“I have no idea,” said Ainsley, “but I’m going to find out! I’ll visit every cottage in the kingdom if I have to. Every girl in the land will try on this shoe until I find the right one! Even if I must—”
“We’ll accompany you when you go,” said Liam. “We want to find her, too.”
“Now I feel bad,” said Annie as her cousin walked away, looking forlorn. “They were having such a good time!”
“It wasn’t your fault. She was the one who bumped into you!” Liam replied.
“But if we hadn’t been here, they would still be dancing.” She sighed when she saw the way Ainsley was gazing at the glass slipper in his hand. “I think he really liked her.”
“And he wouldn’t have known it if you hadn’t made Gwennie leave.”
Annie’s gaze flickered toward the stairs. “I suppose Gwennie can return to the dance now. We did find the girl.”
“Gwennie will be happy,” said Liam.
“At least someone will,” Annie told him, glancing back at her cousin.
Chapter 13
The next morning, Liam, Annie, and Gwendolyn were sitting in one of the lesser halls, eating a simple breakfast of fruit, dried fish, and dark bread when the fairy Moonbeam appeared beside them with a tinkling of silver bells.
“How dare you interfere with one of my ongoing projects!” she shouted at Annie and Gwendolyn, her plump cheeks quivering with rage. “Eleanor and the prince were supposed to spend the whole evening dancing in each other’s arms and fall in love last night. Then you had to show up so he didn’t want to dance with anyone but you!” she said, glowering at Gwendolyn. “And you,” she said, turning back to Annie, “I don’t know how you managed it, but you undid everything I’d done to get her ready. Her beautiful clothes weren’t supposed to revert back to their original forms until midnight, after she’d won the prince’s heart and left the castle. Now she’s lost that air of mystery so essential to catching a prince, and everyone knows who she is.”
“We’re sorry,” said Annie. “We just wanted to ask her how to find you, but then her clothes changed and she ran off. Believe me, not everyone knows who she is. The prince certainly doesn’t, so your mystery is still intact.”
“And from what we saw after the girl left, the prince was already smitten,” said Liam.
“Really? Then perhaps we can redeem this mess. Wait, did you say you did all this just to find me? Why?” the fairy asked, narrowing her eyes at Annie.
“We’re trying to help my true love find the dwarf that turned him into a bear,” said Gwendolyn. “We were told you might be able to help us.”
“Who told you that?”
“It was a bear named… What was his name? Do you remember?” Gwendolyn asked, glancing from Annie to Liam.
“It doesn’t matter,” snapped Moonbeam. “I’m not answering any questions for you until you clean up the mess you made. The prince has to go find Eleanor so they can fall in love.”
“How are we supposed to make them fall in love?” Annie asked.
“Don’t worry about that part,” said the fairy. “You get him there and I’ll do the rest.”
Annie shrugged. “We were going to search for Eleanor today anyway. I don’t suppose you could tell us where to find her?”
“No! The prince has to make some effort or the spell won’t work nearly as well. Just be sure that he finds her and that you don’t mess it up any more than you already have!”
Annie, Liam, and Gwendolyn were wearing their old traveling clothes when they joined the prince in his search for Eleanor. One servant went with him to carry the glass slipper on a velvet cushion, along with three guards to fend off beggars, ruffians, and the mothers of the girls he hadn’t claimed as dancing partners. Annie kept her sister in the back of the group, hoping she wouldn’t distract the prince again.
They started at a large house at one end of town where a guard asked the servant who answered the door if there was an Eleanor in the household who had attended the ball the night before. The servant fetched a middle-aged woman. The prince was quick to make his excuses and leave.
“Next time ask if there are any young ladies named Eleanor who attended the ball,” Prince Ainsley told his servant.
“Of course, Your Highness,” the servant said, his mouth twitching as he tried not to laugh.
After that they went from house to house, asking for young ladies. They were visiting houses on the second street when a serving maid with freckles and laughing eyes answered the door and told them that no one else was at home. “But maybe I can help you. Who are you looking for?” she asked.
