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Her friend picked up after a few buzzes. One dark eyebrow arched.“I’m surprised you are still awake. It’s, what, ten o’clock there?”
“About that. I thought I’d give you a call before I turned in, though. Let you know how everything went.”
“And howdideverything go?”
“It went great. Gregory Pierce turns out to be really nice, and so is his grandmother. His mother, not so much.”
“There is always one at every job, I suppose.”
“I guess.” Hanna wrinkled her nose.
“And is Mister Pierce better looking than the pictures show? Oh, my God, you are blushing. That would be a yes, then.”
“Am not!” Hanna said, face red with the blush she tried to deny. “And yes. He is. But I need to talk to you about the job!”
Athena looked infinitely amused.“You want to talk to me about nannying. Do you really think that is a good idea?”
“No. Which is why I’m not asking you about nannying.”
Both of Athena’s eyebrows were up now.“This is either intriguing or ominous.”
“Why not both?” Hanna held the tag up to the laptop camera. “The job was described to me as playing governess for the child the grandmother’s dementia brought to life in her mind. Except it isn’t her dementia. There’s a child’s ghost here. He gets agitated without a governess, so the grandmother wanted to hire one. That’s me.”
“Wait. They brought you to be governess for a ghost. Not an apparition?”
“Actual spirit. Interactive, understands and communicates, and seems to manifest sometimes. This was his.”
Athena leaned forward to squint at her screen.“Stuart Marsh.”
“Yes. Vivian, the grandmother here, identified this as one of the tags from Operation Pied Piper during World War II. We think Stuart was evacuated.” Hanna set the tag on her desk. “Do you think you could find out more information about him? And the person who took him in? The house didn’t come with any information.”
“With the right knowledge, you might be able to give that ghost peace. I will look into it for you and see what I can find.”Athena leaned back and regarded her friend.“Are you all right there? Really. The job was not what was advertised. That house is haunted. And so on.”
“I’m fine, Athena, but thanks.” Hanna smiled. “I like the people here. And I’d love to be able to help Stuart find rest.”
“By your blushing, you might like to help Gregory Pierce find rest, too. After you wear him out.”
Hanna’s face burned. “I’m hanging up on you now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Laughter echoed over the line until Hanna killed the connection.
In the wake of the call, Hanna found herself exhausted, as though checking the last box on her to-do list for the day had stolen the last of her momentum. All she could manage was to close her laptop and peel off her clothes. It took two tries to shove her arms into the proper holes in her sleep shirt.
She had worried about falling asleep tonight, in a strange old house full of creaks and whispers. Yet sleep swallowed her whole the moment her head hit her pillow. If nightmares tried to terrorize her, she never knew, for a soft voice kept them at bay.
A woman’s sweet voice sang a lullabye to a frightened child long gone to the grave. It echoed through time, carried forward by a child who no longer drew breath, to a governess from over the sea who needed a night of comfort herself.
* * *
He’d hopedto sit with Hanna after supper. In truth, he’d spent most of dinner trying to find excuses to linger in her company. A walk in the gardens? A movie? Time in the house’s library, showing her where she could find books to borrow? Any would work, he thought, but then he discarded them all as “not important enough to keep an exhausted woman from her bed”.
The baser part of his mind suggested he could show herhisbed instead. He told that part to go take a cold shower and read a book about manners. Maybe the library had a helpful book.Fishing Your Mind Out of the Gutter: How to Avoid Being a Disgusting Creep.
Then his phone had gone off. Not many people had his private number, so he’d bothered to look at the screen instead of letting the call go to voicemail like he wanted to. Since he’d told the forensic accountant to call the moment she had any information, he couldn’t ignore it, either.
“One moment, please,” he murmured into the phone before he touchedMuteon the screen. All he could do was throw Hanna an apologetic look before he took to his office.
“Sorry,” he said, as he sat down behind his desk. “I had to move to a quiet room.”
