by Nell Dixon
****
John spied their opportunity to escape when Mags produced a large packet of biscuits that she'd secreted in the pantry. He nudged Fae's elbow, and murmuring vague excuses, they stepped out into the hall.
"I've got coats and a stronger flashlight in the boot of my car." He led the way to the front door.
"Wait! We don't want to get locked out!"
He grinned at Fae. "Don't worry; we won't." He opened his hand to reveal the large iron key he'd secreted from the side door.
"Great. Let's go." She smiled up at him, and his pulse quickened.
The world outside the front door was white with swirling mist. Together, they stumbled across the gravel to where he'd left his car.
"I'm freezing," Fae grumbled as she shrugged her way into one of the coats he'd left in the back of the car.
He located the sturdy flashlight and switched it on. Even the brightness from the lamp did little to penetrate the fog. "I'm not sure how much this is going to help."
Fae slipped her arm through his. "I just need to check out that strand of trees. I have this horrible feeling that Giles is in trouble, and while I'm not exactly a fan of his, I won't be able to sleep unless I follow up this hunch."
He knew what she meant. He too had been worrying about Giles.
They crunched over the frozen lawn together, the light only illuminating a foot in front. Silence wrapped itself around them, broken only by their footsteps and the sound of their breath.
"This is eerie." Fae spoke in a low voice and huddled closer to him.
"I think I can see the trees, and the gazebo." Branches loomed out of the mist as they approached, droplets of water sparkling in the light of the torch.
"Someone else has been here." Fae tugged at his sleeve, drawing his attention to footprints on the frosted grass.
He shone the flashlight down to the ground and quickly picked up two different sets of footprints, both of which appeared male from the size and shape.
"Be careful and keep a sharp lookout."
She offered him a weak smile, and they walked on into the strand of trees. The mist appeared to lift a little as they drew closer to the copse. The gazebo was more substantial than he had imagined from the descriptions he'd heard earlier from Giles when they had first arrived. Shaped like a Chinese pagoda, with lacquered red paintwork and a pointed roof covered in delicate moss-covered pan tiles, it stood forlorn in the centre of the grove. The mist swirled overhead as they approached the entrance.
There was no sign of life, but the footprints halted at the open doorway. Fae's grip tightened on his arm. He moved the flashlight so it shone into the dark interior.
"John!" Fae cried out as the light hit a pair of black leather–shod feet prone on the floor.
"Is he dead? He's as cold as ice." Fae dropped to her knees next to Giles's body, her eyes wide and scared in the poor light.
John felt around Giles's collar for a pulse point. "Unconscious, but he's in a bad way. I don't know how long he's been lying here."
Fae pulled her mobile phone from inside her layers. "Hello, ambulance please. Fingelly Manor."
"I can't see any sign of injury." He checked Giles, looking for a reason why their host would be lying unconscious in a deserted gazebo on such a terrible night.
"They're on their way." Fae rang off. "We need to get him a blanket or something."
"Call the house. Try Tim's phone. He never turns it off." While Fae did as he'd instructed, John took off his own jacket and placed it over Giles.
"They're coming. Do you think that other man may have attacked him?" Fae scooted over to hug John, offering her body warmth to try to compensate for the loss of his jacket.
"I don't know." He hoped the paramedics wouldn't take too long to arrive.
"The others are coming," Fae said.
He could hear Tim and Gabe approaching, the deep babble of their voices combined with Mags’s higher-pitched tones.
"What's happened? How did you two come to be out here?" Tim entered ahead of the others. In his arms, he had a bundle of tartan travel rugs.
"Have you called for an ambulance? He looks in a bad way." Mags peered around Bob and Gabe, distress evident in her dark blue eyes.
"Sirens! Bob and I will go and meet the medics and bring them round here." Gabe seized Tim's flashlight, and he and Bob set off back toward the house.
"Do you think it was the ghost?" Mags whispered.
"We don't know what happened to him, but there's another set of footprints outside," John replied.
