Fairy Treasure

by Gwyneth Rees

  ‘After you left, I looked up Bluebell Hall on the Internet and found out where it was. After that, it didn’t take me long to find this nursing home.’ She turned to the older man sitting next to her. ‘Dad, this is the girl I told you about – the one who came to the library.’ She turned back to Connie. ‘I told Dad and we both decided to come and visit.’

  ‘And I’m delighted that they did!’ Mrs Fitzpatrick said, beaming. She had her handbag on her lap and she was rummaging about inside it as she talked. ‘We’ve been getting along famously! This has got to be the happiest day I’ve had in a long while!’

  Eliza smiled at the old lady. ‘It’s a very happy day for me too. I feel like I’ve known you all my life.’

  ‘This is all down to you, Connie,’ said Eliza’s father. ‘If you hadn’t gone to see my daughter, she would never have known that her great-aunt wanted to get in touch.’

  ‘But it’s not as if I told you that, is it, Connie?’ Mrs Fitzpatrick pointed out, still searching among the contents of her bag.

  ‘You didn’t have to,’ Connie answered swiftly. ‘I could just tell.’

  Mrs Fitzpatrick shot her an admiring look. ‘What a clever little girl you are. But how on earth did you find out that Eliza worked in the British Museum?’

  Connie swallowed. What could she say in answer to that?

  ‘Didn’t you say that it was something to do with Grandma’s cousin?’ Eliza prompted her, when Connie stayed silent.

  ‘That’s right,’ Connie agreed quickly.

  But Mrs Fitzpatrick wasn’t so easily put off. She was frowning. ‘I remember my cousin telling me that you were a librarian, Eliza, but not that you worked in the British Museum. And just because I’m old, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a perfectly good memory. Ah! Here it is!’ She pulled a small red box out of her bag. ‘I don’t have the ruby ring any more, but I want you to have this, Eliza. It’s a very pretty box – your grandmother always loved it. It’s red on the outside and gold on the—’ The old lady gasped as she flicked open the lid. A gold ring with little red jewels set around one half of it was sitting inside.

  Connie knew, even before Mrs Fitzpatrick spoke, what it had to be.

  ‘My ruby ring!’ the old lady blurted out, taking the ring out of its box and turning it over in her hand.

  ‘This must be the ring’s happiest moment!’ Connie said out loud.

  ‘What, dear?’ Mrs Fitzpatrick was scarcely looking at her. ‘I can’t believe I’ve got it back again . . . I’ve been looking for it for weeks . . . I’m sure it wasn’t here last time I looked . . .’ Connie saw that there were tears in her eyes. ‘And to think I accused Ella’s son . . . Oh, dear. I shall have to write to her . . . But however did it get here? Somebody must have put it here, but who? I just don’t understand . . .’

  ‘Is this the ring that Grandma told me all those stories about?’ Eliza asked, excitedly. ‘Grandma said that every time the ring went missing, it was because the fairies had borrowed it and that they always shined it up brightly again before giving it back!’

  ‘It’s very shiny now, isn’t it?’ Connie pointed out, but nobody seemed to be listening to her.

  ‘Try it on, Eliza. It belongs to you, now,’ Mrs Fitzpatrick said, handing it to her.

  ‘Oh no. I couldn’t possibly—’

  ‘Of course you can. It should have been handed down to you in the first place. It should have been your grandmother’s, then your mother’s and now it should be yours.’

  As Eliza continued to protest that she couldn’t accept the ring and her great-aunt refused to take it back again, Connie found that her thoughts were racing. Everything made sense now! The reason they hadn’t been able to find the ring before was because they hadn’t realized that the happiest moments in the ring’s lifetime included those in the future as well as in the past. The reuniting of the only two surviving members of its family must have trumped all the other happy moments it had witnessed. Connie couldn’t wait to go back and tell Ruby.

  Just then, Connie heard the front door opening and her aunt’s voice in the hallway. She had forgotten all about Aunt Alice. ‘My aunt wants to know when the book sale is going to be,’ she said quickly. ‘She’s thinking of buying some of your books.’

