WILLOW MANOR

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Well now, sleepyheads." Archie pretended to be irritated. "I thought you'd all decided to sleep through breakfast, and no one thought to tell me."

"Sorry, Archie." Katie turned her cup over and helped herself to some coffee. "We all had a very late night."

"Yes." Walter sat down and reached for his cup, as well. "It was very eventful."

"A ghost tried to drown Delia." Blake grabbed a cup, but no one filled it. He frowned and reached for the orange juice instead. "And then our mother's ghost came and kicked her ass—butt."

"Language." Katie warned. She smiled at the other two children as they entered the room.

"You weren't there, Blake!" Delia slid into her chair and grabbed a strawberry from the bowl. "Archie, I saw Mommy last night!"

"That's what I heard." Archie seemed confused. He looked at Katie and Walter.

"It's true." Walter shrugged and laughed. "I never would have believed it until I saw it with my own eyes."

"Miss Gallagher blasted Arabella away with her laser hands." Delia told him.

Archie looked at her curiously. "Is that so?"

"Now, children." Walter shook his head and laughed. He turned to Archie, excited. "I believe, with all my heart, that the ghost of my wife appeared last night and saved Delia from an angry spirit—the same one that killed my sister and tried to take your grandson, Elvin."

Archie sat down, his face paled. "You all saw that?"

"I saw it, too." Bill came into the dining room and sat. He began loading his plate with bacon. "It was her, all right."

"She looks just like I remembered." Clarissa said.

"Prettier." Blake corrected.

"Well, that's something." Archie nodded. "It takes a powerful spirit to appear around so many people."

"What do you mean?" Katie asked softly. The others were busy chatting away about their shared experience last night.

"The living project life." Archie explained. "And life is a natural barrier to death. That's why ghosts don't appear all the time, or to a lot of people at once. It just takes too much energy. That's why ghosts only appear to one person usually. And why no one ever believes that person."

Katie nodded. It had seemed that Mrs. Barrington's energy—what she had drawn from Grandma and maybe from Katie, too—seemed to burn off quickly. She must have really wanted to have her whole family together one last time.

"Bill salted and burned Arabella's bones." Katie glanced across the table at Bill and smiled. "Hopefully that keeps her gone."

"That seems like something you got from that TV show about those brothers." Archie raised one eyebrow. "How do you know that will work?"

Bill shrugged. "We'll know soon enough, I guess."

**

Katie knocked on the door of the study and opened it part way. Walter was inside, sitting at his desk. He stared at the empty fireplace, but his expression was calm, peaceful.

"Mr. Barrington, are you alright?" She stood in the doorway. "It's been kind of crazy."

"Yes." He smiled and turned to her. "Yes, it most certainly has been that."

She shrugged. "I gave the children the day off today. They're so tired. They were up most of the night."

"Yes. Good." He sharpened his gaze on her. "You should take some time, too."