Page 8 of Tall, Dark and Haunted

“Maggie!” he calls out suddenly, his spice-coated face etched with relief when a woman with white hair stumbles towards him.

“Oh, Arthur! What is going on?” The woman looks disoriented, and I think she might collapse from the shock. Her husband quickly takes her by the arm and guides her towards a seat that has toppled over in the madness.

“Damned if I know, love. Must have been an earthquake.” He quickly rights the chair and helps her into it. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

As he fawns over her, a woman across the hall starts shouting for her lost chihuahua. “I’m telling you, he was in my handbag and now he’s gone!”

“Where the devil are we?” another elderly woman begins screeching from her place by the window. “Was this street here before? I don’t think it was here before. Oh my, we’re not on the Margam estate any longer.”

“Don’t be silly, dear!” a little old lady with long, pink hair tells her. “This must all be part of the tour. They do say the castle is haunted, you know. And they really can do wonders with all those special effects.”

Sitting upright, I keep Rhiannon against my side. I’m not about to let her go, not when her touch is the first thing I’ve felt in over a century. My top hat is skewed, and when I reach for it, my hand doesn’t go straight through it. It takes a few tries, but I manage to pull it off and drop it on the floor next to me. Red’s hat, which he’s been forced to hold the entire time we’ve been ghosts, is nowhere in sight, but Davy follows my lead and takes his off too.

The bloody relief I feel at no longer having the godawful thing on my head, at long last, is reflected on Davy’s face.

“What do you think this stuff is?” Rhiannon asks, her voice husky from inhaling the spice.

“It tastes like pumpkin,” Davy tells her.

“You haven’t been eating it, surely?” I shake my head in disgust.

“Not intentionally. I accidentally swallowed some and was pleasantly surprised to learn it was actually quite tasty.”

“I can’t say it’s my idea of a first meal after being resurrected from the dead,” I tease as I hear voices coming from outside the castle. Angry voices.

“Our pumpkin spice,” a man wails outside. “That was the entire Jewels Cafe shipment. Damn Margam Castle! What’s it doing in Silver Springs?”

Something in my chest tingles. Maybe I accidentally swallowed some of the spice, too.

“Did that man say we’re in… Silver Springs?” Rhiannon asks as the spice in the air between us begins to clear.

I nod my head. A sudden snowstorm of spice comes down from my head, making Rhiannon laugh. She takes my breath away, then does it again as she brushes me down gently. Her eyes meet mine.

I knew she was beautiful even when she was a translucent ghost, but nothing could possibly have prepared me for this. The bright colors in her hair. The beauty in her eyes. My heart seems to leap into my throat and my breathing comes out in short pants.

Today really is my lucky day because my deer chooses this moment to stake his claim on her.

“Mate,” I growl with a fierceness that takes even me by surprise.