with you.”
“Nonsense!” Mina huffed. “Reuben quite mistook the matter. We did not quarrel and Nye will know I was not remotely distressed.”
“Shut the bitch’s mouth, or I’ll do it for her!” Reuben interrupted them in a low growl.
Mina glanced curiously at Gus’s face. It was clear that he gave the orders, for he had instructed Reuben to abduct her. Yet for some reason, Reuben seemed to forget this in the face of Gus’s affability. It was almost like he was taken in by the ‘salt of the earth’ act and forgot that was just a mask the older man wore. Having seen it slip, Mina knew she would not forget Gus’s real face in a hurry.
Gus seemed to notice her scrutiny, for he gave her a sly wink before sauntering over to Reuben and dealing him a vicious blow across his face. Reuben reeled and was forced to clutch at the rockface of the wall to keep standing upright. “Now Reuben, my lad,” said Gus in his kindly tone, rocking back on his heels. “I’ll not say it again. You’ll keep a civil tongue in your head around Mrs. Nye. I’m the one gives you your orders and not t’other way about.”
Reuben’s face turned a dull, ugly red. He choked back the angry words that sprang to his tongue and turned away to retreat skulking into the shadowy distance.
“Don’t you mind him,” said Gus jovially. “He’ll toe the line alright,” Mina said nothing, for in truth she was far more frightened of Gus than she would ever be of Reuben. “Just think, Minnie my girl,” Gus sighed, pulling out his tobacco pouch. “You’ll very likely end up another ghost story, like the one I told you about those dastardly monks.” He twinkled at her like a kindly uncle. There was something truly horrible about it.
“I’ll probably be a good deal more romantic and tragic in the re-telling,” she managed to joke feebly.
He chuckled. “Ah yes. You’ll be beautiful as the day, with a crude brute for a husband. The quintessential wronged wife, no less.” He transferred some tobacco to the bowl of his pipe with his thumb.
“No doubt a gray lady,” Mina forced herself to expand on the theme. “The ladies are usually gray I find, when forced to roam the earth weeping and wringing their hands.”
Nye nodded, removing his pipe from his mouth to consider this. “Very true,” he rumbled. “Tis a pity you’ve not a spectral hound to keep you company, so it is.”
“I will not haunt the cliff, though,” she assured him. “Instead, I would haunt you.”
He paused a moment in the act of striking a match. “Would you now?” He chuckled again. “I believe, if it were in your power you would.”
“Naturally, my afterlife would be in my power,” she told him coolly.
“Well,” Reuben said, holding the flame to his pipe. “I’ve had a few wives you know, and most of them swore vengeance on me at the last.” His eyes glazed over as if in fond memory. “The one I prized best of all, ah she spat in my face that she’d be revenged with her last breath. Such a spitfire she was, my Jenny! But she never troubled me, after I’d put her in the ground. Never heard so much as a peep from her.” He shrugged.
Mina stared at him. “How many wives have you had?” she croaked.
Gus cocked his head as if considering. “Well, five give or take. A couple of them was only common-law so to speak,” he said cagily.
“You killed them?” Mina heard herself ask faintly.
He shook his head. “My Lucinda she died in childbirth and the babe with her. And Connie, she was always nesh. Fever fetched her off. But as for the other three…” He let the words dangle and shot her a sly look.
“I don’t believe you,” Mina said obstinately, and Gus laughed. “It’s no different to your other fairy tales. I knew you lied about the monks,” she said obstinately.
“Lied? Not a bit,” he rumbled but Mina only shook her head.
“Spectral monks? I think not. And I know who Grayking was, even if you do not.” He lifted his bushy eyebrows at her in query. “He was a goose, not a saint.”
Gus removed his pipe again and stared at it a moment. “Well now,” he said ponderously. “Stranger things have happened. I have heard tell that there were dogs sainted at one time and even a woman once made pope.”
“Fancy that,” Mina said sarcastically, and he chuckled