Lavender

"This leg," I said as I eased myself on to the chair, "and Dorcas."

"I knew that they shouldn't have put you in the Lavender room. Was it...?"

"Not too terrible. Certainly not terrifying but she has worn me out."

Janet suppressed a laugh.

"She would. Like a coffee? You look as if you need a stimulant."

"I do. Coffee would be good, Janet, thank you."

Janet put a steaming mug of coffee in front of me.

"What would you like for breakfast, Ian? I can do everything from full English to cereal and fruit."

"I think cereal would be enough, Janet. It's fairly late for a full breakfast."

"Are you sure, Ian? You look as if you need sustenance. If Dorcas behaved as she is supposed to, you need reviving."

The unspoken question was "What was it like?"

"I could tell that she was related to you..."

Janet nearly blushed.

"How? No one has seen her, unless you did?"

"No, Janet. I didn't see her. Her voice..." Janet relaxed visibly, "...was just like yours with a slightly thicker Devon burr. You could sound like sisters, and..."

"And?" Janet prompted. It was my turn to blush. Janet laughed out loud.

"How do you know whether I'm like Dorcas?" She asked, giggling.

"I don't. I might enjoy finding out... but only as part of a serious relationship."

"If I'm really like Dorcas, you might not survive, Ian."

"It could be a great way to die."

"Don't be silly. Here's your cereal. By the way, some post came for you this morning. I'll get it."

She went into the hall and returned with a couple of legal-looking envelopes. She handed them to me, then brushed her hand over my head.

"It might be interesting to find out whether I'm like Dorcas, Ian, but you're still married, and you don't really know me."

"I'd like to." She swung her hand as if to slap my face. "I mean I'd get to know you better, not find out whether..."

Janet's kiss stopped me. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I leaned back against her breasts.

"I know what you really mean, Ian. You are the first man who has shown any interest in me since my divorce. I appreciate that, but we are both hurting. You are hurting physically as well as emotionally. If you want to, I could take you out to lunch today. I finish at noon."

I twisted so that I could look at her.

"I'd like that, Janet, but I should open these letters first. They might mean I have to do something, today. If not, I'd gladly accept."

"OK, Ian. I'll still be here when you've read your mail."

She hugged me and moved away to continue working in the kitchen, apparently sorting washing. The phone rang. Janet went to the hall and answered it.

I opened the first envelope. It was from my solicitors, just a formal acknowledgement of receiving the copy of the African marriage certificate I had left with them when I asked them about the possibility of divorcing Maria.

Janet returned as I reached for the second envelope which was fatter. Inside were several sheets of photocopying with a covering letter. I glanced at it and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Janet asked.

"My solicitor's advice on my divorce."

"Funny? Most solicitors' letters mean costs."

"This one doesn't. Can I have another coffee, Janet, and your attention while I explain?"

"OK. I'll get coffee for both of us once I've started the washing machine."

She went out of the kitchen with an armful of washing. When she returned she refilled my coffee mug and brought one for herself. She sat beside me.

"Ready?" I asked.

Janet nodded.

"My solicitors have looked at my marriage certificate and the deed of separation Maria and I signed. They weren't sure of the exact legality of either document so consulted an associate company in Nairobi.

The Nairobi solicitors faxed copies of documents about marriage laws and customs where Maria and I married. But, and this is the stupid part, we DIDN'T marry."

"What!" Janet spluttered.

"We didn't marry. What we went through was an engagement ceremony. If we hadn't married, Maria could have sued me for breach of promise, or I could have sued her. We should have had another ceremony for the actual marriage. It was like signing a pre-nuptial contract, and not going through with it. What we thought was the separation agreement was actually the cancellation of the engagement. Since we did that by mutual consent, the engagement is ended without a marriage. So I'm single. So is she. We've always been single."

I swallowed some coffee as Janet and I took in what the lawyer had written. I showed her the letter. We still didn't really believe it.

"Did you read the second page, Ian?"

"There's a second page?"

Janet handed it to me. I read it. What it said was, even if we had gone through with the actual marriage ceremony, we still wouldn't have been married. The marriage would only be legal between two members of the particular tribe who inhabited the area. British citizens were ineligible. I laughed out loud.

