“It’s been in the family for generations,” Duke waved his hand nonchalantly. “Wait till you see what we’ve done with it. You can leave your keys in the door. Jamie will get your luggage and park it the garage.”
Ashley followed Duke inside. The front hall was cavernous, with a reception desk, a double staircase leading to the upper floors, and a waiting area that gave it a homely yet professional feel.
“We only have a few children to begin with, ten to be exact. Six girls, four boys, between the ages of five and thirteen,” Duke said, as he led Ashley through the offices on the ground floor to her own office. “But we have the capacity to house two hundred.”
“I think you’re being pessimistic.” Ashley ran her hands over the mahogany desk, her eyes flitting over the filing cabinets, finally coming to rest on a large portrait of a woman holding a baby and flanked by two children, hanging behind her desk.
The woman’s face was classically beautiful, her blonde curls placed artfully over one shoulder. The baby was sound asleep, a fist placed against one chubby, rosy cheek. The dark haired boy standing to the right looked serious, as if trying hard to be a man at such a young age, trying hard to impress; a sense of protective pride for his mother and baby sibling. The little girl sat on a stool by the woman’s side. Her dark curls were held in place by pink ribbons, but it was the expression in her eyes that captivated Ashley. While the rest were looking straight ahead, the little girl was looking slightly to the left, as if looking at someone right behind the painter. Whoever it was must have been terrifying because the girl looked timid and spooked.
“I know we can make large dormitories and stuff in about five hundred beds, but I don’t want that for Abbot Care Home. I want this to be one of the best care homes in the country, and that’s why I hired you.”
Ashley turned to face Duke.
“I know what they’re saying about you,” Duke cleared his throat. “The trial was more damaging to your reputation than it was to the owners of the hedge-fund company. Many in the industry still believe Henry Thorpe; that you have manic hallucinatory episodes.”
Ashley felt her heart sink. Had this man asked her to come all this way just to humiliate her?
“I don’t believe any of it,” Duke said. “And you come highly recommended by a very close family friend. I’d take Whitney’s word over a crooked insurance man any day. I just wanted to get that out of the way from the start. I have full faith in your abilities as an administrator.”
Ashley couldn’t help but smile. Whitney was looking out for her even from beyond the grave.
“Shall we meet the rest of the staff?”
“Yes, please,” Ashley said, and followed him, but not before she glanced back at the portrait, and the face of the little girl.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Imagination & Tricks
Steam wafted in the small bathroom as Ashley stood under the hot shower. Done with the ritual of soaping and shampooing, Ashley was taking a minute to believe her luck. Abbot Child Care Home was perfect. The property housed twenty rooms of varying sizes to accommodate two hundred children. Only three rooms were being occupied at the moment, two for the girls, and one shared by all four boys.
The staff was small; a cook, two kitchen assistants and two gardeners, all residents of Tunbridge, so none stayed overnight. They seemed like friendly people, and Ashley didn’t foresee any problems with them in the near future.
The administrative staff was another matter. Two people would assist her, Sasha Collins and Gregory Pitt, and while Gregory had seemed a bit too eager to please, Sasha had been just short of hostile. The only people besides them living on premises were the medical nurse Daisy Bloom and the groundskeeper Jamie Grant.
Ashley sighed. The facility was new and had everything she needed. The staff left a little to be desired but no one said the job was going to be smooth sailing. Ashley was looking forward to it.
There was a sharp knock on the bathroom door. Ashley turned the shower off. She grabbed a towel from the rack. Another knock, persistent now.
“Coming,” Ashley called, frowning. Who could it be, and what did they want?
knock knock knock
knock knock knock knock
knock knock knock knock knock
“I said I’m coming,” Ashley snapped. She wrapped the towel around herself. By the time she turned the doorknob the person was banging on the door. “What in the…”
The room was empty. Steam escaped from behind her into the bedroom, its smoky tendrils touching the clothes she had set out on the wrought iron bed. Ashley crossed the room and opened the bedroom door. The hall was empty. The door to Sasha’s room down the hall was slightly ajar.
