Ghostly Vows

by K E O'Connor

  Ghostly Vows

  Lorna Shadow Cozy Ghost Mystery, Volume 10

  K.E. O'Connor

  Published by K.E. O'Connor, 2018.

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

  GHOSTLY VOWS

  First edition. March 25, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 K.E. O'Connor.

  Written by K.E. O'Connor.

  Table of Contents

  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 1

  “I want white roses lining the aisle. They have to be pure white to match my dress. None of this off-white, ivory excuse for a white rose nonsense.” My best friend, Helen Holiday strode in front of me, waving her arms around. The harried looking wedding planner, Marjorie Hisop, scuttled along beside her with a notepad in one hand as she tried to keep up with Helen’s demands.

  “Of course, Miss Holiday. We have that all under control.” Marjorie cast a look over her shoulder as if seeking some sort of escape route or emergency get-me-out-of-here button to press. I’d been seeing that look over the last two months as Helen’s interference with the wedding plans got out of hand.

  I caught hold of Helen’s elbow and brought her to a stop. “It’s going to be perfect. We’ve discussed where the flowers are going a dozen times. And all the white roses in this country have been ordered. Trust Marjorie. She knows what she’s doing.”

  Marjorie pushed her black-framed glasses up her long nose and gave a swift nod. “I’ve been planning weddings for twenty years. I promise you, I won’t let you down.”

  Helen waved a hand in the air. “Everything has to be right. I only plan on getting married once. Nothing can go wrong.”

  I slowly turned her away from Marjorie, giving the poor woman a chance to catch her breath. “You can guarantee something will go wrong.”

  “No! This is my wedding.” Helen’s gaze turned frantic. “What have I missed? What will fall apart on my big day? Is it the catering? Has someone said something about the pastry being too dry?”

  “The pastry will be perfect. Stop being the bride from hell. You know this will be a brilliant day. All you need to worry about is making sure you look fabulous and that Gunner shows up. Nothing else matters. The puff pastry can explode, and the cake can taste like burnt rubber; it’s not important.”

  “Maybe not to you, Miss I-want-my-wedding-in-a-cow-shed.” Helen’s blue eyes widened. “What if Gunner doesn’t show up? What if he changes his mind and leaves me standing at the altar? Everyone will laugh at me. Everyone will think I’m not good enough to get married to. I’ll be a miserable spinster and have to get a dog just like you.”

  “First off, you don’t have to be a miserable spinster to own a dog. You’re getting confused, anyway. It’s cats and spinsters that go together.” I pulled her in for a hug. “And second, Gunner is crazy about you. He’s put up with all your nonsense over getting married and still wants to be with you.”

  “There has been no nonsense.” Helen pulled back and glared at me. “Name one thing I’ve been silly about?”

  “Your insistence that the wedding aisle has no more than fifty steps to walk along. The fact you’ve walked along twenty different aisles before you found this one. The fact you bought twelve different types of white roses and sampled them against your dress, even though they were the same shade. The fact you auditioned fifty bands for the evening celebrations, and I sat through a dozen covers of “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars. I could go on. Gunner’s smiled his way through all of it, as have I. It’s time to relax. Everything is booked. Everything is ready. Nothing needs to be worried about.”

  “I just...” Helen turned and looked around the room. We stood in a beautiful, high-ceilinged white room. It was part of the manor house Helen had booked for her wedding to Gunner. It was perfect. There was plenty of natural light and lots of space for guests. The gardens outside were ideal for taking beautiful pictures after the ceremony.

  I gripped her shoulders. “I know. You want to make sure everything is perfect. This wedding will be great. You and Gunner are going to be the happiest couple around. Focus on becoming Mrs. Gunner Booth and not worrying about where each rose will sit.”

  “Flower displays are important.” Helen’s bottom lip jutted out.

  “I agree they are. And Marjorie will look after all of that, so you can focus on being a stunning bride and enjoying yourself.”

  Marjorie nodded quickly as she moved closer to Helen. “I will. Everything is in hand, Miss Holiday. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another client to go and see.”

  “Wait! Aren’t I your only client? Shouldn’t you focus only on this wedding, given how close it is?”

  I gestured for Marjorie to leave. She gave me a grateful look before scurrying away.

  “Of course you’re not her only client. She will look after a dozen weddings before she gets to yours.”

  “I should be. I’m paying her enough,” grumbled Helen.

  “And she’s earning every penny of it, believe me.” I tucked an arm through Helen’s elbow. “Let’s take one final walk around the grounds and then get out of here.” If there was one thing I’d learnt by following Helen around as she planned her exhausting huge wedding, it was that I would have a small, intimate wedding.

  It wouldn’t be in a cow shed as Helen suggested, although I was certain there were plenty of lovely cow sheds out there. I wanted it to be Zach and me and a few close friends and family. None of this pomp and ceremony. I was exhausted just watching Helen fly about and panicking about the colors of flowers or if the card for the invitations was thick enough. No, my wedding would be simple and relaxing.

