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 left, trying to tell myself it was all for the best. I moved away, got another job. It was only when I was passing through about two years later that I ran into one of the servants in town and learned what had happened. We had a beer together, and he told me. Seemed surprised I hadn’t heard. But then, I don’t read papers.”


Hank took a deep breath, his eyes closed. “About his killing himself. Hanged himself in his bedroom.” He broke off and lowered his head into his hands for a while, and my heart really began to fill with sympathy.


Hank nodded and finally raised his head and wiped his eyes. “He told me—the servant—that Henry began to take to his room more and more. They called in doctors, but that didn’t seem to help.”


“Wow!” I murmured, near tears myself now.


“Well, that did me in. I couldn’t drive anymore that day. I took a room at the local hotel, and that’s where they found me.”


Chapter 18