Page 47 of Must Love Lavender and Little Lies
JUNIPER
After convincing Granik’s family to leave the ale tasting tent, we made our way to the festival fields. Here, every festival from the Autumn Fest, the Hallomoon Carnival, the Yule Fest, and the Strawberry Festival was held. But this night was special. It was a reminder of the return of spring. A Maypole sat at the center of the festival grounds. Music played, and people danced, the younger members of the Moonshine Hollow community dancing around the pole. Artisans sold their wares, displaying their talents from painting to sculpting to blowing glass. The sweet smells of food lingered in the air. While the Autumn Festival was by far the largest event in Moonshine Hollow, the Greening had its own sweetness.
“Look at that!” Grommat, Granik’s nephew, called, pointing to a fun game of ring toss where children were attempting to toss rings around the necks of glimmering dragon enchantments. On the plus side, the dragons had long necks and were slow to dart away. The only downfall was that the gamemaster had cast the enchantment so the dragons had fireballs. If a fireball hit one of the rings, it immediately fell to the ground.
Sophilla took the younger children to try their hand at the game while Kika and the other teens hurried to visit the candymaker, who had lollipops with pressed violets, cherry blossom bonbons, and bright pink candy floss that popped and sparked with iridescent light.
“Take me over to the bonfire,” Gree-Gree told Annya. “The rest of you enjoy yourselves. Greb, bring me something hot to drink.”
“Of course,” Annya said, then led her mother away.
Taking the opportunity, Granik took my hand and led me away from the group.
“Let’s run,” he told me half-jokingly. “If we flee now, they’ll never miss us.”
“Oh, I’m sure your grandmother would love that.”
I glanced around, seeing a crowd full of people I knew well. The sun was sinking low, and the music and sound of revelry were growing by the moment. Everywhere, people were laughing and dancing.
“Juniper,” Granik said, his voice sounding pained. “What are we going to do?”
Through the crowd, I spotted Tansy and Kellen. They must have just come from the shop. For a moment, I thought about my friend, Tansy, a traveling artisan who had spent her days on the road, going from festival to festival. She had changed her whole life for Kellen. I smiled and watched as the two of them joined the other dancing pairs. Kellen, a solitary creature, would have seemed out of place here. But with his hand in Tansy’s, he came alive. They began to dance with the others, everyone cheering when they saw the dryad guardian join the festivities.
“Juniper? Junie?”
“Come with me,” I told Granik.
“Where are we going? Are we running? What do you?—”
“Dancing. We’re dancing,” I replied.
Granik gave me a confused look, but then, without any further objection, he joined me in the dancing square.
We paused a moment at the edge, waiting for an entrance, then Granik took my hand, set his other hand on my waist, and we joined the others.
A cheer rose up from the crowd.
Granik laughed. “Junie, what are we doing?”
“It’s the Greening. We’re dancing,” I replied.
“But this is madness. We need to?—”
“We need to dance, so stop talking and start spinning.”
At that, Granik and I started spinning around the circle with the others, the audience clapping. The sound of fiddles, flutes, washboards, and spoons filled the air. Everyone was red-cheeked and merry. Even the stoic Kellen was laughing.
We bounded in circles, and when the reel quickly changed, we wove once more.
As we passed Gree-Gree, she smiled at us and raised her mug in a toast.
I looked up at Granik to find he was grinning from ear to ear.
“Junie, this is madness.”
“No, this is ‘May Maid’s Reel,’” I replied with a laugh.
Granik merely shook his head, and we danced once more, spinning in circles until we were breathless. We danced with the others, swirling to song after song, the night whirling away. Finally, the music reached a crescendo, and the song came to an end.
