“Don’t you just love a Halloween-themed tour and a meal at an English country house?” Kate said to her friend as the minibus they were in pulled into the grounds of Mablethorpe Hall.
“Yeah, these old places have a real atmosphere!” Chloe replied.
“I’ve wanted to do something like this for like, forever. Stay overnight in some old place, pretend I’m lady of the manor. I’m so glad I booked this trip.”
“Kate you are such a history nerd. Lucy Worsley has a rival.”
“My heart is in the 18th century. Seriously. I just love anything from that time.”
Kate had often been described as an atypical millennial.
They got off the bus and collected their luggage.
“Come on, the tour is about to start. Let’s dump our luggage. Apparently this place is haunted.”
Kate smiled. “All good English manors should have at least one ghost! Three hours in a minibus. I’m stiff from sitting so long.”
They collected their room keys. The Hall had not yet upgraded to the modern electronic key cards. Kate liked that. A traditional brass key was more in keeping with the decor. The receptionist looked worried.
“Are you ok with having Room 13?” she asked.
“Sure. I’m not superstitious. Don’t tell me it’s haunted?”
“Well…some guests have reported that really strange things happen in that room. And the wi-fi doesn’t work in there.”
Kate just assumed the woman was joking. “In that case, it sounds like my kind of room! Think I can last a few hours without wi-fi.”
The room was large and splendid. “Seriously? I get a king-size four poster bed?” Kate exclaimed as she gazed in awe. “This is so fantastic! I feel like Queen Anne.”
The bed looked so inviting, Kate couldn’t resist just flopping back on it and spreading out.
“Bliss!” she sighed. So much better than the single bed back at her cramped one-bed flat. She closed her eyes…
Abruptly, Kate was overcome by a bizarre horniness, and masturbated more than she’d done in a long time. She was getting so wet, so hot and in a rush to give herself the release she so desperately needed. She hitched up her dress and pushed her panties down just a bit, then shoved her right hand down to her pussy. She used her left hand to push up her nightshirt and play with her breasts, pinching her nipples hard, making her moan with pleasure. Kate’s right hand was busy with her cunt, alternately slipping down between her pussy lips and inside her hot, wet core, fucking herself with fingers, then pulling out to rub her clit. Back and forth, over and over. She was moaning, fantasising about being pounded…pounded by an unknown uniformed man. Begging him to fuck her harder and send her climaxing in ecstasy…
Kate was screaming. Suddenly her orgasm peaked and hit full force. She stopped all movement with her hands momentarily then began again, at first very fast and hard, then slowing as her orgasm began to subside.
She lay there as her breathing slowly returned to normal.
“Jesus…” she muttered, when she could finally catch her breath again. “What the hell just happened?”
The tour had already begun when Kate arrived to join the others.
“What took you so long?” Chloe asked. “Thought you’d got lost.”
“Oh I just…er…oh wow, check out that tour guide!”
“Mablethorpe Hall, one of Berkshire’s finest country estates back in the day,” the tour guide began. He was dressed in early 18th century period costume, with a long wig, frilled cuffs and breeches.
“He looks just like John Hurt did in Rob Roy. I love the costumes in that movie.” Kate whispered to Chloe, who rolled her eyes.
Kate listened intently as every detail of the building’s history was described.
“But the most fascinating story of Mablethorpe,” the guide continued, “is that it’s said to be haunted by Major Robert Wolfe, a British Army officer.”
The was a chorus of “ooooh!” from the assembled tourists.
“The Major is said to return to Mablethorpe every Halloween night, in hope of seeing the woman he once loved.”
“So the poor sod just wants to get laid?” a middle-aged bloke at the front said, and everyone burst out laughing.
The tour guide evidently took this old legend extremely seriously and did not see the funny side.
“As I was saying, the Major was in love with Lady Annabelle Barrington-Smythe. That in itself was a scandal, for she was married to William Barrington-Smythe. Rumour has it that the Major was actually a notorious highwayman known as The Fox…”
Later, the guests were treated to a Halloween-themed meal in the Hall’s grand banqueting room. There were the usual things adorning the tables – Jack o’ lanterns, candles everywhere, fake cobwebs. In the background, a string quartet dressed as witches played a medley of Bach and Handel.
“Not as spooky as I was expecting,” Chloe said as she sampled the pumpkin pie and spiced rum. “I was hoping the lights were going to go out and there’d be a jump-scare or something. Like two years ago when we went to that zombie-themed night at Castle Howard. That was creepy as hell!”
“This is nice though. Lots of atmosphere. I like it here. I’d like to…get married in a place like this. Have a historical-themed wedding. That is, if…”
“When, Kate. When you meet that ideal guy. And you will. He’s out there. Plenty of fish. Steve was a complete arsehole, but he’s ancient history. A bit like this hall.”
“True!”
After the meal concluded, there was more live music and dancing.
