Winter Magic Read online

  “But your feet will freeze without your trainers!”

  “I’ll hang on to these trainers, don’t worry about that.”

  In a moment, Lily had torn her skirt into strips and wrapped the baby onto Rosie’s chest. “Oh, this won’t stay!” cried Lily. “The laces are too slippery to hold a knot like this!”

  Without a word, Rosie took off one of her treasured earrings, unbent the wire and twisted it on to her baby sling. “There,” said Rosie. “Not as good as a safety pin, but it will hold.” She did the same for Clara and Squeakie.

  “Do you really think we can get across?” asked Silver. It wasn’t like her to be afraid, but the storm was fearsome, the sky dark, the winds fierce, the water beating against the rocks. “If we get weak or tired we may …”

  “If we’re weak or tired we will pull each other through!” said Lily.

  “We can do this, sisters,” said Clara.

  “We must do this to save ourselves,” said Rosie. “And to save the …”

  She waited for Squeak to say “baby.” But Squeak was too weak to say a word.

  Out into the fearsome wind they flew. I can barely imagine how they did it. There hadn’t been quite enough food at the party so none of them had had much to eat since their breakfast, hours and hours ago. Halfway between Heart Island and Sheepskerry they were blown back out to sea, which meant their journey was even longer than it should have been. They looked in vain for help from seals or sea birds, but no other creature was foolish enough to venture out in this kind of cruel winter wind.

  “Hold on, Squeak,” said Clara. “Hold on and we will get you warm and safe again.”

  Rosie could tell that the baby fairy was all right, thanks to the baby sling Lily had made. Still, she was squirming and fussing. “Be calm, little one,” said Rosie. “I promise we will keep you safe from harm.” But even as she said the words, she didn’t know if she could keep her promise.

  “We have to give her a name!” called Silver as she flew. “Oops, there goes my trainer!”

  “Not now, Silver,” said Clara.

  “Yes now! I’ve got to take my mind off this wind somehow.”

  “Okay!” called Rosie over the wind. “She was born one day before Christmas, so something Christmassy.”

  “Holly?” called Silver.

  “Star?” cried Lily.

  “Pudding?” asked Rosie.

  “Definitely not Pudding,” said Lily.

  “How about Noel?” said Clara. And even with the wind howling in her ears, Clara could hear the baby laugh. “Noel it is then,” she said in a whisper.

  “Land!” cried Silver. “Sheepskerry Island, twenty metres away.”

  Through the darkness the Fairy Bell sisters could just see the outline of the tall spruce trees on Sheepskerry’s shore.

  “There’s White Rose Cottage!” cried Rosie. She had never been so happy to see a place in her life.

  “Shall we stop there and rest?” asked Lily. “I think I can go on, but you two must be exhausted, carrying those little ones.”

  “Let’s press on!” cried Clara. “I can do it now. Can you Rosie?”

  “I can!” cried Rosie.

  The Fairy Bell sisters put on a final burst of speed and soon were nearly back at their fairy house.

  “Oh no, Clara!” cried Rosie. “Our house! What’s the matter?”

  There was a strange glowing coming from the Bell sisters’ fairy house.

  It can’t be on fire, can it? thought Clara, her heart racing. Not after all we’ve been through.

  “Hurry!”

  Though their wings were exhausted with effort and their hands and faces raw with the cold, the sisters pushed on to their house.

  “If our house is gone, we’ll manage somehow,” said Rosie. “The Flower sisters will take us in, or Queen Mab.”

  “But all our pretty things – they can’t be burned to the ground, can they?”

  As the sisters flew closer and closer to their fairy house the glow only got brighter. But one by one they began to think that perhaps it wasn’t fire after all.

  “I don’t think our house is on fire,” said Rosie. “There’s no smoke.”

  “And no flames,” said Clara. “But feel how warm it is!”

  They landed on the lawn of their fairy house. The house was not on fire. It was lit with a brilliant light from inside. The light was so strong and clear that Squeakie’s eyes opened for a moment.

  “Aahma,” she said.

  “Open the door, Clara,” said Silver. “See if it really is magic.”

  Clara tentatively put her hand on the doorknob. She turned it gently, and then flung it wide.