Prince Ainsley waved forward the servant carrying the glass slipper. “We’re looking for the girl who wore this last night. Do you know anyone whose foot would fit in this shoe?”
“Isn’t that pretty! It doesn’t look very practical, though. It might break if you stomped your foot down hard, or be slippery if the floor was wet. It doesn’t look like it would bend when you walked, so it would be uncomfortable, too. I do know a couple of girls it might fit. Could you be more specific? What does this girl look like?”
“She has golden curls and deep brown eyes and is named Eleanor,” said Annie.
“I know a girl who looks like that, but they call her Cinderella. She works as a serving girl in a house near here, although her rightful place is at the table, not waiting on it. Her father was the master of the house. He died soon after he brought home a new wife who treats her daughters like royalty and makes Cinderella do all the work. The house is there,” she said, pointing down the street. “The stone one—third house from the corner.”
The prince looked excited as they returned to the street. He walked faster now and everyone else had to run to keep up. They were striding down the left side of the road, looking for the house built of stone, when a young woman came storming out of the butcher’s shop.
“Don’t ask me again!” she cried. “I told you, Mother will pay you the next time she visits your shop.”
The man who followed her out of the shop was shorter than the girl, almost as short as Annie. A bloodstained apron stretched across his rotund stomach and hung nearly to the ground. “But your mother never comes to my shop,” the butcher said, his three chins quivering. “She always sends that girl Cinderella! Why isn’t the girl here today? She’s much nicer than you and doesn’t demand better cuts of meat even when I give her the very choicest.”
“She did something bad and is being punished,” said the young woman.
Annie took a step closer. The young woman looked so familiar. It was Zelda, the daughter of that awful woman she had met the night before. If Eleanor—or Cinderella—had anything to do with them, Annie felt doubly sorry for her.
“Huh,” said the butcher, scratching the bald spot on his head. “Well, you tell your mother that I want to be paid. I’m supporting three grown children of my own and I need the money. How do people expect me to stay in business if they don’t pay me?”
Zelda glanced at the people passing by. When her eyes turned to the prince, she hurriedly curtsied while the butcher bowed low.
“There it is,” said Ainsley, who hadn’t noticed Zelda or the butcher. “The stone house three from the corner.”
One of the guards hurried ahead and was already pounding on the door when the prince arrived. It was the Lady Lenore who answered, smoothing her dark, silver-streaked hair and looking annoyed. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the prince. “Your Highness!” she said. “What an honor!”
“Bring out the girl named Eleanor,” said the guard. “She needs to try on a shoe.”
The servant carrying the velvet pillow stepped forward and held up the shoe for Lenore to see.
“I’m sorry, but there’s no one here by that name, although I see one of my lovely daughters behind you, and my other daughter is here somewhere.” Turning her head, Lenore shouted “Willie!” over her shoulder.
“I’m going to look around back,” Liam whispered to Ann
ie, and he slipped down the narrow alley between the stone house and its neighbor.
“What do you want now, Mother?” came her daughter’s reply.
“Come join us, sweet girl!” Lenore trilled. “Prince Ainsley is here to see you!”
“No, I’m not,” said the prince. “I’m here to see Eleanor. Bring her forth without further delay.”
“But I already said she isn’t here!” Lenore insisted as the prince gestured to the guards, who pushed past into her house. “Stop! What are you doing? You can’t barge in here like that!”
“Members of the king’s guard can go anywhere the prince commands,” said the guard who had pounded on the door. “We know the girl is here; we’ll tear your house apart to find her if we must. Make it easier on yourself and bring us the girl now.”
“She is not in this house!” said Lenore, looking more frightened than angry.
“The woman was right,” Liam said, coming up behind her. “I found the girl shut in a shed behind the house.”
He stepped aside, revealing the girl who had danced with the prince the night before. She looked different now with dirt on her ragged clothes and tear streaks through the dust on her face.
