“Sorry, I’ll settle in a minute.” Briar flipped over one last time so she could watch Fanny bustle about the cottage. A real fairy?
Once the children’s breaths relaxed into the regular pattern of sleep, Briar pulled out the whorl from her pocket, keeping it under the sheet. She ran her fingers over the carved roses. It was so smooth; someone had taken great care when carving the wood. When Fanny slipped outside, Briar peeked under the sheet to study the whorl. A faint scorch mark marred one of the roses. Briar wondered what had happened to it. Where exactly had this spindle come from?
When Fanny returned, Briar whispered, “What does it mean that you’re here now, at this time?” She was afraid to ask the question but needed to. Her mind was forming a picture she didn’t want to see. A magic spindle. A girl named Briar. A fairy. Was the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale a warning? A prophecy? A coincidence?
Fanny padded softly over and sat on the edge of the bed. “Hopefully it means nothing, dearie. I’ve told you too much already. Miss Prudence will have my head if nothing comes of it and I’ve told you what I have.”
“Comes of what?”
“You tell me. Is there anything on your mind? You seem to be having trouble falling asleep.”
Briar stopped a laugh. “You think I can sleep after finding out you’re a fairy?”
Fanny shared a grin. “No, I suppose not. I wanted to tell you earlier but couldn’t risk Prudence’s wrath. She can have a temper.” Fanny pulled herself up tall, forming her expression into a pretty good impression of Nanny.
“So why did you tell me now?”
She looked intently into Briar’s eyes. “I won’t force you, dearie. But if you and I are going to share secrets, we need to share everything.”
Briar bit her lip. What would happen if she told Fanny about the spindle? The fairy would try to stop her from using it, that’s what. It didn’t seem like something Fanny would approve of, a human using a fairy tool for her own good. Briar shook her head. “I’ve nothing to say.”
“In that case, neither do I. We haven’t had any problems all these years. Miss Prudence will likely be home tomorrow. You’ll continue on as before and I can go back to where I’m supposed to be.” She patted Briar’s arm.
Briar frowned. Fanny had been saying for weeks that Prudence would likely be back soon, with nothing to show for her optimism. “But that’s just it. She only agreed to watch the children until I turn seventeen. That’s in two weeks. Will she really send them away after that if I can’t care for them?”
“Hmm. Miss Prudence is punctual about things,” Fanny said with a frown. “She’s like a clock, grinding things out. Doesn’t like change. If she said that’s what was going to happen, you can be sure it is.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
In the morning, Briar found Miss Fanny outside with Whitey Hoppers, the bunny. A warm glow lit up the trees and the wind blew in a sweet smell of dewy earth.
Miss Fanny straightened, putting her hands in the crook of her back, and stretched. “‘Morning. You look like a girl with something on her mind.”
Briar offered up a half smile. “There is a lot on my mind.”
“The weight of the world on your shoulders, dearie. It can weigh you down if you don’t share your burdens.” She handed Briar the bunny.
The animal quivered until Briar flipped it onto its back and then it relaxed, nestling its warm fur into Briar’s palms. “You said I could trust you. Can I trust you not to share with anyone what I tell you?”
Fanny took a deep breath and let it out. She squinted against the sun. “I don’t like to make promises like that.”
Briar waited, taking comfort from the warm bundle in her hands. She wasn’t going to go any further without a promise.
Fanny appeared to grow uncomfortable with the silence. “Fine. I won’t tell anyone your secrets. You can trust me.” Fanny twisted her lips like she wasn’t happy about the agreement.
“I did something this week that both excites and scares me. A peddler gave me a drop spindle. He said I should put the shaft in my frame at the mill and it would fix my problem and increase my production.”
Miss Fanny narrowed her eyes. “Why does a spindle from a peddler scare you?”
Briar set the bunny down. It hopped two hops and sat. “Because he said it was made from fairy wood.”
