After hours of rummaging through the documents and books of the house, the four of them were called downstairs to have dinner by Mr. Krum while the rest of the staff worked in the kitchen. The dining room was large with a polished rosewood table in the centre surrounded by chairs on one side of the wall were long windows draped with heavy curtains while at the foot of the table above the fireplace on the marble mantelpiece stood a large mirror.
Eve had placed herself at the head of the table while both Rossi and Jasmine had taken a seat on either side of her and Christine had seated herself beside rose on the left of Eve. They were hungrily digging through their meal of roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and red wine served by Mr.
Krum a young woman came in the room bringing the desert.
She was dressed in a maids uniform and had straight brown hair tied in a tight bun over her head and had dark brown eyes that had a wary look about them though judging by her face she seemed to have a kind nature.
She placed the dessert on the table and began to introduce herself. "My lady its please to make your acquaintance. I'm Mary the head maid of your estate. I hope the food is to your liking? The chef has spent quite some time preparing it." said Mary with a slight smile.
"Yes it is very delicious and I must say I would like to meet the rest of the staff as well before they leave the estate and would there be any staying in the servants quarter." asked Evangeline.
"No my lady only the chief John and Mr Krum are staying in the servants quarter since most of the staff heads home before dark but you can rely on them both to fulfil any of your wishes." replied Mary.
"Is there any particular reason that the staff does not prefer to stay at the estate perhaps we can
improve the state of servants quarters while we renovate the rest of the house." asked Jasmine.
"No miss the servants quarter hardly needed any improvement in the first place. It's just that most of the staff members live in the nearby town so they prefer heading home to there families instead of staying here." replied Mary trying to convince them that everything was alright but Evangeline had a knack for pointing out a lie when she heard one so she asked tactilely "Is that all I thought that people of the town still believed the rumours surrounding the estate but if you say so a shame though it would be quite lonely after dark."
At this Rossi raised her eyebrows and said. "Lonely, Eve one would think that the three of us might as well be invisible." "I agree." chimed in Christine.
"that's not what I meant to you to I was just worried that our staff believes in superstitions." "What kind of superstitions." asked Jasmine now looking up from her plate and giving her full attention to the conversation.
"I think its best if Mary told us as I did not no much about it myself would you not entertain us with the chilling story." said Eve with a soothing voice. The four girls were now looking at the poor maid with curiosity and Mary realizing that their was no way out of if resigned to tell the tale.
"Well if you insist my lady, the thing is that there are so many rumours surrounding the house and its grounds most of it are just stories and superstitions created by towns people but there are some well known facts in the town history that are the main cause of all these stories." said Mary.
"Like the suicide of Charlotte Wilber." said Eve. "Yes that and other such stories." continued Mary
"For instance it is said that the estate had underground tunnels that were used to store slaves in the old days and that the grounds are still haunted by the spirits of those tortured souls, so no wonder everyone likes to leave the estate before dark and there is also a very particular incident you see.
A few years ago a couple of kids broke into the north tower of the house as a prank and one kid went all the way to the top of the tower and other kids locked the doors he kept screaming but the kids left him there however a little while afterwards they heard his screaming when the other kids went up to look for him there was no one to be seen the child was declared to be missing, for five years the whole town searched for the kid but nothing was found at last the police declared the young boy dead and with time people started to believe that the ghost of Charlotte Wilber had took the child's soul as a punishment for breaking in the house."
The table had gone completely silent as a chill welled down their spine then Rossi asked while mustering up as much courage as she could. "So they didn't find the boy and his body till this day what do you think would have happened to the boy, I mean ghosts are not real so there has to be a logical explanation for it."
"Rossi is right." said Christine regaining her courage after hearing this chilling tale. "Well we don't know, no one does it could that the child never came to the house and they just made an excuse rather than telling what had really happened." said Mary trying to subtle the tension in the room as the four girls were now deep in thought exchanging nervous glances with each other.
They had been so fully consumed in the tale of the lost boy that they did not notice as Mr. Krum came in the room and said "Good God Mary!" at this all of them jumped out of their skin and looked at the man now holding a bottle of wine in his hand.
He had startled them by coming unannounced. "You have frightened these young ladies with the cock and bull stories of the town, they all look as pale as a ghost." said Mr. Krum. "Not as much as you did by sneaking up on us." Said Christine and they all laughed.
''Well I apologize for that here allow me to cheer you up." said the man apologetically while pouring the wine in the glass and handing them one each. "But I must say you ladies need not worry yourselves about anything. These myths are natural to occur around an empty countryside mansion and as for the missing kid whose to say that the kids weren't lying about him ever coming here."
At this Jasmine protested "But the police must have questioned those kids. Did they say anything about why they were here and if any of them had a grudge against the boy."
"The police did all they could yet we never found out what really happened, it was quite tragic. The whole town talked about nothing else the whole year but you all need not bother yourselves, I don't want you all having nightmares." replied Mr. Krum.
"We are not kids Mr. Krum. It would take more than a few stories to scare us." said Rossi with a smile. "Of course, it would but I am an old man, it is a habit to be worried about young people such as yourselves. I have a daughter a few years younger than our Eve here." said Mr. Krum now lost in thought of his daughter a sense of pride and love on his face.
"Really you should bring her to the mansion and your wife its been ages since I last saw your family." said Eve grateful that the conversation had taken a cheerful turn. They talked through the desert while Mr. Krum entertained them by telling embarrassing stories of Evangeline's childhood. After dinner, the girls went up to their rooms as Mary bid them goodnight and departed for home.