The darkest of secrets that haunted the house had to be the mystery around Joe. It was one Elizabeth failed to ever understand. The question tortured her mind like a maggot feeding on flesh - where had Joe gone?

Joe once ruled the house. He was the main man, the boss. Someone with high authority, the type you love to hate. He was strong, well mannered and attractive, yet hot tempered and self centered.

Most of the time, Joe spent his time working. He was business man, well known in fact. Especially known for the dedication he had towards this work. And when he wasn't working, he drowned his sorrows in liquor while he listened to same irritating classical song on repeat until eventually, his wife's mind would explode.

When he wasn't doing either, you could find him roming the halls of the gaint house. His cane and steel shoes clipping on the wooden old floor boards as he passed you by. No one was ever sure why he did this...

Every evening at around 11 o'clock that's exactly what his wife would hear. The clipping of his shoes as he staggered his way to their room after hours of drinking and listening to the stupid song. Until one evening it never came. He wasn't found in his office, or anywhere in the house for that matter. He wasn't exploring the halls or even the gardens. He hadn't even gone to the local pub, a place he was also familiar with. Just like that, he vanished. Almost like he had never existed in the first place.

Elizabeth always found that tale rather odd. How does a man just one day disappear without a trace? How does no one not know something about the man? Had Joe really ever existed or was it just something everyone else in the Manor dreamt?

She blinked at the large potrait that hung at the top of the grand staircase. He was exactly how she had pictured him in her mind the first time Aunt Maria had told her his story, before she moved into the house. He was young and appeared well groomed, his hair slicked back, his mustache circled up. His stern look spoke arrogance and his black and white suit and straight posture screamed  importance.

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. The idea disgusted her to think, but she often wondered had he run away. Anger filled her body at the thought of a man hurting her poor aunt like that. Purposely up and leaving. After all, what had he to run from? Money. Lots of it. She doubted he was the type to turn down money.

There was something he hadn't told anyone. She was certain of that anyway. Wherever he had gone, wherever that may be, he had taken the secrets that hoovered in his brown eyes with him.

Elizebath turned away and carried on down the corridor to her room. She opened the door to find her bed freshly made, the curtains blowing in the wind. She hurried across the cold room and quickly, shut the window.

"I told her to leave my window closed," Elizebath sighed. The maid never listened to the girl.

It was then Elizebath caught sight of the same very maid in the garden. In her black and white outfit, she carried a tray to the gardener who was cutting bushes. She stopped when she approached him and place the tray on the ground. The garden climbed down from his ladder and for a moment, they talked before he picked up whatever food was on the tray and she rushed back into the house.

She continued to watch the gardener as he ate the food given to him. Her heart flickered in her chest a little. Although the man was much older than her - old enough to be her father in fact - Elizebath secretly crushed on him and part of her wasn't ashamed to admit it.

She leaned forward, resting her elbow on the windowsill and placed her chin in her palm. She tilted her head and longingly gazed at him, a small smile spreading across her pink lips. Quickly, her stalk ended when the gardener noticed Elizebath and waved. She jumped up, embarrassed. She waved back before stepping away from the glass. Her cheeks heated, turning as red as the roses he planted in garden.

"God, he must think I'm a such a fool!" She thought.

Elizebath snapped out of her thoughts when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yes?" Elizebath, said expecting it to be the maid. She looked over the shoulder that had been tapped only to find no one there. Her heart stopped and her eyes narrowed. Then she realised the door she had left open no longer remained open. Now it had closed.

She headed over to the door and stuck her head into the hall as she checked both directions. No one was there.

"Strange." She shrugged. "Must have been the wind". Although Elizabeth seemed to be blaming the wind a lot for problems similar to this lately.

She walked down the corridor and down the stairs to the kitchen, where she found the maid.

"Had you come into my room just then?" Elizabeth questioned, sitting at the dining table.

"No, I have been making lunch. Why?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought someone had come into my room and I thought maybe it was you. But nevermind, it was probably the wind. Since you left my window open... Again."

"I told you, you need to open your window in the mornings. You need to let some air in. It gets awfuls stuffy in there otherwise."

She opened her mouth to protest when Aunt Maria butted in.

