“Yes, thank you!” Lilly shook missus McCullers hand, making her laugh.
Mia gathered up their modern clothes to take with them, and then they headed out the door for the pub, to find Finn.
When they reached the pub, he’d been watching for them. “There now!” he shouted. “There are me beautiful lasses!”
All heads in the pub turned toward them, and Mia felt a warm blush spread across her cheeks, sure it would soon match her hair.
He came over to them, and said, “Tis like you’ve been to see your fairy godmother, and now you’re both off to the ball. There is magic afoot this eve! And now, we too must be afoot, my stunning beauties, off to my tent, where you can drop those modern things, and if we hurry, make it back just in time for the parade. Come along now.”
They followed him deeper into the encampment where the Ren Faire workers lived. Tents stretched in two orderly rows. Some striped in crimson and gold, others black as pitch, some off white with no decoration at all. Flags fluttered above the tents. Bells jingled on dancers' ankles as they hurried from their tents, back to where the people were.
The air shimmered faintly with something Mia couldn’t name.
Magic? Sunlight?
The setting sun lowered rays for the coming in between time. The moon was faint, but already up in the sky. It too shimmered faintly.
She squinted trying to bring it into clearer focus.Maybe I should’ve brought my glasses.
There’s that shimmer again. What is it?
Magic? Or just my own wishful thinking. I hope it’s magic, the good, romantic kind.
Something inside of her longed for a bit of magic. Just a wee bit. Hopefully to bring her true love, like it did for the heroines in her books.
Chapter Two
“What did they do, give you the last one?” Lilly asked Finn, breaking Mia out of her thoughts of magic, as she saw that his tent was at the very end of the row, near one of the trees that framed this side of the meadow.
“Haha,” he laughed. “No, silly Lilly,” he laughed again as he used his childhood nickname for her.
Lilly frowned at him.
“I picked the one on the end because there’s more privacy. Single man, remember?”
“Oh, I don’t want those images in my mind, Lothario, and don’t call me that,” she retorted with her hands on her hips.
“But Lilly is your name,” he said. “Unless you’re changing it for the weekend.”
“We can do that?” Mia asked with surprise, interrupting them.
“Of course!” he said. “Many of us perform under different names. Who would you like to be? Pick it now, before I introduce you to people.”
“I’m happy just being myself,” Lilly said. “Just plain Lilly.”
“There’s no ‘just’ or ‘plain’ about you, cousin,” he said. “Your name suits you.”
“I’m okay with my name as it is,” Mia said. “My grandmother named me, and I’m not here to be acting like someone I’m not.”
“Good enough,” he said. “Lady Mia and Lady Lilly, it is.”
Opening the flap to his tent, his he showed them the set up. Three cots with three sleeping bags on top, two lawn chairs, a cooler, and a couple of plastic tubbys. “It’s not much, but it’s home for the next three months,” he said.
“I think it’s very nice,” Mia said. “The tent is so old timeish.”
“These tents are period reproductions,” he said. “The canvas is heavier than modern tents, so it will get hot in here during the day. But we always have water in our coolers, and we can open the flaps when we’re inside. Go ahead and help yourself to water now, before we go, if you’re thirsty. I don’t have free refreshments anywhere else.”
They each took a chilled water bottle, dropped their bags on their cots, and then headed back out with him.
