It was our first overseas trip!  Well it was my first, and our first together.

My husband was born in England, and in theory lived there until he was fifteen.  In truth he spent some of his childhood in the middle and far east as his father was working in various oil installations.  By the time he was eight years old he was sent to boarding school back in England.  Much of his school breaks were spent with his grandparents in a suburb of London.  Other times he flew half way around the world to visit his parents.  Then in the early sixties his parents returned to England, and bought a house down on the south coast of England.  He was still at boarding school until they migrated to Australia around 1963.

Back to our trip to England.  We sometimes refer to this as a visit to historical sites – family historical sites that is.  As well as some general touristy things, we visited a couple of he boarding schools he attended, found his paternal grandparents grave, visited the house on the south coast.  Our final stop was London – doing many of the tourist things here as well.  But there was one more former home to visit while we were in London.

By this time, we had returned our rental car, and so all our excursions were by foot or train. And this was before smart phones and GPS.  So to find his grandparents former home, it was onto the train, and then foot.  This was thirty-five years since Tim had left England, and even longer since he had visited the area as a youngish boy in his early teens (or maybe pre-teens).

So we walked in the general direction he remembered.  Finally, we walked down one road he thought was close to the street we were seeking.  Things of course had changed.  There were a few people around, but they did not seem inclined to connect with us.  Eventually as we proceeded down this street we saw a lady who we managed to make eye contact with.  We asked her if she knew where Linton Ave was.  She pointed to the next street a few metres away, and we saw the street name on a low brick wall overgrown with bushes.  It was only having had it pointed out that you could see some of the letters of the street name.

But this was not the unexplained!
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This lady (and I have forgotten her name unfortunately) then indicated that she lived in the street in her old family home.  Tim explained that his grandparents had lived there, and he had spent a lot of his childhood there.  Our “new” friend then exclaimed “You are not Tim are you?”  She lived next door to his grandparents’ former home, and they had often played together as children.  Of all the people we could have asked for directions, the one person we found was a former playmate!

​The Lady in Grey moved silently around the castle.  It was quiet and she was feeling relaxed.  She appreciated the quiet around the castle with no visitors.  And the family was also away for the day.  It was so much easier not to be worried about what else was going on.  She had had to be very careful.  There was no way to know who would be able to see her.  It was nearly a year now since she had been nearly caught.  One of the visitors had seen her, and asked who she was - the visitor fortunately had thought that she was one of the volunteers in costume.  But the Lady in Grey had slipped away as quickly as possible, and everyone decided the visitor had been imagining things.  But it had taught her a lesson and she had become extra careful when watching the visitors to the castle.
 
As she wandered around the deserted castle, the Lady in Grey was remembering her experiences with the family over recent months.  One of the family, an eight-year-old girl, was starting to show tendencies to see the Lady in Grey, or at least to feel her presence.  This was not unusual.  In fact, there was always at least one child in each generation who could see her.  And generally, the other children could feel her comforting presence if they had bad dreams.  She had been the nurse for the children in the days that such things were done.  Somehow, the children always felt her presence, and would quieten quickly when she entered their rooms.  But they did not actually feel her presence or see her at other times.  It was young Lucy who was the one to feel her presence when awake, and sometimes would turn suddenly as if she had actually seen her.
 
This relationship with Lucy would not last of course.  It would follow the same process as it had with others.  They would start seeing her more often, and even talk with her, as someone to discuss their concerns in private.  She could not answer but she was sure that they could see changed expressions in her face as she showed concern or happiness.  And they always went away more relaxed after their time with her.  It was as they entered their late teen years that they ceased to want to interact with her.  She did not know if they just ignored her because they did not want to be thought crazy.  Often it happened when they entered into any sort of serious relationships, so she thought that perhaps it was when they no longer needed the comfort of her presence – and of course once they moved away from the castle, they could no longer interact with her anyway.
 
There was one though, Trudy, who came back to her every time she visited the castle.  It took a little while before the Lady in Grey knew what was going on.  Generally, Trudy would visit the old nursery, sitting silently until she entered the room.  Once the Lady in Grey entered the room, Trudy would start talking about her children and life away from the castle.  Trudy did not know that in general the children who could see her, lost the “sight” once they grew up and left the castle.  It was one evening when the Lady in Grey silently entered her bedroom while Trudy was undressing that she saw the bruises.  At first the Lady in Grey did not take much notice.  After all, it was easy to get a bruise or two.  But then at Trudy’s next visit she saw different bruises.  When there were more bruises at a third visit, the Lady in Grey became very concerned.  But what could she do?  While Trudy could see her and talk to her, the Lady in Grey could not communicate in return.  She could not tell anyone.
 
It was around this time that the Lady in Grey noticed that Trudy’s mother, who was one of the children who had known her presence, also started visiting the nursery.  The Lady in Grey realised that she also was looking for some comfort, and seemed to be sensing her presence in some way.  It was almost as if Trudy’s mother was sensing that there was something wrong.  The visits seemed to coincide with the days after Trudy had returned to her own home. 
 
This gave the Lady in Grey an idea.  At Trudy’s next visit the Lady in Grey spent a lot of time following the family around.  She did get a bit careless, but she needed to do something for Trudy.  Trudy was wearing slightly looser clothes.  Whether by design so as not to put pressure on her bruised flesh, or because she had lost weight was not clear – perhaps it was a bit of both.  Anyway, the Lady in Grey took every opportunity to ensure that there were drafts that moved the clothes to hopefully expose the bruises.  It was a few days before this ploy was successful, but eventually her brother (who lived in the castle) saw the bruises.  Then her mother saw them also.  Strangely enough, the tension that had been building up in the castle seemed to dissolve.  While everyone had felt a level of tension, they all now knew the cause, and the solution.  It was time to help Trudy escape from an abusive relationship and return home to the castle until she had healed emotionally as well as physically.  Once she had found herself once more, she would be ready to go back out into the world with new strength and determination.
 
In fact, it was now many months since Trudy has visited her in the old nursery.  She no longer needed the comfort of the mysterious Lady in Grey.  She had gone back out into the world.  The Lady in Grey missed her, but was finding comfort in Lucy’s growing awareness of her presence.