Fairy Godmothers, Inc

TWENTY-FOUR



All the Little Things


Kate couldn’t stop herself from imagining worst-case scenarios as they went to find Rellie. The miracles of the last hour had undoubtedly used up every shred of good fortune she was ever going to have—and probably a few other people’s allotments, to be honest—which meant it was about time for something else terrible to happen.

“Another left turn, down one more corridor and we’ll be there,” said Jon, pointing to the corner ahead of them. They had decided to start at the room where they knew Rellie had last been to give themselves a starting point for the search. “Of course, with our less-than-stellar luck, they decided to start looking on the other side of the palace and we’ll still have no idea where to find them.”

When he caught sight of her face, he stopped in his tracks and focused on her. “You know she’s fine, right?” he said, assurance in every word. “After everything else we’ve had to deal with, this is nothing more than an overly complicated game of hide and seek.”

She took a deep breath, trying to believe him. She hadn’t had enough practice yet to be any good at it, and as wonderful as it was it didn’t provide nearly as steady a ground as planning for the worst. “I’m never going to be very good at hoping for the best,” she warned softly, meeting his eyes in a silent plea for understanding. “If this has any chance of working, you’re going to have to be okay with that.”

He watched her for a long, careful moment, then flashed a grin that was almost enough to make her fall in love with him all over again right there. “I’ve always thought I could use a little more hard-headed realism in my life.”

She was stunned to find a laugh bubbling up. “No, you didn’t.”

He was unrepentant as they started moving again. “True, but only because I didn’t know you would be the one providing the realism.”

Luckily, they didn’t have much further to go; Ned was at the far end of the corridor, quietly checking each room and clearly trying very hard not to panic. Concerned, Kate let go of Jon’s hand to hurry over to him. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Ned closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the door he’d been about to open. “I don’t know where Rellie is, I can’t go very far to look for her because it’d be too easy for me to get lost and be completely useless, and I can’t even make any noise trying to find her because the queen and Rellie’s entire stepfamily are all in the same room at the other end of the hall.”

At a loss, Kate decided to at least try and get at little more information. “Why is Rellie’s stepfamily still here?” she asked Jon.

Jon shrugged. “I’m not sure yet if I’ll need them for the plan I’m pulling together. I was trying to keep them contained until I’d made a decision, and then you distracted me.” His gaze shifted to Ned as he caught a change in the younger man’s expression. “You’ve thought of something.”

Kate turned back to see Ned’s eyes unfocused, staring at whatever idea was unfolding in his mind. After a second, he blinked and shook his head. “Never mind. It’s probably stupid.”

Kate prodded him in the shoulder. “Tell us.”

“It’s just . . . if there was a chance Rellie heard her stepfamily coming, she’s not exactly the kind of person who would try to run away.”

Understanding hit Kate and Jon at almost the same time. They turned to look at each other, then Jon gave her a rueful smile. “Sadly, I believe my greatest contribution to the proceedings from this point would be to stay safely out of the way and let you handle this.”

Sympathetic, Kate gently patted his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll get to save the day again before the night’s out.” She turned to Ned. “Right now, however, it’s your turn.”

The two hurried down the corridor, slowing as they got closer to their target. Ned had already gotten out one of the patches and was attaching it to his wand as Kate eyed the doors to the rooms on each side of the room with the queen and Rellie’s stepfamily. “Rellie would have been coming from the same direction we did, so this one would have been the closest.” She reached for the doorknob, then stopped. Really, this was Ned’s moment. “Do you want to go first?”

Ned hesitated, no doubt wrestling with the potential risks and advantages. One of the things they’d always had in common was the tendency to overthink things. “I’ll be right behind you,” he said, finally.

Gingerly, Kate opened the door, chest loosening in relief as the light from the hallway fell on the edge of a pink skirt. Rellie was standing close to the wall adjoining the room where her stepfamily was, eyes closed and ear flat against the wallpaper as if trying to listen to whatever conversation was happening on the other side. “There you are,” Kate said quietly, not bothering to hide the relief on her face.

Rellie’s eyes flew open as she leapt away from the wall. “Kate! You’re—” She froze, every ounce of her attention focused over Kate’s shoulder. Her eyes were huge, full of fear and hope and a little guilt. “Ned?”

Kate stepped out of the way so Ned could move forward. “It’s me.” He peeled the paper backing off the patch. “You kind of scared me for a minute there, Rellie.”

“I heard Belzie yelling at someone, and I wanted to know what they were doing in the palace,” she whispered, taking a hesitant step forward. “Ned, you know it was just the love potion, right? I don’t really want to get all fluttery when I—”

“I know,” he cut her off gently, shaking his wand until a fine pink mist formed. “We’ll fix it.” He moved close to her, brushing her hair away from the side of her neck. “This won’t hurt, but it’s probably going to feel weird.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Just do it, please.”

Ned swallowed as he pressed the patch against the side of Rellie’s neck, holding it there. When the girl swayed he wrapped his other arm around her, and a few seconds later she opened her eyes again. His arm tightened and she grinned up at him. “You are so much cuter than Jon,” she whispered and threw her arms around his neck, holding on for all she was worth. Ned, having a firm grasp of priorities, dropped his wand so he could return the favor. “So. Much. Cuter.”

