Happy Ever After

by Janey Louise Jones

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Happy Ever After: Featuring

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Copyright

  About the Book

  Poppy is thrilled because there is to be another wedding in Honeypot Hill. She adores the fairytale romance of it all but it makes her realize that her parents hardly do anything together. Poppy soon starts to worry that they don’t love each other any more.

  Find out what happens and whether Poppy’s plans to bring a bit of fairytale romance to her parents work out.

  Princess Poppy

  Happy Ever After

  written by Janey Louise Jones

  Illustrated by Samantha Chaffey

  For all those who believe in happy endings

  Check out Princess Poppy’s website

  to find out all about the other

  books in the series

  www.princesspoppy.com

  Chapter One

  POPPY WAS VERY excited. She had just received an invitation to her first ever barn dance. It was to be at Barley Farm the following Friday, and the theme was country and western. She raced over to see Honey right away to talk about their outfits, and with a little help from Granny Bumble they had soon both decided on red and white gingham dresses and cowboy hats.

  On the day of the dance Poppy dressed with great care and turned to admire herself in her bedroom mirror. She particularly loved the fringed cowboy boots that Mum had found in a charity shop, and her big Stetson hat.

  “Yee-haa!” she said to herself as she did another turn in front of the mirror.

  “Come on, Poppy,” called Mum. “You must be ready by now! We’re going to miss Farmer Meadowsweet on the bucking bronco if we don’t go now!”

  “Just coming, Mum,” replied Poppy as she grabbed her things and ran down to meet the rest of her family.

  “I’m going to try that bucking bronco too!” said Dad. “I bet I can stay on the longest!”

  “Well, make sure you don’t hurt yourself!” scolded Mum. “Right, let’s go then.”

  Dad took Poppy’s hand and they giggled together as they made their way down to Barley Farm with Mum walking beside them.

  “Remember we can’t be late home,” she told them. “Grandpa can only babysit the twins until nine. And, James, don’t drink too much punch – it’s really potent, apparently.”

  “Yes, dear!” replied Dad, rolling his eyes and winking at Poppy.

  Sometimes Mum was no fun at all.

  When they arrived at the farm Poppy could hardly believe her eyes. Farmer and Mrs Meadowsweet had gone to so much effort – it looked just like a scene from one of the old cowboy films that Grandpa liked to watch. There was a huge tent set up next to the big barn, and colourful banners and bunting garlanded the farmyard. There were games and stalls and a band playing fiddle music in the barn. A vast barbecue grill was smoking away near the tent, with tables set out all around it, laden with crisp salads, spicy sauces, crusty bread and fat herb sausages, and the air was filled with the most delicious cooking smells.

  “Hi, cowgirls!” said Poppy as she ran to greet Honey, Sweetpea and Mimosa, who were all standing together near the entrance to the barn. “This is so cool! You all look amazing! Where’s Abi?”

  “Oh, she’s got a violin exam tomorrow so her mum and dad said that she had to practise tonight,” explained Sweetpea.

  “Oh, shame, she would love this,” said Poppy.

  “Let’s go and look at the bucking bronco,” suggested Mimosa.

  “Ooo, yeah, let’s,” said Honey.

  “Come on, then,” replied Poppy. “Follow me!”

  The four friends made their way to the meadow, where the crazy rodeo-style “bull” was in action. Farmer Meadowsweet was holding on for dear life and looking very red in the face. Mum had been right – this was definitely too good to miss. He looked so funny. As they stood there watching, Cousin Saffron’s husband, David, came over and told them that the farmer had been practising on it all week because he wanted to be able to stay on for two whole minutes.

  Poor Farmer Meadowsweet looked as though his arms were about to fall off – this seemed like the longest two minutes ever.

  “Just let go, you silly old fool!” called Mrs Meadowsweet. “Sally, you tell your father to stop – he’s going to have one of his bad turns.”

  Sally Meadowsweet didn’t look at all worried; there was no way she could have said anything to her father – she was laughing so much she couldn’t get a single word out!

