A Haunting at Hensley Hall (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery) (6 page)

“And sinister,” Meg added. “Today I can almost believe that whatever we experienced here yesterday was nothing more than our Ravynne imaginations on overdrive.”

Suddenly, Charlie found herself laughing till her sides ached. “You mean ‘Watts-ever’ we experienced yesterday, don’t you? I’m more than happy to believe that
if
you are,” she managed to say, laughing harder still at Meg’s bewildered expression. “Stop looking at me like that or I’m going to get the hiccups. And here comes Watts now, if I’m not mistaken.”

He appeared from around the side of the house, a portly man in jeans and sporting a ‘Watts Here’ t-shirt, which made Charlie laugh even harder until Meg punched her hard in the arm. “Stop that or he’ll think we’re both crazy,” she muttered under her breath.

“Ow! And he’d be wrong?” Charlie muttered back.

“Morning ladies, Watts here!’ he said with a grin. “You must be the gals who won this place.”

“The very ones,” Charlie replied dryly. “What do you think so far?”

“Good question, young lady, good question. Way back when, the whole town thought it mighty strange lumber baron Hensley built this place outta brick instead of timber, but he built it like a brick shit house…excuse me ladies. Look at that roofline…straight as a string! Some of the tiles are missing, but after more than a hundred and fifty years it’s in pretty good shape. A helluva lot better than what I’d expected.”

The sisters smiled at each other and Meg said, “Well, that’s great, I guess.”

“Before you get too excited, there’s a lot wrong, too. From what I can see just on the outside, the soufitts, the porches…front and back… and all that gingerbread crap is in pretty rough shape. How about we take a look inside. I’m only going to get a rough idea today of what we’re up against. I’ll need to bring in a plumber, an electrician, someone to check the well and septic…no city water and sewer out here, ladies and an HVAC guy, so I can give you the big picture.”

“Well, here goes,” Meg whispered to Charlie, as they all climbed the steps. Both sisters held their breath, as they stepped inside. Sunlight followed them into the great hall, which was already well lit from the doors they had opened yesterday. Everything seemed so different! It no longer felt like the same house. The heaviness seemed lifted and both sisters heaved a sigh of relief.

“Do you think we’ll have any problem finding people to work out here?” Charlie asked the inspector who was leaning over, looking up the stairwell.

Shoving his hands in his pockets he squinted, speculatively, at each of them in turn. “Well…as to that”

They waited for the ‘haunted’ bomb to drop from his lips, so they were both surprised when he said, “With the economy being what it is, especially here ‘bouts, you’re not likely to have a problem there, but this old place has sort of a bad luck reputation,” he drawled at a snail’s pace.

“Meaning what exactly?” Meg asked before her sister could.

He seemed to be enjoying himself way too much and Charlie had to resist an impulse to speed him up with a swift ‘unladylike’ kick.

“Well, let’s see. The Hensley lumber baron I told you about, remember? There was some talk back then that he did something to one of the maids. Killed her afterwards. But it was hushed up and then he drowned in a sailing accident and took three of his boys down with him. Each generation after that had something bad happen…sudden deaths…that kind of thing, then we come to the last of ‘em….”

The very Hensleys who had died so ‘peacefully’, Charlie thought wryly, “Go on. We want to know everything!”

He shrugged and blew his nose into a yellow bandana, “Pardon me…”

“Ladies,” Charlie supplied impatiently. “Go on!”

He shot her an injured look, but drawled on,” Gotta remember this all started mor’en forty years ago. First the daughter goes and disappears just after them other town girls were murdered. Never found her. Then her brother…twin he was…just run off and got hisself killed in a train wreck up north some place,” he paused and looked at them. “You sure you want to hear the rest? You ladies plan on living here, right?”

Both sisters really felt like screaming ‘no way!’ but Meg said quietly, “Go on. I think we need to hear everything for that very reason.”

“The Hensleys you got the house off of…the ones who owed all them back taxes and let the house go to shit? They died right here.”

