Page 7 of The Legend of Lovers Hollow
“Not quite, old girl.” I shake my head.
“Old?” she squawks, tone indignant.
Ignoring her, I continue. “As you are all well aware, despite my great-nephew returning to the fold, the hotel is still in danger of closing. Not to mention that we still have that Stanley fellow sniffing around, just waiting to report us to the stiffs in charge of hauntings. Which is ridiculous, by the way. What we do in the privacy of our own estate is really none of their business.”
“Regardless,” Skid interrupts, “you may not like it, and I’m usually the first one to say fuck the rules, but they do have the power to kick all us ghosts out of here. Then what will happen to Ellis and the others? It’s our responsibility to look out for them.”
“That’s so gallant of you.” Edwina gazes at the punk lad with somewhat starry eyes.
“It’s just the decent thing to do, Eddy.” Skid smiles at her, his lip piercing glinting in the low light. “We need to figure out a way to help them keep the hotel running.”
“Exactly!” Roger pipes up. Muttering curses, everyone shifts again, and he shimmies his way through the tightly packed group to reach my side. “We’ve come up with a way to help the fleshies.”
“And how is that?” Skid smirks.
“I’m glad you asked.” I take a moment to glare at Plume for getting us off track. “Ellis and Rosie have organised a ghost-hunting weekend and we’ve got new guests arriving today. This weekend is Valentine’s weekend and also the anniversary of the Legend of Lovers Hollow.”
“Lovers Hollow?” Plume repeats. “What’s that?”
“It’s a very famous local legend,” Edwina says dreamily. “It’s so romantic.”
“Tragic, you mean,” Roger replies.
Edwina pouts. “It’s both.”
“Can someone please explain?” Plume scowls.
“The way I heard it, the lady of the house was having an affair, her husband killed her in a jealous rage, then her lover killed her husband,” Skid says. “Isn’t that right, Bertie?”
“I heard that the lover killed the husband and then ran off with the lady,” Admiral Hilary says gruffly.
“No.” Roger frowns. “They definitely all died.”
“Doesn’t matter how it happened. What’s this got to do with us?” Skid frowns.
“Ellis and the others are basing the whole theme of this weekend on the legend. They’re putting on a play written by that Pennington chap, and they’re having a ghost hunt to the hollow were the unfortunate trio were said to have met their tragic and bloodthirsty demise. Oh, and they’re also throwing a Valentine’s party in the ballroom on the last night.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Plume says.
“We are going to give the fleshies exactly what they came for.” Roger rubs his hands together with glee. “We’re going to give them a full-on haunting.”
“Stanley’s not going to like that.” Admiral Hilary huffs. “Need I remind you that it was the Murder Mystery Weekend debacle that brought down the Bureau’s wrath in the first place.”
“That’s why we need to keep him occupied and out of the way,” I state with aplomb.
“So we can do what, exactly?” Skid asks.
Roger rolls his eyes. “Haunt, of course.”
“Yeah, gonna need something a bit more specific.”
“We’re going to have to step up the normal ghostly happenings: doors opening on their own, objects moving, that sort of thing. We’re putting Arthur in charge of that. Despite only being a lad, he has a real knack for rearranging the furniture while the fleshies aren’t looking. However, everyone needs to pitch in.”
“Tell them the best part, Bertie.” Roger jiggles with excitement, well as much as he can in the confined space.
“On Valentine’s night, we’re going to put on a full-on ghostly reenactment of the murders for the ghost hunt. Give those guests something toreallytalk about.”
“Reenactment?” Plume says slowly, and I nod.