[Refine, Respond]
Lu and I planned to leave Tregaron right after breakfast, it wasn’t the romantic weekend I’d hoped for, but we’d helped a friend and really that was more important. But there was still time for one last ravishing before breakfast. But just as I was about to initiate said ravishing, Doug cleared his throat. I’d forgotten that he and Daisy were here in the room with us. Fortuna smiled at me, that he cleared his throat when he did. Otherwise I might have died of embarrassment.
“Doug, did you need something?”
“Daisy said that the ghost of Lady Holland’s father wants to speak to her and to Jaq.”
“I’ll tell Jaq, this morning, but they’ve had a bad weekend, a murder, a betrayal they might not be ready to hear what he wants to tell them. Can it wait a week? We could come back next weekend after things have settled down.”
“Daisy said he’s waited sixty years, what if his daughter dies this week and he never gets the chance to apologize to her for his disappearance.”
“If he can’t hear me, please tell him that I will tell Jaq, this morning. But I will not tell Lady Holland, that’s a job for Jaq to do. I won’t shock an old woman to her death, I’ll leave it to her granddaughter to break it easily to her.”
I got up and put on my robe. This was not the romantic weekend I had hoped for. I walked down to Frida and Jaq's room and knocked softly. Frida answered.
“Hi Rose, did you want to talk about the sequel?”
“No Frida, I was hoping for a quiet word with Jaq.”
“Sorry Rose she left for the hedge maze about fifteen minutes ago, to meditate. I think this weekend made her ADHD flare up.”
“Thanks Frida I’ll see her at breakfast, hopefully. I have to relay a message to her, before I leave, would you mind telling her that.”
“You can tell me and I promise to tell her.”
“No this is one message I think she’ll want to hear from me, you can be there when I tell her, I just don’t want to push it off onto you.”
“Alright Rose I’ll tell her.”
“Thanks Frida.”
It dawned on me even if Doug and Daisy were in the bedroom Lu and I could still have a nice leisurely bath in private, maybe a little of the romantic weekend could still be salvaged. I walked back into the bedroom, no Lu, poked my head in the bathroom, no Lu.
“Doug, do you know where Lu went?”
“Yeah she went running, she said to tell you she'll be back in an hour.”
This was so not the romantic weekend I had planned.
Lu was in the shower, when the knock came on the bedroom door.
“Come in.”
“Hi Rose, Frida said you had something to talk to me about.”
“Yes Jaq, please come in and sit down, this might be a bit of a shock.”
“Ohh, you're replacing me with that other character you were talking about, aren’t you.”
“Most certainly not, Jaq, you are the star of the series.”
“Series, now you want to make a whole series?”
“Jaq, this isn’t about the story, it’s personal, it’s about you and Lady Holland.”
“We seem to be getting along a little better, don’t worry about us, Rose.”
“I’m glad to hear that but that’s not what I want to talk about, I want to talk about your great grandfather, Lady Holland’s father.”
“What about, Rose, he abandoned the family when my grandma was young.”
“He’d like a chance to explain, apologize, I’m not sure which or both possibly. He wants to talk to you and to Lady Holland. I told him, that I would relay the offer to you, but it’d be up to you, if you mention this to Lady Holland or not.”
“How do you know that it is him?”
“I don’t, he told Daisy who he was and Daisy told Doug and Doug told me.”
“Alright I need to think about this, I’ve been trying to pause before I commit to an important action. This feels like a major one.”
“Take your time, when Lu is done with her shower we’re going to have breakfast. Then a little later we’ll head for home. You can contact me any time. Doug, Daisy and I can jump back if that’s what you decide you want.”
Just then Lu came out wrapped in a towel, grabbed her clothes and retreated back into the bathroom to get dressed.
Stolen story; please report.
“Rose I’ll let you know before you leave, I just need a few minutes to process.”
“Understood, just a little unsolicited advice, if you do decide to talk, if it were me, I’d speak to him first before I involved my granny.”
“Thanks, and that’s exactly what I was thinking too.”
Lu and I went down and enjoyed a full English breakfast with Maz.
“Maz I have a proposal for you, I heard that you were going to destroy that ‘big ear’. I’d like to trade you for it, I’ll get it off your planet and lock it in our magical tower in Draco’s lair. Then if you had a use for it, it’d still be available to you, but it would be out of reach of any nefarious agencies here on Earth. I’d be happy to show you where we’d store it and you could see Draco’s lair in our world, you could watch the most amazing Gnome construction crew, I could introduce you to both a fey and a dwarf, copies of any books you might enjoy like an autographed first edition of Origin of the Species. If I ever apprehend anymore criminals, that would be the only use I put your invention to. If you don’t want to, I completely understand.”
“Is your tower as dangerous as the Eastern Tower?”
