Murderous Matrimony (Renaissance Faire Mystery)

by Lavene, Joyce

  “I don’t think so. I can check in my office—as soon as they let me in the museum again. But I think I’d remember making a copy since they charge for it at the castle. I added Manny’s application to the basket of papers that need to be put into the computer, like everybody does. When I got the notice to hire him, I assumed everything was okay.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. It’s what I do when I hire a new security person too. This was a bad time for something to get lost.”

  “I know.”

  We walked past Polo’s Pasta. It was still closed. People were standing outside the door reading the notice that said when it would re-open. It would probably be the most popular place in the Village for a while.

  “What happened with the reporters?” I asked him.

  “What always happens—they get a free pass to the Village, take pictures, and talk to whoever they want. If it was up to me, they’d have to clear their pictures with security before they post them all over the Internet. But that’s not going to happen.”

  “They’re bound to hear some stories about Wanda.”

  “Let’s hope the stories are enough to make the Village sound more interesting, and not so scary that no one wants to come. They call her the Blue Lady now. Have you heard that?”

  “That means there are some people who can see her, besides me and Shakespeare. I think a blue ghost is a little out of the ordinary.”

  Chase was bound for the Field of Honor. “We’ve had a lot of complaints up there today. Wanda’s been busy.

  “I wonder if Sir Marcus is still jousting since Wanda’s death.”

  “You mean the young one all the wenches are sighing over?” He laughed. “I think I’ve seen him up there a few times in the last two weeks. Why?”

  “Well, you know he was Wanda’s lover right before she died. When I talked to him the day she was killed, she attacked him. But she wasn’t as strong as she is now. She could only throw a few leaves around. If he’s still jousting, she could make things a lot worse for him.”

  “Let’s check it out.”

  I wasn’t looking forward to searching for Wanda. She’d been quiet. I was grateful not to have her in my face.

  But when we reached the Field of Honor, a joust was in progress, and Wanda was doing her best to cause trouble. The horses were especially vulnerable—which put the knights riding them in a dangerous position.

  Wanda was flying up and down the dirt field, scaring the horses into throwing their riders and running away. She laughed as she tossed clods of dirt and horse manure at visitors in the stands. The two young cheerleaders—one for the queen’s knight and one for the black knight—were running off the field to get away from the chaos.

  Chase saw a young squire, probably sixteen or so, trapped on the field by the frightened movements of the horses. He dashed in and grabbed the boy, tossing him across his shoulder.

  The queen’s knight fell a second later—heavy with armor and weapons—exactly where the boy had been.

  “Thanks.” The handsome lad wiped dirt from his face and smiled at Chase, his clear blue eyes sparkling. “I don’t know what was wrong in there today. It was like the horses were crazy.”

  Chase rumpled the boy’s red hair. “Just stay out of the arena for now until we can figure it out.”

  “Not a problem. You’re the Bailiff, Chase Manhattan, right? I’m Tim.”

  Chase shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Tim.”

  “Wow! I’d like to have your job someday.”

  “Maybe you will.” Chase grinned. “I started as a squire too.”

  There was no further time for pleasantries. Wanda was making her way to the second story of the viewing building at the far end of the field. Queen Olivia and her court were watching the joust from there.

  “She’s going after the queen now,” I told Chase. “We have to do something.”

  “I can’t even see her, Jessie. What do you have in mind?”

  I saw Sir Marcus leading his horse off the field. “Maybe we can get Wanda’s lover to help out.”

  “Okay. Maybe he can distract her. I’ll get the queen and her court out of there.”

  We split up, and I ran to talk to Sir Marcus. I wasn’t sure what I could say to convince him to help me. It could be very dangerous for him.

  I was surprised he’d stayed on at the Village after Wanda had attacked him last time. He’d probably convinced himself that it wasn’t real, or it was an unusual turn of events. I think that’s what most people do when confronted with something they don’t understand and can’t explain.

