Valentine's Wishes (3 page)

“I’ve always loved those henna patterns. I think they are so cool.” Lucy held up a hand as though imagining the patterns in place.

“Yes, they’re great, so long as mine doesn’t happen to say here comes the bride,” Bal said and jutted her chin as she stared out of the window.

“They won’t make you marry him will they?” Keri asked.

Poppy held her breath.
If one of the girls gets married it will break up the whole, happy little household, things won’t be the same.

Bal gave a small shake of her head. “I wouldn’t think so. My dad doesn’t approve of people being pushed together, it’s not part of the faith and he’s always said if couples are forced to marry it causes too much trouble later. But I think I can tell you, if I don’t at least make some effort with this guy, I’ll get the whole letting the family down speech. You know, the big ‘you’ll end up a spinster, be too old, and no one will want you’ job from mom and gran. The pair of them could hardly contain their delight.”

“Frankly, I think you should tell them to mind their own business.” Lucy put her cup into the sink with a frown at Bal’s words.

“I wish I could, but Lucy I can’t, it would cause such a lot of trouble. I’ve always known it was unlikely I’d meet and marry someone who wasn’t vetted by the family first,” Bal said. “Taking in a movie with someone outside the family’s say-so is one thing, marriage is quite another.”

“None of it’s so simple, Lucy,” Kerry said. “I know how Bal feels, even I have to put up with my mother’s complaining ‘isn’t it time you thought about settling down?’” Keri turned to Bal. “Now we know the guy is coming to the party, will we need anything special tomorrow night for him and his friend? And, what about the booze, I mean he does know it’s a party?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Bal replied. “I don’t know how traditional this guy is, but I expect he’ll be able to stand a glass or two of punch. We’ll have lots of soft drinks as well that I can point to and say, those are for me and you, in case he’s conservative and has strong views on alcohol. As he’s a dentist he’ll probably be more worried about tooth enamel erosion from the sugar than anything else.”

All three of them laughed, and Poppy joined in.

What is a dentist, though?

“You can’t be the first of us to get married, really, Bal, not in this way, you can’t,” Lucy murmured and wrapped her arms around her friend.

“Hey, I’ve done well to make it this far, twenty-three and unwed is a major milestone. I knew girls who were engaged before they finished high school and married before they were nineteen.”

Keri looked at them each in turn. “Well, girls, this is the beginning of the end, perhaps? Certainly, if my mother has her way, before I’m twenty-four I’ll be married, with at least one beautiful grandchild for her, she’s told me she put it on her Christmas list for this year.”

Poppy stared in disbelief.
This is awful. The fun and energy the three of them generate will be gone. They’ll move house, and which one will I choose to go with? Love is important, I agree, but do all of them have to go at the same time?

“I know, and it’s us who are supposed to have ticking body clocks. If you ask me, some prospective grandmother, who awaits a rash of grandkids to spoil and send home, came up with the phrase.” Bal dumped her cup in the sink.

Keri grabbed the keys from the shelf. “Come on, before we all get maudlin. Besides it would be a shame to be late for the office on the one morning we all got up early.”

The three of them left, and saddened at their discussion, Poppy shook her head. She slipped out through the gap of an open window and into the garden she thought of as her own. The pots on the deck had a haze of green and there were bright green shoots of daffodils.
Will my mortals be here when those flowers bloom? Or will this sudden idea of marriage have taken one of them, or all of them? Maybe I’ll have to go home? I don’t want to go back yet.

She spent the rest of the day deep in thought while she flitted around the garden. Shafts of dull February sunshine filtered through the clouds, but failed to lift her sense of gloom.

* * * *

When the girls returned after work, eager to hear more from them and hopeful the dentist had refused his party invitation, Poppy slipped in and hid behind one of the chairs in the sitting room.

“Right, I’ve already phoned for a mega pizza tonight, so let’s get this clean up under way, ready for the best Valentine’s party we’ve ever had.” Keri glanced in turn at Lucy and Bal. “I mean, this one, it could be our last.”

A quiver of sorrow twitched through Poppy but determination to help them made her think hard.

