The Fourth Mistress

Music Recommendation: Cow Song - Meredith Monk

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Three years ago…

The servants were near the back of the stables, preparing the new casket as ordered by the butler. They had no idea whom the casket was being prepared or when it was going to be used. As the Reeds dealt with the lumbering business, they had their machinery to prepare the wood, and it took less time to get the casket ready. 

Inside the manor, Graham sat in the room that had been assigned to be Lisa's room that had all her things even after she had passed away. The third mistress and the most loved. He sat on the bed, regret and grief written on his face, while guilt consumed his mind over what he and his family did for not believing her words. 

"I am so sorry," whispered Graham, touching the surface of the bed that she once had slept on when she was still alive. "I am sorry for not believing you, for not being there. I should have protected you from all those sufferings that had been eating you from within."

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips, and he covered his face with his hand. 

He heard footsteps approaching the room, and the butler, Gilbert, appeared at the front of the room. Gilbert spoke, "Master Graham?"

Graham took his hand away from his face, turning to look at the butler, who held a white gown. It was Lisa's wedding gown that Emily had kept in their room, which she had bought from Mr. Burnell's shop to wear on the wedding day. 

"Lady Viola told me that for the time being to shift Emily's dresses and belongings to the previous room that was given to her. She told me to have it thrown out tomorrow with the rest of the things. I found this there," said Gilbert, his eyes falling on the beautiful gown which was stitched in Mr. Burnell, and it was prepared according to Graham and Lisa's liking. "What would you like me to do with this, Sir?" inquired the butler. 

The butler hadn't witnessed the crime that the Reeds had committed, but he could tell that the former maid, who had turned into a lady, had done something very, very bad, which was why the casket was being prepared in the backside of the stable right now. 

Graham stared at the white gown that still looked new and beautiful as the day when he had seen Lisa in it. He felt thorns wrapping around his heart while the thoughts continued to sink in his mind on how things had been manipulated so far without anyone's knowledge. He was sure that if his mother, this time, saw the gown, she would not just send it back to Mr. Burnell's shop, but she would burn it as Emily had worn it. 

He stood up, walking towards the butler, and he took the wedding gown in his hand. 

After staring at it for a few seconds, he finally folded it. Walking to the wooden cupboard and opening it, he placed the gown in one corner and closed the cupboard. Graham then ordered the butler, 

"I don't want any maids or any other servants to step inside this room or clean the cupboards. If they do step in to clean, I want you to be here and make sure nothing gets misplaced." 

Emily might have worn it, but the gown originally belonged to Lisa before that, and he wanted to keep it. He had hidden it inside the cupboard so that it would never come to be seen by anyone in this manor. 

"Yes, Master Graham," Gilbert bowed his head. 

"Were the papers signed by my mother sent to the post office so that it reaches the authority?" Graham questioned, and the butler bowed again. 

"Jonas has already returned after delivering them, sire," replied Gilbert. Seeing the melancholic expression on Graham's face, he asked, "Is everything alright, Master Graham?"

Graham shook his head, "It isn't. It hasn't been for the longest time. If only it was possible to turn back time and fix things that we immensely regret now. We just feel one regret after another."

Gilbert's expression didn't change, and he continued to look at Graham. Emily had gone missing from the manor, and since the time of the morning, Reed's family members had been acting strange and distant. It took the butler less time to guess what must have happened. Being the loyal butler he was, he finally uttered, 

"If I may, Master," started the butler, "Whatever that has been done, you shouldn't feel guilty about it. I have been serving you and the family for a long time now, and I believe whatever has been done, you must have done it unintentionally, or because you saw it to be the right thing to do."

Graham didn't respond to the butler's words, and he left the room that held things. When he climbed down the stairs, making his way to the hall, he caught sight of his mother and father, who stood in the hall, directing one of the male servants and two maids on bringing down the paintings on the wall. 

"I want every single piece from this side of the wall to be taken down and placed in the cellar," said Lady Viola while looking at the paintings. The paintings here mostly had Emily in them, and one of them was the painting made after their wedding day. "I don't want to see her face again and don't want to remember that she was once part of our lives."

When all the paintings had been put in the cellar, Robert told his wife, "We can have them burnt later. We don't have to keep those things that have that woman in it."

