My grandfather had been a collector of all things oriental and had housed his collections in his sprawling white mansion

 

He had kept a detailed diary about his acquisitions which helped greatly when he died some twenty years ago

 

But there was no mention of The Chinese Parlour

 

It was as if it never existed at all

 

I was the youngest of four brothers and although quite successful academically I was not asked by my father to go to India to arrange for my grandfather’s collection to be brought back to England

 

I accepted this as my father was a wise man and looked forward to the return of my brothers

 

It was then that tragedy struck my family as my father suddenly died from a shock to his heart

 

I had contacted my brothers on the sub-continent but received no reply

 

As I had to sort out my father’s affairs I was not too worried that I had not received an immediate reply as communications were poor in what I perceived to be a rather backward country

 

But as the months passed I began to get worried as my brothers were still ignorant of my father’s death

 

I had settled his estate and was planning to travel to India but found myself further delayed as my dear mother who had at first dealt with my fathers passing with strength was now becoming unwell and was giving me cause for concern

 

I was advised to send my legal representative a man by the name of Peters to India so that my brothers might be contacted

 

But the poor man never arrived as he was drowned with over a hundred other poor souls when the Derbyshire was lost in a storm in the Indian Ocean

 

This incident and the continued silence of my three elder brothers made me more determined to go to India to find out more

 

I arranged for my mother to be nursed at home and booked my passage to the country of my father’s birth and was leaving England during the last week of June and hoped to return by early September

 

But I never sailed as a week before I was due to leave I received a telegram from my agent who informed me that twelve crates had arrived at Tilbury for my express attention

 

With some difficulty I had these transferred to the Hall and was expecting to be contacted by my brothers to say that they were returning home

 

I spent the next month having my grandfather’s collection unpacked as I wanted them to be ready for my brother’s return

 

The collection exceeded my wildest expectations and I requested help from a London museum in cataloguing and identifying each item

 

Although my preference was to donate most of the collection to three museums in the county I knew that I would need my brother’s permission before authorising this

 

Sadly my mother was by now feeble of mind and was not aware that the collection had even returned to our English shores

 

But my brothers remained silent and their lack of communication was worrying me greatly

 

I checked the register of lost ships but none had been reported wrecked so again I decided to book a passage to India so that I might enquire after my brothers

 

But then fate took over as I was grievously injured injured in a railway accident in Sussex when returning from a coastal break with my dear cousins Anne and Amelia

 

By the grace of God my two cousins lived in Hastings and did not travel with me and apart from the shock of the severe injury to my leg remained uninjured in person

 

I was to be confined to a wheelchair for a month or more and I felt a melancholy enter my mind

 

My enlightened physician said that I was still in shock and that the darkness would pass

 

But in truth my melancholy was not due to the accident but was caused by the continuing absence of my brothers

 

I knew that they must of arranged for the shipment of my grandfathers collection but deep in my soul I felt that something awful might have happened to them

 

During my incapacity I began to read the content of my grandfather’s diaries which was a considerable task as they commenced from the time of his arrival in India at the age of twenty-five and continued for the next twenty-four years

 

The only break in his recording was during the Indian Mutiny although he did later refer to the atrocities committed by the rebels and it was here that I found short reference to The Chinese Parlour which I previously supposed to be a collection of artefacts which had been lost

 

To my great surprise The Chinese Parlour was in fact a painting that had been commissioned by a rich merchant who had been murdered along with his family during the mutiny

 

My grandfather noted that he had been given to him for disposal and that he wished that he had never set his eyes on it

 

That was his least entry about the painting or its sad history

As I was incapacitated I asked a good friend of mine to run through the inventory with me to see if this painting had been shipped to England

This proved a difficult task as a number of the painting remained unidentified and had been catalogued as paintings by local artists

They had no real documents and had been largely ignored at the time of their arrival as being of little historical interest

The Chinese Parlour was the largest of the paintings returned and was the work of a talented artist

The subject matter although somewhat mundane had been presented in such a manner that one felt that they were in the room looking out into an equally detailed garden

One of the things that I did find strange about the painting was that it seemed to focus on a small ornate wooden bridge which had been built over a shallow stream

It seemed to me that the unknown artist had wanted to emphasise the importance of this lonely bridge even to the detriment of the painting

