So far, this was not surprising. Then, she frowned. There were odd sounds; grating sounds that seemed like they came from the library. She went in there. Throwing the door open, it did not surprise her that the room was empty.
She let her eyes roam. The only ghostly thing in the room was the portrait of the old duke, whose pale face and malevolent eyes glared down on her. Birdie shuddered. She would tell Higgins to take down this portrait first thing in the morning. There was nothing else here. Turning toward the door, Birdie’s gaze fell on the window. She froze.
What on earth was that?
She almost dropped her lamp. She squinted through the window. Why hadn’t she brought her spectacles? There was something outside on the far end of the bailey, on the battlement. She blinked in surprise. Indeed.
It was a ghost.
A white thing that fluttered in the air, ghostlike and terrifying. It looked exactly like Lucy’s sheet. Except this one had two red, glowing eyes.
Birdie tilted her head sideways.
Red glowing eyes? Somehow, that didn’t fit in with anything Lucy had told her about ghosts.
“We will see about that,” Birdie muttered. She went to the front door and rattled on the latch.
That Higgins. She would have to tell him to stop locking them into the castle. He simply would also have to sleep in the castle, like any other proper butler.
Birdie kicked the heavy door, frustrated. It merely made a dull thump; the door remained firmly shut, and her toe smarted.
This just wouldn’t do.
Birdie rose earlythe next morning and went down to the front hall. She found the door unlocked. She crossed the bailey and took the stone steps up the battlements that surrounded the castle. There, she found exactly what she expected to find.
A piece of wire and a wrinkled sheet with eye holes hidden in the parapet's recess. Next to it was a pot with dirt, a broom, and a lamp with coals.
Clever.
Someone had stuck the broom into the dirt pot and used wire to fix a sheet on it. Underneath, he or she had placed a lamp with glowing coals. On top of the gloomy castle battlements in the middle of the night, anyone with the faintest belief in the supernatural would think this was a ghost.
She thought about packing the “ghost” up and taking it with her, but changed her mind and put it back into the stone recess. No need to alarm whoever deemed it necessary to come up with this ridiculous ploy.
Someone had gone through some considerable trouble to put a fright into her.
The question was: who?
And why? Someone who wanted her gone.
Higgins? Gabriel?
It made little sense. Higgins had nothing to gain by scaring her. And Gabriel? After having married her, he’d moved heaven and hell to get rid of her. Would that include frightening her away? Why would he go to such measures?
Huffing, she stomped down the stairs of the battlement.
Her husband had some explaining to do.
Chapter 12
Birdie found the door to the tower unlocked. She opened it with determination and went up the winding staircase. Her husband really lived in Rapunzel’s tower, completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Fully expecting the door to the room to be locked, she pressed down on the handle and to her surprise, found that the door opened without as much as a creak. It occurred to her too late that she should’ve knocked.
She cleared her throat and knocked on the door frame. “Uh. Is anyone here?” she called out.
No answer.
She pushed the door open and found herself once more inside the round tower room. It was gothic, medieval, from another time and age. The first night she’d been here, she’d seen only the fireplace and the armchair.
