Midnight Jamboree Part 2
"All right then. Who can tell me how many snowballs that would leave us?" Haru asked, stepping away from the board so that the children could see her chalk sketches of snowballs.
After a second, a little boy with blonde and black hair slowly raised a hand as if he expected a beating. "… Nine?" he nearly squeaked.
"Very good, Yugi!" she encouraged with a smile, using her own hand to gesture at the sketch. "Now if Anzu and Bakura were to both have nine as well and joined your side of the snowball fight, how many snowballs would that be?"
"Oh, now I understand!" Bakura announced happily. "… Twenty-seven?"
"Excellent, Bakura!" Haru beamed, trying hard not to clap her hands with delight. "See, children? Multiplying is actually simple once you understand how. Now let's say that Seto wasn't about to lose a battle, so he-"
The door to the little schoolhouse burst open, making everyone within jump both from the surprise and the sudden rush of cold winter air against the warmth provided by the little wood stove.
"H-Haru!" Tsuge gasped as he shut the door behind him. His desperate attempts at breathing made it clear that he had run quite a distance. "End the… school day. Summons. Town Hall."
"… Me?" Haru asked with surprise.
"As soon as… possible," Tsuge agreed while leaning against the sturdy wood wall.
'Do they know? Did they figure it out?' "All right, children," Haru announced in her no-nonsense voice. "Homework is having a snowball fight with the number of snowballs I already assigned to some of you. The others can only make less than ten snowballs and can choose what side they want; Seto or Yugi. Let me know who wins tomorrow. Class dismissed!"
"Mr. Shaggy never gave us fun homework!" Miho cheered as she hopped off her seat and began gathering her things.
"I want to know more," Seto insisted, but Haru felt helpless while tying on her thick winter cloak.
"I'm sorry, I had more planned than this. If you want extra credit, give me a play by play of how it went down, what you would have done differently after the fact, and ratio of-"
"Haru!" Tsuge pleaded.
"Children to snowballs per side," she quickly finished while fondly rubbing his brown hair and trying to give an encouraging smile.
Haru tried not to have favorites, but Seto Kaiba was easily her brightest pupil. He had gotten the hang of multiplication the first day she tried to teach it.
The students ran out of the little schoolhouse to immediately start picking sides and making snowballs.
"You'll put the fire out when you're recovered?" she asked Tsuge, who nodded while motioning for her to get going.
Haru did so, unable to keep from worrying as her legs carefully ran down the path already created by the children marching to school earlier that morning from their various homes. Haru wound up taking the path clearly left by Yugi since he was the one that lived closest to town hall.
Which made sense. Since his grandfather was one of the village leaders. Haru fought back a shudder at the thought of the old man as she kept running through the snow at the best pace she could manage. He was respected enough, but Haru had always been just a little afraid that he was going to make an offer for her, from the way he stared.
It didn't exactly help, but at least she wasn't the only girl in town he openly stared at. The only reason Haru could think of that he didn't look at Mai was because Jonouchi was his grandson as well.
'There's no way they could have figured out that I'm the Headless Horseman,' Haru assured herself as she began passing houses and the street became muddy from all the wagons, horses, and people going about their daily lives. She had to do a bit of weaving to avoid the other people and their bustle around the town square, but that was nothing new to her. 'It has to be about a new schoolteacher. Yes, there's nothing else about me that would interest the town elders enough to summon me.'
Her heart fell into her boots at the thought. She had taken Mr. Rogers' position as schoolmaster partially as penance for what she had done, and also to collect a little extra money for her departure in the spring.
Her sister-in-law loved to mock her for refusing to use her allowance for more than what she strictly needed, and frankly, Haru was forced to use her money on more than what she wanted to keep up appearances and keep down suspicions. But feeding herself, Kuro, and Yuki wasn't going to be an easy task, especially with the barrier of being a woman from better-paying jobs.
If it weren't for actually wanting to get married and have children, Haru would have already made the decision to masquerade as a man to increase her chances of taking care of herself and her pets. Pity. She was already going to have to change her name, as well as her horse and cat's, to keep from being discovered and sent back once people found out she had run away.
