I peer inside and see the peculiar stable boy standing by a bag of oats, looking as if he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
“What is your name?”I ask him as Brom and Kat come behind me, hovering in the doorway.
The boy seems most scared of Brom, his eyes widening at the sight of him, and I have to look over my shoulder to make sure Brom still has a head.He does, as handsome and surly as ever.
“Don’t worry, you’re not in any trouble,” I try to assure the boy, bending at the waist so I’m not so tall.“I’m just curious to know your name.We’ve never officially met.I’m Professor Ichabod Crane.That lovely lady over there is Katrina Van Tassel, and that disagreeable-looking fellow is Brom Bones.”
“S-Simon,” the boy says.
“And, Simon, you’ve been taking such great care of our horses,” I tell him, hoping to put him at ease.“How long have you been the master of the stables?”
“A couple of years,” he says, his eyes flicking to each of us.
“Do you live here?”
He nods, his blond hair flopping back and forth.
“Where do you live?Do you live with your family?The sisters?”I ask.
“I live with my mother,” he says.“She lives in the basement.”
“You live in the basement?”Kat asks incredulously.“Here at the school?”
Simon is breathing hard, his eyes looking wild.“No.Yes.My mother, she lives in the basement, I live in the dorms.I have my own room.”
“Who is your mother?”I ask Simon.“What is her name?Is she a teacher here?”
He stares at me with large, rounded eyes.He’s terrified.
“I have to go now,” he says.He moves around me, quick as a wink, and then he’s running past Kat and Brom who make no effort to stop him, and it’s probably for the best.
“What a peculiar child,” I comment, glancing at the both of them.“What do you make of him?”
“I wasn’t even aware the school had a basement,” Kat says.
“Any of the buildings could,” Brom says.“Crane, you said when you met with Sister Leona in her office, that was underground, underneath the cathedral.”
“That’s right,” I say slowly.“But from what I saw, it was just two rooms down there.Leona’s and Ana’s offices.Nothing else.”
“Then that means the same things could exist under the rest of the buildings,” Kat points out.“Perhaps there are tunnels connecting them.Maybe a lot of the staff live there.We have the school nurse, the cooks.Crane, you said you only have two other men in your wing.Professor Daniels and the custodian.But some of the cooks are men.Where do they live?”
I can’t believe I never questioned that before.“I suppose I thought they lived in Sleepy Hollow.Quite obviously they don’t,” I grumble.
“Then that settles it for now,” Kat says.“His mother might be a teacher, might be a nurse.I’m not sure it’s worth thinking about.”
But she gives me a look that tells me she knows I’m going to be thinking about it anyway.
“We better get going,” I concede with a nod.“The dark is starting to fall faster these days.Like a blade.”I demonstrate by running my finger across my throat, staring at Brom as I do so.
The three of us head across the misty school grounds, Kat going her own way, Brom and I going the other.I want to be selfish and ask her to spend the night with us, but with Brom the way he is, I don’t want to put her at risk.She also deserves a good night of sleep, something I won’t be getting.Not tonight, not ever, not until Brom is free.
—
“Crane?”Brom whispersto me.
I wake up slowly, blinking at the near dark, at the faint candle in the corner nearly melted in a puddle of wax.I realize I must have fallen asleep, after all that talk about never sleeping again.I feel Brom squished beside me on my bed, his chest at my back, the cold feeling of the chains on my skin.I’d been sleep-deprived for too many days trying to keep my eye on Brom, and I guess it finally caught up to me.
“I fell asleep,” I manage to say, my head too groggy for my liking.