  “Sir Marcus!” I yelled out. “I must speak with you.”

  In this case, the young knight had convinced himself that it was my fault that he’d been attacked the day Wanda had died.

  “Stay away from me.” He held his fingers together to create a cross as though he was fending off a vampire.

  Marcus was an exceptionally good-looking and charismatic young knight. He’d only been at the Village a few weeks, but it was long enough to cause havoc with several ladies’ hearts.

  “Not going to hurt you,” I promised, watching Chase herd the queen’s large court out of the building beside us. “I need your help.”

  He pulled out a clove of garlic that was sewn into a knot he wore around his neck. “I’m protected now. Go ahead. Try me.”

  “It’s not me you have to worry about. It’s Wanda.”

  As if on cue, the blue bane of my life showed up beside us.

  “Isn’t this fun?” she laughed wickedly. “I never knew there was such excitement to be had at the joust.”

  “Someone is going to get hurt,” I told her. “You’re getting carried away. I know you’re angry because you’re dead. I’m sorry about that. I can’t change the facts, and you can’t make it better by ruining the Village.”

  “You’re not paying attention, dearie.” She ruffled Sir Marcus’s blond curls, bringing a fearful yipe from him. “The press loves me. They’re talking about hiring a medium who can talk to me and take my demands. Doesn’t that sound absolutely luscious?”

  “Who are you talking to?” Marcus spun around, trying to fend off the unseen hands that caressed him. “Who’s there?”

  “It’s me, my love.” Wanda planted a big kiss on his mouth.

  He could feel it—bad luck for him.

  “Maybe I should take you with me, Marcus, my love. I could use a young lover here. I’m all alone. Wouldn’t you like to lie dead with me?”

  “Get it away from me!” Marcus was trying to get rid of Wanda like he was shooing a fly. “Get it off of me.”

  “You can’t kill him.” I was firm about that. “The fortune teller told me how to get rid of you. If you hurt him, I’ll do it.”

  “I don’t believe you.” Wanda was lifting Marcus off the ground. “You would’ve done it already.”

  “The only thing stopping me from passing you off to someone else is feeling bad for the other person. If you hurt someone, I won’t feel like that anymore. Maybe a nice boiler room attendant might be more in your league.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  I smiled brilliantly, even though my heart was pounding as Marcus kept moving upward, no matter how hard he tried to squirm away from Wanda’s hold.

  “No more Village. No more visitors. No more Shakespeare or Polo’s Pasta.”

  Marcus suddenly dropped to the dusty ground at my feet. He appeared to be unhurt, and wasted no time running out of the jousting arena.

  “There you go. No need to whine, Jessie.” Wanda’s smile was awful to behold. “Just having a bit of fun. You should learn to relax.”

  “Maybe I could if you’d rest in peace somewhere outside the Village.”

  Wanda surveyed the viewing stand where Queen Olivia had been. It was empty now. “That was a dirty trick. You distracted me until Livy could get away.”

  “Just remember what I said. I’ll pass you off to someone who never sees the light of day, much less the Ren Faire, if y
ou hurt anyone. I’m not kidding, Wanda.”

  She lifted me slightly into the air. Her face was directly in front of me, blocking out everything. “Don’t threaten me, Jessie. I could hurt you.”

  I didn’t answer, and she dropped me too. I didn’t have as far to fall as Marcus but it still hurt. She laughed and disappeared, no doubt going to make someone else’s life miserable.

  “Are you okay?” Chase was there a second later and helped me to my feet. “That was something. How can she do that?”

  I brushed dirt off of my skirt. I hoped it was just dirt. “I don’t know. She keeps getting stronger. We need some way to contain her or get rid of her. I’m out of answers.”

  Chase put his arm around me as the rain that had been threatening all day began to fall. It made little spitting noises on the ground and the wind picked up, blowing the flags and banners around us.

