Fairy Secrets

by Gwyneth Rees

‘It’s OK, Aunt Megan, we won’t argue!’ they both assured her.

  ‘Well, all right, then, but don’t stay too long. Here – take these with you, Ellie.’ And she handed Ellie the little container of fairy cakes for Mr Owen.

  David couldn’t help noticing that Myfanwy was staring longingly at the remaining fairy cakes on the table – in particular at a cake with pink icing and two chocolate buttons on the top.

  ‘I don’t suppose we could have a fairy cake each to eat on the way, could we, Aunt Megan?’ he asked politely.

  And both fairies beamed delightedly as Aunt Megan invited the children to help themselves.

  On the way to the garage, Ellie told David all about the toy museum and the fairy portal. David listened incredulously while the fairies munched away at a chocolate button each, occasionally chipping in when they thought Ellie had missed out something important.

  ‘So I want to ask Mr Owen if he knows where Enid really came from,’ Ellie finished breathlessly. ‘I mean, I know it’s not very likely that she really did once belong to the Queen, but I don’t think we should rule anything out.’

  David gave a wry smile. ‘Sure. I mean if fairies are real, and toys can come to life . . .’ He shrugged vaguely as if he was still in a bit of a daze.

  ‘Exactly. And if Enid did belong to the Queen, then maybe the Queen will help us to save the museum,’ Ellie added. ‘After all, she must have lots of money! And I don’t suppose she’d want Enid back, because I’m sure the Queen must have lots of dolls – not like poor Mrs Lloyd-Hughes.’

  When they got to the garage Mr Owen greeted them warmly, clearly delighted to see the two fairies. ‘What can I offer you today, my dears? Some chocolate raisins perhaps?’

  ‘Thank you, Mr Owen, but what we really need is your help with a question we’ve got for you,’ Bronwen answered politely.

  ‘But if you want to throw in a few chocolate raisins as well then that would be great!’ Myfanwy added, licking her lips greedily as her gaze fell on the sweet counter.

  ‘Mr Owen, we’re trying to find out who owned some of the old toys before they were given to the museum,’ Ellie told him. ‘Mrs Daniels told us it was you who donated Llewellyn and Enid. Is that right?’

  ‘Llewellyn and Enid?’ Mr Owen sounded puzzled.

  ‘Llewellyn’s a toy soldier and Enid’s a china doll,’ Ellie explained. ‘I guess you might not have known their names.’

  ‘I did give a wooden soldier to the museum many years ago, that’s true,’ Mr Owen said. ‘I had to clear out my father’s house after he died, and that’s when I came across that toy soldier in his desk. He must have had it since he was a boy. I think I remember him showing it to me once and telling me it was too old to be played with.’

  ‘Toys are never too old to be played with,’ Myfanwy interrupted. ‘That’s why we always play with the ones in the museum whenever we can.’

  ‘Oh well, you fairies should have told that to my father,’ Mr Owen said. ‘You could have, you know, because he believed in fairies too, though he was always so sad after my mother passed away when I was a boy that even the fairies couldn’t cheer him up again. Anyhow, later I found another of those old toy soldiers. It had fallen down the back of one of the drawers inside his desk. I kept meaning to give that one to the museum too, only I never got round to it. I’ve still got it somewhere, I think.’

  ‘What about the doll?’ Ellie prompted him, because after all, it was Enid she was most interested in discovering the truth about.

  ‘Ah yes . . . the china doll . . . Well, she wasn’t mine. I handed her in on behalf of a young lady I was seeing at the time. Old Mr Daniels paid a bit of money for her, which my friend was very pleased to have because she’d just lost her job. She worked as a nanny, and when the family moved to London, they said they didn’t need her any more. They paid her to help with the removal though, and after all the furniture vans had gone she found that china doll out in the garden. Apparently the little girl my friend looked after used to like pretending she was the Queen and that she was holding royal garden parties out in the garden! I suppose she must have forgotten that she’d left the doll out there.’

  ‘So that’s why Enid thinks she belonged to the Queen!’ Ellie exclaimed.

  Mr Owen looked puzzled. ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ellie said swiftly. ‘Go on, Mr Owen. What happened then?’

