Posy made a muffled cry and covered her mouth again. She started shaking her head. Violently.
“Posy—” I moved forward, but she vanished.
Poof. Gone.
Just like that.
Adam and I whipped around to stare at Scarlet, who, unreassuringly, looked just as startled as we did.
“Where did she go?” Adam asked. “I’ve never seen her do that before.”
“My guess? Back to the manor,” Scarlet replied.
I moved away from the edge of the cliff and Adam took my hand. “Come on,” he said. “We have to fine her.”
He wasn’t going to get an objection from me.
No one said much on the trek back through the woods. Half an hour later, we were back where we started, tentatively approaching the manor as though it could blow at any minute. Because … well … it could.
“I knew I should have crashed Evangeline and Teddy’s romantic weekend away,” I muttered under my breath as we started up the back stairs. “To think, I could be on a beach, sipping a Mai Tai right now.”
Adam ignored me and opened the kitchen door. He peeked his head inside. “Posy?”
“Posy!” Scarlet and I called in unison as we followed him into the bright space.
Nothing.
“Great.” Adam tugged a chair away from the table and plopped down. “Any ideas?” he said, looking mostly at Scarlet.
She gave a simple shrug. “We’ll have to wait until she comes back. If she doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be.”
I sighed. “Must be nice.”
Boots scratched on the kitchen door so I crossed to let him in. After his demands for attentions were fulfilled, he waddled over to the cupboard where I kept the bag of kibble. With a laugh, I filled his bowl and patted him on the rump as he buried his nose in the silver bowl.
“At least he can’t talk,” Adam said as we all absently watched Boots.
“No kidding,” I said.
“I resent that.”
I jumped at the velvety voice and turned to see Flapjack at Scarlet’s side. He strutted around her legs, whipping at her with his tail. She frowned down at him and sidestepped out of range. “I thought I felt you lurking around. What have I told you about eavesdropping?”
Flapjack didn’t reply. Instead, he zeroed in on Boots—blissfully unaware as he reveled in kibble Nirvana—and tiptoed across the kitchen.
When Boots looked up, it was a moment too late. Flapjack was already nose to nose with him. Boots hissed, his back arching as his tawny fur poofed up, making him look a little like a fur covered balloon.
“Flapjack!” Scarlet snapped. “Leave him alone!”
Flapjack laughed as Boots took a swipe, only to hit air.
I hurtled across the kitchen and snatched Boots up from the ground. I slung him to my side, balancing him on my hip, and glared down at the cackling ghost cat.
“You sure I can’t use the fire poker?” Adam asked Scarlet.
Scarlet looked at him. “Not necessary. You have a lemon?”
At the word, Flapjack stiffened and turned to Scarlet. “Why can’t I have any fun?”
“Because your idea of fun is mean.” She balled her hands and planted them on her hips. “Now, why don’t you make yourself useful and see if you can find Posy.”
To my surprise, Flapjack vanished and by the time Boots extracted his claws from my sweatshirt, he’d returned with Posy in tow.
Adam hopped up from his chair. “You all right, Posy?”
She nodded but placed her fingers at her temple, as though her head was spinning. “Yes. I think so. Thank you, dear.”
Apparently Adam was once again out of the scoundrel box.
“I got so upset…” Posy started. “Everything went black. When I opened my eyes, I was up in the attic.”
“Listening to something absolutely awful,” Flapjack inserted with a scrunch of his chocolate brown nose.
Boots hissed.
A few months back, at Posy’s request, we’d moved the record player from the study up to the attic. It should have been the first place we checked after returning to the manor. Usually she responded when her name was called, even when lodged in the stuffy attic, but I realized in hindsight we should have gone upstairs and tapped on the door to the small room.
“Did I miss Lenny?” Posy asked me.
I shook my head. “You weren’t gone for very long. He should be here soon.”
At least, I hoped.
She nodded slowly. “I think I’ll return to the attic, dear. As you know, the music helps.”
“Right. We’ll knock on the door when he arrives.”
