“Indeed,” Ezra said. He gave a ‘tsch’ to his mule, and the cart cavorted down the dirt road. I was thankful for the cushion of the straw beneath me to balance out the ruts and bumps. “One main road, and almost all of the houses are in the center of the town. Road goes right through the middle of it. If you keep following it through the forest, you’ll get to the Van Tassel estate. Baltus is sometimes in town, or his daughter is, so you’ll be able to talk to them without having to make the full journey.”
“This is quite a lovely place,” I commented. The houses were sturdy, though a bit old-fashioned looking. Not that that was unusual in the countryside.
“Very lovely,” Ezra agreed. “A nice place to live, it is. Sleepy Hollow is one of those places you’ll want to stay for your entire life.”
I laughed at that. “I do like to travel, but I certainly do not mind putting down roots for a few seasons.”
Ezra went quiet after that, and I contented myself with watching the farmland turn quickly into a more residential area. I could see a windmill off toward the Hudson, no doubt to catch the breeze from the river to move the sails. Small shops and homes began to show up, and people in the gardens or along the way stopped to raise their heads and stare at me. The progression of expression was almost always the same. At first, shock, and then, delight. I supposed strangers were not common to this area, especially as the Van Houtens had told me that no one had ventured up this way once the war ended, which would have been almost seven years now.
Upon reaching the main square of the town, Ezra pulled to a halt, and I jumped down from the wagon, giving him a bow. “My appreciation, good sir,” I said. He nodded and doffed his cap at me, and then, with another flick of his reins, he and his cart went about their business.
The main street of the town was not large. I was sure that the population of it was not anywhere equal to that of Tarry Town. Perhaps my stay here would not be overly long. But the townsfolk were all eager to talk to me, to find out who I was, where I had come from, if I had family in the area, how long I planned on staying. Within only a few minutes, I had an offering for my night’s lodgings. It was the custom of a traveling schoolmaster to be set up in the homes of one of his students for a week at a time before moving on to the next one. There were about a dozen elementary-age children in Sleepy Hollow, from what I could glean from the information being thrown at me, and that suited me just fine.
Two days later, I met with Baltus Van Tassel. He was the richest man in the village, and quite possibly in the entire area of the Hudson. He seemed to be the honorary mayor of Sleepy Hollow, though neither he nor anyone in the town called him by so formal a title. He was older than I expected, though he admitted to me that he had made his fortune before deciding to settle down and have a family. His cheery, blue eyes glimmered as we talked over dinner at one of the taverns. I came to learn that the whole glen of Sleepy Hollow was quite self-sufficient. There were several freshwater springs that provided clean drinking water, and plenty of water from the Hudson as well. Several families raised sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs. There was a mill for grinding wheat, and homespun clothing was made from wool and cotton. There was a butcher for slaughtering the animals, whether livestock or hunted in the forest. Many kinds of crops grew in the area as well. Corn and wheat, as I had seen, but also pumpkins and watermelons, berries from the forest, apples in a small orchard, and all manner of vegetables. Each person in Sleepy Hollow had their tasks to perform, and it seemed that the entire town lived in a sort of peaceful harmony of sharing and camaraderie.
A few days after meeting Baltus, I met his daughter, Katrina Van Tassel. While I had never been much tempted by carnal desires, I had to admit that Katrina was stunning. With blond hair, bright blue eyes, a trim waist, and round hips, she was the sort of young woman any man would envy to have for a wife. I first saw her in the town at one of the shops, being followed by three or four young men who took turns fawning over her and assisting her with whatever she needed. When her eyes met mine, she stopped short, and I also did so myself, transfixed by that intense, blue gaze and the surprised smile that crossed her full lips. She crossed over to me while the gaggle of men behind her huddled and stared and whispered. I was still quite new to the town, so I was used to much whispering and furtive glances following me.
When she was in front of me, she smiled again, her cheeks dimpling in an endearing way. “You must be the new schoolmaster I have heard about,” she said, her voice clear and tinkling like a crystal bell.
“Yes, madam,” I said, giving her a small bow. “Ichabod Crane.”
She giggled and held out her hand, which I took and pressed a kiss to the back of, as propriety dictated. “Katrina Van Tassel.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Van Tassel.” Her skin was warm and smelled of honeysuckle and pine.
“And you, Master Crane,” she said, giving a slight flutter of her lashes, her hand still gripping mine. “I do hope you will stay in Sleepy Hollow with us for a while, that we may be better acquainted.”
“I intend to,” I said, giving her a slightly shy smile. Despite her being quite a bit shorter than I, she still felt like a dominating presence. “I hope to stay at least until the fall, perhaps longer if my services are required.”
“Oh, you must stay through the winter!” Katrina said with a breathy gasp. “I am certain your… services would be appreciated. It can be so dull in this quiet, little town.”
I smiled, feeling myself utterly besotted like a lovestruck schoolgirl. “If I am welcome.”
“Of course, you are welcome!” Katrina said and giggled softly again. “If you have need of anything at all, please do not hesitate to ask. We would be delighted to assist you.”
