“Yes. They’ve been here for years. A permanent feature since you were just a tiny baby in your mother’s arms.”
I got a prickle of otherworldly senses, like I had done seeing George and Margaret appearing at Regency.
“A ghost?” I asked.
Hans nodded. “Yes, a ghost.”
A round of palpitations hit me as I walked up the stone steps ahead of Hans. The stairs were broken, and crumbling. Mossy underfoot.
I felt someone’s presence ahead of us as we reached the top. I heard them breathing before they came into view, and when I saw a man sitting there, lonely, I got a flood of sympathy. And recognition. Love.
But Hans couldn’t see him. He looked around blankly.
“He’s here, yes?” my lover asked me.
“There’s a man here, yeah.”
With that the man stared over at me. He was broken looking, with small, pained eyes and an expression of pure shock as he saw me there.
Hans stood next to me, still looking around for signs of the invisible person.
“He’s over here,” I said, pointing to the figure.
Hans turned to face the ghost.
“Ah, excellent,” he said. “Katherine, meet your grandfather. And Joseph, hello to you. Your introduction has been long overdue.”
Chapter Thirty
“Katherine?”theghostaskedwith a trembling voice, peering through the darkness. “Is that really you? My God, you’ve grown!”
He grew in colour as he got up and walked towards me, bathed in the moonlight. His ghostly presence was cold as he wrapped me in his arms, but his soul wasn’t. I could hear his heart singing loud. I held him back as tight as I could.
My emotions came unbidden. My heart singing as loudly as his.
“What happened to you?” I asked, my thoughts whirring back through old snippets of unanswered questions from when I was a little girl.
What happened to Grandad, Grandma?
An accident.
What kind of accident?
He fell.
Fell from where?
From where the Devil wanted him to fall from…
I shuddered at the memory of her vicious face.
“She doesn’t mean bad, my Rhona,” my grandfather whispered. “She may seem like she does, but she doesn’t.”
I could see the love he had for her shining in his eyes.
“What happened to you?” I asked again. “Hans said that Mum… he said she…”
I had to take a breath.