Miss Fanny raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“I thought he was selling me; you know how peddlers exaggerate. I never imagined the spindle contained real fairy magic. I didn’t put it into the frame until yesterday. I was desperate. My frame was worse than ever and they cut our pay. My new overseer threatened to fire me. I need that frame to work or I’ll lose the children for sure.”
“What happened when you put the spindle in the machine?”
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. But it grew like it was alive and it attached itself to the frame. I can’t get it off.”
Fanny didn’t look surprised. It was as if she already knew.
Briar remembered Jack telling her Fanny was magic, that she could make herself really tiny and spy on them. Could Fanny have been in the spinning room?
“Oh dearie. You have no idea what you’ve done, do you? Well thank heaven you didn’t hurt yourself. I don’t know how it happened, but you’ve found the spindle. The spindle. The one that made Aurora sleep for almost a hundred years.”
Briar paused, processing yet more unbelievable information. “But that was a fairy tale.”
Fanny took a bow. “And I’m a fairy.”
Briar leaned against a garden post, needing the support. Aurora was a real person. The spindle was real. She was talking to a fairy who knew these things. How was any of this even possible? “Is the spindle dangerous?”
“The curse on it is old, potentially weakening, but yes. The spindle is still very dangerous. Very, very dangerous.” Fanny waggled her finger with emphasis.
“What would the spindle be doing in a peddler’s cart?” Briar asked.
“Bah. Peddler. Describe the woman.”
“It wasn’t a woman. He was an old man with a beard and a cane…”
“Turquoise eyes?”
Briar nodded.
Fanny clenched her hands. “Isodora. Of course. Can’t turn your back for a minute.”
“Who?”
“The fairy who cursed the spindle in the first place. Spiteful thing she is. I didn’t know she had enough power to transform into another look.”
“I thought she was dead. At the end of the fairy tale she dies.”
“Dead? We’ve made that mistake before. No, she’s very much alive. Don’t believe everything you read. Well, that’s it, then. I’ll have to tell—” She caught Briar’s expression and stopped. “No one.”
“I don’t understand why Isodora would bring the spindle here. Sunrise Valley is the middle of nowhere. There aren’t any kings and queens in America. No princesses to…” Briar thought about her name. “Am I related to the original Sleeping Beauty? Is this about revenge because she didn’t die and now Isodora wants to kill me?”
Fanny shook her head. “For one, I don’t know how Isodora got hold of the spindle.” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Two, no, you are not Aurora’s descendant. It is, however, unfortunate that your mother’s family liked flower names, because Isodora is after revenge. Revenge on me, and your name just makes that revenge taste better. Innocents often do get caught up in these trials.”
“I don’t understand. Why would killing a spinner girl satisfy her revenge?”
“It doesn’t have to be a spinner girl, specifically. She is after a young girl to fulfill her curse so she can have her full power back. Right now her power is tied up in the unfulfilled curse of the spindle.”
A slight smile played at her lips. “I’m the one who stopped her, which is why she and I are in this battle of wills and she wants out. She knows my role is to protect the girls who cross my path and killing one would be devastating to me.
Death is against everything I hold dear. The original curse was that Aurora would prick her finger on a spindle and die before her seventeenth birthday. I softened it so that she would only sleep for a lifetime and then awaken with true love’s kiss—my personal touch. The others thought it excessive. They thought the sleeping was enough, but where’s the romance in that? My way, she woke to someone who loved her. I think it was necessary after all that time.”
“But if the curse was for Aurora, then the curse won’t ever be fulfilled.”
Fanny scratched her nose. “I wish it were that simple. It’s the way Isodora made the curse. She was enraged at the time, making herself a bit sloppy. Make no mistake. That spindle can kill you.”
Briar’s heart skipped a beat. “Can’t you stop the curse again?”
