Frostbitten Fairy Tales

by Melanie Karsak

  “See you tomorrow,” I said with a smile. I stuffed the rest of the biscuit into my mouth, pulled up the hood on my red cape, and headed out once more. The brisk winter air whirled around me, pulling away the heat and the sourdough, gingerbread, and anise perfume that had scented my wraps and hair. I exhaled, making a puff of steam, then headed across the village square. Light snow started to fall. It blanketed the streets of the little village of Twickenham. The crowd at the center of town was bustling. A small Christmas market had been erected. People were buying spiced wine, roasted almonds, baked goods, and small Christmas gifts. Everywhere I looked, people rushed past with packages. It was almost Christmas. Everyone was preparing for the big day.

  Weighing the coins in my bag with my hand, I considered how much I’d accumulated. Uncle Horace’s perpetually distracted state did have some benefits. He was far too busy writing books and completing the final additions on his fabulous little castle, Strawberry Hill, to pay attention to every little thing his “red-cheeked, never idle, and far-too-clever” visitor brought to his attention. At some point, Uncle Horace found it convenient to let me wander into the village to spend money on whatever frivolities I found. He was always impressed with the dolls I purchased. The irony was, no matter how sharp Uncle Horace’s eyes were, he couldn’t differentiate one doll from another. So, for the last forty days, I’d shown him the same doll when he asked to see what I’d purchased. At this rate, my coin purse would be full by the time my father arrived to take me back to London.

  Clutching my basket, I hurried down the street. Pristine white snowflakes fell onto my red cloak. I blew into my hands, the cold nipping at my fingertips through my gloves. Everywhere I looked, Twickenham was bedecked for the holidays. Garlands of evergreen branches tied with red ribbons decorated the lampposts. Inside the church, someone was playing Silent Night on the piano.

  Pushing past the church, I turned down a narrow alley, making my way to a small door that led into an equally cramped flat. I knocked on the door.

  Inside, I heard children's chatter and clanging dishes. A few moments later, a slim woman with pale blonde hair came to the door. Her day-old braid had nearly come undone, loose strands of her hair hanging everywhere. I’d noticed Annabeth Buckingham and her children at church one morning. It only took a little asking around to discover that she’d recently been widowed. Apparently, while she did some work as a seamstress, she’d fallen on hard times. After learning her sad tale, I’d made a point of making her acquaintance.

  “Oh, Miss Rossetti,” she said in surprise, pausing to smooth down her apron. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t expecting you today.”

  “I only wanted to bring you this,” I said, handing her the basket.

  “What’s this?”

  “Just some things from the bakery.”

  “Miss Rossetti,” Annabeth’s youngest daughter, Pansy, squealed when she saw me. Rushing to the door, she wrapped her arms around my legs.

  “I’m so sorry, Miss Rossetti. Pansy, please let Miss Rossetti go.”

  “Yes, let me go so I can hug you better,” I said then knelt, giving the girl a proper squeeze. “And how are you today?” I asked the girl. She was a pretty thing, just like her mother, with pale yellow hair.

  “Angry.”

  “Why?”

  “Henry and Jacob have been teasing me all morning.”

  “Have they? And what are they saying?”

  “That Father Christmas isn’t real, and that he won’t come here.”

  The child’s words touched my heart. Her brothers, far older than the little girl, no doubt understood the family’s financial situation better than their younger sister. No doubt, they were trying to save her from disappointment.

  “Last year Father Christmas brought me an orange and a new sweater,” she said then frowned. “They’re liars.”

  “Pansy,” Annabeth said with a soft laugh. “That’s enough. I am sure Miss Rossetti doesn’t want to hear about your arguments. Would you like to come in, Miss Rossetti? Some tea, perhaps?”

  “No, thank you. I need to be off. But before I go, I need Pansy’s help. She must promise me something.”

  “What is it?” the girl asked brightly.

  “You must sample the gingerbread. The baker told me they have the best baked goods in Twickenham, but I’m not so sure. You try it and tell me what you thought when we next meet.”

  “Gingerbread!” the girl exclaimed.

