The Ghost of Emily Tapper

by Nita Round

  The woman seemed unsure for a moment, almost freezing into place. “Maggie,” she answered.

  “Maggie?”

  “I am so rude,” she mumbled and removed her hat. “Maggie Durrant,” she said as she stuck out her hand. “I live at the Hall, but when I saw lights bobbing about the place I thought I needed to investigate.”

  “Maggie Durrant, as in Lord Durrant?”

  “Yes. You’ve heard of me?”

  “My solicitor, Maud’s solicitor, gave me lots of information on the house and the people I might see.” Emma replied as she stared at Maggie. She was not what she’d expected. The Lord was a woman, not a man, and younger than she expected, in fact, they were of similar age. She was tall, and her blue eyes twinkled now that her face was no longer hidden in the shadow of her hat.

  “Well, no matter, when I saw the lights I thought you were a burglar.”

  Emma didn’t answer at first. “And how many burglars use a key and park their car outside the door?”

  “Well... I didn’t see how you got in, I saw the lights.”

  “But you know who I am.”

  “Yes. Only one person you could be, Mrs...Miss Blewitt. I had a letter from a solicitor to say they had discovered to whom the house now belonged, and to expect you at some point.”

  Emma looked at the proffered hand and grasped it before the woman had a chance to change her mind and withdraw her offer of friendship. In this place at the back of nowhere, she needed all the help she could get. “So do I call you Lady Durrant? Or is it Lord? I’ve not met a Lord before.”

  The woman laughed, and it was a loud and cheerful laugh. The humour echoed through the empty house until the house seemed less sad than it had. “Only if you hate me, but given the way I introduced myself at the end of a shotgun, perhaps you already do. Anyway, I would prefer Maggie.”

  “Does everyone call you Maggie?” Emma asked, gesturing in such a way as to include the whole village.

  Maggie shook her head. “To them I’m the Lord Durrant, and it keeps them happy to think someone is responsible.”

  “Responsible? For what?”

  “For everything,” Maggie answered. “Someone has to be responsible.”

  “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

  “I’m not sure I do sometimes,” Maggie shrugged. “You’ll get to know the way things work the longer you’re here.”

  Emma nodded, but her mind whirled. She knew nothing about lords and their ilk, but this one was pleasant enough, and she needed a friend right now. Her thoughts flashed to the notebook, but with Maggie in front of her it all seemed so distant and fantastical. Best thing to do was to change the subject. “Blasted electrics are off and they promised they would reconnect by today.”

  “They did reconnect,” Maggie answered, “telephones too.”

  “But I have no lights.”

  “There’s a storm, and we lost power three or four hours ago. It’ll be like this until the weather clears and someone can get out to fix stuff.”

  “If it ever stops.”

  “Indeed.”

  “But I can see lights in the other houses.”

  “Generators. Even when we don’t have bad weather the supply of power can be a little temperamental, so wherever possible residents get generators. If not, they learn to make do with candles and torches.”

  Emma almost didn’t dare ask. “Do I have one?”

  “I would have expected you to have one, yes.” Maggie looked at her, “I see you are not attired for the country are you?”

  “Well no,” Emma admitted. “I’m a city girl. Is it obvious?”

  Maggie didn’t answer, but instead said, “Do you want me to look around the back and fire it up for you?”

  Emma nodded. “Would you? This is so kind of you to be so helpful. I’m cold. I’m tired. I’m hungry and thirsty and if something doesn’t change soon I’ll curl up in the corner and scream. Unless there is a proper coffee shop nearby with at least half a dozen different types of coffee and several ways to serve hot chocolate?”

  Maggie laughed a deep throaty chuckle and Emma smiled in spite of everything. “Funny. Do you think Castlecoombe is the kind of place to have a coffee house?” She shook her head. “I better get the generator started then.” Maggie rested her gun against the back of the door and took a Maglite from her coat pocket. When she tested the light, the bright white beam was powerful enough to illuminate both women. Maggie froze.

  “Are you all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Emma asked.

  “Yes. I think I have.” Maggie answered.

  Emma watched the smile dawn on Maggie’s face, but it looked stiff and forced, not at all the cheery grin she’d seen earlier.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll go and fix the generator,” she said and she strode through the house as though she knew it well.

  MAGGIE COULDN’T WAIT to be outside, even in the rain. Her bright beam flashed around the small backyard to two outbuildings, one of which housed the generator. Inside, Maggie leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Her knees threatened to give way and she was not at all sure how she’d managed to make it this far. It was her. The woman in her dreams, and she was even more stunning than she’d imagined. The face in her dreams stared at her with those unrelenting eyes, and she thought of nightmares and dark places. Emma’s deep brown eyes were bright not dark, warm not cold. Seeing her, so close, made her heart beat faster. With fear? Perhaps a little. But there was something more.

  She fiddled with the generator, primed it, and then switched it on. She was glad Maud had installed a decent machine. She didn’t fancy one of the old style generators with the pull cord. She’d be outside all night trying to get the engine to catch. She flicked the gauge a few times, but it remained set a fraction above zero. There was probably less than a quarter gallon, so this baby wasn’t going to run for long, not unless it was so efficient it could run on fumes.

