Hauntings of Claverton Castle: Chapter 1, Part 2
Welcome back to my Substack, Whimsical Words, and a new novel.
Samantha and her friend Harriet are at the Assembly Rooms of Bath, where Harriet is about to meet the Montmorency twins.
If you haven’t read the first part of Chapter 1, or wish to reread it:
https://open.substack.com/pub/whimsicalwords/p/hauntings-of-claverton-castle?r=5m2is&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Hauntings of Claverton Castle, Chapter 1, Part 2
The twins, Roland and Margot Montmorency, appeared in the crowd at a distance and began walking toward Samantha and Harriet. At sight of them, Samantha felt a flutter of excitement in her heart. She brightened, smiling and feeling much happier merely at the sight of her friends, particularly Margot. She grasped her hands together and felt impatient for them to cross the distance to her, so she could introduce them to Harriet. She thought her reaction peculiar, considering they had accompanied her to the assembly rooms.
Despite her mannish clothing, Margot looked breathtaking. She was about six feet tall and moved with grace. Her high forehead and alabaster skin glowed, and she had large, dark blue eyes, as had Roland. She wore brown inexpressibles, a red waistcoat, and a burgundy frockcoat with gold buttons. Some of her black hair hung in corkscrew curls, while the rest was braided and piled on top of her head. As usual, Roland was soberly but elegantly clad in black, the same color as his thick, curly hair that slightly passed his shoulders.
Samantha scanned each face and smiled. “My favorite people in the world are all here in this room.”
Harriet gently placed her hand on Samantha’s arm. “La, you have reason to be distressed, but at least you have splendid friends.” Her eyes followed Samantha’s to the Montmorencys. She fluttered her hands again. “Goodness, the Montmorency twins approach us!”
A cluster of fashionable young people gathered around the Montmorencys and blocked Samantha’s view of them. She touched her hair, thinking it was like Margot and Roland to have difficulty crossing a roomful of people without attracting attention.
Samantha turned to Harriet and smiled faintly, amused by her excitement. “My aunt has always tried to be nurturing. If she were to die, I would need to remain in Bath for the funeral”
“If what you say is true—and your uncle is as much of a threat as you perceive—then you have more than a little reason for distress. I cannot believe you must reside in the house of such an odious man.”
Margot and Roland joined Samantha and Harriet, who stood. Samantha introduced everyone.
“It is a great pleasure to meet friends of Samantha’s.” Harriet tapped Samantha’s elbow with her fan. “Do you not live in Kent? Samantha told me about you.”
“We reside in Kent and London, but we are in Bath for Samantha,” Margot explained in her rich contralto.
Samantha smiled up at her. Margot’s voice is so musical.
“Ah!” Harriet clapped her hands. She stared up at Roland. “You learned about her aunt by thought powers, did you not?”
Roland closed his eyes and did not open them immediately. His lips formed their customary pout.
“Samantha wrote us about her,” Margot said.
“But what is this about you leaving her tomorrow?” Harriet peered up at Roland over her fan. He did not return her gaze.
Margot smiled faintly with her dark, full lips. “Our inclination to investigate hauntings has developed into more than a mere hobby.”
“Yes, we are in surprisingly high demand,” Roland added in his smooth, low voice.
Harriet lowered her fan slightly. “Most people with your position and wealth, if it is not too impertinent for me to say this, would not occupy themselves in such a manner. Most would be much more self-indulgent.”
Margot raised one eyebrow. “Oh, we definitely are self-indulgent.”
Samantha smiled. “But you help so many people, so many families, by giving their ghosts closure.”
“It is not only ghosts,” Margot said. “On some occasions, we banish demons.”
Harriet widened her eyes and fluttered her hands. “Oh, dear!”
Samantha’s lips twitched. “You should tell Harriet about the vampires.”
“Vampires!” Harriet opened her fan and waved it instead of her hands.
Margot grasped her lapel. “No worry. We are well taught how to solve dilemmas related to otherworldly beings.”
Roland bowed his head. “Yes, our father is a strong Sensitive, like ourselves.”
Harriet stared at him. “What of your mother, dare I ask?”
Margot glanced at the floor. “She died a long while ago.”
“Oh, dear, I am sorry—” Harriet said.
“But we remain close to our father,” Roland added.
“Do you know, it is strange.” Harriet spoke quickly and breathlessly. “My mother is also deceased, and my brother and I live with our father. I don’t remember my mother. She died when I was a mere infant.”
Margot leaned a fraction toward Harriet and gazed at her. “Ah, what a pity. I am glad I came to know both my parents.”
Harriet continued fluttering her fan. “It is such a pity, don’t you think, all of us no longer have a mother. Perhaps it is a sort of curse. La, how is it possible so many of us have no mother? Maybe we should start an organization, the Half Orphans. Oh, but Samantha, you are a whole orphan, poor dear. I suppose you wouldn’t belong in such an organization.”
