Lucy Castor Finds Her Sparkle

by Natasha Lowe

  “Of course you will, Chloe,” Mrs. Castor said. “They are extremely lucky to have you.”

  It was another week before the twins were allowed to go home, and when Lucy and her parents left for the hospital to collect them, Lucy was amazed to see that clusters of tiny snowdrops had burst into bloom overnight.

  “First sign of spring,” Mrs. Castor observed, admiring the white bell-shaped flowers. “Gosh, I’ve been so busy lately, I didn’t even notice the snowdrops coming up.”

  “Nor did I,” Lucy said. “Because I don’t think they were, Mom. I think this is some welcome home magic for the twins.”

  “Very possibly,” Mrs. Castor agreed.

  All the Castors felt that a celebration tea party was most definitely in order, but since Lucy’s mom spent all her time lying in the Nest nursing the babies, Chloe had offered to bake the cake. It took her the entire day before the party to make it, which meant that Lucy and her dad had to do all the cleaning. But it was worth it. The cake looked delicious, if a little lopsided, and Chloe had even managed to pipe WILLIAM and PETUNIA in green and pink icing on the top and sprinkled the whole thing in edible sparkles.

  Lucy’s grandmother had driven all the way down from Vermont for a few days. She was going to be sharing Lucy’s bedroom, which was most exciting, Lucy told her, because they could stay up late and tell ghost stories, and maybe, if they were very lucky, they might even see Lucy’s gnome. Aunty Karen had been invited to the party too, of course. As soon as she arrived Lucy took them both upstairs to her room and had them sit on her bed while she read out Clara’s letter.

  “Gosh, how wonderful,” Lucy’s gran said. “I’m sure Clara grew up to be very happy because she obviously had parents who loved her very much.”

  “Here’s the nest they sent her,” Lucy said, holding it out for them both to see. “Isn’t it perfect?”

  “Absolutely perfect,” Aunty Karen agreed, admiring the three little eggs inside. “Just like your family, Lucy, a nest with three babies in it.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” Lucy said, smiling down at the eggs. “That slightly bigger one is me, and those two little ones are Petunia and William.”

  Lucy showed them the cookie tin she had found the nest in, and her grandmother got very excited, saying she remembered her own mother keeping buttons in a tin just like that.

  “Well, I’m keeping magic in this now,” Lucy whispered, opening it up and showing them the gnome she had sketched in her notebook, her list of magical signs, the little pile of sparkles, and the scrap of newspaper with “magic” written on it.

  “What a special thing to have,” Lucy’s gran remarked.

  “Yes, and when Petunia and William are older, I can teach them all about magic and where to find it,” Lucy said. “And show them the picture of my gnome so they’ll know what he looks like when this is their room. Which it won’t be for a while, because I’m not ready to move up to the attic yet,” Lucy added quickly.

  She wasn’t ready to give up her gnome cupboard either. Luckily, her new room wouldn’t be finished for a while. Mr. Castor wanted to build her a secret closet under the eaves, but he had been so busy helping with the babies, he hadn’t gotten around to it. Lucy didn’t mind though. She wasn’t brave enough to sleep all the way up at the top of the house by herself yet anyway. Still, it was a nice feeling knowing her new room would be waiting for her when she was ready.

  Lucy had worn her special leaf dress for the party and put a garland of silk flowers on her head. And when she looked at her reflection in the mirror, a splendid elf princess gazed back. Even the babies seemed to sense it was an important day. They had been doing a lot of screaming since coming home from the hospital, and although Lucy didn’t want to give them away anymore, their crying could be highly annoying at times. Often at night now, Lucy had to put a pillow over her head to shut out the noise, and when the babies weren’t screaming, they were constantly having their diapers changed or spitting up all over the Nest.

  But today William and Petunia were asleep in their wicker baskets (probably because Lucy had sung them Toady’s “stop crying” spell) and were wearing the new soft stretchy suits Aunty Karen had bought for them. It was much easier to love the babies when they were asleep. They looked so fragile, small and helpless, like little baby birds. Which gave Lucy an idea.

  Since Chloe was done decorating the cake, Lucy asked her if she had any scraps of ribbon lying around that she didn’t need. Unlike most grown-ups, instead of finishing the washing up first, Chloe had produced a big bag of colorful remnants, sensing that whatever Lucy wanted them for was far more important than a clean kitchen. So with Chloe’s help Lucy had woven the strips of velvet, satin, and lace through Petunia’s and William’s baskets. Nests were important, Lucy decided, and the twins needed to have their own beautiful nest each.

