Fairy Secrets Read online

  Ellie told him about her visit to Mrs Lloyd-Hughes’s house. ‘She seems to be taking very good care of Enid,’ she added, trying to reassure him.

  ‘I’m sure Enid would much rather be back here with us, just the same,’ Dilys said, frowning.

  ‘We’ll have to send the fairies to wake her up one night and ask her how she is,’ Llewellyn suggested.

  ‘We’d better not,’ Tedi said. ‘She might be upset if she wakes up and finds out that she’s not in the museum any more.’

  ‘Who is Enid?’ Morgan wanted to know.

  ‘She’s a china doll who we used to tease a lot because she had ideas above her station,’ Llewellyn told him, ‘but she was one of us just the same – and we miss her terribly now she’s gone.’

  ‘Mr Owen said that the little girl who was Enid’s first owner used to like pretending she was the Queen,’ Ellie told them. ‘That must be why Enid thought she was a royal doll.’

  Just then Mr Daniels came into the room and the toys immediately stopped moving. ‘Let’s have a look at this soldier you’ve found then,’ he said, coming over to peer into the cabinet. ‘Where did you get him?’

  ‘From Mr Owen,’ Ellie explained. ‘He’s from the same regiment as the other one.’

  ‘I can see that. Well, that’s wonderful. I’ll have to add him to my logbook!’ He smiled at Ellie. ‘I’ve just been on the phone to the local tourist office and they’re going to help me advertise the museum. They say if I get some posters and flyers printed out then they’ll distribute them for me. Maybe that way I’ll get more visitors. I’m just off to tell my mother about it – she’s been on at me for ages to advertise the museum a bit better – and I wondered if you wanted to come with me. I know she’d be delighted to see you.’ He looked uncertainly at David. ‘And you’d be very welcome too, of course . . .’

  ‘I think I’ll just stay here, if that’s all right,’ David said quickly. ‘I can look after the museum while you’re gone, and I’ll help design a poster if you like.’

  ‘Well . . .’ Mr Daniels looked unsure.

  ‘David’s really good at art,’ Ellie pointed out. ‘I bet he’ll make you a fantastic poster!’

  ‘Well, all right then,’ Mr Daniels agreed. ‘If you’re sure you don’t mind.’

  David grinned and said that if he could borrow some paper and pencils then he would get started on the poster straight away.

  At the nursing home they found Mrs Daniels in her bedroom, sitting in a large comfortable chair by the side of her bed. After Mr Daniels had chatted to her for a little while he said he was going off to do some errands in the village and would come back to collect Ellie in half an hour. That way Ellie and his mother could have their ‘girlie’ chat.

  As soon as he had gone the old lady smiled at Ellie in a conspiratorial sort of a way. ‘Well, my dear,’ she began, ‘I’m guessing you’ve met those fairies and seen their fairy portal in action by now, haven’t you?’

  Ellie nodded. ‘I guessed you knew about them. Have you seen the toys coming alive too?’

  ‘Oh, yes. I often went to the fairies’ night-time parties when I was younger. It’s just a pity my son doesn’t believe in fairies. His father did, you know, but Daniel always thought the two of us were completely potty! Can you imagine a family where the parents believe in fairies, but the child doesn’t? The fairies thought it was very funny, I can tell you!’ She paused, suddenly looking more serious. ‘But, Ellie, I’m very glad that you’ve come to see me again. I’ve been doing a bit of thinking since your last visit and I’ve decided there’s something I want to give you.’

  ‘Give me?’

  ‘That’s right. Remember I told you how our vicar found Dilys and Tedi when he was clearing out his loft?’

  Ellie nodded.

  ‘Well, there was something else that he found in that loft. It was a china doll that must also have been given to his wife for the church sale before she died. The vicar said I could have it for the museum, but it was so beautiful that I asked if I might keep it for myself instead.’ She pointed at her chest of drawers and told Ellie to open up the bottom one.

