Hauntings of Claverton Castle, Chapter 10
Samantha notices shifting shadows in the corners of the dining room. These are no ordinary shadows.
She’s the only one in the dining room who sees the ghosts.
Chapter 1:
Chapter 9:
Hauntings of Claverton Castle, Chapter 10
Harriet waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, pshaw, Reginald! You are too quick to judge Father. He loves me in his own way.”
“He demonstrates it in a peculiar manner.” Reginald thoughtfully tugged on one of his ear lobes. “The knavish plague-sore.”
“Pooh, pooh, enough, Reginald!” Harriet fluttered her hands about. “He simply cares about my welfare. That is all. He is concerned that I have a respectable position in society, and that I do not become a lonely spinster.” Samantha recalled a spinster she knew who lived with cats and a lady to whom she was strongly attached.
Reginald leaned toward the houseguest. “After sharing dinner with our paterfamilias, I hope you, Miss Ponsonby, do not take our father for a ‘mountain of mad flesh.’ I declare, if he were not our elder, I should take the liberty of declaring that our father is ‘all eyes and no sight.’”
Harriet fluttered her hands about until she accidentally whacked the edge of the table and winced. “Reginald, please! Respect our father.”
Samantha, still looking at Reginald as though Harriet had remained silent, dropped her fork. “What an extraordinary expression.” The siblings looked at her. “I refer to ‘mountain of mad flesh.’”
Reginald chuckled. “Oh, of course.”
Samantha frowned. “Did the ton say it this past Season?”
Harriet tapped Samantha’s shoulder. “All the Shakespeare quotes Reginald says are insults.”
Lips twitching, Samantha raised her eyebrows. “Oh, dear.”
“And he knows a great many of them,” Harriet added. Samantha bit her lip.
She heard peculiar whispers emanating from high in the room; she shivered and followed the Border collies’ gaze. Close to the high vaulted ceiling, the whispers revolved around the room. Samantha followed the sound with her eyes. At last, she saw a brumous grouping of ghosts close to the ceiling. One of the dogs, tail tucked between her legs, circumambulated the room.
“Calm down, Shadow!” Reginald called to the dog. The Border collie peered up at him. She tipped her head to one side and whimpered. He patted his thigh, and she drifted back to his side with a glance toward the misty grouping of visitants.
Harriet peered at the Border collies. “I wonder that the dogs did not follow Father out of the room. I expect he may return for them any moment.”
They all silently gazed at the dogs. A shaggy tail thumped firmly thrice against the stone floor. Samantha pivoted back toward the cloud of ghosts.
“Shadow is communicating through an ancient dog language consisting of tail thumps,” Reginald said. “In any event, Harriet, you must not fret about dying alone and in poverty if that’s what you meant. If you fail at finding a match, you can stay here with my future wife and me. Whoever my future wife will be, that is.”
“Whatever are you looking at, Sam?” Harriet asked.
Reginald narrowed his eyes at Harriet. “Meanwhile, Roland Montmorency can be my bit on the side.”
Harriet still ignored him.
“Do you not hear it?” Samantha asked.
Reginald crossed his arms. “Neither of you is listening to me. I declare, you have ruffled my attention-seeking feathers.”
Samantha looked from one to the other. “Since I can hear it—”
Reginald knit his brow. “Do we not hear what?”
Samantha blinked. “The whispers?”
Reginald said, “Are you mad?” Samantha froze and stared at him. Seeing her reaction, he slapped his forehead. “Oh, I apologize. You must be one of those Sensitives, talking to ghosts all the time.”
The whispering ceased. Samantha dropped her shoulders and gulped. She faced Reginald. “Not all the time. And I am not an especially strong Sensitive, by any means. This is the first time I have ever heard a ghost. Besides, notice how the dogs reacted.”
Reginald and Harriet turned in the direction of the dogs. Descrying the attention, the dogs wagged their tails and settled down at Reginald’s feet.
“Yes, that would explain their behavior.” Reginald rubbed Shadow’s furry flank. “They often behave as though someone, or something, is in the room.” He reached down to stroke Fiona.
Samantha exhaled. “That does not surprise me.”
“I say….” Reginald leaned forward and placing his hands flat on the table. “You cannot mean we have ghosts in the dining room every evening!”
Samantha cast her eyes up toward the ceiling before turning to Reginald. “I know spirits shared this room with us seconds ago.”
“Do you ever see ghosts, too?” Reginald asked.
Samantha glanced back toward the ghosts before answering. “Yes. Sometimes I even smell them.”
Harriet giggled. “Fancy a ghost with deplorably dreadful breath.”
Reginald grinned. “Or flatulence.”
The siblings laughed aloud. Samantha smiled faintly and shook her head. Was it futile to expect non-Sensitives to fathom the spirit world? It seemed pellucid enough to Samantha, even with her modest powers.
Harriet cleared her throat and swiveled toward Samantha. “Are ghosts ever… dangerous?”
“Yes.” Samantha watched the cloud of ghosts. “But not typically. Occasionally they can harm the living. They might play with your mind, perhaps even drive you mad. A strong ghost might touch the living, even grasp a person by the throat and commit murder.”
Samantha saw movement directly behind Harriet, who jumped and shrieked.