“Not this time. The curse must run its course. We’ve held it off as long as we can. Isodora will not be satisfied until a girl dies, and she’s chosen you. I can only hope that my blessing over Aurora and the spindle carries over to another girl, but I don’t know if it will. We’ve never followed a curse as old as this one before. We’ve been watching it very carefully.”
Of all the things to be chosen for. Death.
What would happen to the children then? No one would be watching out for them, trying to keep them together. They’d be put on that orphan train, separated into three different families in three different states. She couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m not going to prick my finger. I know what it truly is now, so I’ll stay away from it.” Seemed like an easy solution.
Fanny looked doubtful. “You don’t feel an overwhelming need to touch it?”
Briar closed her eyes, trying to name what she felt about the spindle. “I feel possessive of it, like I don’t want anyone else to have it. I haven’t wanted to touch the tip.”
“Yet,” Fanny said. “We need to get it out of there right away.”
“It won’t come off. It’s as solid as if it were built with the frame.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Fanny rubbed her hands together. “Then I should try to find Isodora, now that I know she’s here. Can you take the children today?”
“Of course,” Briar said. “Earlier, you hesitated over promising not to tell my secret. Who were you going to tell?”
Fanny shrugged. “I was going to tell Prudence. She’s my overseer.”
Briar’s mouth went dry. “Is she a fairy, too?”
Fanny scrunched up her face, then nodded.
Briar felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She quickly searched her memories for any hint of unusual behavior from Nanny and couldn’t think of a one. “We’ve been under the care of a fairy all this time?” It was like waking up to find out a knife had been dangling over her bed the whole night and the only thing stopping it from hurting her was someone watching it. Briar would have rather been told about the danger so she could have prepared for it.
“Oh, I’m breaking so many rules. Prudence is diligent about keeping herself a secret. But since she’s gone to find Isodora, I must contact her to tell her that Isodora is here.”
“No, please don’t. You promised.” Briar grabbed Fanny’s hands as she pleaded. The first time she’d touched her since finding out what she was.
“But Briar, now that you know the significance of the spindle, surely you would want to tell Prudence.”
Briar dropped Fanny’s hands. “No.”
“The whole reason she left was to find Isodora—now we know she’ll never find her out there. She needs to come back to the valley.”
Briar shook her head. “I don’t want to upset her. I’m trying to keep the children together and if she finds out what I’ve done she might not wait until my birthday to send them away. You’re a fairy, too. Can’t you handle it?”
Fanny plucked a dandelion puff and breathed on it. The dainty white puff shrank and became a yellow flower again. “I understand wanting to fix your own mistake. I’ve been fixing mine for years. Together, then. We’ll do it together. But if my best isn’t good enough, I’ll have to tell Prudence. Your life is more important than our pride.”
Briar felt a prick of conscience but brushed it aside. With Fanny’s help, they’d figure it out. “Why did Prudence take us in in the first place? She doesn’t take to children naturally.”
“Your name is Briar Rose, our name for the princess when we were protecting Aurora. You live in a city of spindles. It was a precaution. She thought the temptation for Isodora would be too great if she found out about you…and apparently she did.”
What world was this that Briar had fallen into? Fairies and magical spindles and her name bringing them together. She remembered another conversation with a certain wistful boy who was setting out on an adventure across the sea. “Henry said I needed protecting because of my name. Does he have anything to do with this?”
Fanny’s expression went from shock to panic to resignation in a matter of seconds. “Some parts of this story are not mine to tell.”
“The Princes seem worried that they hadn’t heard from him in a while. Did something bad happen to him?”
Fanny shrugged sadly. “I don’t know. I can tell you that what he set out to do, he has not accomplished.”
Briar swallowed hard. “Should we be worried about him?”
“We have to wait and see if a letter gets through. These rail strikes are slowing everything down. If it were an emergency, he would send his parents a cable. He may already be on his way home. Don’t worry until you have something to worry about. Time will tell.”
