Free The Strange Visitation at Wolffe Hall by Catherine Coulter

come to the Great and demand that he find him? He’s dead, so that’s impossible. The black funnel hurled all the medals into the air. That’s why you believed Major Houston wanted his medal returned to his family, isn’t it, sir?”
    Before the Great could respond, Grayson raised a hand. “Sir, what I do not understand, however, is why you wouldn’t want to tell Mrs. Wolffe, all of us, immediately. Why the secrecy?”
    The Great looked from face to face, then down at the congealed eggs on his plate. “Very well, I will tell you. Major Houston served under me in the Third Battalion, Fourteenth Regiment of Foot. He saved my life, slammed the sword out of the French soldier’s hand, knocked him off his horse. I had no time to thank him, and he was gone again. An hour later, I was in the middle of the bloodbath, fighting two French infantrymen, when I sensed another coming up behind me. I turned and slashed out with my sword, killed him. Then I realized it was Major Houston coming to help me and I’d killed him. I’d killed the man who’d saved my life. When I realized he wasn’t an enemy soldier and I’d killed my own man, I nearly fell apart, but you see, my men needed me.
    “There was no choice but to leave him lying there since there were more French infantry surrounding me. On and on it went, until finally, it was over and I still lived, and I stood in that field of blood holding my arm.” He laughed, shaking his head. “All the dead men surrounding me, the wounded, and I had only a minor slash in my forearm. I began searching for Major Houston, but a messenger came upon me, told me the duke wanted me to come to him, and so I had no choice but to leave the field.
    “The first chance I got, I went back to search more for Major Houston, but I couldn’t find his body. There were so many bodies, so many men whose lives were gone. Simply gone.”
    There was silence in the breakfast room.
    “This is difficult, Miranda—this is why I didn’t want to tell you. It is my guilt to bear because I killed my own man, the man who saved my life. I killed Major Houston.
    “After I returned to England, I traveled to Sussex to meet the major’s family—his father and mother, his younger sister. They were devastated, of course. I expressed my gratitude at their son’s bravery and my condolences. I told them he had saved my life. But in the end, I was a coward. I did not tell them I had killed their son. Can you imagine the horror they would feel?
    “I spoke to the duke when I found out about the medals, and asked him if I could myself present the major’s medal to his family, and he agreed. But there was some sort of mistake and his medal never got to me. I wrote the family, asked them if they’d received his medal. They said they hadn’t.
    “I suppose I put it out of my mind—there was so much to be done here at Wolffe Hall since I had been absent far too long.
    “Major Houston’s mother wrote me three years ago to tell me her husband, Major Houston’s father, had died. It was about that time I learned that many Waterloo medals had been pawned and sold, so I began collecting all the medals I could find, polishing them and returning them, to expiate my guilt, that was certainly part of it. I was also hoping to find the major’s medal for his mother and sister, to honor him, and of course, praying that finding his medal and returning it would also help lessen my guilt.
    “I believe it is Major Houston’s spirit that has come to me. He must have realized I was searching for his medal—I can’t imagine how—I’ve never believed in such things as spirits and ghosts—and that’s when the funnel came into me. I swear, after all the indistinct mumbling, he shouted right in my face, ‘ Find Major Houston! ‘ Of course I assumed the spirit meant he wanted me to find Major Houston’s medal and that’s why it hurled all the medals around the library.
    “Then a miracle happened. I found the medal—I actually