Haru couldn't help feeling a wrench of disappointment as the town hall came into view. She had liked being a schoolteacher, and she did love her students now that she knew how to make them mind her. Why did they have to find someone else so soon?!
She was breathing hard by the time her feet stepped up onto the deck and her hands shakily worked the doorknob. It was hard to miss among all the horses tied to the hitching post in front of the town hall, but there were five that she didn't recognize, and had obvious packs that had traveled a great distance.
There had been talk within as the door creaked open, but all turned silent as she immediately closed the door behind her and stood off to the side to stomp the snow off her boots to avoid tracking it into the main body of the hall.
"You… called?" Haru panted without looking up at anyone yet. Her shaking hands pulled down the hood of her red winter's cape.
Haru hated red. Why did her father keep insisting that it was a good color on her?!
"That took long enough," her uncle griped. "Come here, Haru."
"Excuse me?! What gives you the right to command my daughter?!" her father demanded, but Haru didn't want to hear them go at it again.
"Wait, that's Haru?!" a new voice exclaimed, making Haru look up to see the newcomer.
Her eyes widened with surprise as she took in the appearance of the small group sitting closest to the large fireplace. Brushing a few remnants of snow from her cape, she came closer to make sure that she was indeed seeing what she thought she was.
Three men, two women. Both of the women were tall with dark hair, and a bit about their nose and cheekbones seemed to say that they were sisters. The men sitting right next to them, however, were as different as they could be while still remaining members of the same species. The one next to the taller woman almost needed two chairs instead of one and seemed to be the one that had spoken out earlier. The other was lean with hair dark enough to match the woman's at his side, but he also seemed surprised to see her.
That left the golden-haired man that stood up from his chair at her approach, as true gentlemen were rumored to do. Even his green eyes were wide with shock as he looked at her.
"… The Bureau?!" Haru blurted as she took in every detail about them with delight, even the mud drying on their boots. "You are, aren't you? You look exactly the way you're described!" she exclaimed while drawing closer to them and the warm fireplace.
"Which is more than we can say for you," Tara, it had to be Tara, commented before giving a harsh glance at Haru's father and uncle. "Why on earth have all of you been talking about her as if she were a dumpy spinster with a warty nose?"
Haru laughed and answered while they were still being indignant. "Because I call people out when they don't want to hear how they don't follow what they say they believe until after someone gets hurt. Or when they ignore facts that are right in front of them," she added with a tight smirk at the group of older men as she warmed her hands by the large fireplace.
"See?! See what we have to put up with?!" Yugi's grandfather demanded while gesturing at Haru. "She's been easier to handle now that she's busy with the children, but one foot outside the schoolhouse, and she turns back into this!"
Haru somehow managed to hide her relief that he was most definitely content with staring at her when he thought no one would notice.
Toto, it was definitely Toto, who grinned and stood up from his seat to give Haru a respectful bow. "If this is the worst your village has to put up with, you should count yourselves lucky."
She grinned at the man before giving a respectful bow to the Bureau in general. "Not that I'm complaining about getting to meet all of you, but I'd appreciate an explanation on why I couldn't finish the school day first."
"We were okay with waiting," Muta grunted with an ironic smile. "Your elders were the ones that insisted on a meeting immediately."
"To show them why they don't really want your help," her father stressed with a glare. "You're so convinced that there is no Headless Horseman-"
Haru stopped listening to anything else that dripped off his mouth. Her own lips immediately twisted into the happiest smile she had given in… possibly years. She turned to look at the Baron, who somehow turned even more silent when her attention fixed on him. "Are you here to end the Headless nonsense?" she asked eagerly, not caring if she was interrupting her father or not.
She was aching for that to be their reason for coming to the village. It would fit in with her own plans all too perfectly!
Let the Bureau prove that the area isn't haunted, and then disappear like mist in the night.
The tawny lord nodded before raising one hand to cough into it, as if recollecting his senses. "By one way or another, yes."
It could have been Haru's imagination, but his skin seemed a little pinker by the firelight.