  That seemed to jog Mrs Fitzpatrick’s memory about something else. ‘Goodness! I’m forgetting I must phone my lawyer! I have to let him know that I’m having the rest of the books cleared out today rather than Monday. The nephew of one of the residents here offered to buy the whole lot and I told him he could go up to the hall today and collect the books that are still there.’

  Connie felt her insides go cold. ‘You mean somebody’s taking all the books away right now?’

  ‘That’s right. It has to happen sometime and I just want to get it over and done with.’

  ‘Mrs Fitzpatrick, I’ve got to go!’ Connie’s heart was starting to thump loudly as she hurried towards the door. Eliza and her father stared after her in surprise as she dashed into the hall, where her aunt was still talking to the nurse.

  ‘I thought I’d better pop in and say hello to Mrs Fitzpatrick myself,’ Aunt Alice began, but Connie grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

  ‘We’ve got to get back to the house before they take away all the books,’ she hissed.

  ‘What do you mean? Who’s taking the books?’

  ‘The man Mrs Fitzpatrick’s sold them to. But there’s something in the library I’ve got to stop him taking – something that doesn’t belong to him!’

  Aunt Alice frowned. ‘Something of yours, you mean? Something you’ve left there?’

  ‘It’s a special book,’ Connie said, hearing her voice rising in desperation as she spoke. ‘Come on, Aunt Alice. Please hurry!’

  Although Connie’s aunt didn’t understand what book her niece was talking about, she recognized that she was genuinely distressed. She followed her out to the car and drove them both back to Bluebell Hall as quickly as she could – which wasn’t all that fast because the country road was quite a winding one.

  When they arrived, they saw a small white van parked outside. Its back doors were open and, in the back, Connie could see several large cardboard boxes.

  Ignoring her aunt’s questions, she raced across the driveway and into the house. The front door had been left open and, in the library, she found a man packing up a large box of books. All the shelves in the room were empty now. Aunt Alice was coming through the door behind her and quickly introduced herself to the man, telling him that Connie had left something there. ‘What was it, darling? A book of yours, you said? What was it called?’

  Connie gulped. She had never looked at the spine of the entry-book to see its title. She started to look around the empty room for Ruby. Perhaps she had escaped back into fairyland already, before the entry-book had been packed away.

  Then she heard a familiar voice calling to her from the hallway. Neither of the grown-ups seemed to hear it. The two of them were starting up a conversation about books as Connie left the room.

  Out in the hallway, Connie whispered, ‘Ruby? Where are you?’

  ‘Up here.’ Ruby was scowling down at her from the top of the grandfather clock. ‘Call yourself a friend? Where were you? I kept waiting for you to come and help me but you never did. And now that man has taken away the entry-book. Even if we find the ring, I can’t go home now.’ And she burst into tears.

  ‘Ruby, it’s all right! Mrs Fitzpatrick just found her ring! It turned up at the nursing home when Eliza went to visit her! Its happiest moment was in the future, not in the past.’

  Ruby stopped crying. ‘She’s found the ring? Then that means the fairy queen’s punishment spell is broken.’

  ‘I know. The entry-book should let you go back through to fairyland again now. So, we can’t waste time arguing. We’ve got to find it. Do you know which box that man put it in?’

  Ruby jumped off the top of the grandfather clock and did a fairy dive towards the door. ‘It’s in the las
t box he took out to the van. I marked it with a tooth-bite.’

  Luckily, Aunt Alice and the man were still talking – both of them were book lovers so they had plenty to talk about – which left the way clear for Connie and Ruby to search the van.

  ‘Here it is!’ Ruby said, pointing to a fairy-sized bite-mark on the lid of one of the cardboard boxes.

  ‘What’s the book called?’ Connie asked, as she opened the box. She knew that it wouldn’t be sparkling since it was resting at the moment and she didn’t know how else to recognize it.

  ‘Whatever you want it to be called.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘It’s a magic book. Just imagine its name and then look for it.’

  So Connie tried to think of a really good title for the book – one that would make her want to read it if there was nothing better on television – and when she had a title in her head, she began to lift the books one by one out of the box. The sixth book she picked up felt lighter than the others. She looked at the spine and smiled. It said, Fairy Treasure.

