The Sweetest Spell

by Suzanne Selfors

  Then he set his hand gently on my foot. Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes. “If you think your foot is going to scare me away, Emmeline Thistle, you don’t know me at all.” He kissed me again.

  I pulled away because he was smiling. “What’s so funny?”

  “I hear you’ve been calling out my name in your sleep.”

  “What?” I almost denied it, but then remembered that he and Griffin had been stuck in the dungeon together. Even so, I didn’t want to deny my feelings—not anymore. “I missed you,” I said.

  “I missed you too.”

  He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and we sat there as if it were perfectly normal for a Flatlander girl and a boy from Wander to be in love. It felt better than perfectly normal. It felt extraordinary!

  Water trickled in the fountain behind us. The Flatlander girls were still handing out chocolate. People made room as a couple of wagons drove up the boulevard. The rest of the Flatlanders who had gathered outside the city wall now sat in the wagons’ beds, my father among them. “Prince Beau is going to let us stay until the road’s been repaired,” he called out to me.

  “That’s good news,” I called back. The wagon headed through the golden gates.

  “Thank you for rescuing my father,” I said to Owen.

  “It was the least I could do,” he said.

  That’s when I noticed Griffin. Freshly shaven and looking more like his old self, he leaned against the gate, talking to a woman I immediately recognized. The Baroness of Salt wore the same checkered cloak she’d worn when Griffin had pulled her from her carriage. Her blond hair, as golden as the gate itself, hung to her waist. She didn’t seem angry at Griffin for stealing her carriage and horses. Quite the opposite, for she was smiling at him and laughing as he told her some story, probably about how he’d delivered the famous Milkmaid to the palace. A cluster of royal milkmaids stood nearby, watching him with awe. He was back where he belonged—the center of female attention.

  “Look,” Owen said. The royal cows walked through the golden gates and out into the boulevard, their golden neck ribbons sparkling. Kitchen boys ran after them, trying to turn them around, but the cows paid the boys no mind. They headed straight for me, calling to me with loud moos. Soon they were gathered around the fountain, drinking and flicking their tails. I pressed my palm against their muzzles as they greeted me. How wonderful, I realized for the first time, that the color of a cow’s eyes is like melted chocolate.

  “Come back to Wander with me,” Owen said. “Stay with me.”

  “You don’t care that I’m not the only one who can make chocolate?”

  “Care? I think it’s brilliant. Now I don’t have to worry about you getting kidnapped again. You and your father can start a new life in Wander. We can be together.” He whispered in my ear. “Your father said that the husband market is only once a year. Do I have to wait that long?”

  “It’s our tradition. And I think it’s important that we Kell keep our traditions.” I pushed a curly lock from his eyes. His brown eyes. Funny how I’d always found comfort in brown eyes, whether they belonged to a four-footed creature or a two-footed one.

  “Must you keep all traditions? Even the one where Flatlanders only marry Flatlanders?”

  “Well, maybe not all traditions.” I smiled. “What makes you think I’d bid on you anyway?”

  “Because you love me.” He kissed my cheek. “And because I love you.”

  I laughed. “Guess I’ll have to start saving my coin.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  How is it possible that this is my fourth teen novel? Time has certainly flown since I wrote Saving Juliet. I had no idea when I started writing for teens that it would be such a fun journey. From the time-traveling adventures of an actress and pop star to a coffeehouse girl’s encounter with an angel to a romance writer’s daughter and her conversations with Cupid, and now this—a love story that centers around chocolate. Love and chocolate. What could be better than that?

  I want to express my deepest gratitude to you, my readers, because you invite my stories into your busy lives, and for that I am honored. I can only hope that I live up to your expectations by whisking you away from this crazy world for a few hours and plunging you into a new world that is exciting, funny, and most important, entertaining. You amaze me every day with your love letters and enthusiasm.

  Huge thanks to my first-draft readers and brainstormers for this book: Isabelle Ranson, Bob Ranson, Elsa Watson, Michael Bourret (who also doubles as my intrepid literary agent), and Emily Easton (who also doubles as my wise and patient editor). And thanks, once again, to Hot Shots Java in Poulsbo, Washington, for providing me with coffee, chocolate, and a great workplace.

  Please visit me at www.suzanneselfors.com and keep sending those letters!

  Also by Suzanne Selfors

  Saving Juliet

  Coffeehouse Angel

  Mad Love

  Copyright © 2012 by Suzanne Selfors

  First published in the United States of America in August 2012 by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.

  Electronic edition published in August 2012

  www.bloomsburyteens.com

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  may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Walker BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Selfors, Suzanne.

  The sweetest spell / by Suzanne Selfors. p. cm.

  Summary: Scorned in her Flatlands village because of a deformed foot, Emmeline Thistle’s life changes when she is taken in by Wanderlands’ dairy farmers and discovers her magical ability to make chocolate, which is more precious and rare than gold or jewels in the kingdom of Anglund.

  [1. Fantasy. 2. People with disabilities—Fiction. 3. Prejudices—Fiction. 4. Chocolate—Fiction. 5. Magic—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.S456922Swe 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2011034591

  ISBN: 978-0-8027-3408-2 (e-book)

  Table of Contents

  PART ONEDirt-Scratcher Girl

  PART TWODairyman’s Son

  PART THREEMilkmaid

  PART FOURPeddler Man

  PART FIVEDaughter

  PART SIXSoldier

  PART SEVENQueen

  PART EIGHTPrince

  PART NINEEmmeline