The Phantoms' Refuge

By Doris Hale Sanders

The Wroe Family from "The Ghostly Hideaway" and "The Haunted Hideout" discover they have an aunt. Wilhelmina finds she has a talent for communicating with their ghosts. Seven-year-old twins Andy & Candy find their own ghost, Shadowhawk. When they try to help him, more phantoms appear, some of them not so friendly. Wilhelmina finds two loves, one from the past and one very present. Weddings, birthings, attempted murder, kidnapping and much more keep this thriller going from beginning to end.
Can Wilhelmina find the ghosts' diary and decipher it in order to bring peace to the phantoms as well as the Wroe Family?
And which of her two lovers will she choose?
This is the third in the "Ghostly Trilogy."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Doris Hale Sanders
• Release date: Feb 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301303342

Doris Hale Sanders

I was born Doris Bishop and grew up the middle daughter of Jim & Annie Bishop in a small village in the southern end of Breckinridge County, Kentucky. I went to a two-room school there at Glen Dean until high school. I graduated from Breckinridge County High School in 1953. I married and raised three children. In 1974 I was hired as Cloverport Municipal Clerk-Treasurer and spent 24 years in that position. In 2001, I married my second husband, Don Sanders, who encouraged me to pursue my dream of writing novels. My first book was published in 2003. As of 2012, I have published a total of 15. I enjoy writing, reading and music. And living with my husband on a few acres of land just south of Cloverport.

Book preview

The

Phantoms'

Refuge

By

Doris Hale Sanders

Copyright:-2007-Doris Hale Sanders

All Rights Reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any means, now known or hereafter invented is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher or author as listed below.

Published by:

Double DD Enterprises

2638 Tar Springs Road

Cloverport, KY-40111

ISBN: 9781301303342

Smashwords Edition

List of Characters

Wilhelmina Foster

She finds love at 77.- Spends a lot of time talking to ghosts.

Betty Nolan

One of the ghosts with whom she communicates.

Ed & Penny Wroe

They own the place where the phantoms seem to seek refuge.

Andy & Candy Wroe

Seven-year-old precocious twins who love horses and ghosts.

Johnny & Chrissy Wroe O'Reilly

They have twin babies without getting pregnant.

Fred Wroe & Lydia Thorne

Chrissy's grandfather and Johnny's grandmother find love.

Kathleen O'Reilly

College Co-ed in big trouble.

Bruce & Janet O'Reilly

How will they deal with their daughter, Kathleen's, problem?

Floyd Moffett

Kathleen's more-than-slightly aggressive suitor.

Emily Parsons

Chrissy's cousin has a very strange request.

Pierre Cardin, Jacques Gardinier, & Antoine Bodine

Who will be Wilhelmina's true love?

Evan Cantrell, Dirk Jansen, Bart Andrews

Bad men, all.-Will they get their just deserts?

Benny Tavelerio

Thanks to him, they might get what they deserve.

Chapter One

The Diary

I need some kind of clue as to where the diary is hidden, Betty.-Is it in the house?-Wilhelmina Foster wasn’t carrying on a normal conversation.-She was waiting for one or two taps:-one tap if the answer was ‘yes’ and two taps if the answer was ‘no.’- Wilhelmina had come down from her horse farm just south of Frankfort to visit with her niece, Penelope ‘Penny’ Wroe at Penny’s home in Fordsville, Kentucky.-Penny and her husband, Ed and their two children, seven-year-old twins, Candy and Andy, had lived for almost three years in a house that seemed to be haunted by three two-hundred-fifty year old ghosts.-Their older daughter, Chrissy had lived there, too, until her marriage to Johnny O’Reilly from up on Thorne Hill just over two years ago.-Ed and Penny's younger daughter, Lorrie Anne, had come along just over six months ago.-

Wilhelmina waited with the patience of a seventy-seven year old spinster.-Probably, though, the last thing one would expect to see would be a lady of her years, white hair, spectacles perched on a pert nose, sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to converse with a ghost.-The frigid air seemed charged with electricity as the ghostly presence filled the third floor bedroom.-As Wilhelmina listened expectantly, she heard two taps.-That meant ‘no.’ This was not her first communication with Betty, Letty and Netty Nolan.-Wilhelmina had determined earlier that the triplets had lived in that house when they were in their twenties and had subsequently been murdered there as well.

Okay, if the diary isn’t hidden in the house, is it hidden in another building on the property?-One tap.-Yes, but which one?-She had found out that the three girls had kept a diary which would explain all their activities and who killed them and why.-Wilhelmina was unwavering in her intention to get the whole story and try to free the ghosts from their bondage to the house where they were killed.

