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“Yes, my lady.” That really wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but she let it go. As she was making her way to the kitchen to have a cup of tea, she was told to have a seat, and the cup she’d been using, as well as the tea in it, were just there. Like a lot of things that she’d been wanting to do over the last few days. “Would you like some scones? They’re fresh this morning.”
“No, thank you. I think that I want to just sit here and relax.” They didn’t understand that either, she’d come to discover. Relaxing wasn’t something that they did. If they weren’t busy-busy-busy, they were figuring out ways to make themselves busy. “Do you think that I could just have a few minutes alone?”
“Yes, my lady.” She didn’t care for the my lady bit either, but getting them to stop was next to impossible. Maddy turned to look at the little person she’d spoken to.
She could almost feel her hurt. And there was no doubt that she had hurt the little being. Sighing heavily, she turned in her seat and looked at her. Really looked. She was the most beautiful creature that she’d ever seen.
“I bet the flowers that you worked with were the best in the bunch. Does your red coloring mean that you only worked with the red ones?” She told her what the red color meant. “Oh. Well, that explains a great deal. It’s a sign of your promotion in your realm. What’s the highest you can attain?”
“Red, my lady. As red at the sunlight as it falls over the mountain into the next evening. The sky, when it’s trying, just one more time to show off before it goes to the other side of the world. I think it’s like that for us to remember that tomorrow will be just as bright and happy.” Maddy told her that was beautiful. “The sun and the weather are our most treasured things. Without either, we’d no longer have magic in the world. Without the flowers, there would be no more people either. Things have a special order. And we’re only here to help with that.”
“Thank you for everything that you do.” Strawberry bowed before her. “We have to work something out with the house, however. I love that you’re all here and that you want to help out. But for me, it’s too much. I’m not used to it.”
“I wondered if that was going to be something that we’d work on. They’re so happy to have someone to serve and help. We meant no harm.” Maddy told her again that she was sorry and that she knew that they’d not meant anything by being super helpful. “If you would allow it, my lady, we can make sure that the house is in tip-top shape all the time. Beds made, laundry too. We do that for you so that you can have more time to spend with Lord Gibb and the children. We so love too that you’re breeding. Another infant in the house will give you so much magic here. Children, especially babies, give us a boost of energy and magic that keeps us happy. You, too, if you would only allow us to give it to you.”
“What do you mean, give it to me? I didn’t know that there was magic that came to me as well. You know that I’m only human, correct?” Strawberry told her that she might well have been human when she came to be with Lord Gibb, but she wasn’t any longer. “Because we bonded.”
“Yes. And you love him. He loves you as well.” She smiled, and Strawberry smiled back at her. “It is written on your face how much you love him. It’s a sight that we, as faeries, don’t see often. Not the pure love that the two of you have.”
“I’ve never thought of it as being anything but love. But I do know that I will never love anyone else but him. He, really, he’s the only man that I’ve ever met that makes me want to be around him all the time.” Strawberry told her that she had such a love at one time. “I’m sorry. You lost him.”
“I did. Long ago now that I don’t remember his voice, but I do remember how he told me daily how much that he loved me. That he would forever be there for me. Then a monster in the form of a human found him with the flowers we were all attending to and killed him. He gave his life so that the rest of us could escape as the monster meant to kill us all.” Maddy felt her heart melt for the girl. It hurt her to think that the poor woman was alone but for her family. Maddy told her again how sorry she was. “You are a kindness that I’ve never encountered before, my lady. Thank you for your kindness about my Slate.”
For the rest of the morning and into the late afternoon, the two of them worked on a plan that would keep everyone happy. Now that she knew how much the little people depended on the household to keep them out of trouble, she was a little bit better about them being around all the time. They also set up an area in the house where the faeries could go to rest and call home.
“The bedroom is lovely, my lady. And all the windows will help us be warmed by the sun.” The windows had only been about two feet by two feet when they picked out the room. But with the magic that she now shared with Strawberry, there were not only more of them, but they were as long as the wall and wider as well. “I like the idea of having the baskets around for things that you find for us. Some of the things that you suggested, we’ve never had before. I think that the smaller nails will serve us well for making tools.”
The baskets had been created by her as well. And since they were labeled with what items could go into each of them, she thought that the children would be able to enjoy helping as well. Things like small stones, twist ties and other things like scraps of material were only a few things that they could give to them. The fact that they would bring things to her when they needed them glued together was something that she thought would be fun for her, too. And the watercolor and paints were a huge hit with the other faeries.
