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No one waited on either side. She scoured the shadows and found nothing suspicious.
“A deer then,” she surmised, pulling back inside with an indignant huff. It didn’t explain Honey’s strange
dive off the bed or the eerie feeling of being stalked. Deliberately, she put it from her mind. She’d been listening
to far too many rumors flying about town.
She leaned the stick against the wall and briskly left the cottage; the festivities were well under way and time
was wasting.
***
The Fall Festival was the biggest event of the year. Families came out in droves to celebrate the harvest,
participate in games, and to see and be seen. Dréoteth, with his hands clasped behind his back, strolled along the
heavily decorated main street on the way to the field. Chrysanthemum wreaths hung on the doors of every shop
and squat pumpkins sat on the stoops. Haystacks, low candles, awkwardly shaped gourds and scarecrows with
potato sack faces all added to the ambiance.
Children ran amuck, absolutely frenzied with excitement. Barefoot, carefree, hair wild, they shrieked and
whooped and hollered, running circles around the festivities.
Bales of hay were stacked everywhere in no certain pattern. They provided more than just seating—they
became obstacle courses for the children. Up and down, around and around.
Dréoteth took a few steadying breaths. Their darting to and fro threatened his careful control. He waited
until there was a break in the madness and entered the clearing.
Long tables were set up on the perimeter, loaded with food. Baskets of apples, pears and peaches flanked
platters of roasted pork and fragrant duck. Casks of wine sat at each end with tankards and goblets lined up in
rows.
Some of the women wore their better dresses with the necklines scooped low, gossiping about fabric and
style and embellishment. There was a hierarchy here, as in most societies, and it was easy to detect the affluent by
the cut and expense of their cloth. Men stood in notable groups; the farmers over there, the merchants over
here, and the scholars apart from the rest. No matter what group, most doubled as warriors and had swords
attached to belts at their hips. The disappearing residents of Malmsbury assured that the men were armed at all
times.
Musicians took up a corner and played for dancers that made intricate circles in the center of the haystacks.
The crisp evening boasted a clear moon glowing brightly in a black velvet sky. Bonfires spewed serpents of
smoke into the air, casting a flickering orange glow across the dark landscape.
He headed for the group of scholars, nodding a greeting to a few couples along the way. It had taken him
only a few weeks of intent scrutiny to learn the proper etiquette of polite society.
“Mister Trimble, a pleasure to see you again.”
“Mister Trimble.”
“Good evening.”
Greetings overlapped each other as he reached the circle of distinctive men. William Tuttle sported a cane, a
round belly, and had lost all but four strands of silver-gray hair; Ronald Upham stood tall and lean like himself
with a hawkish profile that reminded Dréoteth of a bird; Meyer Lyon, younger by a decade than his counterparts,
was fit and hale with a full head of dark hair. Tuttle and Upham were attired in expensive surcotes and had an
unflappable presence while Meyer wore black chausses and a leather hauberk of sturdy quality.
“Gentlemen. I trust the festivities are getting off to a good start?” Dréoteth asked.
“I'd rather be next to the fire with a good book,” Upham said. He had an imperious lift to his chin and he
stared at the dancers skeptically.
“There is more to life than reading, Upham.” Tuttle scolded his hawkish companion, disinterested in the
complicated steps that he had long forgotten in favor of other, less strenuous pursuits.
“Says the man who tears through three books a week,” Upham said. He scoffed, drawing laughter from
Tuttle and Lyon.
Dréoteth examined each man in turn as they spoke, pulling in their distinctive scents with a slow,
unobtrusive breath. Experience had taught him how to be subtle about these unusual habits of his. He smiled