The Fourth Mistress

Louise had turned around so quickly that the flame couldn't keep itself with the momentum, and the little wind had exhausted its flame, leaving her in darkness, standing in the corridor and near her bedroom.

For a moment, she was scared because she hadn't expected to hear the creaking sound coming from the wooden flooring. It took a few seconds for her eyes to get accustomed to the darkness, and she saw nothing in there.

"Louise?" she heard Graham's voice call her from behind.

On turning back to face the room, she saw Graham standing at the door with a small frown on his face, "Is everything alright?"

Louise looked around the corridor, and she said, "I thought I heard something outside and came out to take a look."

Graham was holding a burning candle in his hand, and he brought it forward, "It must have been the wind. The air sometimes escapes through the little gaps and makes noise."

With no one else here, Louise could only agree to his words and believed that it was her own footsteps that had made noise. "It must be. I am sorry for waking you up," she apologized.

"That's fine," assured Graham, and he took a step back for her to get back inside the room. Once Louise stepped inside the room, he took another look at the corridor, staring at the space for a second longer before he finally closed the door. "It must be hard to sleep in a new place," he said to her.

Maybe that was it, thought Louise to herself.

"I will try to get back to sleep," replied Louise, walking towards her side of the bed. She then said, "By the way, the clock here has stopped working. It has been like this since yesterday morning."

Graham passed a look at the clock that was on the wall of their room. He said, "I will have Gilbert to get it replaced. I was worried that the sound would bother you."

"No," Louise shook her head. She sat down on the bed and said, "When my parents passed away, it took me quite some time to get back to how things were. My uncle and aunt have a clock in the room and it turned into a habit of counting it move as I fell asleep. It was something that lulled me to sleep."

Graham took a seat on the edge of the bed while facing her. "I see. You should get some sleep," he advised, and Louise nodded her head before sliding into her side of the bed.

When the following day arrived, it faded the memory of what happened the previous night while erasing the dream she had behind her closed eyes. After many days, she got herself ready for work, and she was excited to go back and work for Mr. Winkle. With her side bag on one of her shoulders, she got inside the carriage with Graham, who was going to drop her at her workplace first before going to his office.

The carriage passed through the main town of Habsburg and took a right turn before it reached Mr. Winkle's office. Once she got down, Graham informed her,

"I will come to pick you up at five."

Louise nodded with a smile, "I will wait here," she replied to him, and the carriage left. As it was morning, the townsfolk hurried towards their work, and some of the carriages passed by the front of the building where she worked.

She headed inside, removing her coat and placing it on the stand and then kept her bag on the table.

"Is that you, Ms. Evardon?" came the voice from inside the office room. Louise walked to the door, knocking on it before she pushed it open and saw Mr. Winkle sitting behind the table in his seat with a stack of papers on his desk.

"Good morning, Mr. Winkle. How are you on this fine day?" greeted Louise with a smile.

"Much better after seeing you here now," said the old man, and she beamed. He stopped what he was doing and looked at Louise standing at the door. "You look bright as daisy. Congratulations on your wedding to the man," Mr. Winkle offered his wishes.

"Thank you, Mr. Winkle."

Louise was no longer a bachelorette, and she didn't have to hear people speak about how she might walk in the path of being a spinster anymore. And as strange as it was before, she was now married, and she smiled at her employer's words.

"Hm, I forgot. Will I be calling you Mrs. Reed from now on?" asked the man, and this was something that had not crossed her mind. Even though she was married into Reed's family, she had always wanted to be her own person. She would need to speak to Graham about it.

"I think Louise would be great," she bowed her head, and the old man nodded his head.

"If you say so," said Mr. Winkle, placing his quill down on the table and saying, "I have been looking for this green file since yesterday, but it seems to have gone missing. The last time I saw it was before I slipped down from those awful stairs."

"What is it about?" asked Louise to make sure she was going to be looking for the right file. There were many files that were green in colour.

"It is regarding the caskets being shifted from one place to another," informed Mr. Winkle. "Also before you start with the work, I would like to have a cup of tea."

