Ghostly Secrets Read online

  Ghostly Secrets

  Lorna Shadow Cozy Ghost Mystery, Volume 2

  K.E. O'Connor

  Published by K.E. O'Connor, 2017.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  GHOSTLY SECRETS

  First edition. February 21, 2017.

  Copyright © 2017 K.E. O'Connor.

  Written by K.E. O'Connor.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 1

  “I’m sure we were supposed to take the last turn on the left.” I slowed the car and peered at the overgrown road in front of us. “If we carry on in this direction, we’ll drive straight into a tree trunk.”

  My best friend, Helen Holliday, peered over her shoulder. “If only the satnav hadn’t given up on us. But then, we are in deepest, darkest Hampshire.”

  “It’s not that remote.” I noticed the enormous brown squirrel watching us from halfway up a tree. When did squirrels get so big?

  “According to the satnav, it is,” said Helen. “Reverse to that main road, and we’ll stop and look at a real map.”

  “You mean the road that was wide enough for two cars to pass alongside each other.” I slowly backed the car along the single track road. I was used to driving along country lanes, but even this one was testing my abilities as I skirted a ditch and avoided a deep tractor imprint in the dry mud.

  Flipper, the best doggy friend a woman could ask for, snorted himself awake from the back seat, hopped up, and licked my nose.

  “That’s not helping me see where I’m going,” I said to him.

  Flipper gave me a doggy smile before slumping back onto the car seat. He was the only dog I knew who went straight to sleep as soon as he got into the car. Most dogs would be excited about going on a new adventure. Flipper enjoyed taking a nap instead.

  “Pull over on the left,” said Helen as she pulled out a map from the glove box and unfolded it. “The last signpost I saw was for a village called Coombe St. Ottery. We passed all of those adorable little thatched cottages with doorways large enough to squeeze hobbits through.”

  “We can’t be far from our destination. I remember hearing the name of that village when I spoke to our new boss.” I pulled off the road as best I could and swiped my dark hair out of my eyes, feeling tired and harassed after too much driving. Helen was looking as immaculate as always, in a neat navy dress, her blonde hair pulled off her face, and a pair of practical but stylish pumps on. Having been driving for more than three hours, I felt frazzled around the edges and was looking forward to finding our new home and place of work.

  “Let’s see.” Helen traced her finger over the map. “We’ve driven about ten miles south of Coombe St. Ottery. So, the village of Badgers’ Drift must be around here somewhere.” She tapped on the map and then drew a small circle with her fingernail as if trying to make the village magically appear.

  “Somewhere is about as close as we can get. Maybe we drove past the sign, or it had been knocked over and we missed it.” I reached over into the back seat and gave Flipper’s furry head a scratch. Apart from Helen, he was my best friend, and we’d been through a lot together, ever since I’d found him abandoned as a puppy by the roadside. Now, he was a fully grown dog, and people often mistook him for a wolf because of his ice blue eyes and grey fur.

  “I bet we don’t have any phone reception out here.” Helen pulled out her mobile and checked it. “Not a single bar. Looks like we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way and hope the map isn’t too out of date.”

  “Hold on a second.” I looked round as I heard a low rumble approaching us. “Sounds like we’ve got company. Maybe we can get them to stop, and I’ll ask for directions.” I hopped out of the driver’s seat and stretched my back, happy to have a break. I took a deep breath of the fresh country air, the late autumn colors of the leaves overhead promising an end to the still warm days. But as I stood there in the afternoon sunshine, it still felt like summer to me.

  “Can you see who’s coming?” asked Helen.

  “They’re almost here.” As I spotted the mud spattered Land Rover turn the corner and drive slowly towards us, a smile spread across my face. I knew who it was, and I was happy to see him.

  “Your knight in shining armor has arrived,” said Helen from the passenger seat of the car.

  I grinned and felt my cheeks heat up. My new relationship with Zach Booth had started in an interesting way; with me revealing to him I could see ghosts, and him not entirely believing me until an actual ghost decided to make her presence felt. Since then, we’d had several intense discussions about ghosts and the afterlife. Zach now believed ghosts exist, but he still got spooked every time one decided to pop its head up and introduce itself to me.

  Zach slowed the Land Rover, stopping it as he reached my car. “I hope you’ve not broken down.” He peered out of his window, his dark hair looking windswept and a faint hint of stubble on his strong jaw.

  I leaned in his window and gave him a quick kiss. “Just lost. The satnav decided to die on us.”

  “You’re going the right way.” Zach lifted a map from the passenger seat. “Keep going for another three miles and you should spot a left turn. That’s the private driveway of the Musgrave estate. You won’t be able to miss it. Apparently, it’s huge.”

  “Hi, Zach,” called Helen from inside the car.

  “Afternoon, Helen,” said Zach.

  “Looking forward to starting your new job?”

  “It sounds interesting,” said Zach. “And thanks again for getting it set up for me.”

