The haunted house in Floriana

Of course, no new wife likes being left on her own. But when your husband works with the navy, there’s not much you can do about it. Still, some times are worse than others.

Having just moved into a lovely house in Floriana, Jessie found that her domestic instincts were taking over. She wanted to make the house into a home and she would have liked Mark to be there more to share it with her.

The people who sold them the house had left it in a good enough state but there was still much to do. So when Mark left to go to work, sometimes for a week and a half, sometimes just for a few days, Jessie would spend her honeymoon pottering around.

The house seemed huge and empty at night. Alone for probably the first time in her life, Jessie was on edge. Was it her overworked imagination perhaps? Was the dark silence of the house making her feeling particularly vulnerable?

Whatever the possible psychological explanation, what happened to Jessie terrified her. She was woken up by the sound of crying. There were raised voices uttering blasphemous oaths. And there was the creaking sound of footsteps on the wooden stairs.

Jessie sat up terrified, not thinking clearly enough to realise that the...