Colton Manor (12 page)

             
“Mummy, what’s wrong with Ursula?” They both turned to see Bonnie’s six year old daughter, Tia, standing there watching them.

             
“Oh, she just had a bit of a fall, but she’s fine now,” said Bonnie getting to her feet and ushering Tia to her room at the back of the house. She shot Ursula a look. “Ursula’s just going to have a lie down in the study while you get dressed. Then I’ll make your breakfast and you can go over to Timmy’s to play. What do you think of that?”

             
“You didn’t tell me we were going to Timmy’s today.”

“That’s because it’s a surprise. Now, what would you like for breakfast?”

“Can I have Sugar Puffs?”

“Sure,
but just for today, sweetheart. Ursula, there’s a first aid kit in the bathroom upstairs. I’ll be with you as soon as I can,” called Bonnie. Ursula climbed the stairs and almost let out a shriek when she caught sight of herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked even worse than she’d imagined. Bonnie obviously didn’t want the other children to see her in this state, and she couldn’t blame her.

A
fter she’d cleaned herself up a little she went into the study and sat on the couch, looking out the window at the beach. Her stomach lurched when she saw a man with dark hair walking along the sand at a very fast pace towards the house. She was about to run downstairs and warn Bonnie when she noticed a black and white dog running ahead of the man. It was just one of Bonnie’s neighbours out for an early morning walk.

With a deep sigh s
he lay back on the sofa and closed her eyes. She was immediately overcome by a wave of exhaustion. She didn’t want to fall asleep because she knew once she left her guard down the traumatic memories from the previous night would all come flooding back, but she could not fight the drowsiness that overtook her. After a couple of minutes she gave up the futile battle.

****

She sat up with a start and looked around the darkened room in confusion, trying to work out where she was. The rain was beating against the window, and there was a warm body pressed against her in the bed. It took her a few moments to realise she was back at Colton Manor, and the person sleeping soundly next to her was Damien. The whole terrible ordeal had been nothing more than a very vivid nightmare. She lay back on the pillows and laughed out loud with relief. It had all seemed so terrifyingly real, but this was the true reality. She touched Damien lightly on the shoulder just to be sure, and he groaned softly and reached for her in his sleep.

Ursula wanted
nothing more than to curl up with him and forget all about her dream, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep in a hurry. Instead she slipped out of bed very gently so as not to disturb him and pulled on her slippers and dressing gown.

It wa
s dark and cold downstairs, and even with the lights on she couldn’t shake the eerie impressions that lingered from her dream. As she made herself a cup of tea Ursula found herself jumping at every noise as she replayed the dream over and over in her mind. The most terrifying memory was of Damien leaning over her, squeezing her neck as he tried to kill her. The crazed look in his eyes had been so cold and emotionless, as if he had no feelings at all. She had never encountered anyone that seemed so empty, and the memory of it caused her to shiver and pull her dressing gown tighter around her body.

Ursula had just
settled down with her cup of tea when a familiar booming voice split the night.

“Where
are you, woman?” She jumped, spilling her tea and almost dropping her cup. This could not be happening again. She tried to tell herself it was just Damien looking for her but he would never refer to her as “woman,” even as a joke. When she heard loud footsteps coming down the stairs she scanned the room desperately for a place to hide. There was nowhere at all in the kitchen. The door to the outside was bolted and she’d never get it open in time, and the only other place was in the cellar. She tried to pull the door open with trembling hands but it was too heavy, and then the kitchen door flew open and it was too late.

She
turned slowly, expecting to see Damien with the crazed look in his eyes that he’d had in her dream, but the man who came into the room looked nothing like Damien. He had the same black hair and a thick black beard as the man she’d seen for a few seconds on the beach. To her horror he was grasping a young woman by the hair exactly as Damien had held her in her dream, and he pushed her roughly onto the floor. It was the woman who had appeared to catch her just before she blacked out. Although he seemed to look directly at Ursula, the man took no notice of her at all. 

“Get it now and don’t play any games with me
this time or you’ll be sorry.”

“It’s in
there,” the woman stammered pointing to a cupboard.

“Get it.”
As she watched the woman stalling for time just as she had in her dream, it dawned on Ursula that she was seeing the events that had taken place in this room one hundred and fifty years earlier. Somehow she had also relived them in her dream, but was she still dreaming now?

She knew what was coming next as the woman
tried to lift something out of the cupboard to defend herself, only to have her wrist twisted violently, causing her drop what Ursula now saw was a heavy skillet. She couldn’t bear to watch as Edward Stanton struck his wife with a closed fist just as Damien had struck her. Although she closed her eyes to block out the sight of his violence she could still hear the sound of the woman’s head hitting the hard floor. When she opened her eyes for a split second and saw her lifeless body just lying there she knew she had witnessed a murder.

Chapter Nine

The sickening thud
of the woman’s skull against the stone floor was still echoing in Ursula’s ears when she opened her eyes again and found herself on the sofa in Bonnie’s study. Her head was spinning and she felt like she was going to throw up as she stumbled to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. She was completely disorientated for a few seconds until she saw the bruises on her skin and it became clear that everything that happened with Damien was real, and she had just dreamed about being back at the house watching Edward Stanton kill his wife.

B
oth experiences had seemed equally vivid, making Ursula wonder if she was dreaming this as well. Was it possible that she was still curled up beside Damien back at Colton Manor, safe and secure? It was just too confusing for words and she sank down onto the corner on the bath in a state of total exhaustion.

