“I like it when you call me Georgie.”

He was sitting on the stairs, about halfway up.

“Georgie the little ghost,” he said, grinning. “Who made the stairs squeak and the doors creak. I used to stand behind Nellie and read over her shoulder, when she was a small child. That was one of her favorites.”

“Georgie! I was worried about you!” Cally cried in relief, a little too loudly. She looked quickly around the Hall to make sure she hadn’t been overheard.

“Why?”

“Never mind. It’s just good to see you. How are you doing today?”

“I never do any differently from one day to another.” He shrugged. “Though I have finished reading The Lord of The Rings and most of All Creatures Great And Small.”

Cally realized she was going to have to download more e-books for him soon. “Well, I’m sure you’ve been watching all that’s been going on around here since last night,” she told him. “It turns out the White Lady was not really a ghost after all. I should have asked you in the first place.”

George laughed and stood up to come closer to the desk. The way he moved from place to place still made Cally’s stomach do flips. He didn’t seem to bother making sure his forward speed corresponded with the number of steps he took. “No, she was never a ghost,” George said. “Though she may be one someday.” He sat down on the corner of the desk.

“Do you mind if I ask you about some other things?” Cally said. “Like what happened to Bethany? Did you see what actually happened when she fell and got hurt? Where was Joan at the time? And... Ignacio, for that matter?”

“I don’t know the answers to most of those things,” he said. “I did see Bethany fall, but I didn’t see who unwound the chair and emptied the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. It must have been someone I don’t like, someone I don’t hang around much. Anyway I...” He looked around the Hall, out the front door and at the parlor and dining room doorways. “You see, I don’t have access to most of this house. I can come into this room, and I can go up and down the stairs and part of the hall up there. But I can’t even go into the south end of the upstairs hall. I can’t go very far from my zemi, you see.”

He had mentioned this zemi before. “What is that?” Cally asked him. “And why can’t you go far from it?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, yes, I am sure what my zemi is. My uncle made it for me when I was a little boy. So very long ago. It’s a sort of a talisman. A little carving of a god that is supposed to protect me. I always kept it with me, when I was at sea, and now it seems it is keeping me with it. Someone put it into the drawer of the desk, many years ago, and Isbel May, who was a very sweet person, bought the desk, and she had it put upstairs. I have lived here ever since.”

Cally could only think spending that many years in the same hallway and stairway must be a true purgatory of tedium, but she didn’t say so out loud. “I’m sorry, Georgie,” she said. “I really will have to write your story one day. Do you think if I moved your zemi around for you, you might be able to go other places? What does it look like?”

He seemed to be considering this, but finally said, “Maybe you shouldn’t touch it. I don’t know what would happen. We want to keep you safe. You aren’t here to save me; you are here to save Vale House.” He nodded solemnly, and this made a chill run down her spine.

“I can’t even imagine...” She paused as he put a finger to his lips. A car was pulling in to the parking area in front of the house. By the time Cally looked up at the sound, and then back to George, he had already vanished.

Charles and Mary Delaney carried their little white terrier up the porch stairs, while Ignacio followed behind with their luggage.

“Did you have any trouble finding us?” Cally asked as they presented themselves at the desk.

“Well. Twilight started barking just when we were about to pass the exit,” said Mr. Delaney, accepting the pen Cally handed him. “Otherwise, we might have gone right past without noticing it. It’s unusual, since she hardly ever barks at all,” he added, while the little dog strained at the end of its leash, barking at Doctor Boojums in the dining room doorway.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“We are on our way to Wilmington,” Mrs. Delaney told Cally, looking around the Hall in awe while her husband signed the register. “And then on to Savannah. Twilight, be quiet!” She reached down and picked the little dog up. “We are fascinated by southern architecture,” she explained as the dog continued barking.

“Mr. May would be delighted to talk to you about southern architecture,” Cally told them over the sound of the dog’s strident voice. She jotted a note to remind herself to ask Ian if he would have time to give them the architectural tour of Vale House later. Something heavy hit the inside of Joan’s office door, causing the dog to look around and stop barking for approximately two seconds. “Would you prefer a haunted or non-haunted room?”

This earned her a blank stare, and Cally regretted her flippancy. “It’s a popular local legend,” she explained. “Some people are very into it. I assure you, all of the rooms are beautifully decorated.”

