Chapter 11: Ghostbusting Time
They all dined together on salmon almondine served by Mrs. Robinson. Eleanor declared she was a pescatarian, so she could enjoy the meal without violating her vegetarian principles. The dinner was accompanied by some bottles of dry chardonnay picked out by Margaret, who observed that "the wine cellar here has some excellent old vintages. It looks like no one has been down there in ages."
"Definitely some nice plonk," Eleanor agreed, holding her glass aloft for a toast. "To our good old Cornish ghosts!"
They all raised their glasses, even Margaret, who seemed to be in a better mood than usual thanks to the wine. Louisa was pleased everyone seemed to be getting along just fine so far.
"So, do you actually believe in ghosts or are you seeking to determine if there is any reality to it?" Ruth asked.
"We actually prefer the term apparitions or spirits, rather than ghosts," Jack said. "But yes, I think they are very likely real. Eleanor has convinced us there's enough here in this house to keep things interesting. If we don't find phenomena credible we just don't want to waste our time. Real-life investigations are often very slow moving compared to what you see on TV. For us it's not really about the thrill of the hunt, it's about documenting the supernatural to learn when and how it occurs. No one has all the answers but we just enjoy the search for knowledge."
"We have a plan to try three different approaches over three nights," he continued. "Tonight will be the tech approach to monitor spirit activity. Tomorrow Lamorna will employ her skills as a medium. Of course, she'll be scouting out the vibrations tonight too, to guide where we'll be placing the equipment. And the third night we will use a Ouija board to see if the spirits have any further messages to communicate."
"Lamorna, do you have to learn to be a psychic or does it come naturally to some people?" Louisa asked.
"Everyone has some sensitivity to psychic energy," Lamorna replied. "It's like if you walk into a room and you can tell two people have just had a big fight."
"Or maybe that they fancy each other and are about to hook up," Eleanor chimed in, as everyone laughed.
"Yes, it's like that," Lamorna said. "That's what it feels like to pick up on the energy, it's something in the air."
"Some people are just really good at it," Jack said, with a nod toward his wife. "I myself am not particularly good at it. That's why I rely on Lamorna's abilities and my equipment."
"So how does the equipment work?" Ruth asked.
"We don't know exactly, but my theory is the reason we normally can't see or hear those who have passed on is they exist and communicate in wavelengths outside the normal human sensory range, like infrared and ultraviolet light, infrasound, ultrasound, etc. So we use cameras and microphones that detect energy in these wavelengths."
"It all sounds very technical," Louisa said.
"A spirit is like the essence of who you are that survives once the body ceases to function," Larmorna said. "If we are open to the possibility, sometimes spirits can build up enough energy to manifest themselves to us in all sorts of ways, from poltergeist activity to spirit writing, without us even needing to use technology."
"I believe that's what happened to Eleanor and Louisa when you had your encounter in the library. I've done a bit of research. The grey lady you saw could be the apparition of Caroline, the young woman who died here in the 19th Century fire," she added.
"Yes!" Eleanor proclaimed. "I could sense she was someone who died tragically."
"I'm sure you're aware that I and my nephew, the lord of the manor so to speak, both subscribe to the theory that mould spores in the old books were likely responsible for inducing a hallucinatory experience," Ruth said.
"It's true that we did air out some of the books we were looking at and we haven't had a repeat of whatever it is that happened," Louisa added.
"Ah, but there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in your materialistic rationality," Jack replied.
At that moment, the Clock Room down the hall could be heard striking 9 o'clock. "Ghostbusting time!" Ruth cheerfully announced. "Or, perhaps I should say, apparition apprehending time!"
Margaret bowed out, taking one last glass of wine with her as she headed up to her bedroom.
Jack made a few last adjustments with the equipment, while Lamorna wandered about, with Louisa, Eleanor, and Ruth trailing behind her curiously, stepping carefully on the creaky wooden floors. Lamorna's eyes looked glazed and unfocused, while she waved her hands gently in the air, as if she could feel vibrations. She would momentarily become focused while glancing at an electronic device in her hand.
"I'm gathering psychic impressions," she said in response to their questions. "And this is an EMF meter."