Is it in the barn?-Two taps.-No.

Is it in the storage shed?-Two taps.-No.

Is it in a building at all?-One tap.-Okay so it was in a building.-She was trying to remember what else she could guess.

Is it in the chicken house?-Two taps.-She hadn’t thought that building looked old enough to have been there in the seventeen hundred fifties.

Oh, could it be in the root cellar?-One loud knock.-Okay, it’s hidden in the root cellar.-But where?-Wilhelmina heard a series of tapping sounds begin and realized they were using the code they had used before to tell her their names.-They substituted the number of a letter of the alphabet for the letter itself.

Okay, let me catch up.-Was that eight taps for an ‘H?’-One tap said it was.-Okay, next letter.-Fifteen taps for ‘O;’ Twelve taps.-That would be an ‘L.’; Now five taps is an ‘E.’;-H-O-L-E.-Hole.-It’s hidden in a hole in the wall of the root cellar."-One loud knock.-Then the door of her bedroom on the third floor closed softly and Wilhelmina knew the session was over for that night.-Now she was anxious to get started looking for it.

Wilhelmina's agile mind was working a mile-a-minute trying to figure where to begin her search for the diary's hiding place.-The root cellar was lined on all four sides with shelves and bins.-They would need to remove every dusty, dirty jar on each equally grimy shelf until they could find the opening of the repository of the book.-Many of the canning jars needed discarding anyway.-There was no way to begin to guess how long some of them had been there—probably up to ten years.-But beginning the search would have to wait until morning.

As the air ceased its popping and cracking and began to assume its usual temperature, Wilhelmina dropped off into peaceful slumber almost at once.-When she awoke in the morning, she dressed and hurried downstairs to begin her quest for the hiding place of the diary..

Good morning, Aunt Winnie.-When Penny had been little, she hadn’t been able to say Great-Aunt Wilhelmina’s name; so she had become ‘Aunt Winnie’ and had stayed that way.-Penny sounded happy today.-But then she was usually in a good mood these days.-Before the baby was born, she had been terribly ‘down in the dumps’ and it was really difficult to cheer her up.-Actually, though, she was probably entitled.-At forty-one she hadn’t even thought about getting pregnant again.-She figured she was finished with bottles and diapers when her seven-year-old twins had grown out of them.-She was in good health.-She ate pretty sensibly and got plenty of exercise and her one hundred twenty pounds was well-distributed over a five foot five frame.- However, when she discovered that she and her almost twenty-year-old daughter, Chrissy, were due to deliver babies at the same time, it had caused some serious misgivings.-Both of the infants were born, in fact, on Chrissy’s twentieth birthday.-After the babies’ births, though, she had become accustomed to being both a new mother and a new grandmother and it seemed she was back to being her good-humored self.

Good morning to you, dear.-I had another productive session with the Nolan Sisters last night.-They told me their diary is hidden in the root cellar in a hole in the wall.-Maybe I can get Johnny and Ed to help me look for it later.-Johnny O’Reilly was the red-headed, freckle-faced fellow who had won Chrissy’s heart and was the father of his smaller counterpart whose dimples and red hair had won everybody’s heart and left absolutely no doubt as to his parentage.-Tommy was the apple of his Granddaddy Ed's eye.

Did I hear somebody mention my name?-Ed was just coming in from milking the cow and feeding her and the horses.- Jolene and Fritter let me know they wanted to do some running today.-I’m sure glad Johnny and I got all the fences up so we can turn the horses out to run.-The new lake we put in up by Johnny and Chrissy’s new house will save a lot of work in carrying them water, too.-Now what is it that you need help with, Aunt Winnie?-Penny’s husband, Ed Wroe, was a cabinet-maker by trade.-He and his son-in-law, Johnny, were kept pretty busy as co-owners of Wroe & O’Reilly Cabinets by Design but this was a slow season of the year.-So they had a little time on their hands.

I need some good strong lights and probably a step ladder.-I need to examine the root cellar very carefully in order to find the hole where the Nolan Sisters hid their diary.-Actually, I’ve never been down in the cellar but I need to go.

I’ve never gone over it thoroughly either; but I’m sure it needs some cleaning out.-There’re probably cans of stuff down there that should have been thrown away years ago.-I guess I’m ready when you are.-Let me call Johnny and see if he has any plans.-If not, I’m sure he’ll be glad to help.-After speaking into the phone for a short time, he told them Johnny and Chrissy would be right down with little Tommy.

