Page 26 of One Last Whisper

I blink. “I… possibly the two chairs by the windows.”

She sighs again and rubs her face with her hands. “I’ll need to order new ones then. And possibly a new rug for the floor.” She shakes her head. “His Lordship is a very fastidious man in all areas save that he can’t remember to close his damned library window when he leaves. I’ve had to chase birds, bats and moths from that room I don’t know how many times. Now he’s left it open during a storm.”

“I see.”

I frown and sip my tea. I don’t know why I react this way. Theresa has provided a perfectly reasonable explanation for what happens. It would even explain why the cries of the wind were audible from my room despite the insulation of the castle’s thick stone walls.

Theresa herself says as much. “Well, we know why the wind was howling so much last night. I suppose we have you to thank for the few hours of peace we had later in the night.”

I smile briefly. “Yes, I closed the window.”

“Good for you. Not that it’ll save us much damage.”

She pours herself some more tea and adopts a pensive look. It’s my turn to lift an eyebrow and wait for her to speak.

She finally sips her tea and says, “Mary, I’m not suggesting we meddle, but… Hell, I don’t even know if it means anything.”

I try to control my excitement. “What? What is it?”

She sips more of her tea and looks at the door as though checking to make sure no one else is entering the kitchen. "Well… You're aware that Lady Cordelia is not Lord Edmund’s first wife, yes?”

I can't quite control my reaction to that news. "No. I wasn't."

"Well, she is. Lord Edmund had another wife, Evelyn. Married for twenty-three years, they were. In fact, they were married for longer than Lady Cordelia was alive when she married his Lordship. Then, less than a year later, he's married to Lady Cordelia.”

“What happened to her?”

She chuckles. “Guess.”

A chill runs down my spine. At the same time, my heart leaps. I may be close to the answer to this mystery. “She disappeared?”

"She did. She just woke up and vanished one day. I came to bring her breakfast in bed—she liked her breakfast in bed—and she was gone. We looked all over for her, but we couldn't find her."

There was a big fuss over it. Made the papers and everything. Locals eventually found her on the wrong side of White Cliff near the ocean. Dead, of course.”

A shriek splits the air, and Theresa flinches, dropping the teapot. It shatters on the floor, and we stand stock still in the mess, eyes wide and spines stiffened. Theresa looks at me. “Did you hear—”

“Help me!”

There is no mistaking the reality of that cry or the owner of the voice making the cry. The Lady Cordelia is screaming for help.

We sprint upstairs and rush to her room, moving faster than I would have thought possible for our ages. I reach the room first and catch a glimpse of Lady Cordelia in her bathroom, kicking and clawing at the air, shrieking for help. The sight is so shocking that I am frozen for a moment.

Theresa pushes past me and wraps Lady Cordelia in a bear hug. “All right, love,” she says soothingly. “It’s all right. We’re here.”

“The ghost!” Lady Cordelia cries, pointing at her mirror. “There was a ghost in the mirror! There was… there was… a… ghost.”

“Shh… It’s all right, love.”

“Aunt Cordelia?”

I snap out of my shock and rush to Oliver, who stands in the doorway, pale with fright. I scoop him up in my arms and carry him from the room. “Your aunt is all right,” I tell him. “She’s just had a shock. Mrs. Pemberton’s going to help her calm down.”

“Is she okay?” he asks, his voice wavering.

“She’s okay. It was only a nightmare.”

He wraps his arms around me, clinging tightly. I hold him just as tightly, keenly aware of how fast my heart is beating.

---