She floated slowly from the floor and disappeared through the ceiling.
Flapjack watched her go. “Seriously, what was that music?”
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Scarlet said, narrowing her eyes at him. “He doesn’t have a filter.”
Scarlet looked up at the clock on the wall and then back at her furry companion. “Flapjack, if you hurry you can be at the dock when they bring in the catch of the day.”
Flapjack’s eyes went round as dinner plates and without another word, he whizzed out of the kitchen.
“Impressive,” Adam said on his way to the fridge.
“He’s been my constant shadow for a long time. I’ve learned how to deal.”
Lenny arrived at the manor later that evening. He floated into view in the middle of the living room as we all milled around, nervous and edgy. The reunion between Posy and Lenny was both strange and nostalgic. Scarlet, Adam, and I all stood back and let the two ghosts get caught up. Lenny’s entire demeanor was different when he spoke with Posy. He was animated and eager to answer any question she asked. He revealed that he’d been killed in a tragic boating accident down on the Mississippi River and had spent the past few decades traveling. When he finally made his way back to Beechwood Harbor, his one-time home town, he’d hoped to find any remaining family members, spirits or otherwise but came up empty handed. As a boat captain, he spent a lot of time haunting the ships and boats coming and going from the harbor, and in a moment of happenstance, found Earl.
“It was probably three weeks ago that I saw him,” Lenny said, referring to the time he met Earl. “There’s a rock formation not too far off shore. He’s holed up in a cave. Living like some kind of hermit.”
Posy shook her head. “But why? Why won’t he come back to me?”
Lenny gave her a sympathetic look. “He says he can’t leave the cave. Says he’s tried but it won’t work.”
Posy’s eyes filled with tears and she reeled around, looking to us for help.
Scarlet shifted from foot to foot. “It sounds like he’s stuck in a soul lock.”
“A soul lock?” Adam repeated.
“Posy, where was Earl buried?” Scarlet asked, her expression tight.
“He isn’t,” Posy replied, followed by a sniffle. “At least, not anymore.”
“Fifty-four years ago there was a terrible flood,” Posy explained. “The cemetery and the chapel were left under several feet of water. The graves were disturbed and several tombstones were unearthed. The place Earl was buried was in a great place of honor, since he was the founder of the town itself. His headstone stood at the highest point, so it wasn’t destroyed, but the water caused erosion and the hillside … well, it collapsed into the bay.”
Adam and Scarlet’s looks of shock mirrored my own. “Oh, Posy, I’m so sorry,” Scarlet said, reaching for her hand. Scarlet’s compassionate gesture fell short as she remembered the pointlessness of the attempt. Luckily, Posy didn’t seem to notice.
“It took some time before a team of men were able to reach the site. The water had swollen the bay too, of course. It was such a mess and all I could do was hover and wring my hands.” Posy’s rounded jaw flexed. “I’m afraid Earl’s casket was one of the ones that washed into the bay. It was buried for several decades when that happened and the lid came open…” her voice cracked and for a mo
ment I panicked, thinking she was on the verge of vanishing.
Instead, the walls of the manor shook. A slight tremor at first but when a loud wailing cry ripped from her, the shaking became more violent.
Scarlet’s eyes went wide and she reached for my arm. “This is what you were talking about?”
I nodded. “Afraid so.”
Adam threw open the door to the kitchen and waved a hand as the shaking intensified. “Holly, Scarlet, under the table.”
I started to argue but he fixed me with a fierce stare. It wasn’t up for negotiation.
Scarlet scrambled under the dining room table and I followed. Magic danced on my fingertips, but I wasn’t sure of a spell that could stop the house from shaking. Nearly a year ago, I’d been able to stop the house from attacking me, but there was no way my magic would stand up against the full strength of Posy’s emotions and her deep entrenchment to the manor.
“Mrs. Williamson, it’s all right!” Lenny said over the noise of Posy’s sobs and the items shaking in the room.
