“Once we were alone, Jefferies introduced himself formally.”
“I am sorry to burst in on you unannounced Mr Ward, but the truth is that I have been speaking to a mutual friend of ours, Mr Peterson, the solicitor. I believe that he has already mentioned me to you; I am the annoying individual who keeps badgering him about the possibility of purchasing this house and the grounds.”
“I assured him that Peterson had mentioned him to me, but that as I had made clear to the solicitor, I had no intention of making a decision before consulting with Jenifer. Jeffries claimed that Peterson had conveyed my feelings and that he completely understood my feelings. He emphasised that he had no intention of pestering or harassing me to make a decision, and that he merely thought that, under the circumstances, it might be in both our interests to be formally introduced. He went on to explain that he had inherited his farm and land from his father, who had in turn inherited it from his, and so on, as far back as town records documented.
“He further explained that, when he inherited his property, the family holding had always been modest, though comfortable, but that he had always fancied himself as a business man, which was why he had set about acquiring all the property in the area which took his fancy. It now appeared that my manor was the last piece in his empirical puzzle.”
“I won’t try and spin you a yarn, Mr Ward, but if you decide to call in an expert I am sure that they will tell you that this manor needs a great deal of structural work to make it habitable. Your land was also sadly neglected by your late cousin and, I believe, his father before him, so that too is in need of attention. Over the years I made your cousin several generous offers, but alas, he chose to decline them all. I even offered to pay for a structural surveyor to come in and supply him with a comprehensive report, but he would have none of it - he was indeed very set in his ways. Now, I realise that you don’t know me from Adam, so naturally I don’t expect you to take my word for it solely, but I can assure you that there are no hidden gold mines or oil wells beneath this land, and that my interest is purely personal.”
“He was right of course, I did not know him whatsoever, but as he spoke I had the sense that he was a man of honour and trust, and although I would not be so foolish as to let the property and land go, if it came to it, without seeking the advice of an expert first, I also felt that such an expert’s findings would tally with what Jefferies was telling me. Furthermore, Peterson had already vouched for the man, which I believed that his ethics would not allow if there were anything underhand about my visitor.
“I gave him my promise that if I did decide to sell that I would allow him first refusal, which from the look on his face appeared to be more than enough to satisfy him. He thanked me for allowing him to intrude on my time, and I assured him that the pleasure was all mine. As he stood to leave a thought struck me, and I asked him if he would mind indulging me for a moment. He re-took his seat, smiling, but with a quizzical expression across his eyes.
“I was initially hesitant in deciding how best to begin this part of our conversation, and took a moment to consider where to start. I did not feel at all comfortable merely blurting out my suspicions regarding my late-night visitor, but by the same token as Jefferies and his family had lived in the vicinity for so long, there might be a chance that he could shed some much-needed light on my predicament. In the end I decided to start by asking Jefferies what he knew of my late cousin, in pretence that I was interested in the kind of man he was.”
“Well Mr Ward, I cannot honestly say that I knew him that well. He tended to keep himself to himself a lot of the time. In all the years I’ve been here, I could probably count the amount of times that I saw him in town on the fingers of one hand. Although, as I mentioned earlier, I did come to the manor on occasion to see if he had reconsidered my offer to buy, and to his credit, he never once refused to see me. Although naturally our conversations always ended the same way - with an emphatic ‘no sale’ from the old fellow.”
“I asked Jefferies if he was aware of anyone else, other than the Jarrows, who might have visited my benefactor from time to time. But I could tell instantly from my visitor’s puzzled look that he was thrown by my question. In fairness to the man he had already mentioned at length that he hardly ever saw my late cousin, so I could hardly be surprised by his curious stare when I had virtually asked him the same question, albeit in a roundabout way.
“My little ruse had obviously failed, dismally. So before Jefferies had a chance to think of a reply I cut back in, apologising for the vagueness of my enquiries, and assuring him that I had no ulterior motive in asking such questions, which of course, I did. So I decided to make one more stab at it, and this time I undertook not to make such a ham-fisted job of it. Therefore, I changed my approach and informed Jeffries that, because of my lack of contact with this side of my family, I wondered if he, Jefferies, due to the fact that he had lived in the area all his life, had any knowledge of who might have lived in the manor when he himself was a boy.”
“Well, now that you come to mention it, I do remember when I was a very young lad, hearing my parents discussing something once about ‘those up at the manor’ as they put it. I remember that we had a horrendous storm that night, with winds stronger than I had ever seen, or have seen since. We had trees uprooted and all sorts. Anyway, I recall that it was the thunder that woke me up, and although I knew that I would probably expect a hiding if I was caught venturing downstairs after bedtime, my curiosity got the better of me.
