by E. D. Baker
“Thank you, Wanita,” Cory said as the birds flew away. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t helped out.”
“Just returning a favor,” the witch replied. “Now we’re even!”
Scratching her newly acquired mosquito bites, Cory grinned and said, “Let me know when you need another favor. I have a feeling I’m going to need your help again before this thing with the guilds is over.”
Wanita cackled. “I’ll keep that in mind!” she exclaimed before heading home.
When the pedal-bus let Cory off in front of her grandfather’s house, she took a long look around. The neighborhood was filled with stately houses that had been a little intimidating at first, but Cory was already beginning to feel comfortable there. Her grandfather had invited her to share the big house with him so he could teach her more about being a Cupid. Cory had been considering it; she just wasn’t sure she was ready to take such a big step yet.
Walking up the long, curving driveway, she realized that she no longer minded the heart motif that seemed to be everywhere. Instead of thinking it sappy, she’d come to consider it the symbol of what Cupids did. The TFG had its flying tooth everywhere, why couldn’t Cupid do the same, even if only Cory, Lionel, and the putti knew what the heart really meant?
When Cory pressed the heart-shaped mother-of-pearl button by the door, Orville was there within moments, almost as if he’d known she was coming. “Welcome, Miss Cory!” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” she replied as she stepped into the enormous foyer. “Is my grandfather here?”
“He’s having his morning juice on the back terrace, miss,” the putti said. Instead of turning to lead the way, he took a step closer and peered up at her. “What happened to you, if you don’t mind my asking? Did someone do this to you? Who was it? You tell me and I’ll lay him out flat!”
Even as Cory tried to stifle a smile, her hand flew to the cut on her forehead. “No one did this, Orville, although I do appreciate the offer. I was in an accident yesterday, but I’m fine, really.”
“If you say so,” he said as if he didn’t believe her.
He looked worried as he turned away, but Cory had told him the truth and didn’t know what to say that would make him worry less. She followed as he toddled across the smooth stone floor, his babylike legs unsteady and his arms out as if to help him keep his balance. She’d discovered over the last few weeks that the putti, who were no taller than her knees and looked like human babies, or Cupids without wings, were actually very proud. Although she thought they were adorable and longed to pick one up and cuddle him, she didn’t dare.
Her grandfather was seated just where he always was in the morning, sipping his juice and reading The Fey Express. He smiled up at her as she took the seat across from him, but his smile turned into a frown when he saw her cuts and scrapes. “What happened to you?” he asked.
Cory sighed, wondering how many times she was going to have to tell the same story. “There was an accident at a water nymph performance of Swan Lake yesterday. Blue and I were there and the water collapsed on us. Blue kept me from being badly hurt.”
Lionel’s expression was grim when he asked, “Was it the TFG again?”
“I don’t think so. A young water nymph learning to control her powers was there. I think it was just an accident. The Tooth Fairy Guild has been harassing me again, though. So has the Flower Fairy Guild. I received a sickeningly sweet box of candy after I gave my statement about the guilds to the FLEA and agreed to testify in front of the big jury. Sending candy like that is the kind of thing the TFG does as a warning. Then it rained just over Micah’s house and the Flower Fairy guild planted weeds all over the yard. This morning fairies dropped insect bombs when I was outside. The worst thing happened last night. I woke up with a sandman in my room, about to send me a bad dream. The Sandman Guild had already sent me a nightmare the night before. The guilds have been harassing my friend Stella, too. She was a flower fairy who married a human years ago and the FFG took her fairy abilities away like the TFG took mine.”
Her grandfather’s frown had deepened while she spoke. “It sounds as if the guilds are getting nervous,” he said, “especially if they’ve brought the Sandman Guild into it, too. I’m afraid they won’t stop until the courts make them stop. The FLEA doesn’t do anything fast, but I’ll hurry them as best I can. Be careful in the meantime. Ah, I see that Cook has made you breakfast. She doesn’t have to ask anymore, does she?”
Cory smiled as Orville set a glass of juice in front of her and began unloading a tray of coddled eggs, blueberry muffins, sliced melon, and fresh peaches on the table. Cory helped herself while her grandfather accepted another glass of juice.
“Thank you, Orville,” said Cory. “Grandfather, I wanted to tell you what the guilds have been doing, but that wasn’t the real reason I came to see you. I have a different sort of problem and I don’t know what to do about it. It’s a Cupid kind of problem.”
“Ah,” Lionel said, leaning back in his seat and steepling his fingers in front of him. “Perhaps we can solve it together.”
“I hope so!” said Cory. “I met a girl who wants me to find a match for her. She has no idea that I’m a Cupid; she just knows that I’ve helped other people. Anyway, I saw who her match is, but I didn’t know who he was until last night. Zephyr has been asked to play at Prince Rupert’s wedding, and Chancy—you met her at my party—showed us pictures of his castle. I saw the young man from my vision in one of the pictures. It’s Prince Rupert himself. And that’s the problem. The prince is engaged to someone else, but his true love is this girl named Goldilocks. She pestered me to take her on as a client, and then I saw her with Rupert and I don’t know what to do about it. I mean, should I let Rupert marry his fiancée, or should I match him up with Goldilocks?”