“No Maz, our tower isn’t dangerous at all, it’s our home, along with a couple young girls, Draco, Nathan McCracken lives there, I don’t know if you heard the story about him the acting troop and Paula Becker, it was in the news a month or two ago. Paula Becker used to live there but she is an apprentice baker now so she moved into our friend's bakery.”
“Can you introduce me to Paula Becker?”
“Sure, this afternoon if you want and bring Groucho if he promises to be on his best behavior. He’s lonely, stuck in his bedroom, but he can walk around in our world no problem. We don’t have any government labs or spy agencies.”
“Yes I’ll go get the ‘big ear’ and Groucho, do you have any other magical beings?”
Lu piped up. “I’m a werewolf.”
“Wow, that is just amazing.”
“Look Maz, why don’t you pack a bag for you and Groucho and both of you stay for a few days, we have plenty of room in the tower, and I can bring you back here, whenever you are ready. My boss Sparky would love to meet Groucho, he is a huge fan of chess. He and Draco play all the time.”
Just then Jaq and Frida walked in, Frida headed to the sideboard for tea and Jaq, headed straight towards us.
Maz hoped up and said. “We’ll be ready in half an hour Rose, do you want to meet here or in the barn?”
“Why don’t we come to the barn, Jaq might have something she wants me to do before I leave, so we’ll come to the barn and get you guys when we’re done, okay?”
“Great thanks, Rose.”
“See ya Maz.”
“What’s all that about?”
“Maz and Groucho are coming to stay with us for a few days, he’s going to let Draco guard that ‘big ear’ in his lair in our tower.”
“So Rose, that’s the real reason you came here this weekend to get some secret tech.”
“No, as I already stated many times, I came here for a romantic weekend with my girlfriend. But instead of getting to have a romantic weekend we got dragged into your drama, starting an hour after we arrived straight up to now, when I assume you want to tell what you want to do about the” whispered, “ghost.” “I thought we were becoming friends but you keep accusing me of things, I have nothing to do with. I didn’t know about that ‘big ear’ until last night, when it came in super handy. I understand why you want it destroyed. But if you need it again you’ll be happy Draco is guarding it. I assume that you at least trust Draco.”
“I’m sorry Rose, this weekend stressed me out. I could deal with the tower dangers because they didn’t threaten the people I care about who live here. This weekend just hit home, and I shouldn’t have blamed you for any of it, in fact I’m here to ask another favor.”
“It’s fine, I just want us to be friends, but it probably will be hard to do while we work on novels together. I had the same issue with Juliet, when I was just starting to write. And how can I help?”
“I’d like to talk to my great grandfather, I want to hear what he has to say. But I’m not sure about my grandmother.”
“Well isn’t that something that you two can talk over together, then you can decide what to do.”
“To be honest, I don’t know that I can actually trust that the ghost is my great grandfather. He could be anyone just making that claim.”
“My reply to that is why would he lie, just to mess with you? I don’t see any other reason he’d have to lie. What could he possibly gain? I think the only definitive way to tell would be for his daughter to test him. Then you’d know one way or another for sure if he is or isn’t your granddad. But I just thought of something else we can do. Come on, I need to collect Daisy and Doug.”
Lu, Frida, Jaq and I walked up to our bedroom, I put Doug and Daisy into my pocket and jumped us all to the library in our home.
“Daisy, are you still in contact with the ghost in Tregaron?”
Doug answered, “No Rose, contact likely cuts off at the border to the property and we’re in a whole different world.”
“Good, that's what I hoped for. How sincere do you believe the ghost to be? Is there a chance he’s lying about who he is?”
Doug said, “Of course he may be lying, but he genuinely seems to care for both the Lady and Jaq.”
“If Jaq does want to talk to him and you suddenly get a bad feeling about him or that he may be lying, can you just cut off the conversation, and most importantly are you going to be in danger being the middle person for this conversation.”
Doug replied, “No I won’t be in danger, but if I’m wrong and Doug senses something is off about me or the situation he can just tell you and if you jump us off the property, the connection will be severed, like if he tries to possess me.”
I said, “I’m not sure you should do this Daisy.”
Doug relayed, “Rose if you and Doug hadn’t helped me out, I’d still be stuck in the public library with no one to interact with, I’d be a cowardly being if I didn’t try to help out another ghost just because it may be dangerous. You went on a whole rescue mission to save me, how can I not take a small risk for a ghost in the same position.”
“Alright Daisy and I wasn’t going to stop you, I just want you to decide for yourself. Jaq it’s entirely up to you, I wanted to give you privacy but now I want to be there to jump Daisy and Doug, if something bad happens. Most people are good. I can only assume most ghosts are as well. My friend Daisy is certainly lovely.”
Jaq said, “Thank you Daisy and let’s do this Rose.”
I jumped us all back to our bedroom in Tregaron.
