The fairies are planning a magical ball,
With guests of honor and fun for all.
They’re expecting a night full of laughter and cheer,
But they’ll get a shock when my goblins appear!
Adventures and treats will be things of the past,
And I’ll beat those troublesome fairies at last.
My iciest magic will blast through the room
And the world will be plunged into grimness and gloom!
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Map
Poem
Royal Tea Party
Roses and Cupcakes
Lizzie in a Tizzy!
What a Mess!
Cart Dash!
A Magical Cake
Teaser
Also Available
Copyright
“Having a tea party in the Orangery is going to be really fun!” Rachel exclaimed to her best friend, Kirsty. “I bet that’s just what the real princes and princesses who once lived in the Golden Palace used to do.”
“I wonder if we’re going to have a royal tea with cucumber sandwiches and cupcakes,” Kirsty said with a smile. “The Orangery is the perfect place for a special party!”
The Orangery was a pretty white greenhouse with huge arched windows. It stood on the grounds of the Golden Palace. Terra-cotta pots of orange, lemon, and lime trees lined the walls of the Orangery, and the air was warm and smelled like citrus. A spiral staircase in the middle of the building swept up to a wrought-iron balcony that had spectacular views of the Golden Palace and its enormous grounds. From the balcony, Rachel and Kirsty could see the drawbridge and moat, the lake and gardens, the maze, the petting zoo, and the croquet field.
“The Golden Palace looks beautiful in the sunshine,” Kirsty remarked. The palace had four high towers, one at each corner of the building, and a fifth tower, the highest one, right in the center. Flags flew on top of all five towers and their golden turrets glittered in the glowing spring sun.
“Aren’t we lucky to be here for the Royal Sleepover Camp?” Rachel smiled at Kirsty as they made their way back down the spiral staircase. “Thank you so much for inviting me to come.”
The Golden Palace was located in the countryside near Kirsty’s hometown of Wetherbury, and the girls were spending spring vacation there with a group of other kids, doing all kinds of fun and interesting activities.
“Gather around, kids,” called Louis, one of the camp directors. “Caroline and I are going to show you how to set the table for a tea party fit for a prince or a princess!”
Rachel and Kirsty hurried over to join the others. The ground floor of the Orangery was set up with tables and chairs, ready for the tea party.
“OK, the first things we need are snow-white tablecloths,” Louis announced. Rachel, Kirsty, and the other kids watched as he and Caroline shook out a heavy linen tablecloth and placed it on one of the tables, smoothing out the creases.
“And now for matching napkins,” Caroline said with a smile. She took one of the napkins and, with several swift folds, turned it into a fan. She folded the second napkin into a pretty flower shape, and the kids laughed and applauded.
“That looks complicated!” Rachel whispered to Kirsty with a grin.
Louis and Caroline added shiny silverware, plates with a flower pattern, dishes, teacups, and saucers to the table, as well as a tiered cake stand. The finishing touch was a little glass vase containing a single pink rose.
“Oh, this all looks beautiful!” Rachel sighed. “I can just imagine a princess holding a tea party here, wearing her dressiest gown.”
“Don’t forget we might meet a fairy princess today, Rachel!” Kirsty whispered in her ear.
All week long, the girls had been helping their new friends, the Princess Fairies, search for their magical tiaras. On the day they arrived at the Golden Palace, Rachel and Kirsty had been thrilled to receive an invitation to attend a Fairyland ball. But Jack Frost and his goblins had crashed the party and had stolen the Princess Fairies’ tiaras, taking them to the human world. In the nick of time, Queen Titania’s magic spell had made sure that the tiaras would end up somewhere in the Golden Palace. This way, the girls could help their fairy friends find them and take them back to Fairyland.
“OK, now it’s your turn, guys,” Louis called. “Everything you need is on those tables by the windows.”
Rachel and Kirsty went to collect a tablecloth and some napkins. Then they began to set their table, along with everyone else.