  Helen could keep her stressful wedding. I knew she enjoyed a good flap. She wouldn’t be happy unless she was panicking about something. But it wasn’t for me.

  “Where’s Flipper? Shouldn’t he be practicing his walk up the aisle?”

  “He knows what he needs to do,” I said. Helen and Gunner wanted Flipper and Jessie, Zach’s dog, to be ring bearers at the wedding—Flipper would carry Helen’s ring on a little cushion strapped to his back, and Jessie would carry Gunner’s ring.

  I thought it was a bit of a risk. If the dogs got the smell of a treat hiding in someone’s pocket, they’d be off, and the rings would go with them.

  Helen had insisted. And I was glad Flipper would be a part of their big day. He adored Helen and all the treats she fed him.

  We stepped out into a balmy summer afternoon. I was hopeful the weather would hold until after the wedding. The grounds outside were full of color, the reds and yellows of roses and dark purple strongly scented jasmine everywhere. Helen sure knew how to pick a great place to get married. If only it hadn’t taken her viewing dozens of other places to find this one.

  I glanced at the ghost who’d followed us around the whole time we’d been inside. She was an old lady, with a neat bun and a sensible length of dress. She didn’t seem to want anything and was happy to listen to the conversations about Helen’s wedding. Perhaps that was why she was here; she loved weddings.

  Helen let out a sigh. “Maybe I should tell the Ponsonbys I can’t start work until after the wedding. There’s so much still
to do.”

  “You can’t do that; they’re relying on us,” I said. “And you’re only doing three days a week. You can handle that. It’s not as if they’re a large family. You won’t be cooking and washing all day. You’ll have time to stress out about the wedding.”

  “I don’t stress. I’m simply concerned about the most important day of my life.”

  “That’s what I meant.”

  Helen nudged me with her elbow. “It would be nice to earn a bit of extra money before the wedding. But I’m not sure I’ll be able to concentrate on my job.”

  We were about to start work for Countess Ponsonby and her husband, a four hours’ drive from home, in the beautiful Essex countryside. Not only that, but we would be living in one of the oldest Norman castles in the country. I had to admit, I looked forward to getting back to working for old school nobility. Although their stuffy manners and old-fashioned ways sometimes grated, they had a refined way of doing things, which I approved of.

  “You don’t want to let them down. They’ve been accommodating about you working part-time to start with. Most employers wouldn’t be interested. Give it a go. Try it for a week. If it gets too much, you can always say it’s not for you.”

  “I’ll never abandon you,” said Helen. “You’d miss me too much.”

  “I would miss your cooking.”

  She nudged me again, this time much harder. “I agree. My cooking is excellent.”

  “I’m going to be far too busy to notice what you’re up to,” I said. “I have a whole castle to inventory.” I was going there, not to work as a personal assistant, but to help Countess Charlotte Ponsonby make an up-to-date inventory of everything within the castle walls. She was planning on downsizing and needed detailed information of each artifact, so she could decide what to sell.

  She’d sent me countless photos of the contents of the castle, and this was a job that would take me months to finish. I was looking forward to getting stuck in.

  “I’ll make a go of it,” said Helen, sounding unnecessarily put upon. “I should trust Marjorie to finish things off for me.”

  “You have to. She knows what she’s talking about. Let her take all the stress of your wedding day and give you a chance to enjoy it and remember what happens. Like you said, you’re only doing this once.”

  “You’re right. I do want that,” said Helen. “I’ve got plenty of time to think about the last-minute details of the wedding.”

  I shook my head. Helen would not leave poor Marjorie alone. “Does that mean we’re going to Essex?” I grinned at her.

  She smiled. The playful side of Helen was back from the land of Bridezilla. “Of course. I just need to check on the room we’re using for the evening’s entertainment.”

  I groaned. “We’ve already seen that twice today.”

  “I’ll only be a moment. I had an idea about changing the layout of the tables. You wait here if you like.” Helen ran off before I had a chance to stop her. Although I was glad she was getting married, it would be a relief when this was over. Helen in full-on wedding planning mode was a scary sight.

  I ambled back to the manor house, spotting Flipper over by the lake and waving at him to come back. He loved this place and always came with us when we visited. There were lots of fun places to explore, and the nearby woods were full of pheasants—something Flipper made full use of. He’d even had a sneaky dip in the lake on one visit. I trusted him not to misbehave too much. He never got into much trouble when he was on his own.

  As he bounded toward me, I walked back through the main doorway of the manor house. The ghost who had been following us around appeared in front of me. She gestured to a cupboard to the right of the door.

  I glanced around to make sure we were alone before speaking. “Is there something in there?”

  She nodded and pointed at the door.

  I walked over to the cupboard. It had the word supplies stenciled on it.

  I checked the door. It was unlocked. Easing it open, I saw it was a cleaning storage cupboard, with brooms and mops and a few buckets. There was nothing exciting.

  The ghost floated past me and into the cupboard. She gestured at the cleaning products.

  “Did you clean the manor house when you were alive?”

