Read Online Mr Scarletti's Ghost by Linda Stratmann - Free Book Online
Authors: Linda Stratmann
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Professor Gaskin began to groan out the hymn at great volume, and other voices, of varying degrees of melodiousness, wove around him.
After a minute or two, the singing ceased, and the company was overtaken by a more pleasing silence, and enveloped in an aura of arrested breath and expectancy. As Mina’s eyes grew used to the darkness, she saw only very dimly the shape of Miss Eustace still seated, her head moving first forward then back, then tilting from side to side as might be done by a person in a fit, or in a trance, or pretending to be in either state. She felt no fear, only curiosity, and just a trace of hope that something would occur with even a hint of the drama she put into her tales, but her practical mind told her that she was about to see nothing more than pretty parlour tricks.
As the seconds passed, the mood of the company was wound tighter and tighter into a state of anticipation, and then the silence was abruptly broken by the sound of a quiet rap on the wall behind them. One or two ladies gasped, and there was even a little scream. The rapping sounded again, only louder this time, and developed into a sequence of knocks that speeded up until they became almost a rattle. Mina tried to glance about her, but she was unable to turn sufficiently to look directly behind, and Mrs Gaskin held her fingers fast. She could see nothing to account for the noise and as far as she was aware no one had moved from his or her seat. Other raps and knocks followed, stouter and louder, and they were travelling about the room, so they came from the side walls, the ceiling, which of course no one could have reached even if they had tried, and the floor, too. The vibration of the floorboards beneath their feet was apparent to all. It was not a sound that might have been produced by fingers or even a foot or a fist. If Mina could have likened it to anything, it was as if some mischievous and invisible person armed with a stout rod had walked about the room belabouring every surface in sight.
A perfect torrent of raps sounded against the far wall directly behind the company, and then, quite suddenly, stopped. There was a silence, all the more anxious because of what had just occurred, and a nervous apprehension of what might happen next. The next sound was a musical tinkling noise, as if two of the water glasses on the sideboard were knocking gently together. The more Mina thought of it the more she realised that this was exactly what was producing the sound.
She sensed, quite unpleasantly, that there was a presence in the room, something that had not been there when the company had assembled, and it was nothing she could see or hear other than the effects it was producing. She tried to listen for the whisper of feet on the carpet, and the breath of another individual, but Miss Eustace had started sighing and moaning, and the other ladies were giving little excited gasps, so if there were any sounds other than those she could not make them out. Mina, who lived so much in a world of her own creation, was strongly aware of the difference between the things she conjured up in her mind and the real, solid things she saw about her. She trusted her own observation and rejected the idea that there was a spirit in the room that owed its existence solely to her imagination. There was, she felt sure, a being of some kind that was present and apparent to them all, but whether corporeal or not, alive or not, she was unable to tell. More to the point, she wanted very much to find out. Others might be happy to sit holding hands and receive impressions, but for Mina this was not enough.
There was a sudden little squeal from Mrs Mowbray. ‘Oh! there was a wind on my face!’ and a few moments later Mina’s mother exclaimed, ‘Oh! I felt a hand touch my cheek!’
Mina was just wondering if these experiences were the product of overheated anticipation, when something like a silk handkerchief caressed her throat. She shivered at the
After a minute or two, the singing ceased, and the company was overtaken by a more pleasing silence, and enveloped in an aura of arrested breath and expectancy. As Mina’s eyes grew used to the darkness, she saw only very dimly the shape of Miss Eustace still seated, her head moving first forward then back, then tilting from side to side as might be done by a person in a fit, or in a trance, or pretending to be in either state. She felt no fear, only curiosity, and just a trace of hope that something would occur with even a hint of the drama she put into her tales, but her practical mind told her that she was about to see nothing more than pretty parlour tricks.
As the seconds passed, the mood of the company was wound tighter and tighter into a state of anticipation, and then the silence was abruptly broken by the sound of a quiet rap on the wall behind them. One or two ladies gasped, and there was even a little scream. The rapping sounded again, only louder this time, and developed into a sequence of knocks that speeded up until they became almost a rattle. Mina tried to glance about her, but she was unable to turn sufficiently to look directly behind, and Mrs Gaskin held her fingers fast. She could see nothing to account for the noise and as far as she was aware no one had moved from his or her seat. Other raps and knocks followed, stouter and louder, and they were travelling about the room, so they came from the side walls, the ceiling, which of course no one could have reached even if they had tried, and the floor, too. The vibration of the floorboards beneath their feet was apparent to all. It was not a sound that might have been produced by fingers or even a foot or a fist. If Mina could have likened it to anything, it was as if some mischievous and invisible person armed with a stout rod had walked about the room belabouring every surface in sight.
A perfect torrent of raps sounded against the far wall directly behind the company, and then, quite suddenly, stopped. There was a silence, all the more anxious because of what had just occurred, and a nervous apprehension of what might happen next. The next sound was a musical tinkling noise, as if two of the water glasses on the sideboard were knocking gently together. The more Mina thought of it the more she realised that this was exactly what was producing the sound.
She sensed, quite unpleasantly, that there was a presence in the room, something that had not been there when the company had assembled, and it was nothing she could see or hear other than the effects it was producing. She tried to listen for the whisper of feet on the carpet, and the breath of another individual, but Miss Eustace had started sighing and moaning, and the other ladies were giving little excited gasps, so if there were any sounds other than those she could not make them out. Mina, who lived so much in a world of her own creation, was strongly aware of the difference between the things she conjured up in her mind and the real, solid things she saw about her. She trusted her own observation and rejected the idea that there was a spirit in the room that owed its existence solely to her imagination. There was, she felt sure, a being of some kind that was present and apparent to them all, but whether corporeal or not, alive or not, she was unable to tell. More to the point, she wanted very much to find out. Others might be happy to sit holding hands and receive impressions, but for Mina this was not enough.
There was a sudden little squeal from Mrs Mowbray. ‘Oh! there was a wind on my face!’ and a few moments later Mina’s mother exclaimed, ‘Oh! I felt a hand touch my cheek!’
Mina was just wondering if these experiences were the product of overheated anticipation, when something like a silk handkerchief caressed her throat. She shivered at the
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