"No wonder the African lawyer was so pleased with his fee. He got money for arranging the marriage that wasn't a marriage, and then for cancellation of the engagement contract that wasn't an engagement contract..."

"What does that mean for you and Maria?"

"It means that we have never been married and the agreement between us is void. We could renegotiate the property split between us, but since we were never in any legal partnership, what's the point? The split is fair to both of us. I'll tell my solicitors to write to hers and suggest leaving everything as it is."

"So, newly single Ian, what now?"

"Now, not so newly-single Janet, I accept your invitation to lunch when you are free."

"That'll be in about an hour. By the way, the phone call was from Angela. They've been to an auction viewing in Truro, found some items they'd like to bid on, and are staying there overnight for the auction tomorrow. The girls will be staying with friends for a sleepover. They do that so often that they and their friends have nightwear in each others' houses. Angela asked me to look after you until tomorrow evening. I presumed that you would be OK with that. "

"Of course I am, Janet. At the moment there's no one I'd rather be with."

"Not even Dorcas?"

I laughed.

"You're not as demanding or as exhausting as Dorcas."

"Don't be too sure about that, Ian. You don't know what I might be like..."

Janet hugged me again. I was enjoying her hugs.

"Can I stay here and talk to you as you work?" I asked.

"Of course."

So I did. She talked about growing up locally. I talked about my former life in Africa. She kept me supplied with coffee and helped me to stand up when I needed to drain some of the coffee away.

Later I climbed into the passenger seat of Janet's old Land Rover.

"Are you sure this is OK, Ian? You'll get shook up a bit. Will your leg stand it?"

"It should do. It only hurts when I walk too far, as I did yesterday, or I do too much, as I did with Dorcas."

"Was she that demanding?"

"Yes. What do local people know about her?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you. I haven't really told Alan and Angela. I didn't think I'd need to, because they intended to use the Lavender room as a study, not a bedroom. They knew that Dorcas haunted that room, but not the details."

Janet started the engine. I expected it to be noisier than it was. We could still talk.

"So what are the details? I've met Dorcas now. If I'm going to meet her again I'd like to know what to expect."

"I don't think you should meet Dorcas again, at least not tonight. I'm not sure you are fit enough. Your leg certainly isn't and she doesn't make allowances, does she?"

"Perhaps she does. She was more reasonable when I admitted my age."

"Oh. OK. Here's what I know from the local traditions. Even before her death, Dorcas was considered to be man-hungry. When she took up with Josh, some of his relations were worried even though he was reasonably fit for that era. After a few months with Dorcas he was looking less fit and frequently tired. Some of the local young men were jealous of him. Some of the women were worried for him. Others were shocked. In the mid-19th Century, women weren't expected to be sexual predators.

It was said that he only continued smuggling and poaching at night because while poaching he was away from Dorcas' bed and being out at night was less strenuous than making love to her.

When he went, Dorcas was already pregnant. If she hadn't been, she might have been able to attract another man, but the men who weren't scared off by the stories of her insatiability didn't want the responsibility of a pregnant woman, and then supporting another man's child. So Dorcas went from making love several times a night, to no sex at all. That was the trigger for her suicide. Most didn't think that it was for love of Josh, but loss of her sexual partner with no short-term prospect of another that made her kill herself.

After her death, which the coroner kindly attributed to 'an accident' so that she could be buried in the churchyard, no one used the Lavender room for some months. Then incomers rented the house. They used the Lavender room for the governess. She didn't have any bother with Dorcas. No woman who slept in that room has ever had any sign that the room is haunted.

When the children went off to boarding school, the governess went to another family. The Lavender room was unused for some years, and then the wife's brother-in-law, recently widowed, stayed in it for one night. He met Dorcas. Apparently he enjoyed the encounter and wrote a detailed account of what had happened which he left with the family. I think he must have been economical with the truth, because the family didn't think that Dorcas was anything but 'interesting'.

The next visitor to stay there was the husband's older brother who was a Methodist minister. He rushed out of the Lavender room in the middle of the night shouting about a wanton trollop. After that, the family made sure that only women slept in the Lavender room."

Janet swung the Land Rover on to a tidal road. She negotiated the water splashes with care in a low gear.

