The Fourth Mistress

Music Recommendation:  Higgs Field- Ben Frost

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Louise stared at Mr. Inwood before she asked, "What?" 

It wasn't that she hadn't heard what the writer had just said, but she doubted if he meant what he just said now. 

Mr. Inwood nodded his head, "Yes, I am definitely sure that it was Graham's Reed's wedding that I wrote about in here. The previous articles I had written before this were pale and it wasn't getting any traction. I don't remember which person passed this piece of information to write. But what I do remember is that when the newspaper published it, we had the highest sales."

"That's not possible," denied Louise, the palms of her hands turning cold, and she stared at the man. "Are you sure you haven't mistaken the families for another?"

"No, Lady Louise. This is what I wrote. After leaving the town of Habsburg, I haven't written any more gossip columns and have turned into a proper writer who writes actual news that's happening around," explained Mr. Inwood to her.

Louise' face had turned pale. She wasn't sure about the man, but right now, she was having a headache. This was not what she had expected to find out from him, and her mind reeled at the thread of clue that this man had offered her. 

How was it possible that the people living in Habsburg or the Reed's themselves failed to remember such vital information. The strangest part was that Louise herself had lived in Habsburg since her uncle and aunt had taken her in after her parents had passed away. How did she not know about it? 

She had noticed some of them having a recurring headache, and it wasn't fixed just to Reed's family members. 

Did her not knowing mean that she was also part of the phenomenon that had occurred? Louise had been so focused on finding the answers that she had failed to include herself in the equation, believing she wasn't part of it. 

"Are you alright, miss?" asked Mr. Inwood on seeing Louise not speak. He looked at his wife, who had earlier come to sit next to him. 

"Let me go and get you a glass of water," offered Mrs. Inwood and the woman got up from the seat to go fetch a glass of water. 

Once Louise took a couple of sips from the glass of water that Mrs. Inwood had brought for her, she placed it on the table next to her. 

Calming herself, Louise asked, "Can you tell me more about it? Anything you know and who he married." Her body had turned tense, and her heart beating rapidly in her chest, thinking what more was going to be revealed to her today. "Did you go to attend the wedding?"

Mr. Inwood shook his head, "The Reed's family didn't invite any outsiders or guests to the wedding. If I remember it right, they kept it under wraps, which was why it had turned into such good gossip three years ago. Though the family tried to keep a low profile about the event, someone found out and the information then came to me."

"And to whom was Mr. Graham married?" questioned Louise, the one question that she feared would bring in something that she had least expected. 

"Unfortunately, I don't remember the name now. It has been really long." The man gave Louise an apologetic look and asked, "Are you writing an article on that family?" he inquired as she had been asking about Reed's family. 

Louise shook her head, "I was looking for some answers."

How could this possibly happen? 

She asked him, "Do you remember what you had written in the month of July? In here."

The man stared hard, trying to remember before he gave up and shook his head. It seemed like Mr. Inwood didn't suffer from headaches like the others. Why? She wondered if it was because he wasn't living in the immediate town of Habsburg and was living away from it. But then he had forgotten the woman's name, thought Louise in her mind. Or was it because Mr. Inwood didn't come directly in contact with people who would ask about the Reed's?

Louise then offered them a smile, "Thank you for helping and answering my questions, Mr. Inwood."

After exchanging polite pleasantries, Louise stepped out of the house and reached the carriage waiting for her. The coachman opened the door for her, and she climbed inside before he closed the carriage's door. Soon the carriage was driven back to Habsburg. 

Before her, Graham had married for the fourth time… and she wasn't the fourth but the fifth wife. 

Louise's hand had come up to cover her mouth in shock. Some of the things finally started to make sense to her. The fourth sheet about the cemetery had Lady Viola's signature on it. If June was the wedding… that meant it was possible that the woman died in July. 

Could it be that Mr. Wensley and Mr. Reed had appointed Elias Latton to kill the woman for money? 

Mr. Inwood had given her that thread of clue that was going to unravel every other event that had been involved in this mystery. 

