Harrowing Hats (34 page)

In the meantime, I had evidence that had been overlooked because the police didn’t realize the individuality of the hat pins in the Village. To them it was just a hat pin. Now I knew it was Belle’s hat pin. Did that mean she had killed Cesar? And did she do it alone?

I
had a choice to make. I could forget about this—Detective Almond was happy believing Swayne had killed Cesar. Or I could keep asking questions until someone realized there was more going on than the police thought.

I considered the answer while walking to Peter’s Pub for lunch. Chase had been called away again and left word that I should eat without him. That just depressed me more. This would’ve been a good time to have someone I could trust to talk to—not that I was sure about telling him. Once he knew about it, he’d feel honor bound to tell the police. What if that wasn’t the right thing?

I left the pub without eating and wandered around the Village Square for a while. I sat on the edge of the Good Luck Fountain and contemplated all the problems in the universe while playing in the water. There were no easy answers.

To get my mind off of what happened, I spent the next hour talking to as many trustworthy Village folk as I could. I enlisted them in my prank—now scheduled for tonight so that no one had a chance to give it away. The good thing was that I had someone from each of the guilds.

Hans, the blacksmith, was onboard from the Craft Guild and Sam Da Vinci from the Artist Guild. Master Archer Simmons from the Weapons Guild said he would be there, and Hephaestus, head of the Food Guild, agreed to be there, too.

Fred the Red Dragon would be filling in for Merlin from the Magical Creatures Guild, while Little Bo Peep (who’d have thought) said she would be there from the Entertainers Guild. Susan Halifax from the Musicians Guild offered to help in whatever way possible, since the knights had interrupted so many of their concerts, and Brother Carl promised reinforcements from the Brotherhood of the Sheaf. The pirates were in, of course, and the Knave, Varlet, and Madman Guild said they would come, too, if nothing else, to erase the smear on their reputation when Swayne was arrested after posing as one of them.

That only left me short a member of the nobility. Technically, that could be me, but since I wasn’t worried about me not supporting the cause, I was looking for someone else. If I had someone from each of the guilds, no one could complain or tell what happened without implicating themselves as well.

I asked Sir Reginald, who usually carried the queen’s favor into battle, but the job was too dirty for him. I knew it was pointless to ask Princess Isabel—she might chip a nail and go home crying. The king and queen were otherwise occupied. It looked like I was going to have to be the representative of the nobility after all.

But as I was leaving Baron’s Beer and Brats after speaking with Sir Reginald, I was surprised to find Lord Dunstable coming after me. His basic function at the castle is protocol—he starts the joust at the King’s Feast each week. Even though I’ve been coming here for years, that’s all I knew about him.

“Lady Jessie.” He approached me. “I could not help but overhear. My apologies. I would enjoy being part of the event you have planned for those hooligans living in the forest—and I’m not speaking of Robin Hood and his men either!”

I looked at his usually stern features and pointy little beard on his chin. He was a tall man. I’d never really noticed before. “I’d be glad to have you there, Lord Dunstable. Prithee, what motivates you to do this, sir?”

His lips compressed and he shook all over. “It is not something I like to speak of, lady, but suffice to say, the ruffians hunted me down one evening as I took my constitutional around the Village. They rode me to ground like a fox on the hunt. Afterwards, the cowards tossed me headfirst into a large trash receptacle, there to stay until morn when the maintenance workers found me. Revenge would be very sweet.”

I shivered at the tone of his voice. This man was serious. “Okay. But no weapons, right? We’re pranking their leader—not killing him.”

“Of course! And may I say I am proud to be part of one of your famous pranks, Lady Jessie.” He bowed his head to me.

“Thanks. We meet midnight at the, uh—tree swing. Good to have you onboard, Lord Dunstable.” I almost said privies, but that might be too close to the memory of being upended in a trash can. Who knew Lord Dunstable could be so vicious?

With the whole guild system from the Village in my pocket for the prank tonight, I felt pretty good about everything. It would be nice for Chase to be home at night—barring the occasional Village mishap. And it would be good for him to be away from the Templars, too. Everything was going to work out just fine.

Merlin approached me as I headed back to the Hat House. His usual look of complete happiness was replaced by a dark thundercloud of anger. “Just the mischief maker I wanted to see!”

The jig, as they say, was up. Somehow he’d found out about what I was planning. But I decided to play it cool. “Merlin! Just the wizard I wanted to see.”

“I hear there’s something going on in the Village and you had a big part in it.” He stared at me with his zany brows going up and down on his face. “You’ve gone too far this time.”

“I suppose it all depends on how you look at it.” I wasn’t offering any information.

“Well then, I suppose it would be how I would look at it.”

What was he getting at? If he was looking for a confession, he wasn’t getting one.

“Don’t you want to say anything in your own behalf?”