“I thank you, Miss Van Tassel,” I said, grinning like a fool. She lifted her hand that was still wrapped around mine, and I kissed the back of it with much more gusto. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”
“The pleasure was mine,” she said, giving me another dazzling smile before going back to her shopping, her gaggle of young men once more in tow.
I found myself almost always thinking of Katrina beyond that first encounter. I was under her spell, drawn like a bee to a flower. It seemed that whenever I was on the verge of being able to stop thinking about her, she would appear again, and the fantastic heavenly feeling would return. Only a few weeks after my arrival, she discovered that I was an accomplished piano player and singer, and she insisted that I come by the Van Tassel estate for weekly lessons.
The Van Tassel home was the largest in the area, surrounded by all manner of grain fields and dotted with smaller buildings full of animals. It was a lovely farm, made all the more beautiful by Katrina herself, the bucolic maiden, helping to tend the farm when she was not in the town. I worried that Baltus would perhaps see it as improper that I instruct his marriageable-age daughter, especially alone in the parlor as we often were, but he only chuckled and waved the concern aside with a knowing look and a stern finger-wagging at Katrina to behave herself, though none for me.
The other person whom I encountered frequently was a young man by the name of Abraham Von Brunt, otherwise affectionately known about the hollow as “Brom Bones.” He was a gargoyle of a man, with broad shoulders, a square jaw, and a slightly mashed nose, though one could consider him handsome in a rugged sort of way. He was an accomplished horseman and hunter, and it seemed one of his daily missions was to watch me. There was jealousy in his dark eyes whenever he saw me talking to Katrina in town, and while he took pains not to draw my attention, I knew he often did impressions of my gawkiness or my city manners behind my back to his Sleepy Hollow Boys, as was called the group of young men who followed either him or Katrina around like a flock of geese, preening and flapping. Katrina sometimes berated him for these imitations, but it was in a teasing manner, and even I could see that her flirtations with him were of a more genuine nature than her interactions with the others in town.
So passed my late spring and summer in Sleepy Hollow. I stayed with various families, who were always willing to take me in. When I was not teaching, I did my best to make myself useful around the farmsteads, helping with the animals and vegetation where I could, though my knowledge of such things was fairly limited. But I instructed the children, and sometimes the wives, in the ways of literature and music, and my own repertoire of folklore and animal husbandry expanded in turn through their knowledge.
The months went by, and as the cooler weather of the autumn began to set in, the townsfolk began to chatter about the harvest party. I gleaned from the various gossip that it was the biggest event of the year in the village, hosted at the Van Tassel family farm on Halloween night, and everyone in the village was expected to attend. There would be food and dancing and much celebration for the bounty that blessed their small town to see them through the cold winter. Every time the harvest party was brought up in my presence, glances were cast at me, so much so that I began to feel like I was the centerpiece of the whole evening. I was unsure if I would be welcome at such a feast, as the newcomer to the town, but Katrina extended an invite to me personally one afternoon in early September, assuring me that my presence was absolutely wanted, and frankly, she required it. She held my hand as we spoke, and I was powerless to resist her request.
Chapter Two
Idressedinmybest suit of black clothes the night of the Van Tassel harvest party, though that was not to say that my outfit was more ostentatious than any other, for a schoolmaster’s wages were not much more than the food that he ate and the bed that he slept in. But still, I felt I must look my best with the whole town assembled in such a prestigious location as the Van Tassels’. Despite my protests that I was fine to walk the distance from one end of the hollow to the other through the winding forest path, I was provided an old plough horse named Gunpowder upon which to make my journey.
I might have made better time on foot than I did on the back of Gunpowder, for he was a brittle old thing, with one lame eye and a matted coat. But Hans Van Ripper, with whom I was currently staying, was insistent that, as the newest member of the town and unaccustomed to Van Tassel parties, I would welcome the company on the return trip. I took this to mean that the Van Tassels served excellent beer and cider, and while I did not plan to imbibe enough to make a fool of myself, my knowledge of alcoholic spirits was not extensive. I therefore set off to the Van Tassel farm on my once-noble steed.
The sun was just beginning to set when I reached the woods, through which I had to cross to reach the Van Tassel farm. I was not the most accomplished of horse riders myself, having grown up in the city, so as I crossed over one of the streams with its makeshift log bridge, I paused to let Gunpowder drink his fill of the cool water, as much a break for myself as for him. I did not dismount from his back, for while I was quite tall, he was taller still, and I was unsure if I would be able to get back on him without assistance.
As we stood at the edge of the stream, Gunpowder determined to drink his own weight in water, I felt a prickle at the back of my neck, just below my hairline. It was the feeling of being watched by an unseen entity, as if I were being studied. I twisted back and forth in my saddle, looking for the source of the uneasiness. I realized with a start that I had never been in the woods after sunset, and I had no idea what sort of creatures lurked in the foliage. I had never seen anything larger than a fox or squirrel, but the thought suddenly occurred that there might be something bigger amongst the brush and gnarled trunks. I had yet to see something as large as a bear or a wolf or a puma up close, and I had no weapon with which to defend myself, for the little good it might do me.
