“I understand” said Lisa drying her tears on her sleeve.
“I just don’t believe a ghost can do that. In fact I know ghosts can’t, or maybe they can, but either way,” he said with a shake of his head “what I’m trying to say is that I know she thought it was him, but I’m a hundred per cent certain she did it herself. The way she’s acting just backs it up.”
Their conversation ended there and they got up from the garden chairs and began walking back to the house, not wanting to go inside but knowing they had no choice. They mentally prepared themselves for the night that lay ahead. At least they would have the company of another person, if only for an hour or so.
49
Lisa prepared dinner for them while Aiden and Debbie were sat at the kitchen table talking about everything that had happened over the last couple of days.
“You do realise he’s dead mum, don’t you?” Aiden asked as gently as he could.
“Yes, of course I do love. Why do you ask?”
“It’s just that you said it was him that hurt you yesterday but it couldn’t have been him because he’s dead.”
“He might be dead Aiden but he’s still here and he did hurt me! What are you trying to say? That I did this to myself?” Debbie was pointing fiercely to her bruised face.
“Mum, I saw you! There was no-one in that room with you! I stood there and I watched you pull your hair out and punch yourself! You can’t sit there and tell me it wasn’t you when I saw it with my own eyes.” Aiden was getting quite angry now, not so much with his mother, but at the situation in general.
“How dare you say that to me? What do you think? Do you think I’m crazy? Is that what you’re trying to say? Been having little chats with your sister about putting me away somewhere have you? You listen to me you little shit, you obviously don’t believe what happened but I saw him! I did! Maybe if it was you he targeted then you wouldn’t be so quick to write it off as craziness.” Debbie was close to tears now.
Aiden couldn’t quite believe that he’d just heard his mum call him a little shit. She never swore! Never! He was just about to open his mouth when Lisa interrupted.
“Mum that was a bit harsh. We don’t think you’re crazy, we just don’t know what’s going on, that’s all. Now, dinners nearly ready so let’s just enjoy this meal as a family with no more upset, okay?” she was looking at Aiden as she said the latter. No more upset was a term often used by her mum to defuse a heated situation between herself and Aiden when they were kids. It always worked and Lisa was hoping it would calm them both down now. It wasn’t the first time that day she felt like the mother, and having to chide Debbie for swearing at Aiden didn’t help that feeling. She was shocked to say the least. She had never heard her mum swear before, let alone at one of her kids.
Debbie glared at her son with vehemence in her eyes until he gave a small smile and her eyes softened. They both relented and they all sat and had a meal of smoked mackerel with lemon and chips and peas. It wasn’t the sort of food they would normally eat but it was all Lisa could find among the frozen packages in the chest freezer. All that was in it was fish and frozen peas. She got the potatoes from the larder, they were the only vegetables in the house apparently, and to spruce it up a bit she added the juice of one lemon from the lemon tree in the garden. Lisa wasn’t a bad cook for her years. She had always enjoyed watching her mum cook when she was little and they used to make pies and cakes together while Aiden sat in the front room watching TV or playing outside on his bike with his friends. Lisa enjoyed cooking so much that she was toying with the idea of doing a cookery course at college after she had finished her A-levels in business-studies and mathematics. She had been thinking of doing this for a while now. It had been her dream to become a sales manager with a team of sales reps working under her when she had qualified, but lately that dream had been replaced with one of becoming a chef and one day, eventually owning her own restaurant chain. She would love to do that, be in the kitchen all day serving all sorts of extravagant meals to the public, having them love her food so much that they tell their friends and family about it and her restaurant would be one of the most famous in the country. She would cater for all. Have a café for people who didn’t have a lot of money but who wanted nice food without all the fuss and frills of going to a restaurant; fish and chips like she had cooked tonight and other simple dishes that didn’t make them feel uncomfortable, and then she would have a restaurant with a menu in that catered for people with a bit of extra cash; dishes such as duck in a white wine and orange sauce or chicken Kiev’s laden with a buttery garlic sauce or spinach and ricotta ravioli, and for dessert, warm profiteroles dripping in fresh cream and oozing warm chocolate or hot chocolate and orange soufflé, baked on the premises from scratch of course, she wouldn’t fob her customers off with the promise of home-made cooking only to give them profiteroles that were frozen but that had been defrosted and warmed in the microwave, that wasn’t her style. Then there would be a menu for those who could afford their food to be a lot pricier - they would get the quality they paid for, so she wouldn’t think twice about charging higher prices. This menu would consist of dishes such as caviar and champagne and oysters or lobster. The dessert would be along the lines of fresh figs in a creamy citrus sauce with edible gold pieces. Luxury.
She was deep into her thoughts on her restaurants when the loud old bell clanged inside the house. Neither Lisa nor Aiden had ever heard this before so it startled them at first until their mum told them it was the doorbell. Even the doorbell fit this rundown house perfectly, it was old and rusted so it made an awful din, rather than a welcoming noise.