I had the painting positioned so that when I was well again I could study it in greater detail as it intrigued me

The condition of my injuries caused me great pain and because of this I was prescribed a strong medication which because of its potency I soon became addicted to

But I knew that my body was mending so I did not worry unduly about the medication and its addictive effects

The winter that followed my accident was the worst in living memory with large parts of my county cut off for days

Livestock died in the fields and even if I had been fit enough to travel by train I would have not been able to as there were no trains running

Another inconvenience was the Hall which had always been difficult to heat was suffering and I had been forced to vacate my bedroom for the duration of the extreme weather

This no doubt had pleased my servants who had been forced to carry me up and down the stairs

For the convenience of all in the Hall I decided to reside in the Green Room where I had stationed the painting that I hoped to study

On the first night in the room I sat by a roaring fire and for some reason was happy with my life although it had been blighted by loss and mystery

 I had been warned not to take brandy whilst on my medication but I thought the advice rather excessive and decided on a nightcap

It was then I saw the first movement

I say movement but I was not even looking at the painting but I was sure that I saw a child run across the small bridge

This alarmed me but I thought myself in an unusual state due to the mix of my medication with the brandy

I resolved to listen to my physician and decided to abstain from alcohol until my health returned

Nothing out of the ordinary happened for the next few days and I almost forgot about the movement in the painting

That was until the last day of the year when I decided to see the new year in on my own and I gave my servants the evening off as the snows had thawed a little and movement in the immediate area was now possible

I was alone in the Hall with the exception of my mother and her nurse

The evening seemed to drag and because of this I began to look at the painting in more detail

My mind was as clear as the icy winds that blew without hesitation in the night outside and by the light of the fire I began to re-read my grandfather’s diary during the period when he acknowledged the painting

At first nothing happened but again I thought I saw movement near the bridge but put it down to the stuffiness of the room

But when it happened again I could not excuse the movement on the bridge as being a trick of the light or my own drowsiness

There were definitely now two figures on the bridge and to my extreme shock I recognised them to be my mother and father

I screamed with alarm and with an undue haste opened the main window in the Green Room to let the freezing air enter in an effort to clear my head

But nothing changed and I watched with horror as both my mother and father were staring straight out of the painting at me

It was then that I noticed that my mother was heavy with child but I thought this impossible as she was advanced in years and bore a detailed resemblance to my aged parent who was currently in her room in the other wing of the Hall

My servants found me in a collapsed state near the open window and summoned help immediately

It was thought that I had fallen when trying to open the window and I was told that I was lucky not to have frozen to death

It was agreed that I would be visited on the hour by at least one member of my household for the duration of my infirmity

My bed was moved slightly away from the heat of the fire and the ventilation of the room was improved

But what they actually did was move me closer to the painting and from then on I saw each movement whether it be the breeze in the light trees or the mysterious figures on the bridge

In a way I got used to the painting that was until the tenth day of January when with great alarm my mothers nurse burst into my room and informed me that my mother had died during the night

As I was incapacitated I was not able to see her but asked that a post mortem be carried out to confirm the cause of death

At first my request was denied as in the authorities eyes she had died simply of old age and her heart had ceased beating whilst she slept

But I insisted and because of my position within the family the authorities agreed to my request

When the results were communicated to me a day later the news rocked me to my very soul

Mr Sneed who was the County Coroner has been accompanied by the pathologist Dr Meadows when they visited me on the Tuesday morning after my mothers passing

I knew both men socially but there was almost a sense of bewilderment and shock in their voices when relayed to me the results of the post mortem

My mother who had died in her eightieth year had been found to have been carrying the foetus of an unborn child which on examination had been estimated to have been at least forty years old

Neither man had ever witnessed anything like it during their professional careers

It was agreed that we would keep this fact secret and my mother was buried with my fourth brother shortly afterwards in the grounds of the Hall

I discussed the detail with both men but did not tell them of the movements that I had witnessed within the painting as they would have thought me completely mad

It was agreed that there was no rational explanation for the foetus and we all thought that any explanation was best left to God

Another thing that was evident to me was that the movements in the painting had now ceased

By March I had regained the use of my damaged leg and no longer needed the wheelchair and because of this I began to make plans to sail to India to find my brothers

I was still addicted to the morphine that I had been prescribed but felt that my dependence on this drug was waning although I was still experiencing its side effects