"Of course, Mr. Winkle," Louise nodded her head and stepped into his room before starting to brew the tea.

Once she finished preparing the tea and handing the teacup to Mr. Winkle, she went to look for the file that he had misplaced. Working here for months, Louise knew this place like the back of her hand. She had cleaned and cleared the racks many times, arranging and rearranging such that she knew which file went where and where to find it.

Going through the back room's racks and drawers, where the case files were kept, Louise wondered if Mr. Winkle might have kept it in the wrong drawer. After spending nearly two hours, she finally found the file.

'The bodies along with the caskets will be hereby allowed to shift from the cemetery of Warlington to Midville's cemetery due to the recent events,' the heading read and Louise' eyebrows furrowed on this.

Warlington? Wasn't it the same place where Graham's family used to live three years ago? Louise questioned. She quickly skimmed what was written in there,

'Because of some family's objection to having the cemetery in the town. It has caused fear and by the authority's approval, it will now be moved. The consent from the families of the deceased people has been received with their signatures. The bodies that have no response of approval will be shifted and buried in Oben cemetery.'

Oben was a place that had the biggest graveyard in the entire state. It was a place where most of the orphaned bodies went to lay beneath the ground which had no families left, thought Louise in her mind.

Louise quickly turned the several papers that were in the file, that contained the deceased people's names with family signatures. She found the papers that had Reed's consent signed by her mother-in-law. There were three women's names on each of the pages— Nancy Waltham, Johanna Leveson and Lisa Young. But then she found a fourth page, which was left blank at the top, but she noticed the faint signature at the bottom belonged to Viola Reed.

Compared to the distance from Habsburg to Warlington, Midville was far away from Habsburg. Why did they agree to shift the caskets far away, when they could have buried them in the huge estate?

Louise' frown on her face only deepened, and she tried to find the date of when this case file was filed.

"It is three years old," whispered Louise to herself. She took the file out of the room, going to Mr. Winkle's office. "I found the file you have been looking for," she informed him.

The old man's eyes brightened on hearing this, "I knew you would be able to find it. In this office, you are the eyes and ears of mine," said the man, taking hold of the file and going through it.

Unable to keep her curiosity, Louise asked, "The caskets of people mentioned in the file, have they already been shifted?"

Mr. Winkle, who was looking at the papers, hummed in response, "I believe they have. These are only the copies that were sent here three years ago. I received them for reference. I have placed a new case file on your desk to study that you might like," he said, dismissing her.

Louise offered a bow and walked to her desk, and saw a new file waiting for her to take a look at. But she couldn't get her mind off of what she had just seen. Even though those three women were no more and dead, they were still once part of Reed's family, and she couldn't help but question why Mrs. Reed had approved her deceased daughter-in-laws caskets away from here.

Didn't anyone in Reed's family visit them? But then she also wondered if it was before they had moved to stay in Habsburg.

The evening was quick to approach, and on time, Graham appeared in the carriage in front of the office to pick her up.

Graham appeared at the door while Louise quickly packed her things in her bag. At the same time, Mr. Winkle had come out from his room, his eyes falling on the man.

"It is good to meet you, Mr. Winkle. Thank you for looking after Louise," Graham offered his polite greeting with a bow.

Mr. Winkle returned it with a slight bow, "You must be Graham Reed. Congratulations on your wedding to Louise. You chose a good woman," he praised his employee.

"I do agree with you, thank you," replied Graham.

"With the way people speak about you, I guessed you were near to my age, but with a closer look you are a fairly handsome man and young," commented Mr. Winkle without filtering or holding back his words about his thoughts about Graham.

"I will see you tomorrow morning, Mr. Winkle," Louise bowed to the older man before leaving the building. She got inside the carriage and was followed by Graham. She hadn't expected him to come inside her workplace today and it had taken her by surprise. "Don't mind Mr. Winkle's words."

"It is fine. He lives up to the reputation he has with people," said Graham calmly as if it didn't bother him.