Page 6 of A Wraith at Midnight

S arah’s words jolted Rafe. “The castle has ghosts? I never knew that.” He considered for a moment. “Though when I heard the sound of your recorder, at first I thought you were a ghost. If the castle really is haunted, I’d choose a musical ghost.”

“I like the idea of that, but I’m no ghost.” She tapped his knee with a hollow wooden object that had to be her instrument. “My recorder is very real. Do you remember that you gave it to me for my twelfth birthday?”

“Of course I remember!” He smiled reminiscently. “You wrote me that the penny whistle you loved to play had been wrecked when a horse stepped on it. I couldn’t imagine you without music, so I found the recorder in a London music shop. By the time I returned to the castle, you were playing it like an angel.”

He heard the faint sound of her fingertips stroking the polished wood of the recorder. “I’ve been very careful to keep it away from horses. But it’s such an odd little instrument, not what a proper lady plays. That’s why I often come up to the attic to play. It’s very peaceful.” She chuckled ruefully. “But the door never jammed before!”

Thinking about the ghostly creature that had driven him into the attic, he asked cautiously, “Do the files have any ghost stories about animals? Perhaps…ghostly cats?”

Sarah caught her breath. “Actually, yes. There are a number of stories about feline ghosts lunging at people and driving them somewhere they hadn’t intended to go.”

Stunned, Rafe whispered, “That happened to me tonight! I came up to the attic level to escape the husband hunters. I was about to return downstairs when a giant feline phantom lunged at me. I fell back through the attic door, and it slammed shut behind me and jammed.”

Sarah gasped. “It was the same for me at the other end of the attic! I came up to play my recorder but decided the attic was too cold, so I was going to go back to my room. Then a huge, shimmering, silver cat creature leaped at me from the landing. I jumped back into the attic and it slammed shut and wouldn’t open. I…I think I saw a giant transparent silver paw swipe at me through the door, but perhaps I imagined it.”

During the silence that followed, Rafe tightened his arm around his companion. “Are we both going mad?”