“It’s all right, dear one,” the prince said, taking her hand and leading her to a bench by the door. “All I want you to do is try on this shoe.”
“My daughters should be the ones to try on the shoe,” said Lenore, her bony hands on her hips. “This girl is nothing but a servant.”
The prince turned to look at her, the expression on his face angry enough to make her take a step back. “This girl is a servant because you made her one,” said the prince. “As daughter of the master of the house, she had as much right to be treated well as your own daughters did.”
“Perhaps that’s true,” said Lenore. “But the shoe…”
“Look at your daughters! It’s obvious that neither of them is the girl who danced with me last night. Why would I waste my time trying the shoe on them when I know it couldn’t possibly be either one?” Turning his back on the woman, the prince took the glass slipper from the cushion and slipped it onto Eleanor’s foot with his own hands. The slipper fit perfectly.
Eleanor’s eyes were shining when she lifted them to the prince. “I knew it was you,” he said, and pulled her to her feet. They stepped closer, and Ainsley bent down until his lips were level with hers. When they kissed, the air around them began to sparkle.
Annie glanced around the room when she heard a sweet melody. She wasn’t surprised to see Moonbeam standing in a corner of the room, smiling broadly. “That’s it,” said the fairy. “They fell in love. My job is done.”
“What do you mean, that’s it?” asked Annie as Cinderella and the prince drifted into another room and shut the door. “Love doesn’t work that way. You don’t meet one day and kiss and see sparkles the next. Real love takes time. They need to get to know each other, and when they do, then they might fall in love. They know next to nothing about each other now.”
“I can’t believe you’re interfering again! Love can happen like that. I make it happen all the time.” There was a short, sharp rap on the door and Moonbeam turned her head. “Do you hear that?” she asked. “Someone is at the door. I think you need a little lesson. If a man is at the door, you’re going to fall in love with him. Open the door,” she ordered the guard who was standing closest to it.
“Hey, wait a minute!” said Liam.
“I wouldn’t do this if I were you,” Annie warned.
Moonbeam wasn’t listening. Even as the guard reached for the latch, the fairy was aiming her wand at Annie, saying,
Love can strike
When two first meet
And last forever more.
Make her fall
In love with him
When he walks through the door.
A flood of sparkling lights shot from the wand to Annie, hitting her just above her heart, then bouncing off to splatter all over Moonbeam. The fairy had been laughing, but when her spell bounced back and hit her, she shook her head as if stunned. “What did you do?” she demanded.
“I didn’t do anything,” Annie told her.
“I’ve come for my money,” the butcher told Lenore, who was staring at Moonbeam. “Your daughter said you’d pay me, but I can’t wait until you show up at my shop again. You have to pay me now!”
Moonbeam looked puzzled until she turned and saw the butcher. A flush spread over her cheeks and she began to tremble. “It’s you!” she cried. “The man of my dreams!”
The butcher glanced at her, then looked behind him to see who she was talking to, but there was no one there. “Do you mean me?” he asked her, patting himself on the chest. Annie noticed that he had dried blood under his fingernails.
“Yes, I do, you dear man. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted!”
“You wanted a butcher?” he asked, looking puzzled.
“I think we should go,” Liam said, coming up behind Annie. “Somehow I don’t see this ending well.”
“What is your name, my love?” Moonbeam asked the butcher.
“Selbert Dunlop?” he said as if he weren’t sure.
“Moonbeam Dunlop,” the fairy murmured. “I like the sound of that.”
“Moonbeam,” said Liam, “about that dwarf…”
“Not now, young man,” the fairy said without even looking his way. “I’m talking to my one true love.”
“You are?” said Selbert.
“You said you would tell us about the dwarf if we did what you wanted,” Annie reminded the fairy. “Just answer our question and we’ll leave you alone. Where can we find the dwarf who turned Beldegard into a bear?”