She didn’t know how long she sat there for, lost in her thoughts, but the sound of a car
beeping in the driveway broke through her reverie and she walked to the top of the stairs where she could see Bonnie waving off a white minivan. She was already halfway down the stairs when Bonnie came inside.

“Sorry that took so long, but you know what kids are like.
How are you feeling?”

“
Alright, I guess, but I just had a really strange dream and it’s shaken me up a bit.”

“
What was it about?”

“
I was back at Colton Manor and I saw Edward Stanton kill his wife in the kitchen, but the weirdest thing is it was exactly what happened to me with Damien. I don’t even know what’s real anymore and it’s starting to freak me out.”

“
Maybe it was just the trauma of what happened with Damien that caused you to dream about it. That would make sense.”

Ursula shook her head.
“I’m not so sure. I’ve seen all of his wives now, and I can’t have been imagining all three of them.”

“What exactly are we going to do, Ursula? I feel like I’m in way over my head with this stuff and it’s scaring me
to death.”

“I’m as terrified as you are, but his wives have saved my life, and I feel like maybe there’s some way I can help them too, but I don’t know how.”

Bonnie didn’t say anything for a long moment
as she bit her lip, lost in her thoughts. “You’ve just given me an idea. I’ve heard that there is a catholic priest in town who is experienced in dealing with hauntings. If we talk to him he might be able to help us. I really don’t know where else to turn.”

“That so
unds like a good idea, and while we’re in town I want to go back to the library and confirm that Stanton’s other two wives were named Mary and Rebecca. It will give me peace of mind to know we’re on the right track and that I’m not just hallucinating the whole thing.”

“Y
ou can get the keys you left there too. We might need them when we go back to the house.”

A short time later, after she’d showered and borrowed some clothes from
Bonnie they made their way into town. She’d managed to conceal her bruises and abrasions with heavy makeup and a hairstyle that covered the left side of her face. As they pulled up in the main street Yvette must have seen them from her desk because she flew out of the real estate office to greet them.

“
Ursula, I’ve been trying to call you but your phone is turned off,” she said breathlessly. “I’ve organised for someone to come over and fix the light in the bathroom that you complained about. They’ll be there sometime this afternoon.”

Ursula exchanged a glance with Bonnie. “It’s not a good time, I’m sorry. Can you call me in a couple of days?”

Yvette’s
tone immediately became icy. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, the job needs to be done immediately. Is there something going on over there that I should know about?”

“
Everything’s fine, it’s just not convenient today,” she said.

“Well, I’m sorry but it won’t take long
and you don’t really have a choice, it was in the lease you signed that maintenance workers would have access to the property at all times.” Ursula could see Bonnie’s face growing redder as she tried to hold herself back, but she couldn’t contain her anger for long.

“Now you listen here, Yvette, you let Ursula move into that house knowing full well what would happen, and don’t even try to deny it. Now that we’re dealing with the consequenc
es I’ll be damned if I let you push her around and add to her worries. You just back off until we tell you that it’s okay to send someone over.” Yvette looked speechless as they turned their backs on her and walked away.

Despite her heavy heart Ursula couldn’t help giggling as they crossed the street to the library. “You sure told her.”

“Well she deserved it. That woman’s had it coming for a long time.”

When they walked through the automatic doors of the library she saw that the same young woman was on the front desk as last time she was there. She jumped up as soon as she saw Ursula.

“Oh, hi, I’ve been wondering when you’d come back for these.” She held up the keys
Ursula had left behind. “I didn’t know your name and had no idea where to contact you because all you told me was that you were doing research on Colton Manor.”

“Thanks
so much,” said Ursula, taking the keys from her. “I’m just here to do a bit more research on the house. Do you mind if we go into the archives again?”

             
“Of course not. I hope you don’t mind, but it’s been really slow here all week and I decided to do a bit of research myself. I found out a little about the three women who died there, but there really wasn’t that much on the subject.” She lowered her voice.  “I’m not supposed to do this, but I have access to the council’s records and when you said you hadn’t spoken to the owner I decided to get the contact details so you could talk to them. They’d probably know a lot more than anyone else.” Although she could easily have gotten the details from the real estate agency if she’d wanted them, Ursula didn’t want to appear rude when the librarian was only trying to be helpful.

“Sure, that would be great.
What’s his name?”

             
“It’s she actually. The title deeds to the house are held under a company name. It took me a while to find out who owned the company, but it’s a sole trader by the name of Yvette Owens. She lives right here in town.” The librarian beamed at them, clearly pleased with her detective work, but her smile faded as Ursula dropped the keys onto the ground and Bonnie let out a tiny scream. She bent down to retrieve the keys to hide her shock. “Is everything okay, do you know her?” asked the librarian.

             
“Oh, no, sorry, I’m just clumsy today, that’s all” she said, trying to laugh.

             
“And I’m a bit jumpy,” said Bonnie, taking her by the arm. “Anyway we’d better be off now, I just remembered we have to be somewhere important. Thanks so much for your help.”

             
“No problem,” said the young woman, still looking puzzled by their reaction. “But what about your research?” she called after them. They were about to step out the door when Ursula turned back towards her.

             
“Oh, I’ll come back another time, but there’s just one more thing, you wouldn’t happen to know the names of Edward Stanton’s second and third wives would you?”

             
“I’m not sure what their maiden names were, but their Christian names were Mary and Rebecca.”