Haunted Happenings

by Lucrezia Black

  Chapter 6

  Looking for Answers

  * * *

  The next week of nights were restless. Sometimes they would both sleep through the noise from downstairs. Other nights they would both be awake listening to the music.

  Neither ventured out of bed to investigate. They had no interest in walking all the way downstairs simply to find nothing. They had simply accepted that this was part of the house, but Danae knew they couldn’t keep doing this for much longer. The kids were due in two days, and it was about time that they had some answers.

  Drew had been dragging his feet on setting up a meeting with his employer. She wasn’t certain why, but he hadn’t made any progress in getting them a firm time and date.

  Perhaps because he was still doing the preliminaries on the landscaping. Perhaps he wanted to have information to provide to his employer during the meeting. It was possible that he just did not want to make it all about the haunting. He was a practical person, after all.

  However, after a week Danae was losing patience with her husband. She was sick of waking up to Georgia on My Mind every night. She was sick of the argument coming from down the hall. She just wanted to sleep peacefully for once, so it was time to make him do something about it. It was time to put her foot down.

  “You have to call your employer, Drew,” she instructed as she poured their coffee that morning. “We need to sit down with them and talk about these occurrences. I can’t take it anymore.”

  Drew regarded his wife. It took a lot to get her rattled and it was clear that she was at that stage. He was not unaware of the situation, but he’d been trying to gather his quotes together before meeting with the employer. Approval on spending was way easier to come by in person as opposed to over the phone. In person he could get a signature, a firm guarantee of approval for the prices he was putting forward, over the phone was always so uncertain.

  But he couldn’t put it off anymore. He knew that she wouldn’t let him. He’d been married to her long enough to know when she was putting her foot down and there would be no wiggle room for him here.

  “I know. I know.” He sipped at the coffee she’d given him. “I’ve just been trying to get my paperwork together. I will need to put some final touches on it today, but I promise to call him after breakfast. He should be free to meet with us today. I know he’s waiting on this paperwork from me.”

  Danae nodded. This was really the best she could hope for at the moment. He was going to set something up. That’s what she wanted. She would just have to turn the business meeting into an inquiry about the house. She didn’t doubt that she’d be able to do that.

  It was some time after four in the afternoon when they sat down in the small café in town. Thornton Willow, Drew’s employer, had picked the location. His name somehow suited the mental image Danae had formed of the man.

  Not long after they’d sat down, a man and a woman joined them, introducing themselves as Thornton and Caroline Willow. Thornton looked exactly how Danae had imagined; tall with dark hair and serious eyes. His wife, on the other hand, looked sweet as can be with her long blonde hair, slim figure and bright blue eyes. They were quite a contrasting couple, but Danae had an appreciation for contrast.

  “I’m Danae Speyers,” she introduced and shook their hands. “I’m Drew’s wife.”

  “He has mentioned your name before,” Thornton chuckled. “And you have two children?”

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “They are with my mother until things get settled.”

  “Are you having trouble settling into the house?” Caroline inquired, her voice laced with concern. “Can we do anything to make your stay more comfortable?”

  Danae offered a reassuring smile. “The abbey is wonderful. It is a much nicer home than ours, for sure, but there have been some strange happenings.”

  Caroline’s brow creased and she gave her husband a concerned look. “What do you mean by strange happenings?”

  Danae figured it was better to counter the question with one of her own rather than try to explain exactly what they’d experienced. “Has anything tragic happened in the abbey? Does it have a history with your family?”

  Caroline looked to her husband. She knew very little about the abbey aside from the fact that it was beautiful. He had spent his whole life knowing it was his inheritance, his legacy. “Well, Thornton? Is there anything?”

  Thornton looked thoughtful for a moment. The abbey had been in his family for decades, but he knew very little about it aside from that. His parents had never spoken about it and his grandparents had been very tight lipped on the subject, so he’d never really learned what had happened in that house. He’d never learned why his parents had wanted no part of it.

  “Nothing that I know of.” He tapped his fingers on the table top. “Though Willow Abbey has been a bit of a dark spot in my family. No one really wants to talk about it. I never assumed it was because of anything negative. I just figured it was one of those don’t ask, don’t tell things.”

  Drew considered him for a moment, attempting to find any hint of falsehood in his statement. He didn’t appear to be lying. “Perhaps we should give you some context to what’s been happening. That might give you a bit more of an idea as to what historical incident might be behind this.”

  Thornton nodded, his face concerned. “That would be greatly appreciated. We plan on living in the house once the landscaping is done, so it would be good to get this all cleared up beforehand.”

  “It would be great to get it all cleared up before our kids join us,” Danae stated and watched Caroline nod.

  “You definitely need to keep your children in mind. I understand that.” Caroline’s hand went instinctively to her stomach, which showed no sign of what was growing inside of it, but Danae recognized the gesture. She made no comment on it. After all, she’d just met the woman and it was rude to comment on such things.

