Ghastly Glass Read online

  “I’ll see you later.” I tactfully sneaked away before it got any worse. This visit to Renaissance Village wasn’t turning out the way I’d envisioned. No Chase. No excitement. I was disappointed to say the least.

  “Greetings, good lady!” A handsome lord doffed his large feathered hat in a deep bow. “Might you be the apprentice for the Glass Gryphon? ”

  My heart sped up a little when I took in the excellent attributes that even his lordly apparel couldn’t hide. His hair was thick, chestnut brown, gleaming with red highlights in the sun. His smiling blue eyes looked me over from the tight jeans to the low-neck green sweater I’d worn for Chase, who wasn’t around to appreciate me. All in all, a sweet welcome package.

  “I’m Jessie Morton, good sir. Who might you be?” I dropped him a little curtsy that showed off a couple of my attributes.

  “I am Henry Trent, nephew of Roger Trent, owner of the Glass Gryphon. My uncle sent me to meet you and escort you through the Village to the shop. Are you ready to go? ”

  I knew I should get my bag from the car and settle in with Debby, but this seemed a good opportunity to meet Roger again and go over my responsibilities as an apprentice glassblower. You had to be careful in the Village or the craftsman you served would have you running errands and picking up laundry from the Lovely Laundry Ladies instead of learning the craft.

  Since I’m already working on my dissertation, which I hope will become a book someday, my research here has become very important to me. I’ve titled my dissertation, “Proliferation of Renaissance Crafts in Modern Times.” I’ve already apprenticed with a Gullah basket weaver at Wicked Weaves and Master Archer Simmons at the Feathered Shaft. This time it’s glassblowing. Who knows what it will be next summer? I’ve talked to a few other Craft Guild members like the Hands of Time clock shop and Pope’s Pots pottery shop. I’m ready for anything.

  Especially if a good-looking man comes along with the project. It can’t hurt. “Lead on, good sir.”

  Henry swept me another elegant bow, then took my hand and laid it on his forearm as we started walking through Renaissance Village.

  The Village is situated on the site of the old Myrtle Beach Air Force Base. Most of the shops have living quarters above them for the full-time merchants. The rest of the space is filled with part-timers like me, about three hundred of them at any given time.

  Unlike most Renaissance faires, this one goes on every day except Christmas day. It’s open from morning to evening seven days a week with the King’s Feast held at the castle every Sunday night. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come through the main gate every year to be delighted and swept back in time, with Shakespeare walking the cobblestone streets reciting odes, King Arthur retrieving Excalibur from the stone every two hours, and fantasy creatures ready to have their picture taken. The experience is nonstop fun, excitement, and good food. Adventure Land, the parent company, says it will be so, and it is.

  “How was your trip to the Village, my lady?” Henry asked as we walked past the first fountain toward the hatchet-throwing contest.

  “It went well, thank you. How is your uncle?” The monks were chanting in the Monastery Bakery, a good sign usually because it meant they were baking instead of getting into other kinds of trouble. Their bread is to die for, but their quasi-religion of the Brotherhood of the Sheaf is a little strange.

  “My uncle is quite well. I am here visiting him because I am opening another shop for him outside the Village.” Henry smiled at me, his big blue eyes crinkling at the corners. I love men with crinkly eyes.

  We were passing the elegant houses on Squire’s Lane, which are eclipsed only by the sight of the castle rising above Mirror Lake where the pirates live. There was loud laughter coming from Peter’s Pub, a favorite of Village residents after hours. It was Friday and there was a good crowd around.

  Lady Godiva rode by with her body suit and butt-length blond wig. I didn’t have to look closely to see that Arlene, the last Lady Godiva, had been replaced. Everything here is transitory. People come and go all the time. Even shops and restaurants change from time to time. Nothing like a real Renaissance village where the same families lived and died for generations.

  “Hail to thee, Mistress Jessica!” Alex, one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men (and a former summer love of mine), walked by us quickly. “I see you have selected a new gentleman friend.”

