The Veil of the Faeries

Chapter Two

David Allen Winslow sat in his fathers old chair, in the den, his fingers steepled in concentration.  He had to save Winslow manor there was no arguing about that.  His commitment had nothing to do with family pressure.  It had to do with home.  That sense of well being that only comes from home.  The manor was his.  It's where he was raised.  It's where his three cousins were raised.  His parents had been married here, hell all the marriages in the Winslow clan had taken place in the garden.  He and his cousins had been born in these walls and some of his nieces and nephews as well.  The house and grounds were full of memories.  Generations had lived, worked, and played, on this land and now it was vulnerable.  There was no way that he was going to let two hundred years of Winslow history be lost because some overly superstitious people got their nickers in a twist.

David's mind drifted rapidly through the various conversations he had with the previous staff after his return.  Each had clung to the idea that the manor was haunted.  Some of the testimony was outrageous, even absurd, and it frustrated him that there was no reasoning with any of them.  Mass hysteria was how he viewed it.  The house wasn't haunted, that he was sure of, but there was something going on.

The mysterious things that happened were subtle and always revolved around the plants.  Weird whispers and giggles, house plants moving as if a wind had blown them, bugs he couldn't identify and who disappeared when he got close enough to see them.  It didn't happen every day.  Only once in awhile.  Sometimes he would forget all about these things until it happened again.  He could understand why his people got spooked but no one had told him about the problem.  That's what made him mad.  They left without saying a word.

All of that was mysterious but not as odd as the vibration, a sort of hum, coming from the land.  It too was subtle.  You didn't really feel it as much as sense it.  That is until today.  Julia's arrival had interrupted it.  David had known the minute she entered the grounds because the vibration had subsided.  From his suite upstairs he had watched her pull up and park at the front entrance.  As she ascended from her car he couldn't help but be mesmerized.  There was nothing out of the ordinary about her looks.  She was attractive enough.  A brunette of average height and weight. She was well groomed and dressed casually but there was something about her he couldn't ignore, an invisible sparkle.  He noticed it in the way the sunlight illuminated the red tones in her otherwise brown hair.  How her skin had the same glow as a sun kissed Georgia peach.  Her presence made you think of things like home made cookies, picnics in the park, and puppies in a basket.  She moved as if she were comforting the earth.  Every gesture gentle and graceful.  Even the sound of her voice as she called out had a comforting tone.

David hadn't rushed to greet the woman.  Instead he had watched her covertly.  Ordinarily he would have been angry about her intrusion but he was fascinated by the change in atmosphere.  The house seemed to welcome her, again a sensation, almost like a feline greeting it's master.  He could have watched her from his perch forever except he realized that she was leaving and he was forced to move out of his comfort zone to stop her.  He wasn't sure why he wanted to find out who she was but the feeling was overpowering.  So he had literally run through the house until he met up with the intriguing woman.  He hadn't regretted it and if he believed in things like fate he would have assumed it was that.  She was perfect for what he had in mind.  The fact that she owned a cleaning business was an added bonus.  David had forgotten about the add.  He had given up on the idea that anyone would be interested in helping him manage the Estate.  No one had even driven by in weeks and considering the responses he had already received he felt like no one would be interested.

Getting up he moved to start a fire but as he began to stuff newspaper under the wood he felt a prickle move up his back.  Turning nervously he searched the room.  He was sure someone was there and yet he couldn't see anyone.  That's when he noticed his book.  It lay open beside his chair the marker gone.  David was fastidious about books.  He viewed them as works of art to be cherished and protected for generations to come.  He would not have left a book he was reading open without a marker.