They moved outside the building to allow the paramedics access.
"Someone should go to the hospital with him," Mags fretted.
"I'll accompany the laird." The manservant Frank loomed up out of the darkness, his unexpected appearance making John's pulse lurch with surprise.
The medics came out of the gazebo, carrying Giles on a stretcher. The silver foil blankets wrapped around his body made him appear more like a turkey than a human. Frank went with them as they set off at a rapid pace toward the house.
"What made you two come out here? It was a good job you did, but I thought you'd gone upstairs," Mags said.
"We'd better talk about this back inside before we all develop hypothermia." Tim frowned, and John guessed he and Fae were about to get a ticking off.
He slipped his jacket back on, and they collected up the blankets before setting off into the mist once more. He wondered where the mystery man had gone, but the arrival of so many people and discovering Giles unconscious meant it was impossible to pick up the trail.
John was sure of one thing, though: Whatever had happened to Giles out in the garden definitely had a human element rather than a supernatural one. And he would dearly love to know who the mysterious stranger was and what had happened to him.
Chapter Eight
Rose was in the kitchen when they returned to the house. "So the laird is gone to the hospital is he?"
Her beady gaze darted from one face to another. The intensity in her stare sent a chill along Fae's spine. She wondered if she was alone in detecting a gleam of malice in those boot-button eyes.
"Your Frank's gone with him. Fae and Flash found Giles spark out on the floor of the little Chinese temple thing in the garden. It was a good job they did, or he'd have been a dead duck." Mags heaved a sigh and dropped down onto one of the kitchen chairs.
"Aye, it was fortunate indeed."
Heat flooded along Fae's cheekbones as Rose focused her gimlet stare on her face. She got the impression that the old woman wasn't pleased with their intervention.
"I wonder what happened to him out there? There was no visible sign of injury," John said.
"'Twas the curse, that's what it was." Rose moved her gaze to John, and Fae released the breath she'd been holding.
Tim unwound the scarf from his neck and looked hopefully in the direction of Mags's biscuits. "I'm more inclined to think it was some mortal issue. He could have had a stroke or a heart attack. Then there's the issue of the man Fae saw out in the garden."
Rose snorted. "Most likely a trick of the light. The laird's fate is sealed, and he cannot escape it."
"The footprints in the frost were no trick of the light." John's tone was even, almost casual.
Fae held her breath as the old woman stiffened at John's remark.
"Those could have been made earlier. Frank went out to the log store to fetch kindling for the fires." Rose glared defiantly at John, as if daring him to call her a liar.
"Hopefully we can find out soon from the hospital exactly what happened to Giles out in the garden. If there is any suggestion of foul play, then we must call the police and tell them what Fae saw." Tim selected a biscuit from the packet.
"Unless the police can arrest a ghost, then there'll be no call for them to be here," Rose snapped.
"I'll give the hospital a ring in a minute and see if there is any news. Unless, of course, Frank has a mobile phone, and then perhaps he can update us," Tim
observed before crunching down the last of his biscuit.
"My Frank has no use for those fangled things." Rose moved the biscuits away from Tim and placed them in a tin before fastening down the lid.
Bob and Gabe exchanged glances.
"Well, seems like there's nothing more we can do tonight, so we're away upstairs, boss." Bob addressed himself to Tim.
"Yes, of course. We'll pack up the gear in the morning," Tim agreed.
Fae's senses went onto full alert as John gently pressed his hand against the base of her spine.
"I think we'll do the same. It's been quite a night." John yawned.
"My nerves are all a-jangle. I'm going to have a nice cup of warm milk, or I'll not be able to close my eyes," Mags declared and bustled over to the stove.
"I'll join you, Mags. I want to call the hospital to check on Giles before I go to bed." Tim took the seat Mags had vacated.
Fae noticed Rose's eyes spark with annoyance.
"Night, all." Fae followed John into the hallway.
Once it seemed they were safely out of earshot of the kitchen, she stopped. "Okay, where are we really going?"
