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1.
“So that’s more or less the filing system as we have it, but you should definitely feel free to change things up if you see a more efficient method you want to use. Any questions?”
Lockwood shut the drawer of the filing cabinet and turned to Holly. She’d been with them a week and he could already see what an invaluable addition to the company she was going to be. He was slightly concerned about Lucy’s reaction to her. She’d been acting odd, more aloof than usual and kept giving him looks whenever Holly said anything like she was expecting something of him, but he couldn’t imagine what it was. He hoped this was just a girl thing and they’d figure it out without any input from him.
“I expect I will have once I get into things, but for now this seems pretty clear,” said Holly. She gave him a pretty smile and Lockwood reflected that it would be nice to no longer be the only member of the agency who could muster a professional smile for clients.
“I did actually have another question, if that’s alright,” Holly said hesitantly.
“Of course, anything at all,” Lockwood said, beaming at her.
“Is um… is Lucy seeing anyone?”
Lockwood felt a frown creasing his brow. “You mean like… dating?” he asked.
“Well, yes,” said Holly. She was eyeing him through her lashes in a nervous kind of way.
Lockwood felt his stomach do a backflip. Was he that obvious? Had she already realized that he had feelings for their feisty Listener?
“No,” Lockwood said carefully. “She’s not dating anyone. Not as far as I know.” That was a bit of a half truth. Lockwood was certain that Lucy was not dating anyone. He kept far too careful track of her activities and whereabouts for that to be possible without his noticing.
“Oh, good,” said Holly, smiling shyly. “She’s um… she’s cute.”
Lockwood felt all the blood drain from his face. No that couldn’t… Lucy wouldn’t… Was that what he was picking up between them?
Holly’s eyes suddenly went wide, seeming to pick up on the panic that had gripped Lockwood.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean… If there’s a policy for no dating within the agency… I wouldn’t dream of violating…”
“No,” said Lockwood, his voice squeaking like he was thirteen again. “No,” he said again. “There’s no policy.”
But maybe there should be.
2.
Lockwood carefully observed the two girls interacting over the next few days. There was no denying that Lucy behaved differently around Holly than she ever had around him or George. She always seemed to be touching her hair or fiddling with the hem of her jumper. She was polite to Holly in a way he didn’t know she was even capable of. Yet there was always an undercurrent of tension that made Lockwood feel queasy.
“Good morning, Lucy!” Holly sung out, as Lucy entered the kitchen for breakfast a couple days later.
Lucy stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes going wide as they raked over Holly. Holly was wearing a particularly nice dress that day, black, with a low neckline that dipped beneath the pinafore she wore over it. Lucy glanced at him, then quickly away. A faint blush seemed to creep up her cheeks, turning them a beautiful petal pink.
She hurriedly slid into her seat as Holly set a mug of tea and plate of toast carefully down in front of her, smiling sunnily. Lucy immediately picked up the toast and took a big bite, chewing with great concentration.
“Uh oh!” said Holly in a sing-song voice. “Crumbs!”
Holly swept her hand across the tablecloth in front of Lucy, gathering up the toast crumbs with a big smile. Lockwood watched as the blush in Lucy’s cheeks deepened to a bright carmine.
Well shit.
3.
“George, can I ask you something?”
Lockwood and George were hanging out in the Library after a case the following evening. Lucy had wished them a surly good night and stomped up to bed an hour ago. George was immersed in a comic book and Lockwood was pretending to read a gossip rag, while playing the conversation with Holly over in his mind.
“Hmm?” George made a vague sound from behind his comic.
“Has Lucy seemed different since she got back from her trip?”
“Different?”
“Yeah,” Lockwood said, tossing down his magazine. “She’s been, I don’t know, moody, self conscious, uptight. I caught her checking herself in a mirror in the hallway the other day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her do that.”
“Hmm,” George repeated.
“George, are you even listening?”
“Not really, no.”
