The Ghost Who Loved Me (16 page)

James lay within her languidly as a knock suddenly came at the door. It was locked and her maid was nothing but devoted to keep returning. She quickly reached up to yank the braid pinned in her hair and wrenched the blankets over them both. James chuckled at her reaction, for none could see him but her.

M’lady, are you awake?” It was Annie, making her third round back to her mistress’s room since her return to the castle. “I brought you up a tray from the kitchen.”

“I’m not feeling very hungry, Annie,” Elizabeth called out, biting her lip to feel cold icy fingers brush across her frigid nipples, making them stiffen into hard buds. “You can leave the tray outside the door. I’m very tired.”

They both heard Annie leave the tray and walk away. Elizabeth plucked the braid off the mattress and smiled at James who rolled his eyes at her false response to her servant.

“You aren’t a very good liar, Elizabeth. I can hear your stomach growling. Just because I no longer eat, you mustn’t feel it’s rude to do it in front of me. I assure you it doesn’t bother me.”

“Do you ever miss such things?” She eyed him curiously. “I know you can still smell very well. Mrs. Abbot is a superb cook. You might wish to rethink that when you see the divine dishes she makes.”

James paused to consider her words, reaching out to run a ghostly finger along her full lower lip. “I miss being alive more than anything else.”

“Why? To have existed as long as you have—to have seen the things that you have,” Elizabeth marveled and shook her head. “I find it extraordinary and—”

“Empty,” James said abruptly and rudely cut her off, finishing her sentence, his silver eyes avoiding hers now as he sat up in the bed. “Aye, I go on year after year, century after century. I watch the living muddling through their whole lives and eventually they all die. I see it over and over again enough to realize I never fully appreciated my own life! Never think an eternity like this is better than what you have for one moment, Elizabeth. It’s precious and not to be undervalued.”

“I didn’t mean to make you angry,” Elizabeth whispered softly.

James turned and smiled gently at her. “You didn’t make me angry, Elizabeth. You merely remind me what it felt like to take what you have for granted. I was once like you, beset with mortal fears and numerous problems always plaguing me. I never stopped to think about what a gift life truly was.”

“I guess it must be true, you only feel that way when all is lost.”

“Speaking of losing all, when does this physician arrive?”

“Pettigrew said he would be here in a few days,” Elizabeth whispered softly. “Do you still mean to leave the castle when he does?”

“It’s for your own good I go for a time, Elizabeth,” James replied tightly. “If you should slip up just once in front of this physician, if he has any cause to deem that you’ve lost your reason, Edward would use it against you. Is that what you want? To be dragged out of here and locked away? You wouldn’t be the first I’ve seen over the centuries. I’d not see that happen to you.”

Elizabeth bit her lip, her blue eyes filled with unease. “I never thought Edward would ever truly do anything like this. I underestimated his desire for an heir.” Too late it slipped out and she couldn’t take it back.

James stared at her with an unblinking stare, his face growing harsh. “What has he demanded that you do, Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth stood and reached for her wrapper, avoiding his eyes as long as she could. “He seeks to choose the man to father his heir. He said it is my duty to lie with his companion Simon when they arrive in the spring. If not, he’s threatened to keep me here. This new threat to have me declared insane is just another means to get his way in this.”

“I shall kill the man and you need not ever worry over it,” James countered menacingly, his silver eyes filled with fury. “What kind of man asks his wife to do such a despicable thing?”

Elizabeth swallowed hard to see the unbridled rage in him, seeing the small bedside table begin to tremble on its spindly legs, feeling the energy in the room increasing as the bed began to shake.

“Stop! You cannot protect me from him! Edward will have his way in this, James! I shan’t be free of him until I give him what he wants!”

“You would give him yet another imposter to take my name!” James wore a thunderous expression.

Elizabeth bit her lip and looked away, hugging herself around the middle. “But when it’s done, I’ll be free of him. He’s going away with Simon. I learned he’s selling everything off, all but Westerleigh. Don’t you see? It’s the only way I’ll ever be free.”

James regarded her with a furious expression. “You will never be free of him until he’s dead, Elizabeth! Do you really think Edward is just going to prance away with this Simon fellow and leave you to lead your own life? Or do you see he has already cleverly found a way to keep you under his control and not worry you will expose him?”

