A distraction

Dear Sir Williard,

I did my very best to extricate myself from the tenuous position that I had so unwittingly put myself into. Here, to the best of my ability of recall, is what happened next. I hoped Dr. Johnson to distract my lovely guest with information about her dear friend.

"Miss Alice," I tried to pull free from the improper embrace before my weakening resolve was overcome, but her arms remained around my neck and her hip was pressed far too firmly against my loins for me to relax even a little. "Miss Alice," I tried again, "that is the very reason I asked you to visit me." The words that I gasped out sounded nothing at all like the calm professional demeanor that I so far had been able to project, but thankfully they were the exact right tact to take. "I've seen something that might be the hauntings you asked me about."

"What...?" My words broke through the growing power of the Blush and with shake of her pretty blonde curls Miss Alice seemed to clear her head. "You saw Katie!?"

"I don't know if it was Miss Alterson, but I definitely saw something that I cannot explain." Sir Williard, I took advantage of her momentary shock to step back from the beautiful young British Colonial; the increased space between us made it easier for both of us to concentrate on this perplexing matter. Now that I am writing these words I wonder if perhaps there is a causal relationship not unlike that of the pull of gravity where the strength of this edacious force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two objects in question. I digress. I was at the time hugely relieved that both Miss Alice and I were able to reign this awkward tension back in check.

What followed was the conversation I had hoped for. Miss Alison sat primly on the seat looking out the bay window and I positioned myself on the far side of the table where I could pretend to look out the same window while I stole surreptitious glances at the young lady as she smoothed out her skirts and straightened her cuffs. I explained how I had witnessed the lights moving in the boathouse and my confusion at finding absolutely no way into or out of the impenetrable structure.

"Can I see?" Miss Alice almost jumped to her feet and before I could think of any way to deny her wishes we were heading out the door and down towards the aforementioned building. Somehow, Sir Williard, Miss Alice's small hand was once again in mine much like we had walked when I first met her and her family and she walked me back to my punt. It occurred to me that once this matter had been resolved I could row Miss Alice back up the lazy Arjun to her house. I seemed to me at the time that I might impress my guest with my growing facility at the oars, and further more that the peace and quiet of the small boat might be more conducive to conversation than the much faster and louder powerboat.

The sunlight streaming in through the narrow boathouse windows provided more than enough light to see as I showed Miss Alice the lantern that had been warm to the touch, explained about the perfectly assembled valves and the small footprints that I found on the boathouse floor.

"You see, Dr. Baxter." Miss Alice took my hands in hers and was trembling with excitement. "It is Katie's spirit. It has to be!" I confess, Sir Williard, that this beautiful young woman looked more beautiful than ever with the sunlight sparkling in her golden hair and the excitement in her eyes. "Dr. Baxter, Katie was always messing about with that boat. She knew more about the Anna-Leigh than anyone on the whole planet."

"But why would a apparition from the spirit world have need of something as mundane as an oil lantern?" The quiet question hung in the still air of the boathouse as once again I became acutely aware of how close Miss Alice was to me once again.