The girl and I locked eyes for a moment, her eyes widening upon having been spotted, but she didn't move. I stared at her, taking in the paleness of her face, the dark circles under her eyes, and the slight scrapes on her chin. Her dark hair hung around her face, most of the strands tangled together in large knots. The girl's dress was torn and dirty, but it looked like there was something other than mud on it. She looked scared.

"Master Nathaniel, control your horse!" Mr Cooper yelled, his voice cutting through the silence that had fallen over me the moment I had spotted the girl.

I pulled my eyes away from the girl and shook my head a little to regain my focus. I had been so focused on the girl in the trees that I hadn't even noticed Lightning getting a little too carried away with the canter. He had transitioned it into a gallop by himself and was haring around the grounds as though I wasn't even sitting on his back. Lightning always did as he was told, and I had to hope that this would be no different.

Relaxing my hands on the reins, I tugged on them slightly to signal to Lightning that we needed to stop or slow down. He didn't respond, and I was forced to pull just that little bit harder to get him to listen. Lightning shook his head, unhappy with my action, and twisted to the left.

The sudden movement from Lightning flung my body sideways and, with such a lax grip on the reins, I tipped right off the saddle. My body fell sideways, my feet slipping from the stirrups. I released the reins to make sure I wouldn't hurt Lightning's mouth and allowed myself to slip off the saddle and plunge to the floor. My right side hit the ground first, a brief flash of pain darting across my side and rib cage.

I sat up quickly, ignoring the pain, and turned to face the trees, but the girl was gone. She had disappeared just as quickly as she had appeared; with no sign that she had ever been there.

"Nate!" Alice called, climbing off Genesis and crossing the grounds. Mr Cooper jogged in the other direction to grab Lightning, who was still galloping. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, I think. My pride took the worst of the fall."

"Are you sure? You hit the ground rather hard."

I scrambled to my feet, pain flashing over my side and ribs before passing. Nothing appeared to be severely damaged. "Yes. No broken bones, no hidden injury, no doubt just a few bruises. This is not my first time falling from a horse."

"What on earth just happened, Master Nathaniel? I have never seen you lose focus like that before. Do you know how dangerous that could have been? Your horse should be your top priority, you know that."

"I'm sorry. I thought I saw someone in the trees."

Mr Cooper raised a quizzical eyebrow at me. "Who? A stable hand?"

"No, a girl."

"A girl?" Alice stared at me. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"

"I'm positive. There was a girl standing in the trees!"

"It was most likely an animal, and the light played a trick on your eyes." Mr Cooper handed me Lightning's reins, the horse a lot calmer than he had been moments before. "I think we shall call time on your participation in today's lesson, Master Nathaniel. Put your horse away and get some ice for your side; even you can't hide being in pain."

Mr Cooper handed me the reins, turned and walked back across the grounds towards Genesis, who hadn't moved since Alice dismounted. Alice stared at me for a few seconds, as though trying to figure out what to say, but when the words failed to come, she simply followed Mr Cooper across the grass to continue the lesson.

I sighed. Lightning nudged me with his nose, and I stroked him lightly. With Mr Cooper having given me my orders, minus the ice since the pain had subsided, I led Lightning across the grass and back towards the stables.

All I could think about was the girl in the trees. She had definitely been there, regardless of what Mr Cooper and Alice thought, but why had she been there? The village was a fair walk away from the estate; only the staff would take the trek there and back if needed. We rarely received unplanned visitors, and those that visited often took the main path rather than hid in the woods. She had no reason to have been there.

Her clothing told me she had been there for a while, or at least hadn't had the opportunity to change them. She hadn't washed in a while, and her face looked so gaunt that I wasn't sure she had eaten anything recently. The thing that plagued my mind the most, however, were the stains on the front of her dress. Some of them had been mud, but the darker stains certainly weren't. They looked like blood.

I glanced back towards the trees, half expecting her to be standing there watching, but she wasn't. The trees moved in the breeze and Alice's riding lesson continued as though nothing had interrupted it. She had just disappeared back into the woods as though she hadn't existed.