Kate gave in to her own grin as she picked up Ned’s abandoned wand before retreating into the corridor. At the other end she could see Jon talking to Lawton, who had apparently given up his own search for Rellie sometime in the last few minutes. When she moved closer, Jon shifted his attention back to her. “So, everyone’s back to normal now?”

“Relatively speaking.” She kissed his cheek, happily moving into the circle of his arms for some snuggling of her own. Everyone she cared about was safe and accounted for, and she was going to let herself savor that state of affairs for as long as it lasted. “They need a few minutes alone, but after that we should all find someplace slightly less out in the open. I’m all for collapsing in relief for a little while, but not this close to your mother and Rellie’s stepfamily.”

“There are a few rooms in the east wing we keep ready for diplomats, which means they’ve been recently dusted.” Jon smoothed a hand down Kate’s hair. “Once everyone’s settled in, I can double-check that everything’s moving ahead on the little show I’m getting ready.”

Lawton raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Don’t be ridiculous, Jon. You’ve had what, fifteen minutes of sleep in the last forty-eight hours?”

Kate pulled back, alarmed. “Really?”

“He’s exaggerating,” Jon protested, then sighed when Kate narrowed her eyes at him. “It was about an hour, but I’m fine. Really.”

“Oh, that makes such a difference.” Lawton looked at Kate. “Katharine, I beg you to make him sensible for me. I need to go retrieve Rupert from whatever trouble he’s undoubtedly wandered into in the last few minutes, and hopefully force him to assist me in rounding up assurances from the women Jon insists he’ll need for his master plan.”

After he’d left, Kate stepped back and gave Jon her most resolute look. “He’s right, you know. Bubbles isn’t going to know enough to come after me until at least late tomorrow morning, and hopefully we’ll have even longer than that. If you get some sleep now, we’ll still have plenty of time to finish putting together that plan you mentioned.”

“I’m fine,” Jon repeated stubbornly, the effect ruined when the last word broke off in a yawn. This time, it was his turn to narrow his eyes. “I blame that on Lawton.”

She kept the smile from showing, knowing he was fully capable of charming her out of making him go to sleep. Luckily, she wasn’t completely defenseless against him. “If we’re going to make this work, then I’ve got to be able to take care of you, too. Equal partners,” she said gently, brushing her knuckles against his cheek. “Which means that right now, it’s my job to make sure you get some rest before you fall over.”

His expression softened as he lifted a hand to capture hers. “I like the sound of that.”

The conversation would have likely dissolved into sheer romantic nonsense at that point, but Rellie and Ned’s arrival interrupted them. Kate couldn’t help but notice they held hands so tightly it would have taken an army to pry them apart. “Feeling better?” Jon asked, clearly pleased by the sight.

Rellie grinned at Ned, who blushed. “I definitely want to kiss the right person again, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Jon said. Reluctantly, he moved away from the wall, taking Kate’s hand in compensation. “Ned, Rellie, it’s probably a good idea for neither of you to go home tonight. We’ll get you settled into some rooms and see about anything else you might need.” He caught Kate’s eyes. “Then, all four of us are going to get some rest, and I’ll get your help with the shoe-fitting in the morning.”

Ned’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure how a shoe-fitting is going to help keep Bubbles from killing Kate and me.”

“Image, mostly.” Jon’s eyes lit with anticipation. “And lawyers.”


As it turned out, they didn’t make it all the way over to the east wing—pages kept flocking to Jon like enchanted minions, and Kate finally dragged him and the rest of their little group into the nearest bedroom and locked the door behind them. Rellie insisted she wasn’t tired, but after they’d taken care of the dust clouds, and Ned had cuddled up close on the couch, she was asleep within moments. Kate and Jon stretched out on the still-made bed, arms wrapped around each other, and immediately drifted off into a long-awaited slumber.

The next morning, it was Kate’s turn to spend some quality time in one of the palace’s many closets.

“I thought, ‘How hard can it be? Even royalty has to have something better to wear than a Fairy Godmothers outfit,’” she muttered, peeling off a brocade gown stiff enough to potentially injure innocent bystanders. “They have to wear something normal occasionally.”

“Normal’s boring, and you’re just being picky.” Rellie, who had invited herself into the dress-up session after complaining of Kate’s slowness, held up a silver dress seemingly covered in three-inch-long fringe. “How about this one? It even sort of matches the shoes.”

Kate sighed. “With my luck, someone will mistake me for a duster.” She did like the shoes, though—she’d made them earlier, a set of “glass” slippers almost identical to Rellie’s, but a little too large even for Lawton’s feet. Then she’d given Ned her wand and shown him how to change their size, a set of moves he was currently out in the bedroom practicing so he’d be ready when she put the shoes on.

If she could, she would have taken over his part of the plan in a second. But that wasn’t how fairy tales went.

Grabbing a dress off the floor and holding it in front of her, Kate opened the closet door a crack and poked her head out to look at Jon. “Next time we get ourselves into this kind of trouble, all I ask is that you come up with a plan where I get to wear something sensible.”

