married another Caroline. Well, I had changed my tack with the family. I would
not, however, change with the servants. Servants knew everything, and they loved
to talk. They were a part of the family, and everything that happened concerned
them. They were my best bet at finding things out. Goodness, there was much
wariness, or was it fear? in those dark eyes of hers.
Push her, I thought, and so I leaned toward her and clasped one of her large
hands between mine. I looked her right in the eye. “There is a malignant
presence in the Black Chamber. There was something altogether different in that
small empty room Mrs. Thomas went into. However, I simply don’t know about the
old woman who was in The Blue Room last night. Help me, Mrs. Redbreast. I don’t
wish to die in this house or perhaps lose my mind, as did Lady Caroline.”
Mrs. Redbreast pulled her hand away and rose very quickly for one of her size.
She walked to the windows, and whipped back the dark blue draperies as if she
were angry at them. Then she slowly turned back to me.
“Lady Caroline brought her madness with her, inside her. You are very sane, my
lady. Now that you have admitted to the family that what happened last night
must have been some sort of a nightmare, then no one could think otherwise.”
True enough, I thought. I smiled at her. “No, indeed not. Tell me about Lady
Caroline.”
“After she killed herself, the poor lady, stories began to pop up, always spoken
in whispers, about her returning to The Blue Room. I didn’t want to believe them.
Who wants to live in a house where there are spirits roaming about?”
“I don’t want to,” I said, then nothing more, just waited.
“I finally went there myself, slept in that large bed, and I swear to you
nothing happened. I slept very well, better than usual. And when I awoke I felt
calm, perhaps even unusually calm.”
“Perhaps as if someone had watched over you that night, someone who liked you
and had no wish to hurt you or frighten you?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes, that’s exactly how I felt. There have been so many
stories, and perhaps I believe some of them, but I would never admit that to his
lordship. If the poor lady returns occasionally to that bedchamber, it is
because she spent most of her time there and it is familiar to her.”
“Did Caroline spend a lot of time in that other small room that now stands
completely empty?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Redbreast said. “It was her own private music room. She played her
harp there, so beautifully she played, and the sweet sounds drifted from those
windows. Everyone would smile and look up when they heard her playing her harp.
Some have heard the harp over the years.”
“Why is the room empty?”
“His lordship had all the furnishings removed. I believe Lady Caroline’s lovely
harp is in one of the attics. No one goes in there anymore.”
“Because the door is kept locked?”
“Yes, that’s exactly why. I open it once a week so that one of the maids can
dust. But there is nothing more, my lady, I swear it to you. As to what happened
last night, I don’t know, I simply don’t know. There are spirits, every great
house has them, but it is something else when a spirit actually threatens you.
No one would appreciate that happening.”
“Then it will remain a bad dream, Mrs. Redbreast, because anything else isn’t
acceptable.” I stood then. “I want to thank you. You have greatly eased my mind.
That horrible misshapen old woman who came at me last night with Master John’s
knife, I will forget about it soon enough. Yes, that is the wisest course to
follow.”
“But consider what happened to you yesterday, my lady, so many dreadful things,
and this is a new home. Something like that must of course seem utterly real,
for you are there, trapped in the middle of it, so frightened it nearly swamps
you.”
She’d hit that on the head. “Yes, all that,” I said, and walked to her door. I