pleasant shiver down her spine.
“Now that reminder was uncalled for, Meredith.”
She half-laughed, half-snorted. “I should head back down the hill and practice leading tour groups a few more times. I’ll show up at the saloon once my cabinmates are asleep, sometime around midnight. You can tell me more about your situation.” She tapped her phone’s alarm app. “See? I’m setting my alarm.”
“That would be grand. I shall await your arrival there. Did you know Garretsville once had thirteen saloons, and a thousand souls made their home here?”
“I didn’t know about the saloons, but I have visited Garretsville’s school and church. You’ll have to tell me more.” She stood up, dusted off the seat of her jeans, and grabbed her water bottle.
She smiled at the friendly ghost who’d distracted her out of her self-pity. “See you later, Daniel,” she said as she strode off. How weird was it that she’d been comforted by a ghost? Usually it was the other way around.
3
The very instant Meredith MacCarthy had arrived in Garretsville Daniel had felt a tug the likes of which he’d never before experienced. Without so much as a glimpse of her, he’d been drawn into the beautiful woman’s orbit. So here he sat in Keoghan’s Saloon, awaiting her arrival in the dead of night.
How had he sensed her arrival at all? Ghosts didn’t feel the presence of the unseen living like the living sensed the presence of the unseen dead. Might it be the fae blood running through Meredith MacCarthy’s veins had called to him? His own granny had been gifted with the sight. Perhaps he too carried a wee bit of fae dee-an-ay, whatever that might be. Perhaps on some level he sensed she might be able to free him from this hell, and that is what drew him to her.
The entire day he’d drifted along in Meredith’s wake, pulled as if attached to her like a wee child in leading strings. She truly was lovely, with her honey colored hair, wide gray eyes, and shapely feminine form. Her rainbow aura shone brightly with the goodness of her heart and soul.
When she’d been sad earlier, he’d been struck by a powerful need to offer comfort. He’d longed to make her smile, and when she had, the grief and anger he always carried with him diminished. For a short while he’d basked in her warmth, and now he craved more of the same.
He’d kept enough distance between them all day to prevent her from shivering from the cold or shuddering from the horror of his presence. Aye, he’d been aware from the start the effects he and the linger of ghosts in Garretsville had on the living. The revulsion, the shivers, shudders, and the fear nearly broke his heart—or would have if he still had functioning internal organs. He didn’t deserve those reactions. It was no fault of his own his life had been cut short, nor had he chosen to become a scáil to haunt Garretsville.
Though most of his companions denied being dead, he never had. The others carried on as they always had in life, working their claims, drinking and gambling—even visiting the few ghostly whores who’d remained earthbound. Daniel had fully realized his own miserable situation from the moment his life had been brutally taken. He’d do anything to break the chains that bound him.
Phantom candles and kerosene lamps lit the interior of the saloon. The pianist tapped out a lively tune, and the men and ladies of the night gambled and drank. When death had still been new to him, he too had sought comfort in pretending. The resulting hangover had been one of heart-rending regret for the life he’d never live. He’d never experience the love of a good woman or hold his wee children in his arms. His biggest regret though was that he’d never own that dreamed-of home where he might bring his family back together to begin anew.
Because of his foolishness, his dear mother, brother, and sister had likely remained destitute for the rest of their lives. He’d wept buckets of bitter ghostly tears over that fact, and perhaps he would continue doing so for all eternity. Was this purgatory after all?
The door creaked open, and Meredith entered, awash in the very real golden light from the lantern she held aloft. The heart he no longer had flipped in his chest and all thought deserted him. He stood up from his chair. Meredith smiled as she caught sight of him, and he swore