Spirit of Love

By Maggie Taylor-Saville

Shortly after moving into their Company allocated residence in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, strange and frightening things began to happen causing Elizabeth to believe their new home was haunted. Nobody except Elizabeth saw or heard these strange occurrences. She knew her husband Liam did

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Universal Breakthrough
• Release date: Aug 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781956094213

Maggie Taylor-Saville

Maggie Taylor-Saville has a love of writing stories that began many years ago while bringing up her five children. Now in retirement, she lives with her husband Harold, in Manly, on Brisbane’s Bayside, and continues her love of writing.

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Spirit of Love

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A Romantic Mystery

Maggie Taylor-Saville

Copyright © 2021 Maggie Taylor-Saville.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without a prior written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review, and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by the copyright law.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021925354

ISBN: 978-1-956094-22-0 (PB)

ISBN: 978-1-956094-23-7 (HB)

ISBN: 978-1-956094-21-3 (E-book)

Some characters and events in this book are fictitious and products of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

The Universal Breakthrough

15 West 38th Street

New York, NY, 10018, USA

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www.theuniversalbreakthrough.com

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

A story within a story

Preface

Author Maggie Taylor-Saville lives with her very talented husband Harold, in the State of Queensland, Austr alia.

‘Spirit of Love’ is a generational follow up, though not a sequel, to her popular ‘The Eucalypt Tree.’

Maggie is a student of life and sees many potential stories during her and Harold’s travels.

Prologue

Elizabeth grew up in the Victorian gold rush town of Carisdale. As an only child, her mother called her a ‘Book Worm.’ If her nose wasn’t in a history book, she would spend endless hours sitting at her grandmother’s knee listening with awesome interest to tales about her great grandmother Grace who had arrived with her family from England, at the height of the Great Victorian Gold Rush way back in 1864. Elizabeth had a wild imagination, and listening to grandmother’s stories, she would twirl her long auburn hair around her finger as she visualized in her mind, events that happened so long ago. Elizabeth would often visit the little historic cemetery where her great grandparents are buried. Although she had never met them, looking at the names on their tombstones made her feel close to those long departed souls. Perhaps it was because she was often reminded how much she was like great grandmother G race.

Many of Elizabeth’s friends were descended from pioneers who had arrived in their droves from many different countries with hopes of finding gold, and becoming very rich. One of her best friends was Liam Dunoly. Of Irish descent, Liam was tall and good looking, with a thatch of sandy coloured hair and wickedly laughing eyes. Elizabeth had loved him since they were at school together.

Liam’s family had lived in the little gold rush town since the 1800s. Liam and his brothers, Michael and Brett, were now forging their own piece of history. Liam had found employment with a Western Australian Iron Ore mining company on the other side of the country. He became what is called a FIFO, a fly in, fly out employee. Working long shifts for 14 days straight, he then flew home for a week before flying back.

Elizabeth had now matured into an attractive young woman with soft brown eyes and shiny auburn hair. Her wide gentle mouth was generally quick to smile whenever Liam returned. He had become such a handsome man, his skin bronzed from the hot sun and his body muscled from hard work. Elizabeth couldn’t keep her eyes or her hands off him. A few years later, their dreams came true when they married and moved to Perth, Western Australia, where Elizabeth soon gave birth to twin boys, Alec and Sean.

Having the twins, made a big change to their comfortable lifestyle. Previously, Liam had been living in single quarters at the Mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. He had applied for a married residence so his family could all be together. It took nearly 4 years for a house to become available but eventually, they were allocated a family home.

Chapter 1

Packing up and getting ready for the big move was exciting, but Elizabeth had moments of trepidation. With two small boys, she worried about living in such a remote area. Liam loved it, and tried to describe the small township, other families, and plenty of facilities. All very well , thought Elizabeth, but Liam had been living the life of a single man, with none of the worries of a wife and mo ther.

The trip by car took four days of driving with the outside temperature reaching the high 30 degrees Celsius. Elizabeth found the vast emptiness of the countryside beautiful, with its ever-changing terrain. The long straight road edged with red earth, stretched ahead of them to the horizon. Many stops had to be made, with a few overnight stops because of the children. Elizabeth’s thoughts often turned to the stories her grandmother told, and she wondered what it must have been like for people living back in the days of her great grandmother Grace.

Every available space in their 4WD was taken up with boxes and bags, leaving very little room for comfort. When they finally arrived, Elizabeth’s worries vanished with the first sighting of their new hometown. Although small, it was a real township with houses, a shopping centre, and from what she could see, a shady park and children’s playground. Everywhere seemed welcoming, bathed in the afternoon glow of the soon-to-be setting sun. Unaware, Elizabeth was not to know of the fear and trauma coming her way!

On the second night in their new home, Elizabeth finally got four-year-old twins Alec and Sean settled for the night. The boys didn’t believe in bedtime, and were quite a handful. Liam worked the afternoon shift at the Mine, so Elizabeth was the one to handle the bedtime tantrums. She was only twenty-four years of age, but sometimes felt like forty-four. A few grey hairs had mysteriously found their way amongst her lovely auburn hair. Tonight Elizabeth was tired. They had been busy unpacking boxes and trying to organize everything. The house was partly furnished, with an old lounge and some bits and pieces of furniture including beds left by the previous tenants. Enough until they got settled. The room Elizabeth loved best was the large living area with its long windows opening onto a dry barren garden that was very different from the lush green lawns of their home in Perth but in her mind’s eye, she imagined how it could look.