  The great room was dazzling. Where there had been an empty space, now there was a giant Christmas tree hung with every imaginable decoration and Tink’s star on top. Where there had been a few torn pieces of wrapping paper on the floor, now there was an enormous pile of presents, teetering almost to the ceiling. There was a glorious feast on the table. A wreath above the mantelpiece. The smell of cinnamon and brown sugar was in the air. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate stood on the large oak table.

  Even the air of the great room was filled with the sound of delicate bells.

  And in the middle of it all stood someone they all knew.

  “Oh Tink! Tink!” cried the Fairy Bell sisters all at once. “You’ve come home. You’ve come home at last.”

  Oh what a feast they had! What a glorious reunion for all six Fairy Bells! So much love was there in the fairy sisters’ house Rosie thought it might burst from all the happiness inside it.

  The clock had long since chimed midnight and the sisters could not wait until the morning to celebrate. So they dug in to their feast and opened gift after gift and sang until their voices wore out.

  Later, Clara thought there must have been magic involved, because Christmas night seemed to last forever. They finally dropped into bed, exhausted, asleep before their heads sank into their pillows. Tink took care of the tiny new baby fairy and tenderly tucked in Squeakie when she’d finally stopped flying around. “We can’t call her Baby Squeakie any more,” said Clara.

  “Not when there’s a new baby in the house,” said Silver.

  None of the Fairy Bell sisters saw the dawn, but it broke bright and clear. The glow from their house could be seen even in the daylight and soon all the fairies of Sheepskerry came to visit Tinker Bell and her sisters. Tink led them in a merry procession to Queen Mab’s palace, where they gathered for a festival of song and story. Tink told them tales of Neverland that would fill a book longer than this one.

  Finally, the sun set over the Sheepskerry Bay and Christmas Day was over.

  Tink and her sisters said one last farewell.

  “Are you really going so soon?” asked Silver.

  “Peter Pan’s waiting for me,” said Tink.

  “Come back again soon, Tink!” said Clara.

  Tinker Bell kissed each of her sisters (and baby Noel) in turn. Then she raised her wings and flew away.

  Where Tink had stood, a trail of sparkles swirled in her place.

  “There’s one last Christmas surprise for you,” they chimed. “Can’t wait until you discover it!”

  As Clara turned and went back into the fairy house she thought she would be lonely without her big sister Tinker Bell there. But the house was so full of love and magic that Tink’s glow wrapped around them all and filled them with even more joy.

  “I suppose we should get ready for bed,” said Clara. “It’s been such a long day.”

  “I’m so tired I could absolutely drop,” said Lily, admiring her new skirt of spun gold. Tinker Bell had magicked her a new one, from Neverland. “I wonder if I can wear this to bed.”

  “I’d wear these trainers to bed if I could,” said Silver. “They’ll make me go even faster than the ones I lost – or the one I lost, I should say.” Tink had made new trainers appear by magic for her little sister.

  Rosie took the sweet coral earrings
from her ears and laid them carefully on her dressing table. “Tink knows just what I like,” said Rosie as she tucked Squeakie in.

  “Baby?” said Squeakie.

  “Clara’s taking care of our new baby sister, Squeak,” said Rosie. “Don’t you worry.” Rosie called to her older sister as she started work on a new shawl for her, “Have you found the stack of clothes Tink laid out for her?”

  “I have!” called Clara. “What an odd assortment she chose, though,” she said to herself. “None of Lily’s old things and hardly any of Rosie’s or mine. They’re all bits and pieces from our old dressing-up box. What was Tink thinking?”

  Silver, Lily, Rosie and Squeak had just laid their heads on their pillows when a shriek came from Clara downstairs, followed by a great peal of laughter from baby Noel.

  “Clara! What is it? Is everything all right?”

  “Oh my gosh,” said Clara. “I think I’ve found that last surprise Tink said we’d discover.”

  That was enough to get everyone out of bed. The sisters flew down the stairs, Squeak leading the way.

  “What is it?” asked Lily. “What’s the surprise? More presents?” Even Lily didn’t think she could take any more.

  “Another baby?” Rosie was only half-kidding.

