Betrothed (12 page)

‘Sweetheart, you’re allergic to the whole world,’ Jack said, gently. ‘Seriously, it’s only that you have that bizarre ability to heal quickly together with a very amiable friend ready to lock lips with you when you’re in a sticky spot that you’re even alive.’

‘Amiable, Jack?’ I said, shooting him a grin. ‘I can see you actually read your Austen.’

Jack barely cracked a smile as he continued. ‘Your skin, when you can see it underneath all those rashes, has a very strange gleam to it. You’re fair but you never burn or freckle,
and
—I’m loath to say it because I know how sensitive you are—there are your ears. Maybe you’re
not
of this world.’

Hilary leaned forward in her seat. ‘I don’t think
I’d
go that far, Amy, but Jack does have some valid points.’

‘Oh please, I can kind of believe Jack getting carried away, the big drama fiend he is, but you . . . Besides, I can’t kiss my elbow.’

‘But your ears, Amy.’

‘So what if they’re a little pointy?’

‘A little!’ Jack scoffed. ‘You could open cans with those things!’

‘Don’t,’ I whined. ‘You’re making me self-conscious.’

‘Oh don’t worry, Marla, they’re very cute little can openers.’ Jack laughed, as he reached across to pinch the pointy tip of my ear. ‘Does Leif have pointy ears too?’

‘Yes,’ I confessed.

‘Well then, think about this. If you hate your own ears so much—and you are forever whinging that you do—then why would you imagine the same imperfection—your view, not mine—on the object of your desire, the man who is supposedly the perfect creation of your imagination?’ He hesitated for a while to let his point sink in. ‘Didn’t think of that, did you?’

‘So what are you saying, Jack? That I’m a fairy and Leif really does exist in another world somewhere?’

‘I’m just saying that until we get some answers, I wouldn’t rule anything out.’

A little later we were sitting around Ruby’s dining table, chatting—about school, the weather, that kind of thing. When the conversation turned to family, I asked about my own. ‘Ruby, I’ve been wondering if my parents left any way to contact them, an address or something.’

She shook her head. ‘I’m afraid not, dear.’

‘No clue at all as to where they might be?’

‘I do believe your father mentioned the name of the place they were from, but I couldn’t say what it was now. I suppose I should have written it down.’

‘Does Faera sound familiar?’

Her eyes lit up instantly. ‘That’s it, Faera!’ There was not a trace of hesitation in her voice. A thrill of excitement raced through me. Faera existed!

‘Did he say where this place is?’ Jack asked. ‘What country it might be in?’

‘Not that I recall . . . but of course, it was a long time ago now.’

‘Did he have an accent?’

What a brilliant question. Jack was so clever! I wanted to jump up and hug him.

‘Yes . . . it was unusual—very formal and there was a lovely tone to it. He definitely wasn’t from here.’

‘Musical and old-fashioned?’ I asked.

Ruby smiled, ‘Precisely, dear.’

Just like Leif’s
.

Hilary asked about surnames, but apparently my parents hadn’t mentioned them. It was disappointing, but not unexpected. Surely surnames would have been on the letter if they’d wanted me to know them. After an hour or so, and the promise of a future visit, we said goodbye and headed to the sea.

Bondi Beach was a crescent moon of pale sand freckled from one end to the other with people. We claimed a patch and threw down our towels. I stretched out on my back and enjoyed the sun on my skin as our discovery raced around my mind. Faera existed—probably in some strange, far off country, but just to know it was real was amazing. And Leif—could Leif be real too? Not a Fae prince obviously, but alive somewhere and dreaming of me? Could he be on the other side of the world? Perhaps, connected to my parents somehow, all three safe and happy and yearning for me? I mentally slapped myself. It was all just wishful thinking and could only lead to heartache and possible, no,
probable
, insanity. I sighed, frustrated at just how much I didn’t know.

Jack picked up a handful of sand and trickled it onto my belly. ‘You all right?’ he asked after a moment.

