I tried afterwards to recall that evening in detail, but I did not know at that stage that I should have taken particular note of it; so looking back it semed like many other evenings.
Of one thing I was certain—that I did not draw the curtains on either side of my bed, because I had always insisted that the curtains should not be drawn. I had told Mary Jane of this and she bore me out afterwards.
I blew out my candles and got into bed. I lay for some time looking at the windows; in an hour or so I knew that the lop-sided moon would be looking straight in at me. It had awakened me last night when it had shone its light full on my face.
I slept. And . suddenly I was awake and in great fear, though for some seconds I did not know why. I was aware of a cold draught. I was lying on my back and my room was full of moonlight. But that was not all that was in my room. Someone was there . someone was standing at the foot of my bed watching me.
I think I called out, but I am not sure; I started up and then I felt as though all my limbs were frozen and for several seconds I was as one tamed to stone. If ever I had known fear in my life I knew it then.
It was because of what I saw at the foot of my bed . something which moved yet was not of this world.
It was a figure in a black cloak and cowl a monk; over the face was a mask such as those worn by torturers in the chambers of the Inquisition; there were slits in the mask for the eyes to look through, but it was not possible to see those eyes though I believed they watched me intently.
I had never before seen a ghost. I did not believe in ghosts. My practical Yorkshire soul rebelled against such fantasies. I had always said I should have to see to believe. Now I was seeing.
The figure moved as I looked. Then it was gone.
It could be no apparition, for I was not the sort of person to see apparitions. Someone had been in my room. I tamed to follow the figure but I could see nothing but a dark wall before my eyes. So dazed was I, so shocked, that it was a second or so before I realised that the curtain on one side of my bed had been drawn so that the door and that part of the room which led to it were shut off from my view.
Still numb with shock and terror I could not move until suddenly I thought I heard the sound of a door quietly closing. That brought me back to reality. Someone had come into my room and gone out by the door; ghosts, I had always heard, had no need to concern themselves with the opening and shutting of doors.
I stumbled out of bed, falling into the curtain which I hastily pushed aside. I hurried to the door, calling: “Who was that? Who was that?”
There was no sign of anyone in the corridor. I ran to the top of the stairs. The moonlight, falling through the windows there, threw shadows all about me. I felt suddenly alone with evil and I was terrified.
I began to shout: Come quickly. There is someone in the house. “
I heard a door open and shut; then Ruth’s voice:
” Catherine, is that you?”
” Yes, yes … come quickly….”
It seemed a long time before she appeared; then she came down the stairs wrapping a long robe about her, holding a small lamp in her hand.
“What happened?” she cried.
” There was something in my room. It came and stood at the bottom of my bed.”
” You have had a nightmare.”
” I was awake, I tell you. I was awake. I woke up and saw it. It must have wakened me.”
” My dear Catherine, you’re shivering. You should get back to bed. In your state …”
” It came into my room. It may come again.”
” My dear, it was only a bad dream.”
I felt frustrated and angry with her. It was the beginning of frustration, and what could be more exasperating than the inability to convince people that you have seen something with your eyes and not with your imagination?
” It was not a dream,” I said angrily. ” Of one thing I am certain, it was not a dream. There was someone in my room. I did not imagine it.”
Somewhere in the house a clock struck one, and almost immediately Luke appeared on the landing above us.
“What’s the commotion?” he asked, yawning.
” Catherine has been … upset.”
” There was someone in my room.”
” Burglars?”
” No, I don’t think so. It was someone dressed as a monk.”
” My dear,” said Ruth gently, ” you’ve been going to the Abbey and letting yourself get imaginative there. It’s an eerie place. Don’t go there again. It obviously upsets you.”
” I keep telling you that there was actually someone in my room. This person had drawn the curtain about my bed so that I shouldn’t see his departure.”
” Drawn the curtain about your bed? I expect Mary Jane did that.”
” She did not. I have told her not to. No, the person who was playing this joke—if it was a joke—drew it.”
I saw Ruth and Luke exchange glances, and I knew that they were thinking I was obsessed by the Abbey; clearly I was the victim of one of those vivid nightmares which hang about when one wakes and seem a part of reality.
” It was not a dream,” I insisted fervently. ” Someone came into my room. Perhaps it was meant to be a joke …”
I looked from Ruth to Luke; would either of them play such a stupid trick? Who else could have done it? Sir Matthew? Aunt Sarah? The apparition which had flitted across my room, quietly closing the door after it, must have been agile.
” You should go back to bed,” said Ruth. ” You should not let a nightmare disturb you.”
Go back to bed. Try to sleep. Perhaps to be awakened by that figure at the bottom of my bed! It had merely stood there this time and looked at me. What would it do next? How could I sleep peacefully again in that room?
Luke yawned. Clearly he thought it strange that I should wake them because of a dream.
“Come along,” said Ruth gently and, as she slipped her arm through mine, I remembered that I was in my night dress and presented an unconventional sight to the pair of them.
Luke said: ” Good night,” and went back to his room, so that I was left alone with Ruth.
” My dear Catherine,” she said as she drew me along the corridor, ” you really are scared.”
“It was … horrible. To think of being watched while I was asleep, like that.”
” I’ve had one or two alarming nightmares myself. I know the impression they leave.”
” But I keep telling you, I was not asleep.”
She did not answer as she threw open the door of my room. The current of air disturbed the drawn bed curtain; and I remembered the draught I had felt, and I was certain then chat someone had crept silently into my room, and drawn the curtain along one side of the bed before taking a stand there at the foot of it.
All human actions. Some person in this house had done this to me.
Why should this person wish to frighten me, knowing of my condition?
” You see,” I said, ” the curtain is drawn at the side of the bed. It was not like that when I went to sleep.”
” Mary-Jane must have done it.”
” Why should she come back after I had said good night to her, to draw a curtain which I had expressly asked should not be drawn?”
Ruth lifted her shoulders.
“Lie down,” she said.
“Why, you are cold. You should have put something on.”
” There wasn’t time. I didn’t think of it in any case. I was after .. whoever it was. I thought I might catch a glimpse of the way it went.
But when I came out there was nothing … nothing. I wonder if it’s still here … watching … listening …”
” Come, lie down. It can’t be here because it was part of your dream.”