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a plan?”
    Tredje
sighed. They’d been over it dozens of times while waiting for the Prince to
arrive, but the Gnome’s short term memory was shorter than he was.
    It
would have been easier if they’d been able to snatch the woman before the Pixie
showed up, but the Pixie’s spell would have brought him to the exact spot where
they would have hidden the woman, so it had to be done after he arrived. “We
kidnap the woman until after the Equinox. With the woman out of the way, the
Pixie won’t be able to wed her and all will be well for King Norfe.”
    “True,
true. But how do we get her?”
    “We wait until dark. You know as
well as I do that she stays here until past sunset. Then we grab her.”
    “And
where did we say we’d hide her?”
    Tredje sighed heavily. The Gnome
was hopeless. “We’ll take her back to me bridge across the street. The Pixie
won’t think to look right under his nose.”

Chapter Three
    Kerry was all too aware when the
Leprechaun entered the greenhouse. She continued to trowel dirt, moving plants
to bigger pots. She couldn’t stand the thought of throwing out any plant and
tried to keep them all until they sold. Or died. She really wasn’t very good at
running a nursery, something she’d always dreamed of doing. But her dreams had
entailed actually working all day with the plants, not spending most of her
time taking care of the business end.
    Kerry had decided long ago what
she really needed was a job as a gardener. Unfortunately, she didn’t discover
this until after she’d borrowed the money to open Cockleshells &
Silverbells Nursery…well, the whimsical name had sounded good at the time.
    She watched the Leprechaun out of
the corner of her eye as he surveyed the rows of plants. Too bad he wasn’t a
real Leprechaun because she’d caught him twice. Inadvertently, but still she’d
had her hands on him both times. He would have to give her his pot of gold, and
she’d never have to worry about money again.
    When he
started moving the plants around, she stood and called out to him.
    “Hey,
is there something I can do for you?”
    “The
plants aren’t happy. Coriander and dill should be together, but mint should
never be near the parsley.”
    He
sounded like he knew what he was talking about. And if re-organizing her plants
kept him away from her, then all the better. Why he didn’t just go across the
street and enter the contest, she didn’t know.
    After a
while, when she’d almost finished, she looked up. He’d moved nearly every plant
in the herb section and had started on the flowers. But, she had to admit, the
new arrangement looked—and even felt—more harmonious as she walked between the
rows of herbs to stand beside him.
    “You really do have a wonderful
way with plants,” Kerry said, not in the least jealous. Well, maybe a little.
She had a green thumb and plants prospered under her care. But she didn’t have
any kind of sixth sense that let her just know which plants should be
where.
    “Where I come from, knowing about
flowers and plants is natural,” he said with a shrug.
    “Where do you come from? You
sound like you might be from England, but your accent’s not quite like anything
I’ve ever heard before.” Then Kerry laughed. “Not that I hear very many English
accents around here. Mostly what I hear is on TV or in the movies, and I
imagine most of them are faked.”
    “England,”
he said as he stepped around her to move another pot of marigolds.
    Kerry
had the feeling he was just repeating the word, not really confirming that it
was where he was from. When he didn’t say anything else, she didn’t pursue it.
It wasn’t any of her business anyway.
    “My
name’s Kerry O’Neill. I own Cockleshells & Silverbells, and I wish I could
afford to hire you. Although if I could hire anybody, it’d be a bookkeeper, so
that I could spend all my time with the plants.”
    He
straightened another pot and looked at her. His eyes were the lightest