The Wells Brothers: Luke

by Angela Verdenius

  “You’re sick. You know that, right?”

  “I could be one of the huntsmen, hunting you down to besmirch your honour and take your-”

  A loud cough startled them both, making Luke blink and Mikki’s cheeks go bright red as she realised Elspeth was standing right there behind them, her arms folded, one eyebrow raised, one neatly shod foot tapping the ground.

  Straightening, Luke cleared his throat. “Yes, I do think a couple of buildings similar to orangeries would be great for teas and art. Where were you thinking of having them, Elspeth?”

  “At the back of the mansion,” she replied a touch dryly, her gaze flicking from Luke to Mikki and back to Luke again.

  “You wouldn’t want as many as you’re thinking, it’ll detract from the elegant simplicity which is what you want to maintain. Right?”

  “Of course.”

  “And your art classes won’t be going all day, so simply utilise a couple of orangeries or whatever you and Dad choose with different times for activities.”

  “Luke, you are a font of information.”

  Mikki rolled her eyes.

  He walked past her, giving a subtle nudge of his elbow as he did so, his quick glance down at her wicked. “Hear that, Red? Font of knowledge.”

  “Font of something, that’s for sure,” she replied.

  He fell into step beside Elspeth. “Gardens in-between to separate them and give privacy?”

  “Now I hadn’t thought that far.” Elspeth hooked her arm through his as she led him in their original direction. “Do you think it would make the areas look too small?”

  Falling naturally into the talk of landscaping ideas, they started discussing some ideas, leaving a relieved Mikki to trail along behind them.

  Had to give the man credit, he recovered fast. One minute talking abut hunting her down and taking her - good God, had he really been about to say virginity? That thought had her a little hot and bothered. No idea why, because that little fact had gone awhile ago. Not that she slept around, but she’d been intimate with one boyfriend when it looked like it was a serious relationship, only to be heartbroken when he’d suddenly declared he’d found someone else and left her. She hadn’t seen that coming, had happily given him her virginity, learned some really intriguing things about sex, had stars in her eyes, was as happy as a lark, then it had all dropped out from under her. A lot of tears, a couple of bouts of swearing with her sisters, and then she’d simply dated a few blokes since without intimacy. Man, she wasn’t going down that road again unless she was certain it was a serious, committed relationship on both sides.

  But hells bells, the thought of Luke hunting her down and doing anything intimate with her made her a little quivery. Just had to be her over-active imagination because he’d never made her do more than admire his body in the past, it wasn’t even like they were fast friends. They knew each other through Izzy and usually exchanged a cheerful, sardonic, or wary greeting depending on the situation and mood at the time. He’d certainly never looked at her with anything even vaguely resembling lust or, for that matter, interest.

  Yep, over-active imagination. Maybe she should stop reading those romances while at the mansion, dig out a couple of thriller or horror books instead. Just to be on the safe side. It wouldn’t do to get anything quivery around Luke Wells. One, he’d probably laugh his very fine arse off, and two, she’d just die of embarrassment if he did - and then she’d come back to life and kill him. Slowly.

  Pushing the thought aside, Mikki meandered along behind Luke and Elspeth, enjoying the feel of the spring sunshine on her skin. Birds flew through the air and chirped from the trees. Not even a breeze stirred the air, but it was such pleasant weather it didn’t matter.

  Elspeth was talking about her planned projects, including an area to play croquet, a tennis court, and a cricket area. Most of the sports she wanted to include on the grounds dated back a lot of years, so it wasn’t as though she was introducing modern sports. Leave it to Elspeth to think of ways to incorporate activities that could be absorbed into the atmosphere, keeping the old world charm while occupying the guests who were well away from city lights.

  Afternoon teas, painting, sculpting, horse riding, gig rides, tennis, cricket, picnics, moonlight rides, plays performed by the guests themselves, balls with full costume which guests could hire if they didn’t bring their own costumes, activities for the younger children that incorporated games played back in Victorian times.

  Elspeth had it all planned, and knowing her golden touch it would all come together successfully.

