Perilous Pranks (Renaissance Faire Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

tested, I’ll have to get a warrant.”
    I handed him my sword. “There you go. Easy peasy. You don’t even have to ask twice.”
    He looked around the tiny apartment, filled now with mine and Chase’s stuff. “You two are kind of crushed in here since you gave up your job in Columbia, huh? Once you get married, you might even have a few little ones. It would be nice to have a bigger place, huh?”
    “We’ll see.” I shrugged. “We’re not having babies yet.”
    “Village housing is at a premium unless you’re a shopkeeper. Even I know that.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh wai t! There’s an opening at the other end of the Village, with Wanda being dead and all.”
    I managed a brave but probably foolhardy smile. “That would be a stupid reason to kill Wanda. Chase and I have standing in the Village. We could live at the castle anytime. Try again. I didn’t kill Wanda.”
    He nodded. “Okay. Just trying to work my way through all of the craziness. Don’t get defensive. Chase technically works for the police, just like I do. We’ll figure it out.”
    I didn’t have anything more to say to him. He’d ruined my peaceful hideaway. I opened the door. He took our swords and left the Dungeon.
    I wanted to slam the door behind him, but I didn’t want him to realize how upset I was. I fell back on the bed and pulled the pillows over my head.
    I was scared. This didn’t seem like it was going to end well for me, just as I was starting my new life.
    It had always been my dream to live at the Village. I hadn’t wanted to depend on Chase supporting me. The opening of the museum, with me as salaried director, had come at almost the same time as Chase’s marriage proposal. I thought my life was going to be perfect.
    I closed my eyes and tried to think about something else— anything else. I must have fallen asleep because the door to the apartment suddenly blew open. I knew I had to be dreaming.
    Like old Jacob Marley come to haunt Ebenezer Scrooge, I knew I wasn’t alone.
    There was a deep sighing followed by unmistakable laughter that chilled my soul. “Lady Jessie Morton. What are you doing up here? Why aren’t you out on the cobblestones looking for my killer?”
    I sat up quickly, my heart pounding. No one was there. It was just a nightmare.
    A bright blue face came right up in front of mine, and a British-tinged voice said, “Think I’m a nightmare, do you? Think again, dearie.”
    You know how you wake up from a dream and you think you’re awake, but you’re not? And then you wake up again, and this time it’s real.
    I fell back on the bed again, hoping that was about to happen to me. I closed my eyes and kept repeating, “Wake up, Jessie. Wake up.”
    “Yes, indeed. Wake up, you lazy slattern. My killer is running free in the Village while you’re in here getting some beauty sleep. It won’t do, you know. Ugly is as ugly does.”
    I sat up and scooted down to the end of the bed. The door to the apartment was closed. I took a deep breath. It wasn’t real .
    I put my hand on the doorknob. I was only dreaming. It was all the talk about who had killed her and seeing her dead, that’s all.
    Wanda’s head came right through the door, followed by the rest of her deep blue, naked body. “Here I am, ducks. Didn’t think I’d leave so soon, did you?”
    I was out of there. Her cackling laughter followed me down the stairs and into the fake dungeon area where I scared two teenage boys who seemed to think I was part of the exhibit.
    I didn’t care. I ran out into the sunshine where hundreds of people were walking up and down the cobblestones. Tom, Tom the Piper’s son was chasing a piglet while a group of visitors laughed and followed him. The Lovely Laundry Ladies were calling out bawdy remarks to the people passing by. Everything seemed perfectly normal.
    “Still here.”
    I glanced to the side where a large swing hung from the branch of an old oak tree at the corner of the Dungeon. “ Wanda ?”