  She shook her head.

  I did another inspection of the cupboard, moving aside the mops. Behind them was the house’s fuse box. I couldn’t see anything wrong. Maybe she just liked this cupboard. Some ghosts were weird.

  “It’s a lovely cupboard,” I said. “I’d better not get caught poking around in here.”

  I heard Helen’s footsteps and quickly left the cupboard, shutting the door behind me. The ghost remained inside.

  “The room is great. I was worrying about nothing.”

  I’d heard that phrase plenty of times over the last few months. “Shall we get on the road? If we leave it much longer, we’ll get caught in the rush hour.”

  Helen had one last look around the hallway and then nodded. “I’m ready. Let’s get to work.”

  The three of us headed back outside and over to her smart, red car. We all hopped inside, Flipper in his usual place on the back seat, and headed away from the manor house.

  “I’m looking forward to this,” said Helen as we left behind the country lanes and sped onto the motorway.

  “The wedding or the new job?”

  “The job! Old style manners and class. I always thought I was meant for royalty.”

  “Which is why you’re marrying a police officer.”

  “He’s a high up police officer. That’s almost as good as royalty. And he looks handsome in his uniform.”

  “Which he never wears because he’s a plain-clothes officer.”

  Helen grinned. “He wears it for me on special occasions.”

  “Too much information!”

  “And for fancy parades and events.”

  “You don’t mind that you’re not marrying a prince?” Helen had long harbored a fantasy of a super-posh guy sweeping her off to his castle, where he’d shower her with gifts and make her his princess.

  “Yes. But not really. Imagine how much hard work cleaning a whole castle would be.”

  “Something your slaves would complain about behind your back.”

  “I wouldn’t have slaves!”

  “But you wouldn’t do the cleaning, Princess.”

  Helen shook her head. “I’d swap my castle for Gunner. He’s worth it, even if he always eats the last cookie.”

  “You’ve made an excellent decision. A lovely guy who adores you or a drafty old castle, I know what I’d choose.”

  “And when you and Zach get married, we’ll be sisters-in-law.”

  A warm, happy glow filled my stomach. I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have as my sister-in-law.

  “Switch the music on,” said Helen. “We’ve got a long drive ahead of us, and I intend to sing the whole way.”

  Chapter 2

  Four hours later, Helen pulled up at the entrance of Snow Thistle castle. We sat in silence for a moment, the sheer size of the castle shocking the speech from our lips.

  Flipper nudged me with his nose to check I was okay.

  “This can’t be real,” said Helen. “I mean, we’ve been in nice castles before, but this is amazing.”

  “Straight out of a fairy tale,” I said. “Take a look at that turret.”

  “I bet Rapunzel lives up there,” said Helen.

  “It wouldn’t surprise me if she did. I saw it was lovely from the pictures the agency sent, but I didn’t imagine it to be like this.”

  We waited as the gates to the castle entrance opened automatically. Helen drove along a manicured driveway until we reached a bridge.

  “And there’s a moat!” Helen peered out of her window as she steered the car over a stone bridge.

  “It must cost a fortune to run,” I said. “And it’s not one of these places where tourists come every day and pay to look around. I think they let
a few rooms for private events, but it’s owned by one family.”

  “A family with a whole heap of money.”

  “The Ponsonbys created the chocolate range Sweetly Yours.”

  “You’re kidding! I thought the name was familiar. They’re my favorite chocolates.”

  “All chocolates are your favorites.”

  “They do that amazing chocolate with sea salt and caramel. It’s so delicious, I can eat bars of the stuff.”

  “They might have some in the castle for us to try.”

  “I hope so. That would entice me to stay.” Helen continued toward the castle.

  “The family has been chocolatiers for a long time. That’s how they made all their money. They’ve owned this castle for five generations.”

  “A castle built on chocolate. I can’t imagine anything more lovely.” Helen stopped the car, and we all climbed out.

  The castle windows were lead-lined, the old smoky-colored glass making it impossible to see through. The large double door to the entrance stood grandly in front of us, along with two manicured shrubs framing the entrance.

  The front door opened. A stout butler dressed in a black suit peered out at us.

  Before he had a chance to speak, I heard heels clipping on stone, approaching the front door.

  A tall, elegant woman with ash blonde hair cut expertly into a long bob appeared. “Thank you, Parsons. I’m expecting these ladies.” She smiled at me.

  “Countess Ponsonby?”

  “The very one.” She walked down the stone steps and shook our hands. “Welcome to Snow Thistle castle. I trust you had a good journey.”

  “Thanks. The roads were kind to us.”

  Countess Ponsonby nodded, her green eyes crinkling at the corners. “I’m glad to hear it. We get a lot of tourists over this way in the summer. It can make the roads hellish. Leave your keys with Parsons. He will see to your bags and park your car safely.”

  Helen reluctantly handed her keys to him. “Be careful. She’s my baby.”

  “I drive the family Jaguar. It’s never had so much as a scratch on it.” Parsons looked down his long nose at Helen.