Chapter 9
Lucky was the first to admit she was afraid of the dress.
It was too pretty.
Too fragile.
Too pristine.
Things that fell into any of those three categories were not things that Lucky was to be trusted with.
As she was shuffled into a spacious dressing room, she had the urge to warn the pretty Rosebud about what could happen.
“I know you said this was stain-proof and flame-retardant, but I sort of have a thing.”
“Oh, your godmothers told me all about you. I’m prepared,” Rosebud assured her. “You’ll see.”
Eh, Lucky thought it was more likely that Rosebud would be the one to see. Not that she wanted it that way. She hoped against hope that the sweet Rosebud Briar was prepared for Lucky.
Or un-Lucky, as the case happened to be.
She changed out of her clothes and wriggled into the dress.
Then something amazing happened.
Something that convinced Lucky the dress was magic.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she didn’t see un-Lucky Fujiki. She saw herself. She was elegant. She was beautiful.
From the delicate swan arch of her neck to the inherent grace in her movements.
She’d never seen herself that way. She’d never felt graceful or elegant. Not ever.
Lucky decided she was never taking the dress off. It was going to have to rot off of her body. She didn’t want this feeling to end. She couldn’t go back to being un-Lucky.
When she emerged from the dressing room, Rosebud gasped.
“You look beautiful.”
“I feel beautiful,” she said. “How did you do this?”
“Magic, of course.” Rosebud grinned. “Let’s show everyone, shall we?”
Lucky followed her back to the main area, where most of her nearest and dearest waited.
Gwen was the first to speak. “I need to take a picture for your mother!” She whipped out her cell phone and snapped a few shots.
Lucky smiled and the monsters ran up to her, both wanting to be picked up. She didn’t hesitate and hauled one up in each arm.
“You guys are getting too big for that,” Gwen admonished.
“They’ll never be too big,” Lucky corrected.
“Even when I have my big teeth and a white dress?” Brittany asked.
“Well, kiddo. You’re going to get a white dress for the wedding and you’ve got some of your big teeth. Are you too big?”
“No,” she said with a grin.
“When I’m too big, I’ll pick you up, Aunt Lucky,” Steven informed her.
She put the kids down when she felt Ransom’s eyes rake over her. Lucky managed another smile.
“Well, what do you think?”
“He’s speechless,” Roderick answered for him.
Ransom just nodded in agreement.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” Petty reassured her.
Then her stomach growled long and loud.
Rosebud laughed. “Oh dear! I bet you were saving your appetite for the cake tasting. Well, let me just get some measurements from all of you and we’ll get you on your way. If you could all please walk single file through that trellis by the dressing room, it’ll get your biometrics.”
Lucky found it strange that no one questioned that the ivy-covered trellis was going to take their measurements. Everyone lined up single file and they walked through the trellis. It made a strange sound as it finished each one of them.
“I want to go again,” Steven said after his turn.
“And you may, but not until after everyone else has gone. Little boys grow very fast, so we might need another reading,” Rosebud replied.
What they were doing with tech these days was incredible.
“Lucky, you can change now, if you’d like,” Rosebud said.
“No, I don’t like. I want to wear it forever.”
Rosebud’s laugh was like the glass bells over the door. A light, magical sound. “That’s the best compliment you could give me. Thank you.”
It wasn’t a compliment. Lucky never wanted to wear anything else. She wondered if all the clothes from Cinderella and Fella would feel like this dress. She didn’t think it was possible because nothing could be like this dress.
But she trotted back to the dressing room and peeled the dress from her body with reluctant hands.
She sat with it in the room for a long moment, just allowing her fingers to glide over the material, to watch the shimmer of color as she did.
Her stomach again reminded her that while the dress was nice and all, it was time to eat and if she didn’t, there would be actual hell to pay. The first burning sting of hunger erupted in her stomach, and she knew she’d better move her backside if she wanted to enjoy the cake.
When she emerged, she didn’t see Rosebud anywhere and she didn’t know what to do with her perfect, beautiful, holy grail of a dress. She took several tentative steps and heard what sounded like Rosebud singing.
Lucky followed the sound, but she didn’t find Rosebud.
She found a dress form with a lovely pink satin and tulle dress in progress, but that wasn’t what made her stop short.
It was the mice holding bobbins of thread. A doe with her head in the window watching, a rabbit perched on the window sill next to the doe.
And the fattest cardinal she’d ever seen in her life with a needle in his mouth.
She froze.
They froze.
All except for the bunny. The bunny’s nose continued to twitch, and it was as if that kept him free of whatever spell trapped the rest of them.
He looked back and forth between the group of sewing animals and Lucky like he was watching a tennis match, only no one else moved.
Finally, the cardinal dropped the needle.
“Caw?”
Lucky narrowed her eyes. That bird sounded like a human making fun of a bird. This had to be some kind of practical joke.
“Shit, that’s not it.” He puffed up all of his feathers.
Lucky opened her mouth to scream. To her, it seemed as if her mouth had been open for centuries before any sound erupted, but when it did, it sounded like the scream of someone dying.
The deer jerked back and bounced her head on the window sill, the rabbit screamed back at her, the mice scurried away, and the cardinal, bless his heart, tried again.
“Chirp chirp?”
Lucky couldn’t move; her legs were rooted to the spot. She tried to run, but her whole body stiffened and she fell over like a fainting goat.
The cardinal landed on her forehead and he put his beak down to her nose. “Got a cracker?”
Suddenly, she was aware she was surrounded by people. The godmothers, Rosebud, Gwen, Roderick, even the kids, but it was Ransom she looked for. Ransom she wanted to see so that she knew she was safe.
He was on his knees next to her in an instant.
“Are you okay?”