“That’s a good question,” said Lionel. “Cupids have agonized over just such dilemmas for centuries. I’m going to tell you what my father told me when I first asked him about a difficult decision that I had to make. You are a Cupid and your gifts will guide you. Follow your heart and remember that no marriage will be truly happy if the couple is not meant for each other. We have no say over whom we are meant to help, nor whom their true love might be. Do what you feel is right.”
“But that’s just it! I don’t know what’s right!” said Cory.
“Perhaps you don’t now, but you will when the time comes. It takes a while to learn everything about being a Cupid. I’m still learning and I’ve been doing it for centuries. You won’t always like the people you match. And you may not find matches for people you do like. Then again, just because you don’t see a match for someone doesn’t mean that you won’t see one later on. Your visions won’t show you matches until both parties are ready for love. Now eat your breakfast. It sounds as if you have a lot to do, and you’ll need the energy.”
When Cory left her grandfather’s house, she was still as confused as she had been before, only now she had a plan. If she wouldn’t know what to do until the time came, she’d have to make sure she was ready one way or the other. To do that, Goldilocks would have to go to the wedding.
Cory took the pedal-bus to her uncle’s house, although she wasn’t planning to stay there long. Riffling through the messages she’d received from clients, she found one that Goldilocks had sent her and used it to send a new reply.
Goldilocks,
We need to meet. It’s about a possible match for you.
Cory
She wasn’t sure Goldilocks would get back to her right away, and was pleased when the answer came only a few minutes later.
Cory,
Come to my house. 5 Deep Woods Drive.
Goldilocks
“Huh,” Cory murmured. “She lives on the same street as the Bruins. That means she’s been stealing from her neighbors.” Cory shook her head. After spending a little more time with Goldilocks, Cory had almost come to lik
e her. She thought she understood the girl a little better, too, but that didn’t mean she liked everything Goldilocks did.
Once again Cory took the pedal-bus to Deep Woods Drive. Although she found the mailbox for number five easily enough, the house was set so far off the road on a twisty path that she began to think it wasn’t really there. Even when she was standing right in front of the house, she might have kept on going if Goldilocks hadn’t called out to her. “Hey, Cory! What took you so long?”
Cory looked all around, but didn’t see the house until Goldilocks shouted, “Up here! That’s it. I’m right in front of you.”
“In front and above,” Cory muttered when she saw Goldilocks standing on a platform at least twenty feet above her.
The platform formed the porch to a tree house in one of the largest trees Cory had seen in a while. It started at the platform where Goldilocks stood, then rose into the branches with one cube here, another offset above it, leading to more cubes until it reached the widest part of the tree, where it actually looked like a house.
“The steps are on the other side!” Goldilocks shouted, so Cory stayed on the path as it wound behind the tree.
The narrow steps switched back and forth on the back side of the trunk until they reached the platform, where Goldilocks was waiting. Cory climbed the steps and took a seat beside Goldilocks when she reached the top.
“I don’t understand,” Cory told her. “If you send all the money you make to your family, how can you afford such a nice house?”
Goldilocks laughed, an infectious sound that made Cory smile. “This isn’t my house!” Goldilocks finally said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I’m house-sitting for a friend. I’ve been here for two years and he hasn’t come back yet.”
“But you’ve been stealing!” said Cory.
Goldilocks shrugged. “Neighbors like the Bruins didn’t seem to mind until recently. If they had, they would have kept their doors locked like they do now. So, what did you want to tell me? It must be important for you to come all the way out here.”
“It is,” said Cory. “I think I’ve found the man who would be just right for you, but you’re going to have to travel to meet him. Are you up to going with me to Dorrigal? I’ve heard that he’s going to be at the royal wedding.”
“Royal wedding? I can manage that! How are we getting there?”
“You’ll have to go with my band, Zephyr,” said Cory. “We’ll be playing at the wedding and you can go with us to help lug the instruments around and set them up, run errands, get band members drinks of water, and things like that. Do you think you can handle it?”
“Sure,” said Goldilocks. “If it means I can see a royal wedding. And meet this guy you found for me. Is he handsome?”
“Very! We’re going to leave early tomorrow morning. Be at this address by six a.m.,” she said, handing her a slip of parchment. “Make sure you’re there on time, or we’ll leave without you.”
“Oh, I’ll be there,” said Goldilocks. “You can count on me!”
CHAPTER
11
When Cory returned home, she found Noodles loose in the front yard with his friend, Weegie. They were sniffing a bundle of thistle plants lying on the path to the front door. Two of the prettier weeds had been dug up and were already replanted in pots.
“What happened here?” Cory asked.
“I came to visit Noodles and was saying hello when some two-leggers showed up. One dug up those plants,” Weegie said, looking at the wild daisies in the pots, “and the other one was waiting to plant these.” She nudged the thistles that she and Noodles had been inspecting. “Noodles said they shouldn’t be doing that, so I bit them.”
