by Joyce Lavene
He stalked away with a dark scowl. I tried to remember if the Grigg in my Village was as unhappy as this one when he first went undercover. I was pretty sure he was, though maybe not as obnoxious.
Then I walked up to the castle with my utility belt wrapped around my hips rather than my waist. Gus saluted smartly as I walked by. I saw his hand reach to goose me and spun around to confront him.
“If you do that while I’m Bailiff, I will put you in the stocks for a day of Vegetable Justice, sir. Keep your hands to yourself.”
Pleased with myself when he backed off, I developed a swagger that would match my new position. As Bailiff, I couldn’t sway in a gown anymore. I had to look tough and ready for anything.
As I reached the kitchen, a call came in on the radio. One of the horses that pulled the Cinderella carriages had gone for a joy ride through the Main Gate bearing its terrified coachman and rider with it.
“Lady Bailiff.” Sir Reginald made a deep bow to me. “I believe your duty calls.”
Chapter Seventeen
Four hours—one crazy horse, three geese who wanted to nest in visitor’s hats, and two visitors who removed their clothes and jumped into a fountain later—I was back at the castle.
I knew Chase’s job was hard. I knew he was called out of bed, away from meals, and at other inconvenient moments, but I never really appreciated it until that day.
Everyone had a problem they wanted me to resolve. There were children who’d dropped their pretzels on the ground and goats who ate them—the pretzels, not the children. The blacksmith was having a feud with one of the knights and ‘accidentally’ hit him with the sword he was refusing to accept.
It had only been with the flat side of the sword against the knight’s bottom, but it was enough to cause an issue. There was a line of twelve people waiting outside the Dungeon for Vegetable Justice, which the Bailiff was supposed to preside over as judge and jury.
I told them to come back later. I had no idea where the squishy fruit and vegetables were supposed to come from to throw at them. I thought I knew everything about this job. I was wrong.
But I was back at the castle and hot on the trail of Apple Blossom’s killer. I hoped it was the same person who’d killed Jordan the squire. It would be a lot easier that way.
The supply closet was small and packed with a lot of dried beans. With all the meat usually served at the castle, I wondered why they had so many beans.
Jordan’s space was in one corner. His mother was right. He didn’t have much. There was a sleeping bag and a small pillow. Not many personal items beyond soap, razor, etc. No real feel for the man at all. I shook out his sleeping bag hoping a journal or pictures would fall out. All I got was some dirty socks.
It struck me how brazen both of these crimes had been. They hadn’t been committed in the night when they could’ve gone undetected for hours. Instead both murders had happened out in the open—in broad daylight while the Village was still teeming with visitors. That took some guts.
What kind of person wasn’t afraid of getting caught? I could understand why Detective Almond had arrested Canyon. He was big. He was possibly wearing the armor the killer had worn while he got rid of Apple Blossom. And the Bailiff was someone everyone expected to see walking around the Village.
The murders had been brutal, but they had also been accomplished quickly, before anyone had really noticed what was going on. Maybe I had been wrong in championing Canyon’s cause. It was possible that he was the killer—at least Apple Blossom’s killer.
He and Chase were so different here. How different was the question.
“As different as the moon and the sun.” Starshine appeared to elaborate on the subject. “You’ve already seen the difference in Chase because he didn’t become Bailiff. Everyone here was changed in one way or another by your wish.”
“Come on. I’m only a minor character. I can see where Chase is different because my wish affected him personally. I don’t see where it could have that much impact on anyone else.”
“Is that the only person you’ve noticed who’s changed?”
I thought about her question. “No. Roger and Mary aren’t together. Wanda and Isabelle are still alive.”
“Exactly.”
“Do you know who the killer is?” I narrowed my gaze in what I hoped was an intimidating manner. After all, I was a lot bigger than her. “If you know, you should tell me right away before someone else gets hurt.”
She giggled. I could tell she was terrified.
“Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you. That would interfere with your wish. Who knows where you might go from there?”
“How about if I wished that I knew who the killer was?” I tested her resolve.
Her little wings buzzed her right up into my face. “Is that a wish?”
Our eyes locked as though we were having one of those competitions to see who would look away first.
If that was it, I lost. She giggled and disappeared.
I’d read the fairy tales with the fairy godmothers in them. No one ever mentioned how annoying they could be.
“There you are.” Chase hugged me. “I’ve been looking all over for you. How’s the investigation going?”
I sighed and rested my weary head against his shoulder. “It’s not going well at all.”
“Tell me,” he invited.
There were probably some details—like the dirty socks in the sleeping bag—that I should’ve left out, but I didn’t. I told him about the geese and the squishy vegetables. It didn’t really make any difference except that I felt better.
“If I can be any help, I managed to get someone to take my joust this afternoon. I’m free for the rest of the day. And I am at your disposal, my lady.”
“You’re the best.” I smiled and kissed him. “No wonder I love you so much.”
His dark eyes widened. “Jessie, we haven’t been together very long.”
My mistake. I kept forgetting our relationship was different here.
