Johnstown Castle - part 4

…and stealeth away afar then once we’d wander the earth…

“I’m afraid so. I mean yes, I saw a figure resembling a woman in a white dress.”
I didn’t want to frighten the girl and thus I kept myself from revealing that in fact I was certain there really had been someone there the previous night and probably yet again just an hour before. At least so I thought. And I couldn’t even be sure that the revenant hadn’t been the maid Loretta herself so I definitely had reason to remain silent about it.
“Maybe then the moonlight plays with your eyes, mister?”
Well that might have very well been the case were it not for the fact that moonlight can’t unlock doors.
“Yes, maybe” I said and continued playing with my paperwork. In the meantime Loretta was still taking care of the shards on the carpet walking on all fours like a cat displaying her lingerie to me. I couldn’t think straight, however, I also saw that her thighs and hands were covered in goose bumps - which was only natural for how frigid the room was.
“Aren’t you cold, dressed like that, Miss Loretta?”
She raised her head in confusion.
“If you like you can use a blanket to cover yourself up.”
“Oh, no need. I am fine, Mister.”
She was shaking like a leaf at that point so I really didn’t believe what she was saying. I took a neatly folded white blanket she had put on my bed just before and approached her. Loretta was still trying to carefully collect the shards with her shaking hands and didn’t even see me coming. Suddenly, for no forgivable reason, I had a sick thought of throwing the blanket over her and forcing her to undress. It just run through my head so suddenly. I was staggered and appalled. How could I think of something like that?
“Mister?”
She was looking at me with the strangest expression on her face. I must have been lost in my thoughts.
“Here you go,” I said and covered her still-shivering young body with the blanket. That questioning expression was still on her face even when I had finished tucking her in and handed her the edges of the blanket to hold. She looked at me in a manner that made me think it was the first time she had ever looked me directly. Loretta’s forest-green eyes were fixed on mine and mine on hers as well. Never had I been in a situation more awkward-feeling than that. She blushed and looked down shyly. I noticed there was a speck of dust on her eyelashes - probably from dusting the furniture. The young maid looked completely calm, however, and thus she caught me completely off guard. Loretta screamed and flung herself at me so that I ended up on the floor and she on top of me.

To be continued…