While traveling in a storm, Glen Harper takes a wrong turn and crashes his car. Unhurt but cold and wet, he decides to get help. Using a distant light as a guide, Glen discovers an uninhabited cottage, where he lights a much needed fire. Glen quickly warms up but soon becomes aware of a presence in the room. Hank Waterford is the caretaker of the estate where Glen found refuge from the storm. They meet when Glen, thinking he’s alone in the cottage, jumps into Hank’s bed. Both men are strongly attracted to each other, but they have to overcome a hurdle Glen never anticipated: the spirit of Henry, the estate owner’s son, who committed suicide after his unrequited love for Hank became too much to bear. Together Glen and Hank must deal with Henry, who haunts the manor house as well as Hank’s cottage. Can they find a solution that will allow Henry’s spirit to finally come to rest? Will he accept Glen and Hank’s relationship, or will he become a malevolent presence in their lives?

The Haunted Caretaker

I looked around for the light. But everything was blackness, so that I began to doubt I had even seen it.


But I still had a sense of the direction I thought I had seen the light, so I headed off, holding my hands outstretched in front of me.


Shortly I came to an end in the trees and, as I stood there, lightning flashed, and I saw, some twenty feet away in a small clearing, a cabin or cottage. A moment later the darkness returned, but I had definitely seen a door.


The fact that there was now no light in any window discouraged me slightly, but I told myself that they might just have gone to bed, and in any case, perhaps the door was unlocked and I could find sanctuary for the moment from the storm—for I was beginning to feel cold. It was still spring, and not very warm.


I walked forward, felt the wall, and moved along it until I came to the door. For a little while I leaned my forehead against the wood of this in weakness and relief. Then I knocked.


Chapter 3