Night Howls on the Hudson

Chapter 2: Keeping Up Appearances

The coffee Neal drank in the morning wasn't enough to quell the exhaustion that set in as soon as Mozzie left. He stretched out on the couch, intending to take a short nap. When the ringing of his cell phone roused him from sleep, he was dismayed to see it was already late afternoon.

He reached for the phone, hoping it wasn't Mozzie with breaking news from the "Save Our Marsh" battleground. Thankfully, Richard's name was on the phone display. He was a fellow grad student at Columbia.

"Travis and I are leaving for the meeting. You're on the way. Would you like a ride?"

"What meeting?" Neal asked before the significance dawned on him and he sank back into the cushions. Crap.

Richard snorted his disbelief. "Surely you didn't forget. Renaissance festival ring a bell?"

"You just saved my hide. It completely slipped my mind." Angela was helping coordinate the music, dance, and science exhibits. She'd given him his marching orders earlier in the week.

"You were painting?"

Richard's studio was next to his. He knew how Neal tuned out the rest of the world when absorbed in a project. Could he blame his forgetfulness on the Marquesa? At least this time when he woke up, he wasn't working on her portrait.

"Relax. You have plenty of time," Richard added, thankfully not waiting for his reply.

Neal could hear Travis in the background, saying it'd take them thirty minutes to reach June's place from their apartment in the Village.

Angela was already upset at Henry for being away on a business trip. She accused him of deliberately planning to be gone during her hour of need. Her assertion was plainly ridiculous. Henry was the biggest ham of all the cousins. He would have loved participating in the LARP. The opposing leaders were each named Henry. He would have wanted to play both parts.

This was Columbia University's first year to hold a Renaissance festival. The history, English, art, science, and music departments had all planned events. For over twenty years, a one-day medieval festival had been held on a Saturday in late September in Fort Tryon Park, just south of Mozzie and Janet's beloved Inwood Hill Park. The location was ideal since the Cloisters dominated the hillside setting. Columbia had persuaded the festival organizers to leave their props in place for an extra day. The food and market vendors were happy to have the additional sales.

The LARP component was particularly popular with students. The much-anticipated battle was scheduled to be the opening event so that afterward everyone could relax and enjoy the rest of the festival.

From Neal's perspective, one of the best parts was that Sara would be there. Angela had roped in all the participants in her martial arts class to help out. Janet, who was a costume designer, was designated the official costume consultant. The other women—Sara, Keiko, Diana, and Maggie—would be performing Renaissance dances along with members of the dance department. Neal and Sara were already plotting ways to sneak away from the others to meet.

They'd initially agreed to date in secret to avoid the well-meaning but misguided matchmaking attempts of certain friends who were a little too nosy about their private lives. They dubbed their strategy the Clueless con and had given themselves the aliases of Matthew and Alicia which they could use as code words for themselves. Peter and Henry knew Neal dated a woman named Alicia, but they didn't realize she was Sara.

Was it overly complicated? Of course. But that made it even more intriguing. He and Sara both wore disguises when they went out. So far no one knew the truth, and they were determined to keep it that way.

Hiding their relationship became even more essential when a fellow student at Columbia was discovered to be an agent for the international criminal organization Ydrus. Bianka had a studio close to Neal's in Watson Hall. She'd been making a play for him, and now he was supposed to con her that he was falling in love with her. Clueless con or not, his dates with Sara would have to be concealed until the op against Ydrus was concluded.