The Groundskeeper: My Ghoul by Sanderson Cedar

Author:Sanderson, Cedar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

8

DELLA SPEAKS

Chloe kept her foot hard on the pedal, accelerating recklessly, until they had popped out onto the street, and then had to brake sharply to make the turn into the narrow cemetery gate. Only once they were back inside the cemetery did she slow.

“Uh.” She looked over at her boss. “What just happened?”

“Do you still feel a need to return to that house?”

She shook her head hard enough to whack herself in the face with her ponytail. “No. Not at all, in fact, never again.”

“Good. Lock the gate, please.”

She stopped the cart, then backed it up until she was close enough to walk back to the gate, cautiously. There was no urge to go beyond it, and she realized as she turned the key in the old lock that just this small action made her feel much better. An iron gate wouldn’t stop a ghost, so what it was eluded her for the moment.

When she returned to Mr. Cruor, who had stayed quietly in the cart, he was looking past her, out through the iron swirls and motifs of the gate.

“They could come through the gate, right?”

“In theory.” He kept his vigil, not looking at her while he talked to her. “Practically speaking, I don’t think they will venture far from their nest. Please take us back to the main office, Miss Brandt.”

Chloe, her legs feeling a little wobbly now that she was past whatever that had been, climbed back into the driver’s seat. “Yes, sir.”

They wound through the newer part of the cemetery, which meant the last grave had been dug and filled here perhaps fifty years before. This section still had regular visitors, so Chloe had focused her clean-up efforts on this part, the lowest part of the hilly terrain, when she had been hired. Her months of hard work had paid off with a much neater space around them. Gravestones stood in mowed, smooth green, instead of hidden beneath waves of prairie-like growth, and the shrubs had been cut back into a more controlled growth.

“You have done a very good job, Miss Brandt.” Mr. Cruor seemed to have shaken off the unpleasantness of the wraiths, and was now looking around with an expression of mild interest. “Working alone, which makes it all the more impressive.”

“Um. Thank you?” Chloe wasn’t sure what to say. She never knew how to respond to compliments. “It’s what you hired me to do. I think...” She wasn’t entirely certain, after the last few adventures.

“Oh, it was. However, I believe you will understand when I say that I was unsure of your fitness for the position at first.”

“I’m a girl,” she shrugged.

“A young woman,” he corrected gently, “and a very capable one. This would require a team, you realize, to fully maintain.”

“I know.” She let out a deep sigh. “It’s not even close to what it should be, but at least you’ve given me all the equipment to make it easier.”

“Less expensive than hiring unreliable workers,” he pointed out. “Or risking insubordination that would have brought harm to you.

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