“This is truly beyond imagining.” Katie closed the book and ran her fingers reverently over the cover. “And I’m going to read every single word as soon as I can. But right now, I don’t want to miss any time with you.” She leaned in and kissed Abby, and Katie’s mouth was soft and tender and sent warmth rolling like a slow ocean wave through every part of Abby’s body.
“Mmm.” Katie pulled away. “Okay, my turn.” She put the chapbook and wrapping paper in her coat pocket then took out a small box wrapped in bright red paper.
Abby removed the paper to reveal a small polished wooden box. “I already love the box.”
“Keep going.”
Abby opened it. A silver chain that held a silver medallion the size of a quarter nested on a piece of black cloth within. She took it out and held it so she could see what was etched on the medallion.
“A family crest?” She looked at Katie for confirmation.
“Yes. The Van Tassel. Turn it over.”
Abby did. A different crest was on that side and her eyes widened. “How did you manage to get this?” She ran her thumb over the lines of the Crane family crest. “I only took it out that once when you visited me last month—” She stopped and laughed. “Duh. You took pictures.”
“I did. I knew I wanted to do something with the crests, but I wasn’t sure what. It came to me on the drive back to Binghamton and fortunately, I know a few people here who do this kind of work all the time.” She grinned.
“I love it.” Abby flipped the medallion back to the Van Tassel crest. The clasp that attached the medallion to the chain was designed to rotate, so she could wear the medallion with either crest showing. “I love it so much.” She closed her fingers around it and hugged Katie hard, wondering why she felt like crying.
“Merry Christmas,” Katie said.
“You’re right. This is absolutely the best Christmas ever.”
“For now.” Katie tucked a strand of Abby’s hair into her winter cap. “Until the next one. And the ones after that.”
Abby held Katie’s gaze, her heart pounding. “What are you saying?”
Katie cleared her throat and smiled, though it seemed nervous. “Okay, I’m saying that I know it’s only been a couple of months since we met, but I’m pretty sure I’m totally falling for you. I don’t quite have all the evidence gathered yet, but some things, as you know, are beyond science.” She said the words in a rush and Abby smiled. She felt like she was floating, and the only thing that kept her in place were Katie’s hands on her hips.
“I am so glad.” Abby slid her arms around Katie’s neck and kissed her until they both were nearly breathless.
“You know what this means,” Katie said against Abby’s lips.
“That I’m way into you, too?”
“Okay, that. But we also appear to have proven that it’s impossible for a Van Tassel to resist a Crane.”
“Or vice versa.”
“Fortunately.” Katie grinned and Abby realized that it had started to snow again, big, fat flakes that floated lazily to the ground. Katie looked up at the sky then back at Abby. “We’d probably better head out.” Katie put her gloves back on.
Abby placed the necklace back in its box and put it in her pocket. She pulled her gloves on, too, and took Katie’s hand. “I’m glad I finally got you alone in the glen,” Abby said. “Even if we didn’t see the horseman, whether human or not.”
“There will be lots of other opportunities. We’re all about scientific inquiry, after all.” Katie started walking and Abby had to stay a little behind her, though she was still able to hold Katie’s hand. On a whim, she looked back over her shoulder. Something seemed to move on the path behind them several yards back, an amorphous shape just visible through the snow.
Abby started to say something, then stopped and continued walking. The snow was playing tricks on her. She looked back again and the shape seemed to coalesce, a big black horse and a dark headless rider, and then it was gone. Chills that had nothing to do with the cold raced up Abby’s spine. The wind picked up and, where Abby thought she’d seen the apparition, blew the snow into swirls that danced on its currents.
“Hold on,” Abby said. “I think I saw something.”
Katie stopped and they stared for a while down the path, until the snow started to fall a little harder and the wind shifted. Abby stamped her feet a few times to warm them up. Nothing. Just the snow and the trees, whose leafless limbs looked as if they were reaching for unsuspecting passersby. Abby shivered.
“What was it?” Katie asked.
“Probably shadows and snow.”
Katie’s expression turned thoughtful. “Or not. There are some things science can’t explain.”
“I thought it looked like the horseman.”
“Maybe our resident Hessian was verifying that there is, in fact, an honest-to-god Crane back in Sleepy Hollow.”
Abby laughed, still a little unsettled. “I’m sure Katrina already let him know.”
Katie smiled and started walking. Abby followed about a half-step behind, still holding Katie’s hand. Snowflakes clung to Katie’s hat and the collar of her barn jacket, and Abby thought about legends and history and how sometimes, the two were almost indistinguishable. Katie picked up the pace and soon, her SUV was visible through the snow.
“My brother is probably already trying to build up a stash of snowballs at Lu’s,” Katie said as they approached the vehicle, the last one parked here. The snow had already mostly covered the tracks of the others. “How are you at snowball fights?” Katie asked as she waited for Abby to get into the passenger seat.
“Guess we’ll find out.”
Katie grinned and went around to the driver’s side and got in. “I like this Girl Scout in training thing you have going on.” She started the engine and adjusted the heat. “And I really like that you’re here with me. It’s like having you home.” Katie held Abby’s gaze for a few moments and Abby saw in Katie’s eyes the warm familiarity that she’d felt since the first time she’d seen her at the pub, and she knew that this was where she needed to be. Had Elizabeth felt it, too, when she first saw Katrina? Had she felt the pull of Sleepy Hollow? Probably, Abby thought. And some day, she hoped to prove it.
Katie backed up a bit then put the SUV into drive, keeping the speed down.
