Fairy Dust Page 8

  ‘Lucky in some ways and not in others,’ Snowdrop said. ‘That’s just the same for fairies as it is for humans.’ She smiled, grabbing Rosie’s hand. ‘Come on! Let’s go and see the rest of the village now. Then Queen Mae has a present for you.’

  So Rosie followed Snowdrop around the village, meeting all the other fairies and their wee men friends, admiring each fairy dwelling place as she passed it. But she couldn’t stop thinking about her present and wondering what it could be.

  Finally, Snowdrop took her back to Queen Mae’s home where the fairy queen was waiting for them. Now that she was the same size as Rosie, she seemed even more stunning. Her shimmery purple dress had miniature thistles embroidered around the neck and a sash of bright yellow sunlight pulling it together at the waist.

  ‘Rosie,’ she smiled, coming forward and handing her a single red rose. ‘This is to thank you for saving Snowdrop.’

  Rosie smelled the rose. It had a beautiful scent. But it wasn’t quite what she had been expecting.

  ‘It’s a magic rose,’ Queen Mae told her. ‘You can use it to make a magic wish.’

  ‘A magic wish?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Queen Mae explained that the wish must be made now because the rose would no longer be magic once it was taken out of the fairy village. ‘But you must think carefully before you make your wish, Rosie. It will only work if you wish for something that won’t hurt anybody else. Fairy wishes can never be selfish wishes, you see.’

  ‘All right,’ Rosie murmured. She thought of the one thing she wanted more than anything else. Then she thought about what Queen Mae had said and whether the other two people involved in her wish would want it to happen too. ‘What if I’m not sure whether or not it’s the right thing to wish for?’ she asked Queen Mae.

  ‘Then think very carefully before you wish for it,’ Queen Mae replied.

  ‘But if I don’t wish for this to happen . . .’ Rosie began, ‘. . . and Mum and Dad never—’

  ‘There are some things that human beings need to sort out for themselves, Rosie,’ Queen Mae interrupted her gently. ‘Always remember that. And those sorts of things don’t usually respond very well to fairy wishes.’ She paused. ‘What you have to ask yourself is this: is the wish in your head one of those things or not?’

  Rosie frowned. She knew the answer to that. And knowing helped her to make her decision.

  ‘I’ve done it!’ she gasped, handing the rose back to Queen Mae. ‘Will it come true soon, do you think?’

  ‘Very soon, I expect,’ Queen Mae replied, smiling at her kindly. ‘And now it is time for you to go home. Cammie and Snowdrop will show you the way. She leaned forward and kissed Rosie on the cheek. ‘We will always remember how you helped us, Rosie.’

  Rosie felt very tired as she flew between Cammie and Snowdrop back into the village well, down the long tree trunk and out of the forest. Rosie gradually found herself becoming bigger and bigger compared to her two fairy friends, and by the time they reached the tree stump outside the forest, she was back to her normal size.

  ‘You’d better hurry,’ Cammie said. ‘Old Flora was planning to invite you and your mother round for tea and birthday cake this afternoon.’

  ‘Was she?’ Rosie gasped, thinking that that didn’t sound a very Flora-like thing to do.

  ‘Save some icing for me, won’t you?’ Snowdrop said, licking her lips.

  ‘I’ll leave some on the window ledge for you tonight,’ Rosie promised, suddenly feeling much happier than she had done in a long time. It was beautiful here – much more beautiful than London – and she loved her fairy friends. And if her wish came true then everything was going to be just fine. All she had to do now was go home and see if the fairy magic had worked!

  Rosie’s mum looked happy when Rosie got back to Thistle Cottage, and straight away she told Rosie that she had some good news.

  ‘While you were out earlier, Dad phoned. He says he felt so sad on the way home, not knowing when he was going to get to see you again, that he’s booked another flight for four weeks’ time. He says he’s going to come and see you once a month – either here or you and I will go and meet him in Inverness. What do you think of that?’

  ‘That’s brilliant!’ Rosie gasped. And it really was brilliant – especially as that hadn’t been her fairy wish.

  It turned out that Flora had invited Reverend MacKay and his wife to tea as well and they were already there when Rosie and her mum knocked on the door of Flora’s cottage.

  ‘Hello, Rosie,’ Mrs Mackay said, smiling at her. ‘I’ve been telling my grandaughter, Katie, all about you. She’s been moping around all summer because her best friend moved away to the mainland at the end of June. She’s the same age as you so I thought you might get along. She wondered if you’d like to go round and play with her tomorrow. I’m going there myself tomorrow morning so I could take you with me if you like.’

  Rosie’s face lit up. She couldn’t believe how many nice things were suddenly happening – with no help at all from her fairy wish. ‘Yes, please!’ she beamed. ‘That’s OK, isn’t it, Mum?’

  Her mother smiled. ‘Of course. I’ve been hoping you’d soon find someone here your own age to play with.’

  ‘Well, I think you and Katie will have plenty in common, Rosie,’ Mrs MacKay continued. ‘So long as she doesn’t drive you mad, telling you about the time she met the queen of the fairies.’

  ‘You mean, Katie’s met her too?’

  ‘Aye, so she says . . .’ Mrs MacKay exchanged a knowing smile with Rosie’s mum. ‘She’ll tell you all about it herself, I’m sure.’

