Page 52 of A Good Heart is Hard to Find
I watched, fascinated, as his eyes filled with amusement, and one corner of his long mouth twitched upwards. ‘Kind of you to offer – andIcertainly wouldn’t have any objections.’
‘You could make a couple of appearances,’ Orla saidhelpfully. ‘At the usual rate, of course … plus extra for unsociable hours.’
‘Orla! There’s no way I’m streaking down the corridors at midnight!’
‘No, I didn’t mean that, just that you could—’
‘No!’
‘Oh well,’ she said resignedly, recognizing that tone.
‘You know I’m only doing the Crypt-ograms until you find some other acts instead.’
‘Yes,and Cass knows I’m always willing to look after her when she’s doing them,’ Jason said jealously, exchanging a measuring look with Dante. ‘She only has to ask.’
‘Thank you, Jason,’ I said. ‘I can look after myself.’
Jane, I could tell, was piqued by the lack of masculine attention, although she remained smiling serenely, our own little Buddha of Suburbia.
Dante seemed singularly imperviouseven when she did the sort of fluttery eyelash stuff at him that I was not only incapable of, but would get me certified if I tried.
‘So you and your sister are going to run the weekend breaks thing together?’ she asked.
‘No. I’ll be there if Rosetta needs me, but running it will be her concern. I’ll be living and working in the west wing, mostly.’
‘What do you do?’ she persisted.
‘I’ve beentravelling round the States for a year, making notes for a book I’ve been commissioned to write: sort of an autobiography. I used to be a foreign correspondent for a newspaper,’ he added tersely.
‘Oh?’ Clearly Jane had even less idea than me about the hostage-taking episode, but from Jason’s face it had all suddenly clicked.
‘Have you read any of Cass’s books?’ Jane asked.
‘No, I’ve managedto resist their dubious charms so far.’
I scowled at him and he raised one black brow: ‘I’ve just ordered your backlist off the internet in case an acute need for a prolonged period of bad taste comes over me. It only surprises me that you write that sort of stuff yet you’re too scared to come back to the Hall and brave the ghosts. I thought you told me you didn’t believe in that sort of thing?’
‘No, I said I knew they couldn’thurtme. And I’m not afraid, even though I know therearethings out there, either echoes of the past, or maybe the dark things from our own minds.’
‘Oh, don’t!’ Jane shuddered theatrically. ‘I know none of them exist, but it still frightens me.’
‘That’s how most people feel, or say they feel, Jane,’ I pointed out. ‘It’s why horror sells so well.’
‘When youthoughtIwas a ghost you took to your heels fast enough,’ Dante said to me.
‘You thoughtIwas one, too!’ I snapped, glaring at him. ‘Andyou’resupposed to be the sceptic, not me!’
‘When was this?’ Jane said curiously, looking from one of us to the other.
Jason, glowering suspiciously, said: ‘Yes, when did all this nocturnal activity take place? You didn’t say you knew each otherthatwell.’
‘We don’t! I told you we only met the other night, ghost-hunting,’ I said defensively, then blushed hotly. Considering how pale-skinned I am I might as well have raised a red flag.
‘I wish you wouldn’t wander about in the middle of the night like that,’ Jason grumbled, looking from me to Dante narrowly. ‘Who knows what might happen to you?’
Who, indeed?
‘You make a habit of it?’ enquired Dante.