I have to be careful though, fairy law requires magic be used “in accordance with direct requests.”
She gave a tiny grin.
But there are ways around the rules. A heartfelt, exhausted sigh, can and should be interpreted as a wish for some energy. Keri never actually says she wishes the knick-knacks in the kitchen would dust themselves, but she seems pleased to find them in no need of more than a brush off with the feather duster. Bal’s concerns over the time it takes to run the vacuum upstairs would serve me well in any court of fairy law.

She spent most of the evening giving a selection of unrequested assistance, so things went a little more speedily for the girls.
After all, it’s my job to be helpful where I think I should.

By nine thirty, she sank down behind the sofa, drained of almost all her energy. The girls all seemed relaxed and with the housework finished, they lounged to eat pizza.

While the three girls settled, Poppy roused herself to head out to the kitchen and the fresh air in the garden, but their turn of conversation stopped her midflight, and she made an unsteady landing to hear more. She peeked out to watch them from behind the sofa.

“So, we have the place tidy, garden lights ready. All we need to do tomorrow is get the patio heater onto the deck and lay out the food,” Keri said.

“Yes. Are we all still certain we want to use the garden?” Lucy asked, and she helped herself to a slice of pizza from the box.

“Oh, definitely!” Bal fumbled with her wedge of pizza, caught it before it hit the carpet, and gazed up, a plea in her glance. “Think. The garden will give me space to get away from my dentist, if I should need to.”

Poppy waited, held her breath in the hope the girl would wish for something to help her. But she didn’t, Poppy let out a gasp of frustration and stamped her foot.
Unrequested help round the house might be one thing. A serious wish, given in response to the words ‘I wish,’ would be something much more complicated than I’m used to, but it would produce far better results.

“Using the garden will be fine, it’s not rained in the last few days, so the ground won’t be muddy. We’ll have the lights and the big patio heater out. Everything will be great. We can even put the garden chairs on the deck. The weather forecast’s good for tomorrow, clear and crisp, but no rain,” Keri said.

“I won’t be dancing on the lawn, not in my Jimmy Choos. I’d be two inches deep before you could say mud. The heels would just sink in.” Lucy’s curled eyelashes fluttered. “James has agreed to come over tomorrow by nine. He sent me a text today to tell me he’d be here and wouldn’t miss it for anything. I think he is kind of hooked, at least I hope he is.”

So, two of the girls might be ready to fall in love.
Poppy noted the sparkle in Lucy’s eyes.
If anyone asked me I’d say she’s the one who’s hooked.

“Is that what you want?” Keri asked, lounging back on the sofa.

“You bet your sweet treats, hon. James is the nearest thing to Adonis I’ve ever met. Tomorrow I want to find out if all those muscles are as firm as they appear and I might get as far as finding out if they all work the way they should.”

“Lucy—” Bal’s almond shaped eyes flashed wide.

Wow, this must be serious!
Poppy stared up at the fair-haired mortal, whose cheeks flushed a delicate rose pink as she shoved a handful of hair back behind her ear.

Lucy grinned and offered a wink to both her friends. “We can’t all be Princess Snow White, my dears, some of us have to walk the real world and it’s nicer to do it in Prada if at all possible.”

“Only if you love him, Luce, promise? You won’t skip down the aisle simply because he’s on the board of directors?” Keri asked.

“You have to be joking. He’s gorgeous. James is perfect, it’s not his fault he’s wealthy. Right now, I think he wants me, and I am going to go for it. I mean come on, all this luscious loveliness.” Lucy skimmed a palm over her body. “This won’t last forever. Girls, it’s time to wake up and smell the pheromones. This is the time for us to do it. This is our peak season to find a mate. We’ve had our fun and plenty of it without getting too entangled…” Lucy stood up and paced around to the back of the sofa, where she leaned on the top.

Poppy gasped when the spike of Lucy’s heel near skewered her and darted back beneath the sofa, where for once the bundles of dust had been cleared. She crawled and elbowed her way into position to see the girls.

“I mean, we’re halfway there already,” Lucy continued and raised a graceful finger toward her friend. “Bal has her dentist, who will hopefully worship the ground on which she treads. I’ve got James, who I predict is going to be delighted to learn to eat from my hand, and Keri.” She turned to face the girl with chestnut curls held out of the way tonight by a chunky green clip. “Well, honey, who’ve you got in mind?”

