She exchanged a glance with the guards. The room showed no sign of intrusion. The window remained latched. Nothing stirred save the shifting shadows cast by tree branches scraping against the glass.
‘You were dreaming, dearest,’ she soothed gently. ‘That is all. You are safe now. There is no one there.’
After dismissing the footmen back to their post, she lit a lantern beside the bed, flooding the room with warm golden light.
‘Keep this burning and you shall see there is nothing to fear. You have allowed all those ridiculous stories below stairs to fill your imagination.’
Privately, however, exhaustion was beginning to wear heavily upon her. Between missing maids, secret societies, and murder attempts, she had little patience left for ghost stories and midnight terrors.
Eventually Sarah allowed herself to be coaxed back to sleep, though she remained pale and shaken.
Tom, however, stayed wide awake.
‘Do not worry,’ Charlotte murmured. ‘She merely had a nightmare. It is all over now.’
‘I... had another accident,’ he admitted quietly, staring down at the blankets.
‘Come—we shall clean it up together.’
They worked quietly so as not to wake Sarah again. Tom scarcely spoke throughout, and when she stripped away the soiled linens, he turned his face towards the wall, his mouth tight and trembling.
Once the bed had been remade, he climbed back beneath the covers and clung tightly to her hand.
Kneeling beside him, she brushed the damp strands of hair from his forehead.
‘It was only a bad dream,’ she murmured softly. ‘Nothing more.’
Tom would not meet her gaze.
His wide eyes shimmered strangely in the lantern light.
‘Will you stay?’ he whispered instead.
She could not refuse him.
Lying beside Tom atop the coverlet, she let his little hand curl tightly around hers. Gradually his breathing slowed, and just as sleep began to claim him, he murmured drowsily:
‘It is alright. We shall tell Sarah not to be frightened in the morning. I dreamt the man too.’
The words made her still.
Slowly, her eyes lifted towards the dark corner Sarah had pointed to earlier. A faint shiver crept over her.
Surely it was only a nightmare. An old house, too many frightening stories, overwrought nerves—
And yet...
Was it possible someone did come into the room?
Unease settled heavily in her chest as she stared fixedly at the corner.
Eventually exhaustion overtook her, though sleep remained shallow and uneasy.
Then—
A scream tore through the morning silence.
She jolted upright, nearly tumbling from Tom’s bed. Sarah was already stirring beside her, eyes wide with alarm. Miraculously, Tom still slept soundly between them.