  “Helen always spots the best job vacancies,” I said. “Two years ago, she found us work in Spain. And the year before that, we spent six months in Jersey working for a cousin to the Queen. It’s so beautiful over there.”

  “It was my pleasure,” said Helen. “Can’t have the two of you separated for any length of time.”

  “I’m glad you’re coming with us,” I said to Zach, ignoring Helen’s not so subtle wink. Helen and I had been a double act for years, working in the wealthy estates and homes of the British gentry. I was a whizz when it came to the admin, and Helen was a fantastic seamstress and could get the stains out of anything when she set her mind to it. Zach was a new edition to our team, and, so far, it was working. I’d been worried we’d struggle to find positions for all three of us, but Zach’s skills and experience as a gardener were in demand, and we’d quickly found work following our last unsuccessful employment at Galbraith Manor.

  “Me too,” said Zach. “Besides, I don’t think we had an option but to stay together for work. If Jessie spends more than a few hours away from Flipper, she starts to pine. It would be cruel if we separated the two of them.” The head of a small black dog popped over the back seat of the Land Rover. Jessie was a new member of Zach’s family, joining him after I’d rescued her from my last employer, who had kept her in a kennel for three years with little company or stimulation. Both of us had fallen in love with Jessie, and Zach had been swift to agree to take her. She’d been glued to his side ever since and was a sweet, gentle dog.
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br />   Flipper barked from the inside of my car. We were not the only ones to have fallen for Jessie’s gentle charms. Flipper and Jessie were best friends, content to spend their time sleeping next to each other or dashing through the woods together.

  “Do you want to follow me the rest of the way?” asked Zach.

  “That would be great,” I said. “We don’t want to be late on our first day.”

  “I’ll get us there safely.” Zach gave me another kiss and then waved goodbye to Helen as he eased the Land Rover along the narrow lane.

  “How fortunate that we bumped into him,” said Helen as I climbed back into the car.

  “We are all going to be working in the same place, so it’s not such a surprise,” I said. “But I thought we’d get there before him. Zach’s Land Rover must be over fifteen years old. I didn’t think it would last the long journey.” Zach owned a tiny cottage in Wales, more than four hours’ drive from our new place of work. But he was rarely there and had been thinking of selling it.

  We’d had a couple of awkward conversations about where he would move if he did sell, but our relationship was too new to start thinking about things like that. Although that didn’t stop me from daydreaming at times about what life would be like living in the same house as Zach and Jessie.

  “Zach would get to you if he had to walk barefoot over burning coals,” said Helen. “Zachary Booth is head over heels in love with you.”

  “Don’t go jinxing anything,” I said. “We’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of months.”

  “He is lovely,” said Helen. “I knew the first day I set eyes on him that the two of you would be perfect together.”

  “You’re right; he is lovely.” I pulled the car away from the side of the lane and followed Zach’s Land Rover. “Now all we need to do is find you somebody.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever find my Mr. Right.” Helen sighed. “For some reason, the men I like are never interested in me.”

  I shot Helen a sideways glance. She was a classic beauty, with her blonde curls, big blue eyes, and killer curves. But her taste in men did err on the eccentric side. She preferred upper-class country bred men with cut glass accents and a liking for cravats. “Perhaps you need to broaden your tastes.”

  “I have excellent taste in men,” said Helen.

  “What about Gregory? You liked him.” I recalled the Eton educated son of a banker we did some work for a year ago.

  “He was such a wet blanket,” said Helen. “He would never do anything without getting his mother’s agreement first. Initially, I thought it was cute. But then she started telling him what to wear and didn’t agree with the choice of shirt I’d given him. He didn’t seem so much fun after that. Besides, I don’t think I was posh enough for his mother.”

  “That’s the trouble,” I said. “The upper-class single men like to marry money to avoid getting caught by a gold digger.”

  “Now you’re saying I’m a gold digger.” Helen poked me in the ribs with a finger. “And I thought we were friends.”

  “We are, but doing the kind of work we do, we’re never going to be fantastically wealthy.” Our jobs paid us a decent income, but we'd never be earning six figures. “People make assumptions, the wrong assumptions, about us because of that.”

  “But we can live the dream through our jobs,” said Helen. “We get to live in these fancy estates and make believe we are royalty. That’s almost as good. And I will only ever marry for love, not money, so the posh boys have nothing to worry about.”

  “Me too. Money isn’t everything,” I said, although having enough not to worry was never a bad thing.

  “Zach must have a bit of money put by if he can afford to own his own home,” said Helen. “And you love him, so you have the perfect man.”

  “Quit it,” I said. “It’s too early to start asking Zach about his assets.”

  “I can see some of his assets,” said Helen with a grin. “They look good to me.”

  “Have you been leering at my boyfriend?”

  “You have to admit, he looks good in a pair of well-fitting jeans.”

  I choked out a laugh. Helen was right. All of the work Zach did outside gave him a firm set of muscles. “So you’re looking for a posh guy, with muscles, who doesn’t mind your lowly position in a household?”

