Chapter Nine They all began to talk at once as soon as it sunk in that it appeared that Hugo was correct in his assumption of where my remains were lying. Sophie went to one of the bell pulls and rang for a servant and asked him to fetch six men and some heavy hammers and meet Mr Hugo out by the kitchen. She took charge and instructed Elaine, Mary, Anne and the children to remain downstairs, except Richard, who as Earl, h...

Chapter Eight With the loss of Alice and Arthur, the spirit had gone out of the other children in respect of their ghost hunting activities during that winter. So they looked forward to the summer to resume their hunting for my grave in the gardens, but this was curtailed by another death, that of Thomas. He’d been out to see to the fields, and when he hadn’t returned for dinner, Sophie got worried and sent out some serva...

Chapter Seven This letter made a staggering impact on the family when it was produced that night at the dinner table by Sophie. ‘Odds bodkins!’ Thomas exclaimed. ‘This would definitely have killed father if he’d seen this. So Richard was my grandfather and not Edward,’ he mused. ‘Percy!’ This was what Percival was called by the older members of the family, but was Mr Percival to the younger ones. ‘Send one of the servants...

Chapter Six Call it a quirk of fate if you wish, though I am more of a quirk than the fact that both Grace, wife of Henry, and Sophie went into labour at the same time to produce their offspring in unison. In some way I was pleased that the doctor was seeing to Grace and it was an experienced midwife who attended Sophie at the moment of the births. Grace produced a daughter that they named Alice, while Sophie bore a son,...

Chapter Five When I wasn’t watching the children play and grow, I spent time looking over the shoulder of William while he was at his desk in the study. This was a definite no go zone for female members of the family as this was where all the business of the estate was handled, and not for female ears. It was fast becoming a financial nightmare for William. The income coming from the harvests and sales of livestock was no...

Chapter Four Sophie, if you remember, was the baby that smiled at me at her birth, the daughter of my sister Joan. She was six years old now, and had been brought over to the hall with her parents for the ball being held in the main hall. I had already wandered around among the guests and now I had returned upstairs and had sat down on one of the sofas that were placed in the corridors that led to the bedrooms. I thought...

Time. That man made name for the passing of the seasons and the years. To me, it had no meaning. It was limitless as far as I could see. I was nearly twenty years of age by this reckoning, and likely to remain so for eternity. But I still wanted to fight time. I wanted my brother to leave that world at the quickest moment possible, and to this end, I was devoting most of my time in his haunting. I felt a certain pride in...

Chapter Two In that instant I was outside of my body to see the pistol ball come erupting out of my chest in a gout of blood and gore and watched myself pitch forward to fall on the carpet. Caroline screamed and then fainted as I turned to see Edward standing near the moving drapes, the pistol still smoking from the fatal shot that had killed me. We both heard the sounds of running feet coming towards the chamber and Edwa...

PROLOGUE Our story opens on Wednesday, June 22 nd 1727. The day King George the first, died in Germany, but more importantly, it was the day I was born. I was christened Richard Oliver Philip Stapleton in our family chapel, the second son to Earl Cecil Stapleton of Stapleton Hall. My mother, Elizabeth, nee Carlton, had an easy time in birthing me so I was told, unlike my elder brother Edward who nearly killed her in the p...