Chapter 7
“Your presence is requested in the kitchen,” Smythe told Mercury, having waylaid him in the corridor late that afternoon.
“Is Rum Nicky upset about something?”
“When is Rum Nicky ever upset about anything?”
That was true enough. The ghost who ruled over the kitchen claimed “rampant enthusiasm” as his Integral trait. Even when he disliked a situation or disapproved of something, he did so with excitement that could, at times, be very confusing.
Mercury arrived in the kitchen to find Rum Nicky hard at work preparing dinner.
Knives and utensils and ingredients moved about, seemingly on their own.
The ghost in the middle of it all looked as though he’d been plucked directly from a medieval encampment, minus the inevitable impact of disease and frequent food scarcity.
Rum Nicky spotted Mercury and grinned broadly. “I am very upset!”
“About what?”
“I made steak and ale pie. And it is delicious.”
“What about that has upset you?”
Rum Nicky’s expression of excitement didn’t abate. It never did. “It is Miss Wilde’s favorite, but she is not joining us for dinner.”
It was the first Mercury had heard that Tacey wouldn’t be at Aventine Manor for the evening meal. “She isn’t?”
“No.” Rum Nicky pumped his arms upward in a gesture of exuberance. The equipment and food around him moved more exaggeratedly. “And it is deeply upsetting!”
“That is upsetting.” And disappointing. And unexpected. “Do you know if she has taken ill or something?”
“Smythe said that Baby Blue said that Zizzy said that Miss Wilde left early this afternoon looking like she couldn’t get back to Larissa Lodge fast enough. She practically ran home, according to the rumors.”
Ran home? She was upset, then. Mercury didn’t like that explanation at all.
“I’ll go talk to her, see if I can sort out what’s happened. If your steak and ale pie can’t entice her to return, I suspect nothing will.”
With wide eyes and a posture of excitement, Rum Nicky declared, “I make excellent pies!”
“Yes, you do.”
“I hope we aren’t going to be leaving Aventine again soon. I don’t care to be away from my kitchen.”
Mercury smiled at him. “I have no plans to leave.”
Rum Nicky’s expression of relief was—what else?—enthusiastic.
Baby Blue said that Zizzy said . . . Before going to Larissa Lodge, Mercury might do best to find Zizzy and see what she knew. He wanted to know what had upset Tacey so he could fix it. She deserved to be happy. He wanted her to be.
Mercury checked the places where Zizzy could most often be found, but she wasn’t in the library, Mercury’s sitting room, or the music room. The grounds seemed his best next spot.
But as he made his way toward the back of the house, he crossed paths with Granny Grey and the Cream Canary, who was the first of the “knowing” ghosts that Granny Grey had warned him he would encounter.
The Cream Canary had revealed that she knew Mercury had been an orphan, hadn’t arrived at Moor Cross Home for Orphans until he was three years old—something even he hadn’t known—and that his name had been changed.
Helpful information for him, but dangerous for anyone else to know.
“We’ve been discussing the Violet Giant,” Granny said.
Mercury waved them into a seldom-used sitting room. He stepped through the open doorway; they passed through the walls. He pulled the door closed.
“What conclusion have you come to?” Mercury asked Granny. “Is he one of the ones I’m watching for?”
“Actually,” Granny said, “neither of us feels that he is.”
That ought to have come as a relief. It didn’t. If the Violet Giant wasn’t one of the knowing ghosts, then what was he?
“But,” the Cream Canary added, “there is something amiss. All the ghosts feel it.”
Mercury felt it too. “What do you suspect?” he asked.
“Something isn’t what it seems.” Granny shrugged. “No one can sort out what.”
“If the Violet Giant were to stay here and become an Aventine ghost,” Mercury pressed, “how would that be received by the others?”
Hesitancy and reluctance touched both their faces. It was not the answer he would have preferred.
Mercury rubbed at his forehead. He was not at all accustomed to how uncertain he’d felt of late. “He might not be one of the knowing ones, but he still knows things about me. I have to be cautious.”
“Yes, you do,” Granny said.
“The knowing ghosts, like Granny and me, lose the urge to whisper your secrets once we’re attached to you,” the Cream Canary said. “Making him part of your household might not manage the same thing.”
Mercury couldn’t argue with that. Blazes, this was getting complicated.
He was never one to dither over decisions.
And, though he felt arrogant simply having the thought, he also wasn’t one to make poor decisions.
But he feared he may have in this case. The Violet Giant was causing difficulties. The Vanns were causing frustration.
“Have either of you seen Zizzy? I wanted to ask her about—” He clearly wasn’t thinking straight; Granny knew Tacey better than anyone. “Rumor has it Tacey isn’t joining us for dinner tonight.”
“She’s at Larissa Lodge,” Granny said. “I haven’t been able to leave this wing of the house for about an hour now.”
“It’s within five hundred feet of the Lodge.”
She nodded.
“Do you know why she went home? Or why she isn’t coming back this evening as she usually does?”
“I don’t know.” Granny’s ghostly features pulled in concern. “She doesn’t talk with me as much as she used to.”
“Are you two arguing?”
Granny shook her head. “Her life has been turned inside out the past few weeks. She’s overwhelmed.”
He hadn’t given that as much thought as he ought to have.
