THE GREEN DOOR.

"Christmas would be extra special this year," thought Sadie, for a start she’d be going back to Torridon and just maybe she’d get to see what was behind the green door …she smiled inwardly; that door had intrigued her since she was a very little girl. At first sight there was nothing special about the door, indeed it was by any standards a very ordinary door, made of ordinary wood. It had been painted dark green for as long as she could remember, the only other colour on it being the brass of the handle. It was old certainly, but then the whole house was old, parts of it went back even before the Tudors. She thought of it fondly, it was her house, the house where she had been born and where she had spent what she regarded as a wonderful childhood.

Her parents still lived there and she went home as often as her job as a buyer for a major London fashion store would allow. Often she took a friend to stay the weekend and inevitably the friend would be as impressed with the old house as she was. Just as inevitably she would be asked what was behind the door in the corner of the drawing room. It was with some amusement that she had to tell them that she had never been able to open it and as far as she knew there was nothing on the other side. Then the ritual would come of walking along the wall on the outside of the house to where the door should be, only to discover a solid stone wall that matched the rest of the house and gave no indication that there had ever been an opening there. So why was the door there? Her parents always told her they didn't know and neither had the Estate Agent who had sold them the house all those years ago. It didn't appear on any of the plans of the house given them when they moved in.

Sadie had invited a friend and colleague, Bridie Causton whose husband had been killed in a car crash a couple of years ago, to spend the Christmas Holiday with her and her family. They were looking forward to the break, the run up to the holiday had, as always, been hectic.

For Sadie, Christmas at Torridon was very special, following more or less the same pattern every year. Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, opening their presents early on Christmas Morning and neighbours visiting mid-morning for drinks, then Christmas Dinner, always a feast. In the afternoon everyone opened more presents. The evening was spent by the wide inglenook fireplace with a roaring log fire exchanging news, stories and anecdotes of the past year. All the while the house was filled with love, laughter, and good fellowship. Surely it was the right way to celebrate the most important event of the year.

On Boxing Day they went to the nearby point-to-point event, suitably wrapped-up against the strong north-easterly wind. It was dark when they arrived home and the warmth and smells of good food in the old house welcomed them back and reminded them that though they were tired, they were also very hungry. The remains of the turkey and all the trimmings were too great a temptation and they gave way to enjoy a mini-feast before slipping gratefully between the cool sheets of their beds.

Sadie awoke with a start and stared around the room. "Nothing out of the ordinary," she thought. She could see clearly by the cold light of the moon filtering through the leaded panes of her bow-fronted window. Everything was as it should be, so why had she woken up with such an edgy feeling? She had heard something perhaps? Not in her bedroom! She slipped out of bed, hurriedly put on her housecoat and went out into the hallway outside. Nothing moving there, the moonlight was just as strong and she could see the length of the hall, there really was nothing unusual, why then was she so uncomfortable? "Too much to eat and drink," she reasoned, "a glass of water, that'll steady me." Having diagnosed the problem and prescribed the remedy she headed down the stairs, along the lower hall and towards the kitchen.

She didn't reach the kitchen! As she passed the drawing room she glanced in expecting to see the embers of the log fire still burning in the grate…and they were still burning, but the figure she saw standing in front of the fire surprised her. Bridie stood there in the same clothes she had worn to the point-to-point, well to say she stood there is stretching a point, she seemed to be transfixed to the spot, her arms were outstretched before her and a look of such horror on her face that Sadie felt the emotion transmitted to her. "Bridie!" she screamed. "Bridie, what's the matter?" Now thoroughly frightened by the sight in front of her and desperately concerned for her friend she ran into the drawing room and tried to gather Bridie into her arms.

Her first reaction to the contact she made was one of amazement. Bridie felt like a stone statue, cold, immobile, mute and a look on her face that spoke of pure terror though she said not a word. She tried again. "Bridie, dear, dear Bridie, what has happened to you?" but Bridie didn't or couldn't say a word she just continued to stare fixedly ahead. Sadie's mother and father, woken by her loud cries, came running into the room. They too were shocked into silence by the look on their visitor's face and her stone-like posture. Her father picked up the telephone and dialled his friend, a consultant at the county hospital who lived nearby, and begged him to come urgently.

