The Fourth Mistress

Louise took note of the brown cloth that stuck out from the surface of the ground. She turned to look at the butler, who had a stunned expression on his face. Right now, she wasn't sure if it was because he was worried that she had caught him red-handed or if it was because he hadn't expected to see the cloth sticking out from the ground. 

If the cloth had been found in any other place, she would have believed that it was an ordinary cloth that had been washed into this part of the forest during the rainy season and had been buried over time. But this was Reed's manor.

When she leaned forward, the butler stopped her, "Milady."

Louise turned to look at Gilbert, who had the ever serious-looking look on his face. He said, "Let me get that," he offered so that she wouldn't reach out for the cloth and pull it out. 

The butler was used to seeing the new lady of the manor, who often liked to take a stroll around the place. Trying to involve herself in problematic situations, he knew it was only increasing Lady Viola's blood pressure. When Louise nodded, Gilbert stepped forward, pulling the small tree away from the spot where it had fallen on the ground. Then he picked the shovel and started to dig out the mud. 

Louise, who had earlier bent down, stood up and watched Gilbert remove the mud as it still didn't free the cloth. She wondered if someone was buried there. Her eyes looked around the forest, wondering if the Lestrange's had mentioned not to cut or remove the trees in their deeds from its place because they had buried people below each of the trees in here. 

When the butler had dug a considerable amount of mud, the brown cloth was finally free from the ground. Gilbert picked it up and showed it to Louise. 

"It is a woman's dress," said Louise on looking at the length. She said, "I want this dress washed, tell the maids to be careful with it. Or maybe it would be better if I do it myself." 

Louise was not new when it came to washing clothes because before marriage. She had occasionally helped Poppy with it. The butler quickly said, "Let me take care of that myself, milady." 

"Okay," replied Louise while staring at the dress. Her eyes then shifted to look at the ground. "Do you think there's a skeleton in there?" she asked him.

The butler had an unfazed expression on his face, and he replied, "I am not sure, milady. Would you like me to dig further?" 

"Maybe it would be better to bring Jonas or someone here to come help dig it," said Louise, while the butler folded the dress and placed it on the ground. 

"I will be fine digging it myself, milady. Asking others would only alert and bring in disturbance in the manor," came the dull words from Gilbert. 

Louise picked up the dress and watched Gilbert continue to dig further for more than forty minutes until they found nothing but only mud. She leaned forward to take a look at the hollow put where the butler was not standing.

"Do you see anything there, Gilbert?" questioned Louise. 

"Nothing here, milady," replied the butler. 

A frown appeared on Louise's face, and she wondered why a dress was buried in the ground. A small piece of cloth was understandable, but a dress raised eyebrows. She waited until Gilbert pushed all the mud back, and while he was on it, she asked him, 

"Are there any other trees around here that have turned loose?" 

"Only the branches have broken, milady. Breaking down of the branches is very common in this side of the forest. They are very random and we lucky moss being hit by it," responded Gilbert. "But no one has been hurt until now." 

"I see," murmured Louise under her breath. She wondered if the ghost was protecting this dress from being discovered for the branches to break down and try to hurt the people who tried to come here. 

They headed back to the manor and backside, where the clothes were often washed and dried. On their way, they met the maid's Meg and Emily. The maids bowed their heads in greeting. Looking at the butler's hands, Meg asked, 

"Whose dress is that? It looks dirty." 

Emily nodded her head, "Would you like us to clean it, milady?" she asked Louise.

"No, that would be fine. Gilbert has offered to help me as it is very delicate," Louise offered them a smile, and she walked with the butler. 

Gilbert dipped the dress in the water multiple times before pulling it out and washing it. Louise realized it wasn't any dress that was worn outside the manor but a nightgown. The butler hung the nightgown on one of the ropes, where not all the stains of the mud had vanished because of the time it had spent under the ground. 

"Do you have an idea on what is going on in the manor, Gilbert?" Louise had questioned most of the people living in the manor, but she hadn't got the opportunity to question the butler until now.