“You don’t think anything’s wrong with Lucy then?” he pressed. “You haven’t noticed her behaving strangely? Say around, Holly?”
He thought he heard a muffled sigh from behind the comic. “Just normal girl stuff, I guess.”
“And what does that mean, girl stuff?”
“That’s not really my area of expertise,” said George. “Maybe you should talk to Lucy about it.”
Lockwood considered what that conversation would look like. The mere thought made him cringe.
“I guess they share a lot in common, don’t they?”
“Who?”
“Lucy and Holly.”
“I guess.”
“But it’s not like Lucy’s ever had a girlfriend… is it?”
“Sure, that Norrie girl up North.”
“The one that was ghost-locked?” Lockwood asked, surprised.
“Yeah, her.”
Lockwood chewed on this for a while. He hadn’t realized that Lucy and Norrie were anything more than just friends. Best friends, sure, but not girlfriends. Then again, George seemed to have actually talked to Lucy more about her past than he had. Lockwood always tried to keep the past firmly in the past, his and everyone else’s. In his mental map, the past was covered with a big square that said ‘Here be ghosts!’
George finally let his comic fall down so he could see Lockwood’s face. “What’s really bothering you, Lockwood?”
“Nothing, George. Nothing at all.”
George gave a derisive snort and went back to his comic. George knew him well enough to know he was lying, but also enough to know not to push. He was grateful for George. Despite his habits concerning ghost jars and sagging waistlines. Still, thank God for George.
4.
Where the bloody hell was George?
It was the second night of the Wintergarden case and Lockwood was feeling a riot of emotions. He struggled to keep his feelings in check at the best of times, and this November had certainly not been the best of times. He’d felt the month drag on, seemingly forever, as he watched Lucy and Holly dance awkwardly around one another. It was excruciating.
Lucy was constantly casting him deer in headlight looks, as though afraid he would tell them to knock it off. He wanted to, oh how he wanted to. But he’d managed to keep his jealousy on a tight leash. As he so often did when faced with uncomfortable feelings, he threw himself into the agency. He was determined to get them onto the Chelsea outbreak. It would raise their stature and hopefully wipe the smug smile off Kipps’ face.
The Wintergarden case was a perfect opportunity. He needed to throw everything they had at it to ensure quick results, but George was still at the bloody archives, and that meant he’d needed to make the momentous decision of bringing in Holly. She had readily agreed to be an additional pair of eyes, kitting up with nary a whisker of hesitation.
Unfortunately, Lucy was clearly furious with him over it.
“I’m just worried for her sake, Lockwood,” she said with her usual intensity. “You felt the strength of the apparition last night. She’s a novice at this!”
Lockwood sighed internally. Maybe Lucy was right, maybe he was putting Holly in the way of undue risk. He could appreciate Lucy’s concern. For some reason, his eyes were drawn to Lucy’s lips as she spoke, pinched tight with worry.
“Well, you needn’t worry too much,” Lockwood said eventually. “Because I’ll keep an eye on her. She can stand with me in my circle.”
Lucy’s reaction to this statement all but confirmed his worst fears. Her eyes turned hot and dark with jealousy. He couldn’t take it. Like a coward, he turned and fled down the stairs.
It was only later, when he was lying in his bed, with Holly’s bandage wrapped tightly around his scalp, that Lockwood felt the guilt and the shame begin to eat at him. If he’d let Holly stay with Lucy, none of this would have happened. He’d put Lucy’s life in danger, and all for what? A stupid crush that he’d been fighting for almost a year. Either he’d missed his chance with Lucy, or she’d never been interested in him to begin with.
Thank God, Holly had been there to pull her back up onto the balcony. He’d been so desperate to reach her, he’d managed to knock himself out. Lucy would have fallen, if not for Holly. He would always be grateful to her for that. He vowed not to ever try to come between them again.
5.
