‘It is. They are.’ Trixie’s curls nodded rigidly. ‘And everyone has a special fairy. A fairy who is there, in the enchanted world, just for us. And our special fairy has a name for us that reflects our personality.’
Billy hooted with laughter.
Poll, sensing a scene threatening, felt soothing intervention was called for. ‘Ah, yes, I’ve heard about something like that… I remember Mitzi Blessing’s younger daughter found something on the inter-web-thingy – she stopped calling herself Lulu and wanted to be known as Moonwand Frostblizzard for ages. Really confusing it was. Mind you, Lulu Blessing is a confusing girl at the best of times.’
Trixie nodded. ‘Oh, yes, the fairy generator name sites are lovely and a bit of fun, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Real Fairies. I’m talking about each one of us having our own fairy guide who knows us by our Given Enchanted Name.’
‘Really?’ Poll gave Billy another warning glance and hoped Ella wasn’t listening. She’d never believe this. No, Ella was still chattering to Onyx and Ash. Thank goodness. ‘Do you mean like a guardian angel?’
Trixie shook her head. ‘No, that’s something else again. But we really do each have a fairy who looks over us, takes care of us, and knows us not as Trixie Pepper or Poll Andrews but by our Enchanted Name, and whose mission is to make sure we do the right thing at the right time.’
‘Yours had the night off when you burned your house down, did she?’ Billy asked innocently. ‘Or had you taken one too many of your herbal tinctures?’
‘That,’ Trixie hissed, ‘as I’ve told Poll, was the work of a Bad Elf while I was cooking my supper and watching that edition of Dewberrys’ Dinners from Cornwall where they were making pasties and got to the bit where they realised they’d left the veg out and were trying to get it into the cooked pastry without that ghastly Gabby Dewberry noticing and I got riveted and my pan caught on, and whoosh!’
Billy bit his lip and chuckled.
Trixie ignored him and looked plaintively at Poll. ‘Oh, it’s so difficult to explain about the fairies to non-believers –’
‘I wouldn’t bother then,’ Billy said kindly. ‘It’ll like as not be nonsense.’
Poll tried not to laugh. ‘Don’t be such a nay-sayer, Billy. I’m fascinated, Trixie. Go on.’
Casting a further baleful look at Billy, Trixie took a deep breath. ‘Well, my fairy name is Gossamer Snapdragon.’
Billy hooted with laughter. ‘How lovely!’ Poll exclaimed quickly. ‘And does it have a special meaning? For you?’
Trixie nodded. ‘All the given fairy names accurately reflect their owner’s personality. Mine means I’m imbued with a lightness of spirit, in tune with the burgeoning of youthful spring, and can also be tough but fair when needed.’
‘Poppycock!’ Billy spluttered. ‘I’ve never heard so much old baloney in my life!’
Poll flapped her hands. ‘Take no notice of him – tell me what mine is then, Trixie. Can you do that?’
‘I can’t, but the fairies can if I ask them to.’ She narrowed her eyes at Billy. ‘Now, I don’t know either of you properly, do I? I’ve only just met you today, have only been able to form a sketchy opinion of your characters from this dinner party, but the fairies will tell me your names which are linked to theirs and reflect your personality.’
‘Party tricks.’ Billy grinned. ‘I love party tricks. Go on then, give us a bit of a laugh.’
Trixie leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Poll and Billy exchanged amused glances.
‘Right.’ Trixie opened her eyes again. ‘Poll’s fairy guide says her name is Thistledown Dreamer – soft, gentle, generous, easily distracted, kindly and loving. And you –’ she stared at Billy ‘– your fairy guide says you’re Pumpkin Scoffer. You’re honest, robust, hard-working and loyal, but inclined to mock others, albeit in a non-hurtful manner.’
‘Well!’ Poll was impressed. ‘That’s amazing, Trixie! Thistledown Dreamer… how pretty! And how very apt for me. And Billy’s is very accurate, too. Pumpkin is so sweet.’
‘Damn Pumpkin, my foot!’ Billy snorted. ‘She’s making it up. She’s just picking bloody silly, um, I mean, fairy names that go with what she’s already sussed out about us.’
Trixie’s cheeks turned very red. Poll really hoped she wasn’t going to have a heart attack. She’d forgotten most of her elementary first aid unless it was fastening a splint. She could do splints. Splints, she felt, wouldn’t be much use in a cardiac arrest.