Her frown deepening, Ashley returned to her room to dress for dinner.
***
“I hate peas.” Lucy made a face.
“You know,” Duncan said, pushing his glasses back on the bridge of his nose. “If you eat a pea, and it goes down the wrong pipe, you’ll have a pea shoot growing in your lungs.”
“That’s dangerous!” Lucy pushed her plate back.
“That’s not true,” Collin ‘Toast’ Wooly, the head cook, said. “Peas only make your pee green.”
The whole table giggled.
Ashley had missed the communal dinner table since she had been forced to leave her old position. All the children that had ever gone through the door of the home had been a very important part of her life. She felt part of a big family again.
“How do you like it so far?” Jamie Grant slipped into the seat beside her and helped himself to a dinner roll. Dark haired and broad of build, Jamie was the youngest of five sons on a small farm. He’d taken up the groundskeeper’s job from his late granduncle.
“Pretty good,” Ashley said, ladling more mashed potatoes in her plate.
“Even the neighbours?” Jamie asked, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
Ashley glanced at Sasha across the table. Sasha’s lips were a thin line. Ashley wondered how she was managing to get any food in her mouth.
“Not so much.”
Jamie chuckled into his water.
“You’re a local, aren’t you?” Ashley asked. She found herself full of questions about the nearby town and the house itself. Duke had left before she could ask any of her questions.
“Born and raised,” Jamie said, demolishing another buttered roll.
“So you must know a great deal about the house.”
“Oh, I know things that’d give you nightmares.”
“Really?” Ashley snorted. “Try me.”
“You’ve seen that portrait that hangs in your office right?”
“Yeah.” Ashley picked up her glass of water.
“They were all murdered in this house.”
Ashley stopped mid sip.
“And they weren’t the only ones,” Gregory chipped in from across the table. His flaxen hair was so pale it was almost white. “Go on Jamie, you tell it best.”
“I don’t think this is appropriate talk in front of the kids,” Sasha snapped. “I thought a big shot manager like you would know that, Ashley.”
Jamie looked abashed and Gregory squirmed in his seat. Ashley blinked and put her glass down.
“I was caught off guard.” Ashley cleared her throat. “Of course you’re right, Sasha. We can discuss this once the kids are in bed.”
Jamie shrugged, loaded his plate with food and left to sit with the kitchen staff. Ashley tried to finish her dinner, but she had suddenly lost her appetite.
***
“We usually take coffee in the kitchen and just hang for an hour once the kids have been put to bed,” Gregory said, hiking up his pants.
“I’ll see you then,” Ashley waved.
The girls were housed in the East Wing of the mansion, closer to the female staff bedrooms, while the boys were in the West Wing with the male staff members. Ashley helped Lucy, Ella and Tina, the youngest of the lot at five, eight, and nine, get ready for bed w
hile Sasha monitored bathroom duty. With so few children to care for the ritual took less than fifteen minutes.
“Will you be coming down for coffee?” Ashley asked Sasha after the girls had fallen asleep.
“No.” Sasha pushed past Ashley to her room and shut the door.
“Rude,” Ashley rubbed her shoulder. The night had gotten chilly and Ashley decided to get a light sweater from her room before going down. She hoped Jamie hadn’t been too offended to not share what he knew.
Her room was dark, which was strange because she remembered leaving her bedside lamp on.
Sasha must have come in. What is her problem? Now she’s probably had me pegged as someone who wastes electricity.
Ashley stumbled through the dark looking for the bedside table. Her shoe caught in the rug and she fell on the floor next to the bed.
“Shit! Ouch.”
Ashley winced at the pain in her knees as she tried to get up. Something cold and clammy was suddenly holding her wrist.
“Argh!” Ashley cried and scrambled back. Her back hit the side table and she scrambled for the lamp switch, her heart thundering in her chest. Light flooded the room. Ashley looked around, but she was completely alone. She checked under the bed, but there was nothing but undisturbed dust.
