Colton Manor Read Online Free PDF

the light, not knowing what she was going to find. The kitchen was in exactly the same state as they had left it, and Damien was nowhere to be seen. For a moment she stood there helplessly, unsure of what to do next. When she remembered that one of Edward Stanton’s wives had died in here, a cold shiver ran through her.
    “ Damien, are you down here? Did you make that noise?” Her words echoed in the silence but there was no reply.
    She was about to look in the living room when she noticed that the door to the cellar was slightly ajar. Usually it was closed and the key was left in the lock. She’d never been in there before because there was no need, but when she heard a muffled sound coming from the darkness she had no choice but to investigate. Damien could have gone down there and hurt himself. He could be lying down there injured for all she knew.
                  With trepidation she pulled the door open and saw that there was a very faint light at the bottom of the steep stairs.
                  “Damien,” she called again, holding onto the wooden railing tightly as she descended into the musty space. “Damien, are you down here?” Again there was no reply, but Ursula thought she saw something moving in the dim light, then Damien emerged from darkness and walked up the stairs towards her. She was relieved to see that he wasn’t hurt but her relief did not last long as she got a better look at him. The expression on his face chilled her to the bone. He seemed like a completely different person to the man she had eaten dinner with just a few hours earlier.
                  “There you are,” he said, advancing towards her aggressively. Ursula began to back up the stairs in alarm. “What have you done with it?”
                  “Done with what? What are you talking about, Damien? Why are you down here?”
                  “Don’t play games with me, woman. What have you done with my money?”
                  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re really starting to freak me out.” He just stared at her for a long moment and then he shook his head and looked around in confusion.
                  “What’s going on? Where I am?”
                  Ursula didn’t reply but quickly backed up the stairs into the kitchen. He followed her, and in the light he looked disoriented but much more like his normal self. He rubbed at his eyes and then pulled out a chair to sit down.
                  “Please tell me what’s going on,” he said. “How did I get here?”
    “ I heard a noise and when I came downstairs to find out what it was I found you in the cellar, at the bottom of the stairs. You kept asking me what I’d done with your money. Don’t you remember?”
                  “I have no memory of anything up to a couple of minutes ago. This is crazy, I’ve never walked in my sleep before in my life. I’m sorry, Ursula, that must have been terrifying for you.”
                  “A little. Let me make you a cup of tea, you’ll feel better” Damien still looked dazed as they sat at the table sipping tea a short time later.
                  “I finished off the rest of that wine after you went to bed, so I think that must have had something to do with it. I was a bit drunk. Plus being in a strange house wouldn’t have helped either,” he said. He was obviously trying to reassure himself, and Ursula did not want to upset him by bringing up the subject of ghosts again.
                  “Yes, I’m sure that must be it,” she replied, smothering a yawn.
                  Damien focused his eyes on her face properly for the first time since she’d found him in the cellar. “Sorry for waking you up, we really should go back to bed now. It’s lucky neither of us have to work tomorrow.”
                  “True,