Do you hear that, Lorrie Anne?-Little Tommy is coming to visit with you.-You like that, don’t you, Baby?-Yes, you do.-Ed was thrilled with his new daughter and grandson, too.-He had been genuinely concerned about Penny going through a pregnancy at their age, but all’s well that end’s well.-And they were both exceptionally special kids.

You’ll need to put on extra clothes, Aunt Winnie.-It’s pretty cool for March so wrap up.

A short time later found Aunt Winnie perched on the third step of the ladder and poking around on the top shelf of the cellar.-There were jars of tomatoes and tomato juice that Penny and Chrissy had canned last summer and several small jars of blackberry jelly, strawberry preserves and there were still a few pints of tomato preserves.-The recipe for the tomato preserves had been one that Grandmother Lydia (Johnny’s Grandmother Thorne) had given Chrissy as a wedding gift along with dozens of other old-fashioned and delicious recipes. There were, as suspected, some jars of something that may have been peaches and/or apples at one time but they were no longer recognizable and certainly not edible.-There were also some green beans that Aunt Lorraine had probably canned a dozen years or so before Ed and his family had found the place.-There was a nice bin of potatoes, another of yams, and several buckets of walnuts and hickory nuts that the Wroes had saved from last summer and fall.-There were also some apples wrapped in newspapers.-The cellar lacked a lot being full but it would require quite a while to move all of it, clean off the shelves and poke all around them looking for hiding places.-There was dust, dirt, and mouse pills all over, along with bunches of spiders and spider webs galore.-

Chrissy had a little bit of a cold, so she had volunteered to stay in the house with the babies.-That left Penny free to help with the search.-The four of them spent nearly five hours cleaning and searching but they found nothing that looked like a place to hide a book.-The cellar looked a lot better and they even put out some mouse and rat poison to keep the vermin out of the nuts and potatoes.-But still no diary.-Everyone was most disappointed.

I’ll just have to get something a little more explicit from the ghosts, Wilhelmina said, sighing.-At least, it’s nice and warm in here in the house.-It was pretty damp and chilly out there in the cellar.-I’ll try again tonight to talk to them.-Quite often, though, after I’ve gotten something good from them, then they won’t come to me for several days and sometimes it’s even weeks before they’ll communicate again.-Anyway, we’ll just have to wait and see.-Doors slammed upstairs and instead of being upset, they merely shook their heads and smiled.

There had been a time when it wasn’t taken that lightly, however.-Penny, Ed, Chrissy, Andy and Candy had been in the process of relocating from North Carolina to Kentucky.-They had gotten lost in the rain and then their Buick Rendezvous had run out of gas near this huge three story house with turrets on top.-The place had belonged to Penny’s Uncle Cliff and Aunt Lorraine Coy who had both passed away shortly before the Wroe family found the place.-The ghosts had started making noises almost immediately, slamming doors, crying, and moving things around, and at that time, it had scared the pants off of everybody.-Johnny had helped add to the confusion, too, by going in and out through the secret passageway that was built into the house and doing good deeds that no one had been able to explain until he confessed.-However, the unexplained ghostly manifestations were accepted now as part of everyday life.-Even Andy and Candy paid almost no attention to the phantoms’ fretful and sometimes furious behavior.

When the telephone rang, Ed picked it up on the second ring.-Hello, Wroe residence, this is Ed.-Oh, Hi, Dad………Hey, that sounds great.-Sunday? That’ll be fine…….Can we pick you up at the airport?..........What time?..........Okay, we’ll see you Sunday afternoon about two o’clock at the airport……..Of course, it’s no imposition and we have no plans that your being here would mess up………We’ll be looking forward to it.-Alright, bye-bye.

Is your Dad coming for another visit from California, Ed?-Things must be warming up between him and Lydia for him to make another trip so soon.-He was here for the kids' birthdays and Christmas.-I think it’s sweet that he and Grandmother Lydia seem to enjoy each other's company.-Did he say how long he thought he’d be here?

No, and I didn’t ask.-I don’t suppose it matters, does it?

Not at all.-As I said, I think it’s quite lovely that they might be able to share some time together so neither of them would be lonely.-Fred Wroe, Ed’s father, was almost eighty-five years old and Lydia Thorne, Johnny’s grandmother was eighty-two.-It seemed they had been attracted to each other since the first time Fred visited when he came for Johnny and Chrissy’s wedding just over two years ago.-He had visited twice since then—once for Lydia’s birthday last September and then again in December.-Fred and Lydia had spent a great deal of time together during the last two trips.-At first, the family had sort of snickered behind their hands but now it was becoming more and more obvious that it could be getting serious.

I wonder if Grandmother knows he’s coming.-I’ll bet she does.-Mama said she had spent almost an hour on the phone last night giggling like a teenager.-Mama said she had guessed it was Grandpa Fred but Grandmother hadn’t actually said so.

