A New Estate - Crimson Peak

Chapter Twelve

The walk had helped to stave my nerves and by the time I was done feeding China, I was ready to continue about my day.

Afterwards I continued with the chore of cleaning some rooms, something that was losing its lustre a little by this point, but the task of merely three rooms still took me well into the evening to complete.

I'd noticed that there were few rooms that had any personality once I'd completed the master bedroom.

All the rooms, aside from perhaps three, that I had worked in after sorting my own bedroom out felt so impersonal. Almost as if the other rooms were scarcely used, some held no personal items whatsoever and seemed to act more as a guest room for guests who clearly, judging by the extra layers of dust and cobwebs compared to other rooms, never wanted to join the Sharpe's in their large estate.

What really peaked my curiosity was that so far, despite all the rooms I had worked on, none appeared to have been used as a bedroom for Lady Lucille.

None of the rooms had any personal items for a younger lady, merely the decrepit decorations from a clearly older woman.

Probably the woman whose portrait was hanging in the parlour.

The only hint of spare female clothing had been in the master bedroom, which was quite clearly used by Sir Sharpe and his wife, Edith.

"How curious."

Stepping out of the lift, I enter the kitchen and start putting away my cleaning supplies in one of the lower cupboards.

"Mam!"

I jumped at the sudden interruption of silence, the back of my head connecting with the wooden frame of the cupboard door.

Cradling the back of my head, I slowly slid out from inside the cupboard. My fingers stinging the sensitive area when pressure was applied, making me hiss a little in pain.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," I reassured him, staggering to my feet.

A dull ache in my eyes blurred my vision for a second, once it cleared I met the eyes of Jonathan, one of the quieter of the men.

His grey eyes stared at me, full of concern and guilt.

"You should sit down."

Jonathan placed his large hands on my shoulders and led me to a chair at the kitchen table.

I had no room to refuse, he was at least a foot taller than me and could have lifted me into the chair like a child should I refused.

If gentle giant ever needed an example, Jonathan would be it.

"I'm truly sorry."

"It's alright, really," I gave him my best smile, trying to be pleasant and reassuring.

"I still feel guilty, I only came in to warn you about being in the attic as we worked not to frighten you into a concussion."

I raised my eyebrow a little at his statement, ignoring his other worded apology.

"Pardon?"

He gave me a brief startled look before seeming to take a moment to consider what he said until suddenly turning a little sheepish, his eyes flittering around the room as he cleared his throat.

"I mean no disrespect, Mam, I know this is your home and you can go where you please when you please, however it's-"

"Jonathan."

He abruptly stopped talking and looked at me as if I'd just scolded him, it was bewildering to see as he was a few years older than myself, being at least in his early thirties.

"I don't mean to interrupt so rudely, but I haven't been to the attic at all during my entire stay here."

Jonathan's eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head the smallest bit.

"I hate to disagree but there was definitely someone up there, a woman shrouded in black, dark hair, she looked remarkably like you at a glance."

"With a promise on my heart, I can tell you that I was not in the attic, I have spent my day cleaning more rooms."

Jonathan sighed and reluctantly nodded, though he still didn't look convinced.

"You said yourself that you only saw it at a mere glance, perhaps there was something that fell down."

"Perhaps you have a squatter."

An involuntary laugh escaped me, more as a defence mechanism as an unpleasant shudder runs down my spine at the thought.

"Surely not, I'd have noticed."

"It's hard to say rightfully, Mam, desperate people can accomplish amazing things."

An all too familiar short scene began to play out in my head as his words sparked memories from my first few nights here, the horrible thoughts that plagued my mind as I tried to sleep.

For years the manor had been desolate and abandoned, hardly barred off to anyone who could venture out this far.

Perhaps a truly desperate person had managed to make it out this far and find the perfect luck of shelter in the middle of nowhere.

Though why anyone would travel this far into nothingness is a mystery unto itself, unless they were on the run there was no reason to go this far as opposed to stopping in the nearest town.

Logically, it would make sense to camp out in the old manor, but it would never work long term.

If they made it this far by foot then travelling back and forth for food, which would probably have rotten a little by the time they returned, was not worth the hassle.

And food for a horse that could have been ridden on was more non-existent than human nutrition, the poor animal probably wouldn't survive past six months, if that.

In the long run it was entirely possible, but the likelihood of it still seemed to be a far stretch to me.

But now that Jonathan had set the idea in my head it would be impossible to get rid of.

"Maybe we should investigate it ourselves."

I looked up at Jonathan, who gave me a reassuring, although still concerned, smile.

"I suppose that it would be a good idea, we can get to the bottom of your mystery figure," I conceded with reluctance.

Another disturbing chill passes me, the reasons not eluding me but being too irrational to describe out loud to reassure myself, the thought of even being near the attic after some of the previous experiences I've had around the rest of the manor unsettled me.

It seemed a little farfetched, most of what had happened was surely explainable in some way and yet I found that those reasons wouldn't surface, and the one that did didn't make enough sense to comfort me.

But Jonathan had claimed to see someone and that couldn't go unconfirmed.

And hadn't the lift moved towards the attic that first evening I was here?

Taking a deep breath, I clenched my fists into the skirt of my dress and gave a hesitant nod.

"Very well, we'll go into the attic."