  “Quick! Someone do something!” wailed Mrs Meadowsweet. “This is not good for a man of his age!”

  But just then, the farmer let go of the bull and tumbled off onto the hay below in a crumpled heap.

  “I told you I could do two minutes, didn’t I?” he chuckled, exhausted. “Now, who’s going to help an old man up?”

  Sally’s boyfriend, Sol, who was a doctor in Strawberry Corner, rushed over to help the farmer up and check that he was OK.

  “I think he’ll live, but he’ll need a glass of punch to revive him!” Sol announced to the guests, and a big cheer went up.

  “Now, he’s the sort of doctor we need round here,” said Farmer Meadowsweet merrily.

  Poppy’s dad was next up on the bucking bronco. He whispered to Poppy that he was going to better Farmer Meadowsweet’s record by staying on for a full three minutes.

  Poppy watched nervously as her dad clung onto the bull and was very proud indeed when he broke the record. He could hardly walk afterwards but luckily Mum didn’t notice as she was busy throwing hoops onto a cone, trying to win teddies for the twins. Poppy knew what Mum would have said if she had seen Dad hobbling around: “Told you so!”

  “Well, I think I deserve some of that punch now – don’t tell your mother, Poppy!” Dad smiled. “I’ll see you girls later.”

  Poppy, Honey, Mimosa and Sweetpea decided that it was time to try some line dancing so they headed over to the big barn. The steps were being called out by Len, the lead singer of The Cattlemen. All the villagers were having a wonderful time stepping to the beat, with calls of “Yee-haa!” every now and then! The girls joined in immediately and soon got the hang of it.

  After a while Mum came over to say that it was time to go home, but just then Poppy noticed Farmer Meadowsweet climbing up onto the hay-bale stage and walking over to the microphone.

  “Please can we stay, Mum – just to hear what he’s going to say?” she begged.

  “Someone’s got to get back for the twins but I suppose it doesn’t need to be all of us. I’ll go and you and Dad can stay,” agreed Mum.

  “Thank you, Mum!”

  Poppy and Dad kissed Mum goodbye and turned back to look at the stage.

  “It is wonderful to see so many of you here tonight,” began the farmer. “This barn dance is just our way of saying thank you to everyone for buying local produce and keeping us in business! Well, that is one of the reasons for the party. The other reason – and the most important one, I think – is to share some very special news with you. My beautiful daughter Sally is getting married to Sol Melville. Mrs Meadowsweet and I cannot wait for him to officially be part of the family – the son we never had. I mean, Dr Sol Meadowsweet sounds good, doesn’t it?” he joked.

  There was a huge cheer and lots of laughing and shouts of “Congratulations!” and “About ti
me too, Sal!”

  Poppy was thrilled at the news – she simply adored weddings.

  Chapter Two

  THE NEXT DAY, desperate to hear all about Sally’s wedding plans, Poppy and Honey headed over to the Lavender Valley Garden Centre. When they arrived they found Sally and Sol sitting on a bench in the lavender garden. They were chatting happily about the party the previous night and discussing plans for their wedding, such as where to exchange their vows and which date to pick.

  “Hello, girls!” called Sally. “What brings you here?”

  “We wanted to see your ring!” replied Poppy. “Please will you show us?”

  They hadn’t managed to get a look the night before – Sally had been surrounded by people after the announcement.

  Sally held out her left hand proudly.

  “Wow!” gasped Honey.

  “It’s so sparkly!” said Poppy. “I love it!”

  “Me too,” laughed Sally.

  “When’s the wedding going to be?” asked Honey breathlessly.

  “Well, we think we’ve decided on a date, don’t we, darling?” said Sol.

  “Yes, we certainly have. It’ll be in two months’ time, Honey, at the end of the summer,” Sally told them. “We can’t wait!”

  “And where will it be?” asked Honey.

  “We’re not sure yet,” replied Sally.