“He wouldn’t dare do such a thing!”

James stared at her sadly. “He already has it in his mind whether you agree to this or not. Why do you think this doctor is coming here? Even if you should by some miracle meet this man’s specifications for what is considered sane, his reports to Edward will read like quite another.”

“What can I do to protect myself?” Tears filled her eyes.

“Eat your dinner,” James ordered brusquely. “I will think on it for a time. You may wish me to kill him when you learn I’m right in this.”

Elizabeth nodded, her eyes swimming with tears as he disappeared before her eyes. She shrugged on her nightgown and claimed the tray outside the door, eating every bit of food on her plate. She thought of what he said long after his departure. His words only echoed Anthony’s, who never put anything passed Edward.

She was a gullible fool to think Edward wouldn’t have some means to be assured of her silence about his activities. If she was branded a madwoman, not one person would ever believe a word she said even if it were all true.

She would also never be deemed fit to file for a petition for a divorce. She would be given a guardian to monitor her for the remainder of her days. Edward made sure she could never be free of him.

The days passed with a slow idyllic pace for Elizabeth, who enjoyed her ghostly companion behind the locked door to her room. They explored one another as they did the castle to their leisure, looking for some clues Isabelle left behind centuries ago.

A more thorough search of the east tower provided some important discoveries. The boards on the windows were removed, allowing the room to be aired out and cleaned thoroughly. The debris was cleared away.

The tower was far from crumbling inside. It looked like the rest of the castle, though far dirtier. She endangered no one by demanding it be opened. It seemed a deliberate ruse handed down for centuries to keep people out of here and nothing more.

Isabelle did indeed dabble in witchcraft, they found to their dismay. Many books about the occult and the witch’s relics were found hidden beneath a loose floorboard. 

Elizabeth was excited over it. James was exceedingly worried over her handling the pagan statues and warned her that such magic was powerful.

A small wooden box was also discovered inside the hole. It was very old, with strange symbols carved into the lid. Try as she might Elizabeth couldn’t open the box. Even a hammer proved useless in smashing it open.

“It is the work of the curse,” James informed her wearily as he watched her struggling with the box from the doorway. “You won’t open it. The castle is protecting itself once more.”

“We can’t just give up! There has to be some clue inside of it!” Elizabeth huffed and blew at a stray curl out of her face, and dropped the hammer with a clatter to the stone floor. “I mean to go into Tregaron and speak with the priest there. Father Creaton had to have left something behind in his letters.”

“And if he did leave behind proof he was a follower of witchcraft, this new pastor will likely not tell you,” James snapped and frowned in disappointment. “He will likely try to cover for Father Creaton’s blasphemy. The church will protect its own. You will find out nothing of value.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you are the worst pessimist, even for a ghost?” Elizabeth shook her head at his foul mood. “I have worked tirelessly since my return to discover something and you ridicule my efforts. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you are scared.”

James glared at her from the doorway. “I’m dead, Elizabeth. I don’t get scared.”

She raised a sable brow. “What of the day we opened this room and you went running? Do you tell me now what you saw, or do we continue to pretend that didn’t happen?”

“I saw nothing!” He avoided her gaze.

“So you say of it,” Elizabeth said softly and walked to the doorway, meeting his troubled silver gaze directly. “I mean to help you to right this wrong, James, but you must help me in return. You’re keeping something from me. I’ve known it since I left here. What is it?”

James looked away from her piercing stare. “You won’t be able to do this on your own, Elizabeth. We waste our time.”

Elizabeth stared at him, her lips parted in surprise. “What is it, James? Tell me what you saw that day!”

James looked back at her, his face filled with anguish. “Isabelle was a witch! She did this to me! All that time I was away, she turned the villagers from their faith. My own trusted men were a party to it! Even Father Creaton fell to her evil charms.” And in a low hushed tone he told her what happened to him the day he returned home, seeing her flinch as he described the ritual that took his life. When he finished with his harrowing tale, she was pale and distraught, her eyes filled with fear. “So you see, you cannot be involved, Elizabeth. I’ll not let the evil that killed me and what holds this castle prisoner to touch you.”