  “So what exactly has been going on at the abbey?” Thornton looked from Drew to Danae and then waited.

  Drew took a deep breath and in as much detail as he could manage, filled them in on their experiences over the last few nights. He tried to keep his terms simple and his explanation out of the realm of the supernatural, but it was difficult. They were dealing with a haunting after all.

  When he concluded his story, he waited in silence for them to comment. Their faces showed confusion, but there was a sign of recognition in Thornton’s eyes. It was as though the story resonated somewhat.

  “You’ve been going through this all week?” Caroline asked, her voice filled with shock. When Danae nodded, she let out a small gasp. “That’s horrible. We must put an end to this nonsense! Isn’t that right, Thornton?”

  He saw the stern look in his wife’s eye and knew that he would not be let off the hook without finding a solution. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, more that their story was somehow familiar. It was as though he’d heard it before but he couldn’t place where.

  “Yes dear, we will definitely have to put a stop to this.” He seemed contemplative for a moment before continuing. “Let me ask my family and I will get back to you. Is that alright?”

  “Oh, it’s quite alright,” Danae assured. “We just wanted to bring this to your attention. If you plan on living in the house, I would assume you’d want this all sorted out before hand.”

  “Indeed,” he mused before turning his attention back to Drew. “So, do you actually have plans and quotes drawn up for me or was that an elaborate lie just to get us here?”

  Drew smiled sheepishly as he withdrew the folder from his briefcase. “No sir, I do have all the preliminaries drawn up for you to review and sign off on.” He passed the folder across the table. “As soon as I have your approval I can begin the procurement and begin the actual landscaping.”

  Thornton nodded. “Very well, let’s review these first and then I’ll look into the issue with the house.”

  Thornton didn’t want to refer to it as a haunting. He did
n’t want to acknowledge that such things were even possible, so he would put the supernatural aspect of it aside and focus on the fact that his contractor was currently being harassed by something within his home. It was his duty as the employer to see that it was taken care of. It was as simple as that.

  “Shall we begin?” He asked and opened the file folder.

  Chapter 7

  Family History

  * * *

  It took Thornton a full day to convince his parents to sit down with him and his grandparents. Despite them all living in the same city, it was always difficult to get them all together. They almost seemed opposed to spending time with each other. Holidays were exceptionally awkward.

  But this was important and he wouldn’t let their reluctance to be together stop him from getting the answers he needed. He couldn’t move his family into a house with these sorts of problems, and he couldn’t have the Speyers go through this while working on his gardens. He needed this done quickly and that couldn’t happen if his landscaper couldn’t sleep at night and his family was disturbed.

  He found it very odd that no mention had ever been made about the abbey. It was just one of those family things, a piece of history which was his if he wanted it. And why wouldn’t he want it? The place was beautiful. With a bit of Caroline’s decorating magic and the landscaping done, it would be perfect and he wanted perfection in all aspects of his life.

  He tapped his fingers anxiously as he waited at the restaurant for his family to join him. They refused to go to one another’s homes, so he’d picked a mutually convenient restaurant and instructed them to meet there. And of course, they weren’t on time.

  He knew that they would drag their feet on this. He knew that they would dance around the subject. But he was determined to get answers even if it took him all night.

  He’d left Caroline at home for this; as curious as she was about the events going on at Willow Abbey, he didn’t want to subject her to his family nonsense. It was bad enough that she had to deal with it on holidays, he wasn’t going to add another day to the list.

  She’d been reluctant to stay home, but she had ultimately agreed. She didn’t want to see his family any more than he did, but she hated to make him go alone. After his insistence that he would be fine, she finally agreed. She didn’t need the stress of the encounter, especially not in her current condition.

  Thornton still couldn’t believe that she was pregnant. They seemed to have been trying forever to have a child. They’d had so many setbacks along the way, but she was finally there and he would do whatever he could to make sure that this one made it all the way to the outside world.

  If that meant he needed to do a bit more and stress about the things she shouldn’t, he was more than willing to do so. He was willing to do almost anything to keep her and the child she was growing, safe, and he definitely couldn’t have them moving into the house in its current state. That much was obvious.

  His parents were the first to show up at the table. They offered polite smiles, but it was clear that they really didn’t want to be there. He offered them a smile in return and gestured towards their chairs.

  “I hope it wasn’t too much of an imposition for you to come out to dinner with me,” he said in a friendly voice.

  His mother smiled gently. “We always like spending time with you, Thornton.” She glanced nervously at the two vacant chairs. “Are your grandparents joining us?”

  He nodded and gave his father rather a stern look. “I want to keep this as civil as possible, dad. So please keep your opinions to yourself unless they are relevant to the topic of conversation.”

  Thornton’s father, Stanley Willow, held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not looking to start anything, Son, but I am curious as to why you’ve brought us all together.”

  “I’ll get into that once grandma and grandpa get here. It’s something we all need to discuss.” He glanced up when the restaurant door opened to his grandparents. “There they are now.”

