outline of an upside-down sparkling castle in the water.

  ‘It’s upside-down because it’s a reflection,’ Rosie thought. ‘But how can it be a reflection when there isn’t anything to reflect?’

  She looked up at the island again, just to make sure, and this time she was so shocked that she let out a little cry.

  A beautiful castle stood in the middle of the island, looking like something out of a fairy-tale book. It had smooth silvery walls and two round turrets with pointed roofs and tiny windows in the sides. Fairy lights were strung round each turret and there were pink and gold lamps in every window. In front of the castle was a huge courtyard where fairies and wee men were dancing together, inside a ring of lanterns, to lively Scottish fiddle music.

  Snowdrop was waiting for her at the end of a narrow wooden jetty. ‘Surprised?’ she called out, as the friendly seals gave the boat a gentle nudge to line it up with the wooden platform then swam away to join the dolphins who had stayed further out in the loch.

  ‘Is it . . . real . . . ?’ Rosie stammered, staring at the jetty and the castle behind it with a feeling that everything might just disappear again at any second.

  ‘Of course it’s real,’ Snowdrop said. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see it, would you – or stand on it!’ She laughed as Rosie stepped nervously on to the creaky platform. ‘And whatever you do, don’t ask if you’re dreaming? It’s so boring when humans ask that.’

  Rosie promised that she wouldn’t ask that as she followed Snowdrop along the jetty towards the party. But she made sure she pinched herself quickly when Snowdrop wasn’t looking, just to make sure.

  Rosie hadn’t expected the thing that happened next. As soon as Snowdrop led her to the edge of the courtyard where all the fairies were dancing, the music stopped and everyone turned to stare at her.

  Rosie felt her face going bright red.

  ‘They’re just curious, that’s all,’ Snowdrop reassured her. ‘Come on. I’ll take you to meet Queen Mae.’

  Rosie felt like a big clumsy giant as she stepped into the courtyard after Snowdrop. Some of the fairies were smiling at her and most of them were whispering to each other as she passed by. One of the wee men lifted his bonnet and gave her a wink.

  Snowdrop led the way through the crowd of fairies. Rosie gasped at their beautiful flowery dresses, and at the wee men in their smart tartan outfits. At the back of the courtyard was a very beautiful fairy, sitting on a tree trunk throne that was scattered with gold rose petals. She was wearing a cream silk petticoat with an outer skirt of deep-pink petals and her bodice was made of woven lavender. Her large wings were spread open behind her, glittering in the moonlight. On top of her wavy, golden hair she wore a purple floral crown. She had the kindest blue eyes and the loveliest smile as she turned to Rosie and said, ‘Welcome to our party. And thank you for rescuing Snowdrop and helping her until her wing got better.’

&
nbsp; ‘That’s all right,’ Rosie said shyly. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Queen Mae.’

  Queen Mae gave her an even more beautiful smile. ‘And I, you. Now off you go and enjoy the party. Snowdrop will look after you.’

  And Snowdrop did look after her. She sat her on a nice smooth tree trunk up against the courtyard wall where she could watch the fairy party in comfort. Snowdrop brought her a thimble-cup of bubbly-dew to drink, which tasted sweet and made Rosie’s tummy feel lovely and warm inside. There was party food to eat too. Snowdrop brought her a plate the same size as the ones in her dolls’ tea set at home, and on it were tiny mushrooms stuffed with a delicious herb, pine nut biscuits, miniature fairy cakes with tartan icing and wild berries dipped in honey. Rosie felt very excited as she watched the wee men playing their fiddles and the fairies dancing in groups. Most of the fairies were no longer carrying their wands and Rosie noticed a little heap of them on the floor. Some of the fairies were dancing round it.

  Snowdrop was still holding her wand, which she was waving in time to the fiddle music, as she sat beside Rosie, keeping her company.

  Just then a wee man came up and gave a little bow to both of them. He wore a bright red bonnet with a tassel on top and he introduced himself as Hughie, of the clan MacDonald. He wanted to know if Snowdrop would like him to carry her wand for her. Snowdrop winked at Rosie as she and Hughie set off to have a wee stroll about the grounds together.

  They hadn’t been gone long when Rosie was tapped roughly on the shoulder from behind. She turned to see the wee man she had seen in Thistle Cottage on the night she’d arrived. He was flying about inspecting each part of her rudely, as if she was some sort of giant statue, rather than a person.

  ‘So you’re the girl who’s been staying in my cottage?’ he finally said, flapping his wings so close to her face that it made her blink. ‘I’m Cammie MacPherson, in case you’re interested.’