Well, it looks like our families could conceivably be tied a little closer together than they already are, doesn’t it, Honey?-Chrissy thought it was touching, too.-Andy and Candy already called Lydia ‘Grandmother’ and now they might have a legitimate reason to.

Wilhelmina tried, unsuccessfully, to make contact with the ghosts on both Thursday and Friday nights.-She decided, then, that she should go home to her horse ranch near Frankfort.-She assured the ghosts and the Wroe family she was not giving up but there were things she needed to do up there. And then, if nobody minded, she’d come back for another visit.

When Ed and Penny had moved into the haunted house with the secret passage nearly three years ago, the room across the hall from the kitchen had been a small sitting room with a couple of tables, two rocking chairs and some lamps along with a small loom.-When they were preparing for Johnny and Chrissy’s wedding, they had decided to turn it into a small downstairs bedroom.-They had put in a couch that made a bed and put in a small dresser and chest.-Then when Ed had closed off the secret passageway, he had put in a new window along the west wall along with a very comfortable window seat.-On one side of the window, he had fashioned a nice big closet and on the other side were bookshelves with a few books and some pretty knick-knacks.-They got this room ready for Fred so he wouldn’t need to climb the stairs to go to bed at nights.

The twins had elected to stay at Johnny and Chrissy's house while Penny and Ed took Lorrie Anne and headed to the airport to pick up Ed's father, Fred.-The plane was a few minutes late but when it arrived, they started home immediately.-Grandpa Fred was assigned to sit in the middle seat of Ed's Rendezvous where Lorrie Anne was strapped into her car seat.-She was cooing and goo-gooing at Grandpa Fred all the way home.-He was obviously quite captivated by the little girl.

As they were going through Owensboro, Fred said he'd like to stop at some car lots because he had decided he needed a car.-

But this is Sunday, Dad, and the car lots are all closed today.-If you need to use our car, you're more than welcome to borrow it.

I don't want to be borrowing a car all the time.-Besides, I might want to go somewhere when you needed your car.-Can we come over here to Owensboro tomorrow so I can look at new cars?

-The following day, then, found them back in Owensboro at several dealerships.-He looked at different models and finally decided on a Buick Century, a royal blue one with black leather interior.--They returned home with Fred driving the new car and he was obviously extremely proud of it.-Within a half hour, he was headed up the hill to see Lydia.-Lydia was especially happy to see him but she blushed a little when he took her in his arms and kissed her thoroughly right in front of Janet.-She didn’t pull away, though, and rested her head on his shoulder a minute before they came into the living room holding hands.

"How are you doing, Fred?’ Janet spoke to try to ease the awkwardness.-She didn’t know why she should be even slightly embarrassed, but it just seemed weird that her mother had a ‘special friend.’-She had almost thought, ‘boyfriend,’ but eighty-five was a little too old to be considered a 'boy'.-She didn't remember ever seeing her mother smile so often or so glowingly even when Janet was a little girl, so it couldn’t be a bad thing.

I’m doing great now that I’m here.-I was so lonely in California but I’m definitely better now.-They smiled into each other’s eyes and Janet was so touched she almost felt like crying.-I just bought a new car and if she agrees, I’m going to take your mother for a little drive.-What do you say, Lydie?-Want to go for a ride?

Sure, that sounds lovely.-I won’t be gone too long, Janet.-I’ll help with supper when I get back.-Will you stay for supper, Freddie?

Would I turn down a meal provided by two great cooks?-I’ll enjoy that very much.

Janet did let the tears come as she watched her mother drive away with Fred.-She still wasn’t just sure why, but it was a sentimental thing, she supposed.-Mama called him ‘Freddie’ and he called her ‘Lydie.’-Daddy used to call Mama ‘Lydie,’ too, she murmured.-Maybe that’s why it bothers me.-It makes me think of Daddy.-But he’s been gone a long time and if she can find happiness, I know he would want her to do that.

Her eyes were still red when her husband of twenty-six years came in a few minutes later from work.-What’s wrong, Jan? Bruce was concerned.-It had been a little over a year since his mother-in-law had had her heart attack and they had come there to stay with her and take care of her.-He still missed Ireland but he liked Kentucky, too.

Oh, I’m just being silly and emotional.-Mama and Fred are out driving around in his new car and he kissed her and they were holding hands and she calls him ‘Freddie’ and she looks so happy.-By now she was wailing and the tears were flowing freely again.-I want her to be happy, but she’s— she’s…….my…….mother, she sobbed.-Bruce stifled his smile until he had taken