The Ghost Bride by Stacey Keystone

Author:Stacey Keystone [Keystone, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781839880049
Publisher: Ellauri Press

15

The house knew. I followed the path it showed me, towards what looked like a huge cupboard in one of the rooms. Then I grabbed a chair, stood on it, and introduced my hand into the half-inch gap between the cupboard and the ceiling. It seemed like that gap shouldn't have existed, but the bit of wood covering it had been carefully removed to create that hiding place. I couldn't introduce my hand there, because it was too big. Only a child could put their hand inside.

"I think I might need a stick or something," I said, "to take it out."

The house, eager to help, just pushed the book out for me, and I took it, extending it to Azrikam. Who was staring at my feet.

"Why aren't you wearing shoes?" he asked.

By standing on my tiptoes like this, I had uncovered my feet, the long, wide skirt and petticoats that hid them dangling in the air.

I stepped down from the chair, extending him the book. 'The tales of the Dragons', a book I'd been reading to Bevan when he'd been having trouble sleeping. I think I've read it around twenty times by now, but Bevan wasn't too keen on me changing the book.

"Is this the book?" I asked, offering it to him again.

He stared at the worn, discolored cover, and sighed.

"It is," he said. "Judging by the place you found it in, Mahalat must have hidden it from me. He liked to play games like that. I suspected him at the time but could never prove it. Why are you not wearing shoes?"

He wasn't going to let go of the shoe question, was he?

"I just felt like it," I said. "I didn't want to wear shoes in this house."

He stared at my thick, navy skirt, where, under many layers of other skirts, I was barefoot. Why does he care so much, anyway?

"Great," he said. "Just great."

I wanted to go back to the initial point I was trying to make in this conversation.

"Look," I said, "I was saying the truth before. I don't need to live here, I don't need your surname, I don't need your money, or you. I would like to talk to grandpa from time to time, and maybe visit, but if you're really against it, I won't."

"You don't get a choice about that," Azrikam shrugged. "And neither do I. Father is right. You're a Morad by blood and magic right and acknowledging your surname only changes things on paper. Anybody who sees you will see you're a Morad, anyway. We should acknowledge it, or we'll look foolish denying it."

"But you don't like it," I said.

"It doesn't matter whether I like or not," Azrikam said. "I don't decide here. Even father doesn't make this decision. The house does."

"I'll be glad to have you living with us, Amy," grandpa said.

"Father is quite sentimental," Azrikam said. "It broke his heart to kick Mahalat out, even after everything he did."

"He was my son," grandpa said. "Murderer or not, he was my son.

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