Four Dukes and a Devil by Jeaniene Frost, Cathy Maxwell, Tracy Anne Warren, Sophia Nash, Elaine Fox Page B

of fun? You’re already getting out of your shell, not even a week into your summer.”
    “Maybe,” she conceded thoughtfully. Out of her clothes, out of her shell…same thing. “But mark my words. I’m going to change myself this summer. I’m determined. I’m going to loosen up. Follow my impulses. Be brave.”
    “Gutsy Gray! And you’re off to a great start!”
    Gray laughed. “I don’t know about great. But getting naked in public was a start.”
    Rachel cracked up again, before getting down to the reason for her call. “Listen, I’m wondering if you’ve seen any sign of the so-called ghost yet.”
    “Not unless the ghost is an obnoxious sundress-stealing dog.” Gray crossed her legs and picked at a terry-cloth pill on her robe. She wished Rachel hadn’t brought up that damn ghost. She had just been starting to feel comfortable. If it weren’t for all the talk about this place being haunted, she was sure she wouldn’t be imagining herself watched at every turn.
    “Nope, the ghost is the Duke of Dunkirk. At least according to legend. Supposedly, he’s buried right where our house was built.”
    One of the reasons Gray was house-sitting this summer was because Rachel and her husband, Robert Kinnistan, were trying to sell their house in the Cape Cod town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The trouble, according to their Realtor, was that the place was old and rumored to be haunted. Rachel thought that if someone were living in it, that might prove to the squeamish it was both comfortable and ghost-free.
    Before Gray arrived, she hadn’t believed any of those reasons were why the house wasn’t selling, most particularly the ghost. She’d thought their Realtor was lazy. Or maybe the squeamish one herself. But the opportunity to get out of DC and reinvent herself was more than she could pass up. Though she hadn’t told her friends, she was thinking of moving there if she could find a job.
    It wasn’t until she’d gotten to the house that she’d been consumed by creepy feelings. Talk about the power of suggestion. She didn’t even believe in ghosts, so it was ridiculous to feel spooked.
    “Why would a ghost haunt the place it was buried?” Gray asked, exasperated. “I mean, really, you’d think they’d haunt the place they died. Or the people who were responsible. These things never make sense.”
    “I know, ghost legends are all the same. Although I think some people say he didn’t actually die until he reached the shore. And where he reached the shore is supposedly right where our house is. Others say he died in a house that stood where ours is. I just don’t know.”
    “So have you ever noticed anything odd when you’ve been here?”
    “Well…” Rachel’s tone was reluctant. “I haven’t, but Robert says he has. I can’t remember what, exactly.”
    Gray swallowed. “Ask him if he’s ever noticed this: every now and then I smell something burning. Not like the house is on fire but like a pipe or a cigarette. But when I look around, I can’t find anything. It’s weird.”
    The line went silent. Gray wondered if they’d been cut off. A chill swept through her again.
    “Hello? Rachel?”
    “I’m here,” she said. “I’m thinking. You know, Robert might have mentioned something about a pipe smell…”
    Despite herself, Gray shivered. This was stupid. She wasn’t the superstitious sort. She was more interested in figuring out why the house was considered haunted than whether or not it really was. Because she knew the answer to that. There were no such things as ghosts.
    “Then it must be something explainable. Like a light socket overheating or something caught in a radiator,” she reasoned. “So who was the Duke of Dunkirk, and what was he doing here?”
    Rachel sighed. “I don’t know. Robert could tell you. All I know is, the duke is supposedly our ghost, and that bar in town, Dunkirk’s Den, is named for him. Personally, I think it’s Covington Burgess.”
    “You think