“I know we’ve found four of the magic tiaras so far,” Rachel said in a low voice as she and Kirsty spread out the tablecloth. “But it’s so important that we find them all!”
Kirsty nodded seriously. Both girls knew that the Princess Fairies didn’t just need their tiaras to look after their own special kind of magic — the tiaras affected all fairy magic. Without them, no one in either the fairy or the human world would have a happy or magical time ever again.
Caroline came over and showed Rachel and Kirsty how to make flower and fan shapes with their napkins. Then the girls carefully laid out their plates and silverware.
“There!” Kirsty placed a little vase containing a white rose on the table and stood back to admire it. “What do you think, Rachel?”
“It looks great,” Rachel said, "but let’s polish the silverware to make sure it really shines.”
She glanced around and spotted some cloths on one of the side tables next to a display of silver serving dishes. Then, to Rachel’s surprise, she noticed that one of the serving dishes was sparkling especially brightly.
“Kirsty!” Rachel tugged gently at her friend’s arm. “Look over there. See that serving dish?”
“I see it!” Kirsty whispered with excitement. “Could that be fairy magic?”
“Let’s find out!” Rachel replied.
The girls hurried over to the serving dish and stood in front of it so that no one else could see. Then Rachel lifted the domed lid. There, on the silver tray, sat a tiny fairy.
Kirsty gasped. “It’s Princess Lizzie the Sweet Treats Fairy!”
Lizzie jumped to her feet and waved up at the girls. She wore a bright yellow dress and strappy pink sandals. But she was dusted from head to toe with what looked like powdered sugar and flour.
“Hello, girls,” Lizzie whispered, a big smile on her face. “I was hoping you’d find me!”
“Why are you so dusty, Lizzie?” asked Rachel as the little fairy brushed off her clothes.
“I’ve been in the palace kitchen searching for my tiara,” Lizzie explained. “I’m sure it’s there somewhere! Will you help me look? Otherwise, you won’t have any wonderful treats for your tea party.”
“Of course we’ll help,” Kirsty told her.
At that moment, Caroline clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. Rachel and Kirsty turned to look, shielding Lizzie from sight.
“Louis and I think all of your tables are great,” Caroline announced. “The Orangery looks beautiful. Now it’s time to prepare the food for the tea party, so we’re going over to the palace kitchen.”
“But first you need these,” Louis added. He and Caroline began handing out white chef’s hats and aprons.
“Good, we’re going to the kitchen!” Kirsty murmured to Rachel as they put on their hats and aprons. “That means we’ll be able to look for Lizzie’s tiara.”
“Hooray!” Lizzie exclaimed, looking excited. She dove into the pocket of Rachel’s apron and ducked down out of sight.
Then Louis and Caroline led the way out of the Orangery toward the kitchen door at the back of the Golden Palace. Rachel and Kirsty followed along with everyone
else. But just as Caroline was about to pull the back door open, they all heard a loud wail of disappointment from inside.
“Oh, no! That wasn’t supposed to happen!”
Wondering what was going on, everyone, including the girls, rushed into the kitchen. There they found Mrs. King, the kind palace cook, staring down at the cake pan she was holding. Inside was what looked like a pancake.
“Are you all right, Mrs. King?” asked Louis.
Mrs. King shook her head. She looked close to tears. “This is supposed to be a chocolate soufflé,” she explained, "But look!” She held out the cake pan. “It should have risen in the oven so it would look light and fluffy — but it’s as flat as when I put it in. And the Jell-O didn’t set right in the refrigerator, either.” Mrs. King pointed to a bowl of watery red goo on the counter. “Nothing’s going right today.”
Kirsty and Rachel exchanged a glance. This was all because Lizzie’s tiara was missing!
“Oh, poor Mrs. King,” said Caroline, patting the flustered cook on the arm. “But something smells delicious. What is it?”
Mrs. King brightened a little as she pointed to rows of cupcakes sitting on cooling racks on the big pine table.
“The cupcakes came out well, at least,” she replied. “We’ll be able to decorate them for the tea party.”
