The Ghost of Marlow House (Haunting Danielle Book 1) (2 page)

Following her into his house was the
redhead, whose manner of dress was just as inappropriate.
What is this boldness
of women, wearing men’s pants?
Walt asked himself. Joanne wore slacks, yet
he’d come to accept her manner of dress considering her housekeeping duties. He
had to admit, it was more practical
.

“I expected it to be covered in
cobwebs!” Lily exclaimed as she made her way into the house and looked around
the entry.

Cobwebs?
Walt frowned, finding that absurd comment highly insulting.

“I told you they had a cleaning lady
come once a week.” Danielle closed the front door behind them and looked around
the entry. “Wow, I hope the rest of the house is in as good shape as this.”

Walt watched as the brunette carelessly
dumped her handbag and key ring on the cherry wood table his grandmother had
brought from England. He almost scolded the reckless young woman, yet caught
himself in time, not prepared to make himself known—at least not yet.
What
are they doing here?
He asked himself.

The first door they decided to open led
to the parlor.  The brunette rushed through its doorway, as excited as she
appeared to have been when standing outside his gate. The redhead followed her
into the room, and Walt could hear their voices as they chatted away. Yet it
was impossible to understand what they were saying. He could only make out
snippets of the conversation. It was obvious they liked what they were seeing,
and while he might have been flattered under different circumstances, he stood
silently in the powder room contemplating his choices. Having the pair arrested
was one option; after all, he had not invited them into his home.

“I can’t wait to see upstairs.” Danielle
walked back into the front entry with Lily.

“I wonder what’s in there.” Lily looked
at the powder room door.

Walt stepped back away from the doorway,
as the redhead walked toward him. The room was small; there was no place to hide.
It housed just a pedestal sink, commode and small oak dressing table. An oval
mirror, framed in gold, hung over the sink. Standing with his back to the
mirror and sink, he cringed when the redhead threw opened the door. He looked
into Lily’s inquisitive green eyes. She smiled in his direction.

“What a lovely little bathroom,” Lily
called out to Danielle, who was standing in the entry hall.

 “A bathroom? Good, I could use a
bathroom.” Danielle walked toward the powder room.

Walt stood silently and watched as the
redhead smiled but said nothing, and then turned away leaving him alone in the small
room. He wasn’t alone for long. The brunette came barreling in, slamming the
door behind her before turning in his direction. She stopped abruptly, her dark
eyes wide as she stared at Walt before letting out a bone chilling scream.

Lily rushed into the small powder room.
Grabbing Danielle by the forearm, she jerked her friend around to face her.

“What was it? Is there a mouse or
something?” Lily asked in a panic, frantically glancing around the room,
prepared to jump on top of the commode if necessary.

Danielle stopped screaming and looked
from Lily to the mirror. The man was gone. Her heart pounding, Danielle took a
deep breath and closed her eyes briefly before looking back at Lily.

“It’s nothing,” Danielle said at last,
sounding calmer than she felt.

“Nothing? You scared the crap out of me!
What made you scream?”

“I thought I saw something that wasn’t
there. It’s been a long day. I think I’m just tired, over excited.”

 “Don’t do that again!” Lily scolded. “I
think I about wet my pants!”

“Sorry.” Danielle smiled weakly.

“I’ll let you use the bathroom.”

“I think I left my cellphone in the
car,” Danielle lied, touching the back pocket of her jeans where she’d tucked
her phone. “Would you mind running down to the car and getting it while I use
the bathroom?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Danielle dug her car keys from her jeans’
front pocket and tossed them to Lily. Standing at the powder room door, she
watched her friend dash from the house. After Lily closed the front door,
Danielle walked to the table where she’d placed her purse and house keys. Removing
the cellphone from the back pocket of her pants, she tucked it into her purse.

Taking a deep breath, Danielle glanced
around the entry hall and called out, “Who are you?” There was no response.
Why
does this stuff happen to me?
Danielle asked herself. 

Prepared to call out again she turned
around, and came face to face with the man who just moments before had been
standing in front of the pedestal sink in the small half bath. This time she
didn’t scream.

“I’m the one who should be asking the
questions. Who are you, madam?” Walt demanded.

“Oh crap,” Danielle muttered, looking
into Walt’s face. For a ghost—spirit—whatever the hell he was, he was good
looking, in spite of his angry scowl. If he was a living man, she would guess
he was in his late twenties or early thirties, and by his manner of dress, he
was on his way to a costume party dressed as a character from
The Great
Gatsby
, considering his vintage suit.

“We’ll have to talk later. Lily will be
back in just a few minutes and she can’t see you.” Danielle walked toward a
window by the front door.