"Like what, milady?" The butler returned the question, wanting her to be specific on what she was asking about. 

"Anything related to the family members or the servants or the manor itself," remarked Louise, her eyes directly staring at him. "Did something happen here three years ago or maybe in Warlington's manor?" 

For a few seconds, the butler stared back at her with his unchanging expression that revealed nothing. He finally said, "A few days ago, after Senior Mr. Reed had passed away, I heard someone's footsteps in front of my door. I thought it was probably one of the servants, who had come to talk to me because after a few seconds someone knocked on my door."

"Who was it?" asked Louise 

"I don't know. When I opened the door, there was no one there," answered Gilbert. "I wasn't sure if I was imagining it." 

"Was it the first time something like that happened to you? The knocking on the door I mean?" 

The butler gave her a curt nod, "Yes, milady. There was also something else that I had noticed, that I never mentioned before to anyone until now."

Great, said Louise in her mind. "Go on," she prompted the butler to speak. 

"It was when the Reed's family members and the servants including me had newly moved in here. Two months had passed and one night I was making rounds when I noticed footprints on the floor," said the butler, and his words got Louise intrigued. "But along with the footprints, there were large drops of water that had been spilt and soaked on the floor."

"Did you try to track it down on where it started and stopped?" Louise continued to question, holding her breath for a moment, and Gilbert pursed his lips. His expression slightly changed as if he was torn between whether to answer or not to the question she had asked him. 

"Did you?" 

Gilbert finally gave her a nod. 

He said, "It started from one of the sliding windows of the parlour room. While checking for the windows and doors if they were closed, I heard something fall in the room. When I went to check, the window was open. Somehow it was left unattended. I wasn't sure if it was a cat that had jumped in and had wet the floor. Or if it was an intruder. When I followed the trail I noticed the footprint and towards the corridors and up the stairs. Milady... the footprint stopped right at the front of the door of the room that belongs to you and Master Graham." 

Louise's eyebrows drew in concentration over what Gilbert just told her. Did Gilbert mean to say Graham was the one who had stepped out of the manor that night? 

"Did you ever ask him about it?" asked Louise, and the butler nodded his head. 

"I didn't enter the room because I wasn't sure if Master was asleep, but the next morning when I mentioned if he had stepped out of the manor the previous night, he said he didn't," replied Gilbert with a straight face. 

Louise decided to sit down against one of the stones that was used to wash the clothes. Letting the information sink in, as she wasn't sure if the trust she had put was now being put under a test. Staring at the ground for a few seconds, she asked Gilbert, 

"Was it raining that night?" 

Gilbert shook his head, "No. It wasn't raining."

That could only mean one thing. Someone had taken a dip into the lake that was located not too far behind the manor. 

"Also the same night, I had looked around the manor, and I noticed a very light footprint that diverted towards the right wing. I believe it was the time of summer, which is why by the time of dawn the footprint had disappeared. Since there was no proof, I didn't ask about it as it would be rude to intrude," informed the butler. 

"The right wing? The one which is closed and no one makes use of it?" Louise tried to confirm it. 

"Yes, milady. The footprint was unclear, but I noticed it. I saw it disappear behind that room, but there were no footprints of someone coming outside the room. Nor was there anyone in there." 

"And which one was that?" 

"The one that you found yourself locked during your first week here in the manor," replied the butler, and Louise took a deep breath before releasing it through her lips. 

"But now you know it links to something that we are facing," said Louise under her breath. The butler didn't comment on her words and quietly stood watching her. "Lisa's skeleton was found in the lake." 

Did Graham put it in there? If so, why would he throw Lisa's body in there and later pretend as if he didn't know anything? It didn't make one bit of sense. 

First, it was his handwriting, and now this. Louise wondered if someone was trying to frame Graham or if her husband was guilty of something he did, which he didn't want to accept. 

"Have you ever heard anything about the family will that was left by Graham's grandfather Nelson Reed?" Louise asked Gilbert, wanting to know what else he knew. When he nodded again, she asked him, "Can you tell me what you know about it?" 