“No. Is there something you want to say, Wizard?”

He cleared his throat and straightened his pointed hat. “I know there’s something going on. I know you’re involved. I just can’t figure out exactly what it is. You can tell me now or you can tell me later.”

I smiled. He was only fishing. “Later would suit me just fine, thanks.”

He ground his teeth a little and balled up his fists. “I guess that’s it then. Carry on.”

He’d almost tricked me into telling him. No doubt he had heard something—the Village grapevine was a perfect instrument for spreading gossip. But he still didn’t know exactly what was going on. He wasn’t going to hear it from me.

C
hase and I had managed to miss each other all day. I looked around for him but I was always one step behind. I went back to work at the Hat House again after lunch, and Andre said Chase had been there looking for me. It made for a long, stupid day.

Andre decided to close early. He was too anxious to work, he said. “I thought I’d hear from Beth by now. Maybe she’s been busy all day. Or maybe she doesn’t want to have anything to do with an old fool like me. I wouldn’t blame her. I know what it feels like to be rejected by the person you love.”

I consoled him the best I could. Then I tried to talk him out of going to the costume shop and hanging around waiting for her answer. “Go eat dinner. Have a few pints. Don’t think about it for a while. Don’t, whatever else you do, stalk her. There’s nothing worse than knowing someone is waiting for your answer. Especially when you look up every few minutes and there he is.”

Andre laughed a little. “I guess I’m that pathetic, eh? You sound like you speak from experience, Jessie. Have dinner with me and you can relate your wisdom to me.”

“I’d like to but I’ve been looking for Chase all day. We usually see each other sometime during the day. It makes me nervous when I don’t see him. I start thinking all kinds of crazy things.”

“So, despite your lofty wisdom, you have problems of your own.”

“Yes. Wisdom comes at a terrible price. See you in the morning, Andre. I hope we both have good news.”

I decided to go back to the Dungeon and change clothes, then wait for Chase there. No point in walking the whole Village again. Three times that day was enough.

The sky was clouding up again, lending an air of later evening to the day. Visitors were still straggling to the Main Gate, where residents struggled to amuse them and leave a lasting impression. But it had been a long day. The music sounded a little tired, and the girls throwing flowers weren’t quite smiling anymore.

The threat of rain was closing in on everything. Shopkeepers were taking in outdoor furniture, and the goose girls were herding their flock back to the nest on the other side of the Village. Thunder rumbled in the distance, making residents and visitors pick up their paces.

Robin Hood doffed his hat and winked at me as I passed him near the hatchet-throwing game. If anyone gave away what was happening tonight, it would be him. I scowled and shook my head, trying to give him the impression that we shouldn’t look so guilty.

It started raining as I passed the Honey and Herb Shoppe. Mrs. Potts, the proprietor, nodded and discreetly smiled to let me know she was onboard. I knew I could trust her to keep quiet.

The whole time, I kept looking for Chase, but there was no sign of him. I was definitely getting worried. What if something had happened to him and no one had told me? I knew the odds of that were a million to one, but that one really bothered me. And there was that vague threat from Stewart that I’d overheard in the tent.

I picked up my own pace as the rain began to fall faster. It felt good hitting my overheated skin, but I knew how Portia felt about damp clothes being returned, too. I breathed in the scent of the rain that smelled like the ocean and heard a sound from behind me. I looked up as the large black horse came steadily closer and I hurriedly stepped out of the way.

But the rider had a long reach. He grabbed me as the horse was going by and pulled me into the saddle in front of him. I struggled, but the horse began to gallop. There’s not a lot you can do from there but hold on. I was facedown with the hard saddle bumping into my chest, making it difficult to breathe.

For an instant, I thought it might be Chase. It was definitely one of the Knights Templar. But after that initial thought, I knew Chase wouldn’t ride with me this way. Something else was up. Someone had ratted me out, and now Stewart wanted to give me a hard time about it.

I remained calm even though the rain was really pounding by the time the horse left the cobblestones. That meant we were headed into the forest and the encampment. Thunder pounded like the horse’s hooves beneath me, and lightning sizzled across the evening sky. I was actually more afraid of getting zapped by lightning than of what Stewart had decided to do with me.

We finally came to a stop, and I looked up through the rain to see the black tents. No one was outside to see us arrive. Stewart hefted me on his shoulder and carried me into his tent, tossing me on his cot like a wet sack of flour.

I got to my feet right away. Being tall all of my life had always been an advantage in physical situations. Short people were nervous when I stood up and looked down at them. Not that I needed an advantage anyway—I knew Stewart’s secret.

I watched as he removed his soaking headpiece and tossed it into the corner. “We meet face-to-face at last, Lady Jessie,” Stewart said with a smile. “I think you and I are going to have a rather interesting evening.”