By the time they had exhausted all the ideas that they could, she sat down on the couch to catch a nap. She knew that she should be doing something, but Maddy was mentally drained. A feeling that she’d never experienced before today. But it had been fun working with the others. It was something that she thought she could do daily, even at the shop she was running.
Smiling, she thought of the A Cross to Bear shop. Even the name, even if you didn’t know that the Cross family were bears, was something that she loved. But being able to go there daily and run the place like she was, it was a dream come true for her.
Strawberry had suggested that she send some faeries to the place to ‘tidy up’ at the end of the day. The place was huge, too. Three floors of nothing but things for tourists to purchase. And since Fraizer had finished up the table and had it put in a prime location, more people were coming in to see it.
It was Maria who had suggested putting a tall sign out front to alert people that they had new merchandise in. Restocks too of the peoples’ favorites. Like the tea and the arrowheads that had been found around their land. Everyone contributed something to the place. Even her kids had been putting some of their artwork in to sell as well. Her cell phone ringing had her smiling when she noticed it was from the shop.
“Ms. Maddy, there is a couple here that want to purchase Mr. Frazier’s table. They want us to arrange to have it shipped to them. I’ve already made sure that they know the price—like four times as well as made sure that they understand that they’re paying for the transport.” She heard a door close, and the sounds of the shop were cut off. “These people are crazy mad for that table, ma’am. They told me that they’d been here three times to look it over and decided that it would be perfect in their home in Montana. I tried to call Mr. Fraizer to come and sign it, but he’s not answering. I’m as nervous as I’ve ever been with a sale. It’s a huge sale, and they’re gonna pay with cash so they can get it shipped to their home in time for Thanksgiving.”
“Shipping will be a great deal. Did you tell them that it weighs about nine hundred pounds?” Carol said that she had a lot. “All right. I’ll be there soon. I’ll also try and get in touch with Fraizer. He’s going to wet his pants over this. He said it would never sell. That’s why the price is so high. All right. I’m on my way.”
She was in her car when she reached out to Frazier. He sounded frustrated, and she told him how sorry she was to have interrupted him. He laughed a little and told her that it wasn’t her fault that he was so far behind today. Maddy didn’t ask why. She had a feeling he was late for the same reason that she was late getting out of the house every day. Sex.
“I’m all right. What can I do for you, my dear?” She told him about the sale of his table. “I’m sorry? You’re joking, right? No one is going to pay that much for—you are joking, right?”
“I’m not. I’m headed there now to figure out the shipping of it. They want it in their home by the holiday.” He laughed and told her that was a good one. “Fraizer. I promise you, I’m not joking. That is where I’m headed, and if you could go there too, they want to meet the artist.”
“That table took me eight years to finish. I mean, once I got started on it again after a long delay, it didn’t take me that long. After making all the little pieces of our mountain—Maddy, that table is marked at fifteen grand. They know that, don’t they?” She told him what Carol had told her about telling them four times. “I didn’t think it would sell. I mean, I guess that’s the whole point in putting a price on it, but I never thought that—this is a joke, right? I’m on my way there, but I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it selling.”
The table was worth every penny that he had it priced for. Fraizer had picked up things from the mountain to make it a one-of-a-kind table.
After carving wooden pieces, picking up tiny stones and moss, and drying small branches that he turned into trees, he built log cabins along the mountain, even going so far as to put his parents’ as well as his recently lost grandparents’ names on the headstones in the family cemetery. The rivers that ran down the mountain that supplied water to the homesteads were made of glass. Styled to perfection by Dexter, who even sharded up some of the blueish pieces and put them into the water to make the waterfalls. Salmon were depicted in the scene by hand-painted layers. To make the fish appear to be jumping from the waters as bears were set there to catch them had taken Fraizer hours of pouring and painstakingly painting each layer. The entire scene was then covered in resin to make it look as if you could step right into the scene and be a part of their everyday lives.
Fraizer was there before she was. When she got out of her car, she asked him why he’d not gone in. The look he gave her was one of disbelief. Like he was still thinking she was pulling a fast one on him by telling him a lie about the table being sold.
“All right. When we get in there, don’t you dare ask them if they really want to buy it. I’ll smack you around so hard that your children’s children will still be reeling from it. Understand?” He said that he did. “Good. Now, you put on your professional face and talk to these people. I mean what I said, too. I will hurt you.”
“You’re mean.” She thanked him. “I told the others that it was sold, and they’re coming too. Someone is going to have to help load it on the truck. Which, in a fit of still disbelief, I have made arrangements to have it picked up.”
