The Haunting of Josephine (7 page)

“Well, hopefully not long after our wedding she will be distracted in helping you prepare for our first child.” Jo’s cheeks flamed to a deep blush.

“I would like that.” At that
they continued off to find her a
unt so they could finish planning their engagement party and move even closer to being able to spend their lives together.

Like any other night they went through their normal routine. They ate dinner together and after d
inner instead of separating Katherine
,
Mr. Cline
, Mr. Kinsley, and Jo would all gather in the sitting room to go over details on the upcoming engagement party and then start discussing when the wedding should take place and start planning some of the basic details of the wedding.

And like every night
the man was in the bushes watching them. They never knew that he was out there but he was
.
As he would listen he would think about and
wish that he could figure out what he could do to get revenge on Mr. Kinsley for taking the women he wanted. He also wanted revenge on
Katherine
for pushing said women toward Mr. Kinsley in the first place.

“Aunt
Katherine
, has the guest list been finalized?” Jo took up the pieces of paper that listed almost everyone in town and a few that were to come in
especially
for the party and looked it over counting the number of people.

“Why yes Josephine. I am sure that we have
n
o
t forgotten anyone. Is t
here something the matter?” Katherine
took the papers from Josephine and she herself started to look them over to make sure that she had not forgotten anyone.

“Oh, I was
n
o
t worried that anyone had been forgotten because I am sure that you remembered everyone you ever met and put them on that list.” Mr. Kinsley tried hard not to laugh at his
fiancé’s
jest at her
a
unt. “It is just that there is an odd number on the list which seemed strange to me because I thought that you were only inviting couples and
such
so that there would be an even number of males and females.”

“You are right I did my best to make sure the guest list was perfectly even. That every single man was equally countered with a single female.
I wanted to make sure it
was even so there would
n
o
t be any problems for everyone to find a dance partner if they so choose.”
Katherine
kept scouring through the papers this time counting the number of females and comparing it to the number of males.

“Well, to me the list seems to have one more male name than females. I am sure that should
n
o
t cause a problem more females tend to want to dance then males so an ex
tra should make it easier.” Katherine
looked at Jo as if she were daft for suggesting such a thing.

“Josephine even if that were completely true I still want everything to be even and an extra male just
would not
do.
It would throw off the balance at the table for our meal as well. It is not just about having an even number for dancing you see there is even more to it than that. You want an even table.
Now let
me
see. I think that we should take
this person
off
of the list.” Katherine leaned over and showed her husband the person she had selected for his approval.

“
Now how do you think that is going to look to others?
He is fairly involved with our family. Do you believe it would be proper? Is there not anyone else whom you could consider?
”

“I do
n
o
t care how it looks to others. That man makes me uncomfortable and never bothers with dancing or properly mingling with others anyway so why invite hi
m
? Besides I never did like the way that he would look at Josephine.” Jo thought about what her
a
unt
was
sa
ying
and feared the she had to agree.
He
had always managed to make her rather uncomfortable.

“Uncle
Joseph
, I am sorry but I am going to have to agree with Aunt
Katherine
. Ever since I have gotten engaged
he has always managed to make me feel
ver
y uncomfortable
. He looks at me as though I have done something to make him mad. Plus would
n
o
t it be easier to disinvite someone that you
a
re closer to
who
is less important
than
it would be with
someone who has more standing in society?
Or even to have to disinvite a
relative
?
” Jo’s
u
ncle thought about what she said and realized that he too agreed that
Katherine had picked
the most logical person to disinvite to the party.

Later that night when lying in bed Jo awoke to a rustling noise. She could
n
o
t place what it was but she felt rather cold and quickly grabbed at her covers and tried to better wrap them around herself.

“Jo, Jo, help me. I need you.” Jo thought that she heard her
a
unt calling out to her though she knew her
a
unt would forever insist on always calling her Josephine. She got out of bed pulling on a heavy robe and slipping into a pair of slippers.

I will just peak into
her
room and assure myself that she really is just sound asleep and then come back to bed.
Jo was
n
o
t two feet from her bed when a scream resonated thr
oughout the house. It chilled her
to the bone and she went running toward the sound.
Oh my G
od that sounded like my aunt
.