  “Do you have a theme?” Poppy wondered.

  “Um, gosh, we haven’t really thought about that sort of thing. I think you girls might know more about planning a wedding that we do!” said Sally, sounding a little flustered. “There certainly seems to be a lot to think about, and not much time. Oh dear, I do hope everything will run smoothly.”

  “Don’t you worry, my darling,” said Sol, putting his arm around his fiancée. “I just know that our day will be wonderful, whatever happens.”

  Sally smiled back at him.

  Just then Farmer and Mrs Meadowsweet arrived on their tractor. They were delivering some fertilizer for Sally’s flowers and had also come to talk about wedding plans.

  “Can you believe that man – making me come through the village in my nice frock on that stinking muck machine?” complained Mrs Meadowsweet.

  “This is a very fine machine, I’ll have you know!” replied Farmer Meadowsweet indignantly. “And when did you get so la-di-dah?”

  “Oh dear, is this what I’ve got to look forward to when we’re married?” whispered Sol to Sally. “They do say we all get more and more like our parents as we get older!”

  “Don’t be mean,” giggled Sally, giving him a playful slap. “We’ll never be like that, I promise.”

  “I’m not deaf, you know,” said Mrs Meadowsweet. “Honestly, we give you a tip-top barn dance and this is the way you talk about us! Now, how about telling us where you’ve got to with the wedding plans.”

  “We have to go home now or we’ll be late for lunch,” Poppy said to Sally. “Thank you for showing us your ring. We would really like to help with wedding stuff – if you want us to, that is. Me and Honey are very good at organizing and making things, aren’t we?”

  Honey nodded her agreement.

  “Oh, thank you, girls. You are sweet,” said Sally.

  “Aren’t weddings just so cool, Honey?” sighed Poppy as they walked back towards their homes. “I think Sally and Sol are just like a fairytale prince and princess.”

  “Yeah, they are. I can’t wait to see them on their wedding day,” agreed Honey. “But all that kissing and cuddling is a bit gross. When my mum and dad get all smoochy like that, I get really embarrassed, don’t you?”

  “I suppose so,” replied Poppy. “Although actually my mum and dad don’t really do that stuff – not any more anyway.”

  She said goodbye to Honey and walked up the garden path to her front door. She arrived in the kitchen to find Dad heating up soup for lunch. Mum was on the phone, taking a hat order for Sally’s wedding.

  “Hello, darling,” said Dad. “Almost time for lunch.”

  While Poppy was waiting, she decided to have a look at Mum and Dad’s wedding album. She hadn’t looked at it for ages, and all the wedding chat had reminded her how much she loved their photos. She went into the sitting room and opened the cupboard where Mum kept all the family photographs in special albums. Her parents’ wedding album had a lovely satin cover and was tied with pretty ribbons. Poppy flipped the album open. She couldn’t take her eyes off the beautiful shots of Mum and Dad. They looked so young and happy. In every picture they were laughing or cuddling or smiling at each other, very much like Sally and Sol were behaving at the moment. Mum’s dress was amazing, all lacy and delicate, and she wore a pretty floral headdress too. Dad was wearing a dark suit, crisp white shirt and lilac tie and he looked very handsome – he had a lot more hair then!

  Mum hardly ever put on dresses or looked glamorous nowadays. Ever since the twins had been born she wore boring, sensible clothes and no make-up. She said it was because they were forever spilling things on her – and anyway, she had no time to think about herself any more.

  Just then Poppy noticed the date on the album.

  Wow! It will be their tenth anniversary two weeks before Sally’s wedding! That’s a LONG time! she thought.

  Poppy was absolutely fascinated by the wedding pictures. It was lovely to see Granny Mellow looking so pretty, although it made Poppy a bit sad to think that she had never known her mum’s mum.

  And Saffron was such a beautiful bridesmaid, her long copper hair decorated with fresh garden flowers. Poppy found it amazing and weird to imagine her parents’ life before she was born – looking at their wedding photos always made her think about it though.