“Posy, we’ll figure it out!” Adam called out from where he stood, braced in the doorway between the kitchen and living room.
“I can help you, Posy!” Scarlet called out, covering her head with her hands. “But you have to calm down before someone gets hurt!”
I glanced up at the table above me and heaved a sigh of relief when it went still.
Scarlet waited a beat and then crawled out from under the table. She stood and brushed off her hands on the front of her jeans. “Posy, it’s not hopeless. Soul locks are more … mental, than anything else. Tell me; was Earl afraid of the water? The ocean?”
Posy’s tear-stained face opened. “Yes! He was!”
I cocked my head. “I thought he was a fisherman.”
“No.” Posy shook her head. “He came here as a businessman. He helped raise this small fishing community into a real town. He brought businesses into the area and arranged the development of the houses and roads and shops.” She looked up at the ceiling. “And, of course, this house.”
“But there are pictures of him with huge fish,” I pointed out, thinking of the gallery of black and white photographs that lined the walls between my bedroom and the study next door.
“He used to go out on fishing trips,” Posy replied. “That’s true. He was on a trip when he nearly drowned. He went overboard and got tangled in the nets. After that, he refused to go anywhere near the ocean.”
Scarlet nodded, a look of realization on her face. “So now he’s stuck because he’s afraid of the ocean. He doesn’t want to cross it.”
“But he’s a ghost,” Adam said. “It can’t hurt him. He can’t die again.”
Lenny shrugged. “I tried telling him all that. I actually did drown and it hasn’t stopped me.”
“Ghosts are people,” Scarlet interjected. “We all react to situations differently in life. Why would that be any different in death? Some people get back on the horse, others avoid their fears all their lives. Lenny here likes boats, spent his life on them, and even though he eventually died in an accident, he’s chosen to move past that. Earl obviously feels differently.”
I shook my head, a new question forming in my mind. “But why are we just hearing about this now? Where was his spirit all the years before?”
“It’s hard to explain.” Scarlet took a moment, considering her answer. “Sometimes the spirit is released when the body itself is disturbed. I’m not sure how it works, but there are stories where ghosts only wake up when their remains are disturbed. Like a trigger of some kind.”
“Do you think that’s what happened to my Earl?” Posy asked, a heart-wrenching amount of hope in her voice. “After the flood, that’s when he came to be a ghost?”
“It sounds like it. His spirit was released but instead of coming to you, he’s been stuck.”
Posy’s face crumpled.
Scarlet hurried to hold out her hands, as though trying to calm a wild animal. “Let’s not dwell on the past, Posy. What’s important—what matters—is that we know where he is and we can help him.”
Lenny looked startled but quickly nodded his agreement. “I’ll take you to him.”
Adam shrugged. “I know where we can get a boat.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Unfortunately, by the time we got to the harbor docks, the winds had changed and the ocean was restless. Adam borrowed a boat from one of his buddies who assured us it was perfectly safe to go out, but advised it might be a rough ride.
“This is so not how I wanted to spend my weekend,” I muttered before swallowing hard.
The closer we got to the cliffside Lenny steered us toward, the choppier the waves became—and the more my stomach threatened to turn itself inside out.
Lenny bellowed when we neared the rocks. “There! That’s the one.”
Adam followed his instructions while I tried to keep down the fish and chips I’d foolishly scarfed down on the way to the docks.
A rock formation jutted out into the ocean. A mysterious cave yawned open between the rocks and the side of the cliff. There wasn’t a place to properly dock the boat but as soon as we got close, a figure emerged from the cave.
Adam killed the motor and tossed the anchor over the side.
“There he is!” Lenny called out, pointing up at the ghostly figure.
In the end, Posy was far too nervous to leave the manor and had opted to stay behind. My chest tightened at the thought of her pacing back and forth, wringing her hands.
“Can you get him to come to us? To the boat?” Adam asked.
Lenny shrugged. “I’ll sure try.”
