Timeless Desire Read Online Free PDF

kept
diaries—but the records say they sold the house a few months after William’s
death and immigrated to Australia. They left the majority of the contents of
the house behind. It seems they were keen to move on and put their dark times
behind them, doing what their son couldn’t.”
    Emily was quiet for a while then, her face taking on a
thoughtful expression. “They’d be dead too, by now, wouldn’t they?”
    George nodded. “Unless they’ve managed to live into
their hundreds, then yes. We can only hope they managed to find peace when they
left England.”
    There wasn’t anything Emily could really say to that,
and the pair of them fell silent once more. The photograph was placed on a pile
and they continued looking through the other contents of the box. Not long
afterwards, it was George’s turn to make a discovery.
    His sharp intake of breath had Emily’s head snapping
in his direction. “What is it?”
    “Umm…I think you’d better look at this. Shit.” He
passed her an envelope addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Elliott. Inside were a letter
and a photograph, which Emily pulled out. After looking at the photograph,
though, she felt the color drain from her face and quickly forgot all about the
letter. She simply stared at the image in her hand. It was like looking at a
photograph of herself in old fashioned clothes. Her
heart pounded.
    After giving her a few minutes for it to sink in,
George spoke softly. “That’s Jane. The letter was from William to his parents.
He was just about to go off to Europe, so there was no time for him to bring
her up here to meet his mother and father. So he sent them a letter to tell
them about her and their intention to marry after the war, and included the
photo to show them how beautiful she was. I think,” he continued, “we’ve solved the mystery of why he haunts this particular room. He
wants to stay close to this photograph of the love of his life. He just can’t
let go, poor guy. And it also explains why he’s appeared to you. It seems he
thinks you’re her. Jane.”
    Emily finally tore her gaze away from the photograph
of Jane—almost her double—and looked at George. “I guess so. But what do we do
now?”
    “I’m no Ghostbuster ,” George
replied, gently taking the photograph of Jane out of Emily’s hand and replacing
it in the envelope along with William’s letter, “but I’m sure we’ll figure
something out. Let’s put this stuff away and go back to my office. I don’t know
about you, but I could really do with another cup of tea.”
    A little over half an hour later and they’d figured
out their plan. They walked back towards the library together, hand in hand.
This time, though, it had been a deliberate thing. As they’d left George’s
office once more, Emily had reached for him, suddenly desperate for the comfort
and security he afforded. George had looked down at where their skin touched,
startled, then at Emily’s worried-looking expression, and given her a warm
smile.
    “You’re going to be just fine,” he said, “and besides,
I’ll be close by. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
    Emily did her best to believe George’s words. Deep
down, she knew they were true. But for some reason she just couldn’t shake the
feeling of foreboding. Right now, she just wanted to get this over with. With
that thought in mind, she picked up her pace, forcing George to do the same.
    Once they reached the end of the corridor which led
into the library, they stopped just outside the doors. Emily pulled out of
George’s grasp, sucking in a deep breath, as if to steel herself. Suddenly, he moved
in front of her, put his hands on either side of her face and pressed a kiss to
her forehead. Then he replaced his lips with his forehead, and looked down into
Emily’s startled eyes. A huge part of her wanted to cup his face and pull his
lips to hers and see where things went, but she knew she had to get this
William thing done. It was the right thing to do.