Here is the first draft of a short story I just penned about Godolphin House.

The Red Dress

Behind the main entrance door of godolphin house,the vestibule, even on the coldest winter day, was never chilly, the large fire at one end of the room kept that part warm but even the area near the draughty doors was never really cold.  But neither was it a ‘happy warm’ if you know what I mean. You know how on miserable wet days some Vestibules can be welcoming and warm, enticing you to linger in a chair by the fire, stare into the burning coals and dream delightful dreams or have pleasant thoughts of summer or love or sleep as you dry off from the rain outside before being invited into the house proper. But not the hallway of godolphin house, the warmth was awkward, you could almost say it was angry and hateful as if it did not want to welcome you into the house and it only led  you to think about those  who were outside in the cold wind and snow with a strange feeling almost of envy.  Standing next to the fire wouldn’t make you feel any warmer than standing by the  door did. No, it was not a happy or a comfortable place to spend any length of time in was that Hallway. There were some visitors that said that if they were kept waiting  there for too long before being invited into the main house they felt that they wanted to run outside and wash themselves and to actually burn their clothes.

Lord Godolphin’s second wife of two years Lady Honoria was not happy in the house; she did not like the Hallway at all and would, for preference get into the house through a side door  that led from the formal gardens into the Dining Chamber or even via the  servant’s door into the scullery. She would spend most of her time at Lord Godolphin’s house in London and would only visit his country estate when she felt she had to or if she was ordered to by her husband.

The gardens and grand avenue and  the house were said to be haunted.  A strange lady dressed all in white could sometimes be seen walking across the lawns or up the avenue towards the house and there would hang in the air as she did so  a sense of joy, happiness and anticipation.  If you were keen of eye enough to follow the movements of the apparition you could see it approach the front doors of the house and rap loudly on the huge door knocker to gain admittance. Then a howl like that of a wolf or a bereaved mother would rend the air and a ghostly woman in a red dress would rush screaming out of the door and push the lady in white away from the house who would then be seen walking back down the avenue cradling a child in her arms and a great sadness and despair would fill the air. The apparition  would make her way to the chapel in the woods where the first Lady Godolphin had been buried in the family vault with her stillborn  baby. Both of them had died some months after the Lady had married the Lord in London but before they were able to visit and live in godolphin house, a place she had come to know  and love from Lord Godolphin’s effulgent descriptions of it to her.

The spirit in the red dress at the front door was the the reason that Lady Honoria did not like using the front door, she felt that it was pushing her away, trying to stop her entering the house.

In the entrance hall in one of the chairs by the fire, the chair that nobody could bear to sit in could be seen a figure in a red dress, a  farmer’s daughter that Lord Godolphin had deceived and betrayed before he married lady margerate telling the girl that he would marry her and that she would be Lady Godolphin. The girl had poisoned herself and her unborn child when she found out about Lord Godolphin’s treachery. She now spent eternity defending from interlopers the house that had been promised to her.

The end

Over the years that I’ve been writing this blog I have got quite slapdash about posting regularly so I am going to give it another try.

I will keep a calendar and schedule when to publish posts.