‘All right then, Mr Scoffer.’ Trixie raised her eyebrows in a superior way. ‘So, what about the rest of the party? The three young ’uns down t’other end of the table? I don’t know anything about them at all, do I? I can’t even begin to guess at their personalities, but I’ll ask the fairies to tell me their names too, shall I?’
Billy chuckled. ‘Ah, go on then. But I think you should leave out Onyx because none of us knows her so we wouldn’t be able to say yay or nay, would we? You just do Ella and Ash, but I’m betting you won’t get it right this time.’
‘Actually,’ Trixie said, ‘Ella should be easy as the literal interpretation of her name is “fairy maiden”.’
‘Nooo! Is it?’ Poll beamed. ‘Really? I wonder if she knows. Sorry, Trixie, I know you want to concentrate…’
Trixie closed her eyes again.
‘Nodded off,’ Billy said softly to Poll, his brown eyes crinkling with mischief. ‘Probably won’t get another peep out of her until bedtime.’
‘Ssssh, Pumpkin,’ Poll said softly. ‘Let the fairies do their work.’
Trixie’s eyes suddenly shot open.
‘Blimey,’ Billy said. ‘That were a bit scary. Like summat off a ghost train ride.’
Poll giggled.
Trixie ignored him. ‘Ella’s fairy name is Sunshine Strangeflower. A happy-go-lucky girl with a warm heart and a willingness to tackle anything that life throws at her and always with a ready smile.’
Poll nodded. ‘Well, as far as I know, that’s Ella to a T. Come on, Billy, you’ve got to admit it.’
‘And as I hardly know the girl, I’ll have to trust you on that one. Come on, then. How about young Ash?’
Trixie did the eye-closing thing again. Poll held her breath. This was really quite fascinating. And how lovely it would be if there really were fairies. She wasn’t sure if she believed in them or not. She’d always hoped they existed, always been fascinated by the idea – mainly after reading about the Cottingley Fairies. She’d never believe that was a hoax. Never. If the explanation had been good enough for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then it was certainly good enough for her.
‘Ash’s Enchanted Name,’ Trixie’s eyes opened wide, ‘is a bit odd. I hate to admit it, but I may have got this wrong.’
‘Surely not,’ Billy chuckled. ‘You tell us what the fairies are telling you about young Ash, and Poll’ll soon put you straight.’
‘I’m sure you will, Mr Scoffer. Well, I’m being told he’s known as Kalen, um, Aspeeday. Kalen indicates a warrior king – someone loyal and honest and hard-working, who slaves for what he wants to achieve but will also fight to the death to protect those he loves or the ideals he believes in.’
Billy nodded grudgingly. ‘OK – young Ash strikes me as a lad who’d fight – not literally, of course – for the rights of anyone and everything he holds dear.’
‘Yes, but,’ Trixie said, ‘where the Aspeeday bit comes in I’ve no idea. It’s not the usual sort of Enchanted Name at all and, as far as I can see, has no meaning or any relevance.’
‘That’s absolutely amazing,’ Poll exhaled. ‘And it has loads of relevance, actually. You see, A-s-p-i-d-e means serpent or snake.’
Billy’s dark-brown eyes widened in admiration. ‘Fancy you knowing that, Poll, love. That’s very clever.’
Poll blushed at the compliment. ‘I had an old-fashioned education.’
‘Really?’ Trixie frowned. ‘And is Aspeeday Latin, then, dear?’
‘Old Engli
sh,’ Poll said. ‘You don’t want to know how boring it was, but things learned by rote seem to stick, don’t they?’
‘They do, dear,’ Trixie agreed. ‘I still know all my times tables. And the fairies use a lot of Old English language – not that I’m au fait with it all, of course… but even if you’re right – and I’m sure you are, dear – I still don’t understand why a snake should be relevant to Ash.’
Poll nodded enthusiastically. ‘It is, believe me. Oh, I don’t mean in a sort of creepy way or that Ash is a viper in the bosom or a wicked tempting serpent as in Adam and Eve, but, and of course you couldn’t possibly know this, he has a much-beloved pet snake called Roy.’
‘Bloody hell!’ Billy snorted. ‘In the bedroom next to mine?’
Poll nodded. ‘Very securely locked in.’
‘Oh, good.’
Trixie smiled broadly. ‘Really, dear? Oh, I am pleased! Fancy that! I’ve never been let down by my fairies before but I must admit I thought they’d got it wrong. Ash must love this, um, Roy very much for the fairies to have linked it to him in his name.’
