Old-Fashioned, or Another Story With Ghosts

Chapter 26. Relations are restored and Friday is close

The weather finally stopped spoiling the country and the people with the sun and the golden leaves, and returned to its legendary state from foreign textbooks. 

Well, not really relevant for now, surely. The one can hardly say the weather is bad from the good car's back seat. Especially when the one is not alone at that back seat. 

They left aunt Priscilla's welcoming house early in the morning after the whole day literally stuffed with the events. Greg would add - the miraculous events. 

After the tree house, they'd returned to the library with the fireplace, and James told him about the most notable pieces of the rusty can treasure. For example, the robin's feather in a yellowish envelope - the envelope had an emblem on it. Sure thing. The robin used to live in the tree near the house and raised chicks in James' last summer before the school . The feather was a trophy from the abandoned nest. Furthermore, there was a broken toy cart from James' grandfather's vintage train set. The metal stick puzzle James had not been able to solve when he was eight.   Greg couldn't solve it, too, even now. James tried and managed. Greg explained it with Cambridge degree in..? Project management in finances, James kindly informed. And agreed it might have a certain impact. James told it with a serious face. Greg burst into laughter to the joke.
In evening, Isobel called and demanded at least some update on the "handsome devil" from the cheesy romance. Greg whispered her to shut up, shite, and excused himself for a while. James and aunt Priscilla nodded. They had cognac and their talk. 

It was so, so good to talk to his friend. Greg flooded her with everything except ghosts. That was totally not a phone conversation. His head was spinning from the relieved tension he appeared to hold for God knows how long. 

He was on his way back to the orangery when his ma called. Greg  missed James already but... fine, okay, that was important and he felt that the sky was the limit. 

They talked with his ma for the whole thirty minutes. 

When he returned James raised his brows in amusement. He was asking whether everything was all right. No words needed. Lady Longhorn suggested the conversation turned out to put up high mood in him. Greg's voice was shaking from hysterical happiness, yet he managed to push it into a couple of phrases. And explained he had just made peace with some relatives.
All James' account. 

James smiled and nodded, barely noticeable.

Who needs words, after all?!

Greg exhaled and turned away from the car window. It all belonged to yesterday already. They were returning back to old James, and to Charlotte, and to the inevitable end of the adventure. He wound like to feel gratitude only but there was much more. He was far from a saint, for fuck sake. 

Then iPad in James' hands clicked the reminder, and he froze at place.  "James, I-I forgot something! In lady Longhorn's library, shite, sorry, I'm an imbecile..!"

"That would not be a problem, I suppose, dear Gregory. They say there is delivery service nowadays. But in case you are referring to your sketchbooks, they are in your bag, I presume."
His companion dug into the shabby reporter bag he insisted to take with him for the trip and gasped with the relief.

"Ah! Damn, I thought I lost it." There was the draft among the pages he completely forgot about. And chuckled opening it towards James. "Huh. It's, um, I think it's, um, he looks like old James. I... think so. After Charlotte...you know."

James took the sketch and studied it for some time, frowning. Then smiled. "We do have a certain resemblance, as I can see. Maybe it is the case. You seem to have Charlotte's eyes as well. I studied was looking at her portrait recently and couldn't help noticing."