Ford had a guess as to who she was referring to as soon as she mentioned his clothing. On its own it wasn't distinctive enough to say certainly that she was talking about Barnaby Wye, but if she was here it was probably with a complaint, and Wye did generate more than his fair share of complaints for the spirit division to handle. There were a lot of ghosts in society who spent most of their time minding their own business, either preferring the company of other spirits or only interacting with a core group of living people who already knew and understood them. Some barely spoke to anyone at all; ghosts social calendars didn't necessarily need to be as full as a living person's in order to feel appropriately connected. So Ford had already guessed who she meant, but the description of the sword in his middle really solidified it. He was sighing before she even got the name out.

"Yes," he said wearily. Ford liked Barnaby, genuinely, which was what made it so discouraging when these sorts of complaints came up. He always found it rather tedious to try and balance his professional responsibilities with his personal fondness when he spoke to Wye. If he said something like yes, we can both agree that the limerick you wrote about her is hilarious, but please refrain from singing it where she can hear from now on so you don't get me in trouble with anyone he doubted Wye would take it seriously, so he always had to pretend to be firmly on the side of society with these things. "What's he done this time?"

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