The painting had been left in the Green Room but I had covered it with a velvet cloth as prescribed in truth the events of the winter months had left me with a fear of even looking at the work

The months passed and Spring became Summer and as the acting head of the family I began making preparations for my voyage

I was to sail in September as my physician had declared that I would be fit enough by then although the accident had left me with a pronounced limp

My cousins visited me in July and noted how I had aged and how dreadful the whole thing had been for me

They also asked to see the remaining items of my grandfather’s oriental collection so against my better judgement I took them into both the Green Room and the Orangery to see these items

Both of my cousins were much enthused by the collection but asked why I had covered The Chinese Parlour with a velvet cloth

I explained that the Green Room attracted the afternoon sun and I did not want the painting to fade

My explanation was accepted and I removed the cloth in front of my cousins and as they both admired the work the flow of my blood suddenly ran cold as my parents and three brothers were standing on the small bridge looking into the stream

After my cousins had departed I returned to the Green Room to look at the painting again and found that my brothers were no longer on the bridge but were playing with hoops on the lawn to the left of the crossing and were occasionally disappearing totally from sight only to reappear again when their recreation allowed them to

This was enough for me and I fled in terror from the room and did not return until I was forced to when the brothers Simon from the main county museum visited me as I wanted the first part of my grandfather’s collection to find a safe but temporary home whilst I was away

I had arrangements with two other museums in the county to take the remaining parts of the collection before I left England

My secretary who was to be in charge of my affairs had assured all parties that ownership would be determined when I was again in contact with my elder brothers and because of the magnitude of my offer all parties were in full agreement

As the brothers admired the contents of the room I again stole a glance at the painting and was silently shocked at what my eyes were telling me

My parents and my brothers were slowly decomposing

A sense of nausea came over me and I sat down hiding my distress from my visitors that was until they both stood in front of the painting and commented on how lifelike the figures were and how excellent the general composition was

They presumed it to be the work of a well known artist but I was unable to answer them and left the room vaguely blaming the heat of the day

After enquiries about my recovery and my general heath the brothers left me and I returned to the Green Room immediately

I stayed there for the next forty-eight hours with strict instructions on disturbance before my secretary who had been contacted by my head man visited me on the presumption of a minor enquiry

But nothing happened indeed the figures had vanished totally from the painting and I had detected no movement at all and because of this I received my secretary in a good humour

We shared supper and I accompanied him to the gate where his carriage was waiting

But for some reason when I returned to the Hall I decided to take a detour and visit my mothers grave

The location that I had picked was near the enclosed garden not far from the nursery and had been a favourite of my mothers in her later years

I had also chosen it for its silence

Although not a regular churchgoer I am not ashamed to say that I knelt by the grave and offered the Lord a sincere prayer

That was until I became aware of the tiny heartbeat which appeared to be coming from beneath the soil

I should have fled in terror but I placed my ear to the ground where I could hear the sound more clearly and soon became aware that my ear was being lightly touched

At first I thought that it was the evening breeze pushing the plush grass against my ear

But I knew that was not the case and that my ear was being caressed by an infants tiny hand

My eyes remained closed and when I opened them again the sensation and the quiet heartbeats had ceased

I stood up and the looked at the grave which was as I had found it

No explanation was necessary as I was not seeking one

My fourth brother even though he had been dead for over forty years and had not enjoyed the external world had touched my ear

I was sure of this fact but it did not terrify me indeed I drew some comfort from it

My trip to India was cancelled as I knew that my brothers were dead and no advantage would be gained from my enquiries

At first this caused me difficulties but nearly ten years later a Danish missionary called on me and gave me a letter from my eldest brother Richard

The letter was not complete but told me that he was dying and that both my other brothers had died from a fever in a small settlement in Central India

He gave no clue as to why he and my other brothers had travelled so far inland when their main business was on the coast but he implied that they had found something in my grandfather’s papers which suggested an advantage in such an undertaking

I am now nearly a hundred years old but no longer live at the Hall which was destroyed by a fire in 1922

Although I still limp badly I am in good health and I often visit the museum where The Chinese Parlour is hung and am glad to report that the painting is no longer haunted and if I am totally truthful it can even be thought of as sedate

I say this in the knowledge that I am beginning to dream about crossing the small wooden bridge with my beloved parents and my four other brothers