“Think I’m going to call it a night,” Kate said.
“Oh you lightweight,” Chloe replied, already tipsy. “Aren’t you going to stay up for the midnight ghost walk in the grounds? You might see a good-looking highwayman.”
“No, I’m totally exhausted. Really. You can tell me all about it in the morning.”
“Fine, whatever. I know you’re too afraid!”
Kate headed up to her room, surprised at being overcome by such tiredness. She hadn’t drunk that much, and it had hardly been an energetic evening. The glorious king-size bed and it’s luxurious blankets beckoned…
Some time after midnight, Kate was in a deep slumber, but also in the throes of a nightmare.
He’s coming…
Kate did not dream often, and she was even less often plagued by bad dreams. Several times she stirred, came half awake, and heard herself gasping in panic. Once, drifting up from some threatening vision, she heard her own voice crying out wordlessly in terror, and she realised she was thrashing about in the bed.
Suddenly the air was oppressively heavy–hot, thick, as if it were not air at all but a bitter and poisonous gas of some kind. She tried to breathe, couldn’t. There was an invisible, crushing weight on her chest. The unmistakable smell of gunpowder. Hoofbeats…many horses. Some kind of battle?
A murderous barrage of lightning crashed like a volley of mortar fire, seven or eight tremendous bolts – and woke her from sleep in an instant.
“Holy shit.” Kate gasped as the storm made her sit upright in bed. She remembered what Chloe had said earlier, about the tour not being scary. Evidently, nature had now delivered a jump-scare of its own.
Already her memory of the nightmare had begun to dissolve; only fragments of it remained with her, and each of those disassociated images was evaporating as if it were a splinter of ice. All she could remember was that she’d been in a battle of some kind, and there had been many men – soldiers on horseback. They’d been pursuing her. Firing guns.
As the nightmare receded, Kate became uncomfortably aware of how dark the bedroom was. Before going to sleep she had switched off both the bedside lamps. The curtains were all closed, and only thin blades of moonlight were visible between the gap she’d left. She had the irrational but unshakable feeling that something had followed her up from the dream…there was another presence in the room…oh God! She fumbled for the lamp switch…damn, where was it? Groped around, switched it on. Relief as golden light flooded the room…
And then she saw him. Stood at the side of the bed. He was dressed in a Redcoat uniform, just calmly standing there.
She gasped, but was so shocked, she couldn’t utter a sound for a moment. Then her initial shock turned to anger. Was this part of the Halloween tour? Having re-enactors actually enter the guest bedrooms was completely unacceptable.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kate yelled.
He seemed taken aback by her reaction. “Who are you?” She demanded once she had caught her breath again.
“I beg your pardon, Miss,” he began. He removed his hat as he moved closer.
“Major Robert Wolfe of His Majesty’s 58th Regiment of Foot.”
“What are you doing here?”
He smiled politely. “Where I come from, when a gentleman introduces himself, a lady generally responds in kind.”
Kate was about to respond with a sarcastic remark, but then she noticed that he was surrounded by a faint, silver glow. Her heart began to pound like crazy. Gathering all her courage, she decided to ask him directly.
“Are you…dead?”
The Major’s face relaxed into a smile. “Oh indeed. Quite, quite dead. As I have been since the last night of October, 1765…”
Kate thought she might faint. “You’re a…”
“A spirit, why yes. An earthbound and restless one, forever drawn to return to Mablethorpe every All Hallow’s night. Isn’t that quite a tale? I most humbly apologise for subjecting you to my battle experiences earlier…but t’was the only way I was able to wake you.”
She looked him up and down. He did look a gentleman, to be sure, and a handsome one at that. The signature red coat, crossed with white belts, the brown hair tied back in a queue and neatly curled at the sides, the breeches, knee-high leather boots. A brass gorget glinted round his neck.
The Major took one of her pale, slender hands. Kate was surprised to feel solid flesh, rather than some kind of gaseous form, as expected of a ghost. Was he more of a zombie? His hand was as cold as ice. Kate suddenly felt her cheeks flush, under his intense gaze. If all those old stereotypes about ghosts were true, then he could probably see right through her nightie, as well as walk through walls…
“Um…why did you wake me?”
He was still holding her hand. “Well…I must beg your forgiveness for the manner of this intrusion, my lady. I am honoured to make your acquaintance. I was drawn to you from the moment you arrived here. You resemble so much…someone I lost…long ago. For the past 255 years I keep returning here, hoping to find a lady who might be able to satisfy my most urgent of needs…”
Kate bit her lip, as she recalled that earlier incident in the bedroom when she’d pleasured herself. She’d never been a religious person. But now she was considering sex with a ghost. Was she about to embark on something that might damn her soul? On the other hand, she’d been single for a while, had been craving the touch of a man…
“Major…I am willing to help you in any way I can.”
“You are lovely beyond belief. If I may so bold as to show my appreciation?”