‘Just thinking.’

‘About what?’ He was lying on his stomach beside me, eyes on my middle as he flicked off the sand with tickling fingers.

‘What do you think, Jack?’

‘Guess that was a stupid question.’

‘It’s all so confusing. We know that my parents are from this place Faera, but where is it? And why’s my father’s accent the same as Leif’s?’

Jack didn’t answer—he was absorbed in blowing the final grains of sand from my belly button. It was making me feel shivery and melty all at the same time. I hoped he didn’t notice.

‘So strange,’ Hilary murmured from the other side of Jack.

‘I know, but surely if Faera is real, something should have come up when we searched the internet. You can Google any random town and something is bound to pop up about it, even if it’s just information about the annual fly-swatting contest.’

Hilary laughed. ‘Fly-swatting contest?’

‘You know what I mean: every small town has some crazy thing to put them on the map.’

‘True,’ Jack said, bringing his attention from my tummy back to the conversation. ‘I remember hearing about some town that had this mad throwing-yourself-down-the-hill competition.’

Hilary winced. ‘Ouch.’

‘Has it occurred to you, Marla, that if this Faera place is for real, then this guy Leif might be as well?’

‘Of course it has, Jack. But surely if that were so, he would come looking for me.’

‘Presuming he knows where to look,’ Jack said.

‘He could just be pining away somewhere, dreaming about you like you have been about him, but with no way to find you,’ Hilary added.

‘Stop, you’ll get my hopes up!’

Jack jumped to his feet and offered a hand to each of us. ‘Come on then, let’s go find food, I’m starving.’

We walked along the esplanade, found a takeaway shop then headed back to the beach to eat. Within moments a group of
seagulls flew over and began marching back and forth in front of us, staring us down with beady, begging eyes.

‘How are the plans going for the dance?’ I asked Jack as I picked at my salad.

‘We finally decided on fantasy as the theme.’

‘Ooh, that should be fun,’ I grinned.

Jack laughed. ‘I’m not talking about leather and whips, you sleazy thing. Fantasy as in fairies, witches; stuff like that.’

‘You’d better make that clear at the assembly tomorrow, or we’ll have all the skanks turning up in leather minis and fluffy handcuffs.’

‘Amy, you shouldn’t refer to girls as skanks,’ Hilary said, her brow creased with disapproval.

‘Well, what would
you
call Simone and Brittany?’

‘Um, girls, like us.’

‘Ew, don’t put me in the same category as that pair.’ I thought about the way they were always fighting with each other over friends, guys, clothes—anything really. Not only that, but they were just plain mean, especially Brittany. I clearly remembered the whole of Years 7 and 8, when she only referred to me as ‘scab girl’. She used to tell everyone to keep away from me or else they’d catch my disease. It worked too. In those days Jack and Hilary were the only ones who’d hang out with me.

‘Anyway,’ Jack said, ‘the plans for the dance are coming along. The Year 10 art class is making this huge castle and we’re dragging out the props from that production of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
we had a couple of years ago; trees and stuff, remember?’ We both nodded. ‘And we’ve got heaps of glow stuff to sell.’ Jack chuckled.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I was just thinking about Harry when he went to the Reject Shop last year and bought a whole bunch of glow sticks to sell at
his school disco. He put this massive markup on them and almost managed to sell the lot before he got caught—would have made a killing if he didn’t have to give the money back.’

I grinned. ‘Your brother’s one of a kind. What other nine-year-old would get an idea like that?’

‘I remember Mum going off when she found out. But Dad told her to leave him alone because he was just practising his entrepreneurial skills.’

‘He sure takes after your father,’ Hilary remarked. Jack’s father was a big name in the business world.

‘You’d think that’d take the pressure off me,’ Jack said.

‘Is your dad still giving you a hard time?’ I asked. Jack and his father had completely opposing views regarding his future, and I knew it bothered Jack way more than he ever let on.

