Page 11 of Healing Hearts on Thistledown Lane: Part 1
Her gaze jerked up from the ghost in her hand. ‘Copy it? Sorry, I don’t think that’s—’
‘Not copy it,’ he said quickly. ‘I’d like to commission you to design a uniquely Scottish version. An Edinburgh ghost that I can sell on my tours.’
She looked far from convinced. ‘I don’t use slip cases. I hand build or throw everything I make here.’
‘That’s okay,’ he said. ‘It would be up to you how you make them and I wouldn’t need a huge number. In fact, I’d want them to be completely different to the York ghosts.’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘It’s not really my thing. My work is all about the sea and nature, not the supernatural.’
Fraser could see he was losing her. ‘So create a sea-themed ghost – I don’t know, like a pirate or a siren. I can come up with a story to go with it.’
She was turning the black figure over and over in her hands, frowning down at it. ‘A sea ghost,’ she said. ‘Maybe.’
‘Or maybe a sea witch,’ Fraser offered. ‘Sadly, there’s no shortage of Scottish women who were persecuted for witchcraft back in the day. I talk about them on one of the tours.’ He fixed an earnest gaze on her. ‘But you don’t have to decide now. Think it over and let me know. You could even come on one of my walks, if you like. Get a feel for the stories I’m telling.’
She was silent for so long that he was certain she was going to say no. But she surprised him. ‘I’ll think about it.’
‘Great,’ he said. ‘And if you did fancy coming on one of the tours, they start at 7.30pm from the Mercat Cross by St Giles’ cathedral on the Royal Mile. I do Wednesday to Sundays – no need to book, in your case. Just turn up.’
Maura offered him the ghost but he didn’t take it. ‘Why don’t you hang on to it for now? Just don’t keep it beside your bed. The face glows in the dark – gave Naomi quite a scare when she woke up for a wee.’
‘I can imagine,’ Maura said wryly.
Fraser lifted the box containing the bowl. ‘I’ll be on my way then. Thanks for this, I can’t wait to get it home.’
She saw him through the door and back onto the street, and Fraser got the impression she was checking to make sure he stowed the box securely in his car. Evidently satisfied, she stepped back into the studio and leaned against the open door. ‘Drive carefully,’ she called as he climbed behind the wheel.
‘I will.’ As he drove away, he couldn’t resist glancing in the rearview mirror for a final glimpse of her. He wasn’t sure whether it was Maura’s connection to his school days or the business opportunity she represented but he found himself very much hoping that he’d see her on one of his ghost walks.
Chapter Five
A ghost tour?’ Kirsty said doubtfully, when Maura rang her on Friday morning. ‘Why on earth would I want to go on a ghost tour?’
Maura considered how much information to share and decided on full disclosure. ‘I ran into someone I went to school with and he told me he owns a walking business here in Edinburgh. So I thought I’d go along and wondered if you fancied it too.’
Her sister was quiet for a moment. ‘Why don’t you go with Zoe?’
Zoe had been Maura’s first thought too, but she wasn’t entirely sure she could trust her not to spend the entire tour whispering inappropriate comments. She’d asked all the same, and been slightly relieved when Zoe had said no. ‘She’s away this weekend.’
‘Jamie?’
Maura sighed. Jamie had been her second thought, and her contemplation had lasted all of fifteen seconds. ‘Because he’d hate it. You know how he feels about tourists at the best of times – imagine if I forced him to rub shoulders with them.’
Kirsty couldn’t argue with that. ‘There’d probably be a murder,’ she acknowledged. ‘But at least your school friend would have another grisly crime to talk about.’
‘Jamie has a game on Saturday anyway, so he won’t want to spend his Friday evening traipsing around town chasing spirits,’ Maura added. ‘Not that kind of spirit, at any rate.’
‘No,’ Kirsty conceded and Maura thought she almost had her. ‘What’s he like, this old school friend? Am I going to be bored to tears?’
Maura pictured him as she’d seen him the day before, illuminated by a shaft of sunlight, all golden haired and bearded and radiating a charm she wasn’t even sure he knew he had. Kirsty had been four years above them at school. There was little chance she would remember Fraser, so she wouldn’t be swayed by nostalgia, but she appreciated an attractive man when she saw one. ‘I think it’s safe to say you won’t be bored,’ Maura said, crossing her fingers and hoping she wasn’t overestimating his charisma.
‘Okay, I’ll come,’ Kirsty grudgingly conceded. ‘But you owe me.’
‘Of course,’ Maura said, and smiled. ‘Hey, you can collect those soup bowls I slaved over for you.’
‘Point taken,’ Kirsty grumbled. ‘But I’ll get the bowls another day. I’m not going to risk them getting smashed by some malevolent spook.’
Maura hesitated. Should she tell her sister about the proposal Fraser had put forward? She hadn’t mentioned it to Jamie – in fact, she hadn’t mentioned Fraser at all. The York ghost he had given her was tucked away in a bedside drawer, where its glow-in-the-dark face could not trouble her. It wasn’t that she was keeping the visit from Jamie, more that she was sure he’d dismiss the whole ghost idea out of hand, would tell her it was beneath her and then she’d find it hard to justify spending any more time thinking about it. In actual fact, she could see the appeal of themed ghosts made to order for the tour. The York company might be well established and very successful but that didn’t mean they had a monopoly on highly desirable, limited edition ceramic ghosts. And as she’d already told Fraser, she couldn’t match their slick production methods; anything she made would be considerably less polished and therefore could not be seen as trespassing on their patch. She was more than 200 miles away, for a start. ‘I’ll bring the bowls over on Sunday instead,’ she said.
