“Bastards,” Isolde said calmly.

“Yeah,” Andie said, shaking as she tried to sit up.

“What stopped you from going over?”

“You,” Andie said, thinking, JESUS CHRIST, WHAT WAS THAT??

“Nope, I got here at the end and caught your arm, but before that you were headed straight for that railing and then you turned away.”

“May.” Andie tried to calm down enough to think. “May was there.”

“Who was the other one?”

“I don’t know. This stuff just came out of the carpet. That’s what Dennis said. He said this thing came out of the carpet…”

Isolde reached down and picked up some of the black particles. “It’s dirt. Whatever it was just pulled up all the dirt in the carpets and threw it at you.”

“It was more than that, it was a shape, a skull,” Andie said, and then North ran through the arch and said, “What the hell?”

“They tried to kill her,” Isolde said as North pulled Andie up into his arms.

“What happened?” North said, looking into Andie’s eyes. “Are you all right?”

“Isolde grabbed me before I went through the rail,” Andie said, trying to sound normal, but wanting to hold on to him, just the same. “It’s the way May died. The ghosts killed May and now they’re coming after us. We have to get rid of them, North.” She looked at Isolde. “I want another séance. I want to pull them in so we can look at them, find out-”

“Harold’s gone,” Isolde said. “I can’t work without a spirit guide.”

“Well, give it a shot,” Andie said. “We’ll put Flo in the nursery with the kids-”

“Lydia,” Isolde said. “I need Flo. I need believers.”

“Okay, Lydia, and we’ll make it work this time.”

It’s never worked before.

Andie turned and saw May floating in front of the broken railing. “Thank you. I know you saved me.”

If there’d been someone there for me, I wouldn’t have died.

“I’m sorry, I really am, May, you got such a raw deal on this. But thank you for stopping me.”

Yeah, you owe me, May said, and then smiled her beautiful smile. You’re welcome.

“Can you be Isolde’s spirit guide at the séance?” Andie said.

“Wait a minute,” Isolde said.

You should ask Dennis, May said. He’d love that. He’s very career-minded.

“Dennis,” Andie said to Isolde. “Unless he’s left us.”

“I could do Dennis,” Isolde said, and Andie went downstairs to see if he’d gone toward the light yet.


Half an hour later, Lydia was upstairs hearing the Princess Alice story, and Andie, Isolde, Flo, Southie, and a reluctant North were at the table they’d dragged in from the Great Hall and put in front of Dennis’s couch which Dennis was refusing to leave.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Isolde said as she sat down across from the couch, looking even paler than usual.

It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? Dennis said.

“What?” Isolde said, looking around.

“That’s Dennis,” Andie said. “Are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes?” Isolde pushed her narrow glasses up the narrow bridge of her nose.

“Maybe they’ll be feeling guilty for killing Dennis,” Southie said.

They don’t give a rat’s ass, Dennis said.

“Watch the language,” Isolde said.

“What language?” Southie said.

“Dennis is grumpy,” Andie said.

“Do you want a permanent job, Dennis?” Isolde said.

No.

“He’s going toward the light as soon as we’re done here,” Andie said firmly.

No I’m not.

“Don’t be hasty about turning me down,” Isolde said. “It’s interesting work.”

I have a job. I’m researching ghosts.

“Well, you’ll meet a lot more with me,” Isolde said. “Think about it.”

It’s a moot point. I can’t leave this couch.

“Oh, suck it up, Dennis,” Isolde said. “You’re too old for a security blanket.”

I believe I would know if it were possible for me to establish a wider range.

“You’ve been a ghost for six hours, but you’re an expert,” Isolde snorted.

I was an expert before I was a ghost, Dennis snapped.

“Not that I don’t find this fascinating,” Andie said, “but we need to find out what it is that the ghosts left behind that’s keeping them here. Since Dennis had dibs on the couch, it’s not that, so let’s just leave the furniture out of it for now. We have to be looking for something smaller, a lock of hair maybe, the Victorians did a lot of mourning jewelry. Or… a finger or something.”

“A finger?” Southie said.

“Probably not. We need to find out what’s holding them here so we can burn it and send them on to… wherever.”

“Are they here?” Isolde said. “It doesn’t feel like they’re here.”

