Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley [47]
'Maybe he was wrongly hanged, horrid eyes notwithstanding,.' said another girl.
'He was not wrongly hanged,.' said Emily in an exasperated voice.
Garnet had confessed to murder, Emily told them. He was tried and convicted and, apparently, when he was hanged outside Newgate prison he appeared to look into the crowd and turn his face away, screwing up his eyes and begging the hangman to get on with the job. Witnesses said it was as if he saw his victim standing in front of him.
'Shhhh!' said Annabel. 'What was that?'
The girls became instantly silent and their eyes were wide open like startled deer. Victoria held her breath inside the blanket chest; she felt sure they could all hear her beating heart. But it was not Victoria whom Annabel had heard.
The sound of slow and heavy footprints could be heard in the corridor outside the bedroom door. They were some way off, but were coming closer. The girls stared at the door handle. The footsteps came to a halt. A floorboard creaked plaintively.
'I don't like it,.' wailed one of the younger girls. 'Make it stop.'
Instantly the footsteps sounded again - faster this time and louder as they approached the door. Again there was a horrible silence. Then the handle rattled and the girls shrieked as the door creaked open.
'What on earth?' said the slightly flustered middle-aged man who appeared in the doorway. 'I'm not sure you should be in here, you know.'
'Sorry, Uncle Giles,.' said Emily, recovering her wits and smiling coyly. 'We just talking, sir. We will leave if you want.' Uncle Giles smiled, embarrassed by the attention of so many females.
'I'm sure you are doing no harm, ladies,.' he said knowingly, and tapped the side of his nose. 'You carry on. Adieu, my lovelies.'
Uncle Giles fingered his moustache rakishly and left with a bow. Emily made a vomiting face and everyone did their best to stifle their giggles. They all began to settle themselves down once more.
'Where was I?' said Emily.
'You were saying that old what's-his-name was really guilty and really hanged -' began Annabel.
One of the girls interrupted to suggest that perhaps if Garnet had been wrongly hanged, that was probably why he haunted the house, because she had heard that ghosts are always annoyed about something. Another girl agreed, saying that her mother went to spiritualist meetings in London and had told her that ghosts were unhappy spirits.
'What are you talking about?' said Emily finally. 'I never said Garnet was the ghost.'
All the listeners, including Victoria, gave Emily a puzzled look.
'If not him, then who?' Annabel asked.
'His victim, silly,.' answered Emily with a sigh.
'But you said Charlotte really was ill - so did he kill her or didn't he?'
'Well,.' said Emily with another sigh, 'if you would just let me finish, for goodness' sake. The ghost wasn't Garnet, or his wife.'
Emily went on to explain to her puzzled listeners that the victim was an orphan girl the kindly Charlotte had taken in from a local orphanage. Charlotte could not have children herself and doted on the girl. She was even going to be a bridesmaid at the wedding.
Charlotte already had a bad heart, but it was the mysterious disappearance of this girl that sent her into the illness that killed her. She and Garnet married as planned, but after Charlotte's death, when he had finally inherited all her money, Garnet turned himself in to the Justice of the Peace, admitting everything.
'But why did he kill the girl?' asked Annabel.
'It turns out that the girl saw the good doctor with the governess, canoodling in the shrubbery,. ' said Emily.
'Canoodling?' said one of the smaller girls.
'Kissing and cuddling,.' said Emily, hugging herself and puckering her lips obscenely. The girls rolled around, giggling.
Emily went on to explain that the doctor had been pretending his love for Charlotte just to get her money all along.