Jon shook his head regretfully. “Not with those wings, sweetheart. Everyone’s fine with fairy princesses, but no one’s ever heard of a fairy serving girl.”

“This is so much easier when I get to be the one holding the wand.”

Lawton, settled back against the couch, looked amused as he took a sip from his glass of brandy. “It continues to fascinate me how much you remind me of Jon sometimes.” He turned to Jon. “In answer to your previous question, eighteen of the twenty-five women are downstairs getting dressed and waiting for further instruction. The rest should be arriving within the hour.”

“I’ll be babysitting any kids they had to bring along,” Rupert chimed in, stretched out along a bare spot of floor. “It’ll let some of the women hide the fact that they’re not really single, and I’ll get to hide from Mother until all of this is over.”

“Good. I’ve already prepped the lawyers.” Jon nodded as he mentally reviewed the plan. “Their other clients are exactly the kind of people who use Fairy Godmothers, Inc., and they’ve already assured me they’ll be more than happy to spread the word that the company no longer offers the reliable service it once appeared to.”

“And gets in the way of other socially-appropriate love stories, such as the handsome prince falling in love with the fairy princess who magically fits the glass slipper.” Lawton’s smirk broadened as he lifted his glass in an imaginary toast.

“People, you have to stop calling Kate a fairy princess. It will make her even crabbier than she is now.” Rellie stuck her arm out underneath Kate’s, a mass of velvety deep blue fabric bunched up in her hand. “Try this on. It’s the absolute most boring thing I could find in here.” When Kate took it, the girl used the same route to duck out of the closet completely. “Jon, you probably need to kiss her again.”

“I’m not crabby, I’m frustrated,” Kate said. “There’s a difference.”

Jon lifted an eyebrow. “Does that mean I can’t kiss you?”

Kate’s cheeks went red, but she felt a smile itching at her mouth. “Wait until I’ve gotten changed.”

She shut the door again, holding up the dress Rellie had found for her. It was extremely basic, with long straight sleeves and a skirt that didn’t pouf out at all—it was probably meant to be an under-dress originally for some of the more ridiculously complicated see-through things they’d found in here already. Even better, the back clasps looked like they would work with her wings.

Kate opened the door again, fastening the top clasp by feel as she stepped out of the closet. “Okay, now I’m ready to actually do something useful.”

Jon grinned at her, coming over for a quick kiss. “As much as I’d like to say being glued to my side is where you’re most vitally needed at the moment, it’s the perfect time for you to give the other women some acting cues for the shoe-fitting. I’m going to go see if I can—”

He stopped as someone knocked at the door. Everyone turned; even Rupert lifted his head. “Is there any chance that’s Father coming to see how we’re all doing?” he asked.

“If it is, he won’t mind that we’re being a little cautious.” Jon gestured for them to stay where they were as he approached the door. “Still, there’s no reason to worry. At worst, it’s probably one of Madame Stewart’s assistants annoyed that they’re not in charge of whatever’s being set up in the ballroom.”

But the visitor turned out to be a short, neatly dressed man with a touch of gray in his hair and a stack of paperwork in one hand. “Your Highness, I’m aware you’re busy with a personal project, but I’ve been needing to speak to you about one of our suppliers for several days.” Whatever else he’d been about to say trailed off at the crowd gathered in the room. “Ah.” The man’s eyes widened as Rupert slowly got to his feet, and he cleared his throat, before meeting Jon’s eyes again. “Perhaps another time.”

“If you wouldn’t mind, Graham.” There was more than a trace of guilt in Jon’s voice. “I’m sorry I haven’t been as available as I should be, but I’m hoping to have this project wrapped up sometime in the next day or two. We’ll talk then.”

“Of course.” Graham nodded, gaze sliding back to the still-silent group as if he couldn’t quite help himself. “Forgive me for asking, Your Highness, but speculation over the details of your personal project have run rampant this last week or so. You’ve been responsible for some of the most solid management the kingdom has seen in years, and your recent distraction has been the cause of some concern.”

Jon winced. “Like I said, I’m truly sorry. I promise you things should return to normal within a few days at most.” He paused a moment, considering something, then turned to look at Kate. She grimaced as she realized what he was about to do, but he was speaking again before she could try to signal him. “As to what my personal project is, let me refer you to someone far more qualified to answer that question than I.”

Kate glared at Jon, but he just tried to look supportive as he tilted his head toward Graham. Not knowing what else to do, she joined him at the door. “Hi, I’m Kate.” She held out a hand to the other man, who was looking almost as startled as she felt. “I guess you could call me the personal project.”

“Well, that would make sense.” Graham’s expression slowly eased, and he gave Kate a bow instead of taking her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.” He straightened, smiling. “The staff will be comforted by the news. There has been some speculation in this direction, but the young blond girl who has been staying with us the last day or so seemed to be the most likely candidate for our future queen. Naturally, that has been the cause of further concern.” He nodded at them both, ignoring Rellie’s indignant “Hey!” in the background. “Good day to you all.”

Once he left, Jon shut the door and put an encouraging arm around Kate’s shoulders. “See? They like you.”

Not having a sufficiently witty answer to that, she groaned.