"a woman on the bed weltering in blood!"

Back to the fun stuff. Blood! Lots of it! Murder. Strange inscriptions. Kidnapping. And the first fainting fit!!! And you just can't beat the language. "On the floor was plainly mark'd the shape of a hand and fingers traced in blood, which seemed to have flowed in great quantities."

So it is the morning after Matilda (I spelled her name wrong before) has met the mysterious lady who she'd become immediate friends with and Matilda is blithely getting breakfast and going about her day happy in her new secret hidden bestie that she knows nothing about and planning to go back to visit her first thing. Well, first thing after breakfast.

Except the neighbor comes to see if they were all right because she'd heard a lady nearby screaming that morning.  Fearing the worst, she decided she must run to the castle to check on them--but first she needs to hang up her wet clothes. Not kidding. She says it. "I was afraid some mischief has happened to the young madam, so I'll be sure to go to the castle when I have hung out my clothes."

Well, it's not like she could call the police and a speedy response could have happened anyway. There really wasn't much (or any) of an emergency response team. And she couldn't really have done anything. Truth was, she only stopped by to see if there was anything horrid happening. She reads the same books I do and you know she was thinking it. Mysterious, delicate young lady traveling alone (with a servant) at night in a storm. Haunted castle. You just know the neighbor has been waiting for this to happen her whole life and now that she's heard screams in the middle of the night she absolutely has to go see.

And she's disappointed. Matilda is fine and she doesn't know about the other mysterious lady who has been living secretly in the castle right by her for the past 15-20 odd years or so. But Matilda does and she runs to see if her friend is all right to find the room is in "a great appearance of disorder!" Her bestie is gone! And she hasn't heard the mysterious past of the mysterious lady because she was too busy talking about herself, so she doesn't even know where to look. There are no clues.

The manservant who knew about it won't tell because he's under oath not to, and it matters more to keep the secret than to possibly tell someone who might have a connection that can save his mistress's life. In fact, Matilda and Joseph don't do anything at all. They lock the rooms back up and then spend the day worrying. So... this is probably bad right? Anyone want to do something?

Nope. No one? Okay.

No, Joseph and Matilda decide to wait one more day before checking over the rest of the rooms to see if anything happened. Which is when they find the dead body.

Fainting fit count: 1