“I just wish I got to you sooner.”
So do I.
Edward snapped his head back up, the worry set between his brow once again. “I didn’t even hear you leave, Will. You must’ve walked right by me, opened the back door and closed it again. I was in the kitchen, just getting some food ready to bring you up as my way of apologising. Then, when I got to the room, you weren’t there. I – I couldn’t…”
William turned his body to the side, dirty water sloshing around him. He leaned his chin against the lip of the bath, laying a softer hand on the back of Edward’s balled fist. Beneath his touch, his hand unfurled like a flower to the sun. It was a strange feeling to recognise one’s power over another person physically. William revelled in it. “You found me, and that’s all that matters.”
“I did.” Edward nodded, although William could tell the words weren’t completely believed.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” William said. “About what I was doing.”
“I know.” Edward picked the flaky enamel of the bath rub. “I saw it.”
“You did?” William swallowed down the sudden urge to be sick. “Robert’s grave. Who would’ve thought it would… be here.”
“I had a feeling it would be somewhere on Hanbury grounds.” Edward suffered on his knees, getting into a more comfortable position beside the bath. “When I first came to Stonewell, I spoke with the local vicar about Hanbury, hoping he’d have some answers about Teddy. I asked him about the burial sites, thinking I’d find him. I didn’t exactly expect Teddy to be buried there, considering his body was allegedly lost at war, but I asked anyway. But I was surprised when the vicar told me that Robert Thomas wasn’t buried in the church grounds either. All his family were, but not Robert. I suppose now we know where he was laid to rest.”
“It was… because Robert died by suicide,” William said, already knowing the answer as to why Robert’s remains were here and not in the church alongside his family. “Isn’t it?”
“I think so, yes.”
William was all too familiar with the reason why. “It’s callous, but someone once told me that when a person took their own life, they weren’t given the burial they deserved– not in the church’s eyes. The law changed in 2017 or something. I imagine suicide was frowned upon back then.”
William expected Edward to ask how William knew such facts, but he didn’t. If he had, the answer would’ve made Edward look differently towards him. William had personal experiences with suicide after Archie’s death.
“Sometimes, what we are told will give comfort, only turns its back on us when we need it the most,” Edward announced. “Those who preach tell us the doors to the Lord’s home is open to all… until those in charge of religion decided a person isn’t worthy.”
William felt sadness course through him at the sense of Robert’s family being refused a burial at the church. Archie wasn’t exactly a religious man, and neither was William. But his family had wanted him buried at the local graveyard site just outside of Essex. There was a peace that came with the knowing that his remains were surrounded by those who came before him and those who’d one day follow after him.
But that wasn’t the case for Robert Thomas and his family.
“It’s safe to say, for someone who has never sleepwalked before, you certainly are very good at it.”
William admired Edward’s attempt to make light of the situation, but it missed its mark. “Are we going to pretend that what is happening to me boils down to something so mundane?”
Edward swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing vigorously. “Tell me what you think is happening, then. I need to hearyousay it. I’m not one for putting things in people’s mouths.”
Heat burned somewhere north of William’s chest.
“I don’t need to. We both know what is going on here.” A shiver passed over William’s skin so powerfully that even the warm water couldn’t defend his body from the reaction. “There’s no more hiding from it anymore.”
“We do?”
William thought of the first time he sleepwalked. He’d followed a figure wearing Archie’s missing red coat outside the manor. The second time he’d woken outside of the locked attic door – the very room Robert took his own life. And this time, he’d been taken to Robert’s grave.
“Yes, we do.” William sat up, drew his knees to his chin and gathered himself in a ball. “Clearly, something is very wrong with Hanbury Manor. And I want – no, Ineedit to stop.” William raised his voice a little in case the ghost was listening. “This ismyhome now. I will not be driven out – or scared away. I’ve spent the last year of my life running, and frankly I don’t have the energy left in me to do that anymore.”
The last word sucked the warmth from the room, so much so that William had to slip back beneath the water.
“Sometimes leaving terrible things behind you doesn’t equate to running away. What I mean is, maybe you should leave,” Edward whispered, eyes downturned. “It would be safer for you.”
Hearing his hopes aloud proved to William a thought he had already had. He wasn’t safe here. And he deserved to know why.
William turned his head around so sharply that the muscles in his neck ached. “No. I won’t.”
“But why?” Edward pushed on.
“Because If I don’t work out what it is, the next person will. I have to believe that Archie left me this burden for a reason.”
