Mrs. O’Sullivan stepped closer and gave his cheek a pat. “You’re a good man, Mr. Whittenbecker, and—”
Whatever else she’d been about to say got interrupted when the sound of shrieking somewhere outside the kitchen captured their attention.
Rhenick was out of the kitchen in a heartbeat and running though the great hall, where he immediately caught sight of Irma, who was racing down the staircase as if something was chasing her. After jumping from the last step, she slid a good distance across the stone floor before she gained her balance, then took off for the front door, yelling over her shoulder that everyone needed to immediately abandon the castle as it was most assuredly haunted.
He didn’t hesitate to run after her, although catching up with her turned out to be rather difficult because Irma Merriweather was unexpectedly fast on her feet.
“Mrs. Merriweather! Wait up!” he shouted when he got within a few feet of her, which had Irma stopping in her tracks, spinning on her heel, and then rushing directly for him, flinging arms that were decidedly shaking around him the second shereached him. She then buried her head against his chest and clung to him as if she was never going to let go.
Given that he was quite accustomed to members of his immediate and extended family throwing themselves on him whenever life seemed too difficult to bear, Rhenick gave her a few pats on the back, knowing there was little point in questioning her until she regained her composure.
“Step away from Mrs. Merriweather and then put your hands in the air where I can see them.”
As Irma released her hold on him, Rhenick raised his hands and turned, finding the woman he’d first seen wearing a cloak standing in the middle of the drive, pointing a blunderbuss at him.
“I’m not here to harm anyone,” he said, earning a grunt from the woman in return.
“Good to hear, but I imagine youarehere in another attempt to relieve the Merriweathers of their property.” She tilted her head and didn’t bother to lower the blunderbuss. “I find myself wondering what unusual ploy you’re intending to use this time since a marriage proposition didn’t work out well for you last time.”
Before he could state that he didn’t have a ploy, Irma stepped forward. “For heaven’s sake, Seraphina,” she began, “put that gun away. Rhenick wasn’t in the process of anything dastardly. He was simply consoling me.”
Seraphina’s brows drew together. “Consoling you because ...?”
“I’ve just suffered yet another hair-raising incident, but before I get into that...” She turned to Rhenick. “I must beg your forgiveness, dear. I normally don’t make it a habit to accost young gentlemen, but clearly, as I just mentioned, I’ve suffered yet another fright and I fear I’m simply not myself right now.”
“What type of fright?” Rhenick asked.
“It was of the ghostly variety.”
“And you saw this after you and my mother got Drusilla to her room?”
“We never made it to her room.”
A sense of dread was immediate. “Exactly where would Drusilla and my mother be right now then?”
“I’m sure they’ll be along directly, but after we saw the ghost on the top of the turret, we became separated.”
Seraphina frowned. “Why were you up in the turret?”
“That’s where the footprints led us,” Irma said, quite as if that made perfect sense. “However, when we opened the door after we reached the top of the servant stairs that led us outside, a ghost materialized directly in front of us. I was behind Wilhelmine and Drusilla, you see, and the second I caught sight of the ghost, I started screaming.” She shook her head. “One would think that even in the afterlife a ghost would be affected by bloodcurdling screams, but it just continued floating about, which is why I’m sure you can’t blame me for heading down the servant stairs as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to a candle, as Drusilla had been the one carrying it up the stairs, which meant I couldn’t see a thing and had to feel my way along.” She gave a bit of a shudder. “I thought for sure I’d be set upon by additional ghosts, but I finally managed to find a door and stumbled through it and then, I kid you not, I found myself in a room filled with mummies.”
Seraphina’s eyes widened. “Do not say you were set upon by mummies next.”
“Not set upon, thank goodness, although I swear I thought I saw one of them move, but I wasn’t going to linger around to make certain of that.”
Seraphina was in motion a second later, striding for the house even as she said something about him looking after Irma while she went and tracked down Drusilla.
Knowing he couldn’t very well leave Irma on her own so that he could help look for Drusilla and his mother as well, Rhenick offered Irma his arm and, after moving with her to the bench Drusilla had made use of earlier, helped her find her seat. He then sat down beside her, pleased to see her cheeks weren’t nearly as pale as they’d been only moments before.
“I think it was the same ghost I saw in my bedchamber the other night,” Irma said as she dusted what appeared to be cobwebs from her sleeve. “And now that your mother and Drusilla have seen it as well, there can be no doubt that the castle truly is haunted. That means we certainly can’t live here, let alone open an academy, as I doubt any mother will allow her daughter to attend a finishing school in a place that has ghosts running amok and mummies cavorting about.”
“I’m sure none of the mummies are doing any cavorting, but even if we determine there’s something of a ghostly nature transpiring within the castle walls, I get the sneaking suspicion that isn’t going to deter Drusilla from wanting to open her academy.”
“That might not deter her, but I imagine, after what Wilhelmine just saw, she won’t be keen to enroll your sisters in a haunted school. Since she’s the one who found those fifty-something potential students, I doubt, once the other mothers learn your sisters won’t be attending classes here, they’ll enroll their daughters either.”
“I don’t think you understand how determined my mother is to assure my sisters receive their fair share of lessons pertaining to propriety,” Rhenick countered. “A few ghosts, or even mummies, aren’t going to scare her off.”
Irma’s shoulders slumped just the slightest bit. “That’s unfortunate.”
