working alongside the sisters.
âOh, no need to do that, Rose,â Gertrude said, waving a dripping hand toward the clean dishes. âUnless you want to, of course. I mean, youâve got your hands full with that hostel, donât you?â Gertrude clearly hoped for a serving of gossip.
âAndrew handles most of that,â Rose said. She gave a final wipe to a shiny copper-bottomed pan and hung it on a peg next to its comrades.
âOh, of course itâs Brother Andrewâs project, I know, but what with this latest excitement and all, I reckon youâre up to your ears keeping everyone calm over there.â
âCalm?â
âWell, a ghost, after all. Even if those folks are from the world, they canât be used to sharing a house with a ghost.â
Rose reached for another pan. âI wasnât aware that this apparition had been seen in the hostel, let alone that it lived there,â she said.
âYea, it most certainly has been seen there.â In her excitement, Gertrude scrubbed a little too vigorously, and the pan she was holding slipped out of her hands, sloshing foamy water on her apron as it hit the sink. Gertrude scooped up the pan and renewed her scrubbing. âWhy, I had it straight from the housekeeper, Mrs. Berg. Sheâs a bit of a gossip, you know.â
âNay, I didnât know.â Rose tried mightily not to smile. Amusement would surely hurt Gertrudeâs feelingsâand it might stem the flow of information.
âOh goodness, she does go on. But this time she saw it herselfâthe ghost, I meanâwandering the halls of the hostel.â
âWhen was this?â
âWell, it was just this morning I spoke with herâshe came to talk over my new recipes. I reckon she felt like having a chat. I thought that dill potato soup was right tasty, didnât you? Anyway, she said sheâd been up and about the night before. Couldnât sleep, she said. Thought sheâd warm up a cup of milk. Goodness, I better remember to drop her by some extra milk tomorrow.
âAnyway, she went down the back stairs to the kitchen, and she swore she saw a shade in a Dorothy cloakâshe didnât know it was a Dorothy cloak, of course, just thought it was an old-fashioned cloak, but I knew what she was describing when she said it was real long and had a short cape over the shoulders. Where was I?â Gertrude stopped scrubbing and stared at the dirty bubbles in front of her.
âMrs. Berg saw the ghost.â
âYea,â Gertrude said, nodding vigorously. âIt was in the kitchen, she said, or at least it was just leaving. She said it glided through the door without opening it and disappeared.â
Rose was beginning to suspect that Beatrice Berg had been imbibing something far stronger than warm milk. âHad she any idea what the apparition was doing in the kitchen?â
âNay, but she did say it was a mighty plump ghost, so maybe it was eating.â Gertrude cackled, then stopped suddenly. âDo ghosts eat real food?â she asked.
âTo be honest,â Rose said, âthis is my first experience with ghosts, so I donât know.â
âMy, thereâs certainly been some odd doings in the village since that ghost appeared. Mrs. Berg complained that a new wooden spatula just up and disappeared from the hostel kitchen, and Sister Isabel said some of the best wool went missing from the Sistersâ Shop. Then Sister Gretchen said a big old basket disappeared from the Laundryâyou know, the kind they use to take out the wash when they hang it on the lines? Why, itâs almost like that ghost is setting up housekeeping.â Two young girls arrived to help her prepare for the evening meal, and Gertrude quieted down. She obviously wanted more gossip fodder, but she knew better than to dig for rumors in the hearing of impressionable young ears.
Rose hung the last clean pan and made her