Murderous Matrimony (Renaissance Faire Mystery) Read online

  Diego and Lorenzo?—not so much. They didn’t even know what they were doing.

  Manny found me. He was grinning from ear to ear. An older man and woman were with him. They were dressed in elaborate, colorful robes and wearing heavy gold chains. The diamonds in the woman’s ears were the size of marbles.

  “Lady Jessie Morton,” Manny began with pride in his voice. “May I present King Aengus, my father. And Queen Brarn, my mother.”

  The king took my hand and smiled. “We understand that you have been a good friend to our son. We thank you.”

  Queen Brarn also smiled. “My thanks to you also, Lady Jessie. Though we had hoped Manawydan was hiding out here because he was in love with you, it is good to know he has such a friend in this country.”

  “They are going to let me stay!” Manny was so excited that he could barely keep his glasses on. “I don’t have to hide out any longer.”

  I held his hand. “You saved my life, Manny. I’ll never forget it.”

  Chase came up and bowed to the king and queen. “I have arranged for you to stay with Queen Olivia and King Harold at the castle until the wedding, if you like. Please accept this as an official invitation.”

  King Aengus inclined his regal head. “We would love to attend your wedding, Sir Bailiff. Thank you for your kindness.”

  “Manny, maybe you could see them up there and get them settled in,” Chase said. “They are expecting you.”

  Manny’s face was serious as he bowed to Chase. “We thank you, sir.”

  Chase dropped down beside me in the grass as they started toward the castle. I hadn’t even noticed that they had real courtiers and servants walking behind them.

  “That should be interesting. Two kings and two queens, plus your parents at the castle until the wedding. I hope the castle is still standing.”

  “Come on.” He helped me to my feet. “It will be fine. Let’s get you home. I believe you are in need of some rest, my lady.”

  I thought he was being extremely optimistic about the kings and queens getting along, but I was done with worrying about anything—at least for that day. “Why sir, you wax poetic. Mayhap you should take a turn on the Romeo and Juliet Stage.”

  “You are too kind.” He smiled and bowed. “Perhaps we could share a repast at Peasant’s Pub later today.”

  There were no visitors around. We were just playing, but it was fun.

  Chase got a wicked smile on his handsome face as he took me in his arms and dipped me close to the cobblestones. “Keep this on thy lips, my lady.”

  As he kissed me, the crowd of knaves, fools, varlets, lords and ladies around us went wild. There were no photos, but there were dozens of good wishes.

  I fanned my face with my hand, and the ladies around me smiled and nodded.

  We walked back to the Dungeon, though Chase had offered to carry me. I was sore, and still a little winded, but I was capable of getting there on my own two feet.

  “Did they find Marion?” I asked him.

  “Yes. She was trying to leave the Village. I don’t think she’s going any further than the police station.”

  “That’s so sad. Why in the world did she suddenly think she was going to be a famous actress?”

  “Who knows?” He shrugged. “Why do people want to take off their clothes and get in one of the fountains? Why do visitors rush into the Field of Honor while the knights are jousting? People do crazy things sometimes.”

  “I get that.”

  “You’re lucky you weren’t killed today.” He kissed my hand. “Is there any way I can get you to stay at the museum all day and not get involved with crazy people who want to kill you?”

  I thought about it. “I don’t think so. Maybe someday when I’m too old to walk or ask questions.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  His radio went off, as always. He ignored it.

  “You know I’d give all of this up for you, right?” he asked with the sweetest sincerity in his brown eyes.

  “I know. You’d get a job as a lawyer somewhere that your family feels is appropriate, and play golf every week. I could join a garden club, and drink martinis with women I don’t like—and sleep with their husbands while you’re working.”

  “Wait a minute!” he protested. “I didn’t say anything about all of that!”

  I laughed and kissed him, feeling lighter than cotton candy. “I love you, Chase. I’d live wherever you wanted, but I’m glad we live here.”