Lady Viola sighed, feeling a headache that had risen in her head, and she felt sick in her stomach, remembering how she had blindly believed things on the face value. 

The Reed's family members had removed the things that belonged to Emily from their plain sight. But as the time of the day slowly started to pass, while Reed's members waited for the night to arrive so that they could dig out the body from the forest ground, the gift of the deceased had started to take effect from Reed's manor. 

Lisa's last words to Emily had turned as a gift to the Reed's and the others who knew the vile woman. At the same time, the same had turned into a curse to Emily. A curse where people didn't remember the short time of where Emily had turned into Graham's wife, where she had turned into a lady. 

But the curse went far beyond the effect it has caused on the people's memory and the things that mentioned or reminded people about the maid. 

Though the Reed's had been waiting for the time of night to dig the body out that they had buried the previous night, the body continued to stay in there as people had forgotten to go back to it. 

The people in Reed's manor went back to their bed like any other day, without the memory of Emily and Graham together in it, nor her death.

But what seemed to have been forgotten by people, it had awakened something. 

The ground where Emily's body had been buried, the ground's surface started to crumble before a hand erupted out. The former maid and the fourth mistress of Graham had awakened from her death. 

The maid's ghost was vengeful with jealousy, covered in dirt and wet mud that stuck to her body and dress. After finding out the family was trying to erase her presence and hadn't bothered to put her in a casket, the spirit turned angrier. The ghost climbed out of the pit, pulling her physical body and leaving the dress behind and in the ground. 

The Reed's were planning to forget her, but she wouldn't let that happen. 

The ghost went to the cemetery where the caskets of the three wives had been brought out, which were soon going to be buried in Midville's cemetery. In the darkness of the night and not a soul to look at what would happen, the ghost opened one of the casket's lids that belonged to Lisa Reed. Pulling out the body that was in there, the ghost replaced it with its own body. 

A maddening smile appeared on the ghost's face while thinking how the Reed's would come to visit her, praying for her and bringing her flowers. Even after death, Emily would be the one to receive Graham's affection and take Lisa's position.

The ghost closed the top of the casket before dragging Lisa's body back to Habsburg and Reed's estate. But the ghost didn't drop it anywhere. It went to the lake behind the manor and dropped the body at the centre of the lake. 

What a pity that even though Lisa's body was near the manor, Graham would never come to see or be near her, thought the vengeful ghost. 

With Emily's ghost, who had dipped into the lake, the mud had slowly washed away, and the ghost was soaked from head to toe. Having lived in the manor for some time, the ghost pushed open the window and made its way inside the parlour room before heading to the room where she and Graham used to sleep on the same bed together. 

On the way, the dead left drops of water on the floor, footsteps imprinting as it climbed up the stairs, making its way to the room where Graham was fast asleep. A satisfied smile appeared on the dead person's lips on seeing Graham sleeping. Even after death, Emily loved him too much. 

Having momentarily forgotten that she was dead, Emily's ghost slowly moved towards the closet  to pick up dried clothes, but saw that all her things had disappeared from there. The ghost made its way to the earlier room, which was on the right wing. The imprint of the ghost's feet continued on the floor, until it disappeared after stepping into the room.

Until that very moment, when Emily's ghost entered the room that had been provided to her before her marriage to Graham, she remembered how cruelly they had killed her. 

But the curse or the gift of the third mistress had included Emily in it.

The ghost had gone back to living the way it had been, before she was married to Graham after entering her room, not remembering Graham's mentioned words about a marriage and not remembering that she had been killed and was dead. 

When the following day arrived, Emily started working next to the other maids as if she was alive and things were the same for the last two months. Her feelings towards Graham continued to stay, and like others in and outside the manor, she didn't remember what happened. Until one day, when Emily had gone to the market to buy vegetables, she came to stand still on seeing Graham talking to a woman next to his carriage. 

When the thought of him marrying someone instead of her appeared in her mind, jealousy started to bubble in her mind. 

The veil that had hidden everything about the night and her death slowly slid away. She remembered the pain of Graham turning his back to her while the mud was pushed into the pit where she was buried inside. 

Was she dead? Emily asked herself in shock.

Her eyes widened in realization, and at the same time, a young woman crashed right into her. "I am so sorry!" said the young woman, startled. 

"Pardon me… I wasn't watching where I was walking."