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been bad!
    “I’m sorry,” Robyn mouthed to Annie. A second later, she was gone. I watched them leave in the rain, Robyn’s dad storming down the road, holding tightly on to her hand as she ran to keep up with his angry strides.
    Annie stood at the window till they’d gone out of sight. Then, as if suddenly remembering she had a shop full of people, she smoothed down her apron, tucked a loose hair under the headband, and took a deep breath.
    Her face was as flushed as Robyn’s had been. “Sorry about that, everyone.” She tried to smile, but it was obvious that she wasn’t happy. Her eyes didn’t crinkle up the same way as they had before. “Now, who needs some help?”
    She hovered around us all, flitting between us like a butterfly, making jokes and talking nonstop, acting as though nothing had happened. I couldn’t concentrate on my mug anymore. All I could think was: What on earth
had
just happened?

I could feel anger rise inside me as I fluttered around the outside of the cottage. How dare they treat me like this! I’d done my job brilliantly — again — and they weren’t even going to let me see her. Or they
might.
They
couldn’t make any promises!
    Well, that wasn’t good enough for me. They weren’t the only ones who had promises to keep. What about the promise of friendship? Didn’t that count for anything?
    It just wasn’t fair. I’d managed to get her to come all the way here, and I was expected to sit around, not knowing whether I could see her or not. I simply wasn’t going to let that happen. I
had
to do something. If I could just get in the house.
    The windows were all closed; no way in. What could I do?
    “Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” a voice boomed from the bottom of the drive. I spun around to see who it was.
    Philippa’s dad! He was talking as they all made their way up to the house. I quickly flew out of sight. Now what? Perhaps I could fly in when they opened the door. No, too risky. If they spotted me, it could give the whole thing away — and I didn’t even want to
think
about how much trouble I’d be in if that happened!
    “Philippa, don’t forget to take your shoes in,” her mom said. “What are they doing out here, anyway?”
    “Oh, I decided to change into my boots and just didn’t remember to bring them in,” Philippa said.
    I suddenly had an idea. Her shoes were in front of the door! If I could just get to them. . . .
    “Hey, look over here,” Philippa’s dad said.
    “What?” Philippa and her mom glanced over.
    “Those trees in the field across the road. All twisted and gnarled. Looks like they’ve been in a fight,” he said with a laugh.
    They were all looking away. I had a chance! I could do it now!
    I flew over to Philippa’s shoes, fluttered my wings over them. Would it be enough?
    I’d have to hope so. They were coming back. I shook my wings over the shoes one last time, then turned and flew out of sight.

We spent the afternoon back at the cottage playing Scrabble. Two
T
s, an
S,
and a
G
were missing, so we had to make some letters out of cardboard. It took the mystery out of the game a little, especially if you had a word like
sting,
but it was better than sitting and watching the rain.
    “It’s got to stop at some point,” Mom said, glancing out the window as she placed her tiles on the board.
“Heart,”
she said. “On a double word. That’s sixteen.”
    Dad wrote down her score, then went back to frowning at his letters. I sat twitching in my seat — partly out of boredom and partly because something was tickling my foot. It felt as if there was something in my shoe, tickling my toes. I reached down to pull my shoe off so I could scratch my foot.
    “Phewey, what’s that smell?” Dad said with a wink.
    “I’ve got something in my shoe.” It felt like sand. Where had that come from?
    Mom got up to poke the logs, ruffling Dad’s hair on her way past him. Dad had lit a fire when we came in, and it was starting to die down.