The Ghost Bride Read online

  The last sentence he said with way less amusement. It seemed like he feared that.

  "Just because I don't want to marry you," I said, "doesn't mean I'd like to marry one of your brothers. I don't even know any of them. Don't worry about that."

  "Promise me you won't stay alone with any of them," Martinus said, stopping to look me in the face.

  "I don't even know who they are," I said, "so I don't think I can promise such a thing. But you should know that I'm not eager to get any other suitor. I'm too young to have kids, and, since contraception doesn't work, I'll wait until I have a career."

  That cheered him up, somehow.

  "That's good," he said. "I'm not sure I want to have kids either. We can wait."

  "There's no we," I said, "but you can wait and I can wait to have kids. Separately. With other people."

  "Have you decided what career you'll have?" he asked me, changing the topic.

  "Well," I said, "considering I won't be able to do any magic, I should do something non-magical."

  "You'll be able to do magic," Martinus said, with a level of confidence that felt unwarranted.

  "You've seen it," I said. "I can barely do anything in Practical Magic."

  "The Academy focuses on much higher standards than necessary for the use of magic," Martinus said. "And unnecessary for the level you have. You don't need that much control to do magic. Not for the simpler stuff."

  "And how do you suggest I learn this magic?" I asked.

  "By doing it," Martinus shrugged. "Come to my home on the weekend. I'll help you learn some practical magic. It will be decent, I promise. My mother will be there."

  "Why are you being so helpful and nice?" I asked.

  "Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "That's because I'm courting you. And while I publicly declared you're my fiancée to scare other men away, I have to admit it wasn't the best move on my side. I care about you. I want you to like me."

  Apologizing was a vast improvement on his previous behavior. But still…

  "What other men?" I asked. "I'm hated by my ghost classmates, thanks to you, by the way, and it's not like any of your snobbish friends would even look at me twice. I'm a poor scholarship student, after all."

  "Oh, they'd appear. Trust me. Maybe not seriously, but I don't want you to get a lover, either. But once I made clear my intentions are serious, nobody would dare approach you with some indecent proposal."

  Was this a compliment? If it was, it was a rather offhand one. Suggesting I'd only ever attract a man as a lover… It's not like I want to get married, but I do think I am worth it.

  "You need to work on your flirting skills," I said.

  "I'll make an effort for you," Martinus said… And shut up. We just walked.

  I got tired of walking soon, so Martinus took me to a musical cafe, one where they served high tea and a string quartet played background music. I just sat there, relaxing, listening to live music, with Martinus seating beside me. At some point, I felt an arm around my shoulder. I tensed for a moment, feeling the hand wander away, but then relaxed and leaned on him, a bit, placing my head on his shoulder.

  "You're so much nicer when you aren't with your friends," I murmured. "I almost start liking you."

  I felt the shoulder under my head moving, as he adjusted his arm to hug me better. He said nothing.

  Why did I do this? Well, I'm alone in an unfamiliar world, I only have one friend, and Martinus seemed so… approachable in that moment. So relaxed.

  We stayed like this until I suddenly felt Martinus tense. I sat, going out of my dreamy state. To be honest, I'd dozed off for a bit.

  "Is it time to go back?" I asked Martinus, who was leaning in the chair, looking at the door.

  I also looked. Two young men, one in his mid-twenties and the other in his late twenties, both blonde, tall, like Martinus, came in.

  "No, it's not that," he said, not looking at me, his voice even. "You said you didn't even know my brothers. Well, now you'll know them."

  The two men, meanwhile, scanned the room, as if knowing what they were looking for, and came in our direction as soon as they spotted us.

  "Martinus!" the older one exclaimed. When they reached our table, they poached a couple of chairs from nearby tables, as other customers looked disapprovingly at these two loud intruders into this peaceful, quiet world.

  "There you are, bro," the middle one said, sitting next to him and hitting him hard on the shoulder. Then he looked at me with interest. "So this is your fiancée, the one Mother has been talking about?"

  "Hello," I said, "I'm Amy Laurendeau. You must be Martinus' brothers."

  "That's right," the older one said. "I'm Ric, and this is Leontius," he pointed towards the other brother, who inserted his chair between Martinus and me. He was so close, I moved aside to give him some space, while Martinus watched the whole thing with a hint of annoyance in his expression.

  "Why did you come?" Martinus said. "You're supposed to be at work."

  "We took the afternoon off," Ric, the older one, said. "After mother has been calling us for the last three days, telling us we should be ashamed we lost to our little brother. We wanted to see this girl of yours. Why did you introduce her to mother before us?"

  "I didn't introduce her to mother," Martinus said, "she introduced herself."

  The two men stared at me, disapprovingly.

  "I get that Martinus may be a bit of a prick," Leontius said, avoiding Martinus' punch, "but calling our mother was unwarranted. She'll be annoying us with constant reminders to settle down and have babies. We thought that she calmed down, but you reactivated a monster."

  "I'm sorry," I said. "But he deserved it. He told everybody we were engaged when I haven't even said yes."

  "Why not?" Ric asked. "You don't like our younger brother? Because if so, maybe you like me?" he winked playfully, but I could see he didn't mean it.

