The Ghost and the Rose

Chapter 14

Half-way between sleep and awake, an icy wave engulfed my body. The whole length of me shivered as I lay upon something hard and unforgiving.

A light pressure touched my shoulder, and I jumped.

"Anne?" Meg's voice. "Wake up, Anne."

I peeled one eye open to find Meg doubled over me. Her cheeks coloured, and she struggled for breath. "Have you any idea how long we have been looking for you?"

I sat up wincing at the ache which invaded my sides. "Where is John?"

Her eyes widened. "John was here?"

I nodded. I was on the bench where he had left me and yet I was in the pyjamas I had worn to bed with the emerald cape drawn over me.

"Have you been out here all night?" she gasped.

I rubbed the ache in the back of my neck. "Yes, I think so. I was having a dream or a vision or something. It was a feast; the king was there and Matilda."

Meg stood back, and her hand went to her heart. There were tears forming in the old woman's eyes. "You have seen Matilda?"

"Yes, and we were dancing. John and Kate had just become engaged." I looked around me, withered and blackened leaves now made up the hedge surrounding the bench. I looked to the house. The grey bricks formed a shadow behind the mist, nothing more. No welcoming glows danced in the windows; no laughter carried itself on the air to us. The house had died along with its inhabitants.

"So, you know."

"I know."

Meg took a step back. "Look at you," she scolded. "You are frozen to the bone. Let's get you back to the house so you can be warmed up. A nice hot bath is in order I believe," she held onto one of my hands and draped the other around my shoulders. I sunk into the heat radiating from her body, draining it for comfort. I didn't think ghosts were meant to have body heat but then I'd never met one before.

We started walking down the steps into the lower tier of the garden where we would cross and enter a side door into the house. Just then, a large form darted from the doorway and across the lawn.

"Meg!" Robin bellowed.

"Good Lord Robin," Meg said. "What is it?"

Robin stopped in his tracks and looked to me. There was a gleeful look in his eyes like a child on Christmas morning when they first see their pile of presents.

"My lady," he bowed low. "We are so glad to have found you safe and well."

"Yes, she is fine or will be when I get Jennet to fill her bath. But what is wrong?"

He grinned so wide it nearly filled his face. "Nothing is wrong, but you must come quickly and you too Mistress Anne. We are needed in the Main Hall. Now."

Robin rushed us into the Hall, "Come, come."

The tiered gardens brought us in at a higher level in the house. We looked down from a balcony, the same balcony that Matilda and I stood on in my dream. Henry stood in the middle with a woman who floated on a sea of silken gold. She wore a matching headdress that shimmered, covering most of her deep chestnut hair.

Meg had frozen beside me. "All is not yet lost," she whispered. She let me go and wrapped her arms around Robin in a warm embrace. "It is happening Robin, can you feel it?"

Below, Henry's hands were cupping the woman's face. The intensity in his face was almost frightening.

"Elizabeth," the name barely escaped Henry's lips. I walked down the first few steps, my eyes never leaving them but then I stopped myself. I didn't want to interrupt such a perfect moment. His face shone with wet tears.