Since they were newcomers and this was their first meeting, Haru had a bit of trouble stifling her squeal of glee. "I am at your immediate disposal," she promised while giving a deeper bow than before, more specifically to him. "What would you like to know first?" she asked while drawing closer to the nobleman.
"Now just one minute-" Yugi's grandfather tried to object but was silenced with one stern look from the Baron.
"You've given me stories. Gossip. Speculation. Since facts are important to Miss Haru, she appears to be more equipped to give us the details we need in order to properly take care of your town's ghost problem. That is, if you truly want to see the last of your horseman," he added pointedly.
Haru immediately decided that she liked the Baron. It had been far too long since someone other than Machida or even Yuki heard her out. It didn't help that she needed to hide both confidants for different reasons.
It was absolutely crucial that no one guessed that Machida and herself were more than friendly acquaintances.
Muta gave a long stretch that was accompanied by the sound of various bones cracking back into their proper place. "I guess that leaves us with the question of if the inn has room for us until we get this handled."
"Nonsense," Haru's uncle scoffed. "My house has plenty of room, and I would be honored-"
"There's room in my home as well," Haru's father interrupted while glaring at his brother. "If you insist on my daughter's aide, that's up to you, but my brother and I live on opposite sides of Sleepy Hollow."
"I wonder why," Pelia mused dryly, making Haru subtly nod her head with a tired eyeroll.
Baron seemed to catch her movement, and she could see his lip twitch with suppressed mirth and complete understanding.
"It would be easier to commiserate with her if you were at the same residence," the man added with a victorious smirk at his brother, who could only fume about the convenience.
Haru bit her lower lip in concentration. "But before you make your final decision, it might be of interest to you that sightings are rare during the winter. 'Not to mention false.' "Your best bet to catch even a glimpse of the Horseman will be in the spring. But there are worse places than Sleepy Hollow to ride out a winter."
That seemed to make up Baron's mind on the matter. "If it would not trouble you, gentlemen," he addressed the elders. "Putting Muta and Toto within the same walls for an entire winter has proven disastrous in the past."
"Not to mention hard on the furniture," Tara added with a wicked giggle that her sister soon joined.
"If it will not cause trouble, perhaps Toto and Tara could stay with Kame Yoshioka while I, Muta, and Pelia stay with Kage Yoshioka," Baron decided with a note of finality.
This was getting better and better. Although it was aggravating on both Haru and Yuki for her to literally need to lock her cat in her room when it was their turn to shelter Mr. Jones for a week to accommodate his dog, Haru did enjoy the fact that her family would cut down the hurtful comments whenever there was an outsider in their home. With three of them staying the winter, and Haru by necessity either at the schoolhouse or with the Bureau, they'd have a difficult time heckling her at all!
It certainly didn't hurt that her uncle was enraged that he wasn't going to be playing host to a nobleman.
"I hope none of you have a problem with cats," Haru warned the three staying with her to be on the safe side.
Muta looked indifferent, but Pelia grinned like she was part cat herself.
The Baron's green eyes lit up expectantly. "Not in the least," he assured her before turning to address the town leaders. "I think it would only be fair to allow your homes time to prepare for us before we arrive. Thank you for your time, but I believe that Haru can take care of our questions from here."
If he had been anything less than a man of noble breeding, Haru was sure he would have gotten an earful for dismissing the highest-ranking men that the small town had to offer.
While they filed out of the town hall, her father gripped her slim shoulder a bit too fiercely. "Don't fill their heads with too much of your nonsense," he hissed at her.
"I'm sure they know how to recognize nonsense by now," she assured him with a cheeky grin, not bothering to lower her own voice.
The Bureau had already gotten the idea that there was little she and her father agreed on, if anything at all.
Her father glowered at her but forced himself to join the others as they grabbed their cloaks from off the line of pegs and filed out one by one.
Once the door finally slammed shut behind them, Haru let out a thankful sigh while untying her red cloak from her throat. "Thank you. I wasn't interested in having them scream over me why I'm wrong and should keep my mouth shut. Again."
"I'm surprised you're still in this town if you put up with that every day," Muta told her bluntly.