  “Another kitten?” asked Silver. “Or a puppy?”

  “I’ve got news for you,” said Clara as she came back with baby Noel freshly cleaned and changed in her arms. “Our new fairy sister … is a boy.”

  When they stopped exclaiming and wondering and laughing, the Fairy Bell sisters headed to bed, their new baby brother fairy taking Squeak’s place in the cot in the great room.

  “We’ll love this little fairy no matter what,” said Rosie.

  “Boy oh boy, is everyone going to be very surprised,” said Silver.

  “Boy oh boy is right!” said Lily.

  “We just need to give him love and care and a happy home,” said Clara.

  “That’s what all little ones need,” said Clara. “That’s the recipe for a happy—”

  “Baby,” said Squeak.

  And they went to bed that Christmas night, dreaming of Tinker Bell and Christmas magic and new fairy babies and of all the adventures that lay ahead of them.

  Squeak’s Words

  O-bee!– Not me!

  Ahhma!– Oh my!

  Doo!– Pretty!

  Odeo!– Oh dear!

  No lolo– Don’t be sad.

  Bo-bo!– Welcome!

  The secret of a perfect party? Perfect punch! Here’s what the Fairy Bell sisters serve when they’re expecting a big crowd.

  (Ask a grown-up to help.)

  4 cups of fairy apple juice made from Sheepskerry apples*

  1 cup of cranberry juice from fairy cranberry bogs*

  2 cups of chilled fairy ginger ale from the shops on the mainland*

  A little lemon juice (fairy or non-fairy – your choice)

  Combine the apple juice, the cranberry juice, and the lemon juice in a large bowl. Chill on the back porch of your fairy house or in a refrigerator. When the mixture is nice and cold, add the ginger ale, stir and serve to fairy friends.

  Try adding some orange or apple slices to make your punch especially pretty.

  * If fairy apple juice, fairy cranberry juice, and fairy ginger ale are not available, a grown-up can buy these ingredients at your local grocery store.

  Read on for a sneak peek of …

  All the fairies in the Wide World love summer – except the Fairy Bell sisters and their friends on Sheepskerry Island. Sheepskerry is a fairies’ paradise in autumn and winter and spring, and summer should be the best season of all. And for a while, it is.

  In June, fairies start doing the things they’ve been meaning to do all the rest of the year: the Stitch sisters sew costumes for dress-up games; the Cobwebs crochet delicate fairy shawls; the Flower sisters take out their watercolours and paint under the pale-blue sky.

  In July, it’s time to throw off fairy wings and jump in Lupine Pond and splash in the cool water. Then there are berries for the picking, all over the island – pinkberries first and most delicate; then raspberries, blueberries, mulberries, boysenberries and finally blackberries when the days are hottest. The Bakewell sisters make pies and muffins with the freshest of the pick, and the older Jellicoe sisters swiftly store up jams and jellies for the winter months if the berry bushes are especially bountiful.

  At the end of the day, the fireflies light up and the summer sun goes down; the fairies are ready to lay their heads on thistledown pillows and dream fairy dreams. But first they watch the sunset on West Shore, which every night paints the sky lavender, purple, gold and scarlet, and needs no fairy magic to be beautiful.

  Summer on Sheepskerry Island would be perfect, except for the month of August. In August, the Summer People come.

  Summer People are just that. They’re people. Human beings. Mothers and fathers. Girls and boys. Most of them mean well, of course, but still they are immense, bumbling creatures who trample fairy gardens and unleash barking dogs and circle the island in stinky boats and altogether make a fairy paradise into a dreadful place. So fairies stay in their houses under the Cathedral Pines and only come out safely at night.

  The Fairy Bell sisters love the summer weather and the fruits and flowers of the garden, but they don’t love hiding from the Summer People. Yet hide they must.

  To be continued …

  Read all the Fairy Bell Sisters books – a magical, utterly charming series about Tinkerbell’s little sisters and their adventures.

  Other Fairy Bell Sisters stories:

  Silver and the Fairy Ball

  Rosie and the Secret Friend

  Lily and the Fancy-dress Party

  Hearts and Flowers for Clara

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