  Upon hearing her sister’s proclamation, her brothers galloped toward the front of the house. Though they tried to hide discreetly, I saw the two boys peering at me.

  “Yes, gingerbread. You must have a big piece to get a proper taste. Can you do that for me?”

  “Of course, Miss Rossetti,” Pansy gushed.

  I smiled at her mother.

  “Here, take the basket to the kitchen,” Annabeth told her daughter.

  “Thank you, Miss Rossetti,” the girl called as she disappeared into the back of the house. Two sets of heavy footsteps followed the little girl.

  “Very kind of you, miss. You really didn’t have to,” Annabeth told me.

  “I wanted to. I’ll be by again before the holidays. Is there anything in particular I can bring?”

  She smiled meekly. “Just yourself. God bless you, miss.”

  “And you and yours,” I said with a smile. Giving her a light wave, I turned and headed back toward the bustling village center.

  As I walked, I weighed my coins once more. A plum pudding, some new coats for the children, and a cloak for Annabeth…I should have enough, though I wished I could do far more.

  The wind whipped, stirring up the snowflakes, freezing the tip of my nose in an instant. I passed the church once more. This time, the organist was rehearsing The Twelve Days of Christmas. I found myself humming the song as I headed back across town. Soon, I was standing outside my favorite spot in the village, The Two Sisters Doll Shop and Toy Emporium.

  I paused to gaze through the frost-covered window at the shop display. The window was alive with fanciful delights. Toy drums, dolls, wooden ducks, tops, and all manner of toys were on exhibition. The shop was full of people. The sisters had their hands full.

  The bell above the door rang when I entered.

  The owners, Lizzie and Laura—the twin sisters for whom the shop was named—were hard at work. Even at their advanced age, the sisters looked identical. They both had silver hair, which they kept pulled back in neat buns. The only difference between them was that Laura wore spectacles whereas Lizzie did not.

  Lizzie was at the counter wrapping up a doll to place in a pretty box while her customer, a stout woman in a green cape trimmed with fur, waited almost patiently. Laura, who was the maker of the two, was at a workbench just behind the counter. She was focused on a doll with a mop of raven-colored tresses, trying to fasten a red bonnet covered in holy sprigs onto the reluctant toy.

  “Good morning, Lizzie. Good morning, Laura,” I called as I brushed snowflakes off my cloak.

  The shoppers, who were picking through tops, toy horses, chessboards, teddy bears, and row upon row of dolls, barely cast me a second glance. It seemed the pre-holiday fervor left them decidedly focused on their tasks.

  “Scarlette, dear. Do you have a little time for us? Laura could use some help,” Lizzie said.

  “Of course,” I said. I removed my cape and hung it on a peg. Slipping behind the counter, I went to see what Laura was working on.

  “Good morning, Miss Laura,” I said, taking a seat at the bench across from her.

  “Good morning, Scarlette,” she said, casting a quick glance at me over her spectacles. “This raven-haired lass is so fiddly. She’s stubborn from her stuffing to her porcelain face, and Lady Rochester’s maid will be here by noon to pick her up,” she said, sighing once more as she fussed with the little bonnet.

  “It’s so busy in the shop,” I said.

  Laura nodded. “I was awake almost all night working on orders. Will you attend
to the buttons on those girls’ dresses?” she asked, pointing with her chin at the row of three pretty dolls whose clothes were in a state of disrepair. “I had to set them aside to get this done. And when you’re done with that, I have some other work for you, if you have the time.”

  “Of course,” I replied.

  Despite her chipper mood, I noticed that poor, sweet Laura was squinting hard, and her wrinkled face looked even more sallow than usual. This was a great time of year for the sisters to make money, or so they told me, but the toll it took on them—working night and day—was evident. At their age, it was too much. Pulling off my gloves, I got to work.

