2
Having a plethora of ghosts, many of whom could move physical objects, made it easier to undertake the preparation of the tunnels for whatever might lie ahead. Were Mercury and Tacey attempting to do it entirely on their own, they would likely need weeks to manage it all.
The Cream Canary and Granny Grey, one of Tacey’s ghosts, took charge of the effort.
And they both insisted that Mercury and Tacey leave the tunnels that evening to rest and eat and preserve their strength.
Ghosts, they pointed out, didn’t need those things.
Mercury didn’t argue, but he did remind them that Baby Blue, for reasons none of them understood, did actually sleep and needed to be permitted to do so each night.
Their promise not to neglect the little boy ought to have allowed Mercury to relax upon reaching his bedchamber.
But he wasn’t at all at ease. He paced, staring unseeingly out the window between circuits of the room, and caught himself shaking his head in silent consternation.
After twenty minutes, he finally admitted to himself that remaining alone in his room wasn’t likely to result in any degree of rest.
Mercury knocked lightly at the door to Tacey’s room. She opened the door already wearing a welcoming smile.
“You were told I was the one knocking?” he guessed. She had an Invisible attachment who often relayed things to her.
But she shook her head. “All of the ghosts are in the tunnels. Who else would be at my door?”
“Not quite all.” He smiled a little teasingly, which was an admittedly rare thing for him. Smiling was unusual. Teasing even more so. “Smythe is seeing to his butler duties. Rum Nicky is preparing dinner. Baby Blue and Zizzy seemed unlikely to remain below ground much longer.”
“Neither of them was at all comfortable down there.” A look of compassionate pondering pulled at Tacey’s features. “I hope they are not ever required to hide there.”
“So do I.”
She nodded a bit absentmindedly and wandered into her room once more. “This is all so terribly unfair.”
Misgiving clutched at his chest as he stepped inside.
She’d been pulled into the dangerous ramifications of the lies that he lived.
She was suffering because of it. He could hardly blame her for blaming him.
He fully expected her to decide at some point that she would be better off far away from here. From him.
“Which part in particular?” he asked.
“It isn’t your fault that you were orphaned.
” She turned to face him and the fierceness in her expression caught him entirely off guard.
“And the orphanages are fully funded. It isn’t as though those running them empty their pockets to keep their charges fed and housed.
To give the orphanage head unending and unlimited power over those poor children for the entirety of their lives is inarguably unfair. ”
Again, he smiled. She had the uncanny ability to pull that particular expression from him.
“I agree entirely. But, until the laws change, refusing to bend to the unfairness of the situation will always mean being a criminal.”
“You would truly be imprisoned for it?” She looked every bit as horrified as she had when he’d first told her of his precarious situation.
“Or worse.” He could not be certain he wouldn’t actually be hanged.
He was considered to have defrauded Moor Cross Home for Orphans of a literal fortune by running away with his twenty ghosts in tow.
He actually had twenty-one, but even he hadn’t realized that until very recently.
“Hence, opening and preparing the tunnels for when the Vanns, and undoubtedly others, arrive here in pursuit of the bounty on my head.”
She shook her head. “We won’t let them take you.”
Again, he smiled. “Because you would miss me?”
“I would miss your ghosts.” Even in the dim light peeking in through the high window, he could see the teasing glint in her eyes.
Mercury silently laughed. Laughing out loud would be a little too out of character for him.
“While the ghosts are busy seeing to the efforts in the tunnels, we need to resume your brokering lessons,” Mercury said.
Her brows pulled close. “It seems far more important to focus on the threat you’re facing. The threat we’re all facing.”
He slipped his hands in his pockets, pacing a step away. His fingers wrapped around the iron key he carried with him, the key to his one-time room at the orphanage, a symbol of all he had fought so hard to claim for himself. That was under threat now.
So was Tacey.
“Brokering would provide you with an income, and an income would provide you with a place to live should I be captured and imprisoned.”
“You have all of us here fighting alongside you,” she said. “We will succeed.”
He shook his head. “I am far too practical to not plan for the possibility that we won’t.”
“You did not abandon me when I was in danger.” Tacey crossed to him. “Do you think that I would ever abandon you?”
