My Unfair Godmother (14 page)

I supposed they would light that later so I could work through the night.

All in all, the room was a dismal place. I walked to the window and looked out. Down in the courtyard, soldiers came and went out of barracks. A boy drew buckets of water from the well, and a washerwo-man scrubbed something in a wooden trough. None of them could help me.

I sat down on the pile of blankets and wrapped my arms around my knees. I didn’t want to worry about my family. I had done that the entire coach ride up. But my thoughts slid there anyway. What if any of them were hurt during this fairy tale? What if one of them died?

Chrissy had said the effects of my wishes were permanent and binding.

And now my family was in danger. No wish was worth that.

I thought about Kendall and my mother. My sister and I texted or called each other nearly every day. It wouldn’t take her long to realize 126/356

we were missing. What would she and my mom do then? I knew with a sinking feeling that they would leave the play to search for us.

My wish had ruined things for Kendall too.

And my mom—in our last conversation, she’d yelled at me about the vandalism, and I had hardly spoken to her. It was such a bad way to leave things between us. I should have told her that I loved her.

A noise at the door caught my attention. Someone was pulling the bolt back. The next moment, the door swung open and the guard stepped inside. He shut the door behind him and stared at me.

That wasn’t good. I didn’t remember a visit from a guard as being part of the fairy tale. I stood up, trying to read his expression through the shadows of the room. His gaze was stern, penetrating. His sword hung at his side.

I gulped hard. He probably thought he could do anything to me and no one would care. I was a condemned prisoner, after all. I edged along the wall farther away from him.

He stepped toward me. “Tansy, it
is
you.” I recognized his voice at the same time he stepped into the light.

Hudson was standing in front of me.

Chapter 9

I blinked at Hudson, speechless.

He looked me up and down, shaking his head. “I should have known the next time we met you’d be in prison. It’s where you always end up, isn’t it?”

My eyes swept over him. From his leather boots to the dull shine of his helmet, he looked every bit a medieval man. Well, except that he had straight, white teeth. I walked over to him. “What are you doing here?”

He folded his arms, and his chain mail clinked in an angry rumble. “Do you really not know?”

I reached up and took the helmet off his head. I didn’t understand how it was possible, but it was definitely Hudson. His hair was a couple of inches longer than I’d seen it yesterday and it hung in messy strands around his face.

“What are you doing here?” I asked again. I worried, with a sickening panic, that Chrissy had sent the whole school to the Middle Ages. “Why are you one of King John’s men?”

“Because I didn’t want to be one of Robin Hood’s men. But then, you already knew I was more of a stay-on-the-right-side-of-the-law sort of guy.” He held a hand out to me. “And you? What brings you to England in the late twelfth century?” His voice was light, but I could tell he wasn’t amused by any of this. “Did you come to visit friends or did you just pop in for the fine cuisine?” I wasn’t about to answer his question until he answered mine.

“Hudson, really—how did you get here?” 128/356

He glared at me and took his helmet back. “Do you remember that day I came over to your house to do homework with Nick?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That was yesterday.”

“Try three months ago,” he said.

“No, I’m pretty sure it was yesterday.”

“I’ve been here for three months, and I have the calluses to prove it.” His eyes narrowed as he regarded me. “My father must have looked for me, sent out search teams, put my disappearance on the news …”

I shrugged. “Sorry. No one told me you were gone.” He made a grumbling sound in the back of his throat to show his disapproval.

“Time must be different here.” I vaguely remembered Clover criticizing Chrissy for not being able to lengthen time. “I only got here this morning. But at any rate, I remember the night.” I gestured for him to continue his story.

“After I left your house, I was standing on the sidewalk texting a few people and I heard shouting coming from your backyard. Men shouting.” He looked at me to see if I knew what he was talking about.

I felt myself coloring. “Right. I remember that too.”

“I walked over to your fence. With those sword-wielding thugs in town, I figured I’d better make sure you and Nick were okay.”

“You wanted to catch them, you mean. A rational person would have run away.”