“You cannot know what will happen, James.” Elizabeth tried to alleviate his fears amidst her own anxiety. “I don’t believe in such things!”

James tossed her an angry glance. “Aye! Neither did I believe in witches and such nonsense! And here I am! Dead! I am dead Elizabeth! It doesn’t matter what we both believe or discount! Don’t you see the truth? You cannot undo this! You haven’t the knowledge to begin to try!”

Elizabeth stared at him intently, her blue eyes filled with sadness. “We have to try! Let me write to Mr. Trask. I told you of him and his studies. I will ask him to find a member within his society well-versed in the occult. We will find some way to free you from this curse. Please, James! Don’t give up!”

James regarded her with an angry scowl, his silver eyes narrowed as they traced her face. “I’ll not do anything to risk your life even to free myself. You have no idea the power of this magic, Elizabeth. Even Isabelle had no idea what she was playing at. She used it for her own selfish wants, never realizing what she unleashed here.”

  “Mr. Trask heard the stories about you. He doubtless has colleagues in this field. They would join him to come here and study these books. He might know what these symbols mean. Let them try! What have you to lose?” Elizabeth stared at him searchingly. “This is the only chance we have to set you free. Why do you hesitate to take it?”

James stared into her wide beautiful eyes, fighting the urge to tell her. The thought of leaving her held him back. “Write to him. It cannot hurt. What are a few more weeks when one is doomed?”

Elizabeth smiled slightly as she stepped out of the room to merge with his image, making him gasp with an intake of breath at the sudden jolt of pleasure.

“Do you have any last requests, for a doomed ghost?”

James smiled at her inviting tone, reading the suggestive look in her deep blue eyes and returning her look with a hot silver stare. “I think you have need of a long nap after your exertions here today, Your Ladyship. I think you should tell your servants that you should not be disturbed until well before dinner.”

“Only that long?” Elizabeth smiled and her eyes darkened subtly with desire. “I thought to have Annie bring a tray to my room and not go downstairs at all tonight.”

“This doomed ghost asks that you go gently, my lady,” James whispered softly, smiling to recall her loud passionate outbursts of the night before, how shocked the servants were as they listened to such with wide eyes from beyond her room. “We don’t need to encourage the household that you are now possessed by a demon, though they often question such anyway.”

Elizabeth smiled naughtily. “As if I even care what Mrs. Gates thinks of me? You already told me she hates me.”

“I need to quit telling you such things,” James replied with a shake of his head. “You seem to enjoy shocking them of late.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and snorted in derision. “They pretend you don’t exist just to convince me that I’m losing my mind! They are the sole reason Edward does what he now does to me! They deserve to wonder what goes on in my rooms late at night. Imagine the earful they will give the good doctor when he arrives at week’s end?”

At the imminent reminder of the newest threat, James frowned. “You must give Edward no further cause to believe this of you, Elizabeth. Do you not see how serious this is? You have little to no rights. I’ve learned that much in three hundred years. You must get this physician on your side. Say whatever he wants to hear. Only send him away with a positive assessment, my lady.”

Elizabeth stepped passed him out onto the stone steps, gesturing to him with a smoky look. “Come, I would like another sort of assessment this day, James, only one you can perform to my satisfaction.”

James smiled and followed her, floating quickly to her side. “I am yours to command, my lady.”

~ ~ ~

“What in God’s name is he doing to her up there, do ye think?” Molly appeared avidly curious as they listened to the thumping above stairs coming from Her Ladyship’s rooms that echoed through the ventilation grate into the kitchen.

Edie grinned widely and continued cutting vegetables for the evening meal. “My guess is he’s giving it to her real proper-like. She hasn’t come out of her room all day. You know what a randy bugger His Lordship can be? Listen to her carrying’ on? Good thing Gates, Pettigrew, and the footmen are all in Tregaron getting supplies.”

Molly giggled at the kitchen maid’s provocative words. “Did he ever come to your bed? He never came to mine. I’m almost disappointed.”

Edie shrugged her shoulders. “Just one time, it was. It was a few years ago when I first came to the castle. It was frightening but ever so exciting.”

“Was it nice?” Molly was all ears, leaning over the cutting board for more details.

