Henderson Manor

by Emma L. Clapperton

  Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen her enter either.

  5

  Deborah looked in the mirror one last time before finally deciding on the dress she had tried on the first time. It had taken her almost two hours to decide on what she was going to wear. She was so nervous about finally getting a date with the man of her dreams that she wanted to look more perfect than perfection itself.

  Obviously she had already been on a date with Sam, if you can call it that. But this time was going to be the first proper date.

  Hopefully he will melt when he sees me in this, she thought as she applied her lipstick.

  On arrival at the Italian restaurant where Sam had arranged to meet her, she felt as though her stomach had fallen out in the taxi on the way and her heart was going to burst out of her chest. She saw him waiting in the seated area by the door and her heart did a little dance.

  “Hi,” he stood to greet her. He walked over to the door where she was stood and kissed her on the cheek.

  The restaurant was decorated with warm colours, oranges and reds. The walls were mirrored in places and the floors were made up of black and red ceramic tiles. There was a bustle of chat, clinking of glasses and a low hum of music which played in the background.

  “Hello,” Deborah replied.

  Sam walked around to her back and slid her coat off her shoulders. She almost crumbled.

  “So, have you eaten here before?” Sam asked.

  “No, but I’m open to new things,” she smiled; her eyes twinkling.

  “Well, in that case let’s get seated and we can sample some of this fine food.”

  A waiter approached them and led them to a table in the back of the restaurant where Sam had requested flowers and candles to be laid out. Deborah was impressed that Sam had thought about the fine detail. She had a feeling it was going to be a good night.

  The waiter took their drinks order and moved away from the table. Sam motioned for Deborah to sit down before he did.

  He’s such a gentleman.

  Deborah wanted to hide her face behind the menu to cover up the fact that she was blushing. She couldn’t understand why she was so nervous; she had already gone further than this, why so coy now?

  “Are you ok?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, to be honest I’m a little nervous.”

  Sam smiled. “No need to be nervous. Just relax. I don’t bite.”

  Deborah laughed. She knew he was right but she just couldn’t believe that she was spending a second night with Sam Leonard, the famous Scottish theatre actor, among other things.

  As the night went on, Deborah did relax and was beginning to enjoy Sam’s company. He had such wonderful charm and it was working its magic on her. The food was delicious and the drinks were flowing, all courtesy of Sam.

  “So, what do you do for a living then Deborah, outside of university obviously?”

  “I work in a little off license,” she replied.

  “You must see all walks of life going in and out of there every day.”

  “Sam,” she laughed. “It’s an off license, not Hollywood. The majority of people who come in are either still drunk from the night before or about to get drunk.”

  Sam laughed. “Nice.”

  Deborah smiled. She really had fallen for his charm, even before she had met him. She was, as far as she was concerned, his biggest fan. She didn’t dare tell him that though in case it scared him away. She had even asked her lecturer that she do her university placement at the theatre where Sam’s recent show had been running for two months. She specifically made sure that she was in the same place as he was whenever she could. It scared her sometimes, how much she thought about him, how much she wanted to be around him, what she would do to make that happen.

  She would never do anything to jeopardize her opportunity to meet with him again in the future, and if that meant keeping everything to herself about her need for his presence then that’s what she would do.

  “Shall we get the bill and move on to a bar?” Sam asked as he poured the last of his beer down his throat.

  Yes, he wants to stay out; this couldn’t get any better, she thought.

  Deborah nodded as Sam gestured for the waiter to bring them the bill. A few moments passed before the bill arrived at the table.

  “Here is your bill, Sir,” said the girl who brought it to the table.

  “Claire?” Sam said in a surprised tone.

  The waitress looked down at him; it was Claire from the cafe. “Hi Sam. How are you?”

  “I’m great. What are you doing here?”

  Deborah looked on at them, not at all happy that another female had interrupted the attention she had been receiving from Sam.

  “I work here,” she said, looking around the restaurant.

  “And the café?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, and the cafe.”

  Claire seemed wary, and now she found a new pair of eyes burning into her like a fire raging out of control.

  “I’m sorry; I’m disturbing you. I’ll leave you two alone.”

  Sam stood up. “No, you’re not disturbing us.”

  Deborah could feel the frustration building in her as every word was exchanged between Sam and this woman.

  Sam could see the worry on Claire’s face. “She’s not here.”

  Claire smiled. “Am I that obvious? She was really pissed off the last time I was talking to you.”

  Sam sighed. “She’s just overprotective — sorry about that. She didn’t mean any harm.”

  “Could’ve fooled me!”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Deborah felt as though she had been forgotten about and like she was the one interrupting a date. Who the hell were they talking about anyway, and who was this girl so rudely interrupting her date? She struggled to keep her frustration from showing.

  “She came back into the cafe just after you both left,” Claire went on.

  “Yes, she left a bag under the table.”

  Claire wondered if she should tell him the rest, then she figured that she would probably never see Jenny again, so there really was no reason why she shouldn’t. “She was really aggressive and told me to stay away from you!”