After draping her cape over one of the chairs close to the fire, Haru carefully looked at all the windows to be sure that no one was looking in. She then covered both sides of her mouth, speaking low and soft. "When spring comes, I'll appreciate it if none of you interfere with my plans to change that."
Not even Machida knew of her plans, but Haru was certain that they had already seen and heard enough about her to at least be sympathetic.
Tara nodded her approval with a grim smile as she and Pelia held each other's hand in a firm, comforting grip. "Good girl. We had a father like him."
"No wonder both of you eloped," Haru groaned in understanding as she took a seat. "But since we're not here to talk about me, why don't we go ahead and get started?" 'To talk about me. In a cape.'
Baron snapped out of his thoughts to reclaim the seat that had a cloak draped over it in a similar manner to Haru's seat, directly across from her. "We've heard the story of how the Horseman lost his head over fifty years ago, but I find it interesting that he's only been seen for the past few years. How many, exactly?"
"Five or six," Haru answered, knowing full well that it was five. "I didn't pay attention to the sightings at first because I was mourning my mother, and Father would rather cut his own legs off than let me be outside without an escort and a really good reason after dark. That's one of the reasons I don't believe that there's a ghost. He would have been seen for decades longer than this, and I'm suspicious of the fact that most of the sightings happen coincidentally after the local tavern shuts down for the night."
Muta scratched behind one ear with a confused expression. "I heard someone complaining in town that the tavern closes before sunset."
"That was enforced after Mr. Rogers disappeared," Haru informed with an apologetic smile. "I'm sure you've heard by now that a curfew is in effect at sunset anymore, though enforcing it in the winter seems redundant-"
"Mr. Rogers?" Tara interrupted with surprise. "Were there two people 'taken' by the Horseman?"
Haru closed her eyes and breathed slowly before answering. "Did you hear about Mai's antics with Jonouchi and the schoolmaster?"
The Bureau gave varying sounds or movements of acknowledgement.
Relieved that she didn't have to gloss over her cousin's retired form of entertainment, Haru pressed on. "Because everyone knew that Mai was going to eventually relent and agree to marry Jonouchi, there was more support than wanted for me to marry the schoolmaster. To tie up loose ends for lack of a better reason. We were not suited or attracted to each other in the least, so strictly referring to him as 'Mr. Rogers' was one of the ways I tried to tell townspeople as politely as possible that it wasn't going to happen. Pretty sure that was the same reason he only ever called me 'Miss Haru'." The young woman stood up in order to throw another log on the fireplace. "I think I'd have agreed to marry his dog before him," she added for emphasis. "Scooby and I got along great other than needing to keep him away from my little Yuki."
The Baron held his hand to his chin in thought. "That is a bit of a different story than what your father told us. May I then inquire as to why you were so eager to take on his role as schoolmaster?"
"I knew we wouldn't be able to get a new one until spring, and I knew that no one else in town would be willing to step up." Haru couldn't fight back a smile at remembering that fight with the elders. "I very freely offered to take it back if someone else would volunteer, but the idea of spending hours prepping lessons, trying to make the students behave, getting up early to get the fire started in the schoolhouse so that the children would be warm when they came in wasn't appealing on top of the other winter chores everyone needs to do. I still think the biggest reason I was allowed to do it is to keep me out of everyone's hair and I agreed not to talk about my opinions of the Horseman to the children. Though they know it's a safe zone from that kind of talk."
"I bet the extra money doesn't hurt, either," Muta commented with a smirk.
"It's not a lot, but more than I would be getting if I stayed on my father's farm all winter," Haru admitted a bit sheepishly. 'Not to mention it gets me away from my family's cutting remarks.' "What would you like to know next?"
The Baron folded his arms and crossed a leg while leaning back in his chair slightly, never taking his eyes off Haru. "Would you describe the night that Mr. Rogers disappeared? It was clear that your elders were neglecting to mention some things before we talked them into summoning you for being the only person in town that doubts the ghost's credibility."
Haru's heart immediately sunk into her shoes. "Starting from where?" she asked sickly.
"Where Jonouchi asked you to dance. That is where your uncle's party seemed to break from being an ordinary All Hallow's Eve party, and their answers about why you would leave the dance floor early were unsatisfactory."
