Read Online Lord Melvedere's Ghost by Rebecca King - Free Book Online Page B

question the fact that he was showing
them to their rooms rather than the butler or serving staff. Did
Jamie own the house? Or was he merely a guest?
    “ Who owns this house?” Cecily whispered, peering around her
cautiously. She tried not to look at Jonathan who, seemingly
without trying, appeared dark and forbidding in his coachman’s
cloak and hat pulled low. She shivered warily and sidled closer to
the reassuring and strangely familiar bulk of Jamie.
    “ I do,” Jamie’s reply was met with a gasp of surprise and she
caught the flash of Jonathan’s smile through the
darkness.
    Cecily
glanced around her with newfound curiosity. It was evident there
were serving staff given that Jamie was seemingly away for long
periods of time, yet the house was clean and well scrubbed. She
hadn’t seen much of the house but, if the kitchen was anything to
go by, the place definitely had a housekeeper, and most probably an
army of servants to help run the place.
    She
followed Jamie out of the kitchen, into a long corridor that was
pitch-black. It was colder than the kitchen. The darkness held a
chill of foreboding that made her dread going further, into what
should be the welcoming warmth of the main body of the house.
Wrapping her arms protectively around her waist, she tried to peer
through the darkness in an attempt to find anything that was
vaguely welcoming. Apart from huge portraits hanging austerely many
feet off the ground, there was little to show the place was
actually a home. It even smelled a little fusty and
unused.
    Trudging
after Jamie’s broad shoulders, she suddenly began to wish that she
had stayed with Portia and Archie. After all, she knew very little
about Jamie or Jonathan, and even less about Melvedere Manor. She
felt cold and alone and, although it wasn’t an altogether
unfamiliar feeling, an acute sense of abandonment and
isolation.
    Stop it, you are just tired, she
chastised herself, aware of her breath fogging out before her as
they passed through what appeared to be a great hall on the way to
the huge stone staircase running along the far wall. Moonlight
valiantly tried to pierce the stifling gloom but to no avail. By
the time they arrived at the top of the stairs, passed what
appeared to be an empty corridor, Cecily was thoroughly confused
and disorientated. Unless it was her wayward imagination, she had
the strangest sensation that they were being watched, and sidled
even closer to Jamie as they marched through the gloom.
    She
didn’t need to look behind her to know that Jonathan was close
behind, and for that she was very grateful. Having his bulk behind
her was somewhat reassuring, if only she dared look back to make
sure it was really him and not one of the ghosts Jamie had
mentioned downstairs.
    Giving
herself a mental shake, she was so lost in her thoughts that she
didn’t notice Jamie had stopped walking. She stumbled into his back
with an ‘omph’ of surprise.
    “ Sorry,” she muttered, rubbing her bruised nose. She couldn’t
see anything other than the outline of his face in the shadows. The
darkened caress of nightfall gave his face a far sharper edge than
usual and made him appear almost sinister. Shivering against the
cold and fear, she cast a frantic glance back at Jonathan, and
almost screamed in surprised to find the corridor behind her now
empty.
    “ Where is Jonathan?” She stammered, hoping to God that he had
not remained behind in the kitchen.
    “ He has gone to the guest room he usually uses when he stops
over here. You will see him in the morning,” Jamie snapped feeling
somewhat churlish over her avid interest in his colleague. Shoving
open the door next to them, he waved a hand toward the
room.
    “ This is yours,” he snapped, nodding toward the huge cavernous
room that Archie usually used when he stayed over. “The candles are
on the table beside the door.” He stepped back and turned down the
corridor. He didn’t need candles. He had grown up in the house