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“If you were working, you’d be out there clearing ghosts. Speaking of.” Richard made a sweeping gesture toward the ghost. “Explain to me why you, the prodigy this whole family held its breath over, are driving around with a ghost in a toy. Clear it. What’s the holdup? For you, this shouldn’t take more than five minutes.”

Nate looked at his plate. “He can’t be exorcised.”

Claire looked up at that. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I tried, and it didn’t work.”

Richard’s chair creaked under him. “Did I hear that right? You tried and failed?”

Nate’s expression narrowed at the gloating note in Richard’s voice. He was clearly about to say something when the front door opened.

Cold air came down the hall, along with the sound of a bag hitting the floor. “Sorry! I know I’m late. Have you all started?”

“CALEB,” Sally shrieked, and was gone from her chair.

The man who came into the dining room with a child attached to his leg was tall and rumpled, still in his coat, with the hollowed-out look of someone at the end of a long shift. He kissed Miriam’s cheek, hauled Sally up onto his hip in a motion he’d clearly done a hundred times, and then he saw Nate.

He stopped.

“No way,” Caleb said.

“Hey, Caleb.”

“They said you might come. I didn’t believe them.” He was grinning now. “When was the last time you attended a dinner?”

“Christmas?” Jonah guessed. “But you weren’t there then.”

“Because,” Richard cut in, “Caleb actually works. Someone has to.”

“Stop it, Dad.” Caleb set Sally down. “I don’t mind the work.”

“Sit with us.” Miriam motioned at the table. “There’s plenty left.”

“Thank you.” Caleb shed his coat, and dropped into the empty seat across the table — and that was when he noticed the seal.

He went still, the way people did around the ghost’s presence sometimes. Then he looked at the crayon card, and put things together.

“You’ve got a spirit at the table,” he said.

“Caleb, Leo,” Miriam said. “Leo, this is Caleb. Richard’s son. He and Nate trained together.”

“Three years apart and they still put us in the same lessons,” Caleb said, to the seal, rueful, loading his plate. “You can imagine how that felt. Evening, Leo.”

“Evening,” the ghost said, warily. “Are you more powerful than Nate?”

Caleb’s head tilted, listening. “I wouldn’t say that. Why do you ask?”

“Because he needs a strong medium,” Richard announced. “Your cousin tried to clear him and couldn’t. So after you eat, you’ll take a look and show him how it’s⁠—“

“Nobody,” Miriam said, “is clearing anyone at my table.” She hadn’t raised her voice. She was still holding her fork, but her words stopped the conversation short. “After pie, I’ll release the spirit from the ward. And I’ll have a proper look at him while I’m at it. Because if Nathan couldn’t move him, something is wrong, and I would like to know what.”

The ghost took that in quietly.

Something is wrong, and I would like to know what.

No.

Nothing was wrong with him.