CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE – A BIT OF HUMOUR NEVER HURT ANYONE

"See here, you delinquents!" Lady Griffith's shrill tones cut through the pandemonium like a whipcrack. "I'll have no more of this foolish carrying on!" With a deft swipe, she seized the bedsheet from Richard's shoulders, depositing him in an unceremonious heap on the floor. His look of wide-eyed shock was so comical that Charlotte had to stifle a giggle behind her hand. Lady Griffith rounded on the remaining 'ghosts,' her face a thundercloud of fury. One by one, she unmasked the giggling cousins, leaving them cowering in a disheveled, sheepish knot before her. "Enough of these childish pranks!" she fumed, her icy glare sweeping over the chastened children. "This is my home, and I'll not have it disgraced by such imbecilic nonsense!" A ringing silence descended, the only sound the ragged breathing of the cousins. Charlotte watched with bated breath, half-expecting the fearsome woman to summon the household guards and have them all clapped in irons. To her astonishment, however, th