Chapter 1 #2
“The public house is a reputable establishment,” Mercury told her. “It isn’t one of those seedy taverns that a lady would need to avoid. It is, in every way, simply the local gathering place.”
“Lovely.” Sincerity rang through the word. “Do you suppose the villagers will be happy to meet me? Or at least not disappointed?”
“Not disappointed in the least.” He offered her his arm, quite as if he had been born to be a gentleman, rather than an orphan pretending to be refined.
Tacey slipped her arm through his and smiled up at him. “Do you mean to be my champion if they have anything unenthusiastic to say?”
He laughed low. “I would, but it won’t prove necessary.”
“It is good to have an ally, and a friend.”
“Do you know, Miss Wilde, I have been thinking precisely the same thing these past few weeks.”
“The past few weeks that I’ve lived here?”
He nodded, touched by how much his answer seemed to please her. He had never really had human friends. He didn’t know if his ghosts counted as friends. Until Tacey had arrived in his life, he’d not given it much thought.
She was changing a lot of things. For the better.
As they reached the door of the public house, Tacey stopped. Her gaze narrowed on the sign hanging there. “‘Ghosts welcome’?” She looked over at him. “Are ghosts not always welcome?”
“There are some places where they are not,” he said.
“That seems unfair. Especially as they have no choice but to stay within a certain distance of their person. They don’t have a choice in where they go.”
“Ghosts are not always given much consideration,” he said. “It’s frustrating. And, as you said, entirely unfair.”
“And forbidding ghosts from entering is pointless,” she added in a lowered voice. “How can they know if an Invisible is inside their establishment?”
Some ghosts could only be seen or heard by the person to whom they were attached.
Possessing an Invisible was considered a sign that someone was suspicious, untrustworthy, questionable.
It was Tacey’s Invisible attachment, something even her own mother was unaware of, that had led to her taking up residence at Larissa Lodge under an assumed name and an altered appearance.
Indeed, other than Granny Grey, not a soul knew of Tacey’s Invisible except Mercury.
“If everyone had your grasp of logic,” he said, “the world would be a much better place.”
She affected a very theatrically high-class accent and demeanor. “How very gallant of you to say so, Mr. Raine.”
He motioned her inside then stepped in after her. He’d not visited the Rooster and Ram in months. It might have even been an entire year. Nothing about it had changed. He was almost certain the same locals sat on the same chairs in the same places as had been there the last time.
“Welcome, Mr. Raine,” the proprietor, Mr. Jones, said. “We’ve not seen you in some time.”
“Aventine Manor has been very busy,” Mercury said. “I’m grateful for a temporary lull in brokerage clients, as it gives me the opportunity to introduce the village to Miss Wilde.” He motioned to Tacey. “She has recently taken up residence at Larissa Lodge.”
“Miss Wilde.” Mr. Jones hurried over and offered her a quick bow. “We’ve heard that you were living at Larissa Lodge. The missus and I hoped you’d stop in so we could meet you.”
“You’ve wanted to meet me?” She sounded so excited.
Mercury was grateful she was making friends, but he also worried a little that Larissa Lodge was too isolated for her. What if she grew too lonely to stay? What if she left . . . him?
He pushed the thought away, unwilling—or perhaps simply not ready—to examine it further.
Mrs. Jones emerged from the kitchen a moment later and eagerly greeted Tacey. “Do promise you will wander into the village now and then. If you don’t wish to walk each time, Mr. Raine’s ghost—the grumpy one, what was his name?”
Her husband shrugged. “He has a lot of ghosts.”
“You know, dear. The one that sometimes drives the carriage.”
“Testy Tolver,” Mercury said.
“Yes, Testy Tolver.” Mrs. Jones turned back to Tacey. “Testy Tolver will drive you here. He loves to drive but doesn’t get to very often.”
Tacey looked over at Mercury, a question in her eyes.
He nodded. “Testy Tolver does like driving the carriage.”
Mr. Jones’s gaze fell on Granny Grey, hovering near the door, eyeing the people present with her usual look of misgiving. “Do you have a new ghost, Mr. Raine?”
“This is Granny Grey,” Mercury said. “She is Miss Wilde’s ghost.”
“You have an attachment!” Mrs. Jones smiled. “How delightful.”
“She is a lovely ghost,” Tacey said. “But she can be a bit shy when around people she doesn’t know.”
Granny Grey had been terribly unsure upon first arriving at Aventine Manor weeks earlier. She’d become much more at ease since, so Mercury had nearly forgotten that tendency in her.
Baby Blue and Zizzy wandered inside. They hovered over to a table in the corner under a picture window. They would enjoy the afternoon together.
Mercury sat with Tacey at a table near the low-burning fire. Granny Grey kept very close by. And, based on the almost imperceptible darting of Tacey’s gaze, her Invisible was not far off either.
“I’ve a pot of potato and leek soup,” Mrs. Jones called over to them. “And we’ve fresh-baked crusty bread to pair with it.”
“That sounds marvelous,” Tacey said, earning an approving grin.
She would have all of Palatine Knoll on her side before long. Mercury hoped that would help her feel less lonely.
Within only a couple of minutes, the Joneses’ ghost, an energetic spirit with a full beard and mustache, “carried” two bowls of soup and two thick slices of bread to their table. He happened to be one of those ghosts who could manipulate physical items.
Mercury and Tacey were a few spoonfuls into their bowls of soup when the door to the public house opened again. A man and woman, likely somewhere in their forties and dressed like they hailed from the gentry, stepped inside.
Immediately behind them was a ghost that must have stood seven and a half feet tall and was built like a mountain, wearing an enormous jacket in a bold shade of purple.
Amazed silence settled over the room. The Joneses and the few villagers inside stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Mercury had never seen a ghost—or a person for that matter—built on such a scale.
The enormous ghost looked around a moment before his eyes settled on Mercury. His gaze focused. He stepped closer.
The towering phantom’s voice rumbled through the room: “Mercury Raine.”