How I Found the Perfect Dress by Maryrose Wood

Author:Maryrose Wood
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2011-02-17T05:00:00+00:00

twelve

i Was so nervous about the fact that i Was about to meet an actual leprechaun that I could barely bring myself to knock. I was afraid that I might frighten the shy, reclusive creature away. I shouldn’t have worried.

“What!” bellowed a male voice from behind the door. He sounded plenty big in attitude, if not in actual height.

“Relax, Jolly Dan,” the Wee Folk woman said. “I have a customer for you. Unless you’ve gone out of business?”

“Wiseass,” I could have sworn I heard him say. “This customer—it’s not a great looming skyscraper of a thing, like you, is it?”

“Not quite, no,” the woman replied, rolling her eyes. She was a few inches taller than me. “But not a shrimp like you either.”

“Humph.”

The Wee Folk woman turned to me. “Don’t take any nonsense from Jolly Dan,” she stage-whispered. “He can be horribly rude, but it’s just an act. Inside he’s really very sweet.”

The little door flew open. There, looking every inch a leprechaun (and there were maybe twenty-four inches of him, total), was a miniature bearded man, green coat, buckle boots, smoking a pipe, the whole deal. He looked me up and down and made a face of pure revulsion.

“Disgusting!” he roared. “That is, without question, the most hideous dress I’ve ever seen!”

I liked him already.

“Jolly Dan Dabby,” said the woman coolly, “allow me to present the Half-Goddess Morganne.” She bent down and gave a knock to the top of his hat. “She’s a partial divinity, you shrunken oaf! She is a very prestigious customer.”

“How do you do,” I said, extending my hand down to him. He ignored it.

“By the beard of Saint Patrick, I hope you’re not going to ask Jolly Dan Dabby to make shoes to match that puke-a-thon of a gown,” he grumbled. “I’d rather retire right now! And I can afford to, believe you me.”

“Perhaps this conversation should take place in private,” the Wee Folk woman said, fanning herself with a hand. “Where it can’t upset anyone’s digestion.”

Jolly Dan glared up at me.

I could play his game. I glared back down at him.

“Well,” he said, after the staring contest got old. “Come in, then.” And he disappeared back through the three-foot-high door.

What could I do? Feeling very Alice in Wonderland, I gathered up my poofy taffeta skirt, crouched down and prepared to wiggle my way through.

“Careful with the dress!” the Wee Folk woman cried in alarm.

Jolly Dan stuck his head back out. “Not that way, you ‘half-goddess.’ ” He said it like he’d meant to say “half-wit.” “Use the service entrance! Does Jolly Dan Dabby have to do all the thinking around here?”

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