Page 5 of Ghost Broker (Mercury Raine #1)

M ercury awoke to the familiar sensation of being watched. He wasn’t unnerved—a lifetime surrounded by ghosts had cured him of any tendency he might have had to react that way—but he was tired. He rubbed at his forehead. The room would be dark, but ghosts didn’t have to be lit to be seen.

With a sigh, he forced his eyes open. It wasn’t one of his ghosts hovering at the foot of his bed.

“Granny Grey.” He blinked a few times, lingering sleep making his eyelids heavy. “Is something the matter?”

“You’re Mercury Raine.”

“I am.”

“But you haven’t always been.”

Every bit of sleepiness fled in an instant.

He’d hidden his identity quite well when beginning his brokerage.

No one had, in twelve years, guessed that the name he had been using at eighteen years of age was not the one he’d been raised with.

And he’d wager none of them would guess that his previous name had been given to him in an orphanage.

Mercury sat up, every instinct on alert.

He was an orphan, and there were laws about orphans transferring ghosts.

The orphanage that raised him had a claim on them all.

He owed them for every Originary swap he’d made, and they could argue that every subsequent one was part of the debt.

Running away from the orphanage, changing his name to hide his identity, and cutting them out of his subsequent business had been necessary for survival, but the law didn’t particularly care about the well-being of orphans.

He was living a lie in many ways, and that was dangerous.

How much did Granny Grey know? He studied her, but his scrutiny made her very obviously and very sincerely nervous.

“You aren’t afraid of me, are you?” he asked.

“I’m always a little afraid of everyone.” Her ghostly voice shook a bit. “My Integral Trait.”

“One of them,” he countered. “I’ve yet to meet a ghost who doesn’t have several.”

That seemed to surprise her. Did she not know that she was more than that one characteristic?

“Mrs. Huddleston has said a few times that they’ve never undertaken a swap before.” Mercury swung his legs over the side of the bed. “So, you’re Miss Huddleston’s Originary.”

Granny Grey nodded, watching him warily.

“I promise you have no reason to be fearful of me.”

“I can’t help but be fearful.” That was likely true. Integral Traits could not be changed nor minimized in a ghost.

He slid his feet into his slippers as he stood. Hoping to put her as much at ease as was possible for a ghost whose defining trait was never being at ease, he motioned slowly and gently toward the two chairs near the empty fireplace.

She floated in that direction and sat, to the extent a ghost could, in one of the chairs .

He sat in the other. “I realize this is an uncouth question, but it does help me broker swaps that are most likely to be pleasing to all involved… How old is Miss Huddleston?”

“Twenty-five.”

“And has she done a great deal of traveling?”

“Only to London for the Season, and only the past five Seasons at that.”

Granny Grey had likely not left the Huddlestons’ country estate until five years earlier, long after Mercury had assumed his new name and buried his old identity.

As far as he knew, no one in London had the first idea who he was.

His Originaries would not be whispering about him, as that would put them in danger as well.

So how did Granny Grey know that he wasn’t who he said he was?

The question was a pressing one, yet the broker in him momentarily proved louder than the runaway orphan.

“Do you like Miss Huddleston?” he asked Granny Grey.

“She’s lovely, and she looks out for me.”

Interesting. When a person’s Originary was an older one, usually it was the ghost who felt protective of their person.

“What about Mrs . Huddleston? Are you fond of her as well?”

Granny Grey didn’t answer. Not at all. Which was an answer in and of itself.

“Have you had a chance since arriving at Aventine Manor to meet the ghosts here?”

“I am not… not overly skilled at… at conversations.” In addition to worry, bashfulness seemed to be an Integral Trait of hers.

“I got the impression during dinner that you and Pearl are acquainted,” he said.

“We met in London last Season. ”

Mercury smiled at her. “Pearl was one of the Aventine ghosts before she swapped to Lord Garston last year. We’re excited at the possibility of her returning for a time.”

“If Miss Huddleston trades me, how long would I stay here before I was swapped elsewhere?”

“That would depend a great deal on you,” he said. “Some brokers are very concerned with the swiftest overturn they can manage. I prefer calm and comfort to efficiency, which means waiting until a ghost is more than merely willing to swap but excited to do so.”

“You don’t coerce anyone?”

“Ghost or person,” he confirmed.

“I believe you, Mercury.”

Her repeat of his name pushed all of his thoughts back to her declaration when he’d first awoken. “You know about me before I became Mercury Raine?”

She nodded.

“How long before?” He, after all, did not know his entire story, and learning it would be very helpful. Orphans who knew their parentage could be freed from the tie to their orphanage. All obligations to the horrid governor of that institution would be severed.

“Long enough.” A cryptic and not overly helpful answer.

“Does Miss Huddleston know what you know about me?”

She shook her head.

“Does Mrs. Huddleston?”

Another shake of her translucent head.

“Then how do you?”

Her only answer was a smile, though not a threatening or sinister one. She stood, her feet a few inches off the ground.

“You won’t tell me what you know or how? ”

“I would like to stay at Aventine Manor,” she said. “I will tell you once this is my home.”

He stood as well. “I will do what I can.”

She floated back toward the wall but stopped before passing through it. She turned back toward him. “There are others who know bits and pieces of you.”

“Other ghosts?”

Granny Grey nodded. “And they are looking for you.”