“In the house. We already know that. They died here quite peacefully,” Charlie prompted.

“Hell, no! You got the first part right, but it sure weren’t peaceful. Not by a long shot! It was a double suicide. They found em danglin’ from that broken rail just above your heads dead as mackerels. Way dead almost a week from what the papers had to say.”

Charlie and Meg looked up at the broken rail and then at each other. “How awful,” Meg said, sadly.

“Guess they had plenty of reasons to take that way out…kids dead…though no one knows for sure about the daughter. Lost his money in some get rich scheme…the taxes…the house falling down around them and they was both as old as dirt. In their eighties and kinda frail and…”

He was feeling way too expansive and had to be stopped. “Okay…okay! We get the picture,” Charlie said, afraid Meg would succumb to tears at any moment. What they both needed was a good dose of sunlight and blue sky. “Look around to your heart’s content. We’ll be outside,” she said, wrapping her arm around Meg’s shoulder and leading her out.

Sitting on the front steps, their thoughts ran along the same line. Their worst suspicions had just been confirmed. The Hensleys
had
died an ugly death…their restless spirits were quite probably still lingering about….
and
it made good sense to chuck their losses and get out while they could. Though how they would unload the house again was a mystery, even if they could bring themselves to take advantage of some poor trusting soul. Probably one with plans for a B&B and all the nonsense they had been dreaming about!

Meg was the first to speak, “I know we both want to run for the hills, but it’s not really an option, is it? We’re meant to be here, Charlie. We felt like that, you felt like that, right from the very beginning and nothing’s really changed. I mean, we kind of suspected the Hensleys had not died exactly as we were led to believe, but we’ve made a commitment. And, you have to admit, the house has felt much friendlier today!”

Charlie hugged her knees and sighed. ‘Bad luck’ and ‘haunted’ weren’t adjectives conducive to making their dreams come true, but the house
was
theirs now and she had believed, did believe, they were meant to be here. “Just be careful, Meg. You are like an empath. You feel way too much. This place could hurt you if you get to close to the pain I know you felt in there.”

Meg yanked her ponytail really hard. “You, on the other hand, think too much. I’m fine. How about we go back inside and explore our new home top to bottom?”

And that’s what they did. They started by climbing up two flights of stairs, pausing at the landings to look out at the grounds below. “Lots of work, but it will be beautiful. See that climbing rose? And look at that pond, or tiny little lake, under the trees. Won’t that be fun?” Meg exclaimed.

But Charlie was already seeing dollar signs with every step. “More fun than we can afford just now,” she muttered.

At the end of the long corridor that bisected the third floor, they found the narrow, steep attic stairs and climbed to what must have once been the servants’ quarters. Light filtered through the dormer windows that marched across both sides of the cavernous space. Judging from the narrow iron cots stacked against the wall, it had been the drafty, cold home of the ‘lesser’ staff…the housemaids. They were sure the butler, housekeeper and cook had fared much better.

Crossing the dust coated floor, that echoed hollowly with each step, they opened the doors to storage rooms filled to the rafters with cast off pieces of the Hensleys’ lives…heavy antique Victorian furniture, boxes, steamer trunks, lamps with missing shades and some with shades that ought to be missing. The taste and style of another era. It was a treasure trove to explore at another time.

They retraced their steps to the third floor and began opening the doors on both sides of the hall. The first turned out to be a schoolroom. The breeze through a broken window flapped the world map that hung above the blackboard and set a rocking horse, its mane and tail long missing, bobbing back and forth, as though it still carried a little rider. Ink stained desks took up the center of the large room. A chair lay on its side. Bookcases covered most of two walls. Tthough covered with dust, they still offered a spot of color against the grayness of the room.

Meg shivered. “It’s not a happy place. I can feel it, ” she told Charlie, not mentioning what she
heard.
The slam of a rod or cane on flesh…the whimper of a child.

