Page 40 of Love At First Fright
She felt Ellis’s eyes on her, scorching. “What do you like?”
Her heart was going to beat its way out of her chest; she could feel her pulse fluttering where he touched her.
“In, um, what context?”
Ellis levelled his hungry gaze at her. “You know what context.”
Rosemary squeezed her thighs together, not that it helped. She was a goner.
“I like power play, you know, being submissive.”
Ellis exhaled. She watched as his hands gripped the railing. When she turned her eyes to his face, the pair that met hers were all pupil.
“It’s not that odd, you know,” she babbled, “to want that sort of thing. It’s actually very common. Power dynamics. And it doesn’t mean I have a submissive personality. It’s just that I like what I like, okay, and—”
“Stop, love. You don’t need to justify yourself to me. I understand it. More than you might expect.”
Here, in the cold October rain, unsaid words suddenly became too big. Shewanted.Here, in the quiet space of the bandstand, insignificant things became significant: Ellis’s breath on her face, the small silver scar above his eyebrow, the droplets of rain that haloed his hair. He moved his hand to cup her jaw, and brushed his thumb over her lips. It nearly broke her apart. Rosemary leant closer.
“Why did you tell me all this?” she asked, her voice wavering.
“You don’t know?”
Her eyes widened. “I—”
A crash sounded from the pub entrance, the door swinging wildly on its hinges as a drunken Lance, arm in arm with Arthur and Vincent, stumbled out singing a bawdy French song. They tripped onto the road, spitting curses at the pavement for daring to trip them. The secret moment between Ellis and Rosemary was over, even if she didn’t want it to be.
“We better get them a cab,” he said.
14
When Lyn snapped at herover biscuits in the kitchen—Rosemary had confused Hobnobs with chocolate Digestives—and not five minutes later she had spotted Lance in an argument with Vincent out in the rose garden, she knew something strange was happening.
It had been getting steadily worse over the last couple of days; everyone in the cast and crew was moody and irritable, and Rosemary was almost certain it was the ghosts’ doing. She kept spotting them around the manor, alternately moping, crying, and entering screaming matches with each other.
Rosemary had taken to carrying dried lavender in her pockets and had slipped some into Lyn’s parka when they weren’t looking. As for Ellis, well, perhaps she’d given him a cup of nettle tea to drink, an old remedy to ward against unwanted spirits. Thankfully, Ellis’s little ghost dog seemed to act as his own kind of protective charm, and Ellis seemed immune from the sour mood. Or, at least, that’s what Rosemary thought might be the case, since they hadn’t actually spoken properly since the pub two days before. There just never seemed to be amoment, not that she knew what she’d say anyway.You don’t know?he’d said, as if that made things any clearer. And to find out that he wasn’t dating Jenna…well. It made her equal parts delighted and furious. What the hell was his agent playing at, forcing him to do that? And more importantly, what did his agent have on Ellis that made him agree to the scheme in the first place?
Rosemary blew on her red-tipped fingers and sank deeper into her scarf and oversized coat, not that it would make much difference. Her body was made for spring sunshine and humid summers, not this damp English chill. Even with space heaters and all the doors closed, the inside of Hallowvale was freezing. She wouldn’t be surprised to find the water frozen in the taps. They were filming a pivotal scene this morning: Lance’s character, the elder Parlow, would finally see the ghosts that inhabited his house, standing before him on the twisted staircase of the manor’s entrance. An ensemble cast of about thirty ghost actors stood on the stairs, shivering in their threadbare costumes.
Lance was having final touch-ups to his makeup applied as he went through something with Vincent, both of them standing at the base of the stairs. While the shot was being set up, Rosemary pulled out her phone.
Dina, do you know if ghosts can affect the mood of a place?
Her friend opened the text immediately.Like cold spots?
This whole house is a cold spot. They’re pissed off at each other and I think it’s messing with the crew’s mood.
Shit,Dina replied.Have you tried lavender?
Used all my supply.
Hmm. And I guess you can’t salt every threshold.
Not without people looking at me weirdly. Besides, this is their house, I don’t want to kick them out.
The three little dots of Dina’s reply hovered.
I think you need to speak to them. Mediate it.