Abby reached into her coat pocket that contained the box with her necklace. She held onto it as Katie drove, and its surface seemed warm against her palm. “Maybe I am home,” she said as she watched Katie’s profile.
“I like to think so.”
Abby played with Katie’s hair with her free hand and watched the snow hurl itself against the front of the car. She was glad they didn’t have far to go, and sure enough, about ten minutes later Katie pulled up in front of Lu’s. A couple of cars Abby recognized from the night before were parked in front.
“Ready for another evening of crazy?” Katie squeezed Abby’s hand.
“As long as you’re around, yes.”
Katie kissed her and Abby thought, not for the first time, about pulling her into the back seat for a while. Instead, she opened her door.
“Don’t get me started.” Abby gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and got out before she changed her mind about the back seat. “Family business first.” Abby shut the door, realizing that she’d just lumped herself in with Katie’s family, like she was already part of it.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Katie said as she joined Abby on the front walk.
“I’m counting on it.”
Katie stared at her for a moment, and her smile made Abby’s stomach flip. “Have I mentioned how much I love this story?”
“Once or twice.”
“Just checking. Let’s add another chapter.” She took Abby’s hand and even through her glove Abby thought she felt a pleasurable little current.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was published in 1820 as part of the collection The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. “Sleepy Hollow” is regarded as America’s first literary ghost story, and became ingrained in American folklore and pop culture, spawning re-tellings and, later, movies. The tale of the headless horseman also became practically synonymous with Halloween, though Irving himself did not mention Halloween in the story because the holiday wasn’t celebrated widely in the United States and wouldn’t be for a hundred years after its publication.
The village in Irving’s story, named “Sleepy Hollow,” was North Tarrytown, which renamed itself Sleepy Hollow in 1996 as part of an economic revitalization movement. Irving first went to Tarrytown, New York (located about 25 miles from midtown Manhattan along the banks of the Hudson River) in 1798 at the age of 15, when New York City was in the midst of a yellow fever epidemic. Irving stayed with a friend while in Tarrytown, and was exposed to the area’s folklore, including rumors about a headless Hessian soldier buried near the Old Dutch Church. The ghostly horseman would ride to the sites of battles in search of his head.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” set in the 1790s, tells the story of schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, who is attracted to Katrina van Tassel, daughter of Baltus van Tassel, a wealthy local farmer. Irving paints Crane as arrogant and awkward, and physically unattractive. But nevertheless, Ichabod vies for Katrina’s attentions with Abraham van Brunt (known as “Brom Bones”), the town thug. (I use the English language conventions for the Dutch “van” throughout, lowercasing it when the first name is present, capitalizing it otherwise.)
One night, Crane receives an invitation to a party and he goes, hoping to win the affections of Katrina. He leaves the party and heads home on his horse. At this point, he encounters the terrifying headless horseman, who it was said could not cross a certain bridge in the area—near the church where his body was buried. Ichabod heads for that bridge, the horseman in hot pursuit, and when Ichabod crosses the bridge, he reins his horse to a stop and looks back. At that point, the horseman throws his head at Ichabod, and it hits him “in the cranium,” as Irving tells it. Ichabod falls off his horse, which runs away and is found the next morning without a saddle or rider. Crane’s body was never found, but his hat was, in the brook underneath the bridge, along with a shattered pumpkin.
Irving leaves the reader wondering whether it really was a ghostly headless Hessian who confronted Ichabod that night, but he also hints that Brom Bones may have masqueraded as the horseman to scare Ichabod out of town, leaving Katrina for him alone to pursue.
Though the story is largely fictional, it does rely on some actual elements. The Old Dutch Burying Ground still exists in Sleepy Hollow, but the bridge does not, though a smaller bridge was built in the cemetery in its honor. There is also a sign noting where the real bridge was. Irving may have based his characters on actual people, including a schoolteacher named Jesse Merwin from Kinderhook, where Irving had spent time in 1809. Irving may have taken the name Ichabod Crane for his schoolteacher from a captain in the Army with whom Irving served. Katrina van Tassel’s character may have been based on Eleanor van Tassel Brush, and Irving might have based the name “Katrina” on Eleanor’s aunt, Catriena Ecker van Texel. Brom Bones may have been based on the local blacksmith in the area at the time, Abraham Martling.
My story, “The Secret of Sleepy Hollow,” takes its own liberties with the setting (largely fictionalized) and local history. I used Irving’s story as a linchpin to create an alternative history in which the characters Katrina van Tassel and Ichabod Crane play important roles in one woman’s search—over two hundred years later—for the truth behind Crane’s disappearance.
You can read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at Project Gutenberg.
Happy Halloween.
Andi Marquette, 2015
ABOUT ANDI MARQUETTE
Andi Marquette is a native of New Mexico and Colorado and an award-winning mystery, science fiction, and romance writer. She also has the dubious good fortune to be an editor who spent 15 years working in publishing, a career track that sucked her in while she was completing a doctorate in history. She is co-editor of Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Women Pirates and All You Can Eat. A Buffet of Lesbian Erotica and Romance. Her most recent novels are Day of the Dead, the Goldie-nominated finalist The Edge of Rebellion, and the romance From the Hat Down, a follow-up to the novella From the Boots Up, a Rainbow Award runner-up.
When she’s not writing novels, novellas, and stories or co-editing anthologies, she serves as both an editor for Luna Station Quarterly, an ezine that features speculative fiction written by women and as co-admin of the popular blogsite Women and Words. When she’s not doing that, well, hopefully she’s managing to get a bit of sleep.
CONNECT WITH THIS AUTHOR:
Website: http://andimarquette.com/
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© 2015 by And Marquette
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-516-8
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Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
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