Moonbeam sighed. “I have no idea. I don’t know any dwarves who can turn humans into animals.”
“Are you sure?” asked Gwendolyn. “Maybe you ran into him during your travels. Short man, beard, raspy voice…”
“Yes, I’m sure!” said Moonbeam. “Now go away and leave us alone!”
Liam scowled and took Annie by the arm. They hadn’t even reached the door when he muttered, “I wish she had told us sooner. We wasted a lot of time because of that fairy.”
“Where’s Gwennie?” Annie asked once they were outside.
“Right here,” said her sister, stepping out of the shadows. “Moonbeam told me to wait outside so I wouldn’t distract Ainsley.”
They were walking away from the house when the door opened again and Moonbeam came out. “You can’t go yet!” she called after Annie even as she hurried closer. “First you have to tell me what just happened. Why did my magic bounce off you?”
“Years ago, my mother asked her fairy godmother for help,” said Annie. “My parents didn’t want a magic christening gift to mess up my life, so the fairy gave me a gift that kept any magic from touching me.”
“What idiot would do such a thing?” Moonbeam asked. “Tell me who it was so I can hunt her down and make her wish she’d never seen a magic wand!”
“You really don’t remember, do you?” Annie asked. “My mother is Queen Karolina of Treecrest, formerly Princess Karolina of Floradale, and you were the fairy who gave me the gift.”
Chapter 14
Beldegard was waiting for them in the woods just beyond the south gate. After he and Gwendolyn had greeted each other, he turned to Liam and said, “So, where do we go next?”
Liam shrugged. “I have no idea. Moonbeam didn’t help one bit.”
“Why are you asking Liam?” demanded Annie. “Don’t you think it’s possible that Gwennie or I might have a suggestion?”
“Fine,” said the bear prince. “What do you suggest?”
“I was dancing with a man at the ball when I mentioned the Dark Forest. He was confused because he thought I was talking about the Black Woods and had the name wrong. What if we did have the name wrong, but in a different way? When Rose Red said the dwarf was from the Black Forest, we thought she meant the Dark Forest, but what if she really meant the Black
Woods? Maybe we went to the wrong place.”
Gwendolyn nodded. “I bet you’re right. Where is the Black Woods, anyway?”
“It’s in Montrose,” said Beldegard. “A few hours’ ride from my parents’ castle.”
“Lord Camril said that he had met a family of dwarves there once. Yes, Liam, I know that there are bound to be other families of dwarves around,” Annie said, holding up her hand when Liam opened his mouth to speak. “But at least there are some dwarves there who we can talk to, and that’s more than we’ve found anywhere else.”
“It sounds like as good a place to look as any,” said Beldegard. “We’ll have to cross the River Rampant and head south.”
“Is there a ferry to take us across?” asked Annie.
“There is one farther north,” Beldegard told her, “just not anywhere near where we want to go. There might be a bridge we can use, but if there have been storms in the north like we encountered in Farley’s Crossing, the river can run high enough to wash out the bridge. If that happens, we’ll have to find another way across.”
As they shouldered their knapsacks and started off, Annie fell into step beside Liam. “This just keeps getting better and better,” she said. “Tell me again why we’re doing this.”
“So your sister’s true love can turn back into a man and she can stop getting a chapped face from bear drool,” Liam replied.
“Ah yes,” said Annie. “A truly noble cause.”
It was midafternoon when they reached the river and saw a place where there had been a bridge, which was gone. The water was running so high and fast that even Beldegard doubted he could swim across. “I’ll see if I can find a boat,” the bear prince said, and forced his way into the underbrush at the side of the road.
When Gwendolyn wandered closer to the trees where Beldegard had disappeared, Annie glanced at Liam, who was staring into the turbulent water. “What are you thinking?” she asked, wondering if they might actually be able to talk about why he was being so distant. She’d wanted to talk to him about it before, but Beldegard and Gwendolyn were usually too close and Annie thought it was a conversation that she and Liam should have when they were alone.