One Day with Miss Penderly

By R.J. Valencia

A charming and spellbinding Middle-Grade fantasy by booktuber R.J. Valencia aka BookishlyRichie!

Ruby Wilt has a well-known reputation for being a walking sack of bad luck and all she wants is to live a normal life and not have everyone so scared of her all the time. When she discovers an ad in the newspaper for an assistant to the legendary Miss Isadora Penderly, Ruby sees it as the perfect opportunity to turn her luck around. But when Ruby walks into Miss Penderly’s shop, she gets more than she could ever bargain for.

Just moments after being hired, a little girl walks into the shop with a mysterious white cat and steals Miss Penderly’s prized magical umbrella right out from under Ruby’s nose. With only one day to retrieve it before disaster strikes the city of Plumwick, Ruby and Miss Penderly strike up a plan to find the girl, the cat, and the umbrella.

Joined by a street-smart boy named Charlie, and a dapper talking pigeon with a top hat, they take on the city to find Miss Penderly’s umbrella before it’s too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.J. Valencia
• Release date: Apr 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005848170

Book preview

One Day with Miss Penderly

Rj Valencia

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 1

Ruby Wilt had been staring down at the advertisement in the newspaper for what seemed like hours. The dewberry creme chai tea in the mug before her had gone cold and there were two fat gray pigeons pecking at the chili-infused chocolate donut beside it. The two birds smacked at each other, clearly fighting over the delectable treat from Caruso’s, the most well-known bakery in the city of Plumwick.

As Ruby stared on, going over the same paragraph for the hundredth time, rain began to fall again. This time, icy droplets fell onto the newspaper. Yanked out of her daydreaming, the girl snatched the paper away from the table, but not before knocking over her mug of tea. She closed her eyes and braced for the sound of the mug shattering on the floor, but, oddly, it didn’t come.

Ruby popped one eye open, wondering if she had spontaneously gone deaf for a moment. In front of her stood a tall, lanky teenager she knew all too well, wearing a blue apron, who held the now empty mug in his hand. He was smirking at Ruby as he placed it back on the table and began to wipe up the remaining donut crumbs.

Ruby smiled back as she pushed her arms through the sleeves of her yellow raincoat. The boy was named Jonas and he had curly cropped hair and dark brown skin that mirrored her own.

I have a strange feeling you might be my guardian angel, Jonas Hollyhock, Ruby said, incredibly grateful that the young man had been there to save her from her own reputation. She could hear people at the tables behind her, whispering her name and talking about her behind her back.

Ruby oozed bad luck; it was practically pouring out of her ears and dancing on the tips of her fingers. Everyone knew it and everyone hated her for it.

You’re my favorite customer, Ruby. You’re the only one who still orders Grandma Dora’s favorite recipe. She gets so happy when she comes downstairs to whip you up a cup. I think you’re her favorite customer, too. So never worry, Ruby, I’ve got you.

Ruby’s cheeks grew warm, and she looked through the patio window into the tiny café. Sitting at the counter was Grandma Dora, she was watching something on the tiny television that hung above the coffee bar. Her red cheeks were bouncing with laughter. But when someone entered the café, the smile fell from her face and she quickly hurried to the back of the building, hidden behind a dark velvet curtain. Dora Hollyhock didn’t like to be seen, and everyone in Plumwick knew that.

The old woman had lost nearly her entire family to a devastating dark event many years ago, and the renowned mixologist had given up her role in the Hollyhock Café ever since. But, oddly, the only drink she chose to make was for Ruby.

Jonas and Grandma Dora were the only ones in Plumwick who treated Ruby like a human being instead of a dirty fruit fly who needed to be shooed away at every chance.

She knew how everyone felt about the Wilts.

The Wilt family had a horrible reputation in the magic world. A very long, long, long, time ago, Phillip Wilt cracked the All-Knowing-Mirror, one of the most ancient and fabled magical artifacts in the world. In the mortal world, you got seven years of bad luck for breaking a mirror, but in the magic world it was worse. Because of poor, clumsy Phillip, the entire Wilt bloodline had been doused with pure bad luck for eternity.

Everyone in the magic world knew of the Wilt Luck and Ruby was glad that it didn’t bleed over into the mortal side they happened to share the city with. If mortals knew of magic, she was sure they’d know of her and her family, but luckily they didn’t.

So, whenever Ruby needed a new book to read, food for her cat, or a new pair of shoes, she always chose to enter a mortal shop. They were much nicer and didn’t stare.

There were worse families out there, Ruby knew, but since her mother ran one of the oldest flower shops in Plumwick, Wilt Flowers, people never kept the Wilt name out of their mouths.