“I didn’t mean love-love,” I qualified. “More like you could love a cinnamon roll or a beautiful gown. Or a sword.”
I knew I was babbling, but I didn’t want to lose him over a slip of the tongue.
He laughed and took my hand. “Okay. What’s your next move?”
“I think I should gather all the castle squires together and see if they know who Jordan worked with last. Doesn’t that make sense?”
“Makes sense to me. Let’s go.”
Because Sir Reginald hadn’t suffered a heart attack here, he wasn’t in charge of what went on in the castle. He normally would’ve been the person I’d go to for castle information. Instead when I asked Gus who kept the castle going, he pointed toward the office.
Chase and I went there looking for someone who would know all the squires and could help round them up. We stepped into the office, which in my Village is nothing more than a computer hub.
“Can I help you?” the man behind the desk asked. “I don’t see people who wander in off the cobblestones. That’s why there are appointments.”
I was stunned and thrilled to see my friend, Bart, working through a mountain of paperwork.
“I’m so happy to see you.” I started around the desk to hug him.
He held up one massive hand. “I don’t know you. Go back the way you came and find my secretary if you have something to discuss. Good day.”
Chase took my arm and whispered, “He’s always like this. Everyone hates him. He gets his authority right from Adventure Land and couldn’t care less about the Village. Come on.”
But I couldn’t believe it. Bart and I had been friends almost since we’d met in my Village. His brother had been missing, and he’d come to find him. Chase and I had solved that crime.
Bart made Chase and Canyon look small. He was a giant, the biggest man I’d ever met, and he had the best heart of anyone I knew. This couldn’t be all there was to him.
“I’m the Bailiff,” I told him. “I
need your help solving the two murders that have happened.”
His hair was cut very close to his head, unlike the longish style he usually favored. I wondered where he’d found a gray suit big enough to fit him. His clothes were usually tunics and britches—and they had to be specially ordered.
“They’ve finally lost their minds, haven’t they?” He snickered. “A female Bailiff. Crazy.”
“Not crazy,” I argued. “You think women can do anything. You’re in love with Daisy the sword maker. Why not a woman Bailiff?”
“Young woman, you’ve been out in the sun too long. I don’t have a relationship with a sword maker. I think you should leave now.”
“You and I have always been friends. It can’t be that different here. And you worship Daisy. Think about it. I need your help, Bart.”
He rose slowly to his feet, towering over us, making the room feel tight.
“You know there are more security agents in the Village than just the Bailiff, right? Don’t make me prove it to you.”
Chase kept tugging me toward the door. I finally had to acknowledge defeat.
Out in the corridor, I thought again about these changes. Bart wasn’t with Daisy. Roger wasn’t with Mary. I’d set both of them up when I knew they really cared about each other. This Village wasn’t just influenced by Chase not being the Bailiff. It was also missing my skills as a matchmaker.
But how did that make any difference?
“What were you talking about in there?” Chase asked. “Were you serious about him being with Daisy? Or were you just trying to throw him off?”
“I don’t know. I thought maybe I could relate to him in some way. I guess not.”
I had to talk with Merlin again. We left the castle but he saw us coming and quickly hid in his apothecary.
“I need you, wizard,” I said to him. “You can’t hide behind that screen forever. Don’t forget that I know who you are.”
“Who is he?” Chase wondered. “Someone besides a crazy man in a starred, purple robe?”
“He knows who he is.” I’d forgotten that the only reason Chase knew about him being CEO of Adventure Land was because he was Bailiff.
“Go away,” Merlin said. “You’re ruining everything.”
I managed to get across my idea of bringing all the squires together in the castle. Merlin finally looked around the screen he was hiding behind.
“And this is it? You won’t keep bothering me?”
“Probably not if you tell Bart to help me.”
“All right. But this is it. I won’t help again. I don’t care who you tell.”
Chase shook his head. “What’s he talking about?”
“He’s the CEO of Adventure Land. He just likes living here.” He was going to find out anyway, I reasoned.
“What?” Chase glanced between me and Merlin. “Is that true? How’s that possible?”
“That’s enough of that,” Merlin protested. “You’re not supposed to tell anyone if you want my help.”
“He won’t tell anyone else. Let’s go, Chase.”
“But he’s the head of Adventure Land! There are so many changes we could make—he could help us!”
“Not now!”
We followed the path back up to the castle and waited outside Bart’s office as Merlin told him to help us. Chase asked how I’d known about Merlin. What could I say? There was no way to explain.
Bart heaved himself out of the office door. He barely fit through it. He didn’t look happy about it either. My Bart would never have looked so angry about such a small request.
“I’m having Marcus gather the squires into the Great Hall,” he said. “Please tell me if you need anything else, Lady Bailiff.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t resist—I was so happy to see him. I ignored that we were strangers and put my arms around him as far as I could reach. “You should talk to Daisy. The two of you will be perfect together. And lose the suit. You aren’t office material. I love you, Bart.”
To say that he looked shocked was as big an understatement as the man himself. He was so stiff and formal in his suit that I thought he might break in half. I knew I couldn’t make all the people here the same as they were where I’d come from. But some things could be made right. This was one of them.
