He looked at me from underneath the brim of his hat. “Gold, you say?”

I nodded. “In a little while this room will be full of gold. King John won’t notice if some is missing. If you help us, you can have an entire spool.”

Clover walked down the straw mound, stroking his beard. “What sort of help would you be asking for in exchange for a trinket of that sort?”

Hudson came up behind me. He was so close I could smell the scent of smoke from his tunic. Into my ear he whispered, “Haven’t you 160/356

learned anything? If you’re going to ask someone for help, stick to your own species.”

I whispered back, “My species has already disappointed me enough.”

Hudson leaned closer to me. “You won’t trust me, but you’ll trust a leprechaun who couldn’t tell the difference between a Merry Man and a guy in jeans with a cell phone?” Clover tilted his head at me. “Do you want to do business or are you going to stand around all night murmuring sweet nothings to each other? Honestly. Mortals and their hormones.”

“Business,” I said. I knelt down so I could be closer to Clover.

“Look, there’s got to be some other way to get us home besides completing this fairy tale. I can kiss a frog. I can tap ruby slippers together.

But I can’t marry a crazy man, stay here for a year, and have his baby. I have things to do in the twenty-first century. Like graduate from high school.”

“Oh, you won’t miss a year from your time period,” Clover said, as though that were my biggest concern. “Chrissy isn’t the best at time management, but she can still slow it down a bit. A week here is only an hour back in your own time period. In the twenty-first century, it’s still Monday morning on the day you left.” Which explained why Hudson had been here for three months yet I arrived here the morning after he’d been zapped from my house.

And it meant Kendall and my mom didn’t know we were gone.

They hadn’t started worrying yet.

Clover went back to stroking his beard. “There is another way to get you home, but Her Excellence of Fairyness doesn’t like me to interfere in her wishes. If I decide to help you, you can’t tell her about it.” I nodded eagerly. “I won’t.”

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Above me, Hudson said, “Are you forgetting that you can’t lie without flames shooting out of your hair?”

“Not volunteering information is different than lying,” I said.

“You’re surrounded by straw.” Hudson rubbed a hand across his eyes. “I’d better ask the other guards to help me stockpile water buckets. I have a feeling there’s a fire in your future.” Clover kept stroking his beard, thinking. “I would have to do a bit of finagling with me poker chums. It wouldn’t be easy …”

“Please,” I whispered. “Please?”

Clover looked at me and sighed. “Mortal girls have a magic all their own. With one imploring eyelash flutter, they have the power to make men do foolish things.” Clover gave Hudson a meaningful look.

“Be forewarned about that.”

I didn’t think Hudson needed the warning. He was obviously im-pervious to my charms, or he would have helped me escape the first night.

“I know of a magic book,” Clover said, keeping his voice low. “It’s called The Change Enchantment and it has the power to change written stories. For two spools of gold, I could get it for you so you can alter the ending of your fairy tale. That way you won’t have to marry King John or stay here for a long time.”

“What would I have to do in order to finish the fairy tale and get home?”

Clover shrugged. “Just write down the moral of the story at the end of the book.”

“The moral of the story?” I repeated. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant.

“All fairy tales have a moral,” Clover said. “The moral of The Three Little Pigs is that hard work pays off in the end. The moral of Little Red Riding Hood is that you shouldn’t talk to strangers. The 162/356

moral of Cinderella is that men never look at a woman’s face long enough to recognize her, so you had better wear distinctive footwear if you want to catch a prince.”

“Really?” I asked, then decided I didn’t want to talk about Cinderella. “So what’s the moral of Rumpelstiltskin?” Clover dipped his miniature chin. “You’ve got to figure it out yourself, but don’t worry, there will be people there to help you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Right.” I could figure it out. And if not, I had a father and stepmother who were librarians and a brainiac stepbrother.

They had to know the answer.

“I’ll give you The Change Enchantment after you give me the spools of gold.” Clover walked toward me with his hand outstretched to shake mine, but when he reached the circle of sand, he took a staggering step back. “What kind of foulness is that?”

“King John’s wizard put it there,” I said. “It’s to stop fairies from spiriting me off.”

Clover wrinkled his nose and took another step backward. “It also works to keep magical creatures from shaking on a bargain.” I stretched my foot to see if I could push away some of the sand, but I couldn’t reach. I turned to Hudson and smiled at him. “Hudson, do you think you could move the sand away?” He shut his eyes for a moment, thinking. “I’m not sure this is a good idea, Tansy.”

He didn’t have to tell me why. All day I’d listened to the castle staff tell stories of ill-fated mortals who’d made deals with magical creatures. But there were other stories I remembered my father reading to me when I was young. Stories about good magical creatures.

The pixies that helped the cobbler with his shoes. And the fairies who helped Sleeping Beauty after the evil fairy cursed her.

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I didn’t believe Clover would purposely hurt me. The Change Enchantment had to be a good thing if it kept me from having to marry King John. All that was standing between me and a quick trip home was a circle of sand. I turned to Hudson, still on my knees. “Hudson, please.”

He hesitated, then let out a long sigh. “So now you’re fluttering your imploring eyelashes at me?”

“I’m trying to get us home.”

He walked over, handed me his torch, and dropped to his knees near the circle. Taking a cloth bag from his pocket, he scooped up the sand and dropped it inside. He cleared half the circle away, but Clover still wouldn’t come near me.

“Mortals are always trying to trap leprechauns,” he said, eyeing Hudson warily. “He might redraw the circle around me and then demand me gold.”

“Why would I want to steal your gold?” Hudson asked, but he continued to pick up the sand and put it into his bag. “I took all I needed last night.”

“You took some of the gold last night?” I asked. I hadn’t even taken any gold.

“While you were sleeping and no one knew it was there yet, I came in and got some.” He scooped up the last of the sand and pulled the drawstring on his bag. “We might need gold later.” When the circle was gone, Clover walked over to me, held out his hand, and shook my pinky. “We’ve a deal. Two spools of gold for The Change Enchantment. I’ll come tomorrow for the exchange, you can shorten your story, and Chrissy is none the wiser.” As soon as the words were spoken, the leprechaun disappeared.

Hudson surveyed the ground around me. “I wonder if they’ll notice the ring of sand is gone.”

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“You can put it back now,” I said.

“If it keeps the next fairy away and he doesn’t spin the straw into gold, you’ll be killed in the morning.” He picked up a stray clump of sand then took the torch from my hand to get a better look. “Besides, this sand has magical properties. We might be able to use it. I’ll find something that looks close enough so Haverton doesn’t realize what we’ve done.” Hudson brushed the sand from his fingers, then glanced back at the door. “It’s getting late. You’d better start crying so your visitor will come.”