Free Ghastly Glass by Joyce and Jim Lavene Page A

would do something so blatantly stupid, it took me a few seconds to get my elbows ready to crunch him. Once he was bent over in pain, I planned to use a knee maneuver I’d learned in self-defense class.
    “Jessie! I can’t believe I’m seeing this!”
    I thought at first it was Chase. But I was spared that embarrassment only to see Portia’s unhappy face before me. The biggest gossip in the Village saw me with Henry’s hands on my breasts. It might as well have been Chase.
    I reacted by painfully gouging Henry with my elbows, then using my knee to crunch him in the chest as he leaned over. “See?” I turned to Portia to make my case and try to stem the tide of mouth-to-mouth that would spread through every guild by closing time. “I didn’t ask him to do that. You can report that I hurt him for touching me. This doesn’t have anything to do with me and Chase. We’re just fine. Henry is an idiot.”
    Portia nodded slowly. “Poor dear. I guess we all have our problems. Is that a burn hole in that shirt? You know we frown on that kind of thing.”
    We talked for a few minutes about costumes and what it took to maintain them for residents and visitors. I sympathized with her problems, then offered to buy her chocolate at the Three Chocolatiers shop. After that, I walked with her as far as Kellie’s Kites beside the jousting Field of Honor at the far end of the Village. I prayed every moment that she’d take my gesture of fear and false friendship as the real thing and not spread rumors about me and Henry.
    Only time would tell. I took a deep breath as I watched her walk away toward the Mother Goose Pavilion where Red Riding Hood was having a costume issue. I’d know within the hour how well I’d accomplished my goal.
    Naturally, I was starving and thirsty after talking with almost hurricane-like force to try and distract Portia. I was close to the Pleasant Pheasant, which was too expensive during the day, but one of the carts carrying pizza slices from Polo’s Pasta was coming my way and the price was right. As a rule, I try not to buy food in the Village, but sometimes emergencies present themselves.
    I glanced over at the dancing girls on the Caravan Stage, then walked over and slid into an empty seat in the back row. Normally these nubile ladies danced in harem outfits, silks, and scarves with bangles and beads. For Halloween, they were all garbed in black and red silk. The music was almost tortured as they danced across the stage, which was covered in black bunting. It seemed like overkill to me. I mean, what difference did it make what color their costumes were?
    But there was an added dimension to their usual dance routine. A man dressed in a skintight red suit with a pointed tail and little horns on his head joined them. Now this was interesting.
    Every woman in the audience perked up. It was hard to tell what the Devil really looked like under the gold and red mask, but his body language spoke for him. He advanced on the dancing girls, tossing some of them up in the air as though they weighed no more than the silk they wore.
    “He’s really something, isn’t he? ” Maid Marian of Sherwood Forest settled down beside me, tucking her green cape around her. This Marian had been at the Village for a few years now. When I’d first started, there was a new Marian every few months. Those Merry Men could get a little too merry.
    “Yeah. He’s interesting all right.” I watched as the Devil sidled up to one of the dancers and pulled her against him, running his hand down the length of her body.
    Marian cleared her throat and moved her cape around again. “I love to watch him dance. He’s a real artist.”
    I had to agree with her. Both of us were lusting for him in our hearts. By the time the dance was over and the Devil disappeared in a puff of red smoke, leaving the dancing girls prostrate on the stage, Marian and I were fanning ourselves with our hands.
    “I wish I could teach Robin to dance like