"And what does that do?" Ruth inquired.
Lamorna looked unsure and glanced toward her husband for an explanation.
"It measures electric and magnetic fields," he said. "We think that when an apparition manifests itself through psychic energy it leaves behind an electromagnetic trace, kind of like a haze in the air. We were already getting some hits downstairs, nothing so far up here."
They followed her and Jack to the second floor, to the far end of the corridor of bedrooms, into the room where Caroline Davies had died. The room was clearly remodelled but left unused in many years, the canopy bed, armoire, and desk and chair were covered with dusty sheets. Lamorna walked around, waving her hands and her EMF meter but seemed disappointed in the lack of psychic energy.
Then she led them up a steep, winding staircase to the servants' quarters. The electricity was turned off to this floor, so they brought torches with them, that cast eerie shadows on the walls when switched on. They reached a long dormitory with a series of metal bed frames and small tables covered in more dusty sheets.
The medium walked over to a bed and laid the EMF meter on it. "I feel drawn to this spot," she said. "My name is Lamorna," she announced to the air. "I feel your presence. I know you must have had a difficult time in life. If you can hear me, give us a sign."
Nothing happened as they all stood around awkwardly.
"I feel like I'm getting a sense of… something," Eleanor finally said. "Like an impression of a teenage girl wearing an old fashioned maid's uniform, and she's got red hair up in a bun. This was her bed and she had a blue patterned quilt on it that she made herself."
"Well, I'm afraid I don't see any of that," Ruth said.
"It's not an apparition, it's more like a feeling." Eleanor insisted.
"It's a place memory," Lamorna said. "Eleanor, you've tapped into something that's more like an echo of the past, a kind of psychic vibration attached to a place. Well done."
Eleanor beamed with satisfaction. Louisa glanced at Ruth, who was suppressing the urge to roll her eyes.
They began to walk around the servants' quarters, trying not to disturb the sparse, dusty furnishings. Then they all at the same time caught a glimpse of something grey moving at the far end of the room and whirled toward it, but it was gone.
"I felt something," Lamorna gasped. "It was like a… a rush of energy that shot through the room, a cold feeling. You must have felt it too."
Jack and Eleanor quickly agreed they felt something. Louisa shrugged. "Not certain of that," she said. "This room is rather draughty," Ruth agreed, noting "in fact the whole house is."
Jack ran the video back on the body camera he was wearing and they could see a greyish image at the far end of the room that crossed into the camera's view, then seemed to disappear into the shadows. They watched it several times, but the resolution wasn't good enough to make out anything definitive.
There came a crash from downstairs. The five of them ran back down and into the library, where the darkened room was lit only by a single candle on the long table. Louisa knew the candle had not been lit before they went upstairs. A heavy chair had been overturned. As a group, they slowly approached the candle and saw it was sitting on a single sheet of blank stationary paper. Tentatively Jack slid the paper out from under the candlestick and held it near the flame. Slowly some letters in an awkward hand began to appear, and they each murmured them out loud, very confused: Look… Behind… You…
They all turned around together and a shadowy figured yelled "BOO!"
"Aaagh!" everyone seemed to scream at once.
The figure pulled off a sheet wrapped around it and revealed itself to be Margaret, holding her wineglass and laughing smugly. She gestured with a damp toothpick in her hand. "Sometimes the spirits need a little help to communicate," she said. "And white wine makes excellent invisible ink."
The others groaned in irritation. "It was you in an old sheet spooking us in the servants' quarters, wasn't it," Ruth said, reaching out to brush some dust off Margaret's hair. "I do vaguely remember now there's a back passageway and staircase in the back of that room. That's what you used to get up there without us seeing you and then to seemingly disappear, isn't it."
Margaret brushed some further dust off with a look of amused disdain. "That's the thanks I get for going to all this trouble to entertain you. Well, now I'm really going to retire to my room. Please try to keep the noise down."
After that, Jack checked the laptop video and audio for anything unusual and Lamorna tried walking around the library to get psychic impressions but nothing turned up and the evening had clearly fizzled out. Soon they all retired to their rooms and Louisa left to return to Portwenn for the night.
To be continued…