“I don’t know what your game is, Bailiff, but I wish you a good day.”
Merlin shrugged and went back in the office quickly. Bart squeezed back into the room and slammed the door behind him. I could hear him and Merlin arguing. There was no doubt who the winner would be. Maybe it would be good for the two of them to lock horns. It might make them both better.
Chase went with me to the Great Hall where the King’s Feast was held every Sunday night.
“What made you do something like that?” he asked.
“I just couldn’t stand to see him that way. He needs Daisy to help him loosen up.”
“Jessie, is there something . . . unusual going on that I should know about?”
“No.” I kissed him quickly as a parade of squires began streaming into the Great Hall. “I’m just a little different now. I can’t explain it. It’s going to be okay. Just trust me.”
We took a seat in the area where the king and queen usually sat when they attended the feast. The squires made a line that snaked out the door.
“How many squires are there at the castle?” I asked.
“Dozens. Everyone wants a squire when they stay here. They have to keep extra on staff. It’s part of the whole experience.”
“Okay. I guess we’ll talk to all of them. One of them has to know who sent Jordan to throw away that armor. That’s all we have to figure out, right?”
Chapter Eighteen
There were so many squires that they all started to look the same after an hour of interviewing them. It was hard to imagine they could ever need so many, but I knew they didn’t have them hanging around for nothing.
The problem was that there was no central clearing house for them—not even a guild like so many of the other groups had. There was a Craft Guild for the craftsmen, an Entertainment Guild—even the pirates had their own guild. Not so the squires. Apparently the Knaves, Varlets, and Madmen’s Guild thought the squires felt like they were better than them and had refused them admittance to their guild. At least that’s what Chase and I heard from a few squires.
The squires didn’t really work together, but they knew each other.
Several of the squires we talked to had spoken with Jordan, but because he was new to the Village, they didn’t know much about him. Only a dozen or so were actually full-time squires for specific individuals. The rest worked where they were needed.
Basically, none of them had any idea who Jordan was talking about when he said he’d thrown away someone’s armor.
“I feel like a horse ran over me,” I said to Chase after we’d spoken to the last squire in line. “How can none of them know anything? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I think that’s why it’s hard for the police to catch the bad guys. Everyone has different ideas and they don’t see things the same.”
We stood in the Great Hall. It was empty—hard not to appreciate how vast it was with the seating around the arena which hosted jousts, fools, jugglers, camels and horses.
“Let’s eat something,” Chase said. “I’m starving. I’m sorry this isn’t going the way you thought it would. It’s exactly my worst nightmare about being Bailiff.”
“What?” I asked as we walked out of the hall. “That you couldn’t catch the bad guys?”
Chase was very aware of what he was doing and wanted to be good at it. I knew that about him. He didn’t like starting anything he wasn’t sure he could finish.
“No.” He put his arm around me as we walked out of the castle. “That it would take up all my time. I couldn’t find someone to take my place at the Field of Honor every day, Jessie. Who’d want to do this job 24/7?”
I wasn’t expecting that. It was hard to imagi
ne my Chase saying something like that. Maybe this one was too different to ever be Bailiff.
It was cool and dark outside. He didn’t like to eat at the castle all the time, so we were headed to the Lady of the Lake Tavern a short walk away. The stars were out in dazzling array. The Village was empty except for residents. We heard the sound of laughter and someone practicing their guitar.
The Lady of the Lake never sold leftovers from the day like so many of the other restaurants. Most charged half price, some even gave away their leftovers to residents. They knew we didn’t make much money, and their hearts were in the Village.
Not so Lady of the Lake and a few others like Polo’s Pasta who either closed when the Main Gate closed or stayed open to charge high prices to the residents.
It was a small crowd at the tavern after hours. People sat in the high-backed, wood booths and talked quietly together. There were no pirate raids as there were during the day for visitors, yet there were several pirates eating, still wearing their costumes.
“Take a seat where you like,” Ginny Stewart said without bothering to look up. She owned the tavern. She was a crusty, white-haired, older woman who always wore a slutty green dress which showed her enormous bosom to best effect.
“Thanks, Ginny,” Chase said as we walked by her.
That caught her attention.
“Chase! My boy. Where were you at the last joust today? I wasn’t the only one disappointed not to find you there.”
“I had some things I had to take care of.” He hugged her, and she clung to him.
Ginny spared a glance for me. “What’s this? Where’s Isabelle?”
“We broke up,” he briefly explained as we sat in a booth. “This is Lady Jessie. She’s the new Bailiff. What’s good tonight?”
“A lady Bailiff, eh? If I’d known they were looking for such a thing, I would’ve put in for it myself. I’d have the steak and kidney pie, if I were you. That’s always good.”
Her hands were all over Chase as they spoke. That’s the way Ginny had always been in my Village too—until she’d died. This was another case, like Wanda and Isabelle, where this woman wasn’t alive anymore. It was difficult to look at her, knowing she could be dead soon if this Village followed my own.