Samantha frowned. “I wonder if I belong anywhere.”
Harriet touched her arm. “Oh, do forgive me!”
Samantha beheld Margot staring at Harriet, and Roland’s eyes drifted around the room as though he wished to slink away. Margot sidled a fraction closer to Samantha.
Harriet continued, “I declare, sometimes I don’t know what will come out of my mouth! I fear that sounded quite wrong.”
“It is no matter, truly.” Samantha chuckled. “You have not wronged me. I shan’t socially shun you.”
“I should hope not!” Harriet smacked Samantha’s elbow with her fan again. Samantha startled. “Ah, that reminds me, you are all welcome to be houseguests at Claverton Castle. I rather fear living in the country will be frightfully dull after the London Season.”
Samantha raised her eyebrows at a striking dandy, not much older than she, standing on Harriet’s other side. He had dark, faintly reddish-brown hair and brown eyes like Harriet’s. He wore pale blue trousers with a bright yellow satin frockcoat and blue waistcoat. Numerous fobs hung from his watch chain. His starched pink and green striped cravat had more loops than Samantha thought possible. She pressed her lips together to suppress a laugh. Roland raised one eyebrow at the fop.
Harriet said, “Allow me to introduce my brother, Mr. Reginald Prendregast.” She introduced everyone to Reginald, and they exchanged greetings.
Reginald bowed. “Deucedly happy to meet you all. What ho, have any of you been to the card room? My father would thrash me, but I couldn’t resist trying my hand with a game of whist. Oh—five games of whist.”
“I wondered what happened to you.” Harriet shook her head and her index finger.
“La, do not be beetle-headed, little sister!” Reginald peered at his sister through a quizzing glass. “I was indeed in the Octagonal Room. I do what I like. Nobody can stop me, not even the old paterfamilias.”
Margot smiled. “You are certainly an original.”
Roland, towering above everyone else and appearing austere in his black compared to Reginald, merely drifted his eyes toward the nearest chandelier. Smiling broadly, Samantha again suppressed an urge to laugh.
Reginald raised his eyebrows and stared up at Roland through his quizzing glass. “What ho, you are a gloomy sort. Are you not the Montmorencys who go about chasing ghosts?”
“Yes, something like that,” Margot said. Roland cast his eyes upon Reginald and frowned. Samantha surmised he was utterly horrified by Reginald’s gauche apparel.
“Splendid!” Reginald slipped his quizzing glass into a pocket. “What have you done recently, if I may be so bold?”
Margot said, “We had an argument with a belligerent vampire who would simply not cease antagonizing his family—”
Roland finished, “—until we displayed two considerably large stakes and expressed a more than willing inclination to use them on said vampire.”
Reginald frowned and toyed with one of his watch fobs. “Oh dear.”
Roland raised an eyebrow. “We also discovered that the only reason a mill worker killed his employer was because a demon told him to do so.”
Margot added, “We banished the demon to the demon realms.”
“Oh, I do declare!” Harriet exclaimed.
Samantha blinked and witnessed Harriet and Reginald staring at the twins with eyes and mouths wide as saucers. Samantha had never envisioned a meeting between the Montmorencys and Harriet. She couldn’t discern whether Harriet was terrified of Roland or infatuated with him.
A footman in black and gold livery bowed before Samantha. She blinked, having not seen him coming. He handed her a folded piece of paper and disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.
“What is that?” Harriet asked. “Do open it, Samantha. I must see!”
Reginald pulled his quizzing glass back out. “Perhaps it is a love letter.”
Roland glared at the quizzing glass as though it personally affronted him.
Samantha smiled faintly. “That is unlikely.” She unfolded the paper. Reading, she abruptly stopped smiling. Come to the house immediately. Your aunt is dead. Her heart fluttered in alarm, and she gasped as she stared at the paper and reread it. She recognized the thick, blotchy handwriting and her uncle’s signature.
“What is it, Samantha?” Harriet grasped Samantha’s arm. Margot stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“It is from my uncle,” Samantha whispered. Everyone except Harriet leaned forward to hear her.
Harriet shook her head slowly, as though dazed. “How could he have known you were here?” One of her soft curls hit Samantha in the face, but she did not flinch.
“Everybody who is anybody is here.” Reginald peered at Samantha through his quizzing glass.
Margot placed her hand on Samantha’s shoulder. Its weight sent an electric buzz through Samantha. “It seems we must part. I am terribly sorry for your loss.”
Samantha pulled out her handkerchief. “I did not entirely believe she would—that it would come to this. I suppose I… did not wish to accept it.” Her throat clogged, and her heart felt as though a fist squeezed it.
Margot smiled gently at Samantha and murmured, “You are stronger than you believe.”