Hudson ignored my point. “Before long, the thugs were climbing over your fence.” He fixed me with a hard stare. “I won’t ask you why they were there, at least not yet. I hid behind one of your bushes and was about to call the police when a leprechaun appeared in front of me, waved a wand in my direction, and the next thing I knew, I was in Sherwood Forest in the year 1199.”

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I let out a little gasp. “Clover was only supposed to send Robin Hood and the Merry Men back in time.”

“Yeah, we figured there had been a mistake when I materialized and someone named Alan A’Dale never showed up.” The dark glare Hudson was shooting in my direction suddenly made sense. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I never meant—” He didn’t let me finish. “I know what you meant. Robin Hood told me about your wishes and the fairy godmother you set on unsuspecting people. We had a long talk about it. And when I refused to take a blood oath to join Robin Hood’s men, they tied me up, blindfolded me, and left me on the road to town.”

I reached out and touched his arm. I’m not sure he even felt it underneath the chain mail. “I’m so sorry, Hudson.” He looked past me as though he hadn’t heard my apology. “Before they left me there, they took my shoes and clothes, everything down to my boxers.”

I let out another gasp. What could be worse than being tied up and left in your underwear on a road in the Middle Ages? “I’m really,
really
sorry.”

“Oh, I wasn’t there for long. A group of nuns on a pilgrimage came by and found me.”

Being found half-naked by a group of nuns. That would be worse.

“I’m sure my fairy godmother will send you back when she finds out about the mix-up,” I said.

He cocked his head like he had his doubts about that. “It’s not that I don’t enjoy sleeping on straw mattresses and brushing off fleas every morning, but I have a life to get back to in the twenty-first century. So when exactly will that be?” Hudson suddenly seemed so imposing standing there in his chain mail. I took a step away from him. “I don’t know. I’ve been calling her 130/356

all morning …” I let my voice trail off, feeling miserable. “She might expect me to stay here until I marry King John and have his baby.” Hudson coughed in disbelief. “You wished to be queen?”

“No, it’s just that—”

He didn’t let me finish. “King John isn’t some fairy tale Prince Charming. He’s in his thirties and is out of his mind. Literally. If you look deep enough into his eyes, you can read a little sign that says, GONE TO LUNCH. TRY BACK LATER.”

“I don’t
want
to marry him. I’m not going to if I can help it. I never wished for …” It suddenly occurred to me that the best way to get out of this wish was to break the chain of events right at the beginning of the story. If I escaped from the castle now, Rumpelstiltskin wouldn’t come, and King John wouldn’t want to marry me for my gold.

I took hold of Hudson’s hand, trying to make him feel my urgency through his leather glove. “You could help me escape. My entire house was brought here. We could take the things we need and hide out with my family somewhere safe until my fairy godmother sets things straight.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “You brought your family here too?”

“I didn’t mean to.”

He let out a grunt. “Nick barely survived high school PE. How could you send him to a place with wild animals, bandits, and sword-wielding knights?”

“It’s not like I asked for this,” I said.

Hudson pulled his hand away from mine with an unsympathetic sigh. “What
did
you ask for, Tansy?” My hand felt small and alone, rejected. Telling him my wish would only intensify that feeling. I hadn’t just wished for wealth; I’d wished for
unending
wealth. I’d been greedy.

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I turned and walked to the window. The sun blazed high in the sky, but the stone sill was cool to the touch, as though even the sunlight couldn’t warm this place.

Hudson followed. He put one hand on the wall and leaned toward me. “I can’t imagine that you wished to be imprisoned in the Middle Ages … although you wished for Robin Hood to come to Rock Canyon and hold up stores, so who knows?”

“I didn’t think Robin Hood was going to hold up stores when I wished for him to come.”

“Oh. You just wanted some guy with a criminal bent you could make out with in Walgreens?”

“No,” I said hotly, “I didn’t know that was going to happen either.

Wishing for Robin Hood was something I accidentally did when I was complaining about the police. Which, you know,” I said, waving a hand in his direction, “sort of makes the whole thing
your
fault since you were the one I was complaining about.” Hudson rolled his eyes.

I wanted to change the subject. “So how did you become one of King John’s guards? What happened after a bunch of scandalized nuns found you?”