  ‘Well, my girlfriend wrote to her employers asking if she should send the doll on to them,’ Mr Owen continued, ‘but they wrote back telling her not to bother as their daughter had plenty of dolls. So I spoke to old Mr Daniels about it and that’s how we ended up taking her to the museum.’

  ‘Do you know the name of that family, or where they moved to in London?’ Ellie asked, thinking that if the little girl had grown up and was rich, then she might be willing to help them, even if she wasn’t the Queen.

  ‘I’m afraid not. My friend left the village shortly afterwards when she got another nannying job, and we lost touch after that. She may have mentioned their name and where they moved to – but if she did I can’t remember.’

  After they had given Mr Owen his fairy cakes and left the garage Ellie sighed loudly, because it seemed like they had drawn a complete blank.

  ‘I don’t know what to do now,’ she said gloomily.

  ‘We’d better be getting back,’ said Bronwen, ‘before Queen Lily starts wondering where we are.’

  ‘We’ll come with you to the museum then,’ Ellie said.

  Twenty minutes later, while the fairies took David into the museum room to introduce him to the toys Ellie went to speak to Mr Daniels, who was sitting in his office staring guiltily at his desk.

  ‘Mr Daniels, what’s happened?’ Ellie asked immediately, because she was certain that something had.

  ‘I may as well tell you straight away, I suppose,’ Mr Daniels said. ‘Mrs Lloyd-Hughes rang me when I got back from visiting my mother. She wanted to know if I’d found the key to the dolls’ cabinet yet. She said that her offer still stood if the doll turned out to be Henrietta.’

  ‘Mr Daniels . . . you didn’t . . . ?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Ellie, but I decided to take the doll to her house so she could have a look at it. She examined it very carefully and at first she said that she couldn’t be a hundred per cent sure if it was Henrietta or not. Apparently the doll’s knickers weren’t the same ones she remembered or something. But then she said that the dress itself was definitely the same and that maybe the knickers had been replaced at some point. Eventually she said that she was almost certain it was the doll she had lost and that she wanted to keep her in any case. She gave me a cheque for the museum there and then. And she said she was so happy she didn’t mind if I chose not to change the name of the museum to reflect her donation!’

  Ellie felt her knees go shaky as she realized they had arrived at the museum too late. The portal was gone – and with it, the only way for Bronwen and Myfanwy to return to Fairyland.

  ‘But, Mr Daniels, this is terrible—’ she gasped.

  ‘It’s not that terrible, surely?’ he interrupted her. ‘I mean, Mrs Lloyd-Hughes is happy, isn’t she? And the museum is saved.’

  ‘Oh – this is all my fault!’ Ellie burst out. And before Mr Daniels could say any more she rushed through to the museum room.

  Just as she had feared, Myfanwy and Bronwen were staring at the empty space in the cabinet where Enid had previously been. David was standing in the middle of the room looking bewildered, and several other fairies were hovering in the air looking frightened. Clearly it wasn’t just Myfanwy and Bronwen who were trapped here.

  ‘What are we going to do, Ellie?’ Bronwen asked in a shaky voice as she entered the room.

  ‘Ellie, you’ve got to get Enid back!’ Myfanwy cried out. ‘If you don’t, we’ll never see Fairyland again!’

  Ellie knew then that there was only one thing she could do – she would have to go and see Mrs Lloyd-Hughes and tell her th
e truth.

  She set off straight away, declining David’s offer to accompany her. This was something she knew she had to do on her own, and as soon as she reached Mrs Lloyd-Hughes’s house she rang the bell and waited nervously for the housekeeper to appear. This time, to Ellie’s surprise, the housekeeper was very friendly indeed as she invited Ellie inside. ‘Mrs Lloyd-Hughes is a changed person since you found that old doll of hers,’ she told Ellie. ‘You take a seat in the living room, my love, and I’ll tell her you’re here.’

  Mrs Lloyd-Hughes walked into the room a few minutes later, leaning on her stick and carrying Enid in her free arm. ‘I must say I feel years younger, now that I’ve got my Henrietta back,’ she told Ellie, giving her a beaming smile. ‘You’re a very kind girl for helping me!’

  Ellie blushed. ‘I’m afraid I’m not a kind girl at all,’ she said in a small voice. ‘That’s what I’ve come to tell you. You see, I tricked you.’ And she waited for the old lady to sit down before telling her everything (excluding the part about the fairies being involved, of course).