  "Don't make moves on my fiancée," Martinus told his brother.

  "She said she's not your fiancée," Ric said. "Although mother seems to believe something else. And you should know," he said, turning towards me. "When reality and mother disagree on something, more often than not, reality loses."

  "Unless it comes to your marriage," Martinus said.

  "Now that you've found a girl," Leontius said, "she'll spend even more effort on battling reality. It's not that I don't want to get married. But her nagging doesn't help, either, so what's the point?"

  By now, everybody in the cafe was staring at us, gossiping. I checked my vizor. It was time to go home, anyway.

  "Martinus," I said, "I need to go home."

  He looked at me, at his brothers, and asked for the bill. The waiter, eager to get rid of this noisy group, was lightning fast in bringing the bill. Martinus paid and stood up, offering me his arm. But then his brothers also stood up, accompanying us towards the portal.

  I was standing between his brothers, feeling as if I was under police escort.

  When we arrived at the portal, Martinus tapped on it, changing the settings.

  "It goes to Kaffale House now," he said. "You should consider coming to my house on the weekend. I'll help you with your magic problems."

  "We'll be there, too," Ric said. "Making sure everything stays decent. I'm a pretty good teacher, too."

  "I'll think about it," I promised, stepping on the portal stone, waving my hand at them. The world quickly disappeared, only to reappear again.

  "How did this happen?" Ric asked Martinus, as he dunk a beer after they watched Amy go.

  The terrace they were sitting on wasn't half as fancy as the place he took Amy to. Yeah, fine, he didn't say the exact truth when he said he didn't know any affordable place. He didn't know any affordable place he would take Amy to. Not this greasy tavern for sure.

  "What?" Martinus asked.

  "Come on, you know what I'm asking. How did you get engaged?" Ric said, impatiently.

  "She kissed me once. I knew she was the one. The end," Martinus said.
>
  He didn't want to share Amy's problems with his brothers. First, because he wasn't sure they would approve of his involvement with a girl with such a messed-up life. Second, because he didn't like how they would react to the knowledge their little brother almost died. The last thing he needed was for his brothers to butt into his life. Which they definitely would; they were already trying.

  "That's it? She kissed you?" Leontius asked. "You mean, we could have just waited until the right girl kissed us instead of going on all those dates mother arranged?"

  "Don't be jealous," Martinus said. "Amy is… unique. There is only one of her. You can't repeat the process."

  "Unique she is," Leontius said. "She rejected you, and then called mother on you."

  They took a sip of their beer glasses, contemplating the issue.

  "Martinus," Ric said. "I'm very disappointed with you, little brother. To provoke a girl into involving our mother…"

  "I didn't think she'd do that," Martinus said. "I don't even know how she got mother's number. I think she was hoping mother would instill some sense into me."

  "And she thought mother would slow things down?" Leontius asked, with a chuckle. "Mother is already planning her grandchildren's names. Has she never heard of our mother?"

  "She's not from this world," Martinus said. "She's from an isolated world."

  "And how could that happen?" Ric asked, his eyes alert, his shoulders tense.

  "Complicated story," Martinus said.

  "We've got time," Leontius said. "We took the afternoon off, and we told mother not to expect us for dinner. We can have a roast and some fries; with enough beer, they'll even taste decent."

  "I can't tell you," Martinus said.

  "Do you know the full story?" Ric asked.

  "I do," Martinus said. "But Amy has asked me to keep it secret. And I'll keep that promise to her."

  "I can look it up through my channels," Ric said.

  "I know," Martinus said. "You can try."

  His brothers kept pressuring him, teasing him, and appealing to brotherly authority. He resisted, keeping quiet. Nothing good would come from his brothers' involvement in Amy's affairs. They also got him drunk, so drunk that, when he woke up hangover the next morning, he was too late for the first class. He hoped he didn't tell his brothers too much.

  11

  I don't know why, but that night, Bevan came to the nursery again, after midnight, afraid of ghosts. I called Arlene, as she told me to. When I did, I heard some muted swearing, and her voice sounded tired.

  "Yes?" she asked.

  "Bevan is in the nursery again," I whispered.

  "Is he asleep?" Arlene asked.

  "Yes," I replied, in a low voice. "He's sound asleep. Will you come for him?"

  "Let him stay there until he wakes up," Arlene said. "If you don't mind. It's usually very hard to get him asleep after one of the night terrors."

  "Alright," I said, hanging up. I'm not sure why she asked me to tell her if she would let him just stay here, but whatever. She's his mother.

  I'd been working for three nights only, but, for the moment, this seemed like one of the easiest jobs ever. Both Emere and Arlene insisted their children were fussy and didn't sleep well, but whenever I saw them, they would calm down quickly and get soundly asleep.

  It's like when a broken machine starts working, when a technician comes to fix it.

  Do I emanate a technician field? Are children a lot calmer in my presence?

  The problem with testing my hypothesis was that I couldn't determine how the children behaved when I wasn't there. It's not like their mothers would submit themselves to detailed questioning.