  We ran for shelter at the viewing stands as the cold rain became a downpour. The day was probably over for the Village. Some visitors would hang around, waiting to see if the rain let up. Most would just leave, even though that meant forfeiting their day ticket.

  “Let’s go home.” Chase kissed the side of my head. “Maybe Wanda will keep herself busy for a while.”

  We ran back to the Dungeon where we shared a small apartment above the fake jail cells that were open to visitors. Chase turned off the soundtrack of moaning and wailing from the plastic prisoners who lived in terrible conditions.

  “Any sign of Wanda?” He kissed my neck and throat.

  “No. Not yet anyway.”

  “Good.” He started unlacing my blouse. “We need to take advantage of this time, my lady.”

  “What if visitors come in?”

  “We’ll pretend we’re part of the exhibit.” He grinned. “At least until I can get you upstairs.”

  I yelped as he picked me up in his arms and laughed as he handed me the key to the door.

  “Hast thou a problem with insufficient hands, Sir Bailiff?”

  He playfully slapped my butt. “Not at all, Lady Wench. Open yon portal and grant us egress.”

  Once we were inside the apartment, we were both laughing and busily removing our clothes, whispering silly things to each other as lovers do.

  A knock at the door stopped us.

  “Wanda?” Chase mouthed.

  “She doesn’t knock.”

  “Lady Jessie,” Manny called out. “Are you available? There seems to be a problem.”

  Chapter Seven

  Chase and I quickly hopped back into our clothes and opened the door.

  “Fred the Red Dragon told me the police were here looking for me today.” He stalked into the room and turned around. “He said they want to question me further.”

  “It’s worse than that.” Chase pulled up one of the small chairs we had at a tiny table in the corner. “Detective Almond issued an arrest warrant for you. The police get a little testy when you get away without answering their questions.”

  Manny sat down hard. “I can’t believe this. There must be some mistake. I’ve never done anything wrong. I didn’t kill that despicable man. How did I get in this position?”

  “It has something to do with not being able to find any records for you.” I sat on the bed. “You don’t have any ID. How have you gone through life?”

  He wrung his hands and looked around the room as though it might provide inspiration. “No one can know who I really am.”

  “The thing with being a prince, right?” Chase nodded. “Now might be a good time to drop that fantasy.”

  “It’s not a fantasy, Sir Bailiff,” Manny protested. “And I must stay hidden—unless I want my father to come and drag me home.”

  “What about the information you gave me for the employment application?”

  “I’m sorry about that.” Manny smiled. “I wanted to work here so badly. I gave you false information, Lady Jessie. A friend of mine back home, who is very good with computers, took care of it for me. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me forgiving you,” I pointed out. “The police have to get an understanding of why there’s nothing in the database about you.”

  Manny heaved a sigh. His black eyes were tortured. “If anyone finds out I’m here, I’m doomed.”

  Chase laughed. “Come on, Manny. I think that might be putting it a little dramatically. What’s wrong? Did you leave home with bad feelings? None of that matters in comparison to getting you out of this scrape.”

  “Yes. I sneaked away from my home.” Manny’s demeanor changed. He actually looked regal and proud. “My father is the king of Zamboulia. I am his only heir.”

  “Manny, I think that’s the country from the movie Coming to America,” I said. “Did you recently see that movie?”

  “No. Seriously, Lady Jessie. My father is the king of Zamboulia. I am the crown prince. That is why I know so little about your culture. I ran away, hoping to have many adventures before I have to take my father’s place on the throne of my country.”

  “Detective Almond isn’t going to buy that story,” Chase said. “Not without some heavy proof.”

  “If I tell him the truth, and he contacts my father, the royal guards will drag me back home. I shall never have this opportunity again.”

  Chase and I exchanged disbelieving glances.

  “How did you get a lawyer?” I asked him.

  “Another friend from Zamboulia who I swore to secrecy.”