"Did you get the same vibes from Rose that I did?"
Fae nodded.
"Then I think we need to go and check out upstairs before everyone goes up to bed."
She glanced up the shadowy staircase. "You mean snoop in their quarters?"
"I think it may have been Frank who was in the garden. He and the mystery man could well be the same person, and if I'm right, then Giles could still be in danger." He started up the stairs.
"But the phone call? And the face didn't look like Frank. It looked scary and unnatural." She hurried after him, hoping Rose would remain in the kitchen with Tim and Mags.
"Think about it. How would a stranger get here? There was no sound of an engine, and when we were outside by my car, I checked the gravel, and there were no tyre tracks. It's too far to walk from the village."
Fae realised he was right and swallowed hard. "You think Frank tried to kill Giles? Why? What would be the motive?"
"That's the part I don't know." John placed his hand on the handle of Rose and Frank's door.
"I don't know about this." Fae shook her head.
"I won't be a minute. Stay out here and keep watch. If you hear anyone come out into the hall, let me know." John slipped inside the room, leaving her alone on the landing.
The sounds of furniture being moved, of drawers and doors opening and closing reached her. She shivered in the gloomy darkness and wished he would hurry up. At the top of the stairs, a tiny dot of light twinkled and danced in a patch of shadow.
"Another orb." Her pulse quickened as it flitted closer and closer to her, sending a cold chill right to her very core.
The click of the baize door downstairs alerted her. "John, hurry. Someone's coming." The orb disappeared as she spoke.
John emerged from Rose's room. He grasped Fae's hand and tugged her along the landing into the room she was sharing with Mags just as the footsteps reached the head of the stairs.
"That was a close one." Dimples flashed in his cheek as he smiled at her.
"Did you find anything?" Part of her hoped he was mistaken about Frank and Rose. The consequences of his being proved right were too scary and awful to contemplate.
He dug in his pocket and brought out a rubber mask.
"What's that? It's like one of those skull faces the kids get from the joke shop." Her voice faltered at the grim expression on John's face. "That was what I saw at the window, wasn't it? Why I thought it was unnatural?"
She knew she was right before John confirmed it with a grim nod of his head.
"Why?"
"I have a hunch about that, but I really think we should go back downstairs and talk to Rose."
Fae nodded. "Okay. I just saw another orb, by the way, when I was on the landing."
The faint lines around John's mouth tightened. "All right, stay close to me. There are a lot of things going on here that I don't understand."
Fae was more than happy to comply as they made their way back down the staircase and into the kitchen.
"Oh, I thought you two had gone upstairs?" Mags's eyes widened in surprise at their reappearance. There was no sign of Tim, and Fae assumed it must have been his footsteps that had disturbed them a few minutes ago.
"We came back down to talk to Rose," John answered.
The elderly woman straightened and reached for a tea towel to dry her hands. "Why would you want to talk to me? There's nothing I can tell you." There was a dismissive snap in her tone.
Fae heard the kitchen door creak open behind her, and Victor wandered in. "I can't sleep. There is so much negative energy within these walls."
"Perhaps you'd like to talk about why your husband was wearing this to scare Fae earlier tonight." John drew the rubber mask from his pocket and threw it down on the kitchen table.
The colour drained from Rose's cheeks. "Where did you get that?"
"Well?" John pressed.
"I don't know anything about it." Rose virtually spat her reply at John.
"Strange, considering that I found it in your room."
Fae could barely breathe, she was so tense.
"How dare you!" Rose's face contorted into a snarl.
Victor touched Fae's arm. She broke her gaze from the dispute in front of her to look in the direction he'd indicated with a small nod of his head. In the far corner of the kitchen, a small glass dish had begun to vibrate on the shelf.
"You had no right to go into my room!" Rose's voice escalated.
"So you admit this mask was in there, then." John said.
The dish rose a few inches from the shelf, and Fae watched it appear to hang suspended in the air.
"I admit nothing!" Rose shrieked.
The dish flew across the room to smash at Victor's feet.
