Disclaimer: 'Woman in White' is not mine nor are any of the characters
Ghost
The trees were quiet and still, wreathed in shadows and spreading darkness across the earth like a sickness.
Outside, on the pavement, a small group of boys, the eldest bordering on ten years, crowded against the railings and peered into the gloom.
"I saw it there yesterday," one said in a hushed whisper. "The ghost."
A ripple of fear ran through the group at the word.
"What did it look like?" another asked in a small frightened tone.
The lad's dirty face lit up in grim delight at the chance to tell the story again.
"I only caught a peek as I walked back home last night," he paused for effect, keeping a look of suitable drama on his face. "A girl it were, younger 'an us, glowing white hair and face as pale as death and wearing a white dress. She looked right at me and…"
Another cut him off by jabbing a finger at the shadows. "There, there, I saw something white!"
The others jostled to get close, staring avidly into the tangled branches.
The boy who had first seen the ghost hovered at the back, lost in his memory. He had embellished the story a bit, made himself look braver – the ghost more fearsome, with silver blood staining the dress and eyes like two dark pits. He never mentioned that he had run away – it was too shameful an admittance – and he did not mention the look of…sadness on the girl's face because ghosts didn't look sad…they were scary.
By now he had convinced himself that he had imagined it.
"What you doing?"
The voice made all the lads jump and jerk to look behind them. A girl their age was leaning against the opposite wall, regarding them with a mixture of distaste and curiosity. Two of the boys sneered.
"What's it to you your ladyship?" They used the term mockingly.
The girl glared at them and tucked her brown hair behind her ears.
"You looking for them ghosts again?"
The boys glanced at each other nervously.
"I don't see what our business is to you," one snapped back in reply.
The girl smiled superiorly at their reaction, knowing she was right.
"That's Sir Percival Glyde's land," she trilled, "I wouldn't be surprised if there were ghosts there."
The leader narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Why?"
There was a serious expression on her face but her eyes glittered in mischievous humour, delighted at the question for it meant she'd been accepted.
"Tis a big old house." She tripped lightly over to the fence. "I've heard stories about it. One of the Glyde's way back…he was an evil man. He used to sacrifice his children and sprinkle the forest with their blood to help it grow."
The boy's faces were pale and frightened as they listened in horror to her story, enjoying it nonetheless.
"Only one of his children survived – a son – and he grew up and inherited Blackwater house. But to pay for the sins of his father this man was cursed to never have any sons." The girl's voice dropped to a dramatic whisper as a wind caught at the trees and evening drew closer, setting a sharp chill to the air. "The man so desperately wanted a son that he made a pact with a witch. She told him that is he sacrificed his daughter then he would be given a son. Now this daughter was his favourite child but such was his desire for a son that he took her out to the lake and drowned her!"
The words echoed in the stillness and one of the boys whimpered.
"And as she was dying she looked at her father and whispered the word 'condemned'.
"So the man had a son, which is why a Glyde owns the house today, but they are all cursed to be haunted by a girl, the drowned daughter. She stays in the woods near the place where she was murdered and if you see her she will lift a finger to point at you," she mimicked the action, "and will whisper 'condemned'…"
"MISS MARIAN HARKUM!"
All the children jumped, including the storyteller as an authoritative figure in the shape of a nurse strode around the corner. The girl rolled her eyes and pulled a face. Some of the boys snickered.
"Miss Harkum! Come here now!"
Marian sighed and strode away from the boys without a backwards glance. She heard them muttering and giggling and then they're retreating footsteps as they walked away in the opposite direction.
"Miss Harkum, you've been missing for hours! Your mother is worried sick. It's unseemly for you to be hanging around with these rough street boys."
Marian looked up into the stern frown of her guardian insolently and shrugged.
"They were being silly – talking about ghosts. I thought I'd give them a scare."
The nurse started to reel off a lecture about the evils of indulging in childish lying, but Marian's mind was elsewhere.
"The ghost sounded like Laura," Marian muttered.
"What?" the nurse asked sharply.
"The description of the ghost…it sounded a lot like Laura." She smiled. "Maybe she'd be happy to pretend to be a ghost…scare the boys."
"Don't even think about it!" her nurse snapped.
Marian ducked her head to hide her grin behind her hair.
A flash of white caught the corner of her eyes and she whipped her head around to glance through the trees.
There was nothing there.
Marian shivered and picked up her walking pace.
--
From the shadows of the trees a young girl watched the retreating figures. Her white blonde hair fell softly over her shoulders and she ran the fabric of her white dress through her fingers.
"Anne," a voice called gently. The girl turned and looked at her mother with china blue eyes and smiled.
"Coming," she replied quietly and with a last glancing look back through the trees to the outside she joined her mother and headed back into the oppressive presence of Blackwater house.