"Do I have to?" she nearly begged as her cheeks turned red from the remembered incident. "That was pretty humiliating for me."
Tara got up from her seat to choose a spot on Haru's left to grip her hand. "If what I suspect is the truth, you're a better woman than me for not giving either of them a black eye that night."
"Oh, I was going to do worse than a black eye if Jonouchi had gotten that grip on my arm," Haru snarled like an animal.
Pelia joined her on the right of the village girl to also grip her hand with both of her own. "We aren't here to judge you, Haru. You seem to have plenty of people in your life for that. We just want to have a better picture of if Mr. Rogers was actually carried away that night."
It took a few deep breaths, but Haru managed to recount the night as accurately as she could. Although it did her little good, it did make her feel better to see their eyes flash angrily on her behalf more than once.
It came close to making Haru feel like it wasn't her against the world, after all.
"Surely you jest," the Baron protested when she got to the part of getting disinvited from her uncle's next party. "He should have thought of that detail himself if he was the host!"
"Exactly!" Haru exclaimed while pointing at him, briefly breaking from Tara's grip in order to do so. "But if there's anything the people in this town know how to do, it's how to twist things to make me look like the problem if I point out that there is a problem at all." She shrugged off the intended past insult since it was from her uncle, not the Baron. She then placed her hand back in Tara's grasp. "I asked him if I could get his decision in writing since I never lived down breaking my partner's leg at my first dance, so I'm usually bored stiff other than the music at such gatherings anyway. I'm not even upset that his next party is Mai's wedding. Thanks to our fathers, my cousin and I never really had the option to be close, and we've grown into too different people to enjoy being close anyway."
Muta shook his head in disgust as Toto crossed his arms with a judging glare at the doorway the town elders had retreated through.
"Jonouchi came up to me while I was waiting for Machida to finish saying goodbye to Hiromi," Haru continued, starting to feel numb from memories of that night. "He tried to apologize by explaining why he pulled me into his continuing drama with Mai, and I let him know that he's the biggest reason I'm not that likely to ever set foot on a dance floor again."
Baron stiffened at that, and his green eyes seemed to burn like the fire directly next to him.
"I told him that if he was actually sorry, he should go have a heart to heart with Mai so that it wouldn't happen again to me or anyone else, and he was going inside to do just that when Machida arrived to take me home in the wagon since I'm not allowed to be on horseback." She closed her eyes and gripped both Tara and Pelia's hands. "At first the ride was dull and predictable, but then we heard Mr. Rogers scream loud and clear, 'zoinks! It's the Headless Horseman! He's real! Help!'"
Such were the words that had haunted her nightmares ever since.
Haru did her best to shake off her bad mood and look each member of the Bureau briefly in the eye. "I'm going to go ahead and interject here that Mr. Rogers and his dog were-are- both cowards. I've literally seen him run from a rabbit bustling around a bush before appearing, and Jonouchi's story during supper didn't help his nerves at all. I'm not denying that there's a Horseman. What I'm saying is that to an overactive imagination, moonlight can play tricks on the eyes."
Haru knew that better than anyone.
Baron was leaning so forward on his seat, that he was barely on it. "What happened after that?" he asked intently.
"Machida was pretty torn," Haru admitted, glad that she and the stable hand had already worked out their story. "He wanted to see if he could help, but knew that Father would flog him if he left me alone or- horrors!- took me along to see if all the fuss was real. He felt bad about it, but he wound up taking the wagon off the road out of sight and making me hide in the back of it covered with my cape and some straw that was still back there just to be on the safe side." She briefly let go of Pelia's hand to rub at her cheeks with a scowl, remember how unpleasant it had been on her skin. "But the chase never came near us. Mr. Rogers could be clearly heard running and screaming through his favorite path in the woods, and I can confirm that he was being chased by someone on horseback. That's yet another reason I think it's just a neighbor from a nearby town that rides through to another town for who knows why around midnight. I still think that ghost hooves wouldn't make a sound, logically speaking."
"You'd be surprised at what makes a sound," Toto commented, but made a hand motion for her to continue.