“What are you talking about?”  Walt
followed her to the window.

Danielle stopped walking and turned to
face Walt.
“Who are you anyway?”

“I’m Walt Marlow. This is my house. The
more important question is, who are you and why have you broken into my home?”

“Your home? Yeah right…just my luck…”
Danielle grumbled. She turned back to the window and glanced outside to see
where Lily was. “I knew inheriting this place was too good to be true.”

“Unless you give me satisfactory
answers, I shall ring for the police.” Walt threatened.

“Sure. Tell me how that works out for
you.”  Danielle turned from the window and faced Walt, her arms folded below
her chest.

“What did you mean
inheriting this
place was too good to be true
? Young woman, if someone has told you you’ve
inherited this property you’re being swindled. My grandfather built this house,
it has been passed down to me and I’ve lived here all my life. As you can see I’m
alive and well, which means you’ve been hoodwinked.”

“Oh my, is that how it is?” Danielle sighed
wearily. “Still alive, hey?”

Danielle hadn’t screamed minutes earlier
because she had seen a ghost. She screamed because she thought a man was hiding
in the house. The fact Walt Marlow was not a living man changed everything;
Danielle Boatman knew a few things about ghosts.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Walt
snapped.

“Do you…umm….
live
here alone?”
Danielle wondered if there were any other spirits floating around nearby.

“I live here with my wife. I’m not sure
why that’s any of your business.”

“Is she here now?” Danielle glanced
around.

“I said I will ask the questions!” The
truth was Walt couldn’t recall the last time he had seen Angela.

“I tell you what…” Danielle glanced back
out the window and saw Lily come up the walk. “My friend is…well, is kind of
shy. So I don’t imagine she’ll want to talk to you. We’ll have a quick look
through your house—you can watch, make sure we don’t steal the silver—and then
we’ll leave. I’ll come back later and we can have a nice little chat.”

“What exactly do we have to
chat
about?” he asked.

“I got down to the car and remembered
you had your phone. Remember you checked it for the time. You probably stuck it
in your purse,” Lily said as she walked into the house.

“I’m sorry Lily, I just looked in my
purse, and you’re right. I was just coming to tell you.”

“You’re lying to your friend,” Walt
accused.

“That’s okay. You ready to check out the
rest of the house?” Lily asked cheerfully.

“I can’t wait.” Danielle flashed Walt a
smile and then looped her arm through Lily’s, guiding her down the hallway.

“You aren’t going to scream again, are
you?” Lily asked.

“I hope not.” Danielle glanced over at Walt
who trailed beside them.

They came to a set of double doors.
Letting go of Lily’s arm, Danielle reached for the doorknobs.

“It’s the library,” Walt explained. “I
don’t like people going in there.” He let out a little grunt when Danielle
opened the library doors and the pair went into the room. Annoyed, he followed
them inside and asked them not to touch anything.  Lily ignored his request and
picked up a bisque figurine, turning it over in her hand.

“That’s quite breakable, please put it
down,” Walt said impatiently.

“This is beautiful,” Lily said as she
examined the figurine. “I expected the house to be empty, not all this furniture,
those books…it’s like someone still lives here.”

“Someone does live here, now please put
that down,” Walt insisted.

 “It’s quite amazing this house hasn’t
been vandalized over the years,” Lily said as she set the figurine back down on
its table and went to take a closer look at the floor to ceiling book shelves
lining two of the four walls in the dark paneled room. Leather bound books
filled the shelves.

 “Yes…quite…” Danielle glanced from Lily
to Walt, noting the look of frustration on Walt’s face.
He really has no
idea she can’t see him
, Danielle thought.

 “And it’s all yours!” Lily walked to a
portrait hanging on the far wall.

“Yes, it is all mine and please don’t
touch anything else,” Walt ordered, following Lily to the portrait. Danielle
trailed behind Walt, wishing she’d come to the house alone so she could have a
real conversation with him. If she tried to do that now, her friend would think
she’d lost her mind. Danielle Boatman learned at a young age to conceal the
fact she occasionally saw spirits. When having what appeared to be one sided
conversations with imaginary friends, people around you tended to want to lock
you up in a cozy room with padded walls.

“Oh my god…I wonder who he was,” Lily
asked in awe as she studied the life size portrait.

“It’s Walt Marlow,” Danielle said,
looking up at the enormous painting. “His grandfather built this house.”

“I thought you didn’t know about the
house’s early history?”

“Umm…well I don’t know much. It’s
something I just…just remembered.” Danielle glanced nervously at Walt who stood
silently at Lily’s side. He was obviously the subject of the portrait, and if
in fact he was Walt Marlow—then this house was named for his family.