  His radio went off again, this time somehow more demanding.

  “It’s Detective Almond. I have to go. Sorry.” He kissed me again with a fierce hunger that weakened my knees. “But I’ll be back.”

  “I’ll be waiting!”

  The wedding was sounding better and better. I was eager to start our new life together—wherever it led us.

  I shut off the moaning of the prisoners in the dungeon, and dragged myself up the stairs. We hadn’t talked about a honeymoon. I wasn’t even sure Chase could get the time off. But if we did have a honeymoon, I wanted to stay somewhere with a tub. The shower was fine, most of the time. I just really wanted a few days with a hot bath—maybe one big enough for two.

  I unlocked the door and couldn’t believe my eyes. Tim, the young squire from the Field of Honor that Chase had rescued, was sitting in the middle of our bed.

  “Hello?” I looked at the door that had certainly been locked. “What are you doing in here?”

  “I wanted to have a private word with you, Lady Jessie.” He smiled as he scanned the apartment. “This seemed appropriate.”

  “You’re lucky it wasn’t Chase that found you here.” I sat on the edge of the bed. “He would have booted you out of the Village.”

  He smiled shyly. “It would not have been the Bailiff who found me here. I cannot be found when I don’t wish to be.”

  I had been in such a good mood. Now I was suddenly tired and cranky. I wanted to be alone for a few minutes. Was that too much to ask?

  “You should go.”

  “I am leaving very soon.”

  “No. I mean you should go now.”

  “I haven’t completed my business here, lady, or I would oblige you.”

  “What do you want?” I admit that I was whining.

  The lid on the box that held Wanda’s personal belongings opened, and the beautiful bracelet with the blue stones that I’d always admired, floated across the room to him.

  “Oh my God! You’ve got to be kidding me.” I watched with disbelieving eyes. “You’re the sorcerer?”

  He bowed his head, his hand on his heart. “Yes. I came for this. I rarely give gifts, and when I do, I retrieve them when something happens to the people I give them to.”

  “Like Wanda?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you and Wanda . . .?” He was just a kid.

  “I am not always in this form, lady.”

  The smile he gave me almost melted every bone in my body. There was a wealth of knowledge in his eyes that I knew I would never have.

  “Okay.” I put my hand to my head, wishing I could pace. But I was too sore and tired to do it. “Okay. So you’re the sorcerer who can take Wanda away with you, right?”

  “I shall gladly grant you a boon for retrieving this gift for me. It saved me from having to search for it elsewhere.”

  “Yes! Please take Wanda away. I don’t care what you do with her. Just take her away from here. Please.”

  He nodded. “Wanda Le Fey: come to me.”

  As if his low voice had called her, she was suddenly there with us.

  She looked around herself. “Jessie? How did you do that?”

  “Wanda.”

  She finally stared at the boy beside me. “You! Who are—?”

  “Know me,” he murmured.

  “Oh my God! I thought I’d never see you again!” She hugged him and then stood back. “But why have you come in this form?”

  “I am never the same to look upon.” He got to his fee
t, her bracelet in his hand. “Come. It’s time to go.”

  “Go?” She stared at me. “What did she tell you? I haven’t done anything that bad. Please don’t take me away from here.”

  I was confused. “Don’t you want to go with him?”

  “You don’t know where he spends most of his time. There’s nothing there. It’s like living in a vacuum.” She was crying. “Please don’t take me there. I’ll die of boredom.”

  He nodded to me. “Lady Jessie requested a boon of me. It was to remove you from this place.”

  “How could you?” She turned on me. “All I’ve done is have a little fun. Can you blame me? I was murdered, cut down. I want to live here. I’ve always wanted to live here. Please don’t send me away.”

  She threw herself on my feet. Seriously. It was cold and felt kind of slimy touching her.

  “Please, Jessie? Please don’t send me away. You of all people understand how I feel about the Village. I want to stay here. Don’t let him take me.”