‘Oh, he does,’ Poll assured her. ‘Roy’s the love of Ash’s life.’
Oh dear, and if only that were completely true. Poll glanced along the table. Onyx’s chair was empty and Ash and Ella were laughing together. Of course Ash loved Roy, but it really seemed tonight, having seen them together for the first time, that he loved Onyx too. Poor Ella. Even if she and Mark called a halt to their relationship, Ash was clearly off limits. Life was so unfair sometimes.
Abandoning the age-old complexities of the eternal triangle, Poll stood up. ‘Now I really I must go and see to George – it’s way past his bedtime and he’ll be wanting his story. Trixie, thanks for the fairy names thing – it was fascinating. You must tell us more about the fairies really soon. But now we know about the names, does it mean we’ll have to call each other Gossamer and Pumpkin all the time in future?’
Trixie shook her head. ‘Definitely not, dear. Those names are only used when the Magic Comes Upon Us. Fairies are very secretive folk, you know.’
Billy laughed. ‘Thank the Lord for that. And your secret’s safe with me, Trixie. I swear I’ll never tell another living soul that I’ve got my very own fairy. Now, while Poll’s getting young Georgie tucked up in bed, what say that we start clearing this table and sort out some coffee?’
‘Good idea. You do the dishwasher, Mr Scoffer, and I’ll make the coffee if someone tells me where everything is.’ Trixie cast an arch glance at Billy. ‘And it’ll be just coffee, no herbal tinctures or magical fairy brews. At least, not this time.’
Billy laughed.
Poll beamed at them both. They seemed to be friendly enough again now. Phew. She gathered her voluminous skirts up and squeezed along the table, pausing behind Ella’s chair. ‘I’m just getting George off to bed then we’ll have coffee in the garden.’
‘Lovely.’ Ella smiled up at her. ‘It all went brilliantly, Poll. Happy now?’
Poll nodded, then glanced at the empty chair beside Ella and lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘Where’s Onyx? I didn’t see her go.’
‘She’s just popped to the loo.’
‘Oh, right. So, how are you getting on? With her – Onyx?’
Ella sighed. ‘Oh, she’s lovely – I mean, not just beautiful, but a really fab person too… And she’s clever – and I really like her – sod it.’
Poll pulled a sympathetic face. ‘I know – even from the little I’ve seen of her, I do too.’ She raised her voice to a normal level. ‘So, maybe if you could just help Trixie find the coffee stuff while I do George’s bedtime?’
‘Of course.’ Ella nodded. ‘And Ash can help Billy clear the table and stack the dishwasher.’
Ash looked across the table. ‘Love to. And I will if he can hang on for a while. As soon as Onyx comes back from the loo we’re going to pop upstairs to my room so that she can say hi to Roy again – she hasn’t seen him for ages. Oh, and don’t count us in for coffee, sorry. I’m running Onyx back to Winterbrook because she’s working later tonight, and I’ve no idea when I’ll be home.’
Chapter Eighteen
‘. . . so you see, dear,’ Trixie said earnestly to Ella several days later as they, accompanied by all the dogs and most of the cats, collected eggs in the depths of the hens’ coop, ‘the fairies can help us all.’
‘Mmm, I’m sure they can.’ Ella pushed her hair behind her ears, adding another still warm egg to her basket. ‘And it’s all fascinating – especially the name thing. I quite like being Sunshine Strangeflower. But, maybe you shouldn’t go on about them, the fairies that is, too much… you know, away from here.’
‘In case people think I’m doolally?’ Trixie straightened up. ‘I’m used to that, dear. But you wait – one day I’ll be able to show you just what the fairies can do. One day, when you need their help, they’ll be there, then you won’t doubt their existence.’
‘Oh, I don’t,’ Ella said quickly, shutting the hen-house door behind them. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’
‘Now you’re teasing me,’ Trixie said, smiling, as they made their way back towards the kitchen. ‘But you wait. One day you’ll believe in them as much as I do.’
Ella strongly doubted it, but she liked Trixie and certainly didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
‘The fairies are very much linked to flowers and plants and all things natural,’ Trixie said happily as they trudged across the sun-baked garden. ‘See – here – there’s speedwell and cowslips and scarlet pimpernel just in this patch of grass.’
Ella, who knew nothing at all about wild flowers, stared at the arid ground. ‘Really?’