  Sam seemed shocked by this. “What exactly happened?”

  Deborah cleared her throat, allowing Sam to realise that he had forgotten to introduce the girls to one another, but he just smiled at Deborah and said, “Just a minute. Sorry about this.”

  Deborah was in shock. Where had his charm gone? And she had a sneaky suspicion that this conversation would lead to the outcome she was not willing to think about. It made her sick to think that he had a girlfriend and this is what the conversation with this Claire character was all about. She kept quiet and decided to listen to the rest of the conversation between her date and the stranger who had brought the bill to the table.

  “When she came back into the cafe a few minutes after you’d left, she was fishing around under the table you were sitting at. I asked if there was something I could help her with and she went crazy, telling me to stay away from you. When I asked what the hell she was on about she just turned to me and said, ‘Have a nice day’ as if nothing had happened!”

  Sam frowned. “Are you ok?”

  “Why did she behave like that?” Claire ignored his question.

  “I don’t know. I just think that she probably didn’t mean it the way she said it.”

  Claire shook her head and proceeded to walk away, much to Deborah’s relief, until Sam called her back.

  “Claire, wait! I’m sorry that she made you feel like that. She’s just ... protective of me.”

  “Is she your mother or something?” Claire replied with sarcasm.

  Sam shook his head, not wanting the situation to become an argument, “She’s just a friend who’s been there for me when I needed it most.”

  “Anyway, I need to get on — don’t want my boss thinking I’m lazing around.”

  Sam took her hand and leaned in to
kiss her on the cheek. “Sorry for the hassle.”

  Claire smiled, how could she be angry at him when his eyes sparkled like that? “It’s ok, just make sure if you see me in the street and she’s with you that you give me a wide berth. I can’t be bothered having to deal with that again.”

  Sam nodded, unsure if she was kidding or not. “You have my word.”

  As Claire walked away from the table and Sam sat down. He looked up to see that Deborah’s eyes were no longer relaxed and happy. They had an anger in them that he realised was justified.

  “Oh my god, I am so sorry about that. I didn’t even introduce you to her.”

  “No you didn’t. Who was she, and more to the point, who is the other one you were talking about that bit her head off?”

  “It’s a long story; you really don’t want to hear it, especially on our first date.”

  Deborah didn’t want to ask too many questions in the fear that he would end up telling her to get lost. She decided on just one more question before changing the subject and forgetting the last five minutes had ever happened. “Are you involved with any of those women?”

  “Not at all, I promise you. I’m a one woman kind of guy. Claire is a waitress who served me and a friend today, and the woman who she was referring to is my best friend who, as you may have gathered, is a little on the protective side when it comes to me,” he held her hand as he explained.

  Deborah accepted this, for now. She didn’t want to rock the boat after what had just happened. But then she started to think, if this woman was so protective of Sam and had a go at a complete stranger in a cafe, then what would she think of her?

  Sam must have seen the look on her face. “Don’t worry. Jenny will love you. She’s excited to meet you.”

  Deborah smiled. “Ok. I’d like to meet her too. She seems very important to you.”

  “She’s like a sister to me.”

  Sam helped Deborah on with her coat and he led her out of the restaurant onto the busy street. It was cold and the street was dazzling with car headlights and street lamps. Deborah wrapped her coat around herself and hugged it close. Sam led her into a bar which was quiet and cosy with a real log fire burning at the back of the room. The decor was designed like a living room in someone’s home. There were brown leather sofas dotted around with little tables in front of them and the walls were teal blue and mocha coloured. Above the fireplace was a large flat screen television and the windows were dressed with thick lined mocha coloured curtains.

  “Wow, it’s like a house in here,” Deborah said.

  “That’s the idea. What would you like to drink?”

  “I’ll have a white wine please.”

  Sam left Deborah to make herself feel comfortable as she positioned herself on one of the large sofas. She looked around and couldn’t help but wonder if yet another female would appear during her date, after the lengths that Deborah had gone to so she could be with Sam; it wouldn’t surprise her at all.

  “Hi, you’re Deborah aren’t you?” A voice interrupted her thoughts.

  She looked up to see a red head standing at the end of the sofa. Deborah knew exactly who she was but wouldn’t dream of allowing it to be known. “Yes, and you are?”

  “Jenny, Sam’s best friend,” Jenny held out her hand to greet Deborah.

  6

  The flat was dark and empty. The windows were closed but that didn’t stop the cold air creeping in from the autumnal evening.

  The bedroom doors were closed and everything was in its original place. Sam’s bedroom was in pristine condition with a bed that looked like it had been ironed and the window was dressed beautifully with the curtains symmetrically placed. The bottles of aftershave were also placed symmetrically on his dresser.

  Her presence was not reflected in the mirror of the dresser, which was good. She didn’t really want to look at herself as a dead girl, especially after the way she had died.

  She moved from Sam’s room to Jenny’s room, not sure how she was going to commence her plan. She couldn’t get her head around what had happened to her and she certainly was not ready to pass over to the other place. No, there was work still to do before she would be able to go anywhere.

