Once Upon a Beanstalk (4 page)

Penelope’s smiled wistfully. They were going to have a perfect wedding no matter what. They deserved it.

The team tricked in slowly, in pairs of two and three. Most of the cops were masquerading as servants, but a few were posing as guests in royal finery. She snickered as she caught a glimpse of a pair of black leggings beneath the shimmering skirts of a dress. Apparently she wasn’t the only one who thought she might need to change clothing in a hurry if a chase ensued.

Andrew arrived last, and he shut the door behind him. The ground huddled close together.

“Listen up, everyone,” Penelope said, speaking softly so only they could hear her. “First off, this is Prince Andrew, and he’ll be helping us today.” Andrew gave a small wave, and shot a smile in her direction. She cleared her throat and continued. “The Grimm Brothers are incredibly clever, but usually they have surprise on their side. Today we know they’re coming. So keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious activity, and beep me immediately if you see anything.” She pulled out her pager and held it in the air. “Let’s catch these guys this time.”

The group nodded solemnly and dispersed to their posts. She tossed Andrew a pager. “You. Me. We need to talk.”

The girl with the headset tapped on the door and then stuck her head in the room. “Miss Penelope? Prince Andrew? The lineup is starting.” Music wafted through the open door.

Andrew offered her his arm, and she reluctantly accepted. “Listen,” she said as they walked together down the hallway toward the gardens where the ceremony would be held. “Don’t get cocky or anything. If you see something weird, page me.” She described the man she’d seen earlier. “I think he’s up to something. He isn’t mingling like the rest of the guests, and he was eyeing everyone’s jewelry like he could see invisible price tags floating above them. Watch for me, and let me know if you find him.”

“Got it.” His eyes were serious as they met hers. He reached out and brushed a tendril from her forehead. “Penelope …”

The girl with the headset waved at her to take her place in line.

“Oops, got to go.”

She moved away from him, taking her place at the back of the line of bridesmaids. She could feel his gaze still on her, but she refused to look. Servants threw open the doors, letting in a floor of music. One of the assistants handed her a bouquet of lilies. When Penelope finally glanced over at Andrew again, she saw that he had Tom in his vest pocket. Tom waved and blew her a kiss.

The ceremony itself was beautiful. The air smelled like flowers, and the music swelled to a crescendo as the audience rose and the bride stepped forward. Greg beamed from his place beneath an arbor of cascading white roses, and Rapunzel cried the whole way down the aisle, her short golden hair gleaming like a halo as the sun caught the ends and turned them fiery. Penelope’s eyes misted as she watched the happy couple exchange their vows. The sun set just as they kissed, turning the sky a beautiful pumpkin orange.

As everyone applauded, the music changed and the bridal party followed the bride and groom down the aisle again, Penelope and Andrew arm-in-arm this time and Tom still in Andrew’s pocket.

She whispered a few last minute instructions to them both. “I’ve stationed agents at every door of the reception hall. Tom, I want you at the gift table with a pager. Don’t forget to eat something—this party could last all night, and I have no idea when the Grimm Brothers will make their move. We’ve also teamed up with the wedding service—they have security cameras—but I don’t want to rely on them. We’re the professionals here.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Tom said, saluting.

“What about me?” Andrew asked.

“Stick close to me,” she said. “We’ll circle the room, keep an eye on everything.”

He looked pleased with this arrangement, and she was too busy to feel annoyed at it.

~

Couples swirled on the dance floor and mingled by the champagne fountain. Penelope lingered beside one of the open windows, a piece of wedding cake in hand. She’d originally worried about the windows, but it was a three-story drop to the ground below.

Nobody could survive that.

These Grimm Brothers were as good as in the bag now. She had guards at every door, and eyes watching for any wrong movements.

Andrew appeared at her elbow. “How’s everything going?”

“Smoothly,” she said, smiling a little. She was pleased enough that she could allow herself a little relaxation now. All they had to do now was step in at the right moment and lock on the handcuffs. “Did you speak with Rumpel?”

“I did. He said he hasn’t seen the guy you described on any of the security feeds, but he’ll keep looking.”

