On
the Sixth Day of Christmas, The Criers Gave To Me…Six Hiding Places.
Anne quiet moment would not last.
Once again the door of the Dirty Duck Inn burst open and a horde of Draco
Disciples burst in with a flurry of cold air and snow, Estella Foxglove among
them.
Leaving her mug on the nearest
table, Anne darted for the first hiding place she could find, beneath Dorcas
Oddpick’s skirts.
“What are you doing?” Dorcas
hitched up her skirts and kicked the cabin boy out from under them.
“Um…” Anne thought fast. “I’m
playing a game, want to play?”
“What kind of game?”
“Hide and seek. We’re going to hide
from Estella Foxglove and the other Dracos.”
“Foxgloves are pretty flowers.”
“And poisonous!” Anne dove beneath
the stairs as Estella and Vinz Clortho came their way. Dorcas didn’t follow and
Anne hoped that the Towne Crier would have the presence of mind to not say
anything to Estella.
“Estella!” Dorcas cried out to the
Draco. “We’re playing a game!”
Anne cursed herself for saying
anything to Dorcas. She was a very sweet girl, but sometimes she seemed more
than a little absent minded. Anne spotted Dorcas’ fellow crier, Emmaraude
A’Right about to pass the stairs and tugged at the passing crier’s skirt.
“Psst, Emmaraude.” She hissed. The
crier sank down and grinned in greet.
“How now Anne Drew?”
Anne tugged Emmaraude into her
hiding place. “I need to keep away from Estella and Dorcas keeps giving away my
hiding places.”
“Hide behind me and we’ll see if
Harold can help!” Emmaraude moved quickly with Anne shrinking behind the towne
crier towards Harold, who was in conversation with Jasper Trustworthy, man of
many (questionable) business enterprises.
“Harold! Jasper!” Emmaraude, ever a
ray of sunshine, interrupted. “Know any good hiding places?”
“What for?” Jasper’s eyes roved
about, as if he was taking in all of the possible places where he had hidden
various objects. “How large are we talking.”
“For Anne Drew. She’s trying to
avoid the Dracos.” Emmaraude pulled Anne from her stooped position and Anne
crossed her arms.
“I can think of one hiding place…”
Harold winked at Anne and her hand went to the short knife at her belt without
hesitation.
“Mine’s sharper, and will do more
damage.” She retorted.
“There’s always the lake.” Jasper
suggested. “We could always tie you to a rock.”
“Already had my bath.” Anne winced
at the no so far away memory of her dip in Lake Elizabeth.
“There’s the beams in the rafters…”
Emmaruade tapped the side of her nose in deep thought.
“That’ll work.” Anne looked up and
studied the beams. It could be a good spot to try. “Gimmie a hand Harold?”
So with Jasper steadying Anne’s arm
and Harold giving her a leg up, Anne was able to reach one of the main beams
and swing her leg over. “Stop looking, Harold.” She chided, the laughed as the
only male crier gave her a wry smile.
Being careful to not look down too
much, Anne made her way to the center of the beam and tucked her feet up so she
lay in a frog leg position over the party. It reminded her a bit of the crow’s
nest on the ship.
“ANNE DREW!” The voice nearly shook Anne off of her perch. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF ST. ELMO ARE YOU DOING?”
Fin.
This was a hard day to write. Not really happy with this episode. We'll see what happens tomorrow since I'll have even less time to write than I did today. I've just got to remind myself that even if these posts aren't what I want them to be, I'm working on learning to meet my own deadlines and this is "good for me."
I don't trust that Jasper fella. There's something untrustworthy about him.
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