  He rose from the table and went to hug them. He saw his grandparents only rarely, but he’d always enjoyed their company, and he couldn’t wait to inform them that they would soon be great-grandparents. He just needed to wait a while longer, after all, he didn’t want to jump the gun.

  “Grandma! Grandpa! It’s so nice to see you. I’ve very glad that you could join us.” He exclaimed as he led them back to the table and had them seated.

  His grandfather, Stanley Willow, eyed his son and daughter-in-law sceptically. “You made it sound rather urgent when you called. I figured we should probably come out. Not to mention, we needed to eat anyway.”

  Thornton nodded. “Well let’s order and then I’ll get into it with you. I prefer to have the food on the way first.”

  They took a second to review the menu and order. They’d frequented this restaurant, so their decisions on ordering did not take too long. With the food ordered, Thornton laced his fingers and leaned forward against the table.

  “So, I called you all together because I have some questions about Willow Abbey,” he stated and watched his grandmother’s face pinch in displeasure. “I know that we usually don’t talk about it, but it really is important that I get this all cleared up. Some rather unusual things appear to be happening there at the moment.”

  “What kind of things?” His father, Richard, gave him a narrow-eyed look.

  “The people who are living there currently, the family of the man I hired to do the landscaping, have had some interesting experiences.” Thornton looked from one family member to the other. “It would seem as though the house is haunted by a past event.”

  Stanley glared at the table. “No one has died in that abbey in a hundred years,” he grumbled. “There are no ghosts there. That’s nonsense.”

  Thornton raised a brow. “I didn’t say anything about ghosts, Grandpa. Apparently, there is an event on loop; something that happened in that house that was tragic or emotionally driven, and the house keeps replaying those events.” He paused for a moment as though to consider his own words. “It doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me, but I believe that something is going on there. After meeting with the family who are there right now, I don’t doubt any of their allegations.”

  Richard tapped his fork on the table. “They could not just be stringing you along?”

  “No, they are not that sort of people. In fact, they were rather reluctant to bother me with the information at all,” Thornton admitted.

  He watched his grandparents exchange a look and focused on them. “Did something happen in the abbey, Grandma?” He looked at her directly, knowing that his grandpa would do anything to skirt around the topic.

  She closed her eyes for a moment before speaking. She hadn’t talked about that day since it happened, but Delia Willow knew that it was time for the truth to come out. She chewed on her lower lip nervously and when she opened her eyes again, all eyes were on her. She knew that it was time to tell the story.

  Beside her Stanley was sitting tensely; he didn’t want to dig up the past. What had happened was done and over with, but clearly it wasn’t completely done, not if things were happening at the abbey. He’d never been much of a believer in the supernatural, but he trusted his grandson’s word and he trusted the honesty he saw in the boy’s eyes.

  Delia took a deep breath and looked at her grandson. This story would affect everyone at the table, but he wanted to hear it, so she would tell it to him. The cards would now fall where they may – it was time. The time was ripe to admit the truth about their history.

  “I’d been married to your grandfather a year before we finally got to set foot in the abbey. He was having it renovated and updated. That had always been his dream. So we stayed with my parents until the project was complete. And my God did the place look grand when it was done. It was a house fit for any member of high society and I was going to get to live there,” she sighed at the memory of the first day she walked through the large wooden doors to see the fi
nished abbey.

  She’d been awe struck by it. It had been better than anything she could have imagined and she almost ruined it. Looking back on her life, she knew that she’d been a foolish girl but she had learned from her mistakes. She had made a life for herself, but she now needed to acknowledge what she’d done. She needed to let everyone at the table know what kind of person she had been in the past and what she’d done.

  “The home was beautiful; perfect, and Stanley had put all that time and effort into making it the perfect home for me, and I had to go and screw it up.” She grimaced. “I was rather foolish in my youth.”

  “What do you mean?” Richard looked at his mother curiously. He’d never heard her speak like this. He’d never heard her talk about the early years of their marriage. It had always just been one of those things.

  She looked at him with sympathetic eyes. “Things were different back then,” she said. “We didn’t marry for love. We married because it seemed like the best option at the time. Your father came from a good family. He had money and could provide for me. I never had any negative feelings towards him in my youth, I simply didn’t love him, and I was young and idealistic. I wanted to be in love so very badly, but I never really gave the relationship a chance. I was too busy being high strung and resentful. I wanted the world and I wanted it in an instant, and it has taken me many years to realize that some things grow over time. Love being one of them.”

  She looked over at Stanley. “I love your father more now than I ever could have imagined loving him in my youth. And that short sightedness was one of my major flaws.”

  “What do you mean?” Thornton asked. Everyone at the table was captivated by her story. The only one who looked as though he wasn’t following along was Grandpa. Stanley Willow stared at the table in front of him and kept his eyes downcast. Either he’d heard the story too many times to be interested in it, or he’d lived the story and had no intention of reliving it.