  Ellie opened the drawer to find a china doll wearing a bright yellow dress – almost identical to the one the fairies had made for Enid. The doll had a sweet china face and real blonde hair, with a parting that was exactly in the middle, and when she lifted up the dress Ellie found a pair of yellow knickers with the letter “H” embroidered on the front in pink thread.

  Ellie looked up at Mrs Daniels, her cheeks flushed with excitement. ‘It’s “H” for Henrietta!’ she exclaimed. ‘The real Henrietta! This is Mrs Lloyd-Hughes’s missing doll!’

  Mr Daniels dropped Ellie off outside Mrs Lloyd-Hughes’s house on the way back to the village and this time Mrs Lloyd-Hughes’s housekeeper wasn’t nearly so friendly when she opened the front door. ‘I’m afraid she doesn’t want to see you,’ she told Ellie sharply.

  ‘Well, will you please just show her this?’ Ellie asked, handing over Henrietta.

  ‘Another doll, eh? Well, stay here a moment then, and I’ll see what she says.’

  The housekeeper took the doll and disappeared inside the house, closing the door behind her.

  As Ellie waited on the porch she strained her ears to try to hear what was happening inside – but she couldn’t hear a thing.

  A few minutes later the front door opened and the housekeeper appeared again, looking quite flustered. ‘You’ve to come in,’ she said, showing Ellie straight through to the living room.

  To Ellie’s relief, Mrs Lloyd-Hughes was sitting in her chair holding Henrietta up in front of her and smiling. In fact, the old lady seemed quite transformed, and as she turned to look at Ellie her eyes filled with tears. ‘This is her!’ she cried out, her voice husky with emotion. ‘This is Henrietta!’

  ‘I know,’ Ellie said, feeling a little embarrassed by the old lady’s outburst. ‘There’s even an “H” embroidered on her knickers.’

  Mrs Lloyd-Hughes nodded. ‘I did that myself when I was nine. I was only just learning to embroider. Wherever did you find her?’

  So Ellie told her how Mrs Daniels had been given Henrietta by the vicar when he was moving out of the vicarage fifty years earlier. ‘Your mother must have given her to the vicar’s wife for the church sale – and then she died so the sale never happened. So Henrietta was put up in the loft along with all the other things, and forgotten about for the next twenty years, until the vicar gave her to Mrs Daniels – who didn’t know she belonged to you, of course.’

  ‘Poor Henrietta,’ Mrs Lloyd-Hughes said. ‘I still can’t believe you’ve found her!’

  ‘Mrs Daniels wanted me to have her,’ Ellie said. ‘But she says you can keep her if you like – so long as you give me Enid in exchange for her.’

  ‘Enid?’

  ‘The other china doll.’

  ‘Of course, of course!’ the old lady readily agreed.

  So Ellie picked up Enid and said goodbye to Mrs Lloyd-Hughes. And as she left it seemed to Ellie that the old lady was hugging Henrietta as if she was a long-lost child rather than just a doll.

  That night as Ellie and David lay in bed talking they both agreed that their holiday in Wales had been far more exciting than they could ever have thought possible.

  By the time Ellie had got back to the museum with Enid that morning, David had sketched a very good picture of them for Mr Daniels to put on his posters. Mr Daniels had offered to let Ellie keep Enid for herself, but Ellie had turned down his offer, saying that Enid belonged in the museum. She had asked Mr Daniels to put Enid back in the cabinet, smiling to herself as she thought of the lovely surprise the toys were going to get the next time they woke up and found her there.

  ‘You see, Enid might not be able to come to life if she came back home to live with me,’ Ellie told her brother now. ‘I mean, I’ve never seen any fairies at home – have you?’

  ‘No,’ David agreed. ‘Though I must say, I’ve never actually looked.’r />
  As he spoke they saw a movement at the window, and Bronwen and Myfanwy suddenly flew into the room.

