Everyone's favorite supernatural detective steps in to thwart unchivalrous deeds at a Renaissance fair in this perfectly irresistable gem of a novel  After living in the small English village of Finch for eight years, Lori Shepherd longs for some excitement to spice up her all-too-familiar routine. So when a Renaissance festival complete with wizards, wenches, knights, and jesters sets up in town for the summer, Lori gets her wish-and more. She soon discovers a sinister stalker, a jealous saboteur, and an evil assassin behind the scenes of King Wilfred's Faire, and it's up to Lori-with Aunt Dimity's otherworldly guidance-to prevent the medieval revelry from ending in modern-day tragedy. "Hardcore fans will no doubt enjoy." -- Publisher's Weekly "One of the most charming entries in an enduringly popular series." -- Booklist "Let Nancy Atherton and Aunt Dimity remind you of the reason you got hooked on books in the first place. I promise you will be scouring book stores for more of the series after you give it a taste." - CrimeCritics.com Nancy Atherton is the author of six Aunt Dimity novels: Aunt Dimity’s Death , Aunt Dimity and the Duke , Aunt Dimity’s Good Deed , Aunt Dimity Digs In , Aunt Dimity’s Christmas , and Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil (all available from Penguin). She lives next to a cornfield in central Illinois. Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication   One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen Twenty Twenty-one Twenty-two Twenty-three   Epilogue King Wilfred’s Honey Cakes ALSO BY NANCY ATHERTON Aunt Dimity’s Death Aunt Dimity and the Duke Aunt Dimity’s Good Deed Aunt Dimity Digs In Aunt Dimity’s Christmas Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil Aunt Dimity: Detective Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday Aunt Dimity: Snowbound Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea Aunt Dimity Goes West Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter VIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa   Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England   First published in 2009 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.     Copyright © Nancy T. Atherton, 2009 All rights reserved   Publisher’s Note This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.   LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA   Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity slays the dragon / Nancy Atherton. p. cm. eISBN : 978-1-101-02222-1 1. Dimity, Aunt (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women detectives—England—Cotswold Hills—Fiction. 3. Cotswold Hills (England—Fiction). I. Title. PS3551.T426A’.54—dc22 2008037297   Set in Perpetua   Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.   The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. For Claudia and Don Stafford, my next-door angels One T he invasion of Finch began on a mild Monday evening in late May. By the end of August, my peaceful English village would find itself at the mercy of rampaging brigands, bullies, braggarts, and blundering louts. There would also be an unexpected death. None of us saw it coming. On the evening in question, my neighbors and I were sitting quietly—some of us somnolently—in the old schoolhouse that had for many years served as our village hall. We were there