Free Emily Feather and the Enchanted Door by Holly Webb Page A

wore a plain brown tunic, with a twist of ivy wrapped around the waist for a belt. Her hands were shaking, Emily suddenly realized, feeling sorry for her. Perhaps she really was going to get into trouble. The little creature lifted up the plate to her again, staring at her hopefully, and Emily caught the smell of the fruit that was spilling over the sides.
    For a moment she forgot how frightened she was, and how angry with her family. She’d never smelled anything so good – except, perhaps, a long time ago, at home. Something a little like it once, when she’d been playing with Lark and Lory in the garden. She couldn’t remember quite where.
    The pieces of fruit seemed to glow against the silver plate, as though they were lit from inside: a cluster of emerald-green berries, and something that looked like an orange, except it was split open down one side, spilling out scarlet seeds, dripping with juice. And apples, golden and fawn and green, glossy leaves still attached, as though they’d been picked only moments before.
    Emily stretched out her hand to take something without even meaning to, and the brownie let out a sigh, as though she hadn’t dared to breathe before, and smiled at her, nodding eagerly. She balanced the plate in one hand, and with the other, she held out a fine cloth napkin to Emily, as though she had on one of those beautiful jewelled dresses that might be ruined by a smear of juice, and not just her denim shorts and a hoodie.
    â€œDo eat, Emily,” the dark-haired fairy murmured eagerly, her eyes sparkling. She reached out to the plate and took an apple while the brownie watched her nervously. Her small, pointed teeth bit into it deeply, and she sighed. “So good. You should try.” The juice was running down her chin a little, and she licked it away. Then she closed her eyes, and her wings quivered in delight. The peacock eyes in the corners shimmered, the colours pulsing, so that Emily could only stare at them, and be filled with hunger for the sweet fruit.
    Which to choose? Emily took the napkin with a murmured, “Thank you,” and reached out, stroking the sun-warmed fruit. She had just picked up a strand of garnet-red berries when there was a sudden commotion at the door. The other brownies were shrieking in alarm, and the brownie girl holding out the plate to her turned round, shrinking back against the bed anxiously.
    â€œEmily, no!”
    Lark and Lory were racing towards her, weirdly out of place in their jeans and vest tops, their feathered wings spilling out behind them as they ran.
    The dark-haired fairy with the peacock butterfly wings gasped angrily. She dropped the apple, standing up hurriedly in a rustle of stiff silk skirts as though she meant to stop Lark and Lory coming anywhere near. But the other two fairies caught her hands, whispering to her, and she sat down, watching with a strange sort of smile.
    Emily’s first reaction was to leap off the bed and hug her sisters – she was so glad to see someone she knew in this strange, terrifying, beautiful place. She reached out to Lark, smiling in relief. Then she remembered.
    Lark and Lory belonged here, just as much as the fairy girls in their finery. Emily didn’t. She stared at them doubtfully.
    â€œDon’t eat anything!” Lory snapped, reaching out a hand for the berries, and Lark snatched the plate from the frightened brownie and flung it on to the ground. The servant girl let out a little wail of horror, and the other fairies whispered angrily to each other.
    â€œWhy not?” Emily pulled away, feeling suddenly cross, and clutched the handful of berries against her top. Lark and Lory always ordered her about – and they weren’t even her sisters. “What did you do that for? She was only being nice!”
    Lark sighed, and reached out to put an arm round her, but Emily pulled away, scrambling up the bed with the berries still in her hand. She could feel