  I knew this was a jab at the many years I’d been coming to the Village and seemingly finding a new love interest each time. I wanted to set that rumor to rest before he spread it everywhere. “I’m working with Henry and Roger during the Halloween season. That’s it.”

  Alex laughed, nearly unsettling his forest green hat from his blond head. “Of course, good lady. Who would think otherwise? ”

  I was about to protest on my own behalf when Henry swept me down into his arms and planted his mouth on mine. It was only an instant before he set me back on my feet. All right. I said he was interesting. But not that interesting. At least not in the first twenty minutes of meeting him.

  I was about to wipe the grin from both their faces when someone behind me cleared his throat. I didn’t have to look. It was Chase, of course. He might not have been there to greet me in the first hour when I didn’t do anything but look for him. But he managed to be there for the split second I got into trouble. Why do things like this always happen to me?

  All four of us stood there as though time really had stopped, just as the ads for the Village promised. I guessed Alex and Henry were waiting to see what would happen next. It suddenly occurred to me that Henry may have been in the Village long enough to know about me and Chase. Had he seen Chase coming as I spoke to Alex and purposely tried to break us up? I didn’t want to judge him right away, but my relationship with Chase could be on the line.

  Without hesitating (any further), I hauled back and slapped Henry. His head jerked back, and he looked at me with real hurt in his eyes. “Sorry, my lady. I could not resist your tempting lips a moment longer.”

  I glared at Alex. He laughed and trotted off toward Sherwood Forest. I turned my attention back to Henry, who was still standing there. “I’ll meet you and your uncle at the Glass Gryphon shortly, sir. Please give him my regards while I take care of another matter.”

  Henry bowed, seemingly chastened, but the evil little smile on his face told me otherwise. “I will take your message to my uncle.” He nodded at Chase. “Good day to you, Bailiff.”

  When we were finally alone (except for the hundreds of visitors, wandering knaves, and a few serfs), I turned to Chase. “Hi there.”

  “Hi.” He was staring at me in an un-Chase-like way. Normally he’d be running up, throwing me in the air (not a small task since I’m six feet tall and not at all waiflike). There was no big grin on his handsome face, no big kiss coming my way.

  I couldn’t decide which course would be better. You know how sometimes when you defend yourself it makes you seem guiltier than when you keep your mouth shut? I didn’t know which way to go with this. No matter what, it was only a stupid kiss. How upset could he be?

  Before I could ascertain whether he was really upset, a varlet, now dressed all in black instead of varlet brown, came breathlessly running up. “Bailiff! It’s happened again! Except this time it’s Death.”

  Chase frowned. “What are you talking about, Lonnie? Did another visitor collapse? ”

  “No. It’s Death. Really.”

  “You mean another one died? ”

  “No. Really, Chase. Death died.”

  “I think he’s talking about Ross.” I pushed into the conversation before I had to hit one of them. “You know, the tall guy with the scythe.”

  Chase glanced at me as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Oh yeah. Where is he? ”

  “In the Village Square,” Lonnie replied. “One minute he was threatening a few visitors and telling them he’d take their souls, and the next minute, boom! He was on the cobblestones for the count.”

  “Let’
s go,” Chase said.

  “Me, too.” I started running after him. “Have visitors died in the Village? How did I miss that? ”

  “Too busy, I guess,” Chase returned as we cut through the alleyway between Squire’s Lane and Harriet’s Hat House. “Too busy to watch CNN, or call anyone.”

  “CNN was down here covering visitor deaths?” How had I missed that?

  “Yep.” Lonnie’s little ratlike face twisted up as we ran across the cobblestones. “That’s why I left Sir Latte’s Beanery. Chase needs all the help he can get.”

  “So what killed them? It was probably the heat, right? Lots of visitors wear those heavy clothes and get heatstroke over the summer.” I looked from Chase to Lonnie.

  “We don’t know for sure yet,” Chase finally answered.

  A large crowd of visitors and residents had gathered near the Good Luck Fountain right in the middle of the Village Square. I stayed next to Chase, almost having to push Lonnie out of the way as we broke through the crowd to take a look at the man on the ground.