  Genuinely pleased and proud of Elspeth, Mikki couldn’t wait to see the transformation, but most of all she couldn’t wait for the ghost tours. Her aunt had declared that she’d heard the mansion and/or the grounds were haunted, as most mansions would be from the old days, and if she could discover the ghost and the haunted area then ghost tours were also on the list. Apparently somewhere on the grounds was an old chapel complete with the family graveyard. Now there was some ghost fodder to start with, and the ones to find the ghost and haunted area were none other than Elspeth and Mikki.

  She glanced up at the mansion, at the empty windows like bleak eyes looking out of the façade of decayed gentility. Tonight, armed with a couple of torches, she and Aunt Elspeth were on the hunt.

  Chapter 2

  Lying on the tiles, Dog looked hopefully from Luke drying himself in the bath tub to the closed door.

  “You chose to follow me in here,” Luke informed him. “You’ve only yourself to blame.”

  Heaving a sigh, Dog laid his chin on his paws.

  A chill wind whistled through from somewhere, making goose-bumps run up Luke’s arms. Rubbing himself briskly with the towel, he glanced around, trying to pin-point the source but unable to discover it.

  The bathroom was gloomy but thank God the electricity was running in this part of the house. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why power would run in the servants’ quarters and not the rest of the mansion. Something he’d have to ask Elspeth.

  Slinging the towel over the rail on the wall, he made a grab for it when the rail tilted, but miraculously it held. Shaking his head, Luke grabbed his jocks from the bathroom bench and slid them on, followed by jeans, an old t-shirt and a flannel shirt which he left hanging open. Rolling the sleeves up to below the elbows, he slid his feet into thongs, grabbed his toilet bag and opened the door, casting one last glance around the bathroom.

  Cracked black and white tiles lined halfway up the walls, a dull green paint stretching from there to the ceiling, the tub was deep, and the shower was one of those on a long high pipe with a rounded part at the top from which hung the shower head. No shower curtain.

  Elspeth had informed him that back in the day the shower was meant only for men as women were deemed not to have a strong enough constitution and were relegated to the bath. Apparently the shower was used by women only once it was established they were robust enough to handle it.

  Bloody weird time.

  Luke liked the thought of a woman in the shower, all that long, red hair plastered against a curvy body and - wait. What? He blinked. Red hair? Where had red hair come from? He frowned as he walked out into the corridor, then it cleared as he nodded. The paintings on the wall, one of them had probably featured a red-headed woman. Yeah, that was it. Man, women in those days had it rough. Imagine wearing all that lacy underwear and petticoats and stockings and shit in summer? Especially the servants who had to work in the sweltering heat and - ugh. He shuddered. No nightly baths there, it was only once a week, right? On a Saturday night ready for Sunday. It was a case of wash under the arms, face and private areas and that was it.

  “Man,” he muttered, “they must have stunk.”

  “Who must have stunk?” Mikki appeared in the doorway of the bedroom she was sharing with Elspeth.

  “The men and women who worked here back in the day.” From the doorway, Luke tossed his toilet bag through the air, not even bothering t
o watch as it bounced on his stretcher. “Imagine working in the heat, getting all sweaty and dirty, then having to make do with a slop and slap?”

  “Guess no one noticed the smell.” She shrugged. “Everyone would have smelled the same.”

  “So much for the romanticized idea of Victorian times.” He fixed his damp hair by simply combing it back from his forehead with the fingers of both hands.

  “You think that’s bad?” Holding a book in one hand, she moved out into the hall. “Back in the 1700s, I think it was - you know, when the high wigs were worn and those bustles that stuck out sideways?”

  “I’m getting the picture. Low necklines on the women’s gowns? Beauty spot on the cheek or corner of the mouth?”

  “My, so you did take some notice in history class.”

  Dog was gazing adoringly up at Mikki, completely blocking Luke’s path, so Luke simply stepped over him to fall in beside her. “Not a complete moron as you can see.”

  “Emphasis on the word ‘complete’?”

  He gave her pony tail a tug.

  “I did notice that you zeroed in on low necklines and beauty spots.”