50
Aiden opened the door to a rotund pleasant-looking fellow in a dark brown trilby hat and a long dark brown overcoat that covered his dark brown suit. It was like they had gone back in time staring at the man in his old-fashioned clothes. He was very dull looking from the neck down. He could have been a sepia photograph had he not been breathing heavily and wiping his brow with a handkerchief. Only his face gave him some depth. He looked at them with a friendly smile playing round his mouth that pushed up his red chubby cheeks. It was the most welcoming sight any of them had seen since they had been here, apart from the garden of course.
“You live way out don’t you? I had a bit of trouble finding this place, but never mind, I’m here now.” The man finished with another smile, not at all forced. “I’m Richard Matlock. I’ve come to value the house?” he told them seeming unsure as to whether they were expecting him after the phone call his partner had. The young man smiled at him and extended his hand and he knew they were expecting him after all.
“I’m Aiden. Pleased to meet you. This is my mum, and this is my sister Lisa. Come in.” They stepped into the house and Mr. Matlock followed.
“What a lovely old house this is. I expect you will miss it once it has been sold.” The estate agent said this as more of a statement than a question. He was genuinely impressed with the manor house. His salary would get him nothing close to such grandeur though. Such a shame as he would love to live here. When his partner had informed him he was coming here for this appointment he been gob smacked. He had known of the house for a long time, but had never seen it in person so to speak. He could never have dreamed of having the opportunity to sell such a house. He could not wait to get inside and have a look around.
Once inside the house, Mr. Matlock took off his coat and removed his hat for Aiden to see that his mental image was correct, just for the wrong partner, unless they both looked like that. The light from the crystal chandelier in the foyer bounced off his rather large bald head. He wasn’t completely bald, there were a few wisps of dark brown hair on the shiny scalp, but only a few.
“No, we won’t miss it at all!” exclaimed Aiden. Lisa knew they had to be careful about what they said, after all who would want to buy a house with a past such as this?
She stepped in quickly to back up what her brother had said “We won’t miss it because it�
��s not our home, our mum inherited it from her father in his will. It’s too big for us. We just want to sell it as quickly as possible.”
“I understand. And by the way, I’m very sorry to hear about your father.” He was looking at Debbie as he said this.
“It’s okay. He’s still here you know.” Debbie told him with a knowing smile. A worried look crossed his face for a fleeting second and it didn’t go unnoticed by Lisa.
Ever the tactful one she added “Mum is a great believer in the after-life Mr. Matlock. What she meant was that she still feels him around her.”
“Oh, I see.” Richard replied looking relieved. “Of course, of course.”
After offering him a cup of tea which he graciously accepted, Lisa took Mr. Matlock by the arm and led him away from her mother slightly “If you don’t mind, it will be me showing you around. My mum has had a hard time coming to terms with her father’s death and we all think it would be better all-round if I were to go with you. If that is alright with you?” Lisa asked him.
“That would be absolutely fine my dear he replied patting her hand in a grandfatherly way. “Let your mother stay down here and rest.” Lord knows she looked like she could do with one. He would never be so impolite as to ask what had happened but it was clear from the state of her that she had been in some sort of accident, maybe a car accident. Poor woman. As if she didn’t have enough problems at the moment.
Lisa asked Aiden to take her in the lounge while she showed Mr. Matlock around.
51
They started upstairs. Richard was making notes about all the rooms, what condition the fittings in the bathroom were in, which he told Lisa that for such an old house were in excellent condition, and whether there were any original features in the rooms - which he was pleased to see that all the original features were still intact, even if some did need a bit of maintenance work. He welcomed the opportunity to stop to make his notes as he was able to rest and catch his breath after the climb up the long staircase. His breathing was very fast and he had to keep taking deep gulps of air in between his shallow puffs and pants. He thought, as he reached in his pocket and retrieved his old handkerchief to dab the sweat from his forehead, that he would have to come up here many times in the near future to show possible buyers around and he certainly wasn’t looking forward to that prospect. He was afraid that he might have a heart attack if he climbed the stairs too many times in one day. The estate agent was still very much out of breath and he was still sweating a lot; he could feel the beads of perspiration forming on his wide brow and running down his temples. In between taking the notes he would wipe his forehead with the handkerchief which was by now becoming damp, enjoying the coldness of the wet cloth on his skin. He looked up and saw the young lady looking at him in an odd manner.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes dear, I’m fine. Just a bit worn out by the stairs. Too many steak and ale pies I’m afraid.” Mr. Matlock gave a hearty chuckle and patted his expansive stomach before continuing to jot down his findings on his small note pad, the pen he held dwarfed by his thick fingers.
He told Lisa that the fact that all of the original features were still intact and in decent condition would up the value of the property considerably as there were not many homes that still had them and there were quite a few people that were searching for homes that did have them. It seemed the eras and their traditions of long ago were popular in this modern day and age. He was counting the number of rooms as they went and both he and Lisa were amazed to find there were sixteen bedrooms on the second and third floors and no less than nine bathrooms, some of which were en-suite. The attic, which Lisa dared not venture into was absolutely huge according to Mr. Matlock who only stuck his head through the opening because he could neither fit his body into the hole, nor lift his bulk through. He was also very impressed by the library-come-study room. He said a lot of people wanted a room like this, but not wishing to go through all the work of building it themselves. The more of the house he saw, the more immensely impressed and excited he became.