“Due to the storm my father had to stay awake to tend to the livestock, just in case any of them broke free, and on this occasion my mother must have stayed up to keep him company because it was their voices that I could hear from downstairs when I stuck my head out of my bedroom door. When I edged out a little further I could see the shadows from the open fire blazing in the parlour, so I tip-toed out onto the landing and made my way across to the stairs so that I could hear what they were talking about.
“It was fortunate for me that my parents had opened a bottle of whiskey to keep them company, because one thing was for sure; when they drank, their voices increased in volume, and with the storm raging outside, under normal circumstances, it would have been very difficult to hear what they were saying from my vantage point. I remember that the lock on our front door was faulty, which my father was forever promising my mother he would see to, and sure enough at one point the wind grew so strong that it blew in our door, and sent it crashing against the stone wall. Fortunately for my father, the hinges at least held, for I could hear my mother berating him as he went over to secure it again.
“Once the drama had passed my father slumped back into his chair, and then I heard him say to my mother something about that being the worst storm he had seen since the night that girl up at the manor was killed.”
Jonathan shifted on his chair, as if to make himself more comfortable, before he spoke again.
“At the sound of this I leaned forward, desperate not to miss any detail. By the sound of Jefferies’ story there was a good chance that I might finally find out something about my unwelcome visitor. I remained silent so that he could continue.”
“I remember my mother agreeing with him. She took another drink from her glass and nodded her head before saying that she remembered seeing the young woman, swimming in the lake in the summer, and how pretty she was, and how fond she always appeared to be of the young girl who was visiting at the time. My mother also reminisced that when she would walk through the field she would often hear the young woman singing to herself, and my mother remarked on what a lovely voice she had, and how sad her song was.
“Typically, as I moved to make myself more comfortable, and one of the loose floorboards creaked under my weight, so I stole back into my room before either of my parents caught me.”
“I had to press the point home so when I realised that Jefferies appeared to be finished with his story, I enquired as to whether he recalled the subject of the young woman
ever being raised again. He pondered my question for a moment before answering.”
“Oddly enough, now I come to think of it, the subject did come up again a few years later. I remember my father saying that the young woman who was killed was the wife of someone staying at the manor, but he died, not sure how, and a little while later she was run over by a carriage during the storm. No one knew what she was doing out on the road in the middle of the night, especially in such inclement weather, but for whatever reason the fact she was there was not disputed, and then she was knocked over. The accident occurred not far from here, by that awkward bend in the road where the land suddenly dips and veers down the steep embankment.”
“The Widow-Maker, I ventured.”
“Oh, I see you’ve heard of it then? Well you know what we locals are like in our rural settings, we do like to hold on to our old stories, and quirky little names like that tend to stick.”
“I asked Jefferies if he knew when the accident took place but he was a little vague, and said that he believed that it was sometime around the turn of the century. Then I remembered him saying that his mother had seen the young woman swimming in the lake with a little girl, and enquired further if she might have mentioned who the little girl was. But this time he could offer no assistance. What he did remember, however, was that shortly after the young woman was killed, my late cousin’s father also died, and there was gossip around the town that there was something odd about his demise. But again, Jefferies could offer no further information on the subject.”
“I could see that Jefferies was still lost in thought as he stared into space, so I left him to ponder on the off chance that he would remember something else of use. I was glad that I did, because a few seconds later he remembered something else which might prove pertinent.”
“I am sure that I am right in saying that your late cousin married too, sometime after his father passed away, but that his wife also died in her sleep just a few short months after they returned from honeymoon. And again, there was gossip about the way she died, but I never heard anything specific.”
“My guest held up his hands as if to emphasise that he could be of no further assistance. I thanked him for his time, and assured him that he had indeed been a great deal of help to me. I was almost on the point of confiding in him the real reason behind my inquisitiveness, but I stopped myself. Jefferies seemed like a salt of the earth, but nonetheless, he was a virtual stranger to me, and I was far from ready to tell him about my visitations.
“The most positive information I had gleaned from him was that I now had some idea of who my visitor had once been. The fact that his mother had mentioned the girl singing in the fields was a direct clue as far as I was concerned. It would have been helpful to know more, and indeed, to find out who the little girl the woman had been swimming with was, but at least now I was better informed than I had been before his visit.
“As I was escorting Jefferies to the front door, having assured him once more that I would contact him should Jenifer and I decide to sell, he suddenly turned and snapped his fingers as if a thought had struck him from out of the blue.”
“You know what you could do Mr Ward, as you’re down here already - our local library has a stash of books written about our fair town, and I am sure that anything of note which occurred would be in one of them at the very least. Furthermore, now that I come to mention it, the librarian is about a hundred, and has worked there certainly since I was at school, so I am sure that she would know something of the manor’s history or at least be able to point you in the right direction.”