Edie sighed, her hazel eyes growing dreamy as they shot upward, listening to the sounds of vigorous lovemaking upstairs. “His Lordship gave it to me so good that night I couldn’t sit right for a week. Nothing Tom ever did come close to him. She’s the lucky one, I’m thinking. He hasn’t come to me since then. I’m almost jealous, I am.”

At the mention of Tom, the source of their present feud, Molly frowned, her pretty face flushed at the maid’s admission of discontent to their mutual love interest.

“You can have Tom if ye want him! I’m done with him treating me this way! I kin do better and so kin you! There’s plenty o’ men in the village. I’ll not fight ye over him anymore.”

Edie smiled to hear the muffled cries above growing louder. “Ye might be right in that. Poor Tom, I’m thinking. He thinks he’s the only fine, manly face and form to be had around here. I got me eye on the blacksmith’s son. Have ye seen that one lately? My, he’s a sight, he is!’

The two maids giggled and gossiped the whole rest of the afternoon, their heated fight over Tom forgotten as they talked of men, of romance, and sighed appreciatively as the sounds grew fainter from above stairs.

Molly stared upward with an expression of longing. “Do ye think His Lordship might love her, Edie? How romantic would that be?”

Edie rolled her eyes at her friend’s naïve question. “His Lordship takes what he can get from whoever passes through those doors that meets his fancy. She’s no different from the rest of us. He’ll tire of her like he does all the others, mark my words. When she realizes she’s not special to him, she’ll lose her wits and be dragged from here as they all were before her.”

~ ~ ~

Anthony was only half-listening to Jane as their carriage took a turn in Hyde Park. His thoughts lingered on Elizabeth and their last meeting at her father’s funeral weeks ago. Something happened to change her mind in the months since he last saw her.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on the change in her. She avoided his eyes quite deliberately. She was in full control of her emotions that day they spoke. She questioned her feelings for him altogether. The signs were there. She no longer wished to pursue their relationship.

Anthony now openly played court to the American heiress Elizabeth once accused him of playing court to in secret. Jane was a great deal bolder these days and lured him into more than one assignation these last many weeks under the watchful eyes of both her parents.

The gentleman in him tried to refuse her advances but the man in him won out. He had totally and utterly compromised her, quite thoroughly, when she showed up to his flat unaccompanied in the early evening without a chaperone.

Or rather, she compromised him shucking her gown and stalking him in his flat.

Anthony couldn’t avoid the consequences of his actions and cursed the timing of it. It certainly didn’t help his plan to win Elizabeth back. He had to offer for Jane whether he liked it or not. He couldn’t risk offending her father. The investments he made with her father’s bank in America necessitated the need to speak with Augustus and do what would be demanded of him.

Jane acted like she was the one seduced of late when she was, in fact, the seducer. He could no more do what was expected of him. She knew it. She knew a great many things about him, he logically concluded with a morose frown to be so trapped.

It appeared that first reluctant response he felt towards her guided her rash actions in this. Or maybe she felt what he long denied since he met her, that they were far better suited than he and Elizabeth ever was.

   Either way, Anthony saw a wife in his immediate future and despaired over it. It wasn’t what he planned, not the woman he truly wanted, but he had little choice in it now. He refused to bring about gossip. A special license and a hasty nuptial would only fuel the talk.

Bloody hell, what had he done?

Augustus would understand an extended courtship wasn’t necessary. They were both sure of their choices. He would give his only child her way in this, annoyed to know Jane had her father firmly wrapped around her finger.

Anthony felt a sense of defeat in regard to Elizabeth these days. She made her feelings quite clear more than once. She certainly gave him no cause to hold on and have hope she might change her mind. Quite to the contrary, she very convincingly implored him to go on with his life.

“Did you hear a word that I’ve said to you, my darling?” Jane gazed up at him questioningly from under the brim of her elegant bonnet, smiling at him appearing so lost. “We must marry and soon. I’m to have your child.”

Anthony’s mouth hung open in response. “You are very sure of it?”

Jane nodded, her blue eyes filled with love and happiness. “I’m quite sure. There is no doubt. What do we tell Papa? This is all so very sudden.”

Anthony felt a lurch of panic within him, but patted her hand and clicked the reins. “We tell him we wish to marry as soon as it can be arranged. He need not know why. No, I think it best he never know why.”