Read Online Harrowing Hats by Joyce and Jim Lavene - Free Book Online

let me do that,” I suggested. “Eloise might be more willing to talk to a woman, you know?” Not that I believed that for a second. She’d be crying and slob-bering all over Chase in a heartbeat. I admit to being worried that Chase could succumb to their wiles in his weakened state. They might take advantage of him.
    “Jessie, I appreciate the offer, but you know I don’t like you to get involved in these things.”
    “But I’ve been a big help before, right? Let me do this, Chase. I can help. You talk to Andre. I still have to work with him, and he might not like me asking him questions when I just met him.”
    He thought it over. “All right. But no conclusions and no follow-up to whatever Eloise tells you. You come straight back to me with it.”
    “You got it.”
    We (Chase) finished eating, and we kissed at the door as we were leaving. A large group of Japanese visitors applauded and took a dozen pictures before they politely asked us to take pictures with each of them.
    When that was over, I scooted past the Romeo and Juliet pavilion, where that couple was talking to a good-sized crowd. I went past the Hands of Time clock shop, thinking that might make an interesting apprenticeship. I’d have to remember to put in for it. No doubt it was somewhere on my list already.
    The Lovely Laundry Ladies were shouting out bawdy insults to the crowd that passed them, moving slowly across the King’s Highway. They must’ve already washed a lot of clothes at the Village well since they were soaked. Probably felt good in the heat.
    Pat Snyder, playing William Shakespeare, was quoting odes to the pretty girls who went past his pavilion behind the Glass Gryphon and Sir Latte’s Beanery.
    It took me almost twenty minutes to reach the King’s Tarts Pie Shop. Maybe Adventure Land was worried about fewer visitors, but if numbers were down, I couldn’t tell. People in Renaissance garb were crushed in, with visitors wearing bikini tops and short shorts who rubbed elbows with fairies, trolls, and a goblin or two.
    I looked at Brewster’s, next to the tart shop, with longing, already sorry I didn’t get another tankard of ale after abandoning mine when Grigg’s lips touched it. I promised myself a frozen lemonade from one of the traveling carts after talking to Eloise.
    The pie shop was busy, large groups of men—all ages, from knaves to knights—trying to get close to one of the women. Apparently, Eloise, Belle, and Angela had also received the Village notice to wear their blouses cut lower. I swear, they left very little to the imagination.
    Cherry pie seemed to be the tart of the day. Belle and Angela passed out their wares while Eloise took the money. She looked flushed from the heat but not at all grieving over Cesar’s death. If there was something going on between them, she had to be over it already.
    I had to wait until the crowd thinned out after King Arthur pulled the sword from the stone. Besides low-cut blouses and pie, the men in the shop seemed to also be drawn to shiny metal objects.
    Eloise collapsed into a chair behind the counter while Angela and Belle cleaned up. She was the eldest of the tarts, probably in her midthirties. It was easy to tell who the boss was—she and Cesar would’ve made a good pair.
    “Hi!” I approached her with a smile and a jaunty attitude. “Your visitor numbers don’t seem to be down.”
    “Hi, Jenny.” Eloise pulled out a fan and began wafting warm air at her face. “How’s Chase?”
    “Jessie, actually.” I kept smiling. What did I expect? “Chase is fine. He wanted me to pick up some pie. Too bad he hates cherry pie. He wanted blueberry. You know how it is.”
    “I think he’d like my cherry pie, if he’d come himself,” Eloise goaded me further. “I guess you don’t let him stray too far when you’re here. Lucky for him you go back to school in the fall.”
    I reminded myself that I didn’t come here to exchange insults with her. Just the opposite. I