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Ben stood and turned to me with a grim expression. “That may be the case.”
My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. “But people don’t just come to life in this world, do they?”
He drew out a small glass vial and tucked the cloth into the container. “Only with an interference in their eternal rest.”
“What does that mean?”
He took a deep breath as a dark shadow fell on his brow. “That we’re dealing with bad magic.”
“Hello!” The shout came from the gate where the two women had huddled together. The caller was Gracie while her sister clung to the gate like she thought she was about to be propelled into space at any moment. “Have you found anything?”
I took a step closer to Ben and lowered my voice. “So what do we tell them?”
He drew out another empty vial and handed it to me. “Gather some of the disturbed dirt in this and I will talk to them.”
The color drained from my face. Again. “You want me to put some grave dirt in here?”
“As discreetly as possible,” he advised me.
“Sir!” Gerty shouted with more than a little screech in her voice. “SIR!”
“Coming, ladies!” Ben called out as he clasped his hands around mine that held the vial. He offered me a small smile. “I’ll be right back.”
He slipped away around the other side of the building. I took a deep breath and knelt beside the coffin-shaped mound of earth. “Never thought I’d be gardening in a graveyard. . .” I murmured to myself as I kept one ear and eye on where Ben had gone. I could just make out their conversation.
“What did you find?” came Gracie’s eager voice.
“It appears some animal disturbed the earth around one of the graves,” Ben told her.
“And the thing we saw?” Gerty questioned him.
“There’s no sign of it, but perhaps it was just some disheveled gentleman who had fallen on hard times.”
I snorted and a few mumbled words escaped me. “Yeah. He up and died fifty years ago.”
“That didn’t look like any tramp I’ve ever seen,” Gracie countered.
“We’ll continue to search the area, but I don’t believe there’s any need for worry,” Ben assured her as his voice moved further away from me and reached into his coat from which he drew his coin purse. “In the meantime, why don’t you two have a warm meal at the local pub? It’s on me.”
“Oh, kind sir!” Gerty squealed as I heard her clap her hands together. “How kind of you to do that!”
“I wouldn’t normally take money from a stranger, but Gerty does need a stiff drink,” Gracie agreed.
“Goodbye, ladies, and I will offer a prayer for your good father,” Ben called out as I heard the soft chatter of the women fade into the distance.
In a moment Ben reappeared around the corner of the shed just as I stood. The anxiety on his face relaxed the moment he saw me.
I held up the vial full of dirt. “Is this enough? I could barely put the cork back on.”
He smiled and accepted the container. “It’s fine enough for me, but we’ll see what the good professor has to say.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Professor Impara? What does he have to do with this?”
Ben looped an arm through one of mine and guided me toward the gate. “If anything is amiss with magic, he’ll be able to tell us what it is.”
I gave him a curious look. “Speaking of magic, you called this stuff bad magic. I thought there wasn’t any of that stuff.”
“I said most magic was neither good nor evil but depended on the user,” Ben reminded me as he helped me into the carriage. There was a pensive expression on his face as he climbed in after me. “Anything to do with the dead, however, is bad.”