  ‘Queen Lily is throwing a massive fairy party in the toy museum tonight to celebrate the fact that we don’t have to leave this valley after all!’ Myfanwy told them excitedly. ‘And she wants you to come!’

  ‘Yes – and there’s something at the party that she really wants you to see!’ Bronwen added, beaming at Ellie.

  ‘What is it?’ Ellie asked, throwing back her duvet.

  ‘It’s a secret until you get there,’ Myfanwy replied, giggling.

  Suddenly Ellie heard a familiar neighing coming from outside. ‘Is the flying pony here again?’ she asked, rushing to the window where she looked out and saw the same pony as before. Only this time he was harnessed up to a beautiful golden carriage, and instead of wheels the carriage had a pair of wings that was flapping along with the pony’s.

  ‘Queen Lily said he was too small to carry both of you, so she’s sent a magic carriage as well,’ Bronwen explained.

  David had come to the window too now, and since he had never seen a flying pony before – let alone a flying carriage – he was so shocked he couldn’t even speak.

  ‘Hurry up – everyone’s waiting for you,’ Myfanwy told them, whizzing across to the dressing table and picking up David’s camera.

  ‘Careful with that,’ David said. ‘And you’ll have to wait while we get dressed first. I’m not going to a party in my pyjamas!’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about that! The fairy dressmakers have made you both party outfits. You can change when we get there,’ Bronwen said.

  ‘What sort of party outfits?’ David asked, sounding dubious, but since Ellie had already climbed into the carriage, he decided he had better join her before it flew off and left him behind.

  When they arrived at the museum Bronwen and Myfanwy ushered them into the office, where they found two party outfits that were just the right size for them, hanging on two sparkly coat hangers.

  David’s outfit consisted of a gold-coloured waistcoat, a frilly blue shirt and dark blue silky trousers, and when he saw it he pulled a face. ‘I might have known it would be really uncool.’

  ‘Shh!’ Ellie whispered. ‘The fairies might hear you!’ Her own outfit was a beautiful yellow party dress – with matching yellow shoes – and when she touched the material she could tell that it was made from daffodil petals just like the fairies’ own dresses. Somehow they must have sewn lots of petals together, though the seams were quite invisible, and when Ellie slipped the dress over her head she could even smell the scent of daffodils. ‘I love this dress!’ she exclaimed. And she wished there was a mirror in Mr Daniels’s office so that she could see herself in it. ‘I wonder if the dress would show up in a photograph,’ she said, picking up David’s camera, which he had taken from Myfanwy while they were in the carriage.

  ‘Well, I definitely don’t want a photograph of me dressed like this,’ David grumbled to himself as he put on the shirt, trousers and waistcoat. ‘Leave the camera here, Ellie.’

  When they were both ready, they opened the door to find Myfanwy and Bronwen waiting for them outside.

  ‘You both look lovely!’ Bronwen exclaimed.

  ‘Especially you, David!’ Myfanwy gushed. ‘Now you can dance with me! Come on! The party’s this way!’

  The doors swung open and the children saw that the room had been completely transformed. Fairy lights were strung across the ceiling and walls, and sparkly bunting decorated the tops of all the cabinets. Musical notes made from fairy dust kept appearing and then disappearing like flashing lights, as beautiful dance music filled the room. Ellie’s toy friends were out of their cabinet and dancing along with the fairies. Ellie spotted Enid (who was back in her own blue dress again) and Dilys, both wearing glittery party hats as they danced a jig with Tedi, whose hat kept slipping down over his eyes so that he was bumping into everybody. Llewellyn and Morgan both looked very smart in their shiny painted uniforms as they tried to teach their fairy dance partners to do their favourite dance – the military two-step.

  A large picnic rug had been spread out at the far end of the room and the dolls’ tea set from the other night was there, along with several fairy-sized cups. In the centre of the rug was a very fancy cake that had to be at least ten layers tall. Each layer seemed to be hovering in place by itself and on the very top of the cake was a life-size sugar daffodil.

