I held up the bracelet to assess my purchase. It was very thin but the links had a pleasing shape to them, despite the coating of filth. "Would you clean it up for me please, Lucy?"
"Yes, Miss Chambers." She stretched out her hand as far as she could reach but leaned back slightly.
I handed her the bracelet without getting too close. "You may keep it if you like."
She gasped. "Oh, Miss Chambers!" Her fingers closed around the chain and she clasped it to her breast. "Really?"
I nodded. "Think of it as a welcoming gift."
Lucy thanked me, twice, then trotted down the hallway to the basement stairs.
"Do you intend to bribe her into not being afraid of you?" Celia asked when she was out of earshot.
I sighed. "Do you think it might work?"
"Yes, but only after several more gifts." She squeezed my hand. "And we cannot afford such extravagances. We can't really afford that bracelet but if it helps us send the demon back then I don' begrudge its expense. So now what do we do about the amulet woman?"
I sighed. "I don't know."
"But you're supposed to be a 'smart girl'," she teased, echoing the peddler.
"Stop it. I don't know what to do. I could ask Jacob."
She let go of my hand and her mouth tightened. "If you must."
"You don't want him here do you?"
She made her way into the front drawing room and beckoned me to follow. "I don't mind him," she said carefully. "I just worry about him coming and going so freely. None of the other ghosts have ever done so before."
"He's harmless, Sis, I guarantee it." If he'd wanted to harm me he would have had ample opportunity before now. He could have done anything to me this morning while I was asleep. Instead he just sat there, watching.
"I'm sure he is." She sighed and perched on the edge of the sofa. "It's just that...there's something unsettling about ghosts." She picked up her embroidery and began stitching. "Now understand, this is entirely from the point of view of someone who cannot see them, but...they have nothing to lose. Nothing to fear. The Bible tells us that we are judged in the Afterlife by our actions when we're alive. If that's true then what is to stop ghosts from doing wrong now they are dead?"
In a way it was what Jacob had said to me that morning. He and ghosts like him no longer had any fear of losing their lives or their reputations, and they didn't feel physical pain. So what was to stop them from doing everything they'd wanted to do during their lifetime but hadn't for fear of punishment either in this world or the next?