  She didn’t go back straight away. “I wanted to hate you,” she mumbled to herself, “but I can’t. I like you already.” She closed her eyes, and Emma’s face filled her mind. She had imagined her so many times over the years, and yet the reality was so different, the warm and smiling woman sitting in Maud Tapper’s house was enough to take her breath away.

  POWER RETURNED TO the house sooner than Emma had expected. Half of the lights stayed off, and the working lights offered such dim illumination it wasn’t as bright as she had hoped. Even with them on, the whole house appeared dark and dreary. She was sure if she had timed the kettle, it would have proved it took at least twice the usual time to boil.

  “Thank you for fixing things, I hope you like black tea,” Emma advised Maggie as she came back into the house, “The milk is somewhere in the back of my car, and I don't fancy unloading anything right now.”

  “Black is fine, but I don’t think you will be doing much more tonight, your fuel tank is almost empty.”

  “Damn! Well all of my plans are buggered already.”

  “You had plans for tonight?”

  “Yes. I’d had plans to start sorting things out.”

  “You don’t like to waste time then.”

  “No, I don’t,” she said as the kettle boiled. Emma made the tea and sat at the small kitchen table with two mugs in front of her. Maggie folded herself with grace and elegance into a seat with her back straight, her posture stiff and formal.

  “Make yourself comfortable,” Emma urged.

  “I am comfortable, thank you,” Maggie answered as a box of cereal fell from the top shelf. If Maggie had not leaned to one side at the right time, it would have landed square on the top of her head.

  Emma looked confused. “I’m sorry. I must have knocked the cabinet or something.”

  Maggie waved her off. “It’s okay, I’m used to it.”

  “Well, I’d hoped to get a good start on sorting things out. Well, maybe not sorting things out, but getting a feel for things. Now I am here, the light levels are not helpful
, it’s freezing, and I can’t find the central heating boiler.”

  “You won’t find a boiler here. If you want warmth, then you need to make a fire in the fireplace, if this is like the other houses on this row then the fire would also heat your water too.”

  “No heating!”

  “Central heating has appeared at some of the larger and newer houses, but we’re all used to logs and coal. We can rely on those simple things, they’ve survived the test of time. Things don’t change much in the country you see, at least not with any great speed.”

  Emma groaned. “No central heating. This is more basic than I could have imagined. I think I need more than tea. I need something with wine or brandy in it. I suppose it’ll be like camping out, but inside the house. It’ll be an adventure.”

  “You’re not from around these parts are you?”

  “Is it so obvious?”

  “Yes, well, you’re dressed for a meeting not a drive through the country. Heels instead of boots, and your clothing is far too thin for this weather. You’ll catch your death of cold. Do you have thicker clothes, or a thick sweater at least?”

  “In my suitcase I’m sure I might have a fleece or two, but I didn’t pack for this weather.”

  Maggie looked thoughtful. “You look damp and uncomfortable. I wonder—”

  “What did you wonder, Lord Durrant?”

  “Well I did wonder, seeing as you’re a city girl, whether you intended to stay here or whether this is a quick peek at your Castlecoombe assets?”

  “You’re being a little forward, and I’d say it was none of your business.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words. “But my answer would be a simple I don’t know.”

  “I see,” Maggie said as she sipped at her tea. “Whew, that’s a potent brew. Do you mind if I help myself to a little sugar? If you have some?”

  “Help yourself,” she said and pushed a small ceramic bowl toward Maggie. “Do you country folk always look at everyone and then judge them on what you see?”

  Maggie shrugged. “We’re simple people.”

  Emma stared at her. “Simple? Or judgemental?”

  “Well, if the little red thing outside is yours it’s not an ideal vehicle for driving over the mountains in foul weather like this. The person who drove such a car was likely the kind who was not going to be staying long.”

  “When you put it like that it sounds a fair assumption,” Emma agreed. “I didn’t know what to expect, so I have what I have. I didn’t intend to arrive so late. I work in the city. Well I do now, but my boss played awkward. I’m not even sure I have a job any more, but I’ll cross the employment bridge another time.

  Sometimes I wish I could tell my boss what to do with his job. Anyway, I could have waited until the morning, but I had to leave the moment I had a chance. I’m not sure why I needed to get here so fast.”

  “Did you know your aunt well?”

  Emma stared through a doorway into the dim lounge. “I never knew I had an aunt until a few weeks ago. So this place, this house and everything, is all strange and new.”

  “In that case I will try and make you as welcome as I can.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate your help. For a start, I’d never have worked out how to get power on all by myself.”

  “And what do you think now? I can understand this isn’t the best time to judge things, but it would be interesting to know.”

  “You’re right it isn’t the best time, but I needed to know what was here,” Emma answered. “I don’t know what happens next either, and I’m not even sure I know what I want from all of this.” Her gaze flicked over the small kitchen and the dated appliances and she wondered whether this was the kind of place she wanted to live. It was still larger than her flat, but it all looked depressing, old, and it wasn’t in the city.

  Maggie nodded, “It would make sense to keep your options open then.”

  Emma sighed. “I am not sure sense has anything to do with this.”