  I glanced at the sorcerer. He shrugged. It meant nothing to him either way.

  I thought about it, moved by her plea, despite myself. She was right about me. I knew what she meant about staying here. If I died, I’d want to be a ghost here too.

  But there had to be some guidelines.

  “Is it possible to keep her out of my apartment?” I asked the sorcerer. I couldn’t think of him as Tim anymore.

  He nodded. “Surely. If she gives her word on that today, I shall enforce it.”

  I faced Wanda’s pathetic ghost face. “Okay. This is it. You can’t ever come in here again, no matter what.”

  “Done,” she agreed. “It wasn’t all that much anyway.”

  “And you can’t do anything to hurt animals or people in the Village.”

  “Define hurt?” she quizzed.

  “I think you know what I mean.”

  “Oh, all right.” She stared at the sorcerer. “Does this mean I can stay?”

  “If Lady Jessie wills it.”

  She turned to me. “Jessie?”

  “All right.”

  Wanda was gone with a loud cackle.

  “I hope I don’t regret that,” I said with a sigh.

  “You have a good heart.” He smiled. “And I wish to give you and Chase a wedding gift.”

  “Thanks, but we don’t have enough room for what we have right now. Just getting Wanda out of our bedroom is a huge wedding gift.”

  “Allow me to honor you and your union.”

  He barely blinked, and everything changed. Our tiny, one-room apartment was suddenly large and spacious. There were three bedrooms, two baths—one with a tub, and a nice living room and den.

  “My gift to you.”

  I ran through the rooms like one of the crazy people Chase and I had been talking about earlier. Suddenly, I wasn’t tired or sore at all.

  There was no furniture, but it had become a house. There was even a kitchen where we could microwave our meals. It was amazing, and impossible.

  “You can’t do this here.” I calmed down by taking deep breaths. “We can’t take this from you.” It suddenly struck me what it must look like outside.

  “There is no change to the outside of the Dungeon, or to the downstairs jail.” He said as though he’d read my mind. “Only you and Chase will see this inner space. It will be your secret for as long as you live here.”

  Was that even possible?

  “Just a minute.” I ran outside and looked around. The old building that was the Dungeon looked exactly the same. It wasn’t any larger at all.

  I ran back inside. “How is that possible?”

  “Magic.” He smiled. “And now I must leave. I wish I could stay for your wedding, but I must be elsewhere.”

  “I don’t know how to thank you. It’s incredible.”

  “There is only one thing I must ask of you, Jessie.”

  “Okay.”

  “Someday, I may need to take sanctuary here. I have enemies. This would be a place they would never search for me.”

  I thought about it, but it was very brief. “Sure. That’s fine. Our house is your house.”

  Before I could finish speaking, he was gone.

  I ran through our house again, laughing and singing. We had a real place to live!

  *

  Chase got back about an hour later. I had already put some things into the other rooms. I picked out one room for the baby basket that Mary had made for us.

  “Jessie!” he called out in strangled-sounding voice. “What the—?”

  I ran into the room that had once been our only room. “You aren’t gonna believe what happened!”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear. It had turned cold, and there was frost on the ground. It had created a white sheen that sparkled in the sunlight on roofs, cobblestones, and grass.

  Needless to say, Chase and I had gone on a monumental shopping spree. If anyone wondered where we were putting all that furniture, no one asked. Maybe that was part of the spell.

  The house was shaping up. There was a wonderful red velvet sofa in the living room, and a huge, overstuffed chair that matched it. We bought a super-size new refrigerator, and our own washer and dryer.

  The bedroom was to-die-for. We’d made the whole thing deep blue (Chase’s favorite color), and purple (my favorite color). I’d woken up in a king-sized bed that morning and padded to the new bathroom across some wonderful rugs we’d found. Chase had put in a few nice Tiffany-style lamps on the dressers and bedside tables.