  ‘This is it,’ she said, just as her aunt and the man whose van it was came outside to find her.

  ‘Connie, what are you doing?’

  ‘I’ve found it!’ Connie said, showing the book to Aunt Alice.

  ‘Fairy Treasure,’ her aunt read. ‘But surely that’s one of Mrs Fitzpatrick’s books? It looks as if it might be quite old.’

  Connie flushed. She wasn’t very good at lying. ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘Connie, you know you can’t take things that don’t belong to you,’ Aunt Alice said, sternly.

  The man came over and took the book from her. He quickly flipped open the front cover and leafed through a few of its pages before grunting, ‘It’s OK – she can have it if she likes.’

  ‘Are you sure? I mean, we’ll pay for it, of course—’ Aunt Alice began.

  ‘That’s all right.’ The man winked at Connie as he handed it back to her. ‘It’s nice to meet a youngster who’s keen on reading for a change – not like all those telly-addict kids you get nowadays!’

  ‘Thank you!’ Connie gasped, rushing back with it towards the house.

  Aunt Alice stayed behind to explain, proudly, that Connie had been a telly-addict too when she had first come to stay with them, but that she had obviously benefited from the influence of her bookish aunt and uncle.

  ‘Well,’ Connie said to Ruby, when they were both safely back in the empty library. ‘I guess you’ll want to go home now, won’t you, before anything else happens?’

  Ruby laughed. ‘Yes, but let’s leave the book here for now. Nobody will find it over the weekend. I’ll go back into fairyland, but I’ll come back here tomorrow with a surprise for you.’

  ‘What sort of surprise?’

  ‘Wait and see. Meet me here tomorrow at midnight. Wear something pretty!’ And, with that, Ruby flew towards the entry-book, which Connie was still holding in her hand. As Ruby got nearer the book, it started to sparkle just like it had done the first time Connie had seen it. Then it opened itself in Connie’s hand, the middle page began to glow, and it threw out a beam pathway.

  ‘Hold it steady or I’ll have a bumpy ride!’ Ruby called to her, before darting into the bright-yellow beam, shouting, ‘Wheeeeee!’ and vanishing completely.

  In the middle of the night, Connie was woken up by something tickling her nose. It was a tiny feather duster.

  ‘Ruby!’ she gasped, sitting bolt upright in bed. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you said midnight tomorrow.’

  ‘I did, but this isn’t to do with that. I’ve come to wake you up for a different reason. Follow me.’

  Sleepily, and not understanding what was going on, Connie followed Ruby downstairs and across to the main house.

  Ruby led her through the empty library and into the hall. The hall seemed empty too at first and Connie couldn’t see why Ruby had taken her there. Then she saw the entry-book lying open on the floor. It was sparkling brightly as if it had just been in use. Then she saw there was somebody – a person, not a fairy – sitting on the stairs.

  The figure stood up and Connie shrieked in delight as she saw who it was. ‘Emma!’

  The two girls ran to each other, hugging and giggling and both asking questions at once. Connie realized that her eyes were damp – she’d never cried out of happiness before – as Emma grabbed her hands, swinging them and laughing, before hugging her all over again.

  Connie noticed that Emma was wearing the fairy necklace she had sent to her and that the teardrop was sparkling brightly. ‘It looks beautiful on you!’ she gasped.

  ‘I know! It arrived in the post this morning. It’s the best birthday present I’ve ever had! Oh, I’ve missed you so much, Connie! Did you get my letter?’

  ‘No. I got your postcard.’

  ‘Well, I’ve sent you a letter as well. It’s a really long one. It took me ages to write.’

  ‘Oh Emma,’ Connie gulped. ‘I’ve missed you too, but how did you . . . ? I mean, why aren’t you in Canada? What are you doing here?’