  When Ellie had finished talking, Mrs Lloyd-Hughes had a strange look on her face. Her wrinkled hand shook a little as she held on tightly to the doll in her lap. ‘So what you’re saying is that this doll wasn’t actually wearing this dress when you first saw her in the museum?’

  ‘No. She was wearing a blue dress – and it wasn’t anything like the one in your photograph.’

  ‘Still . . .’ Mrs Lloyd-Hughes spoke sharply, ‘clothes can change over the years. Her face and hair are the same, after all.’

  ‘Her hair falls more on to her face than Henrietta’s in the photograph,’ Ellie pointed out. ‘And her parting is more to one side, whereas—’

  ‘Hairstyles can change on dolls as well as on humans!’ Mrs Lloyd-Hughes snapped. ‘The important thing is that this doll feels like Henrietta! In any case, I have paid a lot of money for her and she belongs to me now!’

  And to Ellie’s dismay she found herself banished from the house and told never to come back.

  That night Ellie couldn’t get to sleep because she was thinking so much about Myfanwy and Bronwen and the other fairies who were having to spend their first night away from Fairyland. The toys would be awake too, and keeping them company in the museum, but that didn’t change the fact that the fairies must be very frightened. And Queen Lily must be terribly worried about them, Ellie thought.

  David sounded like he was tossing and turning in the bed next to her and eventually she whispered his name to see if he was awake.

  ‘What is it?’ he whispered back.

  ‘I wish I could think of some way to help the fairies,’ Ellie said, ‘but without Enid the fairy portal just won’t work.’

  David didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then he murmured, ‘Does it have to be Enid who’s the fourth toy? I mean, can’t we just replace her with a different one?’

  ‘Only certain toys can be part of the portal,’ Ellie told him. ‘And no other toy in the museum will do.’

  ‘What about a toy that isn’t in the museum?’ David suggested.

  ‘But how would we find one whose maker believed in fairies and whose first owner believed in fairies as well?’ Ellie pointed out. ‘I mean, I suppose we could try and find another really old toy and test it out, but – OH!’ She suddenly sat up in bed and turned on the light.

  ‘What are you doing?’ David complained, rubbing his eyes.

  ‘I’ve just remembered something! Mr Owen told us he had another toy soldier, didn’t he? It belonged to his father, who definitely believed in fairies, and it must have had the same toymaker as Llewellyn! So if we put him in the portal, it might work again!’

  Ellie woke up at seven o’clock the following morning and immediately felt excited as she remembered her plan.

  ‘Come on,’ she urged her brother, as she leapt out of bed. ‘We’ve got to go and see Mr Owen again as soon as the garage opens!’

  Luckily Aunt Megan didn’t object when the children announced that they were going to visit Mr Owen straight after breakfast, but she was curious to know why they wanted to spend so much time with him all of a sudden.

  ‘We just really like him,’ Ellie said quickly. ‘And . . . and he’s got lots of stories to tell us about the fairies.’

  ‘And you like to hear these stories as well, do you, David?’ Aunt Megan asked, sounding surprised.

  ‘Well . . . not exactly . . .’ David murmured, flushing.

  But before Aunt Megan could ask any more questions they had finished their breakfasts and were out through the door.

  As soon as they arrived at the garage Ellie asked Mr Owen if he would be willing to give the second toy soldier he had told them about to the museum. ‘The fairies need him, you see,’ she explained. ‘I can’t tell you any more than that or I’d be giving away a fairy secret, but they really need him in order for their magic to work.’

  ‘I’ll do anything I can to help the fairies,’ Mr Owen said immediately, and to Ellie’s relief he didn’t ask any questions. ‘I’ll go and have a look for that toy soldier straight away if you like – just so long as you two stay here and man the pumps for me.’

  It took Mr Owen half an hour to return with the soldier – during which time David had served three customers. The soldier looked almost identical to Llewellyn, and the children thanked Mr Owen and felt very excited as they set off for the toy museum.

  They got there to find Mr Daniels talking to someone on the phone in his office. As he paused to see what she wanted, Ellie quickly showed him the toy soldier and asked if she could put him in the case with the other toys. Mr Daniels nodded, taking the bunch of keys from its hook and giving it to her before returning to his call.

