Reading Online Novel

My Unfair Godmother(106)



“Clover took him,” I said. “He’s going to use the gold to pay his UMA dues for the next century or two.”

“Ah.” Hudson drew a couple of deep breaths and walked over to me. “Greed pays off again.”

“There’s another good moral from the story,” Nick said.

I finished writing the sentence Clover had told me, but like the others, it faded from the book. I gripped the pen hard, then threw it onto the open page. “No!” I yelled.

Alarmed, Hudson took the book from my hands. He read the last page and looked at me quizzically. “You didn’t want to live happily ever after?”

“Not that. Clover told me the moral of the story and it still didn’t work.”

Nick shook his head and glanced at the book. “So much for leprechauns saving our sorry britches.”

I suppressed a frustrated scream. Nothing worked. What sort of awful enchanted book was this?

Hudson helped me up and handed the book back to me. “Let’s hope the wizard’s magic works better.”



Chapter 23

Another light came bobbing up the trail toward us—the wizard hurrying, but not running. He slowed when he saw me. “Where is this statue you said entrapped the girl? What sort of trickery are you up to?”

“No trickery,” Hudson said. “I told you the truth. A leprechaun took the statue away because it was made of gold, but you can look at the mark on Tansy’s arm if you don’t believe me.” I didn’t expect the wizard to actually care about the proof, but he strode over to me. I showed him the mark on my forearm. It was deep red, almost purple, and my arm was swollen. He wrinkled his nose, then turned back to Hudson. “Very well. Let’s conduct our business directly. Where is the Gilead?”

Hudson opened the pouch at his waist and pulled out the branch.

“You can have it if you promise to send everyone here back to our time period. We can pay you gold for your extra trouble.” The wizard pursed his lips. “Our bargain was for one person. No more.”

Hudson motioned to my family. “All of us need to go home. We don’t belong here.”

“Do you know how much effort, how much magic, that would en-tail?” The wizard held up a finger. “One person. Choose whomever you desire.”

I didn’t want to hear this, not after we’d been through so much.

“Please,” I said, but Bartimaeus probably didn’t even hear me. Hudson was talking again.

“It has to be all of us,” he said.



317/356

My dad stepped forward. “If you help us, we’ll give you the things we brought with us from our day—walkie-talkies, flashlights, watches, first-aid kits …”

Perhaps the wizard might have been interested if he had known what any of these items were, but he didn’t bother to ask. He shook his head as though we couldn’t possibly have anything worthwhile.

Sandra walked over to him, still carrying the baby. “Think how you would feel if your own family were stranded in the wrong time.

Wouldn’t you want someone to help them?” A moth flew by the wizard’s oil lamp, and he batted it away. “That is precisely why I have no family. They’re simply more people who need something from you. Annoying insects.” I wasn’t sure whether he meant families or the moth that was still circling his lamp. “The mos-quitoes will be out next.” He swung his hand through the air as though swiping away an incoming swarm and glared at Hudson. “Choose who will go, or our bargain is over.”

Hudson turned to me, his dark eyes pained. He was going to say good-bye to me now; he was leaving. The realization caused a spike of pain in my heart that rivaled the stab of the enchantment. I wanted to tell Hudson it was okay, that I wouldn’t blame him for going and leaving the rest of us here. I couldn’t do it, though. My throat felt tight at the thought of never seeing him again.

“Well,” I said, trying to keep my voice light, “it turns out ‘happily ever after’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” He walked over and took hold of my hand. I didn’t want this moment of kindness. It felt like a consolation prize. I couldn’t pull my hand away, though. Suddenly I wanted to cling to him and was afraid I wouldn’t be able to let go.

“Should we send Stetson back?” he asked.



318/356

“What?” It hadn’t been what I expected him to say. I couldn’t process it. He wasn’t leaving?

“We could send Stetson back to our day. He’d be safer there—with modern medicine and better food …”

Emotions swirled inside me. Hudson wanted to stay with me. He had chosen the baby to go back instead of himself. But where exactly would we send Stetson? Who would take care of him? I couldn’t send him to the void of the future and never know if he was all right or not.