  At Lucy’s request Mr. Castor had worn his magical, rather faded, hummingbird shirt, the blue-and-pink-checkered one that had hung outside for weeks, because how could it not be filled with good juju since a hummingbird had nested in the pocket? In fact Lucy was feeling so full of good juju herself that she decided they should ask Mrs. Minor to come to the party.

  “Rachel and I think she’s lonely,” Lucy said to her parents. “That’s what makes her so crabby and mean.”

  “Ahhh, and not because she’s a witch?” Mr. Castor inquired.

  “Don’t be silly, Dad. I haven’t thought that in ages.”

  “Perhaps we could ask her over for tea another day?” Mrs. Castor suggested, but Lucy shook her head.

  “We can’t all be over here enjoying ourselves and have her sitting in her house feeling miserable. It doesn’t seem fair.”

  “Well, it can’t hurt to ask,” Mr. Castor agreed, holding out his hand to Lucy. “Come on. Let’s go and see if we can persuade her.”

  They hadn’t even got to Mrs. Minor’s front door when one of the upstairs windows was pushed open and Mrs. Minor stuck her head out. Her silver gray hair swished forward, as smooth and perfectly cut as her lawn. “Can I help you people?”

  “Hi,” Lucy said, looking up and smiling. “Hi,” she said again, squeezing her father’s hand.

  “We were hoping you might join us for a cup of tea,” Mr. Castor said. “To celebrate our twins coming home.”

  “I’m about to take a nap,” Mrs. Minor replied. “I always take a nap at this time. And afterward I’m sorting out my Tupperware. Thank you,” she added, twisting up her lips and slamming the window shut.

  “At least she said ‘thank you,’ ” Mr. Castor remarked as they walked back home. “And I believe that was a smile, which is definitely progress.”

  “I think it was a sneer,” Lucy whispered. “But I’m still glad we asked her.” She paused a moment and said, “I’m also quite glad she’s not coming. What if she put an evil spell on the twins like the wicked godmother in Sleeping Beauty?”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in witches anymore.”

  “Well, I’ve changed my mind,” Lucy said.

  The O’Briens had been delighted to be asked to the twins’ welcome home celebration, although Lucy was more than a little nervous about this. Something always seemed to break or spill or got hurled across the room whenever they visited, and she didn’t want it to be William or Petunia. Not at their special party. Luckily, the boys were much more excited by Chloe’s cake than the twins, and they hovered around it, breathing on the beautiful frosting and sneaking sprinkles from the plate.

  “Please don’t touch,” Lucy kept saying, wishing they had a playpen to put the boys in, somewhere nice and contained that they couldn’t get out of. She wished it even more when Mrs. O’Brien strolled in and said, “Has anyone seen Billy?”

  “Is he lost?” Lucy panicked, looking around the kitchen. There were all sorts of dangers in the Castors’ house, just waiting for two-year-old Billy: small clock parts he could swallow, steep stairs to fall down, a toilet to fall into …

  “He’ll be hi
ding somewhere with his book,” Mrs. O’Brien said, rather too calmly, Lucy thought. “That’s what Billy does.”

  “He likes small spaces,” Sammy offered, not taking his eyes off the cake. Lucy checked under the table and behind the Nest, but he wasn’t there. “I’ll look upstairs,” she said, racing out of the kitchen. A worrying thought had occurred to her. What if Billy had found her nests? What if he was, right this very second, sweeping them off her shelf and pulling them all apart?

  Lucy’s groan turned to a sigh of relief as she dashed into her bedroom and saw that nothing had been disturbed. All the nests were just as she had left them, and she was about to go and look in the bathroom when she heard a soft rustling coming from her closet. The door was half open, and pulling it all the way back Lucy peered inside. There, sitting on the floor, with a big smile across his face, was Billy O’Brien. “Elf!” Billy said, holding out his book.

  “Elf?” Lucy repeated, crouching down beside him. A tingle of excitement shot through her. “Did you see him in here? In my closet?”

  Billy laughed, a bubbly, joyous laugh that could mean only one thing. And then Lucy saw the name of his book. Up until this moment she had never been close enough (or had any desire) to know what the book was that Billy loved so much. But now she did. The Elf Family, Lucy read. The picture on the cover showed three little elves with long white beards, and although their shoes weren’t gold and sparkly with curly-toed ends, the elves did look remarkably similar to Lucy’s gnome.

  “Is this what he looked like?” Lucy questioned, quite sure that Billy was talking about her gnome and not his book.

  Billy laughed again, tucking The Elf Family up his sweater in case Lucy tried to steal it. Flopping onto his back he chanted, “Elf, elf, elf.”