“Thank you.” She watched the dancers. On the gift table, Tom was doing a waltz with one of the fairies that had held Rapunzel’s train. The fairy’s wings sparkled as the pair twirled, and Tom dipped her.

“Would you like to dance, Penelope?” Andrew asked. He swallowed hard, his eyes searching hers, and she struggled for some way to say no.

“I—well—all right,” she muttered, unable to think of a good excuse off the top of her head. “I guess we can get another view of the guests from the dance floor.”

“Hmmm, okay,” Andrew said, pulling her into his arms.

And to Penelope’s surprise, it felt nice, dancing with him. It felt
right
—not awkward or unnatural like she’d supposed it would. He was a good dancer, and the perfect height compared to her. They moved smoothly between twirling couples and across the floor.

“Listen,” Andrew said, gazing steadily into her face with a determined expression on his face. “This whole weekend has been a whirlwind, but I just wanted to let you know that I have been thinking about you a lot since school.”

“Did you get bored with no hair to pull but your own?” Penelope asked lightly. But her heart had begun to pound.

He laughed. “I was pretty terrible for a few years, wasn’t I?”

Penelope lifted an eyebrow and didn’t comment.

Andrew’s expression sobered. “The truth is—I liked you. I thought you were beautiful and sassy and intimidating, and I didn’t know how to talk to you. I just wanted you to notice me.”

He’d
liked
her? Tom had been right? Shock momentarily scattered her thoughts. She stared blankly at him.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll at least consider me,” he begged.

“Consider you? For
marriage
?”

No wonder the queen had been giving her weird looks lately.

“Greg married a commoner, but my mother wants a princess for me. You’re from a royal line ... but don’t misunderstand me, that’s not why I’m interested! See, you’re not like the other girls I know. You’re spunky, funny, clever, vivacious. And you have a job, which I really admire since you don’t have to work, and most people in your position wouldn’t bother, but you have so much passion for life that you have devoted yourself to this career, to helping people—” He sucked in a deep breath and pulled her closer. “Please say yes. Please say you’ll at least give thought to making me the happiest man alive.”

Before she could respond, the pager tucked into her sash buzzed, and they both froze.

The thieves.

Penelope pulled the pager out and held it up in a trembling hand so they could both read it.

SUSPECT SPOTTED.

Lifting her eyes, she saw the man in the dark cloak moving swiftly away from the gift table, something tucked beneath this arm. Tom was nowhere in sight.

Bingo.

“That’s him. Let’s go,” she said to Andrew, signaling to one of her agents.

They began weaving through the crowd as fast as possible without making a scene. The suspect was almost to the door. She saw two guards grab him, pulling him into the hallway, and she quickened her pace. Andrew was at her heels as she ran through the door and into the hall. The man was already being patted down by the guards. He met her gaze squarely, and the corner of his mouth quirked in a sly smile.

Something in her chest squeezed.

She had a bad feeling about this.

“What was he carrying?” She asked, breathless from her run. The man was too confident. He was too assured.

Something was wrong.

“This.” One of the guards handed her a bag marked
beans
, but when she looked inside it was filled with bread crumbs.

“He’s not our guy,” she said to the guard.

“What?” Andrew said behind her.

“How much did they pay you?” She asked the decoy. He smirked and shrugged.

“Enough.”

She looked at the bag again.
Beans
...

An image flashed in her head—a young peasant boy who almost collided with her. His quick smile as he met her eyes. The look in his eyes—had it been a challenge? His offer—“Would you like to buy some magic beans?”

Magic beans?

A sick feeling clenched Penelope’s stomach. They’d been fooled. They’d been conned by a couple of clever little thieves…

She didn’t wait to see if he had anything else to say. There wasn’t time. “Put him in custody!” She yelled over her shoulder as she sprinted back for the reception room.

One of the windows was half-hidden by a massive column. The glass panes had been pushed open, and a cool breeze poured in, making the curtains flutter and dance. She ran to the sill and braced herself against it, looking down.

A swaying, twisting vine stretched from the ground to the window frame, leaves rustling in the wind. It was sturdy enough to support the weight of a grown man, and it hadn’t been there five minutes ago. A few beans lay on the sill.