  “Hey,” he called sleepily. “Where are you going so early? I thought we were sleeping in today?”

  “I have to take a bath.”

  “You just took a bath last night!”

  “You can’t have too many! Come on!”

  We fooled around in the tub for an hour and then went to find breakfast. Yes, we could have cooked, but old habits die hard.

  It was good that we didn’t stay home, because the Monastery Bakery had a special wedding feast for us for breakfast that morning. We’d wondered why there was a young monk waiting outside the Dungeon door who’d scuttled off as soon as he saw us.

  Half the Village was there, and we had a champagne toast. I cried and laughed at the same time. I had never been so happy. There were hugs all around from all the people I knew so well who had shared so much of my life.

  Chase’s parents and brother weren’t present. They would be at the wedding, but their feelings about our marriage hadn’t changed. We’d had dinner again with them, but it had been a cold, angry affair.

  “This is the way my family is,” Chase joked. “We only have to see them once a year.”

  I could see the hurt in his eyes, but there was nothing I could do about it. There was no magic spell for making his parents different. And I didn’t want us to be different.

  Manny’s parents, on the other hand, had been delightful. They might be royalty, but they weren’t a bit pompous or overbearing. I didn’t understand why Manny had felt the need to run away, but it must have made sense to him at the time.

  There had been dozens of rehearsals for the actual wedding. Not only did it have to be good for us, it had to be right for the cameras. Our movements were choreographed, and hairstyles approved.

  One of the producers from Adventureland had wanted me to wear a corset. I flatly told him it wasn’t happening. He’d talked to Merlin, and I’d told Merlin the same thing.”

  “But just think how—” he held his rounded hands out in front of his chest—“great you’d look.”

  Merlin even went so far as to send me a new corset from Adora’s shop, Cupid’s Arrow.

  I tried it on for Chase and he gasped. “I don’t think you should wear that for the wedding either, but you could wear it around here any time!”

  “Thanks.” I kissed him. My breasts felt like they were in my face. He didn’t seem to mind.

  The wedding gown was finished, and approved. It
didn’t clash at all with Livy’s dress. Our rings were ready. Eve had my bouquet set. We’d been consulted about the food, but I’d approved it without really looking at it.

  What did it matter what we ate? Chase and I were finally going to be married.

  There were huge screens that would show all the couples getting married at once from different angles. It was going to be like going to a concert.

  A huge round dais was set up where Chase and I would stand. We’d practiced that too. It made me feel like the figure on a wedding cake. It kind of looked ridiculous and cheesy.

  But that didn’t matter either, right? Because Chase and I were going to be together.

  It hit me when I saw the two-hundred-and fifty couples coming into the Village with their families, clothes, and wedding gear. We were going through with this. It wasn’t what I wanted. It had been created by people I didn’t even know to please an audience of strangers.

  I panicked.

  At noon, I slipped out of the Village. I caught a bus a few blocks down. I joined other people on their way to work, school, and entertainment. They didn’t know me. I wasn’t wearing Ren Faire garb. I was just another person.

  I stayed on the bus until it reached the north end of Myrtle Beach. It was Friday, and a good crowd was gathered for the weekend. I’d seen dozens of posters put up for the wedding at the Village. Not that it mattered by then—the event was sold out.

  My cell phone rang over and over again. I ignored it. I knew it was Chase, and I didn’t want him to worry, but I couldn’t talk to him. I needed some space.

  I finally got off at a public access spot to reach the ocean. I wandered over the stairs, sand dunes, and plants surrounding them. Every spare inch along the road that faced the ocean was taken up with hotels, except for these places. Here, anyone could spend time at the beach on a sunny day. Anyone could get lost in the cry of the seagulls and the roar of the Atlantic.

  I sat on the sand and watched the children at play. It was too cold for most people to actually go into the water, but there were a few swimmers and surfers who weren’t too timid. I heard languages from all over the world being spoken around me.