Ashley was breathing hard. She hadn’t been this frightened since she had lived with the Thorpe’s.
It’s just my imagination playing tricks. I’m just too excited about Jamie’s story.
She got off the floor quickly, taking deep settling breaths. She opened one of her bags and got out a light sweater, promising to unpack in the morning. She was about to leave when there was a faint knocking sound. It had come from the closet.
Ashley crossed the room swiftly and opened the closet door. It was empty, except for a small wooden chest in the middle. It was made of cedar wood, and had lovely carvings of roses on the lid. Ashley lifted the lid expecting it to be empty too.
A small dust coloured doll with brown hair and a pale china face stared up at her. It looked old but well maintained, with only a small tear along the side of one arm. Ashley picked it up. How did the doll get in here?
Maybe it belongs to one of the kids. Lucy, maybe. They must have left it here before I arrived, and needed it so they were knocking when I was in the shower.
Ashley replaced the lid and closed the closet door. She went down the hall into the room Lucy shared with Ella and Gemma, and placed the doll beside the sleeping girl. She brushed a loose strand of hair behind Lucy’s ear, kissed her lightly on the forehead and tiptoed out.
She didn’t notice the shadow that stood silently in the corner.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Psycho
“Now you’ve got to understand that Duke’s only remotely related to the Abbot who went psycho in this house,” Gregory said, dipping his tea bag in hot water.
“Yeah, after Joshua Abbot killed his family the mansion went to a cousin,” Jamie said, ladling spoonful after spoonful of sugar in his coffee.
“How much coffee do you take with your sugar, James?” Toast, the cook, asked placing a plate of biscuits on the table.
“Kiss my arse, Toast.” Jamie took a sip of his coffee, grimaced and added two more spoons of sugar.
The kitchen was warmer than the rest of the house but Ashely still felt a chill in the air. She held the large mug of coffee and gratefully accepted a few biscuits.
“But I don’t understand why he would go on a murder spree like that?” Ashley said.
“Well he was an evil git, wasn’t he,” Jamie shrugged. “He was an only child, and was betrothed to Carol Tipton since he was toddling around in his diapers. But when he got older he fell in love with Daniella Prewett. Old Man Abbot wasn’t having any of it. Refused to break the engagement and little Josh had to marry Carol.”
“The woman in the painting.” Ashley brushed crumbs off of the table.
“No, that’s Daniella,” Gregory said.
“I’m confused.” Ashley frowned. “I thought Joshua married Carol.”
“Indeed,” Jamie mumbled through a mouth stuffed with biscuits. He swallowed. “He married Carol and had two children with her to please Old Man Abbot, who was threatening to write him out of his will. He didn’t like the children much, even though they say that the eldest boy tried hard to please. Poor bugger.”
“So how did he manage to get Daniella in the portrait?”
“He married her,” Gregory was grinning as if he was enjoying her confusion.
“See, Daniella was engaged to a naval officer,” Toast brought more biscuits to the table. “But he was lost at sea. This would be around the time Carol gave birth to the girl. Now Joshua saw an opportunity to get his heart’s desire. Suddenly Carol became sick, and within a fortnight she passed away. The official story was that she had died due to complications in childbirth, but the midwife from Tunbridge Well’s called bullshit. She said Carol had been as fit as a horse when she’d last visited two days after the birth; that woman could have given birth to twins and survived, what with her wide hips and all.”
“Ahhhmmmm,” Gregory cleared his throat, his cheeks bright pink.
“Anyway,” Jamie waved his hands at Gregory. “Carol wasn’t cold in her grave when Old Man Abbot joined her. Some accident with his horse on a hunt. All very convenient for Joshua who then proceeded to woo Daniella and married her about a year later.”
“A year after that the baby followed,” Toast said.
“So Joshua got everything he wanted,” Ashley said. “Why murder his family then?”