Closing the door behind them, they continued down the hall, looking in the rooms they passed. All were simply decorated without the little things one would associate with children, though one small bed had a tattered flop-eared rabbit lying on the dusty pillow. The remaining rooms on that end of the hall had obviously housed the nanny, nurse and tutor. The far end of the hall was divided into apartments for the housekeeper, and butler. They were furnished with solid, serviceable furniture and as colorless as the rest of the rooms on this floor.

They descended to the second floor, which was more lavish, or had been at one time, but now the hall runner was worn thin and the rich walnut paneling dingy with grime and dust. Overhead, they could hear footsteps moving about. “Just Watts,” Charlie told Meg who nodded in reply, mostly because they both wanted to believe it.

Opening the first door, they looked inside. The furniture was covered with time-yellowed sheets, the drapes pulled against the fading effects of the sun. When Meg yanked them back, she sent a swirl of dust motes dancing in the single shaft of sunlight that penetrated the ivy covering most of the window. The floorboards creaked, as Charlie crossed the room and opened a small door. It had been a dressing room at one time, but some affluent Hensley…1930s maybe?… had converted it to a small bath.

Meg leaned under her arm and looked around. “Wow! Look at that beautiful claw foot tub! You do realize if this one has been converted, we might luck out and find whoever did this didn’t stop here. En-suite rooms will be a big bonus, though we’re going to have to add one of those shower ring thingies around the tub for those that don’t like to soak, but that won’t cost much, right?” Meg asked.

Meg, thankfully, couldn’t hear what Charlie muttered under her breath, as she eyed the ruined floors and mildewed walls. It seemed her glass was always going to be ‘half empty’ to Meg’s ‘half full’. “I can picture it now, Meg, let’s go see what other ‘treasures’ we can uncover.” If Meg detected the sarcasm in her tone, she didn’t comment on it.

The next rooms must have been the late Hensleys’ suite, they decided, when they opened the first door and looked inside. It appeared as though the late Mrs. Hensley had just stepped away. A ruby coverlet was pulled back and an old fashioned but expensive silk robe lay across the foot of the double bed. Toiletries covered the dresser and a book was turned upside down on the bedside table.

The door to the adjoining room was locked and the sisters were forced to enter it from the hall. It was littered with dirty clothes…the bedding in the same state. An aura lingered there and it wasn’t just the smell! Whatever it was had Meg saying, “Let’s get out of here, Charlie. It’s starting to get strange in here.”

Charlie knew what she meant. The atmosphere felt like a spring wound too tightly and about to let go at any minute.

They didn’t beat a hasty retreat, but they didn’t waste any time either. They were both glad when the door clicked shut behind them. Continuing down the hall, they glanced briefly in room after another until they opened the second door from the last.

The walls were covered with pink rose wallpaper. A tall canopied four-poster bed dominated the center of the room. It was covered in deep pink silk that had begun to crumble. A thick pink and white Aubusson carpet covered the wide plank floor. But what caught both their attentions was the portrait above the marble mantle. It was a beautifully executed portrait of a young girl…teens?…in a white organza dress with a blue satin sash. Her long hair was black with blue highlights, her eyes, a deep clear gray, had the far away look of a sleep walker. She was very beautiful and seemed so very sad.

“This must be her room…the one that disappeared, though I don’t know why she has a picture of herself here. She kind of looks familiar. But look, Charlie, this room is perfect for you. There’s even a view of my ‘someday’ garden down there. And I’ll bet there’s a bathroom behind this door,” she told her, opening it to prove her point. “And look at this armoire…it still has all her clothes in it…nice ones, too. It looks like she just stepped away.”

The room was pretty, beautiful even, but way too ‘girlie’ for Charlie’s taste. “You take it, Meg! It suits you perfectly. Let’s go next door and see what’s there.”

Next door
had clearly been a boy’s room…her twin? It was decorated in a dark slate blue…drapes, bedding, right down to the walls. The armoire doors leaned open. Unlike Breanna’s, it was empty. In fact, the entire room had been stripped of anything personal except for two large glass cases filled with long dead butterflies. There must have been hundreds of them, each stuck on their pin and neatly labeled. “Ugh!” Meg exclaimed.