“When we find him, I am going to make sure he stays dead,” Torin said, angry that the ghost had interrupted the night with his wife.
“Perhaps that is why he moans, he wishes to go where death refuses to take him,” Flora said and pulled her arm free of her husband’s grasp and headed for the door.
Torin shook his head intending for the ghost to feel his wrath and grabbed his sword before leaving the room.
Flora stood still outside the bedchamber door, listening. “It is coming from above,” she said when her husband joined her. “I have not explored that area yet. What is up there?”
“My mum’s solar and the bedchamber I once occupied.”
“Anything beyond that?” she asked, and he hesitated to respond. “What is it?”
“The tower room but it was sealed off,” —he thought a moment— “My great-grandfather had it sealed off, but I do not know why.”
Flora headed for the stairs, Torin shaking his head and stopping her with a hasty grab of her arm before she could put her foot on the first step.
“Remain behind me,” he reminded firmly.
The moan came again but not as loudly.
“Aye, but hurry,” she urged, stepping aside.
Torin grabbed a torch from a sconce nearest to him and issued his wife orders before taking another step. “Stay close to me.”
It was then Flora spotted the sword. “Your weapon will do no good against a ghost.”
“Aye, but it will if the ghost proves to be of flesh and blood.”
Torin took the stairs cautiously not knowing what to expect around each curve and annoyed with himself for not even thinking that he should have ordered his wife to remain safe in their bedchamber. Or would she be? He had no idea of what was causing the strange sound in the keep and it was better he kept his wife with him than left her on her own. She would somehow manage to get into trouble.
When they reached the next landing, they heard the moan once again.
Torin had never explored the sound when it happened. He had been too busy seeing that people got safely out of the keep. And after a while, he simply had let the ghost lay claim. Now, however, he would tolerate no more and that was thanks to his wife and her tenacity.
“It still sounds like it is coming from above,” Flora said.
“You are cold,” Torin said, seeing his wife shiver.
“It grows colder as we go up,” she explained but paid it no mind. “Let’s have a look in the room to make sure nothing is there.” A quick glance proved no one hid there. “I will have it cleaned and life brought back to it.”
His wife was laying claim to every room, and he wondered if it was to show the ghost that he no longer belonged here.
The next room proved empty as well, thick dust covering most of it and once again his wife made a point of saying she would see to it being cleaned out.
“There is nothing more to see,” Torin said.
“The tower,” she reminded.
“It is not accessible,” he said.
The moan sounded again, though more faintly.
Flora pointed above her head. “It comes from above.”
The night would be completely ruined if he did not take her up there so she could see for herself, and so he climbed the stairs to satisfy her curiosity.
Flora stood staring at the door to the tower room that was now nothing but stone. “There must be a reason it was sealed off with stone.”
“I imagine there is, but I was told when asked that it mattered not and it was to always remain sealed, inaccessible,” Torin said.