  The two children hurried through to the museum room, where Bronwen immediately appeared, closely followed by Myfanwy.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Ellie asked them.

  ‘Yes – though we’re very hungry. I don’t suppose you’ve brought us any of those fairy cakes, have you?’

  Ellie shook her head apologetically. But if her plan worked, then hopefully the fairies would soon be able to enjoy a nice breakfast back in Fairyland.

  ‘We’ve found another toy soldier,’ David said. ‘Show them, Ellie.’

  ‘He looks exactly like Llewellyn!’ Bronwen exclaimed as Ellie held him up for the fairies to see.

  ‘I know. Maybe they’re brothers – if toy soldiers have brothers,’ Ellie said. ‘Anyway, we’re hoping that if we put him with the other three toys, then the fairy portal might work again.’

  Several other fairies flew into view now, as Ellie unlocked the door of the central cabinet. Llewellyn, Dilys and Tedi were sitting inside, looking just like ordinary toys, as she carefully placed the new soldier down beside them.

  ‘I’ll sprinkle some more fairy dust on them,’ Bronwen said. ‘The last lot must have worn off.’ And she flew just above the toys and rubbed her fingers together until a very fine sparkly gold dust fell in a shower on to their heads.

  Gradually, one by one, the toys started to move – first Dilys, then Tedi and finally Llewellyn. The new soldier wasn’t moving, Ellie noticed, but Bronwen told her not to worry. ‘It always takes a bit longer for a toy who’s never been brought to life before,’ she explained.

  When Llewellyn saw the new toy soldier he let out a delighted gasp. ‘It’s one of my regiment!

  How wonderful! Where did you find him?’ Ellie explained about Mr Owen and how his father had once owned both soldiers. As she spoke, the second soldier’s eyes suddenly seemed more alive. Then his feet moved slightly. Then his head moved to one side and finally his mouth creaked open and he spoke. ‘I say – where the dickens am I?’

  The other toys all started to laugh because he did have a very strange way of speaking.

  ‘You’re in the toy museum,’ Llewellyn told him.

  The newcomer turned to look at Llewellyn, clearly relieved to see another soldier. ‘Has the regiment been posted here th
en?’

  ‘I’m afraid we’re the only ones left,’ Llewellyn replied. ‘The museum is a sort of retirement home for old toys like us. My name is Llewellyn, and these are my friends, Dilys and Tedi.’

  ‘Very pleased to meet you, old chap,’ the soldier said, giving Llewellyn a stiff salute, then reaching out to shake Dilys’s hand and Tedi’s paw. ‘I am . . .’ He paused, looking a little uncomfortable. ‘Actually, I don’t believe I have a name.’

  ‘You can name yourself,’ Llewellyn said. ‘That’s what we did!’

  ‘If you were my toy soldier, I’d call you Morgan,’ David suddenly said.

  ‘Morgan,’ Dilys repeated carefully. ‘Yes – I like that. It’s a good Welsh name, and you are a Welsh soldier after all. Even if you don’t talk like one.’

  ‘He’s an officer – that’s why he talks in such a posh voice,’ Llewellyn said, pointing to some faded painted stripes on Morgan’s arm. ‘Listen, Morgan, I hope this doesn’t mean you’re going to start ordering us all about,’ he added, frowning.

  ‘Wouldn’t dream of it, old boy,’ Morgan assured him hurriedly. ‘Didn’t even notice those stripes before, to tell you the truth. An officer, you say? Well, never mind that – all I want is for us all to be friends!’

  ‘Look – the portal is starting to work again!’ Myfanwy shrieked excitedly, and sure enough they could see now that the picnic ring was starting to glow very faintly.

  ‘It really is working!’ Ellie exclaimed, as the glow became stronger. ‘We’ve done it!’

  And to her amazement several of the fairies began to weep with relief as they realized they would be going home again after all.

  When the museum room was finally empty of fairies, Tedi told the children that the toys would stay awake until the fairy dust wore off, which depended how strong a dose the fairies had given them in the first place.

  ‘While we’re awake we’ve got something to ask you,’ Tedi said, suddenly looking serious. ‘You see, we’re very worried about Enid. Have you seen her since that old lady took her away?’