The Snow of Severly Castle: Emily Mansion Old House Mysteries, #3

By Ruby Loren

If you love Agatha Raisin's spark and Nancy Drew's curiosity, The Emily Mansion Old House Mysteries are your next unputdownable read!

The inhabitants of Severly Castle want a Christmas to remember.

What they get is a winter they wish they could forget.

Emily Mansion has been hired to research Christmas traditions of the past at a castle in a remote part of Scotland. But she is astonished when one strange Christmas tradition suddenly resurrects itself… with alarming consequences.

Is someone trying to ruin Christmas at Severly, or is there something a lot more sinister going on?

*A short and sweet English mystery for light and easy reading!*

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ruby Loren
• Release date: Feb 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393756828

Book preview

Introduction

Mr White wasn’t sure how anyone was meant to sleep next to a constantly beeping heart monitor. He knew it was there to alert anyone if anything were to go wrong, but it was such a bother! He sighed in frustration and the sound came out like a death rattle.

Everyone has their time to go, but it’s never easy to accept when the train has almost reached its final destination - even with a full lifetime to prepare. He knew that his last station was just around the corner, but Christmas was so close. He was determined to live to celebrate one last good one surrounded by his family. Jake, Lily, and George… he was proud of each and every one of them.

A smile lifted his sunken cheeks as he thought of each of them in turn. He would be leaving the castle in good hands when he left the mortal coil. He had no doubt that each of his grandchildren would go on to lead highly successful lives.

George, the youngest, was already the CEO of his own start-up company that was making an excellent profit after just two years of being in business.

Lily loved to say that she was a struggling writer, but he knew she actually was in talks with several agents about her latest book, and she’d already forged a solid career for herself working as a freelance copywriter.

Then there was Jake, his eldest grandson. He felt a pang of regret when he thought about Jake. He had grown into a wonderful man after studying law at Oxford. Unfortunately, the year after he’d graduated, Mr White’s daughter (the single mother of the three grandchildren) had been tragically killed in a car accident, leaving the two younger Whites looking to their big brother to care for them.

He’d risen to the task, but the burden of responsibility had stayed with him, even now the others were independent. Jake had noticed his grandfather was getting older and he’d moved in to help him out with the running of the castle. Then he’d taken it over. Now, old Mr White worried that Jake was stuck rattling around this big old place when he should be out mixing with people of his own age and seeing the world. He should be reaching his potential! His grandson was an incredibly talented and kind man. Mr White was certain he could do a lot more with his life, if he could just persuade him to be a little more selfish…

I’ll tell him he needs to do something for himself, rather than always thinking of others, when I see him tomorrow, he thought, forgetting he had already told Jake the same thing several times before.

His eyelids started to droop in spite of the insistent beeping. Mr White dozed, caught in a warm whirl of happy thoughts about his family. They were going to have the perfect White Christmas!

He didn’t hear the door of his room slowly swing open.

Jake kept the castle in such good order that no doors dared to creak or squeak, so there was no sound to giveaway the presence that entered the room. Mr White’s closed eyes also meant he missed the shadow rising up to cover his bed, the figure’s pronged horns looking sharp in the dim light.

But he didn’t miss the hand grabbing his leg and yanking him down the bed.

Mr White’s eyes flew open and he witnessed the incredibly tall figure leering down at him. His face contorted with horror as he realised that the intruder was not human in the slightest.

It had the head of a stag.

It can’t be real! he thought, trying to scrabble away from the spectre. The stag moved closer, silent and spectral. Mr White rolled to the side and was suddenly falling. He hit the ground with a heavy thump, feeling pain shoot up through his wrist. He opened his mouth to gasp but couldn’t draw in any air. He was suffocating! Mr White heard his heart monitor go crazy, beeping multiple times a second. He opened his mouth and attempted to draw in air again.

Nothing.

He knew he was panicking. He had to take a breath! Without it, he would die. Thoughts of his last White Christmas flew away, drifting beyond his clutches as he slid into unconsciousness. The last thing he saw with his fading vision was the head of the stag looming over him.

1

The Ghost of Christmas Past

N ext! Emily Mansion called out after another hopeful applicant left the room. She knew she was enjoying the apprenticeship auditions a little too much, but it had been ages since she’d had this much fun!

She stroked Mr Bumble the cat, who was sat in a chair next to her doing his best to look silently menacing when the candidates walked in. Or perhaps he was just hungry. Emily hoped she didn’t look too much like a James Bond villain right now.

Ever since her colleague had tried to murder her with a spade, Emily had been working alone. She’d advertised for an apprentice, thinking it was time to pass on her skills, but when she’d first posted the ads, she hadn’t exactly been overwhelmed with interested applicants. All of that had changed when her last job had ended in a publicity fiasco with her name being spread all over a highly popular ghost hunting blog. She’d returned home to find a sack full of job applications and hundreds of answer phone messages. The whole world and its wife had suddenly seemed to want to be her apprentice!

Emily had arduously whittled down the applicants to get rid of all of the crazies who thought she saw ghosts on a daily basis. She’d been left with twenty decent candidates, which had led her to set up these auditions - ahem - job interviews. She was definitely in danger of getting carried away.

She tapped her pen on the table whilst she waited for the next person to enter. In spite of her careful vetting of the applications, she still hadn’t met anyone today who had really stood out as ‘the one’. She’d talked to a young woman named Alice who had all of the right experience, but Emily had a sneaking suspicion that - for all of her education - she was the kind of person who would rather be out clubbing than stuck in an old house. Perhaps I’m just getting old and prejudiced, she thought, knowing that she and Alice were both in their twenties - albeit at opposite ends of the decade. A lot could change in those short years.

She looked up from her notes when the door