Minutes later he arrived and after looking into Bridie's eyes advised that she taken immediately to hospital for observation. "She's suffered a terrible shock of some kind," he told them, "though what could cause a shock of such intensity I can't imagine. Any idea what she might have been doing, wandering about the house at this time in the morning? and in her day clothes too…all very odd, don't you think?" They all did think it odd but were unable to offer any explanation.

Rather than wait for an ambulance to take Bridie to hospital her father decided that they would take her in his car to save time. As they left the drawing room she cast her eyes around the room. It was then she noticed that the green door in the corner was not quite closed. Another shock, for it had resisted all previous efforts to open it so stoutly that no one even tried to open it any more. Before she could call her father's attention to the oddity the door slowly closed and the clunck as the lock engaged had a sound of finality about it. Sadie decided to tell her parents when they arrived at the hospital.

The hospital insisted on Bridie staying with them at least until morning, hinting they expected her stay to be rather longer, Sadie reading the warning from the seriousness in the voice of the ward sister asked her mother to stay with Bridie while she went back to the house to fetch some more comfortable night clothes.

Her father drove her back; on the way Sadie mentioned that she had seen the green door open when she entered the drawing room. "Bridie was standing just in front of it, as if she had just come through it," she told him.
"You must have been mistaken," he assured her. "That door can't be opened, I've tried many times, the lock is solid and the hinges look as though they would crumble if the door ever did open…No! You must have been mistaken." Sadie nodded her agreement "It was possible," she thought, in all the excitement, she could have made a mistake…but she could see in her mind's eye that green door being slightly open, she was quite sure of it!

Bridie's room was along the hall from her own. Tidy and bathed in the moonlight coming through the leaded windows, it looked comfortable and welcoming. Switching on the light, she took a small attaché case from the low stool in the corner and began gathering the various toiletries and clothes she would have wanted if she had been in hospital instead of Bridie. She picked up Bridie's overcoat and hung it over her arm. As she did so an envelope fell out and dropped to the floor. She picked it up and pushed it back into the pocket of the coat. It must have been the address on the envelope that reminded her. Mrs. Bridie Causton it said and gave her address. Bridie had mentioned that her mother had recently come to live with her, she should of course let her know that her daughter was in hospital. She took the envelope out of the pocket and wrote the address on the notepad beside the bed.

This time as she put the envelope back into the pocket her hand came into contact with a sheet of paper, perhaps it would have Bridie's mother's telephone number on it? She took it out and opened it. What she saw shocked her almost as much as the first sight of Bridie the night before. It was from a firm of genealogical consultants. It told her Torridon had originally been named Torridon Abbey and had been badly damaged by the attacks on the monasteries during the reign of HenryVIII. It was rebuilt by the Lord of the Manor and in regular use until the English Civil War. Then a Royalist stronghold, it had been attacked and virtually destroyed by Parliamentary soldiers. Later it had been rebuilt though much smaller and for all intents and purposes was the same as it stood now.

It was the addendum that really froze her blood. Having recorded the complete history of her house they added a local legend. It described the sacking of the house by the Parliamentary forces. In the north-east corner of the building there was said to have been a door that led to the cellars. The soldiers found the door, went through it and slaughtered the entire family of Royalists sheltering there together with two Roman Catholic priests. Only one person came out alive, a young woman named Bridie O'Brien. She had been visiting the owners of the house and for reasons no one ever found out she was spared. It was said that the sights she saw caused her such trauma that for years afterwards she was unable to lead a normal life.

Shuddering slightly at the memory of the previous night and now the contents of the letter, Sadie went downstairs, her mind spinning with bewilderment. She obtained the telephone number of Bridie's mother from Directories, dialled it and heard the ringing tone. She prayed that she would be in. She was, the lilting Irish brogue was unmistakable. "Mary O'Brien," she said………