  “Just get on with the history lesson, Professor Tart-Tongue.”

  Walking beside him, Mikki resumed, “Apparently they stank so much by the time they needed baths that they used to douse themselves in perfume.”

  “No deodorant back then.”

  “I read that sometimes the wigs had mice and cockroaches in them.”

  “How utterly delightful.” Luke stood aside to let her precede him into the kitchen. “Makes me so glad we live in an era of daily showers and a never-ending supply of deodorant.”

  Elspeth looked up from where she stood at the stove stirring a big pot of what smelled like stew. “Amen to that.”

  Moving across the room, Luke picked up the dog food bowl. Dog looked from him to Mikki then down at the food bowl in Luke’s hand, clearly torn between his crush on the curvy redhead and his love of food. Luke gave the bowl a waggle and Dog deserted Mikki for his first love.

  With a grin, Luke gave his head a brisk rub before peeling a can of dog food open and tipping the contents into the food bowl. No sooner had he placed it onto the floor than Dog fell on it, hoovering up the food as though he hadn’t been fed all day.

  “Poor bugger,” Mikki commented sympathetically. “He’s so hungry.”

  “Yeah,” Luke agreed, deadpan. “He hasn’t eaten since that hamburger he had at lunch time.”

  “Six hours is a long time for a dog.”

  “He also had a couple of biscuits that Elspeth fed him at afternoon tea.”

  “He looked so sad.” Elspeth made cooing noises at Dog, who immediately bounded over to sit adoringly at her feet. And look hopefully at the stew pot. “Oh, does baby want some stew?”

  Dog practically fainted with joy, his tail thumping madly on the floor.

  There was no doubt in Luke’s mind that Dog was going to be spoiled rotten by the women.

  “Just sit down, sweetie.” Elspeth nodded towards the table. “I’ll bring some bowls over in a minute.”

  Not quite sure what to do with himself, Luke sat on one side of the table before a set of spoon, knife and fork and a hot mug of Milo. The head of the table and right opposite him was set the same. He snuck a look over to see that the stove, which he’d thought was a wood burner, was actually a big old gas stove.

  Mikki stood beside Elspeth holding a bowl which her aunt took, filled with stew and handed back to Mikki. Without a word, Mikki brought it over and set it before him before repeating it with the other two bowls.

  Luke took an appreciative sniff of the hot stew. Man, it smelled bloody beaut. He looked it over. Filled with meat, veggies, and delicious liquid, it would go down a treat on this cool night.

  “Smells yum.” Poking it around with the spoon, he watched the steam swirl up.

  “One thing I can do is make a mean stew.” Elspeth retrieved Dog’s food bowl, spooned some stew into it and set it on the table. “Gotta cool it first, boy, or you’ll burn your tongue.”

  “You’re spoiling him,” Luke said mildly.

  Sitting opposite, Mikki took one of the small bread rolls from the plate in the middle of the table and cut it open. “If you’ve got a problem with that, it’s going to be an on-going fight all week.”

  “I can live with it.” Luke jerked a thumb at Dog. “He can certainly live with it.”

  Elspeth sat at the head of the table.

  “By the way,” Luke said, “how come there’s electricity in this part of the house and not the rest? I mean, why the servants’ quarters only? And how come there is electricity? Did you have it put on?”

  “Yes, I had it put back on.” Elspeth buttered a small bread roll. “The last owner was apparently a bit of an eccentric. He was determined to save money by being economical. He slept in one of the servant’s rooms and only had electricity in this section of the house. Apparently he never ventured much into the rest of the house.”

  “What about his family?” Mikki asked curiously.

  “He was the last child in the family and never married.”

  Luke watched Mikki take a thoughtful bite of the bread roll, those lush lips closing around the doughy bread.

  “Some say he was a few ‘roos short in the top paddock,” Elspeth continued. “I think maybe he was just sad and lost.”

  What makes you say that?” Luke queried.

  Elspeth slipped Dog’s bowl down to him. “He was alone in a big house, he sequestered himself to these spartan quarters. I reckon he was a man in mourning.”

  Luke’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Mourning?”

