The Right to Remain Single by Barbara Monajem

Author:Barbara Monajem
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-06-30T21:00:00+00:00

* * *

Warily, James eyed the ghost’s bizarre pantomime.

“Oh, he’s back! I feared he would not return for a while,” Thomasina said. “When he becomes too enraged, he vanishes, and sometimes he’s gone for ages.”

“Perhaps he temporarily loses the power to make himself seen and heard.” James wished Max weren’t quite so easy to see at the moment.

“You were right, he does celebrate Saturnalia,” Thomasina said. “I never really listened before, seeing as I didn’t understand Latin, but he says that—what he just said—a great deal at this time of year, and he dances, too.”

Hopefully not as obscenely as he’s doing right now, James thought grimly. He tucked her hand in his arm and turned her toward the house. “Let’s go.”

The ghost appeared in front of them, humping the air and making crude gestures with his hands.

“Stop it, Max,” James said in Latin. “I understand what you’re asking me to do, but I cannot.”

The ghost’s mouth dropped open. He groaned. “You are impotent?”

At first James didn’t understand the word the ghost used, but another gesture from Max made it clear. “No, of course not.” He moved to leave, hoping the ghost would let be, but Thomasina held back.

“He’s trying to tell you something,” she said. “We shouldn’t be rude.”

The ghost was the rude one, but James didn’t intend to enlighten her. “He wants us to join in—in Saturnalia celebrations with him.”

“Oh, how sweet. Hurray for Saturnalia!” She smiled at Max and blew him a kiss, which he caught in his ghostly hand. Then he mimed to her, indicating she should kiss James again.

She laughed, blushed, and obeyed. Growling a little with frustration—for he longed to do precisely what Max suggested—James kissed her back.

“She wants you,” Max hissed in James’s ear. “What in the name of Jupiter and all the gods is stopping you?”

James broke the kiss and glared at the ghost. “Proper behavior. She is not my wife.”

“Take her to bed, and she will be.” He mimed sweeping Thomasina off her feet and laying her in the snow, and then proceeded to demonstrate exactly what she and James should do.

Thomasina put her gloved hands to her stinging cheeks. “Oh, heavens. Is he…?”

“Yes, that’s precisely what he,” James said, and this time she let him escort her away—after a brief, fascinated glance at the ghost.

“He wants you to go to bed with me?” Must she sound so pleased about it?

“Yes,” he grumped.

“Is that what Saturnalia was about?”

“It was like any other celebration that gets out of hand,” James said austerely. “Dancing, drunkenness, et cetera.”

She giggled. “You needn’t sound so starchy. He just wants us to join in the fun.”

The ghost was right behind them, muttering Coward! in James’s ear. “That may be part of it, but…”

“But what?”

He resigned himself to the truth—or at least a portion of it. “He says you are in danger. He insists that I must protect you.”

She made a face. “Poor Max. He rescued me from Sam once before, but maybe he fears being unable to do so again.

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