CHAPTER ELEVEN

Nannie's Ghost

---------------------------------------Chapter Eleven----------------------------------------------

 

The three friends spun around in surprise to see who spoke. The patient on the bed suddenly raised himself up.

“Mr. Dan Reynolds!” said Robert and Emma at once,

“That’s right kids…. Surprised? I bet you are,”

“I know… I am myself too and apologies for over hearing your conversation but there’s something I have to add here as well,”

“What’s that?” asked Emma quickly.

Dan Reynolds took in a deep breath and glanced at the ECG machine that was beeping beside him and then took the remote and switched on the T.V,

The news was blaring about the hospital incident that had just about occurred and about the teenagers including Rachel.

“Congratulations, you’ve made history,” started Dan with a short laugh that ended up in a cough, “I was that stranger who carried David into the hospital that night,” he started again and their mouths dropped open.

“Impossible!” muttered Robert

“But true,” said Dan

“So you knew about David and that family…?”

“Perhaps,” said Dan twisting a tube that was connected to his hand as he aroused their patience and a not a minute did go by when they heard a siren. The three gasped as they looked at each others faces and then Robert walked up to the open window and took a peek down. There were police cars lining up around the building.

Robert ordered Emma to slowly switch off the lights as he closed the window and pulled the drawers and footsteps were heard nearby.

No sooner did the three hide, someone swiped the magnetic card and the door flung open and closed behind the person who came in and was soundless for a few minutes.

“What’s going to happen?” whispered Emma to Robert as they snuggled into a corner,

“I don’t know!” he whispered back, “but why is everything so quiet suddenly?”

“I’ll go check!” said David but Emma pulled him back,

“Let me . . . I’ll be alright,” he assured her and sneaked out into the dark.

They could see nothing in the darkness and the only sounds they heard were of the police cars and the ECG machine beeping which suddenly started to beep continuously and someone screamed loudly.

Robert felt a sense of trouble in the air and quickly reached for the lights.

Some one had unplugged the wire that connected Dan to the machine, as Robert immediately fixed it back and things went back to normal and he got shocked to see a woman lying on the floor and David standing beside it.

Emma rushed out as well and shrieked, “What have you done … and who is that anyway?”

David knelt down and moved a swab of hair from the figure’s face and identified it as Claire Dunstan and told his friends.

“What! No way... is she dead?”

“No, just out cold,” he said checking her pulse,

“What could she be doing here and why do you think she tried to kill Mr. Dan?”

“I’ll tell you why,” said Dan suddenly capturing their attention and they turned to him.

“It’s time you kids get to know the bitter sweet side of this story,”

“What are you saying?” asked Robert and Dan convincingly and started to unveil the hidden history,

“I had a grudge against Mr. Grantham, Scarlet’s father, the man who took away everything that I had owned and belonged to my family …… I was in debt when it came to paying college fees but he didn’t know who I was. There was a new business deal coming up and I got introduced to him by a friend. The deal was sealed and we became good friends and he allowed me to stay over at his house. That was the first time I saw Scarlet, thirteen at the time, young and vigilant.

She was a sweet girl and innocent too but then I saw as a target to get back at Mr. Grantham. In the following days I studied her well and made a note of her friends and the one thing she loved, which I discovered after a year, her so called lover ….  Bryan Peters.”

 “Wait … what  ... Bryan Peters, you mean you’re ….”

“Not Bryan Peters!” he finished Emma’s sentence,

“I knew it, I knew you kids have gotten yourselves confused with the names Dan Reynolds, Bryan Peters and Bryan Reynolds, but let me tell you … the truth is that there isn’t any such person in the name of Dan Reynolds, not that I know of.”

“Then who are you? And what have you got to do with all this and please why are we in this and Rachel?” asked Robert,

“The name is Fred Crosier   … Scarlet’s husband,” he grinned as the three looked upon him stunned.

 “Scarlet was the only child, her mother passed away two days after child birth, which means she is to own all of the property in the future so I tried to lure her towards liking me as the years went by but she never liked me, but there was something nobody knew,”

 “Why were you engaged to someone,” scoffed David

“No …. My youngest cousin sister happened to be living there and is she is non other than Claire Dunstan … Scarlet’s best friend … and the very person whom you just knocked down,”

“I don’t believe what I am hearing,” said Robert

“Sooner or later you will have to…” Declared Fred,

“Ms. Claire Dunstan … our Biology teacher, your cousin, Scarlet’s best friend…. So that’s why she got a little excited over the article she saw on the paper about you and hurried to see you, but she lied to me….” Robert continued to speak as Emma and David became flabbergasted.

“All that is true Robert but now you better listen to me; I haven’t told you the whole story,”

“Just do as he says,” Emma inquired and he backed down and Claire groaned as she started to come back to her senses.

Her light brown hair was a mess and there was a slight wound on to the right of her forehead as she held her head and got up dizzily.

“What happened?”

“You just got hit by David,” said Fred,

“David!” she repeated as she looked at him, “But why?”

“You just tried to kill Mr. Dan,” Emma told her,

“Did I?” she asked confused,

“Yeah … that’s why David smacked you down Ma’am,” said Emma again and Claire suddenly gasped as she eyed Fred Crosier,

 “It’s her … she is coming for us….” She said in a shocking way and tried to run out of the room screaming but David caught her again and held her arm tight and asked Fred to continue his story.

“After I found out about them I tried to break their affair but it didn’t work so I told her father everything about them and he caught them red handed once.

Then she tried to run away and finally I popped in the question of asking her hand in marriage as she was now sixteen and it was readily agreed and fixed just after she finished school.

But it was after the wedding that I got to know that she was expecting. Scarlet had kept it a secret until Claire found out through prescriptions.

She could not hide it for long and I had the pleasant urge to spill it to her father and which I did obviously. It was discussed that she will give birth to the child but in England and that it shall never know his parents.

Mr. Grantham didn’t want the child to be born though and personally advised me to take measures to make it an accidental abortion and I tried by giving her various medications but I failed.

After giving birth to a boy, whom she named as Steve Mascot, we returned to Ireland and that was probably the last time she ever saw her newborn.

She was indeed heartbroken. I put him into an orphanage and then completely forgot about him in the following three months, when tragically Mr. Grantham passed away and I inherited all of his property but she ran away the night after the service. I guess she found out about our plans … probably overheard me and Claire speak about it or something.

We tried our best to find her but it was hopeless for the next few years and then later onwards I get news that she is in England and working as a nanny.

“That must have been when she worked in Rachel’s house and before at Carol’s and during that time she had met my father frequently…” Robert snapped in excitedly,

“Yes …. Possibly,” said Fred, “I too came to England along with Claire but I went back and Claire stayed to finish off her education.

Then one day a little boy came to see me, I didn’t know him but he said he knew me.

I was scared at first when I learned that it was Scarlet’s son... Steve. He had come after me to know who his real parents are and I took advantage of him.”

“You mean you lied to him?” Emma concluded,

“Yes, I did  ... I told him that his mother dumped me and him for another man  ... but the real game started after when I went to drop the boy off I found Scarlet….

She was living nearby and with a boy of Steve’s age and in fact was good friends with him. I persuaded Steve to befriend them even more; especially scarlet without telling him that it was his mother and even better I realized that there was something wrong with Steve…..

  

 

 

 

Author's Note

The truth is being revealed .. Thanks to all those who read and review:)

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good chapter. I had to do a re-read to catch up on the story. I like the new situations and mysteries coming out in this chapter. The story is getting better with each chapter. I like the characters and the storyline. A excellent chapter.
Coyote

[Leslie Philibert]

Good writing, well written with perfect spelling and punctuation.