Hudson dropped his arms away from me. “Surprise,” he muttered.
Chrissy stepped toward me, eyes blinking to the same fast rhythm that her wings fluttered. “You’re supposed to be at the castle. I showed up in my official fairy godmother outfit expecting a wedding, and the whole place was in disarray. King John is furious and threatening anyone and everyone. He sent all the knights scuttling across the kingdom to look for you, and …” Her gaze swept over me. “What in the world are you wearing? I specifically told Clover to make sure you wore evening gowns.” She made disappointed tsk ing noises. “Never trust a leprechaun where fashion is concerned.”
“I’m in the middle of the forest,” I pointed out. “Why do I need an evening gown?”
With her free hand, Chrissy pulled a wand out of a leafy bag that hung around her shoulder. “Because this is a fairy tale, and my professor gave me a horrible grade after my last assignment when Cinderella’s ball gown changed into a bath towel at midnight.” She gave a careless shrug. “I did warn her. It wasn’t my fault there were people around.”
Chrissy swished her wand in my direction. Before I could utter another protest, I was wearing a white gown with silver beading 258/356
radiating from the bodice like an exploding star. I felt something on my head and reached up to touch it. My hair was up in some sort of bun with a tiara nestled into it.
“Now then,” Chrissy said with satisfaction. “We’ll need to get you back to the castle for your wedding.” I found my voice then. “No!” I sputtered. “I won’t marry King John. I won’t.” I stood up so quickly that my legs nearly gave out. I had to take a couple of stumbling steps before they would support me.
Chrissy’s rosebud pink mouth dropped open. “What’s wrong with your legs?”
“I’ve been riding a horse all day. After I escaped from the castle—”
“You escaped from the castle?” she repeated indignantly. “That’s not supposed to happen. You’re messing up my fairy tale.” Hudson got to his feet and stood by my side. His voice was calmer than mine, but had a firm insistence to it. “Tansy doesn’t want to be the miller’s daughter. She wants to go home. We all do.” Chrissy let out a disapproving humph and wrinkled her nose at him. “You’re not even part of this fairy tale. Whoever heard of a nameless extra running away with the heroine?” I reached out and took hold of Hudson’s arm, afraid Chrissy would whisk him away with a dip of her wand. “I want his help.” Chrissy shifted the bundle she carried from one shoulder to the other. “This is most irregular. I put safeguards in place to keep the story from veering off track. You shouldn’t have been able to escape from the castle.”
I held a hand out to her, pleading. “Please don’t send me back to King John. I’m only seventeen. I can’t marry some crazy man and have his baby. You’ve got to see that.”
Chrissy’s expression softened and she let out an almost motherly sigh. “I was never going to make you have King John’s son. That’s why 259/356
I’ve brought you yours.” She moved the bundle from her shoulder and cradled it in her arms, revealing a baby. His eyes were shut in sleep, his lips puckered in an invisible suckle.
“What?” I stammered. “I don’t have a son.” She handed me the bundle. He was warm and soft, and he had flower-petal-smooth skin. I held him to me and inhaled his baby-powder scent.
“Well, you don’t have a son when you’re seventeen,” she said. “I went to your future and borrowed him. Now you can tell that awful ex-fairy his name, be through with the story, and go home.”
“No …” I held the baby back out to her, panic gripping my chest with more fierceness than the golden heart had ever done. My hands trembled, and I had to force myself to look at Chrissy and not the baby. I wanted to stare at his round cheeks, his button nose, and the wispy brown hair that curled at the ends. My baby. My future son.
“Take him back to the twenty-first century. He’s not safe here.” Chrissy bent over and kissed his forehead. A puff of silver glitter momentarily twirled around his head. “I know you’ve never taken care of a child, but it’s not that hard. I packed bottles, formula, diapers, and the cutest little outfits you’ve ever seen.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a bag that grew until it was a full-sized, leafy green diaper bag.
In a low voice, Hudson said, “Tansy, you have to tell her what you did.”