"Something else I found suspicious about that night is that Jonouchi put special emphasis that the Horseman only wants the head, but there was no sudden… um, cut off, if you get my drift," Haru said uncomfortably. "I heard him loud and clear screaming into the night, but there was never a cry of 'he's got me!' or anything that indicated that he was overtaken, other than two seconds where he stopped screaming. No headless body was found, and I'm sure you know about the smashed pumpkin that was found next to his hat the next morning."
"No one could give an explanation for the pumpkin other than Shaggy's appetite with him tripping and falling on the pumpkin, but I doubt he could top Muta here for endurance where food is concerned," Toto smirked as his best friend gave him a death glare.
"If Muta's earned his reputation, I promise that Mr. Rogers could give him a run for his money, with or without his dog," Haru deadpanned without thinking twice.
That made Muta turn his glare at her while Toto and their wives snickered, but she wasn't worried. She'd heard stories about the larger man slipping up and letting people know he was just a big softie.
"So, that's why I think he freaked at a rider having a little fun with him on a night he wasn't emotionally equipped for it. Father screamed at me and Machida when we got home later than we should have, but he calmed down when he heard what we heard." Haru frowned and looked down at her blue skirt. "Well, picked out what he wanted to hear so he could scream about how he was right and I was wrong, that is."
The Baron seemed to finally realize how close he was to falling right out of his seat and managed to look dignified while adjusting himself to a more proper sitting position. "You are certainly more convincing than the elders. There are ways to ride that can make a rider seem headless from certain angles, and for being such a pest, Mr. Rogers appears to be the only one in five to six years that had an encounter that went beyond a scare."
Haru had to drive her point home, since they were still listening to her. "For all I know, it was just a scare, but like I said; he is a coward, and I've seen him outrun a horse before."
Toto cocked his head in disbelief.
"Sakuya had put an apple pie fresh from the oven on the windowsill, and Jonouchi had been racing his horse through the center of town at the same time," Haru quickly explained, smiling a bit at the memory. "Food and fear were always Mr. Rogers' biggest motivators."
Deciding that he had sat down for long enough, Muta got up from his chair in order to do some body stretches that made his bones crack loudly again. "I agree with half of that statement. Sounds like you dodged a bullet, because your old man was talking like you were two steps away from the altar with the coward."
'Knew it.' Haru gave him a very fixed smile. "If my personal happiness meant anything to him, I promise you our relationship would look completely different."
Although she wasn't expecting it, Tara and Pelia double teamed her with a hug that sandwiched her between them tightly. Haru closed her eyes and just soaked in the long overdue support. She even managed to wiggle her arms loose in order to return the affection.
"… I can only think of two more things to add," Haru was able to say after a few minutes. "One is that I've thought for years that the reason the Horseman is rarely seen during the winter is because more people tend to stay home at night, and also the tiny chance that it is someone in town. It's a lot easier to track a horse when there's fresh snow on the ground. This has been going on long enough that if I turn out to be right, the townspeople would absolutely do something horrible like tar and feather the Horseman and run him out of town if they don't stone or hang him. On top of that, I'm pretty sure that traveling at night is risky during the winter. Hibernation seems like a strange safety precaution for a ghost, don't you think?" Haru asked to get her mind off of imagining yet again what would happen to her if one person even guessed that she was the ghostly rider.
"You're not wrong," Toto admitted as he tilted back in his chair, balancing just right to keep from falling over for the sheer amusement of it. "That's partially what brought us to this district; trying to find a favorable place to 'hibernate'."
"I'm now grateful that the innkeeper in the last town was so needlessly rude before finding out who we were," the Baron noted with a certain satisfaction. "We might have passed completely through the area if not for his dismissal. What was the second thing, Miss Haru?"
"Fujio Pom fought with our ancestors for this area, literally gave his life so that we could live quiet peaceful lives. There are some in town that are literally descendants of his own family. If he were actually haunting us, why would he be after our heads instead of warning us against dangers?"
Baron held his hand to his chin in thought. "Perhaps he has been, but no one thought to investigate his intentions. I definitely believe this will be an excellent case for us to work on through the winter. To keep our wits sharp if this does turn out to be a hoax."
