Summer Ghost Story

"What's that smell? Eh! Leather, it's getting stronger, someone exercising a horse down the road to the moors, nothing unusual. Hmmm should have gone past by now. "MAKE WAY THERE!!" "What?" A horse and carriage brushing past me going up the area I am working on. All black, but how do I know the man in the carriage is Squire Courteney? While I am thinking this, the image I have, slowly vanishes. The picture of all I have seen is etched on my mind, what exactly had I seen? Shaking my head in wonder and slightly shaken, I carry on trimming the hedge, all the time playing ovr what happened and at the same time doubting what I had seen.
"How's it goin' then?" "Uh, Gawd Peter I didn't hear you, you nearly gave me a heart attack." "What's wrong then?" "I think I am going mad, that's what's wrong, just before you arrived, I had the strange feeling of horses and a carriage going past me, only they weren't goig up the road, that would be weird enough, they went up this bit here, that I am working on, at least that's what I think happened. They just disappeared before they go to the gate, no more than twenty feet away, it gave me a funny turn I can tell you, oh, and the name, Squire Courteney, I am sure he was in the coach." Peter looked a bit shaken himself after I had told him this. After a lot of humming and shaking his head, he told me to stand over the road with my back to the double gates leading to the manor house. Not knowing what this had to do with anything I had told him, I humoured him. "What do you see from there?" "What do you mean, is he coming back? Well, nothing I haven't seen before, just that gap in the hedge line with a gate into the garden of the people across the road." "If you follow the left hand side of that gap and take away the gate, it eventually goes into the field Roy keeps his sheep in, and beyond that another gate that goes back into the manors' land again, now can you see what I mean?" "I'm not sure, do you mean this was an old lane, out of the manor?" "You've got it, this was the old road out to Tavistock and Whitchurch, the road that's here now, at right angles to it, was just a track for walking from field to field, this bit used to be the main road out until one of the previous owners covered it over, and these houses were built next to it. It's possible they don't even know it's still the manors land. Roys' kept his sheep on it for years. As for how you got the mans name is a mystery, the Courteneys owned the manor for around two hundred years, but they rarely used it, possibly as a summer residence from London. There has been rumours of noises and smells of horses, but no-one took any notice. You look as if you need to sit down, lets take a break shall we?" Now that was spooky, Peter very rarely acknowledged breaks let alone suggest one.
No-one ws staying at the manor at the moment, the owners have a home in London, the same as the Courteneys, so the movement I catch ou of the corner of my eye, while I am cutting the swimming pool grass, has me wondering, who it could be. The cleaners aren't in today and the housekeepers have gone shopping, perhaps I imagined it, I hope so, after this morning. As I am taking the grass box off to empty it, a shadow cuts across mine for a split second then diappears. I look up expecting someone to be there, no-one, I even look up to see if a bird had flown over, none. Odd, I think, and carry on. The next area is between the side of the manor and the old coach house, known as 'the small courtyard', this is a rough area because the original cobbles are still there, under the layer of earth and grass. Over the years the weather has exposed some of them, so care is needed not to damage the mower. I am sailing through this as I have done it so many times I know where the bad patches are, as I turn to go back across, again a movement out of the corner of my eye. I quickly turn this time, determined to catch who or whatever it is, and just see the door into the coachhouse move slightly, odd, in more ways that one, there shouldn't be anyone around, and this door in particular wasn't normally used, ther were two others that went directly into the building, this one had a bench in front of it and was never used. I bent to switch off the mower and walked towards the door. It was only four or five feet away, determined to find out what was causing me to see the movement. The door is closed, locked, it didn't budge when I pushed, then pulled. I knew it had been open, inwards, I had seen it. I tried the other two doors, both locked. Stranger and stranger. I took a quick look up to the windows on the first floor, roses had grown over two of them, so I couldn't see through them even if I was level, the third was clear of foliage, and I looked straight into the face of a man, staring straight back at me. The hairs on the back of my neck started to rise, I could see him clearly, as if there was no glass between us, clean shaven, thin face, sandy or grey hair, brushed back, then he turned and went into the room beyond. There was one more door I hadn't tried, th one from the swimming pool, into the first floor of the coach house, it being built on a slope. I raced round and up the slope, and went through the small gate across my freshly mown grass, and over the gap to the double doors, convinced they would be unlocked, wrong, securely closed. Just then I heard the housekeepers car. I will have a word with them and see if anyone is staying in the coach house.
A negative reply from the housekeepers, made me more curious than concerned, if this was a haunting then whoever it was, there was no menace involved. For the rest of the day, as I continued cutting grass, I had the feeling I was being watched.
My next days work was trimming and re-tying the jasmine and honeysuckle that covered the side of the manor, in the small courtyard. As I came down the ladder and started raking the trimmed stuff, I was suddenly thrown backwards by a strong arm, and as I went over I saw a pair of enormous horses almost on top of me,rearing up with their eyes rolling in terror, shouting and screaming all around me, in the split secon before I hit the ground I was aware of a man going under the hooves of the horses, then the breath was driven out of my body as I landed heavily on the grass. I was dazed for second, then a face appeared above me. You alright matey?" Peter had seen me fall over and thought I had slipped. I assured him I was just shocked by what I had seen, or thought I had seen. As calmly as I could, in case he thought I was mad, I asked if there had been an accident with a carriage and horses in the small courtyard. He looked at me a bit sideways again, as if weighing something up in his mind. "I don't know much about it, but there was a groom killed here, back when the Courteneys owned the manor. If you go to the church that used to be on the land they owned, there is a large tomb stone that's got a message on it, I haven't seen it myself, but I've been told about it."
It took me a while to find it but, I was surprised when I did. The stone was made with local granite. The name THOMAS COOPER, was cut int it, with the message. HERE LIES A MAN WHOE PROVED HIMSELF A HERO AND LOYAL SERVANT, 1801 aged 20years. I wondered if there was any record in the church. I tried the door, it was locked, year ago they were never locked, but not thse days. I would have to try and phone the vicar some time.
I managed to catch him the next day, he was also interested in local history and promised to find some more out. For the next week I carried on with the same summer routine, weeding and grass cutting, the good weather was encouraging both to flourish. I still got the odd feelingthat something was going on, I would catch a movement out of the corner of my eye, a door or window would be open one minute then closed with no-one around to do either. Then about 4 days after I had contacted the vicar, I had another flash into the past. I was mowing the small courtyard again when the kitchen door flew open and a childs voice shouted "PAPA!!" Then the sound and strong smell of horses rattled down the slope from the double doors into the lane, suddenly everything happened at once, a small boy ran out of the kitchen door and headed straight into the path of the horses pulling a large carriage. A man in course spun clothes ran towards both, scooped up the boy and pushed him out of harms way. As he did so the leading horses hoof caught his head and sent him cartwheeling away, obviously unconsious. Then it all vanished, the whole thing had only taken seconds, but it was all there, the man in the grave, was the groom, that had saved the Courteneys sons' life, and been killed for his bravery. The vicar phoned me that evening and confirmed what I had seen, I don't know who was more surprised, me for seeing the whole thing or the vicar for finding out that these things can happen. The grooms name was Thomas Cooper and the young boy went on to become a prominent politician of his time.