“They weren’t scandalized,” he said. “They were very kind. Especially Sister Mary Theresa.” The way he said it made me wonder who she was. I imagined her as some young novice who, upon seeing Hudson’s broad shoulders in all of their glory, had some serious second thoughts about taking vows.

I raised my eyebrows. “Really? And what did Sister Mary Theresa do?”

“After I was fed and clothed, I was taken to the Sheriff of Nottingham,” Hudson said, pointedly leaving out the details I’d asked for. “He didn’t hire me because I wasn’t good enough with a bow or a sword, 132/356

but I’m a head taller than most of the people in the Middle Ages, and the castle is always in need of men. He gave me a letter of recommendation and I joined the garrison. I used to have the night shift walking the parapets, but two days ago I was promoted to guarding prisoners.

I’ve been trying to …” He surveyed me and then must have thought better of whatever he was going to say because he didn’t finish the sentence. “So, now that I’ve told you my story, tell me yours.” Outside in the courtyard, a young boy was mucking out the stables. A couple of peacocks wandered near the stable door, picking at the ground. It seemed unreal, like a TV show. But it wasn’t. It was right outside, and the world I knew was far away in the future. It lay in the seeds of trees that hadn’t even sprouted yet.

I wasn’t sure if I could trust Hudson, but he was part of my world, and he was also Nick’s friend. Those facts made it feel like he was on my side. So I told him the truth. “I wished for a way to change things into gold. It seemed like a nice safe way to make money.”

“But?”

“But Chrissy sent me back to the Middle Ages to be the miller’s daughter in
Rumpelstiltskin
.” I expected Hudson to laugh or tell me I had gotten what I deserved, but his expression stayed serious and intent. Since he didn’t comment, I went on. “Clover—that’s her leprechaun assistant—says I can go home when I’m through with the fairy tale, but I don’t want to marry King John. I mean, I’m seventeen and he’s threatening to kill me in the morning. That’s not a match I ever envisioned for myself. I think I’m due for a wish refund.” Hudson pondered this. “You don’t know much about fairies, do you?”

“I think I could pick one out of a crowd pretty easily.” He shook his head. “People from our time don’t understand fairies. Here in the Middle Ages, they’re as common as unicorns and 133/356

dragons—all right, that’s still pretty uncommon, but everyone avoids the fay folk. Fairies are mischievous troublemakers. Your godmother is probably out somewhere right now having a good laugh at your expense.”

“No, she’s not like that …” I was certain he was wrong. Although, now that I thought about it, Chrissy had admitted to turning some random kid into a squid. Maybe this trip was just one step better than waving my tentacles around in an aquarium.

Or several steps worse.

Hudson lowered his voice. “While the nuns took care of me, I told Sister Mary Theresa I was from the future. It took me a while to convince her I wasn’t crazy. If anybody here calls you addled, it’s not a compliment. But eventually she believed me. Before I came to work at the castle, she sent me to King Richard’s old wizard, Bartimaeus the Proud.” Hudson cast a glance back at the door, making sure we were still alone. “After Richard died, King John appointed his own wizard.

The new wizard broke Bartimaeus’s wand and banished him from court. Now he lives in a village ten miles east of here, using what magic he has left to make a living. Bartimaeus and I made a deal. While I work as a castle guard, I’ll try to find the thing he needs to repair his wand and when I give it to him, he’ll send me home. I can ask if he’ll help you and your family too.”

This was the first good news I had heard since I’d found myself in the land of the toothless and smelly. I turned from the window to face Hudson. “Really? You’d do that for me?”

“Nick’s my friend.”

The sentence felt like a rebuff, but I tried not to show it. “What does the wizard need to repair his wand?” Hudson’s eyes swept back to the door. He whispered, “The Gilead.”

134/356

I didn’t know what that was. “The what?”

“It’s a plant Bartimaeus enchanted so its sap can fix broken things and heal people. King Richard was supposed to take the Gilead to France while he fought King Philip, but he thought the journey would kill the plant, so he only took a few cuttings. He figured the cuttings would keep until they were used up, but the magic only lasts for a few months once a branch has been taken from the plant. So Richard died during the siege of Chalus, and King John still has the Gilead somewhere.”