By the time Louise had reached Reed's manor, she looked like she had seen a ghost as her skin had turned pale. She had stayed outside in this cold weather for far too long. On seeing the carriage, Graham stepped out of the manor.

"Louise!" Graham called her, and she came to her, "Where have you been?" 

Her eyes moved up to look at Graham's concerned face. She stared at him, wondering if he was also involved in the murder of his wives… something that he had forgotten over time because of that erasing phenomenon. 

"I went to speak to someone," said Louise, her voice lacking any energy in it. On sensing something to be wrong, Graham placed his hand on her shoulder. 

"Are you alright?" He turned to look at Gilbert and said, "Tell the maids to prepare a hot bath."

"No," Louise shook her head before she said, "I first need to talk to you. You, Lady Viola, and maybe even Gilbert," her eyes shifted to look at the butler, who stood at the front manor's door. 

Graham was slightly confused, but he nodded his head, "Okay. Gilbert, get the fireplace in the drawing room and bring my mother to the room." With Henry, Alison and their daughter, who had left the manor to return to Henry's parent's house after Lady Agatha's burial, it was back to being just them. 

"Yes, Master Graham," Gilbert bowed his head, sparing a brief look at the lady who appeared to be in a dazed state. 

Once they stepped inside the manor, Gilbert closed and locked the door before getting Graham's mother. 

Five minutes later, everyone was present in the room. Lady Viola and Louise had a blanket wrapped around their shoulders, sitting on the couch, whileGilbert stood next to Lady Viola questioned,

"Why have you gathered us in here at this hour, Louise?"

"Is there something that your family has been hiding?" Louise looked at every one of them. 

Lady Viola looked confused, and she replied, "Hiding? There is nothing to hide. Did spending time with the investigators turn you just like them?"

Louise nodded her head, coming to the point she said, "Yes. Did you know that Graham married a woman, before Graham married me and after Graham married Lisa?" Her eyes fell on Graham, where a deep frown appeared on his forehead. 

"What are you speaking about, Louise? If there was something like that, I would have informed you about it," said Graham and Louise nodded her head again. 

"The girl is losing her mind," muttered Lady Viola, ready to stand up and leave the room. 

Louise noticed the butler's eyes widened at her words, and he looked back and forth between the three people in the room. "I am not losing my mind, but there's something that needs to be clarified. I have already discussed this with Graham before-"

"Graham, people in our family have died and you and your wife are making assumptions as if you don't understand the seriousness of the situation. There is an actual murderer!" said Lady Viola with a frown on her lips. 

"Mother calm down," Graham tried to soothe his mother. "Let us listen to what Louise has to say. We have already lost three members in our family and we don't want to lose any more of them. The officers don't know about it and we don't know what is going to happen next."

Lady Viola crossed her arms, sitting back and waiting for Louise to speak. 

With the room that had turned quiet, Louise finally explained what she had found today from the officer to the newspaper writer. 

"He was probably predicting it for the future to bring in readers attention," commented Lady Viola. 

"He wasn't, Lady Viola," corrected Louise. "He wrote about an event that took place a day or two before the wedding occurred."

A dry laugh escaped from the older woman's lips, "So where is this imaginary fourth wife?"

"Something happened to her. I think someone killed her," replied Louise. 

Graham, who had quietly been listening to Louise until now, asked her, "You think it was my father and Uncle Ernest, who got her killed?"

"It is a possibility," answered Louise in a low voice. "I don't have proof but I am sure this is what it is. All of you have been experiencing frequent headaches whenever anything related to that matter comes up in the conversation. As if you were made to forget about that woman."

Lady Viola rubbed her forehead as if what Louise was saying right now was giving her a headache. 

Graham said, "Did he give you the woman's name to whom I was supposedly married to?"

Louise shook her head, "He didn't remember the name. The marriage took place in June, three years ago. And… I think she died around the month of July." Turning to the butler, she asked him, "Do you remember anything about this?"

But Gilbert shook his head. 

"Bring me the dress that we found in the forest," ordered Louise, and the butler went to fetch it. She said, "I think some of the missing pieces are finally falling into place. Graham, Gilbert told me that three years back, during the time of summer he found footsteps marked with water on the floor that went to your room and then another room that is in the right wing of this manor."

