(Story begins here.)
Journal the Fifth of Reginald Archibald, Master of M--- Manor
Day 3
I have decided to start on the fifth book of my journal just so that I can easily document the issues and findings that I have discovered with respect to the affair involving Elizabeth, a curious apparition that seems to have manifested herself to me just two nights ago. The only reason why this journal exists is to, in all essence, provide my own rather meagre findings to complement the other discoveries, thoughts and opinions that the other masters of M--- Manor have observed and annotated in their own journals. I have, at this point, discovered that prior to my taking over of M--- Manor, there had been, at last count, nearly twenty-five other such masters of this place. I am of the opinion that most of them may have seen Elizabeth, but I have not had the time to verify anything as at now. It seems though, based on what I have read thus far from my immediate predecessor, that the actual dates of the occurrences of Elizabeth matter little; some masters have seen Elizabeth in the dead of Winter, others in Summer, and there were a few more distributed seemingly randomly between Spring and Autumn. The key commonalities, if it can so be called in the various descriptions of the observations \&c.\ thus highlighted, lies in which the relative number of days have occurred between the very first sighting to the day of any particular sighting. Thus, it is likely that in one case, a second sighting occurs on the fourth night, followed by the eighth, and in another, the second occurs on the fifth followed by the tenth \&c. I have not managed to discover the underlying governing relationship among these time periods, but such patterns have a consistent enough behaviour that the previous masters have made such annotations on their own from which, of course, I draw a summary of information from.
While it may seem odd to begin with the third day instead of the first, it is wise to note that I have only managed to decide to begin a fresh journal, my fifth, only because I have discovered, on the second day, that the library consists of journals of the previous masters who had also documented similar observations as had I. The one curious thing that seemed to have happened lies in the discovery of a rather odd looking piece of card, ivory in colour, with handwritten lines on it using a rather neat cursive whose style I cannot quite put my finger on. The contents, as I reproduce here, are the following:
``Beware of Elizabeth! The housekeeper lies. Search not for details on her. The truth will imprison you. You are forewarned.''
The premonitionary nature of this card is one that cannot be easily dismissed. It is also of a curious nature to have discovered that this card fell out of the journal of the last master of this manor, the very first journal that I have decided to read. Thinking that this card was merely of a recent vintage, I boldly disregarded its warning and decided that, in the pursuit of truth, I cannot afford to follow its exhortations thusly. Moreover, that the card was there was of a rather suspicious nature, and I had initially thought of it as being of foul play, from which the housekeeper, a Mr Higgins, was the primary suspect. I was rather surprised to find, upon reading the journal of the last master, that the same card, or at least, a card of a similar nature as the one that I hereby enclose in my journal for safekeeping, had also fallen out of the journal that he had read during his time.
Of the nature of the journal though, I have to say with great regret at this moment, that I had not read it through to its final conclusion. I had only begun to scratch the surface through the first few major entries before I was called away for various social obligations. I humbly beseech anyone who reads my journal and finding that I had failed in resolving the Elizabeth affair to pick up the previous master's journal to complement the information that he has learnt from what I had observed personally, for it makes little sense to replicate what is already in easy access for reference.
I shall now recount the first sighting of Elizabeth.
(Story continues here.)
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