“Does it matter if the 10thLord Fairfax is displeased? The 10thLord Fairfax is dead, buried in a crypt.”
Elspeth evidently thought that was amusing, because he glimpsed a wisp of a smile before her face assumed a more sober expression. Veronica, however, was still staring at the candle and not looking in his direction at all.
“Do you contact the dead often?” he asked Edmund.
“Alice says she has heard footsteps in the secret passage, Your Lordship,” Edmund said, inclining his head toward the girl Montgomery didn’t recognize.
“The 10thLord Fairfax liked us using the secret passages, Your Lordship,” Mrs. Brody said. She gestured with her chin toward the open passage door. “That particular one leads to your chamber, sir.”
Not after he nailed it shut. Why the hell hadn’t anyone told him about the secret passages? It made him wonder if his grandfather had replicated those as well. If he had, surely he’d have let his grandchildren know. What greater exploration could there have been for three curious boys?
Or perhaps Magnus hadn’t known all of Doncaster Hall’s secrets.
“Maybe the 10thLord is hard of hearing,” he said dryly.
Mrs. Brody turned to Edmund. “He was quite aged when he died, Your Ladyship. Perhaps we need to speak louder.”
He’d been jesting, but each person at the table took his comment seriously.
Perhaps you should tell them you talk to ghosts yourself, Montgomery.
He smiled at James’s voice. “There’s one difference between us,” he said mentally. “Iknowyou’re not there.”
Maybe one day you’ll think we’re real,Alisdair said.Once, you did.
He was delirious and ill,Caroline said.
Caroline was always coming to his defense, even in her imaginary state.
He pushed away his ghosts to concentrate on what Veronica was saying.
“We are here if you wish to speak to us. Or let us know if you’re unhappy.”
Montgomery couldn’t believe she was serious.
His solicitor nodded as if he approved of Veronica’s comments. “Ask him if he’s trapped between the living and the dead, Your Ladyship.”
“Stephen,” she said, addressing the 10thLord Fairfax by his given name, “show us a sign you can hear us.”
Montgomery looked around the room, knowing the others expected one of the weapons to fall off the wall or the candle to sputter out. Nothing happened. Not even a gust of wind from the secret passage.
Perhaps he should speak in an elderly whisper, just to give them some excitement.
“I don’t think he’s upset,” Veronica said to Edmund after moments of silence. “Could someone else be haunting us?”
“There’s a girl who came to a tragic end a hundred years or so ago,” Mrs. Brody said. “We call her the Green Lady because she’s always wearing a green dress.”
“Perhaps she’s changed her dress since then. That is, if ghosts feel the need to change in the hereafter,” he said.
Veronica glanced over at him. He regarded her steadily. Her chin tilted up, and she narrowed her eyes.
She was taking this much too seriously.
“Someone has disturbed the atmosphere, Your Lordship,” Edmund said, glancing at him again.
“No doubt,” he said, deciding he’d leave them to their insanity. He wasn’t going to contribute to it.
Even if he did talk to ghosts.
