“Yes,” said Princess Aurelia desperately. “I don’t want to marry King Rat but if it’s the only way of stopping Enchantia being frozen in winter forever, then I will do it.”

“Surely there must be something else we can do,” said Delphie. “Can’t someone just steal the globe or something?”

“We’ve tried,” answered Sugar. “But it’s impossible. King Rat won’t let it out of his sight. He says that the only thing that will make him break the globe is if he marries Aurelia – today!”

“I’m going to have to marry him!” Princess Aurelia’s eyes filled with tears. Her mother and father quickly comforted her.

Delphie’s thoughts tumbled over each other. What could they do? There had to be some other way…

Suddenly there was a very loud croaking sound from just outside the window. Delphie jumped. “What’s that?” she said, covering her ears as the noise came again even louder.

“Oh, that’s Priscilla the toad,” said Sugar. “She’s been croaking like that ever since the moat froze over,” said Princess Aurelia. “It’s really annoying.”

There was another loud croak. Delphie looked out of the window. An extremely large, extremely grumpy-looking toad about the size of a large dog, was sitting on the ice of the moat.

“She croaks all day and all night unless she’s eating,” said the King. “It’s impossible to sleep! I wish she’d go away.”

“We’ll do something about her soon, dear,” said the Queen soothingly. “Maybe Sugar can use her magic to turn her into a nightingale or a mouse or something for a while – anything that doesn’t make such a dreadful noise. But first we have to decide what we are going to do about King Rat.”

The Queen’s words gave Delphie an idea. “Maybe we can do something about both things at the same time!” she said.

“What do you mean?” asked Princess Aurelia.

A grin spread over Delphie’s face. “Sugar, could you really use your magic to turn Priscilla the toad into something else?”

“Yes,” replied Sugar, looking confused. “But what would I turn her into?”

“If you turned her into a beautiful princess – the most beautiful in the whole of Enchantia, even more beautiful than Aurelia, then I bet King Rat would want to marry her instead,” said Delphie.

“Of course!” gasped Sugar but then she frowned. “But how would that solve our problem about it being winter? King Rat wouldn’t have to break the enchantment if he wasn’t marrying Aurelia.”

Delphie had thought about that. “All we have to do is say that the new princess will only marry him if she can have a sunny day for her wedding.”

“It’s a brilliant idea,” said the Queen. “Although Sugar’s magic only lasts a few hours – things can only be transformed for the length of a ballet, no longer.”

“We’d have to be quick then,” said Delphie. “And get King Rat to marry Priscilla straight away.”