The Charming Way by Kristine Grayson

 
 
    The Charming Way

 
    Kristine Grayson

 
 
 
    Copyright Information

 
    The Charming Way
    Copyright © 2012 by
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
    First published by WMG
Publishing 2010
    Published by WMG Publishing
    Cover and Layout copyright
© 2012 by WMG Publishing
    Cover art copyright © Kydriashka
/Dreamstime

 
    This book is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. All rights reserved.
    This is a work of fiction. All characters and
events portrayed in this book are fictional,
and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
    This book, or parts thereof, may not be
reproduced in any form without permission.

 
 
 
    Table of
Contents

 
 
    The Charming Way

 
 
    Copyright Information

 
    About the Author

 
 
 
    The Charming Way
    Kristine Grayson

 
    Book
Fair
    The very words of the sign filled Mellie
with loathing. Book Fair indeed. More like Book Unfair.
    Every time someone wrote something down,
they got it wrong. She’d learned that in her exceptionally long life.
    Not that she was old—not by any
stretch. In fact, by the standards of her people, she was in early middle age. She’d
been in early middle age, it seemed, for most of her adult life. Of course that
wasn’t true. She’d only been in early middle age for her life in the public
eye—two very different things.
    And now she was paying for it.
    She stood with her hands on her hips
(which hadn’t expanded [much] since she was a beautiful young girl, who caught
the eye of every man) and looked at the pavilion, with the banner strung across
its multitude of doors.
    The
Largest Book Fair in the World! the banner proclaimed in bright red letters. The largest book fair with the
largest number of publishers, writers, readers and moguls—movie and
gaming and every other type the entertainment industry had come up with.
    It probably should be called Mogul Fair (Mogul Unfair?). But they
weren’t pitching Moguls (although someone probably should; it was her
experience that anyone with a shred of power [present company included] should
be pitched across a room [or down a staircase] every now and then); they were
pitching books.
    This season’s books, next season’s books,
books for every race, creed, and constituency, large books, small books and the
all-important evergreen books which were not, as she once believed, books about
evergreens, but books that never went out of style, like Little Women or anything by Jane Austen or, dammit, that villain
Hans Christian Andersen.
    Not that he started it all. He didn’t. It
was those Grimm brothers, two better named individuals she had never met.
    It didn’t matter that Mellie had set them
straight. By then, their “tales” were already on the market, poisoning the
well, so to speak. (Or the apple. Those boys did love their poisons. It would
have been so much better for all concerned if they had turned their attention
to crime fiction. They could have invented the entire category. But noooo. They
had to focus on what they called “fairies” as misnamed as their little
“tales.”) She made herself breathe. Even alone with her own thoughts, she couldn’t
help going on a bit of a rant about those creepy little men.
    She made herself turn away from the
pavilion and walk to the back of her minivan. With the push of a button, the
hatchback unlocked (now that was
magic) and she pulled the thing open.
    Fifty signs and placards leaned
haphazardly against each other. Last time, she’d only needed twenty. She hoped
she would use all fifty this time.
    She glanced at her watch. One hour until
the Book Unfair opened.
    Half an hour until her group showed up.
    Mellie turned her attention to the
pavilion again. Impossible to tell where she’d get the most media exposure. Certainly
not at those doors, with the handicapped ramp blocking access along one side.
    Once someone else arrived to help her
hand out the placards, she could leave for a few minutes and