  “Sadness. Grieving.”

  “I know what it means, but why was he in mourning? Did someone die?” A thought struck Luke. “A lost love?”

  Cripes, that sounded romantic. No chance Mikki would miss it, not when her eyes brightened.

  “Ohh, so romantic,” she cooed. “A lost love!”

  “Can it, sister.” He spooned up stew, took a mouthful. Damned delicious. “Okay, Elspeth, what was this man mourning?”

  “There’re a few stories.” She waggled her spoon around. “His mother shot his father in a jealous rage when she found out he was cheating on her. His sister ran away with the butler-”

  “I like that one,” Mikki interrupted. “Marrying beneath her station, what a scandal!”

  “Just a minute.” Luke buttered another bread roll. “How old was the owner of this house when he died?”

  “Ninety six,” Elspeth replied. “And that was twenty years ago.”

  “So he was born around the early 1900s.” Mikki nodded. “That’d make sense.”

  “When one of the care aids who came out here to help him bath arrived one day, she found him dead at the bottom of the staircase.” Elspeth scooped up stew on her spoon. “It’s said he was holding a photo of his family.”

  “If he had a sister,” Luke felt compelled to point out, “why didn’t she inherit this place?”

  “Killed in the Second World War.”

  “Geez.”

  “Old family, they lived through a fair bit.”

  Mikki took a sip of Milo. “What were the other stories?”

  “That his father fell down the stairs and broke his neck, and the local doctor of the time hid the fact that he had a bullet hole in his heart.”

  “Cripes, do these stories get any less grisly?” Luke queried.

  “Why?” Mikki returned. “Worried one of the ghosts will come into your room tonight?”

  “There’re no such things as ghosts.” The bread roll half to his mouth, he paused, scrutinizing both women. “Wait a minute…”

  Calmly, they looked back at him.

  “You think this place has ghosts?” He was astounded. But then he shouldn’t be, knowing that Mikki and her eccentric Aunt had been on a couple of ghost hunts in the past, not to mention the fact they loved horror movies. “You think,” he repeated slowly, “that this
place has ghosts?”

  “So they say,” Elspeth replied.

  “Who’s ‘they’?”

  “The word.” Mikki tapped the side of her nose.

  “The what?”

  “Word.” She rolled her eyes. “Most old places have legends. This has been a derelict mansion for some years. It was rented out a couple of times but no one stayed for long, the word is that the place is haunted.”

  “The renters said it was haunted?”

  “Well-”

  “Of course not.” Elspeth scooped up more stew.

  “So much for your word.” Luke smirked at Mikki.

  “Now, sweetie,” Elspeth said. “Not many people want others to think they’re nutty enough to believe in ghosts. Of course they would deny it.”

  “Or maybe it’s just because this place isn’t haunted. It’s old, it’s bound to have stories surrounding it, especially if the owner was a recluse. An old mansion half an hour from the nearest town, a recluse found dead at the bottom of the staircase-”

  “Don’t you think it odd that he didn’t go into the rest of the house but was found at the bottom of the staircase dead?” Mikki interjected.

  “How do you know for sure that he didn’t go into the rest of the house? Maybe he walked through it every day but couldn’t be bothered with the upkeep. Maybe he simply couldn’t afford it, have you ever thought of that?” When she opened her mouth, Luke added, “It’s not unheard of for families to leave old mansions because they simply cannot afford the upkeep. The family coffers have dwindled, the mansions have gotten old, the money just isn’t there anymore.”

  She pursed her lips thoughtfully.

  Elspeth paused. “You do have a point, Luke.”

  Satisfied, he dipped the bread roll into the stew before taking a big bite. Yep, these two ditzy females hadn’t thought along the lines of commonsense. Sometimes they just needed a man to make them think inside the box. A little rationality, that was all.

  “I’m sure your idea has merit.” Elspeth smiled serenely.

  “Oh yeah,” Mikki agreed dryly. “Lots of merit.”

  Now that the girls had seen sense, Luke figured he could cut them some slack. “Of course I understand that town gossip can be entertaining. It’s all fun and larks until the sun goes down.”