“Although Jefferies spoke with a certain amount of humour in his voice, he had made a very valid point, and one, if I am honest, I would not have considered had he not mentioned it. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Where better than the local library to learn about local history? Although my knowledge of my distant family was somewhat poor, to say the least, the mere fact that they had owned the manor house and the land surrounding it must surely mean that once upon a time they must have been prominent members of the town, so it followed that their provenance must be documented.
“Having closed the front door after Jefferies, I turned to see Mrs Jarrow standing at the far end of the hallway, looking in my direction. I walked over to her and asked if anything was the matter, and she inhaled a deep breath before she spoke.”
“Please forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn, sir, you know that is not usually my way, but I could not help but overhear part of your conversation with the gentleman when I was dusting earlier. Forgive me for asking, but have you been troubled since coming to the manor?”
“It was the oddest experience, but as she spoke to me I could not help but feel as if somehow, she already knew the answer. I certainly had not mentioned anything about my late-night visitations to anyone, so it was not as if she could have overheard me in conversation. So I wondered if perhaps my late cousin had also been the recipient of these unwanted disturbances, and perhaps he had mentioned them to her. If that were the case then it was quite understandable that Mrs Jarrow, feeling beholden to look after me during my stay, which she evidently was, might have picked up on the fact that when I had answered the door to her on the last two mornings it was obvious that I had suffered from a broken night’s sleep.
“I do not know why but at that moment I was about to take her into my confidence, but then at the last second I changed my mind. She would doubtless have been an excellent listener, and I had no doubt whatsoever that she was completely trustworthy, and that if I specified to her that I did not want my confidentiality breached she would have probably taken my confession to the grave. Yet something still made me hesitate long enough to decide not to reveal my distress to her.
“So, when I shook my head and tried to act as if I had no idea what she might be alluding to, Mrs Jarrow politely apologised for having spoken out of turn and swiftly turned and went back to her chores. At that moment a part of me did feel guilty that I had not been honest with her, and, as I said, I was almost positive that somehow, she knew the truth anyway, regardless of my denial. I remember standing there for a good while arguing with myself on whether or not I should take her into my confidence. After all, having served my late relative for so many years there may well have been all kinds of relevant information that she was privy to, which she would be only too willing to share with me if I would ask for her candour.
“In the end I decided that, for the moment, I would keep my nightly disturbances to myself. I only hoped that Mrs Jarrow would not take umbrage at my decision. She and her husband were obviously good, honest, hard-working people, who deserved to be told the truth. But my indecisiveness convinced me that I was not yet ready to divulge it.
“I went back up to my bedroom and collected my jacket for my daily foray into town. I could not help but notice when I came back down and went into the kitchen to thank Mrs Jarrow again for her wonderful breakfast, that she acknowledged my thanks without turning to look at me. Something which she had never done before. By this point Jarrow had joined his wife for his tea, and I could tell from his uncomfortable demeanour that he too noticed the shift in his wife’s deference towards me.
“I suppose that I could not blame her, so I pretended not to notice anything untoward myself and wished them both a pleasant day before leaving.”
Twelve
“It was another beautiful autumn day, with the sun already at the height of its summit. I stood there in the fresh air and inhaled deeply before climbing into my car. I remember that I had a very positive outlook on my venture ahead. Jefferies had certainly planted a seed in my mind that brought with it great potential. I wound down my window to enjoy the cool rush of fresh country air as I drove into town.
“As I approached the Widow-Maker, I pondered how incredulous it now appeared to me that the local convention of treating that somewhat treacherous blind bend in the road to town was actually as a result of something that had occurred all th
ose years ago, which actually involved members - all be they distant - of my family. I wondered how long after that terrible incident it was before the locals gave the area its present nickname. This was something which I hoped I might find out, along with some far more urgent and pertinent details, from the library.
“I managed to park close to where I had the day before, which was only a five-minute walk to the library. As soon as I reached the building I ran up the stone steps and almost crashed into the solid wooden doors which blocked the entrance. I pushed each door again in turn, but they were obviously locked. I turned to my right, and there on the noticeboard in broad lettering was the library’s opening times. I was completely crestfallen when I read the notice that the library was closed on Thursdays and Sundays. Of all the rotten luck.
“I just stood there for a moment, staring at the wooden barricade which separated me from, potentially, learning about my heritage, and the house I had now inherited. Feeling totally dejected I turned around and began to descend the steps back to street level, when I noticed an old lady standing on the pavement, staring up in my direction. At first I thought that she too must have been wishing to enter the library, not realising that it was closed.
“In spite of my disappointment I managed to conjure up a reasonable smile for the sake of politeness, one which she did not reciprocate. Instead, she continued to look directly at me with a look of some distain on her face. As I reached the last step I moved to one side to avoid bumping into her, and was just about to turn away when she called out to me and asked me in a very stern, almost disparaging, tone, why I was attempting to gain entry to the library when it was obviously closed.
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