‘Yes, and they each have their own fairies – all dressed in bright blue and yellow and scarlet – and each fairy has a special day and a special magical task. They’ll appear exactly when you need them most. So pretty. And they each have their own little magical song, too.’
‘They do?’
‘Oh, yes.’
Trixie suddenly grabbed her floral dirndl skirt in her one free hand, swished it from side to side in a carefree girlish manner, then threw back her tightly permed head and sang in a frighteningly high-pitched warble, ‘Pretty speedwell blue as the sky/Pimpernel red is nature’s spy/While cowslip yellow/Makes folk mellow/Tra-la-la.’
Trixie stopped singing and dropped a small curtsey. ‘There’s lots more verses, dear, and they should be three separate songs. I sort of concertina’d those three in together to give you some idea – and of course I didn’t want to awaken the fairy magic.’
‘Oh, of course not.’ Ella stared at Trixie, completely stunned. ‘Er, yes, lovely… And, er, each fairy has a flower and a song? How, um, lovely.’
‘Oh, it is, dear.’ Trixie trotted happily towards the kitchen door. ‘Oh, and that reminds me, I really must get a complete set of Cicely Mary Barker for young George.’
‘Who?’
‘The Flower Fairies, dear.’ Trixie looked shocked. ‘Surely you know all about the Flower Fairies? Cecily Mary had it spot on.’
‘Ah, yes, I do know the Flower Fairies books.’ Ella, still completely bewildered, nodded. ‘Lovely, but I’m not sure they’ll replace Thomas the Tank Engine in George’s affections.’
‘Maybe not –’ Trixie hefted her egg basket on to the kitchen table ‘– but everyone should keep an open mind, don’t you think? And it’s always better to teach children these things from a really early age before cynicism sets in. Right, now I’m going to sort out my smalls – I do like a tidy knicker drawer, don’t you, dear? What have you got planned?’
Blinking slightly at the sudden switch to such a prosaic subject, Ella shook her head. ‘Um, nothing very exciting. Poll’s just taken a cool box down to Billy in the barn so she’ll be gone for ages, and it must be ninety degrees already, so I’m going to take George out in the car – probably to Fiddlesticks so we can paddle and have ice cream.’
‘I’ll happily join you on the first, but please don
’t mention the second,’ Ash said with a laugh as he opened the kitchen door. ‘I’ve already had enough of ice cream to last me a lifetime.’
Ella raised mocking eyebrows. ‘After what, you lightweight? Less than a week?’
‘Less than a week of the hottest days anyone can ever remember,’ Ash pointed out. ‘When every man, woman and child wants ice cream. And wants it now. This is the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life. Give me a sweltering kitchen, a full restaurant and a homicidal chef any time.’
‘Excuse me, dear.’ Trixie eased past him in the doorway. ‘I’ve got a lingerie drawer to sort out and a little herbal tincture with my name on it waiting upstairs.’
Ash chuckled, watching Trixie head for the staircase. ‘Lingerie? And these herbal tinctures?’
‘G and t I reckon,’ Ella said. ‘And who knows what Trixie’s underwear is like.’
‘Not a subject I want to spend much time pondering on, thanks.’
‘Ash, she just sang at me.’
‘Who? Trixie?’
‘Yep. A song about fairies and flowers. It was really scary.’
‘I can imagine. Wish I’d been there.’
‘No, seriously, she really does believe in all this fairy magic stuff. She isn’t – well – certifiable, is she?’
‘I doubt it. No more than the rest of us.’ Ash opened the fridge-freezer. ‘Sorry, frozen furry thing alert – avert your eyes. I’ve just fed Roy.’
‘Oh, ugh. And why aren’t you at work?’
‘I’m on lates today, lucky me.’ Ash straightened up. ‘Which means I have the joy of parking outside the schools this afternoon and being roundly abused by pock-faced lads who wanna win X Fac’or and plump girls whose life ambition is to marry a foo’baller. None of whom have ever learned to say please or thank you.’
‘My-my.’ Ella grinned. ‘You do have a high opinion of your customers, don’t you?’
‘Some of them are really lovely,’ Ash admitted, ‘and I am very grateful to have a job – any job – at last, but there’s nothing like being exposed to the Great British Public en masse when they’re hot and tired and irritable, and when I’m the same, to bring out the worst in all concerned. Which is why I was serious about coming out with you and George for a paddle.’
The Way to a Woman's Heart Page 13