Lightning tugged a little on the reins, no doubt eager to get back to the stables for a drink of water after his run around the grounds. I tore my eyes away from the trees and stepped into the stables. Inside, Joseph had swept the floor, collecting the loose straw into a pile at the far end of the room. He turned to look at me when I stepped into the room, frowning a little.

"Good afternoon, Joseph. Can you untack Lightning, see that he is properly groomed, and make sure he has a decent drink of water?" I said.

"Yes, Sir. I fetched some water from the stream whilst you were gone." He stepped forward, placed the broom against the wall, and took Lightning's reins from me.

"You went into the woods today?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Did you see anyone else out there? A girl?"

Joseph's eyes widened a little, and I watched him gulp, as though choking back an answer. "No, Sir, no one."

His tone was shaky, uncertain. His eyes flitted to the door behind me as though expecting someone else to walk through at any moment. Joseph tightened his grip on Lightning's reins, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was squeezing against the leather. In the time Joseph had worked for us, he had never lied to me; this time, even he couldn't hide the deception. He knew something about the girl.

"Well, if you see something, please let me know. I think someone might be creeping around the woods and if that's true, they need to be found before they get hurt."

"Yes, Sir. I will."

"Good." I nodded, although I didn't quite believe his word. If he already knew about the girl, he wouldn't tell me the next time he saw her. "I shall let you get on. I expect Lightning is looking forward to that drink of water and to having his saddle removed."

Without waiting for a response, I turned and left the stables. Outside, Alice continued her riding lesson, cantering around the grounds with Mr Cooper calling out corrections and directions for her to follow. I left them to it and returned to the house to change into something more suited for supper, even if it was still an hour away. My mind remained on the girl in the woods and Joseph's suspicious behaviour.

The stable hands were only a handful of our staff members that frequently went beyond the house and into the woods. They and the gardeners were the only ones who ever had means and reason to do so. It was entirely likely that they could all go into the woods and never see the girl; the woods were easy to become lost in if someone didn't know their way, but I knew just by Joseph's body language that he knew a little more than he was letting on. I wished he trusted me enough to tell me himself.

Once in my room, I pulled off my riding boots and replaced them with my regular shoes before removing my riding jacket and shirt, both of which were marked with mud from my fall. My right side was marked with a large red mark, no doubt the beginnings of a bruise, but that appeared to be the extent of my injuries from being thrown from Lightning. I had once fallen from him and broken two of my ribs along with my arm. A bruise was nothing.

After pulling on a clean shirt and a more suitable jacket, I moved over to the window to look out at the tree line. The girl hadn't returned. I squinted to see if I could get a better look, but everything looked the same as it did every other day. She hadn't been in my head, that much I knew, but no one else had seen her. The woods were easy enough to disappear into, but she had to have been staying close to the edge for a reason.

I don't know how long I sat staring out the window waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. A sharp knock at the door pulled me away from the window.

"Come in," I said, straightening my jacket.

The bedroom door opened and George, my future valet, poked his head around the door. "Your mother has requested your presence in the dining room, Master Nate."

"Thank you, George."

"You may want to run a brush through your hair, Sir, or at least remove the blades of grass. Your absence this afternoon was noted."

"Ah, I thought I had gotten away with it." I smiled. "Thank you. I shall be down in a short while."

George nodded and left the room, leaving the door ajar. I followed his advice and put a brush through my hair to remove the grass that must have become mixed in after I fell from Lightning. Had George not been the one to summon me for supper, it might have gone unnoticed. Father had hired him to be my valet when I came of age and, until that happened, he worked alongside Father's valet. The only reason he had hired George so soon was so the two of us knew each other for a few years before he worked for me.

With my hair free of grass, I left my bedroom and made my way to the dining room, where the rest of the family was waiting for me. I settled into my seat just as supper was served; a simple meal of roast beef, potatoes, and asparagus. No one spoke for the first few minutes of supper, all of us simply enjoying the food prepared by the kitchen staff. Father was the first one to break the silence.

