The Lady From Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod

I awaken slowly to the light of the day. Swallowing down the lump in my throat from sleep, I open my eyes. Immediately, I see a foreign figure sitting at my bedside, and I gasp in a startled murmur, "Oh!"

Lady Van Tassel smirks and leans over to my bedside table, grabbing a pitcher and a small bottle. She pours into the pitcher some water for me to drink later. With amusement, she says in darkened irony, "You slept like the dead."

Her statement draws my lips up to a soft smile, and I blink back my sleep. To be quite honest, I am shocked that she is here serving me in my wake. "You're too kind to me. I do not look to be served by the lady of the house."

She sets the bottle back onto the bedside table and smiles again, both bitterness and warmth in her features. "Oh, nor would you be, but that the servant girl has vanished."

My brow furrows at her statement as she sets the pitcher down. The servant girl? I wonder, "Sarah?"

​​Lady Van Tassel sighs and gives a small nod, picking up an apple from the serving tray and cutting it into slices. "Run away, like so many others."

She sets the apple down, placing the knife beside it, and gives me a look that shows a disappointment she must feel for her townspeople. "They're all leaving in fear."

I nod, lowering my gaze to the doorway across the room. Before Lady Van Tassel leaves, I ask, "Where is Mary and Katrina?"

​​Lady Van Tassel faces me again, her weary scowl turning into a small smile. "They both watched over you till dawn. Now it is their turn to sleep."

As she leaves my room, I smile to myself at both of the girls' kindness and care. Truly angels on Earth.

Young Masbath enters my room carrying the large white pitcher for hand washing. Upon his arrival, I sit up with strain, saying, "Well, I'm fit for another day, I think."

I rub my hand on my previously wounded shoulder, feeling its soreness far too much for my liking. I raise my eyes to the boy. "Fit enough to face a mortal adversary."

________________

Dressed in my usual attire without my coat on, I crawl to a slip of paper with "Doctor Lancaster" written upon it.

"Dr. Lancaster... Reverend Steenwyck..." I murmur aloud to myself as I slap two slips of paper onto a nearby trunk, continuing to search for the other sheets I look for. Where are the other two?!

"Hmm." Still crawling around on the floor searching for the papers, I see one beneath young Masbath's foot. I tap my hand against his shoe, wordlessly asking him to lift it. As soon as it's free, I pick it up a bring it to the small chest where the other papers were placed, announcing, "Notary Hardenbrook..."

The last paper I find to the right of the trunk, finishing, "...And Magistrate Philipse."

I frown, remembering how he had died just nights ago. I pick up the paper with Magistrate Philipse's name on it, telling young Masbath, "Who tried to cut and run, and lost his head."

I toss the paper aside, knowing that he is more or less out of the picture for interrogation. I stand up and start pacing slowly, announcing my deductions to my young assistant. "All frightened men, arguing together on the very night Magistrate Philipse was killed."

Something here happened—or is happening, I think, rubbing my hands together in thought. "There is conspiracy here."

I walk over to my desk and write "conspiracy" on a new blank page of my ledger.

"The doctor, the reverend, the notary and the magistrate..." I muse, setting the pen down, and taking up to pacing again. "What is this secret that unites them?"

Secret. I stride to my ledger, and write "the secret" to the upper write of "conspiracy," piecing this mystery together bit by bit.

"Magistrate Philipse knew there were 5 bodies to 4 graves," I say, writing down "5 to 4" near the top of the page as I think aloud.

I straighten and begin my pacing once again, murmuring, "He knew the widow was pregnant. He could not tell me the name of the father."

The father... my pace slows. "What does this point to?"

I stride to my ledger yet again and write "points to" beneath "conspiracy" and stand tall.

I look at young Masbath, who seems rather tired and bored of my tedious work. "We must proceed by a process of elimination. I shall make a list of every man and woman in Sleepy Hollow, starting with its chief citizen, Baltus Van Tassel."

I write "Baltus" beneath "points to" and straighten my posture, smirking at my successful lead. To the young boy, I say, "I feel we're getting very close."

Young Masbath looks over at the ledger, reading my short notes and musing, "Yes, I suppose Baltus is the chief citizen, now that old Van Garrett is dead."

The Van Garretts...

"Yes... the Van Garretts... I'd almost forgotten them," I murmur in thought, flipping open the Bible book to the family tree of the Van Tassels. I remember that they are related through marriage, which brings forth a link between the families. I slam the book closed, dust dispersing with the motion. Disgust and epiphany race in my mind at the realization of the conspiracy being partially true.

I order to young Masbath in a quiet whisper, "Come with me."

I kneel at the trunk and toss the slips of paper into it, hurrying to hide all work that could enrage some of the residents. The boy stands up behind me and asks, "Where?"

​​I shut the trunk and answer, "To Notary Hardenbrook's."

​​Young Masbath wonders, "Have you thought of something?"

​​I purse my lips, my mind reeling with the newfound lead I have come across. "Yes."

I stand up and look at the boy, finishing, "I have."