Ellie and the Prince (Faraway Castle #1)(42)
Ellie offered the children apples, the only snack she had on hand, but while she was searching the refrigerator, two children disappeared. Rafiq and Karim accepted their apples and explained that the girls had gone exploring. Hearing cries of delight from her bedroom, Ellie knew she’d been found out.
Rita ran into the living room, her face glowing. “You have two sprites in your room—cutest ever!”
Naturally, the boys needed to see for themselves, and Ellie was hard put to explain why these two sprites were not stacked with the others. The sprites put their paws up on the glass walls and greeted the children with happy squeaks. “May we hold them?” Yasmine inquired. “They don’t look at all frightened.”
Ellie couldn’t argue. If the sprites didn’t mind this much hopping and squealing from the children, they were unlikely to object to being held. She told the children to sit in a circle on the floor, then set the two sprites in the round space. “You can offer them bites of your apples,” she suggested. “I’m out of carrots.”
The red baby climbed immediately into Karim’s lap, to his delight. “What are their names?” he asked. “This one should be Sparky. He looks like fire even when he’s not burning.”
“She,” Ellie corrected. “They are both girls. But Sparky is a fine name.”
“We could spell it with an i,” Yasmine suggested. She lured the white sprite into her lap with a chunk of apple. “And this one should be Frosti. She is so pretty!”
Rafiq and Rita soon demanded their turns, and the sisters Frosti and Sparki were shuffled about by small hands without a hint of distress, answering to their names within moments. Ellie could only watch and wonder. She sensed nothing but contentment and pleasure from the little creatures.
But soon she had to break up the party. “Your brother might be looking for you by now,” she reminded them. “Better put Sparki and Frosti back into their cage.”
Rafiq and Yasmine claimed that privilege, and soon the sprites dined on apple cores, puffing and chirping their delight.
“Goodbye, babies,” said Rita, waving at them through the glass.
“Goodbye, Sparki and Frosti,” the others chorused.
Ellie steered her companions outside, privately thinking they were harder to herd than wild cinder sprites. “I don’t want to go back to the tennis courts,” Rita whined. “It’s boring there. Can’t we stay with you, Ellie?”
“How about we hop there like cinder sprites?” Ellie suggested, hoping to avert a storm. Taking Rita and Karim each by the hand, she began to hop and skip forward. They both joined in, and Yasmine took Rita’s other hand to make a chain. At first Rafiq abstained, walking apart from the group and looking scornful. But he could not bear to be left out for long, and soon grabbed Karim’s hand and took over the lead. Soon they were all running and skipping—and Rita’s feet sometimes left the ground for several paces.
“Slow down now,” Ellie ordered, fearing someone would fall. They arrived at the playground still in a chain but back to walking and hopping in a more controlled manner.
“Will you swing with me, please, please, please?” Rita begged, tugging on Ellie’s hand, her big dark eyes pleading. Karim joined in, and the double dose of cuteness overcame Ellie’s defenses. She found herself swinging on the playground between Rita and Karim, and unable to avoid watching the tennis match on the courts opposite.
Naturally, Omar looked amazing in white tennis attire, as did his partner, an athletic girl Ellie didn’t recognize. They played against Briar and the pretty daughter of a nobleman from up north somewhere. And Ellie squirmed and burned with envy. She was good at tennis. She could have returned a serve Omar’s partner missed. She . . . was only tormenting herself.
“Watch this, Ellie!” Rafiq did a handstand and turned it into a back flip, landing perfectly.
“Wow! That’s impressive,” she said honestly. Rafiq was small for his age but nimble and strong. In height he was unlikely to catch up with Omar, who was tallest of the brothers so far. Maybe Karim would be tall like Omar someday . . .
Why did everything always come back to Omar? She could never forget him while socializing with his family. Did she even want to forget him?
“I need to get back to work now,” she said, dragging her feet to slow the swing. Her glass shoes filled with sand.
While she paused to empty them, Yasmine said, “Hello Omar! We found Ellie!”
How did he get here so fast? Ellie wondered in frustration. The tennis game must have ended while she was feeling sorry for herself.
“So I see. I wondered where you’d run off to.” Omar did not sound pleased.
“We got to feed baby cinder sprites,” Rita told him, trying to slow her swing with legs that barely reached the ground. Omar caught it by the chains to keep her from falling. Ellie didn’t dare look up.
“Hello, Ellie!” a cheery voice called.
She lifted her head to return Briar’s greeting. He strolled across the grass, sweaty yet dapper in his tennis whites. “Good morning, Your Highness,” she said.
He shook his head, amused. “Please call me Briar. We’re friends.”
“All right, Briar,” she said, unable to resist his casual charm. Omar stood at the swing beside her, brushing sand from Rita’s hair. “Good morning, Omar,” Ellie said quietly. If only they could establish an easy friendship! But could that even be possible when her heart reacted so strongly to his presence? Maybe time would ease the pain.