Page 34 of The Marquis' Game of Seduction
“But I didn’t mention that I was largely hired alongside every single other person. That is, nobody else was working here before, except Judith. When we were all hired on together, it was incredibly curious—as though the entire other staff had been fired in order to hide something. Judith certainly told us very little besides what was expected of us. And at the time, it was simply so necessary that I get a job that I didn’t frankly care what the circumstances were.
“In the wake of that first year, of course, I’ve heard a bit of gossip. You know that Duncan was born and raised in the West Indies. And perhaps you also learned that Colin and his father were absolutely against Laurence, Amelia’s husband. They wanted to forbid her to go—but of course, Amelia is quite stubborn and she refused to listen. Since her leaving, the old Marquees, Colin’s father, grew increasingly sick. It’s said that Colin insisted his illness was all due to Amelia leaving for the West Indies. He’s even gone so far as to blame his sister for their father’s death. If you ask me, that’s taking it a bit too far. The man was quite old. And Amelia was simply trying to live her life, to love and raise her child…”
“Poor Duncan. Poor all of them,” Rose whispered.
“Truly. And in the wake of his father’s death, Colin has grown increasingly… lost. Inside himself. My current working theory is that he blames himself for all that’s happened. He thinks he should have been more forceful about Amelia’s decision to marry Laurence. And he considers himself a failure for allowing his father to die. I know he really didn’t want Duncan to move in to the Kensington Estate, but it seemed there was no other option.”
“You’re saying that he wasn’t so terribly distant then?” Rose asked.
Anna gave a light shrug. “It seems to have grown worse year by year, especially after his father’s death. It’s difficult to describe. It’s like the light has gone out of his eyes. Like he doesn’t understand how to communicate with anyone except Judith. He seems both wildly anxious and fearful—and at the same time powerfully angry, apt to fall into fits of rage. I have never been able to predict his moods, and so I keep a wide birth.”
“When I first met him, I considered him to be terribly rude,” Rose murmured, thinking back to that first day on the moor. “He looked at me like I was this creature who’d entered his house, one he needed to squash. But in time, I grew to see something else behind those eyes of his.”
Anna chuckled. “Of course. This is the same experience most people have, I think. But there truly is a kindness behind everything he does. When I saw him that night after he’d saved you, he seemed wild with affection for you. He wanted nothing more than to make sure you were all right. He seems to operate on both ends of the spectrum, swinging between them like a pendulum. It’s difficult to anticipate, but it’s always an adventure.”
“Since you're telling me this…” Rose began. She toyed with pressing forward, unsure if she could fully trust anyone—yet guessing that Anna was her current best bet in the mansion.
“What is it?” Anna asked.
“It’s just… Beyond all the mystery that I mentioned before, there was something of an incident during my first week,” Rose said. “I heard something and wandered through the halls and… I saw a young child. A girl.”
Anna’s eyes grew enormous. “A girl?”
Rose nodded. “I tried to chase after her, because I was fearful for her. I imagined her to be lost, or an orphan, or a child in some need, who’d broken into the mansion for assistance. But I lost track of her, and instead stumbled into the Marquees himself. I told him what I’d discovered, and he told me that it was absolutely outside the bounds of reality. He told me that my imagination had very clearly got the better of me… When I described the issue to Judith, she said something similar. Why were they so resistant to what I know I saw with my own eyes, Anna? It’s not as though I’ve made myself out to be some sort of liar, is it?”
The color drained out from Anna’s cheeks. “I haven’t seen a little girl,” she whispered.
Rose shrugged. “Apparently nobody has except for me. And for Duncan. He drew a picture of her and explained that she’d found him in his bedroom and played with him.”
Anna looked increasingly pale. “Ever since I was a girl, I’ve heard of this. Of old mansions filled with very old ghosts. I can’t believe… that I’ve worked here so long and not seen her…”
Anna smeared her fingers down her cheeks and took little gasps of air. “My god,” she continued. “All these years. I mean, I’ve heard little creaks in the floorboards and little whispers through the hallways. But nothing like you describe. I just can’t…”
“Anna…” Rose tried. She splayed her hand over Anna’s book, attempting to draw her attention back to the real world. “There’s nothing about this that makes me think I saw a ghost.”
“But that’s the only explanation!” Anna cried. “Don’t you see? Both Judith and Colin affirmed that there isn’t a young girl here. And…”
Rose clucked her tongue. “I understand your worry. I really do. But I think there’s something else at play here. I think there’s some kind of secret lurking beneath everything.”
Still, Anna looked tentative. She dropped her hands and bounced her leg up and down, making the table shake. “I’m terribly sorry to be so dramatic. I’ve been petrified of the supernatural since I was a girl. Of course, it fascinates me. Truly it does. But I just can’t wrap my mind around something so terrifying. Firstly, dying as a young girl. And secondly, having to haunt a house…”
“Haunt what house?”
The voice rang out from the doorway. Anna and Rose yanked their heads around to peer at the little figure of Duncan, standing there with an old soldier doll in his hands.
“Oh, nothing, Duncan,” Rose said. She bounced up from her chair. “Anna was just learning to read a story, and it was about…”
“About a very old, creaky house. Much like this one,” Anna said.
“That’s haunted?” Duncan asked. He furrowed his brow.
“Not at all. Much, much older,” Rose said. She dropped down and crouched in front of him, peering into his eyes. “What’s wrong, Duncan? You look perplexed.”
“It’s only that my toy upstairs has broken, Miss Rose,” he said. “I’ve tried and tried my hand at fixing it, but I require some assistance.”
“You’ve found us at just the right time,” Rose said, grateful to have ducked out of the conversation about ghosts. “Anna, do you mind coming along with us to fix the toy? It seems a very time sensitive matter.”
Anna rose from her chair and collected her notebooks and reading materials. “Unfortunately, it seems I have to return to work. Perhaps I can catch the two of you later, after this horrific toy incident has finished.”
