Free The Ghost Who Loved Me by Karolyn Cairns Page A

dairy, servant’s cottages, and the land agent’s cottage. She also read of a large hunting lodge that was a few miles behind the castle, deep in the woods.
    Elizabeth was eager to explore the old castle and grounds, unmindful of all the writings about the infamous Lord James Carlisle’s ghost, the third Duke of Westerleigh who died in 1564.
    They much-glamorized the man’s ghost over the years to the point the family no longer occupied the residence with all of the scandalous accountings of his legendary seductions of female guests.
    It was no wonder a footnote in the book suggested the castle might eventually revert back to the Crown with the enormous taxes levied against it. It was an issue every landowner now faced in England as the middle of the nineteenth century approached.
    Edward couldn’t afford to pay the taxes.
    Because Edward was a fourth cousin removed to the royal family, he assumed the tax debt unimportant of his notice when his father died. In the years since, he did nothing to attempt to pay the taxes, living off the rents from the tenant farmers and spoiling his male companions shamelessly.
    Elizabeth was a bit sad to think of this beautiful historic structure one day being left to rot. Edward never discussed such matters with her, but she heard much throughout society to know it was happening to the very best of families.
    Their way of life was changing. They refused to see it. Anthony often argued the excesses of the nobility would one day bite them in the backside if they did not learn how to live within their means.
    Anthony was often disparaging of society, even condescending at times, making her look at him twice in surprise. His own father was a Viscount. True, his eldest brother Charles would inherit, and John after that if the elder brother died without issue. But Anthony took on so about it. It was as if he hated the nobility and all that they stood for.
    Didn’t she see much of the same happening at Camden Downs?
    Her father struggled for years to maintain the illusion all was the same as it always was for the sake of her, Mama, and his heir George. She feared George would lose Camden Downs long before he inherited his father’s title.
    The thought of Camden Downs being turned into an inn one day or bought by one of the nouveau rich hailing from America made her sigh depressively. She set the book aside in her lap.
    Annie was craning her neck out the window to look as they turned down a winding cobbled drive, passing through high wrought-iron gates overgrown with ivy. She swallowed hard to see the huge iron lions emblazoned upon the gates.
    Elizabeth expected to feel fear as they closed the distance to the castle. Instead, she felt a strange sense of peace she never expected. This was to be her prison yet she looked forward to this like another of life’s great adventures.
    The thought of that was far preferable than thinking of her husband and Simon arriving in the spring, making her frown darkly.
    That was another matter she had at last come to terms with.
    No power on this earth could force her to do as Edward intended. She had her rights too. She vowed if Simon Ives laid one hand upon her, she would call for the local constable and have him arrested.
    She refused to allow Edward to degrade her in such a manner and say nothing of it. Too long she allowed Edward to bully her. She refused to let him use her family against her anymore.
    Recent letters from her mother alleviated much of that anxiety before her departure. The earl was unwell and had been for some time. She suggested her daughter come home as soon as she could. Elizabeth wrote back that Edward remanded her to Westerleigh, telling her nothing more than they had a bit of a spat.
    Elizabeth forced back tears to think she might never see her father again. Edward might be her husband and be able to order her about, but there were limits of what she was prepared to allow.
    If her father turned for the worst, they knew where to