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Penelope jumped and then stiffened as the butler knocked on her door.
“You have a visitor, ma’am.”
“Thank you,” she gave him a nod. “Please tell the cook to prepare a tray.” Assuming it was her children with their children, she felt anxious as she watched the servant bow and walk off.
“Colin, no!” she whisper-shouted, groaning as she tried to lift up from the chair as quickly as her old body could where her reading had turned into a cat nap. “Stop!”
She was alone more often than not these days and thus no one else was around to help her stop her husband. No one that would believe what was going on anyway. Penelope could practically hear the rush of air as he flew down the hall even if she couldn’t feel it.
“Colin!”
But it was too late. Penelope wasn’t as spry as she used to be and she could never keep up with Colin even when they were younger anyway. Damn her men and their abnormally long legs (or was it her abnormally short ones?).
Penelope heard rather than saw the sitting room door creak open. Colin never did get around to fixing that squeak. The children must have gone there instead of coming up to her reading room and Colin’s office.
She was still scrambling to get to the steps, grumbling that Colin must have ended up teleporting, one of his new favorite ghostly things to do. Ever since he had learned how to do it, she did not have a hope in the world to hide something from him or even get anywhere before him.
She dropped the book she had been reading upon the steps as she raced towards the noise, just in time to hear Colin swoosh the door wide open and his booming voice greet the visitor.
“WHY HELLO!” Colin cried cheerily. “Oh dear. What a handsome lad visiting my wife!”
The small child looked around, confused, spooked and bamboozled, at the empty sitting room in front of him.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” the little boy asked out loud, hesitant about sticking his head out of the doors that seemed to open themselves. He was holding a letter that was probably a missive from his grandmother, Eloise, for Penelope. Colin did not let on that something was amiss, but rather continued to play his little game.
“Hey, now. You do look familiar. Do we know each other? Have we met?” Colin bent in half to look into the smaller one’s face, scrutinizing for it oddly looked like him… kind of, fully aware that he could not see or hear him. “You look like a relative. Are you? Sorry, chap. I’ve been dead for some time now and with a family as large as ours, people, names, generations can get lost on you, right?”
Of course, he didn’t answer.
“Um, excuse me, Grandma Penny? Is that you?”
With a huff, Penelope finally reached the sitting room. “Sorry, darling! Coming!” she breathed, shuffling over to the door and batting Colin away. Her grand-nephew was walking towards her and he very nearly walked through Colin’s ghostly figure. That was an experience that she would only wish upon her worst enemy (of which, Colin did do for her, to their delight and Cressida’s misfortune).
The little boy stared at Penelope, not understanding what she was waving at.
“Um, Grandmum wanted me to give this to you since we just arrived at Grandma Daff’s?” he sounded uncertain, and probably thought Penelope was weird or at the very least thought what just happened was weird. Pen quickly went to him to take the letter.
“Thank you, lovey! Please go on and tell your grandmummy that I will be there in a few!” she replied brightly, trying to reassure him and make the conversation go towards a cheery note.
He nodded and just turned and started walking towards the front door. He stopped and turned back towards her. “How did the door open by itself?”
“Oh? Hm? Sorry, honey. Please speak up. Grandmum Penny isn’t as young as she used to be!” Having been living with this for some time, pretending to be senile, hard of hearing, or tired was a nice trick. Always worked on the youth at least.
He looked just about ready to yell out his question, but then thought better of it. With a sigh, he waved nevermind and turned back around. Besides Penelope, Colin was leaning against the wall and glaring at her.
“I am quite sure that I am related to that small being. He has the Bridgerton forehead. Why didn’t you keep him so I can look some more? You know I do like guessing who belongs to who of my siblings!” Colin complained and then gasped. “He’s not one of ours is he?!”
Penelope tried to close the door in a way that she hoped looked normal and not out of the ordinary, smiling at their butler that was just letting their grandnephew out. “No, he is not one of ours. He’s actually Eloise’s and his name escapes me, but… But!! Will you stop trying to scare everyone that comes for a visit? Our children are already starting to think that I should be committed every time I try to stop you.”
Colin scowled and floated away. Sometimes he would pretend to walk, especially when they were going for a stroll in the park, but lately, he had opted for gliding and being as ghostly as possible. Penelope shuffled towards one of the couches clutching the letter in one hand.
“They would never. If they did, you know I would haunt them mercilessly!”
Penelope blinked, touched. “Well… as would I, but you know what I mean, Colin Bridgerton!”
“What did Eloise want?” He quickly changed the subject, looking down over her shoulder, not realizing that he had floated himself up to the ceiling.
“Nothing for your eyes. I’m sure,” she muttered, ripping the missive open. “Mostly about her trip here… I guess she jotted this down in the carriage. Her handwriting is a bit shaky… oh .”
“Oh? Oh? ” Colin grunted, trying to get himself to float back down to her, his ghostly powers still sometimes a bit of mystery to him. How did he even manage to get up to the ceiling in the first place? Was it when he stopped thinking? “What happened?”
Penelope started to suddenly look around the room, searching for something.
“Penel ope .” He whined, following her around.
“Eloise said Agatha had told her that I was missing you,” she replied. “Ah HA!” She cried with glee as she lifted up a package. “He must have left this here.”
“ Who left what where? And of course you would miss me.”
Penelope rolled her eyes. “ Anyway , Eloise said that this might cheer me up because apparently people use this to communicate with the dead!”
Colin blinked. “...you already communicate with the dead…”
She stared at him and then turned to stare at the box, before slowly opening it. “Yes… well... Your sister doesn’t know about that now does she?”
He watched as a board with letters and numbers was revealed. “What is it?”
“Eloise said it’s something called a ooh ja board,” Pen quantified. “Oh! We could speak to you mother!”
“I’ve already spoken with my mother! Let’s speak to your mother!”
“Oh could we?” she gushed, making Colin instantly regret having suggested it in the first place. But Pen was looking at the ouija board in such wonder he didn’t have the heart to protest.
“Of course, dear.”
***
Just outside the sitting room, a small hoard of people were pressing their ears to the door having been let in by the butler.
“Do not give me that look. We are not having our mother committed!”