Lark didn’t like surprises, and Noah was the second of two I’d just sprung on her. The first being that I could tether to another ghost. It wasn’t a big deal. Not like Noah could come here without me afterward. It wasn’t that easy either, though the fact that it was almost Halloween helped. It also helped that I was me. I could do things that other ghosts couldn’t, and what was the point of it if I didn’t take advantage on occasion? All I had to do was share a little of my energy with the other spirit.
I knew from the look on Lark’s face that she was going to have a lot to say to me later, and I admit that I felt a little guilty, but I was allowed to have my own life, wasn’t I? Maybe life wasn’t the best word. I was allowed to have something of my own. Did she think being invisible and mute to the people she called “our” friends was fun for me?
Lark jerked her head—which was covered by a reddish-blond wig that looked like she’d sustained a major head wound—toward a doorway that led to a quiet corridor. If she intended to give me a hard time, she was in for a surprise. I was ready to fight it out with her, and I couldn’t blame the sudden aggression entirely on Halloween. I rarely told Lark how to behave, but she was always ordering me about like a dog.
“Come meet my sister,” I said to Noah, tugging on his hand. He was the most handsome of any of the boys there, I thought a little smugly. It was just too bad that I couldn’t show him off to anyone but Lark.
“This is extraordinary,” Noah remarked, his head slowly turning from side to side as he took everything in. “There aren’t any chaperones. In my day this amount of young men would never be allowed to socialize with these young ladies without supervision. It would be ruinous for the females, their very virtue called into question.”
I loved the way he spoke, the words he used and how they rolled off his tongue. I held his arm as we followed after my sister. “Are you telling me that you never managed to sneak off with a girl at a party?” I teased. “Never stole a secret kiss?”
He smiled coyly. “Maybe once. Or twice.” The smile faded. “But still, had we been caught, there would have been serious consequences.”
“Would you be grounded?” Our parents had subjected Lark to such a punishment once for insisting I was real despite all their attempts to make her say otherwise. We were ten at the time.
“Grounded?” he repeated. “I’m not familiar with the term. No, we would have been forced to marry. I would have been duty-bound as a gentleman to save her reputation.”
Married! I tried to think of Lark having to marry Ben because they’d been caught making out in his car. My sister would probably rather have her reputation ruined than be forced to do anything—even if it was something she might enjoy.
“Did that happen a lot?” I asked, swerving to avoid walking through a girl wearing a ridiculously skimpy costume. She shivered as I passed. I resisted the urge to run a finger down her spine just to watch her do it again.
“Occasionally.” He nodded at the girl. “I remember when women wore more clothing than that to go swimming. The world has changed so much since my death.”
There was a sadness to his voice that made me want to hug him. I squeezed his arm instead, drawing another one of his smiles. “Do not worry yourself about me, Miss Wren. It happens to all of us eventually—whether we be living or spirit.”
We crossed the threshold into the corridor where my sister paced. She was halfway down the length of the hall when she stopped, back stiffening. I didn’t know how she sensed us, but she did. She always did. She pivoted sharply on her high heels and stomped toward me.
“She looks ill-tempered,” Noah remarked.
Lark shot him a glare. “And you look like a butler.”
I don’t know which surprised him more—the insult or the fact that she had heard what he’d said. Noah had said he’d heard of me before, so I assumed he knew about Lark as well, but he obviously didn’t know as much as I’d thought.
“She can see me?” he asked, incredulous.
“Even when it’s not Halloween, Mr. Darcy,” Lark retorted.
I frowned at her. “Don’t be rude.”
She looked as though she could cheerfully punch me. What was wrong with her? She needed to get over it, and quickly.
“Noah’s my friend,” I informed my sister. “I asked him at the last moment to come with me so I can talk and dance with someone who isn’t you. Someone who can see me. Someone I can touch.”
Lark’s expression could only be described as annoyed contrition. She wasn’t happy about the situation, and I knew part of that was because she distrusted any ghost that wasn’t me. I couldn’t blame her—she had an awfully violent history with many of my kind—but Noah wasn’t like that.
“You should have told me,” she said. “What if someone sees the two of you? It’s too close to Halloween for surprises.”
“What if someone does see us?” I asked. “You’ve spent most of your life trying to prove that I’m real.”
She looked surprised at the question. “Because I don’t know what people would do to us if they figured it out.”