"I brought us this way because we get some good views of the estuary and it is a short cut to our destination. It's not too bumpy for you?"

"No, Janet. I'm OK. My leg is beginning to recover from Dorcas. When was it that the minister called her a 'wanton trollop'?"

"I'm not sure. The traditions about Dorcas are short on dates. Possibly the 1870s or 80s. The house was unoccupied from 1890 to about 1905. That's when Dorcas really caused trouble."

"How? If the house was empty, who could Dorcas make love to?"

"All the lads. It became almost a rite of passage for our local young men to spend the night of their 21st birthday in the Lavender room."

I laughed.

"I can see the attraction." I said.

"So did our young men. Their girlfriends, who wanted to be virgins when they married, felt that they couldn't compete with a ghostly sexual athlete like Dorcas, not unless they wanted to risk becoming pregnant. Just as Dorcas had been unable to face being a single mum in the mid-century, so did the women in the 1890s. There were many hurried marriages and apparently premature babies but not all the men could or would marry the women who had become pregnant trying to compete with Dorcas.

After three women committed suicide and one young man nearly died after visiting Dorcas, the village decided that something had to be done. Locking and barring the Lavender room wouldn't work. The attraction of Dorcas meant that the young men would go to great lengths to get into the Lavender room. Eventually they persuaded the absentee landlord to sell the house. It didn't make much because it had been neglected for so long, but the new owners were a retired couple from London. They renovated the house, and in a spirit of misguided humour, they papered the walls of the Lavender room with lavender-figured wallpaper.

One of their sons, when visiting his parents, persuaded them to let him sleep in the Lavender room. Apparently he and Dorcas enjoyed themselves for a whole week. Later, his parents found that he had embellished the wallpaper with tiny drawings of positions from the Kama Sutra. They were not pleased with him, and he wasn't a welcome visitor for some years until he returned with a new wife -- and didn't sleep in the Lavender room."

At that point Janet swung the Land Rover into the car park of a public house overlooking the sea.

"Here we are. This is where we're eating lunch."

"Do you mind if I'm old-fashioned on a first date, and pay for us, Janet?"

"No. Of course not. I'll be delighted to be your guest, Ian."

Over the meal of local sea food we didn't talk about Dorcas. We talked about ourselves and found out more about each other. I admit it. We enjoyed ourselves. Despite my much-travelled life and Janet's more limited travelling, we seemed to be in tune with each other, laughing at the same things, and with similar cultural interests.

After lunch we sat on the terrace looking out to sea. We were well wrapped up because it was cold for the time of year. The rest of the patrons had stayed in the warm building. Janet was drinking fruit juice while I tried the recommended local bitter.

"I'm not happy about you spending another night in the Lavender room," Janet said suddenly. " Sometimes I feel sorry for Dorcas. All she wanted was her man. She had him for a few months. Most of the local girls at that time were pregnant when they married so she wasn't unusual in that. They couldn't afford a church wedding on their own. Most of the local employers paid for multiple weddings for pregnant girls. The one notable event was fourteen brides at one service."

"That is a lot at once, Janet."

"It is the local record, but other parishes had more."

Janet looked serious.

"I'm worried about you. It's nearly the anniversary of Dorcas' suicide. That is Halloween. Dorcas is at her worst, some say her most demanding, as Halloween approaches, and insatiable on the night of Halloween itself."

"I survived last night," I admitted ruefully, "but I think only because Dorcas took pity on an 'old man' who had done his best."

"Would your best be good enough if she had been more demanding? It's a serious question, Ian. I don't want to lose you to a sex-mad ghost."

"Are you jealous of Dorcas?" I meant it as a joke.

"I could be," Janet replied. "not of one night with her, but if you kept going back. I'm not as young as I used to be..."

"Neither am I. I could easily have far too much of Dorcas, more than I could endure. I don't like admitting that, but it's true. If I could avoid her..."

"That's it! You will. I'm not letting you sleep in the Lavender room tonight."

"How, Janet? The other room is full of decorating equipment."

"My spare room isn't. It's small but it is Dorcas-free. The painters have finished for the weekend and they've already done the bedrooms."

"Your room? Isn't that an imposition? I'm supposed to be staying with my brother."