“Lizzie’s tiara couldn’t have been far away when the cupcakes were baked if they turned out OK!” Kirsty whispered to Rachel, who nodded.
Everyone sat down at the table while Mrs. King gave each pair of kids a job to do. Some of them would be mixing different colors of icing, and some would be making sugar flowers.
As they waited their turn, Rachel and Kirsty gazed around the kitchen, hoping to spot the telltale sparkle of Lizzie’s magic tiara. There were mixing bowls, wooden spoons, and baking pans on the countertops, and tea carts were lined up against one of the walls, ready for the party. The door to the pantry stood open. Inside were lots of jars and tins on shelves, and big sacks of sugar and flour on the floor. But they couldn’t see the missing tiara anywhere!
“Kirsty and Rachel, you’ll be making crystallized rose petals,” Mrs. King announced with a smile. “We’ll put them on the cakes and scatter them on the cake stands, too.”
“Oh, that sounds wonderful!” said Kirsty.
Mrs. King handed Rachel a little basket. “That’s the way to the kitchen garden,” the cook told the girls, pointing to a door on the other side of the room. “You’ll find the rose bushes at the far end of the garden, past the vegetables. Collect as many different-colored petals as you can. Then we’ll paint them with egg whites and dust them with sugar.”
“They’re going to look so pretty!” Rachel remarked as she and Kirsty stepped out the door.
The kitchen garden was neatly planted with several rows of vegetables, herbs, and sweet-scented lavender shrubs. In one corner was a shed with the door open, revealing a collection of gardening tools.
“It smells amazing out here,” said Kirsty, sniffing the air.
“Look, there are the roses,” Rachel pointed out.
The roses were growing up the tall trellises at the far end of the kitchen garden. They were covered with fragrant white, pink, and pale yellow blooms, and the girls stopped to admire them for a minute.
“Let’s just take one or two petals from some of the flowers,” Kirsty suggested. “It seems wrong to pick a whole blossom when they look so pretty growing here.”
Rachel nodded as Lizzie fluttered out of her apron pocket and hovered over the roses.
“I’ll help, girls!” Lizzie cried.
Rachel and Kirsty got to work, carefully plucking a petal here and a petal there. Meanwhile, Lizzie sat in the basket and sorted them by their different colors, stacking the petals neatly.
As the girls were working, Kirsty suddenly became aware of gruff voices on the other side of the trellis. She nudged Rachel.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
“It might be the gardeners,” Rachel replied.
Kirsty stepped up to the trellis, parted the prickly branches of the roses, and peeked through the wooden slats. Her eyes widened when she saw three goblins! They were also dressed in chef’s hats and aprons, and they were digging a large and very messy hole. Beside the goblins was a wheelbarrow full of grass clippings and leaves. Kirsty guessed that the gardeners must have left it behind.
Then Kirsty clapped her hand to her mouth in excitement. She’d spotted Lizzie’s missing golden tiara underneath the wheelbarrow! It was leaning against one of the wheels and twinkling brightly in the spring sunshine.
“What is it, Kirsty?” asked Rachel.
“There are three goblins behind the trellis, and they have Lizzie’s tiara!” Kirsty whispered.
Rachel and Lizzie rushed to look. They could see the tiara glittering in the sunshine.
“This is a perfect hiding place,” the biggest goblin bragged as he tossed another shovelful of dirt aside. “No one will ever guess that the tiara’s buried in the ground.”
“It was my idea to bury the tiara,” one of the other goblins boasted.
“No, it wasn’t,” the third argued. “It was my idea!”
“We have to get the tiara back,” Rachel whispered to Lizzie and Kirsty while the goblins were busy arguing. “But we can’t reach it from here.”
Suddenly Kirsty remembered the garden shed they’d seen earlier. “I have an idea,” she whispered to Rachel and Lizzie. “Wait here!”
