Ghastly Glass (16 page)

“I suppose that’s true. You know, that woman has been the queen of my heart since we first met. I don’t want to lose her. I wish she’d marry me. Then I’d feel more secure about everything.”

“Some things have to be taken on trust.” I picked up two glass rods and used the torch to soften them and glue them together. At this rate, I’d never learn to make glass animals.

“I wish there was something I could do, some way to prove to her how much I love her.”

I glanced up from my hot glass rods and studied his face. He wasn’t a handsome man, but I supposed he was likable. Mary seemed to care a lot about him. Maybe there was some way to bring them back together. It would be easier with Roger being part of the plan. Just as well since I’d become the enemy as far as Mary was concerned.

A lady and gentleman entered the shop. Her dress was to die for. It looked as though it had been spun from real spiderwebs. I’d never seen anything like it. The gentleman wore a black cloak with a high collar that framed his gaunt, white face. I wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be a vampire, but he sure looked like one.

“Just keep practicing,” Roger said quietly before he went to bow before them and ask if there was anything he could help them with.

I mostly tuned out the conversation after that. They were visitors, even if they were dressed in Halloween garb. They were looking for a bird of some kind for the mantle in their house.

I was just getting the hang of fusing the glass rods together when several other visitors entered the shop. Roger glanced up at me and I knew what he wanted. I put my torch into the special holder and turned it off, then took off my goggles to wait on the two ladies dressed in rich satin and fur.

Funny how visitors never come dressed as peasants. Everyone wants to imagine themselves as royalty or at least wealthy merchants. I guess it’s the same as wanting to think you were reincarnated from Thomas Jefferson or Cleopatra. Everyone wants to be someone special.

“My ladies.” I bowed to the customers. “Good day and welcome to our shop. What can I assist you with? ”

“We’re searching for glass goblets.” The first lady (her blush was a little heavy beneath her thin veil) smiled at me. “We’re celebrating and would like to have these as a souvenir. Do you engrave? ”

I glanced at Roger, who nodded. Henry came in as we were speaking. He looked as though he’d been rolling around in the dirt. There were smudges on his face and his shirt was torn. The two ladies began giggling and blushing even more. I couldn’t believe they found him that attractive. But it seemed they’d already been there during the last few days, buying something different each day.

“Sir Henry,” Veiled Lady simpered. “We knew you’d be here to help us.”

“Of course, dear ladies!” Henry took each of their hands and brought them to his mouth for a brief kiss. “What can I do for you today? ”

Feeling a little nauseated, I started to walk away. Henry saw me move, I think, and almost jumped out of my way.
Hah!
I guess that little show of strength was enough to scare Sir Henry. Good. Maybe he’d stay away. “Just watch his hands,” I remarked in a whisper to the ladies.

They both giggled and agreed that he was
very
good with his hands.

There’s just no helping some people. I went back to my bench. I didn’t want to be out there with the public anyway. I relit my torch (without help) and picked up my glass rods again. I looked at all the tools on the workbench and tried to remember what Roger had called everything.

I knew the big scissors were supposed to be used to cut off the warm glass after creating an animal or an angel. The brass pick was used, like the cherry wood oval block, to shape and form the glass. The rake was used in feathering and marbling the glass. Flat mashers were used to flatten the glass; the curved masher made it round.

I heated up two more glass rods and fused their ends together. I wished I could do more, but I supposed I needed to prove myself before Roger would trust me to make an animal. Not that I was entirely sure
how
to make an animal of any kind. That might be where the artistry came in. If so, I might be left out.

“How’s it going? ” Roger asked.

I glanced up and saw that the shop was empty again, except for Henry at his workbench. I’d been so intent on my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed when the visitors left. “Pretty good, I think. I’ve fused these rods together. Should I keep doing it? ”

He looked at my fused rods and almost smiled. “Let’s go to the next step. Fuse the rods together, then wait for the glass to get warm but not hot. You’ll get to know when that is by looking at it. When it’s warm, use your shears to cut them apart. I want you to get the feel of how to do that before you tackle something more delicate than the rods.”

I was thrilled to move up. I felt a little nervous with him standing there watching me, but I did it right the first time and he seemed very pleased. “Now just keep practicing that, Jessie.”

“Okay. This stuff is really hot. I’m glad it’s not summer.”

Roger glanced at Henry, then lowered his voice. “So you think there’s still a chance for me and Mary? ”

My thoughts were so focused on the glass that I barely caught the subject change. “Uh . . . yeah. Sure. I know Mary cares about you. Maybe we can set something up.”

Another group of visitors entered the shop. Roger patted my shoulder. “I’ll let you think about that. Let me know what you come up with.”

No pressure.
I looked at the two pieces of glass I held and considered that they were like Roger and Mary in some way. Maybe if both of them were heated to the right temperature, they’d fuse together again, too.

I concentrated on my task, fusing the two rods together when they started glowing orange in the heat from the torch, then cutting them apart. I began to imagine faces and shapes in the glass where it became molten. Maybe this was how the first Venetian glassmakers started. I couldn’t even imagine how to shape what I saw, but I hoped that would come later.

“Busy?” Henry asked from a safe distance. Unfortunately, I couldn’t blindfold him. His eyes kept wandering to my bodice.

“Yes. Go away.”

“I know you don’t really want that. I know you’re embarrassed by your attraction to me. I understand. Everyone here knows you and Chase are a couple. You don’t want Chase to find out about me. I’m cool with that. We can meet secretly. No one has to know.”