When the butler returned with the dress, Louise got up and said, "Come with me, please. I have something to show you. She looked at Graham and Lady Viola. The older woman looked unwilling but came with her anyway because of how bizarre everything had turned in their family. 

Graham and the butler held the lanterns in their hands while Louise led them to the room that was on the right wing. Opening one of the rooms where she once had been locked, she went to the closet and pulled out one of the dresses.

She placed the dress from the closet and the nightgown that Gilbert had brought on the table next to each other. 

"Do you see the similarities between them?" asked Louise.

"They are of the same fittings," it was Lady Viola, who noted the length of measurement around the shoulders of both the dresses. She walked forward and stood in front of the table. "I am sure you will find people wearing other dresses to have the same measurements."

"Milady," Gilbert intervened in the conversation this time. "We found the nightgown buried in the ground of the forest."

Graham stared at the two dresses placed on the table, and he tried to remember, but there was nothing except for a rising ache in the head. 

Louise said, "When I first stepped into this room for the very first time, I thought the room belonged to the Lestrange's family, because no one was making use of this side of the manor. I think it belongs to the woman who was murdered."

"How are you sure about it?" asked Graham because she had been too quick to judge and conclude about this. His eyes met hers, and he saw the worry in them. 

"That's because I felt it…" Earlier, on her way back to the manor, Louise had tried her best to understand why and what was happening. Though there were a few things still unclear, there were some things she had connected dots to. "I had dreamt a dream here in this manor, I was suffocating, trying to get air. Isn't that how Elias Latton and Lady Agatha died? With the lack of air to breathe?"

What if this room had once belonged to Graham's fourth mysterious wife? Questioned Louise. 

"I don't remember a thing about any of this. Not someone occupying this room, not this fourth wife or the marriage that took place three years ago," said Lady Viola. Turning away from the dress, she said. "Before I get another severe headache, I am going to bed. I will wait for the officers to come up with the answer."

Louise bowed her head, knowing there was no point forcing Lady Viola without concrete proof. 

"Gilbert take my mother to her room," ordered Graham, and the butler bowed, stepping out of the room with Lady Viola while leaving Louise with Graham. 

With one lantern that had been carried out of the room, and only one left in the room, the brightness inside the room decreased, and both Louise and Graham stared at each other. 

"I mean every word when I say I don't have any recollection of what this wedding or the woman that the writer mentioned to you about," said, Graham, not wanting his wife to think that he was lying through his teeth. 

"I know," replied Louise, and she closed her eyes. "I cannot blame you for something that both you and the others don't remember." Finding Graham having a fourth wife, who wasn't her, had come as a rude shock to her. She knew that even if she questioned any of them, it was of no use. All she would get to see was people having splitting headaches that would stop them from remembering who or what more had happened. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Louise was worried that Graham was involved with the rest of the family in killing the fourth wife. 

"Mr. Winkle said that something must have triggered the ghost to kill people. What if I was the trigger?" asked Louise. 

Graham shook his head, "It cannot be. We didn't even know each other until the soiree in Boville's manor."

"That is true, but what I mean is us meeting. And our marriage being fixed," explained Louise. Her marriage to Graham could have triggered the ghost to kill… which would only mean that the person who had been haunting them was the fourth wife of Graham. 

Was it possible that the skeleton that was in Lisa's casket was of the same woman?

The next day, early in the morning, Graham had gone to Hungate to ask the construction to be put on hold so that he could concentrate on his family. 

Later,  Mr. Burton arrived in his carriage to the manor. On seeing the carriage, Louise came to greet him to know whom the skeleton belonged to before Gilbert even opened the door. 

But Mr. Burton had a displeased look on his face. 

"Is everything alright, Mr. Burton?"

"It isn't, Lady Louise," answered the investigator with furrowed eyebrows. He said, "Someone has stolen the skeleton from the morgue and has destroyed all the results."

"When did this happen?" Louise quickly asked, her hands clenching at the ghost's attempts in trying to hide. 