  Three calm nights, however, are not nearly enough to determine anything. Maybe I've just been lucky. I need to do this for at least a month to see how it works.

  I didn't see Martinus in the morning's Practical Magic class. Without him, Yllana and I sat on our own, undisturbed by our classmates. We couldn't talk much, though, because Professor Maler still walked through the class, punishing students who weren't doing the exercises. The exercises were so boring, nobody would do them without the threat of punishment.

  As soon as we finished, I told her what happened yesterday, after class. She listened to everything, sometimes shaking her head at my interpretations.

  "So you've met his mother and his brothers," Yllana said in the end. "Only his father is left. And he invited you to his house for the weekend. To help you with your magic."

  "Do you think I should accept the invitation?" I asked.

  "Me?" Yllana said. "I think you should. But then I think he's an alright guy and you should accept his proposal and not leave him hanging."

  "There is nothing to accept or reject," I pointed out. "Since he hasn't proposed. And am I not a bit too young to marry at eighteen?"

  "You haven't given him a signal that you'd at least consider it," Yllana said. "And why would he submit himself to very public humiliation? He's got too much pride for that. As for your age… Amy, how long do you want to remain a virgin?"

  "I don't know," I shrugged. "But if sex means a baby, I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

  "But otherwise, in principle, you don't want to lead a celibate lifestyle," Yllana said.

  "I guess," I said.

  "Well, you'd need to marry for that. Because otherwise your social standing, reputation, and chances of getting a job will be destroyed. And you're a poor orphan. You can't afford to live outside our society's rules."

  "Would you marry him if you were me?" I asked her, a bit annoyed at Yllana's lecturing.

  "Yes, I would," she said. "There are many worse candidates than him. And I wouldn't want to be alone in this world. When you marry him, you don't just get him, you get his family, too. Meet them. See if you like them."

  I didn't know what to say. Yllana had always been so understanding of my foibles and oddities. Her no-bullshit, no holds barred approach now was so direct. She was telling me the truth as she saw it, from the inside of this conservative, family-centric society. I was either in or out. I had to accept its values to fit in.

  It's not like I'd never dreamed of the big, white picket fence family. The mother who would bake pies and Sunday roasts instead of working multiple shifts and coming home too exhausted to bake a frozen pizza. The father who was present and would help his daughter ride the bicycle instead of the not-present psychopath I got.

  With Martinus… His mother was weird but nice. His brothers, the little I'd seen of them, seemed to genuinely care about him, and didn't treat me with snobbishness or contempt.

  But I couldn't be cold-blooded about it. I wanted to marry the man I love. And I'm only eighteen! And that's what I told Yllana.

  "How could you be in love, if you don't allow yourself to fall in love?" Yllana retorted.

  She had a point.

  "I'll go visit him this weekend, I guess," I said. "But I hope it's not a trap."

  "Call me if you have any problems," Yllana said, "I'll come to rescue you. Or send my brother to rescue you."

  "Thanks," I said.

  We'd reached the Magical Energy classroom, and I saw Martinus by the door. He looked terrible; I couldn't smell him (one of the issues with being in my ghost form, I can't smell or taste anything), but I could see the black bags under the eyes and the way he squinted, I could see he had a headache.

  "You were fine yesterday when I left you," I said, bluntly. "But now you look terrible."

  A few of his friends, who were at the door with him, perked up, curious. I could see they were dying to know. I guess Martinus didn't tell them he invited me on a date yesterday.

  "So you saw him yesterday?" Zethe asked. "In person? Weren't you living in another world?"

  "I was," I said. "But I moved."

  There wasn't any point in hiding it anymore. All the relevant people I'd like to hide it from knew. My father, my uncle, Martinus, his mother. My classmates knowing anything wouldn't change a thing.

  "You didn'
t tell us you would spend the entire day with your girl," Zethe said.

  "That's because it's none of your business," Martinus replied.

  I felt Yllana tugging my sleeve, and I went inside the class, holding my desire to breathe in the energy that was floating around for us to absorb.

  After the class was over, Yllana and I went to the library. I'd been relaxing so much this week, enjoying myself, that I had had little time to read on the new literature. And the books I read in Kaffale House were not sufficient; I needed more relevant literature. Especially on the Magical Structures. I had come to understand the basics, but the more complex aspects of the topic were beyond my understanding.

  Martinus didn't accompany us this time; I think he went back to sleep. How much did he drink last night?

  "Everybody knows you live in Marn now," Yllana said, commenting on what happened earlier.

  "It seems so," I replied. "Although I don't seem to meet any new people in real life."

  "Yeah, the lives of women are quite limited," Yllana said. "You can't just go out anywhere you want, alone. Although your employers have little right to limit your movements. Unlike my family."

  "It's not that they lock me in," I said, "but I have to avoid going outside alone for my safety."

  "That's how it always works," Yllana said. "Before you know it, you'll be asked to be accompanied at all times when you're alone with a man."

  "I wouldn't mind a chaperon when I'm with Martinus," I replied. "Especially when I'm going to his house."

  "You don't trust him, or you don't trust yourself?" Yllana asked.

  I didn't deign to answer the question, studiously turning the page of the book.