Mercury resisted the urge to reach out and touch her face, something that required a surprising amount of effort. She tugged fiercely at his heart, and he didn’t have the first idea what to do about it other than offer her what protection he could.
“We need to have a plan, even if it never proves necessary.” He took her hand.
That felt far less vulnerable than brushing her cheek or putting his arms around her.
“Promise me you will spend time every day searching out your connection to your ghosts and growing familiar with it. The more easily you can find and feel those connections, the better able you’ll be to release them and form new ones when the time comes. ”
He walked with her, keeping hold of her hand. Ghosts couldn’t touch a person, not truly. The warmth of her touch was welcome for more than its novelty; it was comforting and reassuring, but also unexpectedly heart-flipping.
“Do you spend time each day doing that?” she asked.
“When I have a new ghost, I do for a day or two. After that, I can find it very easily.”
“A day or two?” She shook her head as she walked toward the chairs surrounding the fireplace in her room.
“I have had my ghosts all my life, and I struggle to locate the attachments.” She sounded very discouraged.
Tacey sat in one of the two chairs. He sat in the other. Fortunately, the two were beside each other. And more fortunate even than that, she didn’t let go of his hand.
“I have had many years of experience,” he said. “The longer you’ve done it, the easier it will be for you.”
“Are new attachments easier to locate, since you’ve only just created them?” Tacey had always asked very insightful questions. Her cleverness and curiosity had made her intriguing at the beginning. Now, those traits were only two of many that pulled him to her.
“I don’t know that they’re easier, necessarily.
” He hadn’t thought about it before. “With my Originaries, I don’t have to locate the attachments at all.
I am always aware of them, in the same way I am aware that I breathe and that my heart beats.
I don’t have to think about it; they are simply part of me. ”
“Baby Blue, Zizzy, and Smythe are like family to you.”
Another thing he hadn’t pondered before. “I’ve never had a family. I don’t really know what that feels like.”
She squeezed his hand, which brought his gaze back to her once more. The softness of her smile flipped his heart about in his chest. “They are the people—or ghosts—who are as important to you as the air in your lungs and the beating of your heart.”
That made her family. She had become that crucial to him. Did she realize that? Would it matter if she did?
Tacey’s attention was pulled to the doorway with a look of focused listening. Her Invisible, no doubt. She looked at Mercury once more. “Baby Blue and Zizzy are coming this way. They seem distressed.”
The two littlest of the Aventine ghosts slipped inside the room in the next moment. They did, in fact, look worried.
Mercury stood, moving toward them. Of necessity, he dropped Tacey’s hand.
“Someone is coming up the drive,” Zizzy said.
Mercury’s eyes darted to the window, though it didn’t overlook the drive. “The Vanns?” he guessed out loud.
“Smythe doesn’t recognize the carriage.”
Smythe had a good memory. He likely would have recognized the Vanns’ carriage. Then again, the Vanns might have changed vehicles.
New arrivals Mercury couldn’t yet identify. Was this the first wave of dangerous people descending on Aventine? The Vanns themselves? A new client with unfortunate timing?
“I don’t feel the Violet Giant’s voice,” Baby Blue added. “It could still be the Vanns, but he’s just not talking.”
Smythe arrived, hovering in the doorway. “What do you wish me to do about the new arrivals?”
“Answer the door without opening it,” Mercury said.
“If it is the Vanns making a shockingly bold arrival, you need simply return inside, leaving the door bolted. If it is anyone else and they have come wishing to make a trade, tell them Mercury Raine has taken a holiday and will resume brokering in a few weeks.”
Smythe nodded. He turned and glided very regally into the corridor once more.
“Is that the approach you mean to take moving forward?” Tacey asked, having risen and moved to stand next to him. “People who come to Aventine will be told that Mercury Raine is not at home?”
He nodded. It would be simple to implement and easy to change as needed. “Those who have legitimately come to trade a ghost will leave. That will help us sort out who has made the journey for nefarious reasons.”
“Or,” Tacey countered, “they’ll pretend to leave, then hide somewhere watching for you.”
“The ghosts can watch the grounds, watching for any stragglers,” Mercury said.
Her brow remained pulled. “And if those stragglers stumble upon you before the ghosts stumble upon them?”
“If the trespassers haven’t met me before, they won’t realize who I am.”