“Speaking of time, that’s why Nanny set the deadline at my seventeenth birthday, isn’t it? She’s only concerned about me pricking my finger and then she’ll be off to watch over some other girl named Briar?”
“Prudence doesn’t tell me her plans, but that sounds like a fair assessment.”
“Morning, Briar,” called Pansy, up before the boys for once. She had a basket with her and was headed for the garden.
“Sweet Pea, could you start the twins’ breakfast?” asked Fanny. “Briar and I are having a little talk.”
“About boys, I bet.” Pansy made a face.
Briar laughed nervously. “We’ll be in to help you in a bit.” She reached for the basket and then followed Fanny to the strawberry patch.
Once Pansy had gone back into the house, Briar continued the conversation. “I have so many questions I can’t get them out fast enough.”
“The question now is what do we do about the spindle if I can’t remove it? We can’t just leave you working at the mill with a cursed spindle. Too risky.”
Briar shook her head. “If I left, another girl would take my place. That’s risky, too. I’m the one who put it in there. Now what?”
“I suppose you’re right. We are certainly in a pickle. It’ll be up to you to make sure no one under seventeen goes near the spindle. You must become part of the story, dearie. You watch over the spindle.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
At church, Briar thanked the Princes again for giving her a ride and for sharing Henry’s animals, then she asked them to check in on them once in a while to make sure the children were caring for them properly. And to surreptitiously check on Fanny at the same time.
Before Briar could leave the cottage Sunday afternoon, the children made her say good-bye to each of the animals in their growing collection. Last thing she did was hug each child tight, to the point of making the boys squirm. “You be good. I’ll see you next week.”
Pansy poked at Briar’s bloomers. “Can Miss Mim make me these, too?”
“I can copy her pattern and we can make a pair together, how about that?”
“Okay. Bye!” Pansy scampered off in her dress after the boys.
Fanny walked with Briar and the bicycle down the lane.
“I did everything I could to dislodge the spindle while you and the children were at church, but you’re right. It is firmly attached. I wish you hadn’t made me promise not to t
ell anyone, but I know what it is to want to fix your own mess. We’ll do this together. You and me. But you need to do everything I tell you. Let’s just make it till the end of your birthday. Once the danger for you has passed, then we can attack the problem without fear.”
“Thank you.” Briar spoke with relief. She was more worried about Prudence finding out than the spindle causing harm. The way it was positioned in her frame, it should be easy to avoid the tip.
“The most important thing is, never touch the spindle. Ever.” Fanny raised her eyebrows. “Ever.”
“I understand.” Briar hopped on the bicycle and rode back to town, her mind cycling as fast as the wheels she was riding on. If only Mam were here to talk to. She would help Briar make sense of all this, because she didn’t understand. Not at all.
Back in town, Briar eyed the mill warily, wondering what a magic spindle did when no one was around. Lie in wait for its next victim?
She zoomed down the row of boardinghouses, savoring her last few minutes of freedom. She slowed to a stop by the porch, turning heads of the girls sitting outside. “I’m back! Anyone want to use the bicycle before I put it away?” She slid off the seat. Her legs wobbled a little, not yet accustomed to cycling such a distance.
Met by blank stares, she assumed no one was interested, and so she parked the bicycle back in the shed. When she climbed the porch stairs, one of the girls she didn’t know very well leaped up from the bench and said in an exaggerated deep voice, “Miss Jenny increased her production today. Let her be an example of what you can accomplish with focus and hard work.”
Another mocking voice joined in. “Work more quickly, and like Miss Jenny, your next paycheck might go up.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“That’s what the overseer told everyone in line after you left on Saturday. He thinks we’re slow and lazy, and because you were suddenly working faster you’ve made us all look bad. Thanks a lot. We’re working as fast as we can.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why he would say that.” Briar was mortified. “I know you work hard. It’s just my bad frame started working better is all.” She searched the faces of the girls on the porch. They didn’t look convinced.
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