  “That’s it. I love my work as a seamstress,” said Helen. “Love me, love my job. If a man cannot see beyond something as trifling as a title or my heritage, then he’s not the man for me.”

  I smiled at her. “We’ll find you someone wonderful.”

  “Maybe even as wonderful as Zach,” said Helen with a playful grin.

  “You never know,” I said.

  We drove for another three miles, and I spotted Zach’s Land Rover indicating left and turning into what looked like a copse of trees. As I slowed and peered through the trees, I saw a carefully crafted archway of woven branches and a neatly printed sign: The Musgrave Estate.

  “Looks like we’re here.” Helen looked through the densely packed trees as I inched along the driveway.

  “The pictures Juliette Musgrave sent me look amazing. If it’s half as good as those, I’ll be impressed.”

  “Oh my, I think it might be even better than the photos.” Helen’s eyes widened as she took in the expansive house in front of us. It was a three-story Georgian country house made of butter yellow sandstone with a grey slate roof and five enormous chimney stacks. The house was set in twenty acres of parkland, with paddocks, a lake, swimming pool, and tennis courts.

  “You can say that again,” I said. We emerged from under the tree lined avenue, and I drove the car up to the front of the house.

  “This looks idyllic.” Helen jumped out of the car and stepped back to admire the building for a few seconds. “Now, we just have to hope there are no ghosts inside.”

  Chapter 2

  I opened the back door of the car and let Flipper out. “No, we don’t want any troublesome ghosts this time.” Having been fired from our last place of employment for helping the ghost of Beatrice Galbraith get some peace, I wasn’t keen on meeting any restless spirits this time. “Let’s have a nice simple job, with lots of paperwork and sewing. That’s what we’re paid for, after all.”

  Helen nodded. “Although the ghost mysteries are fascinating. And I never can turn down someone who is in distress.”

  My ability to see ghosts came about after I’d cheated death when I almost drowned as a child. After I’d been revived, I experienced frightening visions and would shake as if I was having a seizure. It turned out I wasn’t ill. I’d simply gained a new ability. And the ghosts now saw me, too. And when they did, they often asked for help.

  Flipper paced around the outside of the car and then snuffled in the gravel before turning his attention to the house.

  “Flipper approves of his new home,” said Helen.

  “And he isn’t at all agitated,” I said, “which means no ghosts in the house.” Flipper had an amazing ability to sense when a ghost was present and would alert me to it. It was a great comfort to have him around. It helped me to control the feelings of agitation and nervousness I had whenever a ghost was near. I called him my assistance dog when employers questioned why I needed him. Most of the time, they were happy to have Flipper come with me, and he was a well-behaved dog. Wherever I went, Flipper was never far behind.

  Zach walked around the side of the building with Jessie at his heel, and the dogs danced towards each other, sniffing noses and running around in excitement for a few seconds.

  “Any sign of the owners?” I asked Zach.

  “No. I’ve just parked the Land Rover round the back and haven’t rung the doorbell yet. Shall we?” He gestured towards the door.

  “Let’s meet our new employer.” I pressed the bell on the dark green wooden door, and we waited for a few seconds.

  The door was opened by a man in his early forties, with a young looking round face and a big smile. He wore an ov
ersized pale grey sweater and navy trousers. “You must be our new recruits.” He held out his hand. “I’m Ben Wellam.”

  We all shook hands with Ben.

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Lorna Shadow, and this is my colleague, Helen Holliday, and your new gardener, Zach Booth.”

  “Welcome, all of you,” said Ben. “Please come in. Sorry Juliette’s not here to welcome you. She’s got one of her headaches and has been lying down for most of the day.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” I said as we followed Ben into a large open hallway that was painted a pale yellow and dotted with antique furniture. There were vibrant white lilies set in a glass vase in the hallway and a piano by the staircase.

  “She’s been having them for a few months now.” Ben gave a sad sigh. “We’ve tried everything, but nothing helps. The doctor wants to put her on some strange elimination diet, where she exists on nothing but vegetables and water. I’m sure it’s not her diet, but we need to find out what it is. Anyway, you must ignore my babbling. I do like to talk. Let me show you round.”

  “That would be nice,” I said.

  “Or would you like to unpack first?” asked Ben. “I can show you your rooms and leave you to get settled in first. But I always like showing off the old place. To be honest, I’m still not used to it, myself, what with being the second husband and all. I sometimes wonder what’s behind all of the doors. On one occasion, I even forgot where the library was!”

  “A quick tour would be great,” I said.

  “Let’s begin.” Ben sped along the hallway, opening doors as he did so. “You’ve got the front parlor in here. We use that when we have guests.”

  I poked my head in and discovered a cream-colored room. The walls were covered in family photos and there were two large sofas and flouncy floral curtains.

  “I like to call this next room the lady’s parlor.” Ben shoved open another door, and I spotted yellow flowered walls, large window seats, and a number of easy chairs.

  “It's a pretty room,” said Helen.