  Ross’s black robe had fallen open around his bony body, but his hood covered his face. The scythe lay beside him, not too far from his reach. There was blood everywhere and something sticking up out of his chest. Everyone was whispering around us as Chase knelt beside the giant’s form.

  “Call the police,” Chase said finally. “He’s dead. And I don’t think it’s heatstroke.”

  Two

  “Y ep.” Detective Donald Almond took another swig from his Cheerwine. His white shirt had a brown food stain on the front, and his suit jacket looked slept in. “He’s dead all right. Looks like that steel reinforcing bar went right through his heart. That makes three this month, right, Manhattan?”

  Chase and his helper, Lonnie, had their hands full keeping people away from the dead figure of Death on the Village Square, until the police took over. The media swarmed around like mosquitoes before a storm. Even though we were away from the main area and behind a temporary stage, visitors knew something was going on when they saw all the TV cameras.

  I kept trying not to look at Ross’s dead body. I’d just been through a similar experience over the summer and I was beginning to stress out. It was terrible thinking he’d just been alive while I was waiting for my costume. What had happened to him?

  “I’m afraid so. But this one is different.” Chase frowned as he looked at the dead body, covered now by a Renaissance banner.

  Chase is not only the bailiff for the Village, he’s also judge and jury when it comes to vegetable justice in the stocks. The Myrtle Beach Police Department had officially appointed him an auxiliary police officer for his role at the Village. A lot depended on him to keep the peace, including turning over shoplifters and other petty crooks to the authorities. Besides that, he’s a good jouster.

  “I don’t know.” Detective Almond scratched his balding head. “Could be an accident, I suppose. We’ll have to check it out. Are you sure this boy’s name and information are accurate? ”

  Chase nodded. “It’s what Adventure Land has on file for him. Will you contact his family? ”

  Detective Almond said he would. He used his gloved hand to uncover the dead body again. “What do you make of these words on his robe? Death shall find thee. Is that some Village saying? ”

  “If it is, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard it.” Chase asked Lonnie, who’d been standing really close to the body (too close if you ask me), if he knew what it meant.

  “Maybe it has something to do with him being Death,” Lonnie suggested.

  Both Chase and Detective Almond seemed to disregard that idea. Roger Trent (hopefully my new mentor) joined us. He had once been the Village bailiff before Queen Olivia and King Harry decided he was too old, despite his police experience from his former life. Roger didn’t seem to care. He tried his best to keep everyone on the straight and narrow while amusing all of us with tales of his youthful exploits as a cop. “Did you get the autopsy results back on those other two visitors who died here recently? ”

  “Hi, Roger.” I smiled. “It’s good to see you.”

  He glanced at me but didn’t return my smile. “Jessie.”

  “Not yet,” Detective Almond responded to Roger. “The Horry County medical examiner thought something might be suspicious with two visitors dying from heatstroke in only a couple weeks. He sent his findings off to Columbia. Might be months before we hear back.”

  “That’s not good enough,” Chase told him. “What if there’s something more going on? ”

  Detective Almond seemed to give up on his cute idea of pacifying Chase with silly answers. “Look, Manhattan, it might be the food or it might be the excitement. People die, son. It happens everyday. There was no sign of trauma on the other two. And until I think otherwise, this boy’s death could be an accident. Maybe you should give OSHA a call. I think you’re taking this too personally. You do a good job here. We’ll get this sorted out.”

  “Thanks.” Chase’s voice was deadpan. I knew he was humoring the detective in return.

  “Okay, boys,” Detective Almond called to his officers. “Let’s get this cleaned up so these nice people can get back to doing whatever it is they do. Mac, call in those crime scene boys. We’ll need this area cordoned off until we say it’s okay.”

  It was like being dismissed in school. No matter what was going on, you were supposed to take the hint and get out of there. Roger stood beside Chase, the two of them talking about what had happened, no doubt. Henry had sneaked up and managed to get close to me again. It was an unpleasant sensation. I just didn’t want to snarl things up any further with Chase.

