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“Welcome to Bellmore Castle,” an older woman said. She had sharp, severe features and her white hair was pulled into a tight bun. Everything about her screamed serious, but her eyes were kind. “I’m Margaret, the caretaker here at Bellmore.”
“You’ll be the one who knows all the secrets of this place,” Ethan said, giving her a grin. She offered a smile in return, and it lit up her face, changing her features from severe to beautiful.
“Margaret keeps me sane,” Elizabeth said, giving her a fond smile. The old woman returned it. There was a friendship there, and I was glad to see it.
It would be nice to have someone around that cared about this place. Hopefully, she’d give us good information and not elaborate stories just to up the spook factor.
“This is our cleaning crew. They’ll only be here every other day to do some cleaning. You really shouldn’t get in each other’s ways.” There was a line of at least ten women standing off to the side that Elizabeth pointed out. The only ones you’ll likely talk to are the supervisors. We’ve got Lindsey, Brooke, and Tammy.”
Tammy gave us a nod. “Let us know if you need anything. Or tell Margaret, she runs things here.”
“That she does,” Elizabeth said before turning to the man standing at the end of the line. “Then this is our chef, Logan. He’s a wizard in the kitchen. I think I’m going to miss him the most,” she said with a wink, both of them laughing at Margaret’s half-protest.
“Do you have any sort of security team?” Lincoln asked.
“We do. They don’t stay on the premises, so I didn’t think to mention them before. We have a security system here, and Margaret has the code. She can give you all the information you need for that. But Graham has a little security building just inside the gates. I don’t know if you noticed it. He has someone there around the clock, so you don’t have to worry about anyone just walking up to the front door.”
Him or someone on staff will be there the whole time, so you don’t have to worry about anybody coming into the grounds. And if they have any alerts, the police are connected. We’ve had to put quite a few extensive procedures in place over the years. I’m sure you can imagine.”
“We’ve had some run-ins with some unsavory people, so it’s nice to know we’ll have somebody to keep us protected,” I said.
From the look that she gave me, a sympathetic smile, I knew that she was aware of our history as well.
“You’ll be safe here,” she promised, then paused as if she thought better of it. “Well, from the living.”
“We’d love to hear more about that as well,” Ben said. “We’re all caught up on the history of your family that was online and the building itself, the town, you get the idea.”
“Oh, I know there’s plenty of stuff out there,” she said. “Some of it is true, a lot not. I try not to pay attention to it. Now on to the fun part.”
“I can imagine,” I said quickly. The last thing I wanted was her to worry we were believing shitty tabloids and gossip sites.
She turned back to the staff, seemingly unbothered. “Everyone is dismissed; I’ll take it from here.”
“Come find me after,” Margaret said, gesturing to a door off of the main foyer. “My room is just there.”
We turned our attention back to Elizabeth as everyone else dispersed. Without them next to her, she seemed tense, looking nervous as she glanced around her. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman.
Not only had she lost her father, but she also was being tormented in her own home.
“It would take me a very long time to give you guys a full rundown of this place. Instead, I had Graham print off a map of the grounds and the building for you. It’s something we created when we first brought on his security team so they always knew how to get around.”
She walked over to a side table and grabbed a stack of papers, handing them over to me. It was a small map, and I did a quick count, nearly gasping out loud at the sheer amount of rooms this place held.
There were two stories plus a set of cellars and the attic. The second floor had four wings, each holding numerous rooms, bathrooms, and sitting rooms.
It would take us an entire month just to make sure that we stepped foot in every room here. No wonder she had a large cleaning staff, it would take forever to keep this place habitable and dust free.
“Let’s start with the main floor, and then I’ll take you to your wing,” she said. “As you can see, this is the foyer.” She gestured around at the large entryway.
It was just as gorgeous as the pictures. The polished marble floors were complemented by navy-blue walls and gold accents. Fine art filled nearly every empty space that wasn’t already covered by vases and statuettes.
Detailed murals lined the ceiling. The one above us depicted the mountains and night sky. The deep blues and swirls of the star-speckled evening mixed perfectly with the room decorations below.
“This isn’t even my favorite mural,” she said when she saw us all stop and stare up at it. “Just wait, this place is a work of art.”
It was crazy that she could be so proud of this place, yet hate it at the same time. I wondered just how bad the haunting was. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever was here was real, but her demeanor was making my nerves amp up all over again.
Elizabeth was already walking away and we had to hurry to catch up, heading down a long hallway before it opened up into a large sitting room.