“He was certainly a handsome man …no
hot
.
I mean
wow
…I wouldn’t kick him out of bed!” Lily giggled.

Danielle cringed and looked over to Walt
who was now staring at Lily, an unreadable expression on his face.

“He’s okay,” Danielle countered with a
shrug, still looking at Walt—not the portrait.

 Walt’s gaze shifted to Danielle, their
eyes met. Arching his brow inquisitively, his lips twisted into a smirk-like
smile.

“Okay? God, those blue eyes alone. Hell,
I bet all he had to do was look at a woman and she’d start taking her clothes
off.” Lily focused her entire attention on the portrait.

Walt and Danielle continued to look at
each other. Breaking into a full smile, he moved his gaze up and down her body
in an exaggerated gesture before cocking his head ever so slightly as if to
say—
well, start stripping
.

Wrinkling her nose, Danielle frowned at Walt.
What she found most annoying was the heat swelling in her cheeks, shading her
complexion a rosy tinge.

Noticing Danielle’s blush, Walt said, “Serves
you right, you deserve to be embarrassed. Young women should not be barging
into other people’s homes uninvited.”

Danielle was about to suggest to Lily that
they leave now and come back in the morning. She could plead a migraine, which
wasn’t entirely false. Unaware spirits made her nervous and this one definitely
was clueless in regards to his state of being. His presence could alter her
plans—yet to what extent couldn’t be determined until they had a nice little
chat—
a private one
. Danielle was just about to make the suggestion when Lily
turned her attention to the portrait hanging next to Walt’s. Just as large as
his, the second painting was of an attractive woman fashionably dressed in the
styles of the mid-1920s.  Obviously painted by the same artist as the first
portrait, Danielle guessed she was Walt Marlow’s wife.

 “She’s rather lovely, in a
pouty-spoiled sort of way.” Lily critically assessed the portrait, paying
special attention to the feather embellished hat, fashionably set atop a head
of blonde bobbed curls. “It’s a shame hats aren’t in fashion anymore. I love
how they used to dress. Do you know who she was?”

“I suspect she’s Walt Marlow’s wife.”
Danielle looked at Walt, noting the silent way he studied Lily, his expression
unreadable.

“They must have had healthy egos.” Lily
chuckled.

“Why do you say that?” Danielle asked,
her gaze still on Walt who stood silently on the other side of Lily.

“The size of the portraits, for one
thing. I can’t imagine commissioning an artist to paint a life size portrait of
myself and then hanging it in my home.”

“Lily, let’s go back to the motel. I
have a horrible headache,” Danielle said abruptly.

“Now?” Lily turned to Danielle. “We
still need to look at the rest of the house.”

“We can come back in the morning. I just
need to go to the room and lie down for a while.”

Although disappointed with Danielle’s
sudden desire to leave Marlow House and return to their motel room, Lily didn’t
try to dissuade her. It had been a long drive from Sacramento California, each
taking turns driving so they wouldn’t have to stop midway. They’d checked into
the Seahorse Motel before coming over to see Marlow House.

Walt said nothing and silently watched
the two women leave. 

• • • •

“Are you okay Dani?” Lily asked twenty
minutes later as the two walked into their room at the Seahorse Motel. “You
haven’t said a word since we left Marlow House.”

Lily walked to one of the two queen
sized beds in the room and sat down on the edge of its mattress. She watched as
Danielle walked to the sliding glass door leading to the balcony and opened it,
letting in the cool ocean breeze. The room was clean and cheerful, yet well
worn. Aside from the two beds, the room’s furnishings included a dresser, nightstand,
television, small table and two chairs.

“I’m sorry, Lily, really. I guess the
traveling just caught up with me.”

“That was a long drive. Getting up
before day break and driving straight here wore me out too.  But I have to say,
after you let out that scream you seemed a little on edge. What did you think
you saw?”

“I didn’t see anything.” Wearily,
Danielle took a seat on one of the two chairs.

“The house is really in great shape, at
least from what little I saw. If the other rooms look half as good, you could
probably open for business with very little renovation—if any at all.”

“Oh my…” Danielle closed her eyes.
A
haunted B and B, some people love that sort of thing.

“You do still want to do it, don’t you?”

 “Sure. My plans haven’t changed. I’m
just a little tired, that’s all. I think I’ll run down to the store and get
some aspirin.” Danielle stood up abruptly.

“I’ll get it for you, you lie down and
rest.” Lily stood up.

“No, you did most of the driving the
last few hours while I napped. Why don’t you go ahead and take a shower while I
go out, then I can take mine when I get back. I’ll pick up a pizza when I’m
out, and then we can get to bed early and get some rest, before heading back to
Marlow House in the morning.”