No, Dennis said. I’m the only one here.

“Then we’ll have to call them. Just remember, they’re killers. If things start getting dicey, I’m calling it quits for good on this one.”

“Now that is a sane idea,” North said.

“Sit down,” Isolde said, and he did. “Join hands. Breathe.”

The thing about those long slow breaths was that they were very peaceful. Andie relaxed into her chair a little more, but she watched for any movement in the air, any clue that there might-

This again? May said. You know, you could just ask me.

“Not you,” Andie said. “Them.”

What do you want?

“Is there something tying them here, some souvenir with a lock of hair or something that would keep them from being evicted?”

It would have had to have come with the house, May said. That was years and years ago. Something really old. Our family wouldn’t have anything that old.

“Old,” Andie said. “Something from the early 1800s.”

“Pocket watch,” North said.

Andie jerked around, distracted. “What?”

“We found a pocket watch when we searched the house. I’ll go get it.”

North left the table, clearly glad to be able to do so.

“Good,” Isolde said. “With him gone, I can see a lot clearer. What do you think, Dennis?”

I think it’s all a crock.

“My God,” Andie said. “You’re dead and you still don’t believe in ghosts?”

I don’t believe in the burning of the pocket watch. Victorian mourning jewelry was rings and lockets.

“Lockets,” Andie said. “The locket you drew on Miss J is around Alice’s neck. I’ll be right back.” She turned and ran for the stairs, double-timing it up to the nursery, only to see Lydia standing in front of Alice’s bed, snarling, “Get out” at North, and when Andie said, “What the hell?” he turned around.

North’s eyes were empty and black, cruel and evil, and then she saw the pocket watch in his hand and realized she was looking into Peter’s white face of damnation. North was gone.

Fifteen

“Get out of him,” she said, as he advanced on her. “That’s not your body, give it back.”

She took a step back, keeping her eyes on the watch in his hand. “We have to burn that watch, Lydia,” she called out as her back hit the door. “It’s-”

He grabbed for her, and she ducked and tried to knock the watch from his hand, but he got her by the throat, lifting her up off her feet as she choked, her eyes level with his, staring into the empty evil horror that was there. “North,” she choked out, but the room began to spin, there was a rushing in her ears, and then suddenly he dropped to the floor and she went with him, and Carter was standing over them with the small fire extinguisher from the mantel.

“I hit him,” Carter said, anguished, and North began to struggle to his feet, the back of his head bleeding, and then Miss J was there, too, and Andie felt ice in her veins.

“No!” she screamed and grabbed the watch from the floor, triggering the catch so that it opened as she flung it into the fire. She heard Miss J shriek like nothing on God’s earth, and then the ice in her blood was gone, but North was reaching for Alice, and Carter and Lydia and Andie all dragged him back while he fought them, and Alice shrank back against the wall, terrified, screaming, “Bad!”, as her necklaces swung forward-

Andie lunged over North, still struggling on the floor, and screamed, “Give me the locket!”, and Alice ripped it off without question and threw it to her.

North surged up from the floor, Carter and Andie hanging on to him, and Andie flung the locket into the flames.

The locket blackened in the fire, but Peter fought on in North’s body, rage distorting his face.

“It didn’t work,” Andie yelled, grabbing North around the neck and holding on to him while the others fought to keep him down.

“It didn’t open,” Carter yelled back, and reached into the flames and pulled it out, his face twisting as the fire burned him, and then he stamped on the locket and broke it open, exposing a brown curl of hair inside.

Peter screamed, and Carter threw the curl into the fire where it crackled and then turned to ash, and North collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Lydia bent over him. “What the hell was that thing?”

“A ghost.” Andie grabbed the pitcher of ice water from the lunch tray and plunged Carter’s hand into it. “That was incredibly brave,” she told him. “Keep your hand cold.”

“Jesus Christ,” Lydia said. “That was evil.”

Andie left Carter and bent over North, looking at the back of his head as he came to. Carter had really smacked him, there was blood back there, but with any luck he hadn’t cracked his skull.

“North?” she said. “North? Honey?”

His eyelids fluttered, and then he said, “Ouch,” his voice wobbly, and sat up, wincing, dizzy enough that he leaned on her. “What was that?”