  Queen Lily was sitting on a large sparkly cushion at one end of the picnic rug and when she saw the children she clapped her hands and the fairy music stopped abruptly.

  ‘Before we continue with our party, I want to say a big thank-you to Ellie – on behalf of all of us – for saving our museum!’ she announced, flying up into the air and spreading out her wings as she beamed at the children.

  ‘And thank-you for bringing Enid back to us!’ Tedi called out, as Enid waved and smiled at her gratefully.

  ‘Yes!’ Myfanwy shouted. ‘Now that we have Enid and Morgan, our fairy portal is even safer!’

  ‘HIP-HIP-HURRAH FOR ELLIE!’ all the fairies shouted at once. And then came the deafening noise of all of them clapping.

  ‘You wouldn’t think fairies could make such a noise, would you?’ David whispered, and Ellie giggled in agreement.

  ‘SPEECH! SPEECH!’ the fairies were all shouting, and it was clear they expected Ellie to say something.

  ‘Do you want me to do it for you?’ David asked, knowing how shy his sister was about speaking in public.

  ‘No, it’s OK,’ Ellie replied, because suddenly she realized something. She realized that although she did feel shy – so shy that she could feel herself blushing furiously – she also really wanted to tell the fairies herself how glad she was to have been able to help them.

  So she did.

  After Ellie had finished speaking, David whispered, ‘Well done!’ in her ear.

  ‘That’s it, Ellie!’ the fairy queen said, smiling at her. ‘That’s the thing I wanted you to come to the party to see!’

  ‘How do you mean?’ Ellie asked, not understanding.

  ‘You have conquered your shyness,’ Queen Lily told her. ‘Otherwise, how could you have made such a lovely speech?’

  And as Ellie realized this was true, all the fairies started to cheer and clap again.

  ‘Come and dance with me, David!’ Myfanwy called out to him as the music started up. She flew across to sprinkle dancing dust over his feet, and he soon found himself dancing more energetically – and more uncoolly – than he had ever danced before.

  ‘Where are you going, Ellie?’ he called out as he spotted his sister hurrying towards the door.

  ‘To fetch your camera!’ Ellie called back laughing, because there was no way she was missing out on getting a photograph of this.

  Gwyneth Rees is half Welsh and half English and grew up in Scotland. She went to Glasgow University and qualified as a doctor in 1990. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, but has now stopped practising so that she can write full-time. She is the author of the bestselling Fairies series (Fairy Dust, Fairy Treasure, Fairy Dreams, Fairy Gold, Fairy Rescue), Mermaid Magic, Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze and Cosmo and the Great Witch Escape, as well as several books for older readers. She lives in London with her family.

  Visit www.gwynethrees.com

  Books by Gwyneth Rees

  Mermaid Magic

  Fairy Dust

  Fairy Treasure

  Fairy Dreams

  Fairy Gold

  Fairy Rescue

  Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze

  Cosmo and the Great Witch Escape

  The Magical Book of Fairy Fun

  Cosmo’s Book of Spooky Fun

  For older readers

  The Mum Hunt

  The Mum Detective

  The Mum Mystery

  The Mum Surprise (World Book Day 2006)

  The Making of May

  My Mum’s from Planet Pluto

  And coming soon />
  Cosmo and the Secret Spell

  This book is for Ellen Tullett,

  who is half Welsh like me

  First published 2008 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  This electronic edition published 2010 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

  Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Basingstoke and Oxford

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-0-330-52896-2 PDF

  ISBN 978-0-330-52895-5 EPUB

  Text copyright © Gwyneth Rees 2008

  Illustrations copyright © Emily Bannister 2008

  The right of Gwyneth Rees and Emily Bannister to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  The Macmillan Group has no responsibility for the information provided by any author websites whose address you obtain from this e-book (‘author websites’). The inclusion of the author website addresses in this e-book does not constitute an endorsement by or association with us of such sites or the content, products, advertising or other materials presented on such sites.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.