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

“You know what my job is?” he said at last.


“I’m caretaker, up at the manor house, the whole estate. I take care of it.”


“Yeah. I go up there from time to time to check things. And,” here he leaned towards me, “I alwayslock the doors. Just like here at the cottage.”


I felt at a loss. Lowering my head, I said quietly, “I’m not lying.”


There was no response. Then he said, “Okay. Tell me what happened, up at the manor house.”


So I did. Everything, unvarnished, including my impressions and feelings. And when I looked up I saw him looking at me with a very odd expression on his face. We regarded each other without speaking for a while. He seemed to be puzzling something out.


At last he said, quietly, “So—it’s happened to you, too.”


He moved his head from side to side. “Mmm—well, the doors slamming, for one. The change of feeling after sunset, for another. And the outside door—”


“It didopen,” I said. “Go up and look at it!”


Chapter 15