“You should be ashamed of yourself, Gretchen Murkwood. If your Aunt Esme could see you now—”
“Don't you dare bring her into this,” Gretchen held up a warning finger. “Missing goat, my foot! You just wanted her out of the picture, and when I find out what happened in that cave, mark me, you’ll have worse than pumpkin on your face.”
Mildred gasped as if struck, hand held to her chest. Nora’s eyes bulged, and the few gawkers remaining scuttled away.
“You think,” Mildred’s mouth worked. “That I had something to do with her disappearance?”
Gretchen folded her arms and looked Mildred in the eye. “If the shoe fits.”
Mildred’s eyes glistened as she stood mute, her shoulder’s shuddering with silent sobs.
“She was one of my dearest friends,” she sniffled. “I may have asked her to fetch my Bess back, but I never imagined anything like that would happen.”
Try as she might, Gretchen couldn’t see a lie in those words, or the wretched look on Mildred’s face. She swallowed, wiping at a tear of her own, and hung her head to school her face back to calm.
“We may have been a little overzealous when it came to competitions, your aunt and I,” her voice quavered. “But I miss her sorely. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by when I haven’t blamed myself.”
Gretchen frowned and looked up, but Mildred was already walking away back to her own cart past people packing up their displays. Nora patted Gretchen on the back and heaved a sigh.
“I suppose you don’t even have a charm to fix all this mess. You really are a pain in my rear end, you know. I’ll hear about this from the baron.”
“Is the messy part over?”
Nora and Gretchen turned to regard Rapunzel who stood clear of the mess with her tiny scissors absently trimming the ends of her long locks.
“Good grief, Gretchen. If anything, that girl is getting bigger. And what on earth is she wearing?”
Chapter 7
“I’d say she’s bigger by at least a few feet.” Jurgen rubbed his chin.
Gretchen groaned and took a swig of ale. She’d been arguing with Nora for close to an hour before the troll turned up to give his opinion.
“But the point is, it will wear off.”
“Not in time for tonight's party. You said it would be a few hours at the most.” Rapunzel sat cross-legged on the grass with her arms folded in front of her.
“What’s wrong with being big, anyway? You run an empire based on height!”
“I doubt she’d even get through the door.” Nora tilted her head. “Fancy brewing such a potent potion and wasting it like this.”
“All right, fine. The party is at the baron’s estate. We can use your glorified dungeon to brew something to counteract it.”
“If you expect me to take one more potion after seeing what happened to that pumpkin, you’re sadly mistaken.” Rapunzel turned her gaze to Nora. “What is your expert opinion?”
“Well,” Nora circled around her tapping her fingers together. “The safest thing to do would be to let it take its course. If you ingested the potion this morning, with the rate of growth, perhaps by tomorrow evening it will have worn off.”
Rapunzel opened her mouth in outrage, and Nora waved her to silence.
“Of course, I expect that won’t be to your liking, so I may be able to fix up a charm to make you look smaller. Can’t have you splattered all over the walls, now, can we?” Rapunzel nodded vigorously, and Nora gave her a grandmotherly smile. “Now hop into the cart and we can be on our way.”
Rapunzel pushed to her feet calling out for Peter the driver, and Nora’s smile disappeared as she rounded on Gretchen.
“You owe me for this. I won’t see a single copper coin for sorting it out. And don’t think you’ll get away with scurrying home. You can give an account to the baron himself to clear my good name.”
Gretchen chewed her lip and turned to Jurgen with a quirked eyebrow.
“Well, she still has my cart. I’ve already paid for ten barrels of cider, but I can put them in the carriage for now. Besides,” he flashed a toothy grin. “I’ll bet there’ll be plenty of fancy food at the estate tonight.”
“Good,” Nora clapped her hands. “Now, let’s get moving. I expected to fly home tonight, not dawdle along country roads.”
It didn’t take long before Peter had the horses hitched and they ambled out of the field and back through the town of Oakdale. With only a short stop to collect Jurgen’s supplies, they got a head start on the rest of the fairgoers who by then were well into their cups. Nora and Gretchen sat together on the back of the carriage with their feet dangling off the side, watching dust clouds billow in their wake.
“Mildred’s family are old blood, you know?” Nora absently fiddled with a long stand of straw. “Still hold a lot of influence with the well-to-do around here.”
Gretchen closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the carriage. “Do you really care all that much about presiding over a pumpkin growing competition? I’m surprised you aren’t handing out ribbons for the prize pigs! Or maybe you could taste-test those cakes? That’s the kind of judging I could get around.”
“It may seem silly,” Nora huffed. “But it’s a matter of reputation. I never much cared for it at the start, but I’ve been doing it for years. They have tied my infamy to hexes and curses for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until I started judging that I could walk down the street and have
