Page 42 of The Broken Mirror
“Of course, but who says we can’t do both?” Gretel says, smiling. “We can brainstorm while we sew. That’s one of the best things about sewing: You can think and talk about other things while you do it. Now look, your problem is that you aren’t able to sew fast enough to keep all the flowers fresh. As soon as they wilt, the shirts become limp and break apart, right?”
“Right. And then I can’t get them on my brothers fast enough, and it’s the most frustrating thing in all the worlds.”
“So I think what we need to do is dry the flowers. That witch never said the flowers had to be fresh, did she?”
Filomena grins. “Aha! A loophole!”
“So we’ll collect them, dry them, and sew them promptly. Plus, with four of us sewing, it’ll go way faster.”
The four go out to a patch of star flowers that Rosie found in the forest and start picking as many as they can gather.
“Wait!” Gretel says, slapping Alistair’s hand as he tries to pluck a flower. “We shouldn’t pickallof them. Just in case we mess up and need backup.”
They go back to the cottage. Alistair lays the flowers out on baking sheets to dry in the oven. Once the blooms have dried, the friends go up to Rosie’s loft again.
“So how many shirts are we making?” Gretel says, laying out the flowers carefully.
“Seven.”
Filomena’s and Alistair’s heads nearly snap off, they turn to look at each other so fast.
“Seven?” Filomena asks.
“Seven,” Rosie confirms.
“The League of Seven!” Filomena and Alistair say at once, jumping up and down.
But Rosie doesn’t look quite so excited. “I don’t know, guys…”
“This is perfect, this is fate!” Filomena says. “I can’t wait to tell Jack.” Once she calms down, though, she realizes Rosie is skeptical. “You’re not excited about your brothers being the League of Seven?” Filomena asks.
“It’s not that…,” Rosie says. “I mean, my brothers are brave and all… but, well, you’ll see.”
Filomena’s confused. Why isn’t Rosie excited by this? They’re one step closer to saving Never After!
“Well, whether they’re the League of Seven or not, we’re still going to reverse the curse,” Gretel says. “But seriously, Rosie, it feels like too much of a coincidence. Seven brothers, seven heroes?”
Rosie says nothing, only shrugs, and Filomena holds on to hope.
A few hours later, they’re still working away. The delicate business of sewing these flowers into shirts is no joke. Gretelkeeps saying that if these turn out well, they can sell them off as one-of-a-kinds, as long as the brothers don’t need them for life.
Alistair is clearly growing weary. “Why is it that the cures to curses are always so time intensive?” he whines.
“I think because if they weren’t,” Filomena ventures, “then everyone would be able to reverse them.”
“You make a good point, Seamstress Filomena.”
Gretel’s way further on her shirt than the others, and Filomena sees she’s not even looking at her hands as she sews. Gretel’s staring at Rosie’s glasses instead.
“What?” Rosie says, smiling shyly.
“Your glasses are to die for! I’m obsessed. How do they change color like that?”
“I developed them myself, actually. After the whole mirror thing was a total bust, I had to entertain myself somehow. So I started inventing things.”
Had to entertain herself? Wait, didn’t Rosie say something this morning about not being able to go far from the cottage?
“Rosie, are you trapped here?”