Magic beans.

Andrew reached her side and stared open-mouthed for a moment before yanking off his tuxedo jacket. “If we hurry, we can catch them—”

Another agent rushed to them, panting. “The thieves have stolen one of the carriages in the courtyard!”

Penelope’s lips curved in a smile, and she laid a restraining hand on Andrew’s arm. “Don’t ruin your suit by sliding down that vine,” she said. “I have a few tricks up my sleeve still. We’ll catch them.”

~

The horses thundered down the road, their manes whipping in the wind. Penelope leaned low over the saddle, straining to see in the moonlight. She checked the pocket watch a guard had lent her.

11:58.

“Almost time, guys,” she called over the sound of the horses’ hooves against the hard-packed dirt. They galloped over a bridge. The road ahead shimmered in the moonlight, and shadows blanketed the hills. She checked the watch again.

11:59…

“One more minute!”

Ahead of them, she heard a massive crash and a shriek. The thieves!

Penelope pulled ahead, spurring her horse forward. Galloping around a curve in the road, she came up suddenly upon a pile of debris. She pulled her horse up short.

A massive pumpkin lay in the road, smashed in half, vines trailing everywhere. Small packages littered the ground, every one of them small enough to be stuffed down a sleeve or into a sack unnoticed. The thieves were nowhere to be seen.

She slid off her horse and ran forward. “They’re gone!”

“Penelope?” A tiny voice called.

She stopped, bewildered. “Tom?”

The pumpkin leaves rustled, and a tiny hand appeared from beneath them. “Pen? Is that you?”

She crouched down to look at him. “What—what happened? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” He pulled himself up with one of the vines and grinned at her in the near-darkness. “I was sitting on one of the wedding presents, trying to catch my breath after dancing with that fairy, and the next thing I know I’ve been swept me into a coat pocket with a lot of diamonds and wrapped boxes. They made their move when the rest of you were occupied with that other fellow, the one you’d been watching for.”

She smiled grimly. “Yes, we realized that just after they escaped. Did you see their faces?”

“No.”

“Where are the Grimm Brothers?” Andrew called as he reached them. He jumped down from his mount and jogged to her side. “Tom?”

“They went into the woods,” Tom said as Penelope bent to pick him up, and she turned and waved to the riders.

“They’re on foot. Search the forest!”

As the rest of the agents rode on, the moonlight glittered among the ruined melon, and she reached down and drew out a knot of diamond necklaces. She shook her head in amazement. “They made quite a sweep, didn’t they? This stuff must be worth thousands. And they left it all behind.”

Andrew was surveying the broken pumpkin. “Was this your idea?”

Penelope smiled at his astonished expression. “I had the stable hands hide all the guests’ carriages behind the stables, and then I had a fairy godmother turn almost forty pumpkins and melons into coaches to fill the courtyard and carriage house. The magic always expires at midnight, you know. I figured if we slipped up and they fled, we might get lucky. I was right.”

Admiration shone in Andrew’s eyes. “You are amazing.”

“Well,” she said. “We haven’t caught them yet.”

~

They didn’t return to the castle until almost dawn. A search of the forest had proved fruitless. The Grimm Brothers had vanished yet again, elusive to the last. And still, nobody knew what they looked like, other than the young man with the beans Penelope had see. And even his face was fuzzy in her memory. Had he had blue eyes, or green? Was his hair brown or dirty blonde? She couldn’t recall, exactly.

She was disappointed about not catching the thieves, but as Andrew pointed out, she had recovered everything that was stolen. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless, and as they rode home, Andrew told her every joke and funny story he could think of to distract her from her bad mood.

“I know you like him,” Tom whispered into her ear from where he rode atop her shoulder as they reached the courtyard, and this time she didn’t deny it.

A tinge of pink glowed in the east and painted the roof of the castle rosy hues when Penelope finally crawled up the ladder and into bed. By then, she was yawning so hard her jaw ached. And it felt like her eyes had just fluttered closed when a servant girl was whispering her name, telling her that breakfast was served.