Free Dead Romantic by Ruth Saberton Page A

the priests weren’t happy at all. Not that his stepmother cared. She just wanted him written out of history.”
    I’m staring at Alex. He has just, in thirty seconds, confirmed several of my hypotheses.
    “Don’t look so surprised,” he says. “That museum of yours is teeming with ghosts and we do talk. I don’t know how you haven’t noticed us.”
    My chin is practically in the basement flat. “You can find me at work? As well as here?”
    “Pretty much anywhere. How do you think I managed to stop you from getting flattened on a busy road?”
    “So you could appear at any time? Like when I’m in the bath or getting dressed?”
    Alex raises an eyebrow. “I hadn’t thought of that!”
    A blush creeps over my face and my heartbeat increases. Obvious side effects of my injury, I suppose.
    “Only kidding,” he grins. “Not that I don’t think you’d look lovely in the bath, of course. Not that I’m thinking about you in the bath! Oh shit.” He buries his face in his hands. “Now I won’t be able to think of much else!”
    “If I believed in you I’d hit you.”
    “I wouldn’t bother. You’d only go straight through me and it really tickles.”
    We grin at each other. Then Alex melts from the armchair and is next to me on the sofa.
    “Cleo,” he says, his breath like the north wind against my cheek. “I really need your help. I’ve tried and tried to reach Rafe on my own but I can’t do it. You’re the only one who can see me. I need you to talk to my brother for me. He’s alone and he’s in a really bad way. If he carries on the way he is then I don’t think it’ll be long before he joins me. I have to save Rafe from himself. That’s the reason I’m still here.”
    Now my headache is really pounding. The wine sloshes in my stomach. “You actually think you had a choice?”
    He nods. “Before I died Rafe and I said some terrible things to one another. Really awful, Cleo. I didn’t mean any of it and I would have put things right, I really would, but I never got the chance. One moment I was jumping out of his car, the next there was nothing but noise and heat and metal crushing me. Then everything was over.”
    “And that was it? You were dead?”
    “Yeah. I was dead and had no chance of making things up with Rafe. How can I find any peace knowing he’s so grief-stricken? He’s in a terrible way. You have no idea what happens to some people when they grieve.”
    I do actually. After Mum died we all crumbled in our individual ways.
    But I don’t ever think about that.
    “Rafe and I are tight. When our parents died we would have gone into care if Nan hadn’t taken us in. After she died we only had each other,” Alex continues. “He’s all the family I have, and I have to make sure he’s OK. He’s my brother. Cleo, I promised Nan we’d always look out for each other and look how it ended.” He dashes his hands across his eyes, which are shimmering with tears. “Christ. Sorry.”
    Without thinking twice I move to put my arms around him, or rather I try to but my arms slip straight through his leather jacket. Goosebumps shimmy across my flesh.
    “No way!” I gasp.
    Alex gives me a watery smile. “Still think I’m a dream?”
    I stare at him in shock. Did I really just put my arms through a ghost? The chill clings to my limbs and my breath clouds the air.
    “This can’t be happening,” I murmur.
    He pins me with big sad eyes. “It is. I promise you, it really is. Cleo, please help me make things right with Rafe. He’s in such a bad way and I’m scared that unless I help him something terrible’s going to happen. You can tell him how sorry I am and that I don’t blame him.”
    “No way! Your brother will think I’m nuts! Or some kind of deranged stalker fan. Look, no matter what you may think, I’m really not the person for this job. Can’t you find a medium?” I wrack my brains. “I know! What about that woman from Totally Spooked ?”
    He screws up his nose.