There are few places in Everhallow where the living and the dead manage their social lives with quite as much efficiency as the cemetery tea tables.

The living bring porcelain cups, folded napkins, small cakes, and the polite assumption that everyone will behave themselves.

The dead bring opinions.

Edith Crowe, in particular, has brought enough opinions for several lifetimes.

She has been gone for nearly seventy years and remains entirely convinced that most romantic difficulties could be solved by better introductions, proper tea, and people being seated where she tells them.

Clara Finch does not share this philosophy.

Clara prefers evidence.

Names. Dates. Records. Family lines. The quiet certainty of a story that can be followed backward through time.

Unfortunately, Edith has begun collecting a different kind of evidence.

Wes Hollis is unmarried. Clara Finch is unmarried. Both spend an unreasonable amount of time in the oldest section of Everhallow Cemetery. Both appreciate history. Both drink their tea properly.

To Edith, the matter is practically administrative.

To Clara, it is becoming a problem.

And somewhere between the old stones, the autumn paths, and a tea invitation that looks far too innocent, Everhallow is about to discover just how much trouble one very determined ghost can cause without technically breaking a single rule.

The oldest part of Everhallow Cemetery keeps its stories carefully.

Some live in names carved into stone.

Some survive in folded papers, faded photographs, family lines, and memories that refuse to disappear simply because the people carrying them are gone.

And some, apparently, arrive with tea.

Edith Crowe would like it recorded that she does not meddle.

She introduces.

She suggests.

She occasionally points out what everyone else is taking far too long to notice.

Clara Finch would like it recorded that this is an extremely generous interpretation of events.

Wes Hollis has declined to comment.

For now, there are old paths still to walk, histories still to uncover, and one very confident ghost who has no intention of retiring from Everhallow’s social affairs.

If Edith has her way, Clara and Wes are going to keep finding themselves in the same orbit.

The more interesting question is what they will do when no ghost is there to arrange the next meeting.