Jessie's Ghosts Read Online Free PDF

constable.’
    ‘They will send me to
prison.’
    ‘Harold, you must
speak the truth - for the sake of your father.’
    Jessie crept a
little further down the wall, her bare feet soundless on the timber floor.
There was a pause and she held her breath, not wanting the voices to stop. The
conversation continued.
    ‘Father?’
Harold asked desperately, ‘If it had not been for father, this tragedy would
not have happened. Can you not see that mother?  Can you not understand
how much I love Gwyn?  I must have her. I must.’
    ‘Harold,
you cannot,’ his mother replied sternly , ‘She is engaged to your brother.’
    ‘Can
Frederick love her the way I do?’ Harold pleaded , ‘I adore her, mother.’
    ‘Harold! 
You must not speak this way. She belongs to Frederick.’
    ‘What must
I do then mother?  How shall I live without her?’
    What were they
talking about? Jessie wondered as she moved a little further down the wall.
    She was now
only a metre from the portrait. The conversation paused again. She knew
Frederick was her grandfather and Harold was his brother, but who was Gwyn?
    ‘You must
go away my son. Leave this place.’
    ‘And leave
you too?’ Harold
cried .
    Finally Jessie
was almost opposite the portrait. She looked up. The woman, her
great-grandmother, was speaking and as she did, Harold turned away.
Great-grandmother moved her hands to gently rest them on Harold’s shoulders.
    They moved !
Jessie thought, flinging her hand over her mouth to stop herself from
screaming. They actually moved!
    Chills were
running up and down her body and her legs were trembling.
    ‘It is the
honourable thing to do. Your father would have wanted it.’ great-grandmother said.
    At that point
Harold broke down and cried. Jessie was so close to the portrait she could see
the pain in Harold’s eyes.
    The people in
the portrait were moving, and speaking. The hand over her mouth started to
shake and her heart was beating so fast she thought it would explode right out
of her chest.
    Part of her so
badly wanted to run back to the safety of her room but the other part wanted to
stay, to hear the rest of what her ancestors had to say. Before she could
decide though, Harold spoke again.
    ‘Mother, I
am doomed - am I not?’ he was pleading, ‘How can I live with myself? 
Father is gone and Gwyn, … oh, Gwyn, the love of my life!’
    ‘My son,’ his mother was saying, ‘My son. You must leave this place, you must leave tonight. I love you Harold,
I always will. But you must go. For all our sakes.’
    The light
diminished, and the voices stopped. Jessie’s legs refused to move until she
slapped her hands against her thighs. Her feet were like frozen blocks of ice
as she walked quickly back to her room and got into bed.
    What accident?
And who was Gwyn? Jessie didn’t understand any of this.
    The
photographs! Maybe there was a photograph of Gwyn. She remembered the albums
were still on the kitchen table.
    Jessie slipped
out of bed again and pulled on her dressing gown and slippers before walking down
the hall to the kitchen. As she passed the portrait she saw that
great-grandmother and Harold were back in their original places; as if they had
never moved.
    Jessie gasped,
and then took a deep breath.
    ‘I don’t know
what this is all about,’ she whispered, ‘But I’m going to find out.’

CHAPTER 7
     
    Stumbling over chairs in
the dark, Jessie finally located the light switch and sat down at the kitchen
table. She pulled the albums towards her and slowly turned the pages of the first.
    These photos
were mostly of her great-grandparents on their wedding day, and some of her
grandfather as a baby. The next album had photographs of her grandfather
growing up with his younger brother Harold.
    But the third
album was the one she was looking for. Her grandfather and his brother were
older now, perhaps teenagers Jessie decided. As she turned the pages she saw
her grandfather in pictures with her grandmother, and the caption