"Mr. Nelson Reed's will stated that his properties and his wealth would be distributed between his family members. While he gave most of the share to his grandchildren," stated Gilbert in a solemn voice. 

"Are you sure that was the original will?" asked Louise.

"I am. The day when the will was prepared as per Mr. Nelson Reed's wish, and ready by the family's legal attorney in the presence of the family members, I was there," explained Gilbert.

Then what about the other will that she had seen in Mr. Winkle's office? Was that a false paper that had been placed just to mislead her from knowing the truth? Louise asked herself. 

But then, the paper wasn't there when she had gone to retrieve it the next day. Was it the ghost's doing? The woman whom she had seen lying on the bed next to her. 

The memory of the night was enough to send shivers down her spine. With the darkness in the room, it made it hard to see the face, but the outline was enough for her to know that a dead woman's ghost had come to lay next to her. 

Considering whatever was happening with Reed's family connected to three years ago, Louise wondered if Graham, along with his family, had done something to the woman who was haunting them now. 

When Louise was speaking to Gilbert, during the same time, inside the manor, in Lady Agatha room, she was combing her blonde hair that had strands of grey in them because of her growing age. Someone knocked on her room's door, and the woman said, 

"Come in," believing it to be one of the maids who had brought her tea. Lady Agatha then said, "It is good that you are here, my arm has been hurting and I am unable to reach the back side. Come and comb my hair. Also massage my head. It has been hard to get some sleep with these frequent headaches," saying this, she leaned back and closed her eyes. 

Footsteps were heard in the room that moved towards where Lady Agatha was sitting, and the comb was taken from the woman's hand before fingers dipped into her hair. 

Still closing her eyes, Lady Agatha said, "I should probably go and meet the physician and get some medicines. Or maybe it is better if you go and get them. Get the address from Gilbert." 

The hands-on Lady Agatha's head continued to massage, pressing the fingers that were as decayed as the entire body of the person who stood behind her. 

"You don't need the physician when I am here," said the person. 

Lady Agatha laughed, which sounded less hearty and more forced, "You aren't a physician… Since Ernest has left my side, things have not remained the same. I miss him terribly." 

"Why don't I help you meet him?" 

Lady Agatha slowly opened her eyes and said, "You cannot bring the dead back, it is—Y-you-" 

When the woman's eyes fell on the reflection of the person in the mirror, who stood right behind her, her throat clogged, and her eyes turned wide as saucers in terror. But before she could call for someone's help, the decayed hands quickly moved around her neck and squeezed it hard. 

Lady Agatha's chubby hands moved up to pry the hands that had grasped her neck. Gagged noises escaped from her lips as she tried to free herself, but the decayed hands of the person who stood behind Lady Agatha only watched her struggle with a smile on her lips. 

"Do you remember now?" came the voice of the person as Lady Agatha slowly started to lose her energy in her body due to the lack of oxygen. "Now you feel how I felt…" whispered the voice. 

In time, Lady Agatha's body turned slack, and her hands slid down to her side. 

Louise was still speaking to the butler outside the manor when they both heard a scream from the inside of the manor. With furrowed eyebrows, Louise quickly ran towards the manor's back door to get inside while closely being followed by Gilbert. 

Seeing some of the servants run towards Lady Agatha's room, Louise followed them to the lady's room. When they reached, she noticed the upper part of Lady Agatha's body lay upside down on the ground, and the rest of her body was on the bed with her eyes open. 

Lady Viola, who had also heard the scream, quickly came to the room. She covered her mouth before asking, "What happened here? How did this happen?! Who was it?!"

But the others, who had come running here like Louise, looked shocked with no explanation. 

Louise turned to the butler and said, "Notify Graham about what happened immediately."

The butler bowed his head, sparing a look at the dead body and then at the people who stood there before he left the room. 

Lady Viola was in shock, and she whispered, "We are all going to die."

And when her mother-in-law uttered those words, Louise couldn't help but worry if it would be true. The spirit that was haunting them would kill them one by one, and it was moving quickly.