  ‘I met some book fairies when Mum took me to the library near our new house,’ Emma told her. ‘I’ve been friends with them ever since and I told them all about you. They know Ruby. So when Ruby came back to fairyland this afternoon, they went to see her. And that’s how Ruby found out where I was. It was her idea to bring me here to see you. I had to pass an interview with the fairy queen and then I had to meet her this afternoon in my library in Canada. She shrunk me down and brought me here through the entry-book.’ Emma showed Connie her watch, which was still set at the current time in Western Canada – just after four o’clock in the afternoon. ‘I feel a bit like Cinderella. I can only stay for a few minutes, not because my carriage will turn into a pumpkin, but because Mum’ll be getting worried about where I am.’

  ‘I still can’t believe . . .’ Connie broke off. ‘Emma, I’m so sorry I said you were silly when you told me before that fairies were real.’

  Emma laughed. ‘You were a bit of a pain about it. But I’ve got something I’m sorry about too. You know that book we argued about? Well, Mum found it in with some of her books when we unpacked. I feel terrible for not believing you about that.’

  ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter,’ Connie said. ‘So long as we’re still friends.’

  ‘Of course we are!’

  Connie almost asked if they were still best friends, but she decided not to. She decided not even to ask about that other Connie who lived next door. If Emma told her that Connie in Canada was her best friend now, then she’d be too upset to be nice about it. And she wanted to be nice.

  Ruby suddenly appeared in the hall. ‘It’s time to go back now,’ she said to Emma.

  ‘Will Emma be able to come and see me this way again?’ Connie asked. ‘Or can I visit her?’

  Ruby shook her head. ‘Queen Amethyst only allows one round trip through the entry-book for any one person. She says that two shrinkings – one to get there and one to get back again – is enough in one lifetime for any human. After tomorrow she’s going to take the entry-book back to fairyland with her.’

  Connie turned back to Emma. ‘So when will I see you again?’

  ‘I don’t know. We might come back to visit next summer.’ Emma’s voice sounded shaky.

  ‘Listen, Emma . . .’ Connie began slowly. ‘I’ve been thinking . . . I don’t want you to be lonely in Canada so . . . so it’s OK with me if you make a new best friend there.’

  Emma sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. ‘Thanks,’ she grunted. ‘It’s OK with me if you make a new best friend here as well.’

  They looked at each other. It would have to happen sooner or later. It would have to happen for both of them and they both knew it.

  Connie swallowed. ‘Is it really OK with you?’

  Emma asked, ‘Is it really OK with you?’

  They looked at each other steadily for a few seconds longer, before both blurting out, ‘NO!’ very loudly, and laughing as they hugged
each other.

  The next morning, Connie received two phone calls.

  The first one was from her mother who told her that she had just sent on a letter that had arrived for her. ‘It had fairy stickers all over the envelope so I knew it must be from Emma even before I saw the Canadian postmark. Remember how she was always trying to convince you that fairies were real?’

  ‘I remember,’ Connie said, smiling.

  ‘But what I’m really phoning for is to ask Aunt Alice if it’s all right for us to come and stay for a few days next week. Dad and I have both got time off work.’

  ‘Brilliant!’ Connie burst out happily. ‘I can’t wait to show you everything here!’ Well, nearly everything, she thought, as she added, ‘Aunt Alice is in the bath at the moment but I’ll get her to call you back.’

  The second phonecall came while Connie was upstairs getting dressed. Fortunately it was Uncle Maurice who answered it, not Aunt Alice who was still in the bathroom. If it had been Aunt Alice, she would have asked far more questions.

  ‘That was Mrs Fitzpatrick. She wants you to go to tea next Saturday,’ her uncle said when Connie came downstairs. ‘Her niece or somebody is going to be there.’

  ‘Great-niece,’ corrected Connie, reaching for some bread to make toast.

  ‘Mmmm . . .’ Uncle Maurice was concentrating on walking to the door of the kitchen without spilling his overfull mug of coffee. ‘Oh, and she wants you to call in some time this week to tell her more about how you managed to trace somebody called Elijah. Who’s he when he’s at home?’

  ‘She must’ve said Eliza,’ Connie replied, trying to stall for time.

  But she needn’t have worried. Uncle Maurice was already off on a different train of thought. ‘Would’ve made a very good name for one of my dragons, that – Elijah.’

  ‘How’s your book going?’ Connie asked quickly.

  ‘I’m still on the last chapter. I hate last chapters! All that tying up of loose ends.’