Eleanore Crane

Who is the father?

Early the next morning Ichabod awaked from his slumber and jumped a little at the sight of a person sat on the edge of the dead, she seemed to have been watching him and his daughter sleep.

"Oh. it's you"

Lady Van Tassel quietly chuckled as Ichabod pulled his sleeping daughter close to him, true to his words, the young girl had not left hid sight or his arms for that matter at all.

"You slept like the dead" She said with a smile and poured him a cup of water.

"You are to kind to me, I do not look to be served by the Lady of the house" He told her.

"Nor would you be, but the servant girl has vanished" She said, her tone getting a little harsher near the end of her sentence.

"Sarah?"

"Run away" She sighed "Like so many others, they are all leaving in fear" She stood from her spot on the bed and placed the apple that she had previously on a plate.

"Where is Katrina?"

"She watched over you till dawn, now it is her turn to sleep"

With one last, tight lipped smile she left the room, Ichabod moved a little causing Elenore to also awaken, though she still looked very drained. She lifted her head up from Ichabod's chest and smiled softly at him when he lifted his hand to run it soothingly through her hair.

"Well good morning, sweetheart, I trust you had a better sleep than you did last night"

"Your quite right Papa, I had a lovely dream last night, I almost didn't want to wake up from it, however, it did get a little strange at the end"

Ichabod sat up straight against the head board and pulled his daughter into his lap.

"Why was it strange darling?"

"Well it was brilliant at first" She started " I was in a beautiful field which was filled with flowers, I spent a while just enjoying the peace of the scenery until something caught my eye, it was mother, she looked exactly how I remembered her"

Ichabod choked up at the thought of his beloved Rose, oh how he missed her dearly, she was the first thing to cross his mind in the mornings and the last thought left in his mind before drifting off to sleep at night. But, he held all of that in and kept his face blank, not wanting to upset his daughter.

"I ran up to her and she lifted me into her arms and spun me around like she used to when we would play in the garden, it felt like we just sat there for hours, just talking, she told me that she was very proud of me for what I did recently and not to feel sad about what happened, she also told me about how much she misses me and how much she misses you"

"Me?"

"Yes Papa, she asked me a lot of questions about you and she said that she is always watching over us and will always be with us"

The man couldn't stop the lone tear that slipped from his eye but it was quickly wiped away by a little hand, he smiled fondly down at Elenore, gosh how she looked like the carbon copy of her mother.

"Don't cry, Papa, I don't like it when your sad"

He took her small hand in his own and kissed her knuckles. "I am not sad baby, I'm just fine, however that sounded like a splendid dream, what was strange about it?"

"Oh yes" Elenore said, her smile slipped away from her lips to be replaced with furrowed eyebrows "Just before I woke she told me that she had a secret to tell me that she had never told anyone else......"

Ichabod was confused, he and Rose had told each other everything, there couldn't possibly have kept anything from him, could she?

"Did she say what it was?"

"Unfortunately not Papa, all she was able to say was that it had something to do with the horseman but, your moving woke me up before she could tell me anymore"

Ichabod sighed and was about to ask Elenore more about her dream but the door to his room opened and in walked young Mazbeth, carrying a white jug that he place down on the table.

"Well, I'm fit for another day I think" The constable said while groaning a little form the pain in his shoulder "fit enough to face a mortal adversary"

Soon the floor was covered in papers, some scrunched up into little balls and some with wax seals adorning them, they all had writing on and most of the writing appeared to be names  Elenore sat in the corner of the room in and old arm chair with young Mazbeth leaning against it, she had her head resting in her hand, bored out of her mind as she watched her father crawl around on his hands and knees looking through all the sheets of parchment.

"Dr Lancaster" He said picking one and placing it on one of Elenore's trunks "Reverend Steinwyck"

He crawled over to the chair and flicked Elenore's foot as she had it on another piece of parchment that she was looking for "Notinanry Hardinbroke and Magistrate Phillips, who tried t cut and run and lost his head"

He stood up and began to pace across the room, the two children turned to each other, rolling their eyes and giggling a little before putting their attention back on Ichabod.

"Four frightened men arguing together on the very night that Magistrate Phillips was killed, there is conspiracy here" He walked over to his desk and wrote something down in his notebook "The doctor, the reverend, the notinry and the magistrate, what is the secret that unites them?"

He walked back over to his notebook and wrote The secret  5 to 4 just above where he had written conspiracy there were five bodies to four graves, he knew the widow was pregnant, he would not tell me the name of the father, what does this point to, we must proceed by process of elimination, I shall make a list of every man and women in sleep hollow, starting with its chief citizen Baltas Van Tassel, I feel we are getting very close" He finished with a satisfied smile.

As he wrote the name down Elenore turned to Mazbeth who leaned in to hear what she was whispering to him.

"Why every man and women, how can the father be a women?"

The two children giggled again but Ichabod was too far off in his own little detective world to hear them, he clapped his hands together which quickly paused their laughter.

"Right then children, we must be off"

Mazbeth and Elenore walked over to the door and Ichabod came over to them, placing a cloak over his daughters shoulders and taking her hand tightly in his before the three off them set off to question every single person who resided in Sleepy Hallow.