I glared at him. “What part of
go away
makes you think I want to meet you somewhere? ”

He smiled in that supercilious way men have when they think you really mean yes. “Everything about you tells me you want me. Your eyes. Your lips. Your body is singing every time I come near.”

I wondered what song he’d hear if I set the blow torch to him.
Just kidding.
For good measure, I put down the glass I was working on. It probably wouldn’t be a good thing to hit him with it either. “There’s one thing I’d like to know.”

He dared to lean a little closer. “What’s that, baby? ”

“Do you enjoy pain? ”

Clearly surprised, he answered hesitantly, “I suppose, within certain guidelines. A little pain could be okay.”

“If you
ever
hit on me again like you just did, you’re going to experience pain outside of
any
guidelines. Do I make myself clear?” I picked up my pieces of glass again for good measure. I hoped it was enough to scare him away.

He shrugged. “If you can deny yourself, that’s fine with me. There are plenty of eggs in the old chicken coop.”

I watched him saunter away.
Old chicken coop?
The man was impossible.

Roger came back after a few minutes and smiled at me. “You’re doing so much better, Jessie. Have you come up with any ideas about me and Mary yet? ”

A huge sigh of frustration escaped my lips. Both of these men were insane. But I wasn’t going to let it bother me. I was dedicated to learning this craft. I was also dedicated to getting Roger and Mary back together again. And what else had I told Chase that morning? Oh yeah, finding out who was trying to kill me or Roger.

“Not yet.” I smiled brilliantly for his benefit. “But I’m working on it. What do I do after I get used to holding the hot glass? ”

“I can show you better than I can tell you,” he said. “Come over here with me.”

He told Henry to take all the visitors who came in, and then sat down at his workbench. “I get a picture in my head sometimes. It might be something I see in a magazine or something I imagine. When I first started making dragons, nobody else was making them. I saw some pictures of them in my niece’s fairy-tale book. I came to the shop and started imagining them.”

As he spoke, he worked with his hands. “I decide on a color and a form. I’m using precolored soda lime glass. It’s a soft glass. Today I think we’ll use red for the dragon. You take your hollow red glass tube and heat it, then use the tools to begin forming the dragon with the glass.”

I watched him perform what appeared to be magic by gently blowing into the hollow tube, creating the body of the dragon. I was amazed at how quickly it began to resemble the beast. The long, slender neck, large head, and bigger body.

“We’ll use the stump shaper to sculpt the dragon’s body, give it some form. These holding fingers close around the glass when you work with a figure and need to hold it while you’re torching.”

Watching him work was fascinating. I almost didn’t notice that two visitors in really bad ghost costumes (Renaissance-patterned sheets with eye holes) had joined me. I didn’t see Henry right away either, but I soon realized he was standing behind me. Did the man have a death wish? I could totally understand if someone was trying to kill
him
—and I wished they’d hurry so he’d stop bothering me.

Roger was adding some gold to the ridges on the dragon’s wings and body. The hot glass was smoking in the dim shop light. It was a masterpiece, as usual. I had missed some of it worrying about Henry, but I was beginning to understand how the glasswork came together. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything so skillful, but I wanted to create something.

“You see?” Roger cut the dragon free from the last piece of glass. “Do you have a picture of something in
your
mind, Jessie? ”

At that moment, Henry goosed me, and the only picture I could see was my fist connecting with his eye. Fortunately, I was saved from that violence by the sound of trumpets from the street outside. A page dressed in scarlet livery entered the shop and held out a proclamation.

“Good sirs and ladies,” the page announced, “I beg thee take heed of my words. On this evening, my master Sir Reginald will challenge Henry of the Glass Gryphon to a duel on the Field of Honor within Their Majesties’ Great Hall. Tickets for the duel are still available at the castle entrance. I bid thee good day.”

Roger shook his head. “What have you done
now
, Henry? ”

“
N
othing. I’m as surprised about this as you are, Uncle Roger.” Henry looked around the room at the visitors and the page, who still waited. “Really. I don’t know what this is all about. You know what a crazy place this is.”

Roger groaned. “I saw you outside with Princess Isabel yesterday. I thought you had enough sense not to try any of your crap with her. I guess I was wrong.”

Henry laughed in that nervous way people have when they
know
they’ve been caught. “You know, you people take this place way too seriously. So I had a little fun with Princess Isabel, who by the way is neither a princess nor named Isabel. I’m not fighting anyone. Sir Reginald can take a flying leap as far as I’m concerned.”

The visitors in the shop were amazed, torn between wondering if there would be a real duel of honor or if the whole thing was a joke. Roger shook his head. “You have so little regard for tradition. I’m surprised you want to open the shop for me at all. Something like this tells on a man, Henry. You just don’t get it.”

“You’re darn right I don’t get it,” Henry yelled. “And I don’t want to. I don’t know why you stay here when you could do just as well outside the wall in the real world. If this were my business, I’d close it down and move it to Charleston.”

“Good thing it’s not,” Roger said. “When I’m dead and you inherit everything, you can do whatever you want. But I’m still here and I’m telling you that you have to face Sir Reginald.”

“The hell I do!” Henry stormed from the shop, his short cape flying out behind him.

There was a stunned silence as everyone wondered what would happen next. It was customary for the challenged party to accept the challenge through the page. I wasn’t sure what the fallout would be if no one accepted the challenge. I supposed Princess Isabel’s honor would have to survive and Sir Reginald wouldn’t have anyone to duel. It was a break in protocol for the Village. I hoped the Craft Guild would find a way to save face.