"She's got a point."

Elizabeth folded her arms on her chest and pouted. She hated the cold and leaving the window open made it just that. She hated it!

The maid placed a plate with bread and some cheese infront of Elizebath, who ignored the food and crossed her arms on the table now.

"Aunt Maria?" she asked.

"Yes?" She questioned, never peeling her eyes away from the paper she held in her hands.

"Where do you think Joe disappeared to?"

The maid froze and widened her eyes at the young girl. No one ever mentioned Joe. Not to Maria's face. It was a subject everyone at the Manor tiptoed around in fear of Maria's reaction.

"I don't know," she replied. The maid's eyes shifted to Maria and blinked, shocked at her calm response. Maria closed the paper and put it on the table. She picked up her cup and sipped on the tea. "I like to think it's somewhere nice though. Somewhere hot. He loves the hot weather."

Elizabeth brought her chin down to her folded arms and thought about it. Then nodded. "Yeah, me too."

Maria smiled, shocking the maid more, who grabbed a tray of cups of tea and headed back outside. Elizabeth's gaze followed her out the door before she turned back to her aunt and said, "she's a strange old lady"

Maria laughed. "She's not old."

"Then how old is she?"

"In her 50s, I believe."

"As I said, old."

Maria chuckled.

"Do you want lunch, love?"

"No thanks, I'm not hungry."

"Well, why don't you go give the others a hand?" She suggested.

"Ok." Elizabeth stood up and made her way outside. She stopped and stared across the large garden. All the bushes had be freshly cut and the lawn mowed. It was colourful, vibrant. It was, in Elizabeth's opinion, the best thing about the place.

She spotted the builder walking down the stone path, ladder under one arm and a bucket in the other hand, she ran to him.

"Tony!" She grinned.

"Well hello there." He winked.

"You're back," she said, pleased.

"I guess I had to come back at some point." He smiled.

"True."

"Were you painting the gate?" She questioned.

"Good guess, how'd you get that?"

"You're wearing those paint stained overalls you always wear when you paint. And you have a white paint stain on your cheek." She giggled.

"Fair enough." The young man laughed. "Can I help you with anything, miss Carter."

"No. Aunt Maria told me to come ask if anyone needed help."

"You can help hold the ladder if you want?"

"Sure." Elizabeth shrugged. Even though the job sounded rather boring to her, she had nothing else to be at. As much as she loved the Manor, there was never anything to do. Plus she enjoyed Tony's company.

"Hold it still, don't let it fall. I just need to climb up to the light to fix it. I won't take long, I promise," he instructed. He rested the ladder steadily along the pole before he climbed up the steps. Elizabeth did what was asked of her and firmly held the ladder.

Within a matter of seconds, she grew fed up already and her mind began to drift away. She hummed as she stared at the trees around her. The lined the wall that ran around the premises, blocking anyone who passed by from seeing into the garden. Elizabeth loved that about the house too - the privacy. Back at home, she lived on a busy street with an open garden. Anyone who walked by could see her in their garden. Here, they couldn't.

"Almost done," Tony assured her. However she never heard him as her attention had drifted away. She gawked at a group of trees behind her. They were closely impacted and dark. She jerked back when she caught sight of something white shift between two trees trunks. Her eyes narrowed.

"Done!" tony spoke and he began to come down the ladders. Elizabeth remained still, focused on the trees as she waited for the white thing to reappear.

"What is it?" Tony asked her as he reached the bottom. She stepped back for him to get back on the ground. "Off in another world again, I assume."

"There's something in the trees." Elizabeth pointed to them.

"Maybe it's a bear." Tony joked.

"No, bears are brown. Whatever it was is white."

"Maybe you just imagined it. Come on, let's go back. I believe I have another light to fix in the house." He put his hand on her back and guided her up the path. She walked with him, but her stare glued to the spot she saw the white thing zoom by.

As a child, her mother had promised Elizabeth ghosts weren't real. Which she grew up to believe. But whenever she came to the Manor every summer, Elizabeth found herself pondering the great question - were ghosts real? Because nothing else logically explained the strange things that she experienced when she came. No other reason made sense.