House of Ghosts: A Collection of Jill Pole Oneshots

Memento Mori

"Jill, telephone!"

"Coming!" Jill hopped off the sofa in the drawing room and raced into the kitchen. "Thanks, Daisy," she said, taking the receiver from the maid. "Hello?"

"Hey–"

Jill crinkled her nose. "Eustace?"

Eustace cleared his throat, voice husky. "Uh, yeah—"

"Where are you? You sound funny."

"Um, I'm in the telephone booth on the corner of my street. Harold kicked me out."

"What?" Jill glanced over her shoulder. Daisy, who had frozen mid-motion, resumed kneading the bread dough on the counter. Jill lowered her voice. "What do you mean?"

She could almost hear the shrug of nonchalance in Eustace's reply. "We got in a fight. He told me to get out. So I did."

"Eustace, it's freezing outside! Where are you going to go?"

"Well, that's why I called you. Is there any chance I could stay with you for the weekend?"

Jill bit her lip, dancing on the balls of her feet. "Stace, I don't know...Mother and Father don't like overnight guests."

"Surely, they'd have some pity on a freezing chap."

"You give them too much credit," she said with an inward sigh. "But Mother and Father are on holiday this week."

"Without you?"

"Are you surprised? Anyway, it doesn't matter. That works in your favor. I'll explain to Daisy. She'll keep it quiet for us."

"Daisy?" Eustace asked.

"The maid."

"I thought your maid's name was Elizabeth."

Jill shook her head. "Mother fired Elizabeth months ago. She let me get away with too much. And she was far too honest to do anything in this house worth doing."

"Hmm. Well, I can be over in half an hour. Will you be ready by then?"

"Yes."

"Thanks, you're a brick." The other line clicked dead.

Jill rolled her eyes. She hadn't even had time to remind Eustace that "brick" wasn't really the best compliment to give a girl. She put the phone back in its place and turned to the maid, batting her eyelashes.

"Ohhhh Daisyyyy—" She sang.

Daisy rolled her eyes. "I've already heard. The boy can stay with us. But don't you go tellin' your parents. It's this or him freezing in the streets."

"Oh, thank you!" Jill pecked Daisy on the cheek. "You won't regret it. Mum and Dad will never know about your charity case, I promise!"

~~~

Eustace arrived exactly thirty minutes later, thanks to his cast-iron punctuality.

Jill led Eustace through the upstairs hallway. "The only problem we've got," she said, "is finding a place for you to sleep. The guest's room is under renovation, so that's out of the question."

"The house is huge," Eustace hooked his thumbs into his trouser pockets, fanning his elbows like wings as he talked, "It can't be that hard to find me a place."

"Well, yes, but we only have so many bedrooms."

"What about the sofa downstairs? I could sleep on that."

Jill shook her head. "We're scarcely even allowed to sit on the sofa. Daisy would have an absolute fit if one of us slept on it... I suppose you could sleep in Mother and Father's room." She gestured to a bedroom on their right.