Lockwood saw the world upside down. He could barely make sense of any of it. He tried to sit up, but found he was lying on an escalator, his head dangling off a step, his feet pointed toward the sky. He wiggled and waggled and did a strange, somersault like maneuver and finally the world was right side up again, but still failed utterly to make any kind of sense.
Aickmere Brothers was in shambles. The ridiculous tree had been torn asunder, leaves and branches scattered everywhere. The clothing racks were all topsy turvy. And in the middle of the floor, there was a great rip, a dark yawning chasm.
Oh no.
Lucy.
Lockwood stumbled down the steps, his back complaining, his legs wobbling. By the time he reached the bottom, Holly and George were pushing their way through the front doors, flashing their torches around wildly, their faces pale with worry. They spotted him as he stepped over the remnants of the tree and identical looks of relief washed over their faces.
“Lockwood,” George breathed. “You’re alright.”
“Where’s Lucy?” Holly asked, agitated. “Lockwood have you seen…”
Lockwood’s eyes were drawn to the pit in front of him. At the edge dangled her backpack, glowing faintly with the light of the ghost jar. Holly gave a little gasp, her hand flying up to her mouth. Lockwood felt sick. This was all his fault.
“This was all my fault!” Holly cried.
“You mustn’t blame yourself,” Lockwood said hollowly. That’s my job. His guilt and panic buzzed in his brain like annoying mosquitos, loud and distracting.
“No, but it was!” she wailed. “We had a big row, Lucy and I. I’ve just been so frustrated with her and she’s been so mean to me because she’s been jealous and angry that you hired me without even asking her. And she thought I was being condescending to her but I wasn’t. I was just trying to impress her, but it was useless because she only ever had eyes for you!”
“Your fighting attracted the poltergeist,” Lockwood said nodding, understanding coming slowly to his panicked brain. “She… wait what? What do you mean she had eyes for me?”
Holly blinked. She looked over at George. George looked at the ceiling, as though he’d find a sign that said “Patience — now 40% off!” plastered to it.
Holly looked back at Lockwood. “You do know that she’s madly in love with you, right?”
Lockwood shook his head. That didn’t make sense. That couldn’t make sense.
“But George said she’d had a girlfriend,” he protested.
”What? No I didn’t. I said she’d had a girl friend!” shouted George.
“But you…” he turned to Holly. “You asked if you could date her!”
“Well, yeah, that was before I realised what an arrogant, dismissive, boorish slob she was! And also that she was completely gaga about you.”
There was a silence, broken only by a mannequin suddenly rolling over, making them all jump.
“Sorry,” Holly muttered. “It’s been a long month.”
“Tell me about it,” Lockwood muttered.
On the one hand, Lockwood suddenly felt like a great weight had been lifted from his chest. If the poltergeist reappeared, Lockwood thought he could probably take it on all by himself. Lucy wasn’t in love with someone else! He hadn’t missed his chance!
Or had he?
Lockwood looked down into the pit. A gnawing fear ate at his heart. Lucy was down there, somewhere in the darkness. He just had to hope that she was still alive.
“Well,” he said, checking his rapier and his kit belt. “I guess there’s only one thing for it.”
“One thing for what?” George asked, staring at him hard. “Lockwood, you can’t be thinking of doing what I think you’re thinking of doing.”
Lockwood considered the dubiousness of George’s sentence structure for a heartbeat, then shook his head, giving it up as a bad job.
“Both of you, get outside and call DEPRAC, they ought to know that…”
“Kipps is calling them,” said George.
“Okay, well then keep an eye on Bobby and…”
“Kat is doing that,” said Holly.
“Lockwood please tell me you aren’t jumping into that pit to try to save Lucy,” George whined.
“Alright. I won’t tell you.”
George smacked himself in the face. Holly looked horrified. Lockwood gave them a cheery salute, then grabbed the side of the pit and swung down.
Wherever she was, Lockwood was going to find her. He was going to save her and tell here the truth about how he felt.
Probably.