  It had been over a month since she had died and she hadn’t exactly wrapped things up before passing. Things could’ve gone so much better for everyone involved, but unfortunately that’s not the way things had turned out.

  Sam hadn’t listened to anything that she had had to say and Sarah had decided that it was time to give up and accept the fact that things were over between them

  How could he honestly think that she would do such things to him? She had begun to fall in love with him … why would she do anything to jeopardize that?

  From the day she died, it had taken her three weeks to learn how to apply a physical presence to her spirit. She had almost given up trying, but then remembered that she had given up on something important to her once before and look where it had gotten her. So she journeyed through it and eventually she had managed to succeed. She had finally learned how to move things using her mind, make things happen that would seem impossible to the human eye. Sarah had to make Sam see sense. She had thought that what she had said to him as he walked away from her the last time he saw her that he would have turned around and really listened to what she had said about Jenny. Of course, Sarah understood that Sam would never believe that Jenny was capable of such a thing and now that Sarah knew the whole truth, she had to make sure that Sam knew before it ruined his life.

  Sarah looked around, in drawers, behind the wardrobes, under the bed. But she didn’t find what she was looking for. She was looking for anything that she could use to show Sam what had really been happening and why things had gone so wrong.

  She moved again, around the flat from room to room, looking to see what she could move in order to make Sam notice that things were not right. Sarah had two choices, to be subtle or frighteningly obvious. She had decided to go with subtle to start, as much as she wanted to tear the place apart, because she still cared deeply for Sam, even though she was dead. She didn’t want to hurt him anymore than he had been. Sarah knew she had plenty of time to get the message across; she just didn’t want it to take too long.

  ***

  “Nice to meet you,” Deborah replied, all the while blazing inside her was the urge to get up and walk out.

  Jenny happily plonked herself next to Deborah on the couch as Sam waited for his order at the bar. Deborah didn’t want to speak, in fear of saying something catty, or worse, but she needn’t have worried as Jenny did most of the talking.

  “So, Deborah,” Jenny said. “What are you and Sam doing tonight?”

  Deborah looked through Jenny, the way she had said her name ... she couldn’t quite work it out. Was it sincerity in her tone, or down right sarcasm? “Well, we actually haven’t had much time to talk because people keep interrupting us!”

  She knew it was a slight bend in the truth but she couldn’t help herself — she was so angry.

  “Oh?”

  “It’s ok, though, because we’ll arrange another evening to really become acquainted.”

  Jenny flashed her bright white smile, sensing that Deborah was feeling threatened by her presence. Jenny placed a hand on her shoulder. “There’s no need to worry, Debs. I’m just his friend, more like his sister in fact.”

  Deborah smiled. “I know that. He’s told me all about you.”

  Where the hell did she get off calling her Debs? The tension was about to reach breaking point just as Sam appeared at the table. “All good here I hope?”

  Jenny smiled. “As always. I was just introducing myself.”

  Deborah also smiled but inside she was screaming. This was not what she had had planned for her night at all and Sam could sense what was going on. He could tell that Deborah wasn’t happy.

  “So, it was nice meeting you Debs, but I am going to get off, got a long day ahead of me tomorrow at work and I don’t want to
be tired,” Jenny said.

  Sam gave a hidden sigh of relief. He was happy that Jenny was there, but at the same time he was glad that she was leaving. He didn’t want to make Deborah anymore uncomfortable than she already was.

  “Nice to meet you too,” Deborah replied, a little too chirpy.

  Jenny kissed Sam on the cheek. “See you back at the flat.”

  As she walked away, Sam could feel eyes burning into the back of his head. He turned to see Deborah smiling. “What?”

  Deborah shook her head. There was nothing she could say, all she could do was smile, enjoy the rest of the evening and hope there were no more interruptions. “Nothing at all. So, where were we?”

  ***

  Jenny put her key in the door and as it turned in the lock, she froze. Intuition told her something wasn’t right but she didn’t know what it was. She wasn’t sure if she should go any further or go back to the bar and wait with Sam.

  Jenny knew she was probably being stupid. Besides, she didn’t want to be the spare part at the table and she could already tell that Deborah wasn’t keen on her. She wasn’t sure why exactly but she could guess that it was something to do with the fact that she was Sam’s best friend. They were all the same, the girlfriends, always jealous.

  Her mind was back in the present time and she decided that she would investigate what had stopped her in her tracks. Jenny was nervous as the tension built on opening the front door. The darkness in the hallway was deep and uninviting as she entered; she could feel it closing in on her. She felt suffocated by it and began to panic as she reached for the light switch to her left. She flicked it and as she did, the bulb made a popping sound before it flew out of the light on the ceiling and landed on the floor. Jenny screamed out at the sudden power surge and she had to steady herself. She fished for her mobile phone in her coat pocket and fumbled with the touch screen for the light setting. She shone the light from her phone down the hallway to see if anything untoward was inside as she slowly stepped further into the flat.