Page 5 of Written in Red

“Or,” Tacey countered, “they’ll pretend to leave, then hide somewhere watching for you.”

“The ghosts can watch the grounds, watching for any stragglers,” Mercury said.

Her brow remained pulled. “And if those stragglers stumble upon you before the ghosts stumble upon them?”

“If the trespassers haven’t met me before, they won’t realize who I am.”

“Who else would they think you are?” Zizzy asked in tones of both confusion and disbelief. “There is only one man of means at Aventine Manor.”

A good point.

He crossed to the small closet on the opposite wall and pulled the door open. On the floor, pushed to the back, was a dusty trunk that he hadn’t opened in all the years he’d been at Aventine.

“What’s in it?” Zizzy asked, hovering nearby as he dragged the trunk out.

“The clothes I wore in London before I had money enough to dress as a ‘man of means.’” He opened the lid, revealing a neatly folded pile of clothes befitting someone of the working class. “Should I be seen by anyone while I’m dressed in these togs, they’ll easily believe I’m a caretaker or groundskeeper or something of that nature. And if I make certain to keep a distance from anyone who wanders by, they’ll not be near enough to know the difference.”

“But the Vanns know who Tacey is,” Zizzy said. “They’ll recognize her.”

Mercury looked over at Tacey. “I don’t have any women’s clothing, but you wouldn’t make a very convincing man.”

“There are some clothes in the attic at Larissa Lodge. They likely won’t fit perfectly, but that might add to the effect.”

Mercury nodded. “We’ll play the role of servants at Aventine. That will provide us with a bit of safety.”

“A good plan.” Tacey’s ready embrace of the idea added to Mercury’s confidence in it.

“I’ll make certain the ghosts know so they can play along,” he said.

“We can tell them.” Baby Blue’s eager offer brought Tacey’s fond gaze to the little specter once more.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” she said. “You are very helpful.”

“We don’t want anyone to take you away again,” Baby answered. “And we don’t want anyone to hurt Mercury.”

Zizzy nodded along with the declaration. “We’ll go tell them now.”

Infusing his voice with a bit of teasing mystery, Mercury said, “And I will tell the ones that you don’t know how to find.”

Both ghosts’ eyes pulled wide. They exchanged looks of amazement before floating out through the nearby wall.

“Do any of your ghosts know all of the others?” Tacey asked.

“Only Baby Blue, Zizzy, and Smythe have met all of the ghosts who are now attached to me, but I don’t know if they actually remember all of them or which ones are still here.” After all, Baby had told Mercury that none of the three of them remembered anything about him before he arrived at the orphanage, though they should have.

Smythe peeked inside the room once more. “The arrival was a young gentleman, one who has not been here before, looking to make a trade. He was informed that Mr. Raine is currently on holiday.”

“And how did he respond?” Mercury asked.

Smythe’s very proper butler demeanor didn’t shift in the least. “He appeared disappointed, but did not argue. He returned to his carriage and left.”

“Ask the Winged Monk to watch from the roof and make certain the gentleman truly does leave Aventine.”

“An excellent plan.” Smythe dipped his head and floated away, again the very picture of an exquisitely trained upper servant. Did he think of Mercury as anything but his “employer?” Mercury hoped so. He’d not asked Smythe to take on that role, after all. And Mercury didn’t think of him as a servant.

They are family to you. Tacey wasn’t wrong about that. But did Smythe—and Baby Blue and Zizzy for that matter—think of him as family?

Did he want them to?