“Right now, no one, and I’m fine with things that way. If I go for anyone, it will have to be someone I’ve not met yet. So far, I’ve seen no hint of a guy who could be the kind of man I’d want to spend the rest of my life with. I crave something more than muscle and a healthy bank balance,” Keri said. “Though I’m still kind of unsure exactly what it is I want.”

The girls laughed, and Poppy joined in. While she hid and listened, a plan of sorts formulated. A hazy idea of a way she could help them all and stay within anyone’s notion of fairy rules.

All three of them are indirectly asking for love. I remember how it felt to want someone special. Okay, they haven’t said the magic, “I wish” words, but they all want someone.
She smiled as the sense of impending magic swelled through her.
How wonderful I can help them and they’ll never feel the way I did when I left the court.

Keri picked up the pad and pen from the coffee table. “Let’s get a final headcount for tomorrow night, to make sure we have it all covered. Lucy, who’ve you invited, since we wrote the first list, other than James?”

“I asked a couple of the new girls from the downstairs office, both of them said yes and are bringing dates. James, of course, and I’ve heard from Nicky Ashcroft. She emailed me this morning, Nial is going to drive her over for the evening, but he can’t come to the party because he’s working on something or other important. And Trish Littleton got back to me as well. She’s in the area for the week visiting her in-laws, so she’ll come too, obviously with Jack.”

Bal smiled. “Wonderful! I haven’t seen Trish or Nicky since their weddings last spring.”

Keri pushed the pen behind her ear. “And what fine affairs those were, dancing till dawn. Wonderful. Bal, how many have you invited?”

“Let’s see, you have the original list and just add the dentist and his friend Jez. I think I’d got everyone covered before the prospective groom bombshell fell.”

Keri nodded, pulled the pen from between two curls where it had caught and made a note. “Well, between the three of us I have a count of forty-seven definite and about nine who are maybes,” she said. “I’d say we might need to buy a few more soft drinks on the way back here tomorrow. Hopefully, we have educated all our guests well in the past, so most of them will bring something to add to what we already have. We should have more than enough, and we could always bring the three chairs down from upstairs, if we need to. I think most people will sit on the floor in here or on the benches and things out on the deck.”

Lucy picked up the empty pizza box and carried it into the kitchen. When she reappeared in the doorway she yawned and made her way to the stairs. “Ladies, beauty sleep calls. I am off to dream about my man.”

Bal followed Lucy up the stairs. Keri sat and stared out of the wide patio windows into the night darkened garden.

Poppy watched until Keri rose, tossed the note pad onto the table, and switched off the lamp.

Tomorrow night at the party, I’ll see they all get what they want. James will fall madly in love with Lucy, I’ll see to it. If Bal shows any interest in her dentist male, I’ll work on him too.

Keri stood in the well of light at the bottom of the stairs. Even dressed in the old sweatshirt and jeans, this mortal still had such a wonderful, toned, hourglass figure.

Her curls and her skin are lovely enough to make a fairy envious on occasion. I’ll find someone very special for Keri, someone who’ll make her want to sing from the rooftops. She’s the kind of mortal who deserves a very special romance.

Keri flipped the light off and went up the stairs, but still Poppy sat in thought.
I don’t want to lose my mortals but I do want to see them happy. I know I can help them find the mates they want.

Better slow down a bit here.
She bit her lip.
I’ve not actually ever made a real big wish happen before, not ever. Somehow, I don’t think a big wish will be so easy as a stay-clean wish to the windows, or a stay-dust-free wish to the shelves. Maybe I ought to think about it a good bit before the party and see if I can remember what they said about big wishes at the court. But, hey, everyone has to have a first!

She crept out into the kitchen with tingles of anticipation making her wings itch. The room smelled fresh and clean. Tonight she had no fear she’d slip on a grease spot as she hovered up and landed on the window ledge. Before she made her way out of the window, she sent a little tiny wish to the surface of the stove to keep it spotless.
I’ve done all I can tonight, tomorrow will be the big test.
She ducked under the window net and flew out into the fresh air.