A Taste Of A Vampire

Drawing in a sharp breath, she looked around her suddenly, feeling as if someone might be there in the shadows, watching her. There was no one. She sighed and laughed a little, thinking how silly she was to have let her imagination get away from her. Turning the ring over in her fingers, she saw the same initials, N. R. carved on the inside of the ring, and she wondered who the handkerchief and ring had belonged to. In a moment of indulgence as she was admiring the richness and beauty of the gemstone, she slid the ring onto her finger and was surprised that it fit her. Touching it gingerly, she wondered if she could leave it there, perhaps at least for the week that she was staying. It was, after all, she told herself, in her great-great-great-grandmother’s box, and she did own everything in the house. It wasn’t as if there was another family member alive or anyone else for that matter who might know of the ring’s existence or want it.

Claire tucked the handkerchief into the box and stood up from where she had been kneeling. Just before she closed the lid, the leather-bound journal caught her eye and she reached into the box and pulled it out. It was soft and worn in her fingers, feeling much the same way that the box had when she touched it, as if someone had held it often. She closed the lid and looked around the room once more before going down the hall to the stairs.

Sally had lunch ready for her, and she was grateful that it was a light lunch. Sally smiled at her and told her that a light lunch was best after such a heavy breakfast, and Claire couldn’t have agreed more. She watched the older woman thoughtfully as she worked.

She wasn’t sure what she would do about any of them and their jobs, but she knew that whatever it was that she decided to do with the house and property, she would try to make sure that they all had some other place to go to if she could.

When lunch was over, she went out to the stables and Hastings saw her and showed her around. He introduced her to the four horses that lived there. They were breathtaking to her, and she promised herself that while she was there she would go for a ride. She asked him about his position at the house, and he explained that he had been there about seven years, and Roger had been there about five.

She was surprised to learn that he lived in the stables. There was a very nice cozy groom’s room where he lived, and he took his meals in the kitchen with the rest of the staff. He told her that Roger lived in the room over the garage, which had an external entry, and he assured her that the place was just as nice as his was. Roger had moved in there when the chauffeur had passed away, and a new chauffeur had never been hired to replace him. Granger drove Lord Nolan wherever he needed to go in the last years of his life.

Claire was astounded. She hadn’t realized that the entire staff lived on the property. Fran and Sally had rooms up in the attic, Hastings told her, and when he said it, she recalled two rooms that looked well lived in, though they were tidy. She hadn’t realized that they were still in use. He told her that Granger had a small cottage at the edge of the forest to the west of the estate, and he walked back and forth between the manor and his cottage.

The knowledge that the staff’s whole lives were centered around Grayson Manor pulled at her with a gravity that nearly sank her heart. They weren’t just working there, their lives were bound to it. It made the decisions that she was weighing in her mind all the more important to her. It was no wonder that Sally had seemed nervous around her. She remembered as she walked around the grounds in the waning afternoon sun that she and Colin had discussed her uncertainty about keeping the house or selling it while Sally was standing beside them at the table. She had heard every word, and it meant much more to her than Claire had realized until she talked to Hastings.

Claire took her time strolling through the garden and walking over the meadows of the property. It was easily the most beautiful and peaceful place she had ever been to. Guilt over her responsibilities and obligations had begun to tie itself around her mind and heart and she wasn’t at all sure what she would do.

She went to her room after dinner and readied for bed, leaving the glass doors to the terrace open. Just as she was coming back into the room, a cool breeze drifted in and brought a chill to her skin. She went to the door and closed it, and as she did, the pages of Elizabeth’s journal which lay open on the small table beside her bed fluttered and turned, one after the other, until she went to it and closed the book.

Claire reached for the remote control in the drawer and pointed it at the fireplace, turning it on with the press of a button. She was grateful for it. She hadn’t expected it to be quite so chilly, because even though summer was just beginning, it was far enough into June that she had guessed it would be warm at night as well as in the day.