He leaned in to kiss the exposed skin of her neck; his lips leaving a hot trail from just below her ear to the centre of her throat at the neck of her nightie.
Kate closed her eyes and moaned.
“A little more, my lady?”
“Yes…oh yes…”
He kissed her and she parted her lips to let him in. The heat of his mouth and his probing tongue sent shivers through her body and she shifted closer to him to feel the heat of his body against hers. She breathed in the faint masculine scent.
Major Wolfe pulled back the bedcovers. Then he pushed her nightie up to bare her belly. Leaning her back, he took one hardened nipple with his lips and she gasped.
He sucked, pulling with his lips. At Kate’s soft moan, he drew in a shuddering breath. “Touch me,” he pleaded hoarsely, bringing her hand to the waistband of his breeches, and then guiding it down to cup the bulge in his groin. She explored eagerly, desperately, feeling his full erection through his breeches and groping lower to feel his balls. Oh lord, she was trembling so much with excitement. Unfastening the fall front flap, she pulled out his engorged organ. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She was groping the cock of a dead man! And she was so wet.
Kate took his hot length in her hand, feeling it, and stroked it up and down as she licked and sucked at the tip. The Major was generously endowed, and she felt herself blush.
“Here,” he said, moving her unoccupied hand to cup his balls. “Don’t be shy, my lady.”
Gently squeezing his balls, she slowly took his throbbing cock into her mouth. He moaned as she deep-throated him.
“Oh my lady,” he groaned.
Then Major Wolfe clambered on the bed and put his head between Kate’s thighs. The tip of his tongue brushed her clitoris. She jumped and willed him to move faster. At first his tongue explored her wet folds, but he replaced his tongue with gentle fingers that probed and rubbed and finally penetrated. Kate’s wetness was dripping down her arse crack and he rubbed it around with his fingers. The sensation made her squirm and she placed her feet on his shoulders, and when he finally sucked on her clit, she lifted herself up to meet his tongue. None of her previous partners had ever thrilled her as much as this.
His face was flushed and damp and his expression was one of pure longing.
“My lady…I want you so much. “He whispered and pushed up into her.
“Ahhh!” Kate gasped, more from surprise than the stretching sensation.
“Are you alright?” he said, wrapping one arm around her and holding her close. She gave her answer by kissing him. He insinuated his hand between their bodies and fingered her clit as he began to move inside her. Holy shit, those fingers…he knew exactly how to pleasure a woman for maximum effect! For a moment Kate thought of the fact he’d been waiting over two and a half centuries for this! He stroked her again with wet, slippery fingers and thrust steadily up into her. The combination awakened something within that she’d never felt before.
Kate dug her hands into his back and tried to speak, but couldn’t form words. The Redcoat’s large cock filled her completely, stretching her walls to the limit. He was groaning and fucking her like a wild beast.
“Come for me, my lady,” Major Wolfe whispered in her ear, and she cried out. “Come for me, release for me. Let us spend together,” he pleaded, and she did, her head falling back, her whole body shaking and clenching with the intensity of orgasm. He followed immediately; in an instant their coupling reached its conclusion and she was filled to the brim with his seed…
Kate didn’t want to let him go. They lay joined for what seemed like a long time. Eventually, Major Wolfe gently withdrew his softening member from his mortal lover.
“Dawn approaches, my lady.”
“No…Major…stay, please,” she whispered, tiredness overcoming her.
“Rest now, my love. I must go.”
Kate tried to say something, but sleep was rapidly overcoming her.
“We shall meet again. Soon…my love…” was the last she heard.
The sound of someone knocking on the door finally woke Kate. She squinted at the curtains. Bright sunlight was streaming through the gap.
“Kate, are you awake?” Chloe’s muffled voice could be heard.
Fumbling for a dressing gown, Kate staggered out of bed and opened the door.
“There you are! Were you in a coma or something? It’s 11 o’clock! You’ve missed breakfast and the minibus will be here in half an hour!”
“Oh God…sorry, I forgot to set my phone’s alarm clock. I…er, I’ll be down as quick as I can.”
“Are you ok? You look a bit peaky.”
“Just crashed out. How was the midnight ghost walk?”
“Midnight wash-out you mean. Did you see that storm last night? It was unreal. So much lightning. Thought a freaking nuclear bomb had gone off!”
“Oh. Guess I missed that.”
“Jeez, you were in a coma. That thunder could’ve wakened the dead!”
“Maybe it did,” Kate wondered.
Alone in the room again, Kate returned to the bed. Her mind was a tumult of emotions. “It wasn’t all a dream…was it? The product of a Halloween-crazed imagination? It couldn’t have been…” Suddenly she spotted something under the pillow. Eyes widening, she picked it up. The brass gorget.
“He WAS real!”
She clutched it to her chest. And hoped she wouldn’t have to wait until next Halloween before she saw Major Robert Wolfe again.