Sheppard Bridge Manor Book one A saga novel of ghostly terror

Chapter Fifteen-Matters of the Heart

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(Several minutes before the arrival of Roger DeWitte at Sheppard Bridge Manor)

I saw Roger DeWitte with an look of despair on his face.

       He had a gloom about him that stunned me.

        He wore a long, black colored coat, red colored breeches, white ruffled sleeves, a black colored waistcoat, a white colored cravat that was around his neck, a black colored collar, and black (ribboned) shoes on his feet.

            His long, black hair flowed down his back; his brown colored eyes was a red color. He had been crying his Emma's death at Sheppard Bridge.

            I saw his troubled mind shift.

            "Brother! I am so sorry about Emma's...", I attempted to say. But he watched me like a black cat, as it I would hex him, like a witch.

             "Sorry! SORRY! Emma is dead! And I...", Roger spoked no more.

            "Please come inside, Roger. Have some cake and tea...And rest", I said. I took him inside Sheppard Manor...But Roger didn't speak to Lord Sheppard Fitzhume...he was silent.

I rang the bell...Twice.

               "Aye, guv!", Melanie Handrol, the 18 year old servant girl, said.

              She moved towards us.

              "Good afternoon, Melanie. May we have some tea and cakes?", I asked her.

              "Aye, we're sorry about Emma's...", Melanie answered. She was crying. Then she bowed, then closed the Dining Room door, to attend to her duties.

"I can't deal with it", Roger said. It was a sore point in our talk. He sat down at the table and sighed. He stared out of the window...and stopped talking.

                "Once the funeral is over, I'll pay for everything...Including a headstone", I said. I watched for a response.

                  "Aye, most thoughtful, brother. I think that noone wants to know death from unnatural means...Suicide...Ghastly thing...I didn't know M'Lord was a Monster...And he is! Ghastly is the only word for him! Why do we, in life, suffer? Why do we let those we love die? Why do we not have a family to bring up and be happy? Why do we enter a private, hellish agony of eternal damnation...all because of one families' wrath over another family? Why?", Roger asked me.

                 Why, indeed.

                  "There's no reason for Emma's death...And we can go on and on...and on...But there's no purpose in that, brother...M'Lord is old...And set down the Old Path", I explained.

                    "Old Path...Rubbish, brother! A man of his age shall not build a bridge to my loved one's heart...And dealt her a blow to her future...I saddens me that such behavior is only a Fitzhume arrogance the bespeaks of tyrant! Can no man love a woman like Emma, and not be happy with her? Nay, the price of death is so great, that Sheppard Bridge is cursed with death...and evil. I, as a man, shall not suffer here, brother...To torture me so, brings more distress upon my soul", Roger said.

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