Pulling her gaze from the window, Ruby reopened the paper and looked down at the advertisement once again.

What’s that? Jonas asked as he sprayed the table with blue cleaning solution and swiped a tattered rag across it. Crossword puzzles? Or did another ghost go missing?

Ruby chuckled and held out the paper. Jonas took it from her, holding it away from the canopy above them so that it wouldn’t get drenched in rainwater.

What am I supposed to be looking at? He peered at Ruby, his brown eyes shining down upon her.

Ruby leaned forward and tapped at the black-framed square on the paper.

"That," she said and took a step back, nearly bumping into someone else’s table. That was close; Ruby breathed out in relief.

She watched as Jonas’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack. He looked away from the paper and stared at Ruby.

"The Isadora Penderly is looking to hire an assistant? he asked, like he couldn’t believe what he was reading. This is insane."

She is! Ruby smiled and placed her hands on her hips, and I’m on my way to apply right now.

When Ruby had picked up the paper from a stand earlier in the morning, she hadn’t been able to believe her eyes when she saw the advertisement. She was only twelve and didn’t need a job, but working for one of the most powerful and legendary witches in their world would surely do something for her family’s reputation. Maybe she could be the one who changed their luck!

She was half expecting Jonas to laugh or shake his head at her, but instead his smile widened, and he handed the paper back to Ruby.

Then you better get to her shop on the double. It’s already ten-thirty and that would be a pretty appealing job, especially to young witches in the city.

Ruby hadn’t thought of that. She wasn’t a regular witch; she was a garden witch, which was much lower in power and prestige than the ones who could use wands and spew sparkling dust from their fingertips.

However, Ruby could heal a cut or a sprained ankle with a few flowers and herbs, and with the right ingredients, heal a broken heart. There weren’t many like her; it was an old kind of magic and young people loved modern magic so much more.

You’re absolutely right, Jonas. I’ll be off now! Ruby spun around and ran right into the table she’d nearly avoided moments ago.

But she didn’t have time to worry; she heard a shatter and a scream as she hurried through the patio area of Hollyhock’s Café and tore down the street like a chaotic miniature tornado.

Chapter 2

As Ruby ran down Flounder Street, she splashed in and out of fresh rain puddles, decorating the people nearest to her in mucky gray water. She heard several people say oh, it’s just the Wilt girl and she almost wanted to turn back and splash them again, but she knew she didn’t have time. She needed to get to Miss Penderly’s shop before the job she so desperately wanted was taken by someone else.

She looked down at her watch and saw that it was 11:11am.

As she looked back up, she saw a man in a dark blue tweed trench coat standing next to a phonebooth. For some strange reason she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stared at the man. There was something peculiar about him, but Ruby couldn’t put a finger on it.

The man held a black umbrella over his head and was smoking a large black cigar. The foul smell stung Ruby’s nostrils, causing her to momentarily choke on the thick smoke.

When his dark eyes met hers, he narrowed them and then smiled. His teeth were pointed and white as snow, and his eyebrows were thick and arched like furry daggers. A large flat mole sat next to his left eye and his skin looked so pale it almost seemed translucent.

A flurry of gruff voices pulled Ruby’s attention away from the man. She turned to see a group of policemen strolling down the street. A skinny one stopped and stapled a flyer to a wooden pole.

Ruby turned back to the man, but he had vanished.

Little girl. A voice startled her. Ruby looked up and saw a bulky, bald police officer standing in front of her, holding out one of the flyers. Have you seen this little lowlife?

It was clear to her that these officers were mortal, because the police force on the magical side of Plumwick knew of Ruby and they would’ve never stopped to ask her a single thing. Ruby caught a glimpse of the tag on his uniform: Officer Gross. Such an unfortunate last name, Ruby thought.

The officer shook the flyer in Ruby’s face and tapped it with his baton.

"Have you seen him?" He repeated himself more urgently.

Ruby looked at the flyer and saw a black and white photo of a boy around her age. He had a baseball cap on, and his hair nearly obscured his eyes. He had a dark mark on his chin, but Ruby couldn’t tell if it was a printing error or a birthmark of some sort. Above the boy’s photo his name was written in bold black letters: Charligan Shambleton.

Charligan, that’s a unique name. Ruby gazed up at the officer.

Officer Gross’s bushy brow contorted, and he shook his bowling ball shaped head at the girl.

"Little girl, I’m going ask you again—"

—I haven’t seen him. Ruby cut him off and then, realizing she’d sounded a tad