They’d been so focused on her training and he’d been so worried about finding the knowing ghosts that he’d ignored the impact of everything on her.
He’d even decided to wander this house sniffing out clues about her returning to the Lodge rather than simply going there himself and talking to her.
What in the blazes is wrong with me lately?
“I haven’t been a very good neighbor.” He made the admission to himself more than to Granny. “I certainly haven’t been a very good friend.”
“Go look in on her,” Granny said. “It’ll do you both good.”
Mercury clasped his hands behind his back as he walked down the corridor.
He didn’t often get frustrated with himself, but when he did it was warranted.
He couldn’t get a decision made, couldn’t find a place of peace in his current chaotic world, and he was being thoughtless toward a neighbor and a friend.
A friend. That didn’t feel right. That didn’t feel . . . enough.
“Yes, but how many are there?” That question rumbled through the walls in a familiar deep voice.
Mercury didn’t hear a response, but no one else’s voice carried the way the Violet Giant’s did.
“Does anyone know?” the Violet Giant rumbled.
Mercury could have attempted to track the ghost down, maybe ask some questions, see if he could discover what the enormous specter knew about him. But he had been unforgivably neglectful of Tacey. Thoughtless and selfish toward her.
He would not compound his many mistakes the past days by ill-treating her further.
So he walked away from the rumbling voice and through the door leading onto the back terrace. Mercury didn’t at all dislike his home, but closing the door behind him felt like offering himself a respite.
He stepped out onto the back lawn, breathing in the cool air and appreciating the soft breeze.
The fastest route to Larissa Lodge took him through the tranquil grounds.
He was deeply grateful for them in that moment.
He needed to remember to thank Holly Hock for the gift that the gardens and lawns and winding gravel paths truly were.
Not halfway to Larissa Lodge, he stumbled upon Mr. and Mrs. Vann in the midst of a conversation. They, however, did not see him on the other side of the hedgerow.
“He is what we have been looking for,” Mrs. Vann said. “We cannot simply throw away this chance meeting.”
“But we also cannot delay our journey any longer,” Mr. Vann countered. “And we haven’t had enough time here.”
Were they considering a trade? It was what he’d been hoping for, but it had started to feel impossible.
The Violet Giant knows something beyond my name. I know he does. That argued in favor of seizing any opportunity to secure him as one of his ghosts.
But he makes the other ghosts uncomfortable. Which was an argument in favor of letting him go.
Granny doesn’t think he is a knowing ghost. Which meant keeping him at Aventine might not offer any actual protection.
When had his life turned to such chaos?
The path to Tacey’s home required him to pass to the other side of the hedgerow, which would require him to come face-to-face with the Vanns. It could hardly be avoided if he wished to reach Larissa Lodge. Which he most certainly did.
He pasted on a friendly smile and resumed his journey. The Vanns spotted him quickly.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Raine.” Mrs. Vann flicked her fan at a swift pace, smiling broadly. “What a delight it was to watch the lawn bowls earlier.”
Mercury nodded. “I do enjoy the ghostly games.”
“I wish we could stay longer to watch more of them.” Mrs. Vann’s eyes darted to her husband.
“We have to get to London,” he explained. “Do you go to Town, Mr. Raine?”
“I haven’t in years,” he said.
“Oh, we do wish you would.” Mrs. Vann took a step closer, fanning even faster. “We could spend more time with your ghosts, come to know them better, and they us.”
“A household as complicated as this one is not uprooted for a journey easily,” he said. “Thus, I don’t travel often.”
“Oh, but London is worth the effort.” Mrs. Vann emphasized that with a wave of her fan. “Only think of the stir you would make in Society having so many ghosts with you at all times. And you are such a personable and interesting gentleman.”
He dipped his head. “I am flattered, Mrs. Vann. But, I assure you, I am not particularly at home at Society gatherings.”
“Travel to London seems like it would be a good business strategy.” Mr. Vann seemed baffled that Mercury wasn’t seizing it. “The sheer number of potential clients would certainly render the journey worth making, however complicated it might be.”
He couldn’t argue with that logic. “London is filled with potential, yes.”
“Then you must come to Town.” Mrs. Vann swatted playfully at him with her fan. “You can depart with us in the morning. We’ll introduce you to any one of our acquaintances whom you’d like to know.”
“Very generous of you.”
“Do not turn down that generosity,” she said with a very sweet smile. Very sweet.
“I will consider it.” Mercury wasn’t necessarily proud of how well he could lie when the situation warranted it, but he understood the necessity.
“Do.” Mr. Vann’s gaze was somehow a little too focused.
Mercury offered a dip of his head, then continued on his journey.
There is something amiss. All the ghosts feel it.
The Cream Canary’s declaration filled his thoughts as he walked on.
They’d sensed it in connection with the Violet Giant.
But Mercury was realizing he had wondered at some .
. . oddities in the Vanns. He couldn’t decide if he was merely sensing awkwardness in Mr. Vann and perhaps too intense a desire to please in Mrs. Vann, or if something was truly not right about the couple.
He had managed multiple clients at one time before. But this was the first time since making his home at Aventine Manor that he had, potentially, faced multiple threats at once.
Mercury was headed for Larissa Lodge in order to check on Tacey, but the closer he came to her door the more his heart told him that she offered him far more respite than he could hope to offer her.