  Chase ran his hand around the back of his neck. “Look, I want to help you, Manny. I really do. But I have to call the police. It’s part of my job. You can tell them your story about being a crown prince—but it better be true.”

  “I would rather die!” Manny declared dramatically, but those were real tears in his eyes.

  “Okay.” Chase got to his feet, towering over Manny. “I think you’re gonna have to come clean about—whatever you’re into. Call your lawyer, and have him meet you here, and then I’ll call the police. I can help you with bail money if the police arrest you.”

  “I have plenty of gold with me.” Manny got to his feet. “I don’t need help paying the police to release me, if that is what it takes.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.” I tried to explain. “Let us help you. You can hide out here until we see if we can find the bookie that might’ve killed Dave, or some other lead to his death that will get you off the hook. If the police can’t find you, they can’t arrest you.”

  Manny’s eyes grew hopeful. “You would do this thing for me?”

  “Yes,” I solemnly replied.

  “No,” Chase said at the same time.

  “We have to help him,” I persuaded. “We’re the only friends he has.”

  Chase grinned at Manny as he grabbed my hand. “Excuse us a minute.”

  We stepped outside the apartment and stood on the stairs.

  “I can’t help him,” Chase whispered. “I have to call the police. It’s my job. I work with Detective Almond. You know that.”

  “Manny is our friend. We know he’s not guilty. We can’t just hand him over like yesterday’s laundry.”

  “Funny you didn’t feel like that today!”

  “That was different.”

  “He has to come clean with the police, Jessie. You know he’s not a crown prince, hiding out at the Village. He might have some problems with his family or something, but who doesn’t? Better that than problems with the police.”

  I didn’t know what to say that would change his mind. I thought about what Madame Lucinda had told me about the sorcerer who was supposed to be coming to take back his bracelet.

  I leaned against Chase and he held me close. “What if he’s the sorcerer that Madame Lucinda said was coming?” I whispered the words as quietly as I could. I didn’t believe it for a minute, and I didn’t want to give Manny any other crazy ideas.

  “What?” Chase said in his normal voice, and I shushed him. In a quieter tone, he said, “Sorcere
r? Really, Jessie?”

  “You didn’t believe Wanda was a ghost either,” I reminded him.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to. Until we were at Polo’s when Wanda struck, you thought I was just tired and felt guilty about her.”

  He frowned. “That wasn’t exactly what I thought. Anyway, I believed that you really thought you saw her.”

  “Whatever. It works out the same way.” I started whispering close to his ear again. “What if there really is a sorcerer? We don’t know if he’s good or bad. He obviously wants to keep his identity a secret. Maybe this is him. It would explain the crazy stuff about Manny not having any ID.”

  Chase shook his head, his braid moving across his shoulder. “I don’t know. It sounds totally insane. I can’t tell Detective Almond we think Manny is a sorcerer.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t tell him anything. Until we know what’s really going on, we could hide him here. If he’s a crown prince—or a sorcerer—we can explain it to the police later.”

  His arms tightened around me. I could see by his expression that this wasn’t sitting well with him. “All right. For now, anyway. We’ll let him stay here.”

  “Thank you.”

  He turned his head and kissed me fiercely on the mouth. “But we have to find some way to get around Wanda’s ghost and our possible sorcerer for some private time, right?”

  “Indeed.”

  We went back into the apartment. Manny was pacing the floor. He stopped and stared at us like a caged animal.

  “Well?”

  “We’re going to let you stay here with us for now,” I told him. “We’ll try to figure this out. I can’t promise how long Chase can keep this a secret, Manny.”

  “Thank you.” He hugged me first and then Chase. “Thank you both so much. You don’t know what this means to me. You will be amply rewarded for your trust. I swear it.”

  “It’s almost six-thirty.” Chase looked at the clock on the wall. It had been a gift from the queen for his service three years ago. “If we’re going to eat at free or reduced prices, we’d better get a move on.”