"Where did you go this afternoon, Nate?" he said, taking a sip of his wine. "You weren't studying. I checked."

"I went to the stables to see how Sooty was getting on."

"Sooty?"

"The cat. The stable hands christened him Sooty. He's a rather good mouser."

"And after that? I heard you come upstairs and then leave a little while later. You are not as subtle as you think you might be."

I took a large gulp of my milk. "I decided to join Alice in her riding lesson. I thought she might like to learn a thing or two from me."

"Hm, learn how to fall off more like it," Alice said.

Mother dropped her cutlery onto her plate and looked up, staring at me across the table. I glared at Alice. Perhaps I had walked into that one with my comment, but there were some things I preferred Mother and Father didn't know. They could know that I had abandoned my studying, but my falling from Lightning would only bring up seeing the girl in the woods, and I knew that neither of them would believe me. That, and Mother would no doubt remember the last time I took a tumble from a horse and assume the worst.

"You fell from Lightning?" Mother said. "Are you hurt? Must we summon the doctor?"

"I'm fine, Mother. It was only a small fall; my pride took the biggest hit. No broken bones as far as I can tell, just a few bruises."

"Perhaps we should summon Doctor Merrick just to be on the safe side."

"I'm sure he's fine, Caroline." Father dabbed the corner of his mouth with a napkin and sat back in his chair. "How on earth did you fall off Lightning? You are usually rather careful on your horse and haven't fallen since you were a boy. It is not like you to make such a mistake."

"Something startled me."

I didn't want to expand any further. Alice and Mr Cooper's reaction to my telling them about the girl warned me of what would happen if I told Mother and Father. Mother would no doubt agree with Alice in that I hit my head or was making it up and she would summon Doctor Merrick whether I wanted her to. Father, the stern man that he was, would just simply tell me to stop making up stories and that I am no longer a child. I was not in the mood for a lecture like that, especially after I skipped out on studying to go riding.

Alice looked at me, raising an eyebrow before frowning a little. I had been so adamant to her that I saw something that she doubted and thought it strange that I refused to tell Mother and Father what had really happened. Of course, being my younger sister, she had a habit of not knowing when to be quiet.

"Startled is an understatement. He fell off because he saw someone in the trees, or so Nate says."

"Why can you never learn to just keep your mouth shut?"

"You're the one seeing things, not me. Besides, Mr Cooper and I didn't see anything and there is nothing to suggest there was anyone there. They need to know so they can inform a Doctor if necessary."

I shook my head. "I'm not lying, Alice, despite what you might think. There was a girl in the trees. I saw her before I fell from Lightning, so my fall did not cause it."

"Perhaps we need to get your head examined, anyway. Clearly, something is going on for you to be seeing things without an injury."

"Maybe you need to keep your opinions to yourself and stop treating me like I'm younger than you."

"That's enough, both of you," Father said. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before grabbing his glass of wine and taking a swig. "If you are adamant you saw someone, Nate, we will have the grounds searched properly, but I expect whoever it is has left by now. For now, I want no more discussion about the girl in the woods from either of you. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Father," Alice and I both muttered.

"Good. If you hadn't walked away from your studying, Nate, none of this would have happened. Perhaps now you'll follow my instructions rather than wandering off to check on one of your strays. You're not a child anymore and it is time you grew up.

I glared at Alice across the table, but she seemed completely indifferent to the entire thing, as though it had been her plan all along. She had always disliked me abandoning my duties in favour of going to the stables to see the cats. By telling Mother and Father about what I had seen, she had managed to get me in trouble for avoiding my duties. Regardless, a small telling-off from Father would not stop me.

I was going to prove the girl existed. 

~~~

A/N - Here we are! Chapter Two! This week we get to meet the rest of Nate's family and discover a little more about the mysterious girl in the woods!

Questions! Why do you think the girl is in the woods? Does Joseph know what's going on? Is Nate right to continue looking into her dispite his fathers comments?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to lisa_london_ who is an awesome person and an awesome writer that you should all check out!

First Published - October 11th, 2022