A Loving Spirit Read Online Free PDF Page B

only for books, and..." She struggled to remember what it was she had not liked about him, but the image of him riding along the cliffs kept interfering.
    Antoinette laughed. "And just what is your sort of gentleman? Men like the ones back in Jamaica?"
    "Yes!" Cassie said firmly. She went over to the dressing table and picked up her hairbrush, pulling it through her hair and detangling the night's plait.
    "Planter sorts?" Antoinette's voice was sardonic, her accent thick.
    "Yes," Cassie repeated, but more doubtful this time. Antoinette made her remember how some of those men had truly been, careless and unrefined, caring only about getting foxed on rum.
    "Then why did you not accept Mr. Bates' proposal?" Antoinette teased. "With his big plantation and all. Why, he would be just your sort."
    Cassie laughed, acknowledging the truth of her friend's words. "Oh, all right! So they were not my sort. But neither is Lord Royce."
    "Is he not?"
    "No. I wouldn't think you would like him, either; he doubts your sight. And why are we talking about this at all? I'm not interested in finding a suitor here. I am interested only in the ghosts."
    Antoinette nodded. "Then you should hurry up and get dressed. Lady Royce is going to give us a tour of the castle after breakfast, and tell us all the tales."
    "What fun!" Cassie cried, and ran over to the armoire to find a morning dress. "I presume her son will not be joining us."
    So she would be able to enjoy herself without the distraction of his presence.
    "Presumably," Antoinette agreed. "But you must bear up under the disappointment, Cassie. I am sure you will see him at supper; I foresaw it in the cards."
    Cassie threw a pillow at Antoinette, who just ducked and laughed.
    * * *
    "That particular Lady Royce, Louisa was her name, had a very sad history," Lady Royce said, enthusiastically spreading marmalade on her toast. "Very sad indeed. Her husband left her alone here at Royce Castle while he fought in the Civil War, and even when the king came back he was away at Court often. They say Louisa took a lover in her loneliness, but he betrayed her, and she threw herself off the cliffs in despair."
    "What fustian!" Louisa muttered, peering down from her perch atop a decorative cornice in the breakfast room. "I was in my cups after that ball, and fell off the cliffs."
    "Ha!" scoffed Lord Belvedere, his armor clanking.
    "It is true! No lover ever betrayed me."
    "Methinks, fair lady, that the years have clouded your memory. I was right here, as I have been for almost five hundred years, and I saw you that night. You were indeed 'in your cups,' but if you had not quarreled with that Lord Ponsonby and gone running down to the cliffs..."
    "Oh, hush!" Louisa interrupted, reaching out a hand and shoving him off his own cornice. "I want to hear what else she has to say."
    "What was that clattering noise?" said Lady Royce, her toast held up halfway to her mouth.
    Antoinette looked directly at Sir Belvedere, causing him to gasp and vanish altogether, leaving only Louisa high on her perch.
    "Probably only one of your footmen," said Chat. "Now, what were you saying about the sad Louisa?"
    "Sad, hmph," whispered Louisa. "I am happy."
    "Oh, she is not sad," said Antoinette, taking a serene sip of her chocolate.
    "Exactly," Louisa agreed.
    "Perhaps once she was, but now she enjoys her existence here."
    "She is here, then?" Cassie said eagerly. "You can feel her presence? Can we find her?"
    "Really, Cassie," said Chat. "It is too early in the morning for hauntings and ghosts and such."
    "And everyone knows that midnight is the time for such endeavors," a deep male voice said from the doorway.
    Everyone's gaze, including Louisa's, turned to Lord Royce. She eyed him with some approval; he looked a bit like her husband, William, who had not been an unhandsome man by any means. But this Lord Royce, like her William, was bent on his own ends, which left little time for romance. With William it had been advancement at