She gave them the key to the Cala Lily room. Ignacio carried their bags upstairs, and Mrs. Delaney carried the little dog Twilight, which did not want to leave the Hall and its ghostly entertainment.

Cally had not had any lunch, and it was almost dinner time. She put the phones into night mode and carried her computer up the stairs. George was not there, but Doctor Boojums was sitting on the butler’s desk, washing his paws.

“Are you learning how to read, now, too?”

The old tom gave her a sideways look with his gray tongue still hanging out. Cally tiptoed to the desk, looking around her to make sure George wasn’t anywhere nearby. The cat held his ground while she slid the desk drawer open as silently as she could. If George showed up, she thought, she could tell him she was just getting the e-reader to add more books to it. It wouldn’t really be a lie – though she wondered if it was even possible to lie to a ghost.

Her e-reader was still there, buried under the stationery with which she had covered it. Above the drawer was a row of pigeonholes, each with its own tiny door, and these she opened one at a time. Most of them were filled with the usual bric-a-brac found in old desks: pencils in need of sharpening (but no pencil sharpener,) handle-less coffee mugs full of foreign coins and bent paper-clips, watches that had not worked in years and broken porcelain figurines eternally awaiting glue.

Cally moved aside a small bundle of yellowed note-cards with kittens on the covers and saw the compartment behind it filled with an assortment of orphaned buttons and brittle rubber bands. Nested amidst these was a small wooden triangle, about four inches from point to point, which had been carved so that each edge of the triangle bore a face. Each face in turn bore a completely different expression, though only one of them looked human. The carving was old and cracked, but worn smooth as if it had once been handled frequently. Cally thought if anything in this house could be called a zemi, that would be it. She was careful not to touch it, but replaced the note cards over it and quietly closed the little door.

“Don’t rat me out,” she told the cat, who had curled up next to the lamp and was regarding her with one eye. “And don’t knock the lamp down,” she added as she turned away to put her head inside the door of the Daffodil Room.

Her heart rose to her throat when she saw the bed was empty. Turning back to the door, she took a deep breath to shout down over the Gallery railing for help, but before she could form words, she heard the door of the adjoining bathroom open behind her. Bethany emerged, swaying unsteadily but smiling. Cally let out her breath and ran to the woman, hugging her with relief.

“Careful!” Bethany cried out, wincing.

“Bethany, you scared the willies out of me! You’re not supposed to get out of bed by yourself.”

“It’s fine,” Bethany assured her, though she did lean heavily on Cally’s arm as she was led back to the bed. “I feel a hundred percent better.”

“Really? A hundred percent?”

“Well, ninety. Eighty-five, maybe? It did hurt to get up. A lot!” She stopped at the side of the bed. “But I am tolerating the medicine better. I haven’t felt nearly so loopy today. And it really is helping with the pain, now. Would you tattle to Doc if I just sit in the chair awhile instead of getting into bed right away?”

Cally realized Bethany was tolerating the medicine better because she was finally taking the right medicine, but she didn’t say so out loud. She reluctantly helped Bethany into the chair beside the bed, feeling her flinch with every movement. The older woman sighed with contentment when she was settled. “It just feels so good to have a clean face and combed hair for a change,” she said. “Cally, I hadn’t brushed my teeth in three days! You know, what I would really love is a nice, hot shower.”

“Bethany Chase! Absolutely do not attempt to take a shower without Kat or me to help you!”

Bethany remembered not to laugh. “You worry too much. I’m going to have to get back to work sometime, you know,” she pointed out. “Poor Kat is run ragged.”

“But you are not going to get back to work tonight.”

“No, not tonight,” Bethany agreed.

Cally made an effort to ease the tense expression from her face. After all, Bethany was unaware of what was really worrying her so much, and Cally thought it best to keep it that way until Bethany was well and truly back on her feet. She moved the iced tea glass, some magazines, and the telephone to the side of the night stand closest to the chair so Bethany could reach them without twisting. “Just next time please call someone to help you. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“And no showers!”

“I do solemnly swear I will take no showers without both you and Kat hovering around and taking pictures to put on the interwebs.”

“What on earth?” Katarina was just coming in the door with a dinner tray. Cally left Bethany trying awkwardly to explain, without laughing, the conversation of which Katarina had only heard the tail end.