  ‘Now, who’s for a piece of my lovely birthday cake?’ Flora said, coming though from the kitchen with a teapot in her hand. She started to cut up the cake, placing a large slice on Rosie’s plate and adding an extra piece of icing. ‘You can take that away with you if you can’t manage it all just now,’ she said, giving Rosie a wink.

  Rosie winked back – at least Flora knew the fairies were real, even if the other grownups didn’t.

  When she got home, Rosie went straight up to her room and placed the piece of pink icing on her window ledge. Then she went downstairs again to watch some television with her mother.

  Later that evening when Rosie opened her bedroom door, Cammie and Snowdrop were sitting on her bed, munching away at their pink icing supper and giggling together.

  Now, at long last, she could test out her fairy wish.

  ‘Mum, come and see!’ Rosie cried out.

  ‘What is it?’ her mother said, looking over Rosie’s shoulder into the room.

  ‘There – on the bed! Can you see them now?’ Rosie pointed to her two fairy friends who had stopped munching and were looking at Rosie in surprise.

  ‘I can’t see anything except your duvet covered in crumbs of pink icing,’ her mother said, a little impatiently. ‘I hope you’re going to clean that up before you go to bed.’

  ‘But, Mum . . ’ Rosie trailed off. There was no point in arguing about it. As soon as her mother had gone, she turned to Cammie and Snowdrop, her face full of disappointment. ‘Why didn’t my fairy wish work?’ she asked them. ‘I wished for Mum to be able to see you.’

  Snowdrop flew off the bed, back on to the window ledge. She didn’t seem too alarmed. ‘Don’t worry. There’s more than one way for a fairy wish to work. You’ll see.’ She blew Rosie a kiss, smiled her sunniest smile and then she was gone.

  When Rosie turned to look, Cammie was gone too. But she could hear him grunting on his top shelf behind the books, so she guessed he was getting himself ready for bed. ‘Cammie?’ she called out. ‘What did Snowdrop mean? What other way is there for my fairy wish to work?’

  But all she got in reply, a few minutes later, was the sound of snoring.

  She had to admit that she felt pretty tired herself and she fell asleep almost as soon as she snuggled down under her duvet.

  And when she woke up the next morning, it seemed as if something was different. She cou
ldn’t say what exactly, just something. She almost expected to look out of the window and find herself back in the middle of London – that’s how different she felt.

  But when she got up and looked out, she saw her mother sitting in the garden, painting. Everything looked the same. It was a beautiful day and Loch Shee was sparkling in the sunlight. She remembered what had happened the night before and called out Cammie’s name but he didn’t reply. Either he was still asleep or he had gone to visit his fairy companions in the forest.

  Rosie clattered down the stairs, still in her pyjamas, to join her mother out on the lawn.

  ‘Rosie, I had the most amazing dream last night,’ her mum called to her excitedly. ‘I had to get up straight away and paint it. Come and see!’ She was still in her dressing gown and her hair was all bushy where she hadn’t bothered brushing it yet. She was holding her paintbrush in one hand as she beckoned Rosie round to her side of the easel.

  Rosie took one look at the painting and gasped out loud. There, against a backdrop of dark, starry sky, her mother had painted Snowdrop, Queen Mae and Cammie. She had painted them the same size as they were in real life and their likenesses were so good that anyone would think they had stood and posed for their portraits all night.

  Rosie looked from the picture to her mother, unable to conceal her amazement. ‘That’s them! The one in the white dress is Snowdrop . . . the really beautiful one is Queen Mae . . . and the wee man is Cammie.’

  Her mum turned her head to smile at Rosie. ‘What perfect names for them.’

  ‘I know,’ Rosie agreed. ‘All the fairies have flower names except Queen Mae—’

  ‘Like you, then,’ her mother interrupted her. ‘You’ve got a flower name too.’

  Rosie hadn’t thought about that before. She looked again at the picture. It really was perfect.

  ‘Would you like this to hang on your bedroom wall?’ her mother asked.

  ‘Oh, yes, please!’ Rosie gasped. Then she spotted something. ‘Mum, what’s that glittery stuff on the end of your brush?’

  Her mother looked at the brush. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s fairy dust!’ Rosie gasped, staring at the tip of the brush in awe.

  ‘Fairy dust?’ her mother laughed. ‘Oh, Rosie . . . you are funny! That’s just some glittery paint I thought I’d try out.’ She gave Rosie an indulgent smile. ‘You know, I’ve a feeling that from now on, what with Mrs MacKay’s grandaughter to keep you company and Dad visiting more and school starting up in a few weeks, you won’t be seeing quite so much of those fairies of yours.’

  Rosie was about to protest when she remembered what Queen Mae had said to her when she’d left the fairy village: We’ll never forget you, Rosie . . .

  Had she been saying goodbye? And it was true that Snowdrop had vanished rather suddenly last night and that she hadn’t seen Cammie yet this morning.

  Still . . . she couldn’t imagine her fairy friends leaving her unless she wanted them to.

  ‘You could be right, Mum,’ she said, running her finger over the end of the paintbrush and getting glittery paint all over her fingertip. ‘I don’t think so, but . . .’ She frowned. For a moment she felt like she didn’t really know anything any more. Then she thought of something else and smiled. ‘I know, I’ll ask Katie what she thinks.’

  And she ran back upstairs to get dressed, so she’d be ready when Mrs MacKay came to collect her.