"But he, and his wife, are away tonight. They won't know. When they return we could tell them, and you could use my spare room until the decoration is finished. You'd avoid Dorcas completely."

"You're really worried about me, aren't you, Janet? If Dorcas is such a threat, has anyone tried to exorcise her?"

"Yes. And that's why I'm worried. Our local vicar tried a ceremony before the First World War. He and his helpers ran from the house and he would never return. He wasn't an expert, but he thought he could help Dorcas. She disagreed violently.

In the 1960s some spiritualists heard about Dorcas and they wanted to investigate, using a male medium. They too had to leave hurriedly. The medium thought that Dorcas was really evil. The locals discounted that. They thought that the medium was a closet homosexual and the wrong man to deal with Dorcas, but the other spiritualists were really worried. They tried to get the then owners to allow a full-scale investigation, but the owners refused.

Since then Ian, until you, I don't think a man has spent a night in the Lavender room. Your brother ignored the stories about Dorcas I think because neither he, nor anyone he knows, has experienced her. I admit it, I wasn't too worried before you met her. I thought that Dorcas had gone away, or had got less demanding. Seeing the state of you this morning, I'm really worried. I won't let you stay in that room tonight."

"You won't let me? What are you going to do, Janet? Kidnap me?"

She laughed.

"I hope I won't have to. I hope you'll accept my invitation to spend the night in my spare room, and a few more nights until your brother's guest bedroom is ready. Please?"

"Since you ask so nicely, how could I refuse? I accept."

"That's settled then, Ian. You'll have a Dorcas-free night."

"That would be a relief, although Dorcas did show some compassion when I admitted my age..."

"Hang on. You're saying that Dorcas spoke to you? Not just to Josh?"

"Yes. I said she did."

"That is unusual, Ian. Normally Dorcas addresses whoever is in the Lavender Room as Josh."

"She did at first, but then we had a conversation. Between Dorcas and me, Ian. She acknowledged that I wasn't Josh."

"That's very odd, Ian. As far as I know, Dorcas has never had a conversation with any of her victims. She talks about Josh, talks to Josh, but never admits that her victim might not be Josh. What has changed, and why?"

"Don't ask me, Janet. I haven't a clue. I was just Dorcas' one-night stand."

"Perhaps it was because you are older. As far as I know all her previous victims have been well under thirty. We'll have to check the accounts of her apparitions."

"She was scarcely 'an apparition', Janet. She was as solid as you are. The only difference..."

"How do you know she is like me?"

"I don't. I'm sorry, Janet. I mean that she seemed to be a living woman, not a ghost. She had weight and substance, warmth and texture, and... A slightly obvious pregnancy bump. That might not have been noticeable when clothed. It was apparent when her skin was against mine."

"I think I might be getting jealous of Dorcas. She's been in your bed, bouncing up and down on you..."

"Yes. Very effectively."

Janet looked at me but said nothing. When we had finished our drinks she drove us back to Alan and Angela's house and collected my overnight things.

"Since you are staying with me tonight, I'll cook there, Ian. Is that OK?"

"Of course it is Janet, unless you would rather go to a restaurant. I'd like to renew my memories of some of our meals together years ago."

"You would? At the time my husband didn't mind. He couldn't imagine anyone else finding me attractive, and you did, didn't you?"

"Yes," I said, giving her a hug that turned into a kiss.

"But you didn't do anything, did you? You were a perfect gentleman."

"And you were a happily married woman -- then."

"And now, Ian, neither of us is married. OK. A restaurant it is. Can I choose?"

"Of course."

"Then I'll make a reservation. Hang on while I phone. You could make us some coffee."

Janet was gone. I found the coffee and started to make it before I realised that I had no idea how Janet liked her coffee. We knew so little about each other. That wasn't wholly true. Janet would know how I liked my coffee because she had made some for me several times. I knew that she loved where she lived with a real enthusiasm.

That evening in a local seafood restaurant within walking distance of Janet's house, although the food was fantastic, we barely noticed. We spent much of the time just talking to each other, finding out what we liked, what we hated, and just enjoying each other's company.

We drank a couple of bottles of wine between us. On the walk home we held hands at first then wrapped ourselves around each other. My injured leg appreciated Janet's unobtrusive support.