  “Oh?” Maggie pulled herself upright, as though on alert.

  “To cut a long story short, I think I need to know where I came from. It sounds silly I suppose, but it means something to me.”

  “It’s not silly at all, it’s important, I think, to know your heritage.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You know you look so much like Maud it’s uncanny,” Maggie said.

  “I do?”

  “Yes.”

  Emma started to say something and then she froze. A white figure drifted across the window and paused to look inside. Emma jumped from her seat and screamed. “What the hell?”

  “Emma?” Maggie said and although she reached for the shotgun, it was nowhere nearby. “What’s the matter?”

  Emma flinched as a gust of wind rattled the window. “There’s someone outside.”

  “What? In this weather?”

  “You were outside in this weather. A bit of rain didn’t stop you.”

  “I didn’t say I was normal though did I?”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “What did you see?” Maggie pulled on her hat, grabbed her coat, and stood, ready to go outside.

  “White,” Emma said, “I saw white.”

  Maggie opened the back door into the yard, and strode outside, each step oozing confidence.

  “She was white,” she repeated, but Maggie had already left. Emma shivered. Without Maggie in the room it seemed colder, darker, sinister even. She wrapped her arms around herself and then almost jumped out of her skin when Maggie came back in through the door.

  “No one there,” Maggie declared as she removed her wet things.

  “You sound rather cheerful considering you’ve just been out in the cold rain again.”

  Maggie waved a white plastic bag in the air. “This was stuck on a bush though. Perhaps it blew by the window as you looked out.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “You know in this weather all sorts of things look strange and odd,” Maggie stated as she placed the sodden bag into the rubbish.

  “It wasn’t a bag I saw,” Emma insisted. “It was a someone.”

  “It was an illusion, Emma, nothing more.”

  Emma grumbled something to herself. Anger, because Maggie did not believe her, overrode her fear. No matter, she would never forget the image of the woman in the window. She would not, could not, forget the dirty white clothes, the pale face, and the dark, desolate eyes staring through the kitchen window. She shivered. The face, the anguish in those eyes, would haunt her always, and the thought of being alone, without anyone, did not appeal.

  “We should look around the rest of the house. Make sure it is all safe and so on,” Maggie suggested. “We can get a feel for the place, plan what needs to be done before it gets too cold and before the generator runs out of fuel.”

  “It’s so very kind of you to be so helpful, but don’t you have your own things to do? I don’t want to suck up all of your time.” She sounded so polite, but the last thing she wanted was for Maggie to go and leave her alone.

  “Nothing to do on a night like this, and there is no one but my brother and I at the house. If anything, I welcome the distraction.”

  “Well, as long as you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t mind at all. Truth be told, I’m a little nosey.”

  “Lord of some posh Hall and you want to see the insides of my aunt’s house?”

  “Yes,” Maggie answered, unruffled. “I told you I was nosey.”

  “Good, then I think I’ll be able to pump you for information about my aunt and the rest of the family.”

  Maggie shrugged. “Maybe later, but for now, shall we make a start and look around your house first?” she said before Emma could change her mind.

  Her house.

  Owning her own house made her feel good, yet it was strange to be so solvent that she owned a house outright. On the other hand, this house gave her the creeps and she would be happier not to be here. “This place gives me the c
reeps,” she said, her voice making it to words without much thought.

  “Does it?”

  “It’s too quiet, too rural.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she reconsidered what she meant. “It’s too noisy.”

  “Which one did you mean? Too noisy or too quiet?”

  “I’m used to the city. The perpetual traffic, trains from the local subway, slamming doors and loud music. Those are the sounds of people living in close proximity, and I expect all of those sounds at the very least.”

  “It sounds dreadful.”

  “Not when you get used to it, but this noisy quiet is very disturbing.”

  “Noisy quiet, huh?”

  “I can hear the howling of the wind, rain so hard it drowns out everything. The house creaks and groans all on its own, like it’s talking some language ‘it’ understands and no one else does.”

  “Now you make it sound creepy.”

  “It is! Even the shadows dance about in strange, odd ways. Outside the dark is so deep and complete even shadows hide. I know they are there though, and they are hiding. Waiting for me even.”

  Maggie shuddered. “Now you’re giving me the creeps.”

  “Good.” Emma nodded with some satisfaction, “I’m glad it’s not just me then.”

  Maggie laughed and grabbed Emma’s hand. “Come on, let’s look around the house. I’m right here so the shadows won’t swallow you.”

  “Thanks. If I wasn’t jittery before, I am now.”

  At the top of the stairs, Maggie paused. Emma watched steam jet from her mouth as she spoke. “You know, I expected this would be chilly, but this is bitter cold and inhospitable. You can’t stay here, not until it is made more habitable. Perhaps you ought to come over to the Hall where it’s warmer.”

  “Are you inviting me to stay at the castle?”

  Maggie nodded. “I’d be happier to know you’re safe, rather than here where it is not. As I said, it’s not ready for habitation.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Of course I’m serious.”

  “If it is no bother?” She was not going to get many opportunities like this.

  “No bother at all. I assume you’re not some psycho with a chainsaw?”