"Well, if Haru is all it takes to make people around here lose their minds, I'm betting it's a hoax," Muta predicted while taking a long look around the town hall. "Is there anything to eat?" he begged the peasant girl hopefully.
"I'll take all of you to my home," Haru promised, forcing herself to stand up from Tara and Pelia's tender embrace to tie her cloak back on. "Even if the afternoon meal isn't ready, there should be some bread and apple jelly to tide you over. This year's jelly turned out pretty good."
His beaming smile made him look like a little boy promised a cookie.
It really didn't take that long for them to get their horses untied from the hitching post, since they were still saddled and carrying their various belongings.
"Where's your horse?" Toto asked as he mounted and looked around, since the town leaders had all taken their mounts with them.
"I'm not allowed on a horse," Haru repeated without thinking about how odd that must have sounded. "Right this way to my father's farm. I doubt he's going to complain that hard about-"
"Miss Haru," the Baron interrupted, making her pause and look over her shoulder from where she had started walking down the street.
He looked a lot more concerned than she thought was really warranted.
"This is a small town only by population. We've had the land coverage explained by the elders. Surely you don't… not everywhere?"
Haru inhaled a deep breath. "Mai travels by a small personal carriage that someone else drives," she explained in as level a tone as she could force herself. "Father's never gotten over the disappointment that he wasn't able to switch us at birth, so he tries to compensate by not letting me do anything Mai wouldn't do. Plus he's never liked the idea of a woman handling herself on a horse. Machida's workload is big enough without driving me everywhere, and the exercise is good for me."
"Now that is just ridiculous!" Toto snapped. "What's he afraid of? That you're going to gallop as far from here as possible if you get your hands on something powerful enough to take you away?!"
'Yep.' Haru didn't dare say it, but she was thinking it.
"I. Would. Die," Muta agreed, also looking angry. "I mean, it's winter! How far away is the schoolhouse?!"
"It's not that big of a deal," Haru tried to assure them with a nervous smile. "Before taking on the school-teaching position, I was only allowed off the family farm for Market Day every week and if someone was holding a party."
"Where people either ignore you, use you, or tell you to be quiet if you say something they don't like," Pelia continued, speaking the part that Haru couldn't force herself to express.
"Let's see if you can keep up!" Haru announced with an even more nervous smile than before, turning again to run down the street.
Of course they could keep up. She wasn't as fast as Mr. Rogers, and the street wasn't crowded enough to delay them for more than a moment.
What made it even worse is that she didn't dare tell them that her father loathed having his errant daughter running from place to place to get anything done instead of walking like a lady. It was only mentioning that she'd have to add an hour or more to whatever task she was allowed to leave home for a dignified pace that he decided to merely grit his teeth about it, since Machida really did have enough on his plate without carting her around every time she came up with an excuse to leave home.
Baron was the first to catch up with her, a fast canter as opposed to a full gallop. "We're outside the main town," he mentioned in a worried tone. "I wouldn't mind sharing a saddle."
"The villagers know I'm not allowed," Haru panted, though keeping up her pace. "There's always someone in the woods during the daytime, and I've stepped on enough feelings that they would absolutely tattle on me. I'd rather not risk getting flogged."
His green eyes seemed to turn into daggers. "I think I need to have a talk with your father," he hissed like a cat. "Have you been running to the schoolhouse every morning?"
Haru looked away from him, trying to think of a way out of answering him as she jumped over a thick branch she knew the snow was concealing. "Jump your horse over right there!" she called behind her as she kept running, since she could hear at least one rider trailing her.
Thankfully, Tara did just that.
"I see. In that case, would you ride with me if I got his permission?" Baron asked like it mattered a great deal to him.
Haru managed a quick look of surprise before she returned her gaze to the winding road to make sure she didn't twist an ankle. "If you want to try convincing him, sure."
"Oh, I'll convince him," the Baron promised with an almost feral growl.
Haru couldn't resist a smile as she panted in the sharp cold of the winter air. It was… nice, to have someone worried about her.
Something told her that having the Bureau in town was going to make this the best winter of her life.