“Um… wait,” she called out.
Russ paused in the doorway, one eyebrow lifting.“Yeah?”
“Would you like some help?”
His smile looked a little more tired this time.“I wouldn’t want to impose on you ladies.”
“It wouldn’t be any problem.We’re almost done here anyway,” Lilian explained.“But we could use a little help ourselves.”
Russ cocked his head.“What do you need?”
Lilian held up the shop sign with a sheepish smile.“You look like you’re tall enough to help nail a sign above a door.”
Russ’s voice boomed over the small area, a joyousho-ho-hothat would have made Santa envious.“You got yourselves a deal, ladies.”
In a matter of minutes, the sign was above the door frame, officially marking it as their home for the next ten weeks.Lilian and Margo stared at it in awe.
Margo took a deep inhale, sucking in the smell of dirt, pollen, and dust with a deeply satisfied breath.“Lilian.You don’t feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“This place has magic,” Margo whispered dramatically, waving a hand toward Bodice and Brawn.
“Stop.”But Lilian couldn’t take her eyes off the building.It was as if the place had cast a spell on her.
“No, seriously,” Margo insisted.“There is something about this place.Maybe it’s all the lusty vibes from the romance section.Or the old book smell from those fantasy novels—”
“Or maybe it’s because we’re literally at a Renaissance Faire?”
“Laugh it up, sister.”Margo grabbed her shoulders with an excited shake.“But I’m telling you I feel good about this.This place is special.”
Hope welled inside her like a cool tempting pool on a hot August day.This place, this shop—she didn’t know why, but it felt right.Like this was what she should have been doing all along.But recently her life had been full of disappointment after disappointment.
As much as the shop fueled her with a sense of utter rightness, there was also an invisible weight hanging over her.
You can’t mess this up.This has to work.It has to!
The end of the day came too fast.As the sun started to dip down over the treetops, the heat eased to an almost bearable temperature.
Lilian and Margo helped clean out Russ’s cottage while he unloaded boxes from his trailer.The man worked efficiently.Even with his late arrival, he managed to unpack and set up his shop with an ease that came from years of experience.
The work wasn’t completely done before the end of the day, but Russ released them.After a long day of setup and show rehearsals, all the actors and vendors gathered for a catered meal and a drink.
One of the great landmarks of the Heartland Renaissance Faire was Rothbury Castle, which sat in the main square.It was the first thing people saw when they walked through the gates.Its towers were even visible from the far edges of the parking field.The grand scale of the structure instantly made people feel like they had been transported to another world.
It wasn’t entirely for show either.Inside was a massive party space that could hold two hundred people.It was customary for all the faire workers to celebrate the start of the season inside its walls.A mix of classic medieval music drifted through the speakers while everyone drank beer and ate BBQ.The best part was the icy blast of the air conditioner.
Rows of wooden picnic tables were lined against the castle’s interior perimeter, leaving a spacious square opening in the middle where people could mingle and dance.An elevated pavilion sat at the far end of the room, hosting the table for the king, queen, and their noble houses.
Before anyone could enjoy the meal, both the king and queen had to make their annual welcome speech.Janelle and Marcus Carlisle were the founders of the Heartland Renaissance Faire.They’d been a part of it since… well, since Lilian was a little girl.They helped it grow from a few tents in the middle of a field into a full experience with a crew of over a hundred workers.People came from all over to enjoy the faire, earning it the title of one of the best Renaissance experiences in America for the last three years.
From what Lilian could tell, the faire was their life.When the fall season was over, the Carlisles, along with a few other lifetime members, didn’t stop.They planned and recruited for the next spring season, which kicked off in March.They sewed their own extravagant clothing, held acting and history workshops for the cast, and maintained the grounds year-round.
No one could deny that they had earned their place as king and queen.Janelle, a small portly woman with vibrant red hair, always had a smile on her face when she interacted with the actors.
Her husband, Marcus, was her opposite in almost every way.Tall, dark-haired, and almost always wearing a frown, the man wore his title as king both in the faire and outside of it.
Even tonight, he was dressed in full king regalia, a beautifully embroidered doublet of deep crimson fitted perfectly to his frame.