Cory wasn’t sure that she had heard her right. “You did what?”
“I bit them. Not enough to take out a chunk; just enough so they knew I meant business,” Weegie told her. “They got tiny after that and flew away. Both of them were in such a hurry that they left their stuff behind.”
“I can imagine,” Cory said. “I guess you can call these plants evidence, so I should send Blue a message. He’ll want to see this.”
“Noodles and I will guard the yard,” said Weegie as Cory started up the porch steps. “If they come back, I’ll bite them again.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Cory told her.
“You never know!” Weegie said, looking hopeful.
Once inside, Cory jotted down a quick message to Blue.
Blue,
Flower fairies have been here. They left evidence.
Cory
His reply came before she’d walked away from the basket.
Be right there.
Blue
Soon after she went outside and started looking around the yard to see if there was more evidence, Blue rode up on his solar cycle. “What happened?” he asked, taking out a leaf and an ink stick.
Weegie was sitting beside Noodles, but Blue didn’t seem to have noticed her. “I can tell you!” she said. Blue’s eyebrows shot up and he gave Cory a look of surprise.
Cory nodded. “This is Weegie, a friend of Noodles’s. She was here when it happened and told me about it when I got home.”
While Weegie told Blue everything that she’d told Cory, he wrote it down on his leaf. When he’d heard it all three times over, including all the details about how and where she’d bitten the “two-leggers,” he tucked his leaf in his pocket and turned to Cory. “I’ll have to take those in as evidence,” he said, gesturing to the weeds in the pots and those lying on the ground.
“Be my guest,” Cory told him. “Anything that will help in our case against the guilds. I have to do some laundry and pack, but would you like to come over for an early dinner with Micah and me? I have another rehearsal tonight and the band is leaving in the morning.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “That will give me a chance to take these back to the station and check them in as evidence. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” After collecting the plants, he gave her a kiss before hopping onto his cycle and riding off.
Cory didn’t see any point in putting Noodles in the enclosure if the wild woodchuck was just going to let him out, so she left him loose in the yard with Weegie when she went inside. After collecting her dirty clothes, she started a load of wash in the big stone basin where she and Micah did laundry, adding the soapstone washing pebbles as the water poured in. The laundry was already churning in the basin when she went to her room to find the items she needed to pack. When she had everything laid out on her bed, she took her laundry outside to hang it up to dry. As soon as everything was dripping on the line, she went back inside to start preparing dinner.
Micah arrived home from work after Cory had already made a salad and marinated the fish she was going to bake. He had stopped at a stand where a fairy was selling fresh produce, and he shucked the corn while Cory rinsed the fresh blueberries that he’d bought. After they set the table, Cory made a pitcher of lemonade and they took it to the porch along with three cups. They sat on the porch, sipping lemonade while they waited for Blue. When he finally showed up, Micah poured him a cup as well.
After a while, Cory went inside to start cooking the fish, leaving the men on the porch. When she came back out, they were talking about everything the guilds had done in the last week.
“I’m worried about Micah,” Cory told Blue. “Would you please keep an eye on things here while I’m gone? It may be a while before the guilds know that I’m not here and they might still do things to the house and yard.”
“I’ll make sure that he’s fine,” Blue told her, “but I’m sure the guilds will know you’re gone as soon as you leave. They have spies everywhere.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Cory. “They did know that I was going to testify as soon as I agreed to do it.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” said Micah. “I can take care of myself. Noodles and I will be just fine.”
“Speaking of Noodles,” said Cory. “Be prepared t
o meet his new friend. He met a wild woodchuck and she’s been coming over to see him. They were in the yard earlier, and they might still be there.”
“You left out the best part,” said Blue. “She can talk and her name is Weegie.”
Cory nodded. “She said a witch cast a spell on her so she could give directions.”
“That would be a handy spell to know,” Blue said with a laugh.
Micah stood to look around the yard. “I’d like to meet her. Do you think she’d talk to me?”
“I think she likes to talk, so I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Cory. She opened the door and gestured for them to come with her. “We should probably go inside. The fish will be cooked soon.”
“I’m as hungry as a bear!” Blue said as he got to his feet. “I hope there’s plenty to eat.”
“There is if you like vegetables!” Cory declared.
“So what do you know about the wedding?” Micah said as he took his seat at the table.
Cory told them what she had learned from Chancy, ending with, “And Grandpa was hired to make a scale model of the castle as a gift for Rupert’s bride.”
“That would be my father,” Micah told Blue. “He makes scale models of everything.”
“He has a real eye for detail,” Cory said, nodding. “I saw the model when he was working on it the last time we went over for dinner. It was beautiful.”
Although they ate all of the fish and most of the salad, they hadn’t eaten dessert yet when it was time for Cory to go. Blue offered to drive her. “You don’t need to,” Cory told him. “I can take the bus. Stay here and eat the berries with Micah. There are way too many for him to eat them all himself.”