“Because Daniella ran away.”
Everyone at the table jumped nearly a foot in the air. Sasha stood in the doorway, a sneer on her face.
“She must have heard the rumours about the dead wife, or something about Joshua gave away his psychosis, because she bolted.” Sasha poured herself some tea. “Next thing you know Joshua is going on a murder spree in the mansion with a cricket bat. First he beat the children’s nurse and pushed her from the stairs so she couldn’t follow him. Then he went to the room of the eldest boy and beat him to death with a cricket bat. They found bits of his teeth and skull for weeks afterwards, that’s how much the damage was.”
Ashley felt sick.
“Then he went for the little girl,” Sasha said, her voice soft but Ashley could hear every word. “The poor thing was hiding in her toy chest. She must have heard the screams of her brother. She made it hard for Joshua to find her and she paid the worst price. They found pieces of her all over the first floor.”
“My God,” Ashley gasped. They all sat silently for a moment, taking in the horror wrought upon children in this house, and the irony of it being a child care home. “I don’t understand.” Ashley broke the silence. “If Daniella ran away with her baby, how did she get murdered here?”
“Once Joshua was convicted and sent to prison to await his hanging, Daniella returned to claim the mansion,” Toast said. “Her little boy was the only heir. Things were fine for a while until Joshua escaped from prison. According to the rumours Joshua dashed the baby’s brains against a wall.”
Ashley winced. “And Daniella?”
“Well, see,” Jamie frowned, “that part’s a bit mysterious.”
“What do you mean?”
“When help finally arrived they found Daniella holding her dead baby and Joshua dead on the floor.” Sasha scratched her neck absently. “His face was blue and there were burn marks on his neck as if he had been garrotted.”
“But Daniella denied strangling him,” Toast raised his eyebrows.
“I mean sure,” Gregory shrugged. “She was a petite woman, and according to the stories he was a towering hulk of a man.”
“Grief can give strength,” Jamie said wisely.
“But she denied it,” Ashley said. “Why?”
“She said Joshua was advancing on her when she felt a force push her back,” Sasha said with a sceptical expression. “And Joshua suddenly stopped in his tracks a
nd began choking. She said it was the dead children who had saved her. Their ghosts.” Sasha rolled her eyes.
“You don’t believe in ghosts, love?” Toast asked.
“I’ll believe ‘em when I see ‘em,” Sasha shot back. “Don’t tell me you do?”
“Why do you think none of the locals spend a night inside the mansion?” Toast gave her a teasing smile.
“You’re all inbred idiots, that’s why.”
“Nah,” Toast laughed, “Tell us how you really feel.”
“But that still doesn’t explain Daniella,” Ashley interrupted. “I thought you said she was killed too.”
“Well, duh!” Sasha rolled her eyes in exasperation. “She hung herself, didn’t she? In your office, in fact.”
“What?” Ashley felt her body go cold.
“You’re not superstitious are you?” Sasha arched an eyebrow.
“No,” Ashley shivered. “Of course not. But wow, that’s some gruesome history. Anything else this place got involved in? Necromancy? Witch craft? Nigel Farage?”
“Nah,” Jamie yawned. “That’s about it. I’m going to bed. See you with the sun.”
There was a symphony of chairs dragged across the floor, mugs washed and put away, and then general goodnights. Ashley followed Sasha to the East Wing, her mind preoccupied with the story of the Abbot children meeting such horrific ends in this house.
“Well, goodnight,” Sasha said begrudgingly.
“Listen, Sasha,” Ashley said. “I know I’m new here…”
“Hey, the whole thing only started two months ago, so I’m not so old here myself.”
“But still. I don’t want there to be any awkwardness between us.”
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“No! Listen, I’m only here to do my job, and it will be next to impossible to do if I don’t have the support of my entire team. I’m just asking you to have some faith in me.”
Sasha stared at Ashley for a good minute, sizing her up.
13 Hauntings Page 20