“I have never seen a house like this in all my twenty three years in this business! This is going to fetch you and your family an awful lot of money Miss Adams.”
At least we’ll be getting paid for this then she thought to herself.
As they headed back downstairs after searching the upper three floors, Mr. Matlock was intrigued by the features on the stairs. He couldn’t get over the fact that everywhere he looked he saw original features. Even in other houses that had a lot of the original building work, all of them had had at least four or five things replaced with a more modern piece.
Not the case here though! He thought happily.
He was happy that the family would be getting an indecent amount of money from selling the house. He knew that much after only looking upstairs, he was sure the downstairs would add a heck of a lot more money to the asking price. He was also a very happy man because he had the privilege of looking round such a beautiful stately house like this.
“To say I am in awe would be a major understatement!” he chuckled to the young lady leading him down the stairs.
Lisa had no idea what he saw in the horrible dreary house, and she didn’t really care. She just wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, but she knew she had to wait until morning now. She could put up with it one more night if she knew they would be gone in the morning. She would have to grit her teeth and bear it. It wasn’t the house that bothered her so much now, she had seen a couple of parts she liked; the kitchen, the garden; it was the way her mother was behaving that really unsettled her now.
Lisa led Mr. Matlock into the lounge where her mum and brother were sat drinking a cup of tea.
“Would you like a cup of tea? Or maybe a coffee Mr. Matlock?” Debbie asked him.
“Only if it’s no trouble to you Mrs.…?” he trailed off, forgetting the family name.
“Adams. And no, it’s no trouble at all. I’ll make us all a pot of tea shall I?” she asked smiling into the faces of everyone in the room.
Mr. Matlock was happy to accept the offer of a drink and a sit down to rest his legs. Debbie rose from her chair and went into the kitchen. While the agent was peering in amazement at the view through the floor to ceiling windows, Lisa asked Aiden if she was okay now without him over hearing. Apparently she was. Richard caught a snippet of their conversation and his heart went out to the poor woman. He knew how she felt. He himself had lost his father almost seven years ago. It was he whom he had inherited the business from. Seven years is a long time in most people’s eyes, but not for someone who had lost somebody very dear to them. He still missed his father every day and every sale of a house he made, he did it for him. He would have loved to of been around for the sale of this house but Richard knew he was looking down on him with pride. He quickly shook off the feelings that were threatening to pull him into an underworld, an abyss of his sorrow and grief which had more than once threatened to drown him and concentrated on the fabulous lounge. The large grey marble fireplace and integrated mirror above with its open grate log fire were the originals, as too was the cornice that ordained the centre of the high ceiling around the chandelier. He just could not believe his luck. Yes, the commission he would get from such a huge sale would be enormous for someone like him but it wasn’t only that which got his pulse racing, nor was it the amount of seemingly endless stairs. It was the fact that he had the honour of pricing it and getting to peek, if only for an hour or so, at the world in which “the others” lived. It is something he would begrudge nobody and he certainly did not feel envious of people with money but what he wouldn’t give to own a home such as where he now stood. He fully understood the house being too big for the family. There would be nothing worse than to ramble around in the dead of winter in a house so immense with not enough life inside to warm its high ceilings and long corridors. But he couldn’t help but feel like they were in a rush to sell it. This he could not understand. But then again, may
be getting rid of it would help their grief. He made some more notes before being shown into the dining room by both the young lady and her brother.
52
As they entered the room something caught his eye near the door that led into the kitchen. He turned to ask them what it was when he realised it was the door that led to the corridor between the room and the kitchen and Mrs. Adams was in the kitchen making a pot of tea for them. Mr. Matlock thought nothing of it and continued to look with reverence around the dining room. The features were just wonderful. The fireplace that matched the one in the front room, the ceiling rose that encircled an even more elaborate and ornate crystal chandelier, the large floor-to-ceiling mullioned windows, the dado rail around the top of the walls, the old high skirting boards instead of the flimsy-looking modern ones most people seemed to prefer nowadays. Everything was perfect. It made him wonder why people had started putting the dado rails half-way up the walls when they were just so vintage and beautifully placed near the ceiling as this room proved.
He was still writing as they wandered into the kitchen just as Debbie was returning from the toilet. She took her place in front of the aga while she waited for the kettle to boil.
“You gave me quite a startle a few seconds ago when you passed the door there Mrs. Adams. I quite forgot you were in here.” he gave a slight shake of his head and an endearing chuckle.
“I’ve been to the bathroom Mr. Matlock. I went as soon as I put the kettle on” Debbie replied “I didn’t pass that door.”
Seeing his confusion Lisa added hastily “It’s the lighting Mr. Matlock. It was probably a shadow of one of us you saw. It can take some getting used to.” She forced a smile.
The Haunting Within Page 14