"It must have been somewhere in the night and this early in the morning," Mr. Burton sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose because this case was turning him old. "I came here to let you people  know about it. Now we need to start and search again from scratch." 

"But don't the experts remember anything?" inquired Louise.

"That… we found the experts' bodies lying dead in the morgue. One who was lying on the table where the skeleton was previously placed. They are dead," on Mr. Burton's words, a gasp escaped Louise's lips, and the butler's face turned almost stone-like. "We are trying our best to search where it might be and we need to search here too in Reed's property."

Louise's eyes then fell behind the man. She noticed the arrival of two more carriages, which she believed to be the other people from the investigating office, to find the skeleton. 

She nodded her head, "Okay. You have my permission for it." 

"Thank you for your cooperation," Mr. Burton offered her a bow. 

Soon after, Mr. Burton and his colleagues started to search the grounds and Reed's manor, but even after three hours, they found no sign of the skeleton and finally left Reed's estate with empty hands. 

Hours passed by after the investigating search, and Louise sat at the side of the window, staring at the front side of the estate. 

Louise wondered if the ghost was taunting her. Taking its own sweet time to instil fear in people while destroying anything that could help her to get closer to finding the truth. People in the manor had started to walk in pairs as they were scared to walk alone in the corridors. Before Lady Viola, Graham, or any other person, including her, would die next, she had to figure this out.

But the question was how?

No one knew where the skeleton was because the ghost had hidden it somewhere. 

She had come so close to knowing the truth, and just like that, the answers slipped out of her hand before she could grasp it. 

Remembering the ghost laying down next to her in the bed, she wondered if it was the dead woman's memories of lying on the bed next to Graham. The thought sent shivers down her spine. What else did the ghost do? Surely, there was something it would have slipped with its actions, thought Louise to herself. 

While she continued to sit next to the window with the sky that had started to turn dark, suddenly she remembered something and her eyebrows furrowed. She quickly stepped away from the window, making her way down the stairs, and she entered the room that had paintings on its walls. 

Louise had arranged the painting in the ascending order of the years. 

She came to stand in front of the painting where young Graham sat on the little girl's right side. She started to walk from left to right, coming across the next painting where the girl stood on the far left side of the painting. And in the next painting, the little girl was nowhere to be seen in the paintings done in the next years.

But Louise didn't stop there. She continued to look at the other paintings where Graham had grown older in his late teenage years. 

The little girl's picture was painted only in two portraits, and after that, she was out of the picture. Whereas someone appeared in the paintings after some time. The paintings were in a way where the person stood at the far left side, then the next painting moving near the centre frame, before the person finally stood next to one of Reed's family members. 

"Why didn't I see this before," Louise murmured to herself. 

She turned her head to look at the portrait where it was just Graham and his parents in it. Louise traced her fingers over the surface of the painting, and her fingers stopped, where a piece of the painting had come out. 

"Milady?" Gilbert appeared in the room with a tray in his hand, where he had brought her tea. 

"Gilbert, I need you to go and get me a scraper or a knife," came the words from Louise, "Immediately." The butler placed the tray on the table and left the room. 

Holding the painting, she raised it upwards and unhooked it from the nails on the walls. She then brought it down and placed it on the ground. When the butler returned with a scraper in his hand, he handed it to Louise with a hint of puzzlement in his eyes on what the lady intended to do with it. 

Louise ordered the butler, "Close the door."

Holding the handle of the scraper, she carefully started to scrape the area next to Graham's right. 

On noticing the dress of a woman, Louise's hand moved faster. As she had doubted, there was someone hidden in this side of the painting. By the time she was half done removing the paint that had hidden the fourth person in the painting, her hand stopped moving on seeing the face painted in there.

Louise dropped the scraper from her hand in disbelief. The young woman in the painting had a sweet and pretty face with a gentle smile on her lips. Her black hair was loosely tied while she stood there next to Graham. 

The butler, who had silently stood behind the lady, his eyes fell on the painting, and he looked taken aback by seeing the person who was in there. 

"This… " the butler was short of words in shock. 

"Emily," Louise whispered the young woman's name, who was in the portrait. 

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2 chapters are available in the privilege, scroll over to find it.