  “Lunch is ready,” called Dad, interrupting Poppy’s thoughts.

  She put away the album and went to wash her hands.

  During lunch, Mum took charge of feeding the twins and she and Dad discussed their plans for the rest of the weekend.

  “I’ve got a lot of hats to get started on so if you could take the children to the adventure playground, James, that would be great,” said Mum. “Oh, and we’ll need to get the house cleaned and the ironing done at some point too.”

  “Right-o,” replied Dad. “So much for relaxing over the weekend.”

  “As for tomorrow, Grandpa, Granny Bumble and Honey are coming for lunch. If you do the veg and the meat, I’ll make the dessert. One of us will need to pop into the General Store to get a few bits and pieces as well,” Mum went on.

  Even though there was nothing unusual about this conversation, it made Poppy feel sad. Her mum and dad talked like they were running a business together – it wasn’t anything like the way Sally and Sol talked to each other. Maybe something was wrong. In fact, Poppy realized that it was very unusual for her parents to do anything together other than make plans and organize everyone’s time.

  After they had cleared up lunch Mum put the twins down for a nap and went off to her studio to start work on some hats.

  “Poppy, why don’t you go and play in your room while the twins are sleeping,” suggested Dad. “We’ll go down to the adventure playground in an hour or so.”

  “OK, Dad,” agreed Poppy.

  But instead of going to her room she ran upstairs – there was something she wanted to find.

  Chapter Three

  POPPY CLIMBED THE wobbly ladder that led into the attic and then turned on her torch. The attic was stuffed full with furniture, suitcases, old toys and boxes, all of which had labels on them. There was a box full of Christmas decorations, another containing curtains, one with dressing-up clothes and yet another labelled HALLOWEEN STUFF.

  At first Poppy couldn’t see what she was looking for, but when she moved some of the boxes out of the way, she soon found it. It was her parents’ wedding box. It was incredibly beautiful – and big. The lid was decorated with silk flowers, pearly beads and sparkly crystals. Poppy couldn’t wait to look inside.

  She carefully lifted the lid and shone the torch into t
he box. It was an absolute treasure trove. Mum’s beautiful lace wedding dress was carefully folded with lavender tissue paper. Poppy gently unwrapped the dress and held it up against herself. She imagined how excited Mum must have felt on the morning of her wedding when she put it on, with Granny Mellow helping her. Mum must really miss her mum. Poppy certainly couldn’t imagine life without her mum.

  Then Poppy lifted another layer of tissue paper to reveal two bundles of letters and cards, one tied with lavender ribbon, the other with blue ribbon.

  Wow! she thought. These must be Mum and Dad’s love letters. That’s so romantic!

  The ones in the bundle tied with lavender ribbon were all addressed to “Sweet Lavender”, while those tied with blue ribbon were to “Darling James”. Poppy suddenly wondered why Mum and Dad never called each other by those names any more. She put the bundles down without reading the letters: even though she would have loved to, she knew that it would be wrong – these were private.

  The final thing Poppy discovered in the box was a photograph of Mum and Dad on their honeymoon. As in their wedding photos, they both looked very happy, as if there was just the two of them in the whole world.

  Poppy packed everything back up neatly and climbed down the ladder, realizing that it was probably time to go out with Dad and the twins.

  She usually really enjoyed going to the adventure playground with Angel and Archie but today she was preoccupied. She couldn’t stop thinking about all Mum and Dad’s wedding stuff and how much they had seemed to love each other then, just like Sally and Sol; nowadays things were somehow different. The more Poppy thought about it, the more worried she became. She recalled family events – Dad was forever saying things like, “Don’t tell Mum, she’ll be cross with me!” or “It’s up to Mum.” She could tell from his voice that Dad respected Mum’s ideas and opinions very much and wanted to please her. Poppy’s dad was softer than her mum, but Mum was more organized – and very kind when you really needed her. Together they made a perfect team.