  I’d discovered the doll-making sisters on my first visit into town. Enchanted by their creations, I’d purchased a doll. The second day, I returned just because they were so delightful to talk to. But I’d become a pseudo-apprentice quite by accident when, one morning while the shop was busy, I’d repaired the crank on a broken jack-in-the-box. As it turned out, my hands—born from a sculptor father and a painter mother—were quite good with all things small and mechanical. In fact, both sisters agreed that I could make a fine doll maker. I’d even fixed Lord Sutherland’s clockwork carousel, an expensive toy he’d bought for his children when he was abroad. It had taken me the entire afternoon to rework the cogs and gears then realign the pretty carousel animals, but I’d done it. In the process, I won the sisters’ eternal gratitude. With nothing better to do in Twickenham, and Uncle Horace busy with his writing, studies, or working on his little castle, I’d found life in town.

  “Busy, busy, busy,” Laura said. “So many orders to finish. I fear we won’t be done by Christmas.”

  “Don’t worry, Miss Laura. I’m sure we’ll manage.”

  “Sweet Scarlette,” she said with a smile. “Does Earl Walpole know you’re here, my dear?”

  “Of course,” I replied. He did believe I was in town at the doll shop, but I doubt he suspected I was a temporary apprentice there.

  “I like that man,” Laura said absently as she touched up the paint on the doll’s cheeks. “He’s an odd bird, but writers are always a strange sort. And I like his little castle. It’s very…whimsical.”

  Whimsical was an excellent word to use to describe Strawberry Hill, Uncle Horace’s home. The Gothic castle in miniature was a peculiar mixture of the fashionable, the melancholy, and the playful—a bit like Uncle Horace himself.

  One by one, I lifted the dolls and sewed the small buttons on the back of their gowns, tightening up anything Laura had missed. The work was delicate, the tiny buttons only half the size of the nail on my pinkie, but with a bit of concentration, I had them done in no time. Once I fixed the buttons, I straightened the girls’ dresses and laid them back down. “Three pretty—and properly buttoned-up—maids in a row. All done with these.”

  Laura looked up at me, her blue eyes wide with surprise. “Already? Well, that’s very good, very good. I have a job for you in the back. It’s a bit complicated. Lady Ashcroft has requested a special doll. We have the pieces, but we need your hands to finish the job.”

  “Special? Special how?”

  Laura set down the raven-headed beauty she’d been working on. “Come see,” she said then led me deeper into the workshop.

  We passed the shelves lined with doll heads and body parts, scraps of clothes, and boxes of broken doll pieces. At the very back was a table on which sat a tiny piano and an exquisite doll.

  “Lady Ashcroft saw an advertisement for a doll that can play the piano just by turning a windup key. We told her we couldn’t promise we could make such a thing, but we would try. We have all the pieces we need, now, we just need her to play,” she said, motioning to the doll and the piano. She then turned to a small box sitting on the table. She lifted the lid. “Mister Duke, the clockmaker, gave us the parts. And I have an old music box there. Do you think you could try it? Here is the advertisement Lady Ashcroft saw,” she said then handed a yellowed piece of paper to me. The ad was for a toy shop in New York City. It showed a doll sitting at the piano. According to the advertisement, the doll moved, playing the piano.

  “You want me to try it?” I asked.

  It was then that Lizzie came around the back. She adjusted the pins holding her mountain of silver hair on the top of her head then pulled her shawl tighter around her.

  “Cold back here, Laura. You’ll need to add some coal to the stove if Miss Scarlette is going to work on the pianist. So, will she?”

  “You interrupted before she could answer,” Laura chided her sister.

  Lizzie looked at the box. “Master Duke said you could stop by the shop if you need anything else. We knew that if anyone could make such a doll, it would be you, Scarlette.”

  I grinned. “I’ll try.”

  “That’s our girl,” Lizzie said. She patted me on the shoulder then headed back to the front. “I told you she would say yes,” she added, giving her sister a knowing look.

  Laura chuckled.

  “This doll is so beautiful,” I said, lifting the lovely red-haired doll sitting by the piano. “I’ll need to cut her open, tear apart her stuffing and stitches. I don’t want to make a mistake and ruin her. I wish I had something to practice on first. Do you have an old doll, maybe something broken or unwanted?”

  “Well,” Laura considered. “Yes. I do. I nearly forgot about them. There,” she said, pointing to a box at the bottom of the shelf. “We made those for a garden party. No one wanted them, so they sent them back when it was over.”

