Don Moretti's Haunted Castle

**From the Moretti house

to Allen house

*'I hope this letter finds you in good health.

My dear Crystal, although you and I have not seen each other since the accident that almost ended my life in my childhood, I am extremely overjoyed that your parents have accepted our union in matrimony.

*It's been so long since we moved up north, but in my memory, I still have the image of your beautiful brown eyes and blond curls that look more like an angel's halo around your stunning face. I believe that you have become more beautiful now that you're grown.

*Honestly, I can't wait to welcome you here to Northumberland. I'm afraid to tell you about the weather conditions here in the north; the days are cold and the nights even more so, but I promise you that you won't suffer from the cold, because I will always cover you in my arms and protect you just as a husband should protect his beloved.

*I know that a piece of paper and a bunch of letters don't seem like enough for you to believe my words, but I promise you that I will make you the happiest woman in all of England.'

**Fondly

Lucca Moretti

I folded the paper in my hands and looked out the train window, letting out a long, silent sigh. The year is 1839, and London is in full swing as far as the industrial revolution is concerned, but the north still seems increasingly ancient and forgotten. The landscape that I have from the window of the upper-class train in motion is rustic stone houses, however humble, and several hectares of plantations everywhere, sometimes I can see a handful of farmers over there, a cart moving with the help of an ox or donkey, all so rudimentary coming from people who still didn't have the conditions to get the best.

Which makes me wonder what my host's house would be like. Crystal said the Morettis lived in a big castle, but could it be a castle like the ones we had in London? After all, what would a man like Edoardo Moretti, who was said to be all important and wealthy, be doing in a place as forgotten as Northumberland? Wasn't he a scientist? Shouldn't scientists all be busy in London working for progress? So what was this earl doing up north? It was like he wanted to hide something... that was scared just thinking about it, maybe that's why Crystal forced me to come instead of her...

Crystal… I closed my eyes slowly when I remembered that this name would be mine from now on; I will no longer be called Lea, but Crystal, the elegant and bourgeois Miss Crystal Allen. The woman who was going up north to marry the son of a wealthy earl who had promised her nothing but good things so far. For anyone looking in from the outside and aware of our change of identity, they wouldn't understand why a young woman of marriageable age would refuse such a tempting marriage proposal, I mean, Northumberland was quite far away, but even so the Moretti were rich and that already guarantees a good life to a woman and future children.

But Crystal wasn't crazy enough to accept that marriage after so many scared rumors we heard about her dead mother's former close friend, Don Moretti. There were macabre stories that this Italian man had killed his own wife and fed on her corpse; Certainly Crystal didn't want to have that fateful end to her life. That's why she forced me to impersonate her and carry out this marriage.

"Your hair is as blonde as mine, taking away that starving face and wearing an elegant dress you can look like a noblewoman" Crystal spoke while throwing her elegant dresses in my direction, not even a day had passed in which her stepmother and her father told her about the arranged marriage somewhere in Northumberland, it was understandable how angry and frantic she was as she described to me her plan to escape those obligations unscathed.

I was a very low - class maid; my parents and I served the Allen all our lives, which was already rewarding, since if that family hadn't taken us in, I'd probably be a whore selling myself in the alleys and corners of the City of London. The Allens took us in and gave us food (not so good) and a place to sleep, I served my lady Crystal for all of my sixteen years and now here she was threatening to kill my parents if I didn't agree to this great madness.

"But Miss Crystal, I am no longer pure... Which is quite required in marriages among the nobility." I babbled to try to make her come to her senses. Getting married as a non-virgin wasn't something to be proud of; I wasn't proud of having already given myself to a man before, but I never thought I'd get married either. People like me didn't have high expectations or ambitions in life. My speech didn't sound like a big, shocking revelation had been said by me, after all, my mistress knew very well that I wasn't a virgin anymore, and neither was she a virgin either, I knew that very well too.

"Ha! Who cares if you're a virgin or not? The son of the cannibal earl won't care if all they want is for your meat to be very tender on their table." I widened my eyes at those words so macabre; my heart was almost jumping out of my rib cage with so much fear that I was feeling, but I hadn't any choice but to agree to board this train and head off to faraway Northumberland.

So when I arrived at Morpeth train station, such a sleepy, rural town, the train just wouldn't go all the way to Beadnell, where the Moretti castle was located. At first, when I got off the train with a suitcase containing some expensive dresses Crystal had given me to carry on with my act, I thought I would have trouble getting to Beadnell since I was new to that citadel, but amazingly there was a black carriage waiting for me very close to the station. The coachman was a thin man who had hollow cheeks and wide eyes, very thin and parched lips, and hair in ruffled tufts on his head. The man was literally skin and bones, and I was startled just to look at him, but I took my steps to the carriage, dragging my suitcase with me.

"Are you Lady Crystal Allen?" he asked, and his voice sounded slightly like grease being rubbed into iron. I nodded after swallowing hard. The man looked like a walking corpse, for God's sake.

"Yes, i'ts me." I spoke loudly for the decaying man to hear.

"Come with me." It wasn't as if he was asking; there was no kindness in his words or deeds; he took my suitcase from me with his bony fingers and threw it into the black carriage and went to sit on the handlebars. I swallowed hard again and got into that carriage, when the vehicle started to leave, I looked behind the glass window that was dusty and dirty, I noticed the train that distanced me and I almost ran to the train to take me back to home.

The dirt road was a winding line between the leafy trees that covered the whole place. It was mid-afternoon and the day was still clear when I arrived in Morpeth, but with every meter the carriage moved approaching the Moretti castle, the environment began to get dark, cold, and gloomy, it was as if I was being taken away to the abyss of hell for the skeletal drive was driving the carriage... It took about an hour until the carriage finally stopped. Until that time, I could not see anything from inside the vehicle; the door on my side was opened without much care, and I could see a gloved hand coming in my direction. I smiled internally, feeling a little safe, maybe the owner of the castle still remembered chivalry.

I rested my hand on top of that palm and leaned on the man so I could get out of the carriage, and with that, my small body ended up colliding with a more muscular and taller body, I let out a groan and looked up somewhat stunned. Long, flowing black hair, a symmetrical and powerful face, deep black eyes, stubble, extremely handsome: there was a prince right in front of me, this man who looked at me with such depth… Was he the man I should marry ? This is all like a dream...

"Weren't your eyes brown?" Then he spoke, so my dream began to turn into a nightmare little by little.