Page 46 of Safe in Shadow
“Cynthia.”
“So... She didn’t die anywhere near her husband?”
“Apparently not.”
“I need to know about James Cameron’s brother. He has one.Hadone.”
To Grace’s relief, the ghost at the desk didn’t ask how she knew. His fingers moved with great force on the keys, sometimes having to make several strikes to get one letter to appear.
“Do you want me to take over? You could tell me how to search.”
“That would be a relief, thank you. I can manage to manipulate physical objects and even hold a somewhat solid form, but it’s exhausting. My wife will have words with me thisevening if I can’t move the Scrabble tiles. Ha! Bit of a pun, I suppose. ‘Have words.’ We’ve been in a grudge match since last weekend, and both of us are determined to make a seven-letter word and get that fifty-point bonus!”
“Wait, you’re married?”
“Yes! To the lovely Mrs. Louisa Ashcroft. The librarian?”
Grace staggered a little. “Like,legallymarried? Ghost to non-ghost?”
“As legal as is possible,” he said haughtily. “It’s manageable, at least in this town. Now, you’re going to assist me, are you not?”
“Sorry, this place is just full of surprises. It takes a while to get used to, okay?” Grace pulled up a chair next to Mortimer. “Show me what to do.”
“All right. We’re in the transcribed parish records—a scanned PDF is available for cross-referencing—”
“Of course it is.”
“And we’ve entered ‘Cameron’ in the search bar. You can see that the Cameron family’s first mentions in the parish records are... Wait, here we are. Silas and James Cameron, aged 27 and 24. New members. 1848. Goodness, they were here when the town was quite barebones, mainly empty land and farms. A few stores and a church, by most accounts. Did you know Pine Ridge was only granted official ‘town’ status in 1840?”
Grace shook her head, mouth parted in surprise. “My boyfriend is almost two hundred years old! I mean... Wait, if he was twenty-seven in 1848—my boyfriendistechnically two hundred years old.” Grace clutched her knees. “That freaks me out more than the whole splitting into shadowy shrapnel.”
Mortimer coughed. “Well. Many happy returns to him. Shadowy shrapnel? Is he a ghost? One of the Camerons, I take it?”
“He has to be Silas. Has to be. And no, he’s a shade. He says it’s not the same, but I’m not sure what all the rules are. I just met my first vampire today. He brought muffins.” Grace’s lips twitched. Her chin wobbled. “Um. If I have hysterics... Don’t do anything. Well, slap me, if you’re up to it.”
“Indeed. I wonder if he would be amenable to a spirit bottle?”
“ A what now?” Grace swallowed a giggle.
My life makes Alice in Wonderland seem boring. Vampires with muffins. Ghosts playing Scrabble and working at the library. My boyfriend...
Is he a boyfriend? We live together. Sleep together.
“A spirit bottle lets a ghost move from place to place as long as they always return to their home base, so to speak.”
“I don’t know the rules for shades. Where do I get a spirit bottle?”
“Ooh, you’ll have to have one made, but there are a few powerful witches in town who might—”
“Witches? Of course. What’s the weatherman? A poltergeist?”
“Werewolf,” Mr. Ashcroft said apologetically.
“Naturally.” Grace flopped her head onto the desk. “Ow.”
“Shall we try the next record? I— Ah.”
“What?” Grace lifted her head.