  I moved away from him, over to Chase and Roger. I was right. They were talking about the three people who’d died.

  “It’s not like Ross was a visitor like the other two,” Roger said. “If something bad was going on, the killer would keep going in his same pattern. That’s how you can tell it’s different.”

  Roger was a plain-looking man in his fifties with a shaved head. He always wore a leather jerkin, leather britches, and a blousy shirt with the neckline open. He wasn’t very tall, but he’d stayed slender (for the most part) since his long-ago police days. Despite his tendency to be melodramatic, and the stories I’d heard every summer since I got out of college (I don’t want to think how long ago that’s been), I’d always considered him an okay guy.

  “I still don’t like it,” Chase said. “Livy told me our numbers are up, but part of that is probably due to curiosity. This isn’t a good way to bring in more visitors.”

  “Maybe it is.” Roger shrugged. “After all, this is Renaissance Faire Village Halloween. What could be scarier than Death dying here? We’ll probably have buses of teenagers dying to get in.”

  Chase didn’t respond, and Roger nudged him. “Get it? Dying to get in? ”

  “Maybe we should think about hiring a few more security guards,” Chase suggested. “Something about this doesn’t feel right to me.”

  “Don’t worry so much, Chase. Look! Jessie’s here. She’s going to apprentice with me through Halloween. I’m sure everything will be fine. Just try to relax and let the police do their job.”

  Henry smiled and offered Chase his hand. “I’m Roger’s nephew. We haven’t met as yet, good sir. I hope we haven’t gotten off to a bad start.”

  All three men looked at me. I ignored them and watched the crowd of onlookers leaving the Village Square. There was nothing for Chase to be jealous of and less than that for Henry to think was going on between us. Better not to say anything. At least for right now.

  “Yes. This is Henry.” Roger completed the introduction. “Jessie, if you’re ready we can get you settled in at the shop. There’s plenty of room upstairs if you’d like to skip Village housing and stay with us.”

  I was caught between the sword and the stone, so to speak. I didn’t want to tell Roger I’d been expecting to stay with Chase in case Chase had other ideas. Of course, if Chase had other ideas, staying
above the glass shop would probably be better than staying with Debby. Maybe Roger would even consider feeding me for the time I was here. Food and other common necessities could become very dear with the Village’s tendency to accidentally forget paychecks.

  I glanced at Chase without moving my face or even my eyes. I have very good peripheral vision. It came from trying to communicate with my twin brother, Tony, after our parents had died and we felt we couldn’t be ourselves with strangers. We were both pretty good at it, and for a while, we always seemed to know what the other was thinking.

  Now I tried to use that skill on Chase. Would it work? Or did it only work because Tony and I were twins?

  “No need for that.” Chase grabbed my hand. “Jessie’s staying with me at the dungeon. She’ll be at the Glass Gryphon first thing in the morning. Thanks for your help, Roger. See you later. Nice to meet you, Henry.”

  We walked together down the King’s Highway past the Village Madman, who was taking dirt out of a pot and smearing it on himself. As visitors walked by, he held out his hat, begging for coins as he spouted gibberish. I didn’t remember his name, but I recognized him as one of the Merlin’s Apothecary servants from last summer. I wasn’t sure if being recast as the Madman was a step up or down.

  I glanced at the side of Chase’s face as we headed toward Brewster’s Tavern. He hadn’t said a word since we’d left Roger and Henry in the dust as we hot-footed across the crowded center of the Village. I was perfectly happy with the resolution he’d presented to Roger. He didn’t seem as happy.

  The King’s Tarts, next door to the tavern, were in rare form, actually trying to lure visitors into their bake shop by standing outside flirting with them. That tactic usually wasn’t necessary since the combination of pie and low-cut dresses seemed to coax people inside all the time.

  Once inside the tavern, I sat down across a small wooden table from Chase. I didn’t know if I should wait or jump right in like I usually do. I decided to give him a minute to see if he’d get the conversation started. I wouldn’t wait any longer than that. I was tired, hot, and hungry, among other needs. The dungeon was a long walk from here.