Fae jumped back in alarm."What on earth?"
Victor stirred the remnants with the toe of his slipper. "You had better tell the truth, Rose. Hannah may have issues with the lairds of Fingelly, but this activity is somehow connected with you."
Rose stared at Victor, her eyes blacker than ever in her chalk-white face. "We had no intention to harm the laird. It was nothing but a prank to scare him a little. We only wanted what was ours by right."
"And what was that exactly?" John asked.
Fae's legs shook. She needed to sit down before she fell down. She reached for a nearby chair and slid onto the seat. The whole scene was unreal. Maybe she had been awake too long and was hallucinating.
"Fingelly." Rose glowered at her audience.
"Your Frank attacked poor Giles because you think you should own this house?" Mags shook her head as if trying to understand.
"He didn't attack him. The plan was to give him a wee fright. Fingelly is ours by right. Giles's father sired more than one child, and not by his wife."
"Frank is the illegitimate heir to the Manor?" John nodded. "I suppose that makes sense. I take it Giles is unaware of this?"
Rose's face crumpled. "Aye. You've met the man. He's a weak and idiotic fool."
"So you and Frank planned to blackmail and scare him into handing over the manor, using Hannah as your lever?" Victor stepped forward.
"We have the money to take this place off his hands." Rose lifted her head.
Tiny sparks of light flickered in the corner where the dish had been.
"Money you had coerced from Giles in the first place? John and I heard the phone call. That was Frank again, with an assumed voice, wasn't it?" Fae asked, continuing to watch as the orbs in the corner grew brighter and their movements more agitated.
"Years we've worked for the laird and his family. The money was owed to us. Frank was brought up with nothing. He never knew until his mother died who his father really was," Rose replied, her voice crackling with indignation.
"Giles is Frank's half-brother? Hey, up. It's all too confusing to me." Mags looked as stunned as Fae felt
.
"Fingelly should be ours, mine and Frank's."
Victor raised an eyebrow. "I think Hannah may have views on that." He waved his hand toward the orbs, causing everyone to turn and look.
"Is Hannah here now?" Fae asked.
The orbs flashed brighter.
"Oh, yes. She's very much here and still seeking rest for herself and her child. Tell me Rose, where is Hannah buried?"
Rose shrank back a little as the orbs whirled closer. "She lies outside the kirk wall. A flat stone marks her place. One of the lairds set it there, hoping it would appease her."
"Hannah wants to rest in consecrated soil, reunited with her bairn." Victor's rasp sent a chill through Fae. The orbs became more agitated.
"There were bones found back in the twenties, by a dog digging in the woods. They said they were those of a newborn babe and very old. They lie in the churchyard." Rose flinched as the orbs neared her face.
"Then I think we may have the answer for you, Hannah, of where your baby lies."
The orbs fluttered and blinked. A cold breeze gusted suddenly through the kitchen, rustling the curtains at the window and a paper on the table. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it was gone, and so were the orbs.
Victor seemed to shrink back into himself once more. "My, that was drama enough for this evening, don't you think?"
Mags moved from her position on the far side of the room. She gave Rose a wide berth and came to join Victor. "What a way to spend Valentine's night. There's naught any of us can do now, anyway. It's nearly dawn."
"Some rest would do all of us good." John placed his arm around Fae and helped her to her feet. "I'll call the hospital. I think it's wise if Frank is prevented from seeing Giles. We don't want any more accidents."
Rose scowled as they left her alone in the kitchen without bidding her goodnight.
"What should we do about Rose and Frank? Should we go to the police?" Fae asked as they reached the landing.
"We'll decide tomorrow." John's lips brushed hers. "We'll need to talk to Giles when he's well. If he recovers, then I suppose he can decide. Apart from her confession, there isn't much the police could do. Playing a prank on someone isn't like trying to shoot the man. The blackmail issue again is something only Giles can take action on. I've no direct proof, only Rose's admission, and she could retract that. At least Hannah should be happier, I suppose."