The question stopped her cold. Was she okay? No, definitely not. She had to be hallucinating. There was no way she’d just seen an obese cardinal sewing a wedding dress. No way in hell.
It had to be a hunger-induced hallucination.
“I think so,” she mumbled.
Rosebud looked sheepish. “I’m sorry if my dear little Bronx startled you. He has quite the vocabulary, don’t you?”
The bird landed on her shoulder and rubbed his face on her cheek. He really was very cute.
“I could’ve sworn . . .” she started.
“What did you see?” Ransom asked.
Looking around at all the concerned faces, she couldn’t bring herself to utter the words. “Nothing. I think I’m just hungry.”
Ransom helped her to her feet, his hands warm and steady. Just the contact with him calmed her and made her feel safe.
“Good thing I’m done with you for the day and you can get on to the delicious cake tasting! Grammy is an amazing baker. You’ll love everything,” Rosebud assured them.
“When will everything be ready?” Jonquil asked.
“In a day or two. Shall I have it sent up to the castle or to your house?”
“The castle,” Lucky answered.
“Oh, I’ve just remembered one more thing. If the gentlemen will wait outside?” Rosebud asked.
Steven waited with Brittany, but Rosebud shooed him out as well. “No, no. You too, young man.”
“Is it secret girl talk?” Steven asked, but didn’t wait for the answer. “I bet it is. That’s okay. We’ll talk about secret boy stuff.”
When he was gone, Rosebud was instantly on point. “So, I know this wedding is mostly a publicity stunt, but your package includes honeymoon lingerie. I usually match it to the dress, but I thought I’d give you a choice. Green, purple, or do you want it to match the dress?”
“If it matches the dress, will it be made from the same material?”
Rosebud smiled knowingly. “You like that fabric, do you? It’s good stuff. I can do that, but there’s an extra cost involved.”
“Oh. How much?” Lucky deflated.
“A favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“Well, I won’t know until I need it, will I?” Rosebud teased.
After seeing a sewing bird, she wasn’t sure she could trust the dressmaker, but when she looked up at her godmothers and saw the warmth on all of their faces, she remembered she could trust them. They wouldn’t have brought her to a place that could hurt her.
Even if the damn cardinals helped make the dresses.
“I can promise it won’t be anything that goes against your moral fiber,” Rosebud said.
“Don’t do it,” Gwen hissed in her ear. “Something’s off.”
Normally, Gwen’s advice was gold, but she wanted more things made out of that material. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to have lingerie that made her feel that powerful, graceful, and beautiful.
She’d wear it all the time.
“Yes,” she agreed.
“Good. I’ll get started on it right away.” She looked at the godmothers. “Yes, dears. I think this is going to be good for everyone.”
“I told you so,” Petty said.
“You did. When is your shop going to be open?” Rosebud asked. “I need a fairy godmother.”
“We can talk after the wedding, unless it’s an emergency,” Petty said, and the godmothers circled Rosebud. “Is it an emergency?”
“No, no. I’m fine. We’ll talk then.” Rosebud then turned to Lucky. “Thank you for trusting me with your dress for your magical day.”
“I . . . thanks for doing it?”
When her stomach growled again, Gwen linked her arm with Lucky’s.
“I think we need to eat something,” Gwen said. “I could eat a horse.”
“I could eat a dragon,” Brittany said helpfully.
“I bet Grammy has some dragon cookies, if we hurry,” Jonquil said, and held out her hand for Brittany.
Brittany took her hand. “I want a fairy godmother. Can you be my fairy godmother?”
Jonquil beamed. “Of course, I can.”
The two skipped ahead, with Petty and Bluebonnet right behind them. Gwen and Lucky lagging behind.
The bakery wasn’t far, just a few shops over, but Gwen obviously had something on her mind.
“What’s up?”
“This place, Lucky. I don’t know.”
“I know what you mean. I thought for sure I saw a bird sewing a wedding dress. There must be something in the water.”
“I can’t believe you agreed to owe that woman a favor. You don’t know her.”
“No, I don’t. But really, what’s she going to ask me to do? Knock off the head of a rival crime family? I doubt it.”
“I don’t know. I’d watch that show.” Gwen giggled.
“I would, too.”
“So what was so special? It’s a beautiful material, don’t get me wrong, but when you were talking about the lingerie, I knew you’d do anything to get it. That’s not like you.”
“I can’t explain it. It made me feel . . . beautiful. It made me feel graceful. If I could have everything I wear every day for the rest of my life make me feel that way, I’d pay anything for it.”
“Lucky, you are beautiful.”
“I notice you didn’t say graceful.”
“Well, who is? Even the most accomplished ballerina falls on her ass now and then.”
“There’s a life motto for you. I should have it printed up like those ‘Live, Laugh, Pray’ signs and change my name to Karen.”
Gwen cackled.
“I need to make a confession.”
“What did you do? What happened? Did you sleep with Ransom?”
“I . . . we’ll get to that.”
Gwen squealed like a happy pig.
“No, no. Wait. The godmothers and I have been scheming upon your behalf.”
“Oh, not Roderick, please say you didn’t . . .”
“As if. No, that will work itself out in its own time, or it won’t. But I didn’t want to drop this on you blind. After the wedding, we were thinking instead of trying to get you established on your own, you could take over for Grammy and Red. If everything works out.”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead. I don’t know if I want to bake.”
“You could figure that out, too.”
“I did have some ideas for your wedding cake.”
“Oh, and no pressure. That’s why I wanted to tell you.”
“I’m lucky to have you and the godmothers looking out for me.” Gwen put an arm around her.
“You know I hate that word.”
“What? I am lucky.”
Gwen laid a big smack of a kiss on Lucky’s cheek and for a moment, Lucky didn’t feel unlucky at all.