Kirsty hurried over to the shed, went inside, and saw exactly what she was looking for — a rake. Quickly she grabbed it and then hurried back to Rachel and Lizzie. Kneeling down on their side of the trellis, Kirsty poked the head of the rake through the slats and out the other side.
“Good thinking, Kirsty!” Rachel murmured.
Kirsty carefully moved the rake backward and forward, trying to hook the tiara onto its teeth. But as she was doing so, the rake nudged the wheelbarrow wheel, and it rolled forward slightly. Uh-oh! Kirsty froze as the goblins stopped digging and turned around.
“That’s strange,” the biggest goblin remarked.
“The wind must have moved it,” said one of the others. Then they all started shoveling again.
Kirsty breathed a sigh of relief. She tried once more, and this time she managed to snare the tiara with the rake. She began to drag it toward the trellis as quietly as she could.
Suddenly, though, the tiara got stuck on a rose root. Kirsty grumbled in dismay and tugged at the rake, trying to free the tiara, but it wouldn’t budge. Rachel slid her arm between the slats and tried to reach out and grab it, but it wasn’t close enough.
“I’ll get it, girls,” Lizzie whispered.
Rachel and Kirsty watched as Lizzie fluttered through the slats of the trellis.
“The hole should be big enough now,” one of the goblins declared, throwing aside his shovel. “Let’s get the tiara.”
The girls glanced at each other anxiously as the goblins walked over to the wheelbarrow.
“It’s gone!” the biggest goblin yelled.
“No, there it is!” the third goblin shouted, pointing at the tiara stuck on the rose root. “And there’s a pesky fairy after it, too!”
“Quick, we have to help Lizzie now!” Rachel said urgently to Kirsty. The girls dashed around the trellis and were just in time to see the goblins turning over the wheelbarrow as Lizzie hovered over the tiara. The leaves and grass clippings tumbled out of the wheelbarrow and fell on top of the little fairy, completely covering her.
“We need to find another hiding place,” the big goblin yelled, grabbing the tiara. “And fast!”
As the goblins ran off, Kirsty and Rachel quickly pulled Lizzie out of the pile of leaves and grass.
“Oh, thank you, girls!” Lizzie gasped, shaking a leaf from her hair. “What should we do now? I’m so worried I may never get my beautiful tiara back.”
“We won’t give up, Lizzie,” Rachel replied in a determined voice. “The gobli
ns couldn’t have gone very far.”
“Maybe we’d better take these rose petals back to Mrs. King,” Kirsty suggested. “Then we can think about where we’re going to look next.”
Lizzie flew to hide in Rachel’s apron pocket, and Kirsty picked up the basket of rose petals. Then they headed back to the kitchen. But when they arrived, the girls couldn’t believe their eyes. The three goblins were sitting at the table along with everyone else, and they were mixing up an enormous bowl of green icing!
"Ah, there you are, girls,” said Mrs. King. “Come and sit down. Wash the rose petals carefully, please, and then you can crystallize them.”
Rachel and Kirsty hurried to sit down next to the goblins, hoping to find out where they’d hidden Lizzie’s tiara this time. The goblins were giggling and enjoying themselves. Their faces were smeared with crumbs. Whenever they thought no one was looking, they would sneak a bite out of one of the delicious cupcakes in front of them. Then they rearranged the cupcakes on the cooling racks so that Mrs. King wouldn’t notice.
“Look at me!” said the biggest goblin. He stuck his hand into the bowl and drew a green icing mustache on his face. The other two goblins roared with laughter.
Then one of the others scooped out a lump of icing and made himself two long green earrings, which he hung from his big ears. They all laughed even harder.
“I wish we knew what they did with Lizzie’s tiara,” Rachel whispered to Kirsty. The girls had finished washing the rose petals and were now coating them with egg whites. They were trying to keep a sharp eye on the goblins, but it was hard when they had their own job to do!
Kirsty took a quick glance at the goblins and couldn’t help but grin. “Look what they’re doing with their cupcakes, Rachel!” she whispered.
Lizzie the Sweet Treats Fairy Page 1
