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 headed up the slope to where my car was, and found the mud slide that surrounded the car had not quite hardened. Contemplating wading through the stuff to get my cell phone, I decided to wait another day, until the mud had dried.


Back at the clearing in front of the cottage, I saw there were two paths, heading in opposite directions, running away through the woods. I decided to go down the one I had started to explore barefoot. So I walked along it in the dappled sunshine, the early leaves of spring casting shadows across the path. The air was warm and I felt freed of the bonds of my work-a-day city life.


Soon I came out into a glade, where there were birds and butterflies. The scene was breathtakingly beautiful, but I didn’t follow my impulse to run through the tall grass, thinking of my earlier accident. I kept to the path and soon was moving among the shading trees again.


Chapter 9