Liam was a great father, and could usually keep the boys amused. Being Irish, he would tell tales about what he called ‘The little people,’ and when the boys got into mischief, he would call them little Leprechauns. Although they were twins, they were not identical. Alec had almost red hair and was always the ringleader in mischief, while Sean with his fair hair was the quiet one. The house was quite large, with bare wooden floorboards that the boys ran around in, with much noise and clatter. Tonight, once the boys were asleep Elizabeth headed for the old lounge to flop down and relax until Liam got home. Entering the lounge room she was taken aback to see a woman already sitting on the couch.

Hello! Who are you? she asked in surprise.

At the sound of her voice, the woman disappeared.

Feeling goose bumps on her arms, Elizabeth walked tentatively into the kitchen expecting to see the woman.

The room was empty! Puzzled and a little scared, she couldn’t settle and found things to do until Liam arrived home. He was quite surprised to see her still working, and when she told him about the strange woman on the couch, his conclusion was exactly what she had expected. Hugging her, he said in his usual loving way,

Why don’t you go to bed? I’m sure you’re just overtired, things will be clearer in the morning.

It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but she did feel deathly tired and went to bed. Wide awake, sleep eluded her. She envied Liam’s ability to instantly fall asleep. In her mind, she saw again the strange woman and tried to think of a reason why she was there. Perhaps, she told herself, she was a friend of the people who used to live here and when she had asked ‘Who are you?’ the woman had got up and rushed out the door. Yes! That must be it she told herself. I got such a shock, I didn’t notice her leaving. I remember her dress was a grey colour with big pink flowers. I may see her again on the street. Turning over, she snuggled into Liam, and was soon asleep. In the early hours, she woke with a start. What was that noise? Liam was snoring, but that was not the sound that woke her. Hearing it again, she recognized what it was.

Rising from her bed, and pulling on her dressing gown, she searched under the bed for her mules ready to rouse on the boys for being out of bed. She could hear them running around the house laughing and pushing each other as they often did. Once in the hallway, she realized all was quiet, but she was used to their tricks. Entering their bedroom she switched on the light, to find them both fast asleep!

Suddenly feeling uneasy, she returned to bed but couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong. She tried to go back to sleep but her imagination was running riot.

Could this house be haunted?

Chapter 2

In the morning everything appeared normal. She tried to convince herself it was just a nightmare. She didn’t say anything to Liam. He always said her imagination would get the better of her one day. Nevertheless, she decided to keep her eyes open when she went shopping in town, just in case she saw the mystery woman a gain.

The next day in town she tried to observe everything around her. It wasn’t very busy. Being a small mining settlement, there was a shopping center, a bakery and the local butcher, some specialty shops, and a post office. Anything one needed could be found in the shopping centre, and further along, a large service station catered for the fuel needed for transport and machinery. The main gathering place for most of the single men was of course the pub. In such an isolated township, most families seemed to know each other and the shopping centre appeared to be the place to hear all the local gossip. As newcomers to the town, Elizabeth and her family hadn’t met many people socially, but this morning she did catch sight of her next door neighbor Angela, who was an older lady, not very tall, but with a kindly face and lovely silver grey hair. Elizabeth took the opportunity to attract her attention, and after greeting each other, Elizabeth broached the subject of the lady in the grey dress with big pink flowers, and whether the neighbor knew her. Angela looked at her rather strangely, as she said,

No dear, I don’t know her. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.

On the way home, Elizabeth puzzled over this answer, and her thoughts ran around in circles. Obviously, the woman doesn’t mean me any harm. Perhaps she has children like mine and heard them running around the house and … No that can’t be right! I heard the children after the woman had disappeared … Oh, I don’t know! Perhaps it was a nightmare after all.

Things settled down, their furniture finally arrived, all the boxes were eventually emptied and the house became a home.

Enrolling the twins at pre-school, they began to socialize with other families and learn about the history of the town. Their next door neighbor Angela was a great source of information having lived all her life in the small town. Now a grandmother, she must have been at least seventy years of age. She told Elizabeth, how her husband had passed away some years ago, having been a manager at the Mine, as her father had been before him. She now kept house for her son Robert, who worked at the Mine. This information surprised Elizabeth, who didn’t realize how long the Mine had been operating.

Of course the town wasn’t like it is today, said Angela. Life was very hard back then. It was so isolated not many people had even heard of it.

Elizabeth was not surprised that Angela knew so much about the town, since she had lived here for such a long time!

The twins settled into school, and some months later they came home excited because the school was putting on a concert and they were going to be little Miners. There were only about twenty children at the school, with one teacher who taught from Pre School to grade six. It was to be a re-enactment of the Mine Pioneers, and the parents had to make their costumes. Having no ideas, Elizabeth asked Angela, the source of all knowledge, who just happened to have some old photos. Looking at these faded pictures Elizabeth felt she had seen them somewhere before, although until Liam had found employment at the Mine, they had lived in Carisdale Victoria, so she had no idea where she may have seen these photos. Oh well, she thought, just another mystery!

The next night,