He surged forward and flew to the mouth of the cave. We all watched the exchange, nervously glancing at each other as the minutes passed. My heart sank when Lenny returned, wearing a grim expression. “He won’t come to the boat. Says he can’t.”
“Did you tell him that Posy is waiting?” Adam asked.
Lenny nodded.
Scarlet set her jaw and looked up at the cave. “I’ll go.”
“What?” Adam snapped.
“Scarlet, you can’t! That’s suicide!” I pointed frantically at the steep side of the cliff. There was no way she’d be able to get to him safely. And even if she did, how would she possible change his mind? It was pointless.
Scarlet rummaged in her purse and held up a small, silver orb. “This will work.”
“What is it?” I asked her, considering the mirrored surface of the ping-pong-sized ball.
“It can transport souls. Earl won’t have to physically come into the boat. He can surrender his spirit to the orb and I’ll release him when we are back at the manor.”
Adam’s jaw dropped. “A ghost trap?”
Scarlet frowned at the orb. “Some use it for that. I choose to use it for more productive, less aggressive purposes.”
I shook my head, baffled. “I’ve never even heard of such a thing.”
“They’re rare,” Scarlet said, moving to the side of the boat and kicking off her shoes. “It’s our only shot.”
Adam lunged for her when he realized her next move, but it was too late. Scarlet threw herself over the edge of the boat and swam for the cliff.
I gawked at her, completely at a loss for words. “She’s—she’s—this is—”
“Badass,” Adam said, a note of awe in his voice.
Scarlet reached the first of the mass of rocks and hoisted herself out. She turned and waved at us, grinning, and then started to climb up the side of the cliff. Each time she found a new foothold, I gasped. By the time she reached the final ledge and pulled herself over and into the cave, my lungs felt like the crumpled remains of a juice box.
She didn’t pause to look back at us, but just slipped into the cave.
The minutes ticked by, each one more painful than the last. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Scarlet appeared, hoisting the ball over her head victoriously.
I smiled but it faded all too quickly as I lurched forward, c
lutching the edge of the boat as she turned to begin her decent.
Adam fired up the engine of the small boat and tried to maneuver even closer. “Holls, see if there’s a space blanket in the first aid kit. She’s going to be freezing!”
I scrambled to retrieve the red case from under the captain’s seat and dug through the contents with trembling fingers.
A scream ripped me from my search and before I could even process the scene, a bolt of magic was flying from my hands. Scarlet had slipped from her foothold and was sliding down the side of the sharp rocks. My magic worked on its own accord, wrapping around her, just as I’d lassoed Boots in the greenhouse. With a yank, she was pried off the cliff and flying in an arc toward the boat.
Adam moved into place and used his body to break her fall. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders to help steady her until she found her feet.
My magic recoiled, releasing her and I started shaking violently. My magic had never burst from me in such a panicked, unconscious manner before, and the aftermath was scarier than watching Scarlet tumble from her perch. What if I’d missed? What if the magic had hurt her instead of helped her? What if my aim had been off and I’d flung her into the rocks instead of the boat?
“Are you all right?” Adam asked her, frantically looking her over.
I snapped back into action, found the space blanket, and tore open the plastic wrap. I shook out the silver, space-age blanket and hurried to cloak Scarlet with it.
“I’m all right.” Her face was so white it looked like all the blood had drained from her.
She looked a little like—well, a lot like Lacey.
Scarlet stared at me, unblinking. “Thank you, Holly! You saved my life.”
“I know we’re new friends, but I have a request of you.” Tears sprang to my eyes and I embraced her fiercely. “Never, ever, do anything that reckless again!”
“I think I can make that promise.” Scarlet laughed but as we separated, I saw tears glistening in her eyes too. She looked down at the silver ball. “It took some prodding, but I got Earl to agree.”
“That’s wonderful!” I said, my voice thick.
“Let’s hurry back,” Adam said, pulling away from the edge of the cliff.
Along Came a Ghost: A Beechwood Harbor Novella (Beechwood Habor Magic Mysteries Book 5) Page 4