Chapter 7

That night
it easily came to him
who he was going to get his revenge on and how he was going to get it.
The ease in which his decision was made should have come as a shock to
him
but it almost seemed so obvious that he
would
go with his signature moves in order to teach the family a lesson. It would also insure that he got to have
a bit
of fun before he got to the messy part.

After listening outside of the sitting room with his temper slowly building at all the
discussion
about the engagement party and then about the wedding
he
was pushed farther then he could recover from when he heard not only
Katherine
but Jo talk about how he should be disinvited.

The nerve of those people deciding that I should be disinvited just because I do
n
o
t dance and I make Josephine uncomfortable! Uncomfortable?! I love Josephine enough to have restrained myself from taking her already and this is how they repay me? I can
no
t even be at the party to celebrate her marrying THAT man.

Instead of going and standing outside of Jo’s window like he did every night this night he
went and waited outside of Katherine
’s window. Ha
ving been in
and out of the house enough
he knew th
em well enough to know that Katherine
had
her own room and it drove her husband
insane that she never shut her window at night and if it happened to be closed she always failed to lock it.

Patiently he
sat outside of the window
envisioning
what he was going to do to her as he watched her undress herself and brush her hair singing a happy tune. W
hen her light went out he
went around the house to check that everyone else appeared to be asleep so he would have a better chance to not be disturbed. It took another hour after that for
him
to fully formulate his plan and then he climbed up the trellis outside o
f her window and snuck into Katherine
’s room.

Sneering as he watched Katherine
sleep he went to her chest of drawers to get the items that he would need. One of the things he loved about all of these high class
women was that they kept everything in almost the same place in every house. It did
n
o
t take him long to find some strong string that she kept spare for her corsets and a scarf.

He
stalked over to Katherine’
s bed and slipped a potion between her lips that
when she
would
wake would keep her groggy
enough to keep her from being able to fight a bit and then
wrapped
the scarf around her head and tied it so that her mouth was captured tight enough that she would
n
o
t have much of a chance to scream.
Katherine began to wake up
to but was drugged too much to fight as she wondered who was there.

Next thing
she knew a rope was being wrapped
around her
wrists tying them together
above
her head to the headboard.
Katherine
shuttered as a man’s hand slipped up her nightgown soon followed by the feeling of a cold metal blade that then sli
t
through the fabric making a tearing sound that sent shivers up her spine as the cold began to hit her bare skin.

He
smiled down at the sight of
Katherine
’s bare skin and her wide open eyes filled with terror. He went to the nightstand and lit a single candle so he could better see her.
Never before had he dared let one of his
victims
see him. The knowledge that
Katherine
would be unable to tell anyone of what
she saw therefore provi
ded
him
with the
full
ability to have light
which
excited him. This would be the first time he would get to see his victim not just feel her.

“I bet that you were
n
o
t expect
ing to see me here were you?” Katherine
attempted to respond but the scarf covering her mouth prevented her from getting out more than a
feeble
mumble.

“Well, because I am a rational man I suppose that I can tell you that I am here to make you pay for giving away the only women that I love to that
man
. Josephine should be mine and I know deep down
that you really know that.” Katherine attempted to mak
e a sound of contradiction. She did
n
o
t agree to anything that he was saying.

“I assure you that without you around that I will be able to finally get what I want.”
Katherine
did her best to ask; How.
It did not escape
hi
s notice that she wanted a reason so he decided that it would not hurt to tell her what he thou
ght her crimes were.

“I am sure that without you whispering in her ear that she should be with Mr. Kinsley that I will be able to
persuade
her away from him and she will finally be mine.
All it is going to take is a little time… Well, that and the
disposal
of you and you
r
incessant
meddling.
”

At tha
t he
went to work on Katherine
doing with her what he wanted against her will. He had debated back and forth on whether he wanted to rape her but then decided
that seems how he planned on disposing of her he deserved to have a bit of fun.
He felt that she at least owed him that bit of fun before she was out of his life and out of his way forever.

When he was through he went about cutting and torturing
Katherine
slowly making her wish that she could just give up and die.
It was the first time that he had allowed him
self
to give in to the want to do more than just rape a women so he took his time not only to make her pay for what she was doing to him but also so that he could fully enjoy it.