  Magic buzzed in the air, so ticklish and powerful that Lucy actually sneezed. “You saw him, didn’t you?” she whispered. “I knew he was real. You saw my elf in here.”

  “My elf,” Billy said firmly, hugging his chest.

  “Both our elf, Billy,” Lucy said. She hesitated a moment and then held out her hand. Billy stared up at her, a little warily. “You can come back again,” Lucy told him. “In fact, when William and Petunia are older, you can help me teach them all about elves. And Toady, too. You can all go on elf hunts together.”

  Billy nodded, and keeping one hand firmly pressed against his book to stop it slipping out, he took Lucy’s hand with his other. She led him back downstairs, thinking how amazing magic was. How it always seemed to happen when you least expected it.

  Lucy shivered with happiness. She would tell her parents and her grandmother later on, after everyone else had gone home. But right now she wanted to keep the magic to herself.

  “Oh, Lucy, you are wonderful,” Mrs. O’Brien said, bouncing Toady on her lap. “Where did you find him?”

  “In my closet,” Lucy answered, smiling.

  “He loves closets,” Mrs. O’Brien said as Sammy shoved a messily wrapped gift at Lucy. The paper was homemade, covered in crayon superheroes.

  “I drew the pictures and did all the wrapping,” Sammy told her.

  “It’s just a little something for the twins,” Mrs. O’Brien added. “The boys each picked out their favorite book as a present.”

  “Not our own books,” Sammy clarified, in case Lucy hadn’t understood. “We bought new ones from the store.”

  “That’s so wonderful! Thank you,” Lucy said, taking off the paper and holding up a smart new copy of The Elf Family. She grinned at Billy. “I know the twins are going to love this one!”

  Lucy’s mother had asked Lucy if she wanted to invite a friend to the party, and without even hesitating Lucy had answered “Rachel.” There were days when Lucy still missed playing with Ella and laughing at her jokes, but it was the old Ella she missed, and not the new sparkly one. Rachel had worn green tights and a green dress to the party in honor of elf princesses, and when Chloe met her in the hallway, she gave a loud whistle of appreciation and said, “Cool outfit. I love the tights!”

  “This is my friend Rachel,” Lucy said. She hesitated a moment, then added, “My best friend.” It was the first time she had spoken the words out loud, but they felt completely right.

  Lucy led Rachel into the living room and carefully picked up one of the twins, making sure none of the O’Brien boys was nearby. “Isn’t she beautiful?” Lucy whispered, thinking that change could be a wonderful thing after all. Petunia gave a little squirm and opened her eyes. And even though she was only four weeks old, Lucy swore her baby sister smiled at her. It was the perfect petunia moment. It was magic!

  Acknowledgments

  Many thanks to my wonderful agent, Ann Tobias, who loved Lucy from the beginning and never ran out of patience, even when it took me forever to get things right.

  I am so grateful to Paula Wiseman for showing me that a little bit of magic is always a good thing, and was just the extra sparkle this story needed. I know Lucy would definitely agree!

  Thanks to Chloë Foglia for designing the perfect cover, and to Diana Pedott for the beautiful illustration.

  Thanks to Jane Gilbert Keith for all her careful reading and feedback and the gorgeous nest books she let me borrow.

  Thanks to my sister, Annabelle, and my mom, who read Lucy many times without complaining. And to my dad for coming up with the perfect title!

  And to Jon, Sebastian, Oliver, Ben, and Juliette—I love you all.

  About the Author

  Natasha Lowe knew as a child that she wanted to be a writer, an adventurer, or a fancy teashop owner. So she did a little bit of everything, traveling from her native London to America, where she ran the Teahouse bed-and-breakfast and wowed guests with her grandmother—s shortbread recipes. She lives in Massachusetts with her family. Please visit Natasha at natashalowe.com.

  Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

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  Also by Natasha Lowe

  The Power of Poppy Pendle

  The Courage of Cat Campbell

  The Marvelous Magic of Miss Mabel

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Natasha Lowe

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2018 by Diana Pedott

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  Book design by Chloë Foglia

  The text for this book was set in Garamond 3 LT.

  Jacket design by Chloë Foglia

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2018 by Diana Pedott

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Lowe, Natasha, author.

  Title: Lucy Castor finds her sparkle / Natasha Lowe.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2018] | “A Paula Wiseman Book.” | Audience: Ages 12 and under. |

  Summary: Lucy, nine, does not like change and now,
her best friend has stopped believing in magic and her mother is expecting a baby.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017028134|

  ISBN 9781534401969 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534401983 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Best friends—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Neighbors—Fiction. | Pregnancy—Fiction. | Family life—Massachusetts—Fiction. | Massachusetts—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.L9627 Luc 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028134