‘Always.’ Jack sighed, then, never one to wallow, changed the subject. ‘Anyway, what will you two go as to the dance?’

‘We should go as fairies,’ I said.

‘How appropriate, and Jason can dress up as Leif the fairy prince,’ Jack suggested with a smirk.

Apart from making a scoffing sound in my throat, I ignored the comment and asked, ‘What about you?’

‘A vampire I think. It’s all about vampires these days. I thought I’d get some of that fake blood and go around biting everyone. Jason will be my first victim.’

‘He’s not that bad,’ I said.

‘I’ve known him a lot longer than you have.’

Jack had gone to the same primary school as Jason and I’d sometimes wondered if there was something in that to account for the extreme dislike between the pair. ‘Do you know something I don’t, Jack?’

‘I know plenty but you know I don’t like to bitch,’ he replied. Hilary and I burst out laughing.

We finished off our lunch and threw the leftover food to the seagulls. They squawked and fought and called fifty more of their friends to join the party. Then we spent the rest of the day swimming and enjoying the sun, having such a good time that I forgot to waste any more of it stressing about my dreams.

The next couple of weeks passed uneventfully enough and before I knew it, the school dance was only hours away. It was Friday and we’d just finished getting ready at Jack’s place after spending every afternoon of the last week making our costumes there. Jack stood before us now, flicking one side of his cape across his body. It was easy to see why he was always breaking hearts these days.

‘How do I look?’ he asked.

‘You look great,’ Hilary said, while I was still gathering my thoughts on the subject. ‘What about us?’ She did a little twirl before him. We each wore the satin and tulle dresses we’d slaved over, deep crimson for me and emerald green for Hilary, complete with sparkly wings borrowed from Hilary’s little godsisters.

‘Come closer so I can get a better look,’ Jack said.

We looked at each other, suspicious, then together, took a step towards him.

‘Closer,’ he said and beckoned with one hand.

We looked at each other and grinned, knowing he was up to something, before stepping forwards again.

‘Yum,’ he said and opened his arms wide as he lunged for us. He hooked an arm around each of our waists and pulled us inside of his cloak. Then he planted big love bites on each of our necks. We ended up a squealing, giggling pile on the floor. He let us up eventually—when he was ready.

‘Okay, so we taste good, but how do we look?’ Hilary tried again, after we’d brushed the crumples from our dresses.

‘You both look stunning. If I were Leif the fairy prince, I’d have a hard time choosing.’

‘Did you have to mention him? I’m trying so hard to forget,’ I complained.

‘Sorry.’ Jack pulled me against him and gave me a hug. It felt nice to be all wrapped up in his arms.

‘It doesn’t matter, I’m over it anyway,’ I said, when he released me. I wasn’t being honest, but subsequent searches for Faera since that day at Bondi had yielded nothing. Between that and the fact that my dreams had been absent for more than two weeks now, I’d come to the conclusion that regardless of Ruby’s revelation, there was no point thinking about Leif, my birth parents or my dreams anymore. Besides, Ruby was old—she could easily have been mistaken about my parents being from a place called Faera. More than anything though, it just hurt too much to think about Leif.

‘You sure the moron’s picking you up tonight?’ Jack asked. ‘You could come early with me.’

‘He’s coming,’ I said, not even bothering to protest. Things hadn’t improved between Jack and Jason over the last couple of weeks; they could barely stand the sight of each other. And that wasn’t the only problem: Jason’s friend Brittany wasn’t coping either. I was often on the wrong side of her jealousy and I knew it was only her fear of Jason’s wrath that kept her from making my life hell. Just today at recess I’d caught her glaring hot daggers at me. Unable to resist, I’d smiled sweetly and dropped my head on Jason’s shoulder, only to have her flash red with rage when his arm had come around me. It was kind of scary and I resolved not to provoke her again—no matter how good it felt to get even. Despite my health issues, I liked my life.