Ch. 28.3 — Mr. Dumfries glanced over at his grandson, and then back at Ezra. “I gotta speak to you in private.”
Ezra looked at Josiah the Thirteenth and motioned for him to leave. He obeyed, he but wasn’t happy about it. The door closed behind him.
Ezra turned back to his friend. “Now, tell me what you know.”
“I was doing my route up in the mountains. When I stopped at Col and Bee’s house to deliver the mail, their girl Janie decided to catch a ride with me. She said she wanted to go work for the dragon. I told her it was risky, but she ignored my advice. And when we got to the mailbox, Fritter came down for his mail, and she went back with him.”
He stopped to cough. “But first Janie talked to my donkey, and she said that he told her that he was really Bernard, Lord Terance’s lost son.” He scratched his head. “I told my grandson when I got home, but he wouldn’t believe me. He thought I’d been hit on the head or lost my mind. But you believe me, don’t you?”
“I sure do. This is great news. I’ve had people searching for my cousins for a long time, and this is the first break we’ve had. Thank you so much.”
The old man squeezed his hand. “There’s more.”
“Yes?”
“You know how everyone says the dragon is dead, and the girl he held captive is dead?”
“I heard that too.” Sadness swept through Ezra.
“Ain’t so. I talked to Fritter and Janie just last week. That dragon, Jay, keeps submitting his latest book to publishers – he uses one of them fake names — but no one is interested in a book about a girl who falls down a rabbit hole into Wonderland. I mean, nobody really believes there’s a land up in the sky, do they? Anyway, I’m just saying, they’re all fine up there in their caves. Settling in for the winter and happy as clams that no one knows they’re alive but their closest friends.”
His eyes were anxious once more. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but I didn’t want to die without someone knowing the truth.”
Ezra’s heart beat hard, and hope soared within him. “You did the right thing, Mr. Dumfries. Don’t tell anyone else though, all right?”
Carol Nicolas 