  I knelt down and pulled out the closed box. There was an inch of dust on the lid.

  “Laura?” Lizzie called from the front.

  “Feel free to work on those, Scarlette, and help yourself to whatever else you want, my dear,” Lizzie said then left to join her sister.

  I lifted the lid off the box. Pushing aside the soft cloth covering, inside I found a row of dolls. Well, they weren’t precisely dolls. They were funny looking little men dressed in patchwork suits, animal skins, overalls, and knickers. They were made of cloth and had long noses, wild hair, bushy eyebrows, buck teeth, and all manner of playful expressions on their faces. Gnomes. They were stuffed gnomes. They were a funny looking ensemble. Uncle Horace had an excellent book in his library on gnomes. The tome included illustrations of gnomes just like these. I loved them at once.

  Eyeing them over, I picked up a creature who wore shaggy, Angus-hide trousers, a knitted green sweater, and a red cap that covered his long white hair. He also had a substantial white beard in which the sisters had sewn a ladybug.

  “Hello,” I said, looking down into his beady glass eyes. “Are you in charge here? You certainly look like the elder of this group,” I said, eyeing over the others. “If you don’t mind, I believe I’ll do a little tinkering. Just a few snips, and you’ll be as good as new,” I said.

  Taking the box of cogs and gears, I sat down at the workbench with a new goal in mind—to bring the gnome to life.

  Chapter 2: Strawberry Hill

  It was after noon when I finally looked up from my work. The design I needed to make wasn’t that difficult; it just required concentration. I needed to create a design that would allow the doll to have the semblance of life. The piano player would lift and lower her arms and hands up and down to make it appear as though she played. The actual music would come from a music box cylinder, which I would place inside the piano. The pianist would activate the music box with a tap of her hand, setting the device in motion, then make it seem as if she were the one playing the score. I quickly arranged the music box inside the piano. That part was simple. Now I just needed to tinker the inner workings of the doll. In theory, the design was easy. Execution, however, was a little trickier. I was very glad Laura had given me the gnome to work with before I tried to tinker with the delicate porcelain doll.

  I’d created a rudimentary clockwork torso for the gnome. I sat back and eyed my prototype. It should work. Should. Turning the wind-up key, I watched as the gnome’s arms jerked
up and down. The movement was uneven and lacked fluidity. It had taken me hours to get even this much right. I gently removed the clockwork mechanism from the body of the little gnome and loosened the joint on his right arm. As I worked, I reminded myself not to get frustrated.

  What was it father always said? “Incremental improvements, Scarlette. Incremental improvements. Before you know it, you’ll be wherever you were headed.”

  While the notion of incremental improvements was undoubtedly right—though father always seemed to remind me of this when I was feeling the least patient—at this moment, I wasn’t even sure if I was improving in the right direction. The truth of the matter was, I just didn’t know much about clockwork. I could see the design in my head as clear as day, but making the design work in metal was something else entirely.

  I stared at the little gnome. “Sorry, little friend. You look like a drowning man waving for someone to save him. I’ll keep working. Incremental improvements. We shall see what we can do.”

  “Scarlette, do you know what time it is?” Laura called from the other end of the workbench.

  “No,” I replied absently.

  “It’s almost afternoon tea.”

  “Goodness,” I exclaimed, rising. While I loved roaming around the village, I never missed afternoon tea with Uncle Horace. And didn’t he say the first of his guests were going to arrive today around teatime? Now I was going to be late for tea and appear rude to Uncle Horace’s guests. “Can I take these with me?” I called to Laura, motioning to the gnomes. “And the parts?”

  “Of course. Take whatever you want. You’ll find a basket on the shelf,” she replied.

  Moving quickly, I laid the gnomes—there were eight in all—in the basket and then added the box of parts. I also grabbed a bin of buttons, lace, and other miscellaneous trim, things that Laura had discarded, and threw it into the basket. I headed toward the front of the workshop. There, I found Laura practically buried under a heap of doll dresses, teddy bears, and porcelain heads and arms.