"Stay here," Garth called to Nora as he started up the stairs.
He heard her voice, like an echo behind him, as full of misgivings as Clara's had been.
"I am afraid."
At the foot of the attic stairs he saw the white figure of Mrs. Taylor, staring upward, trembling, hysterical, a violent fear in her eyes.
"You heard it, too," she breathed. "It wasn't the wind."
With a shuddering gesture she indicated McDonald's still form.
"He isn't dead," Garth said.
While she relaxed a little the fear in her eyes didn't diminish.
"I—I heard her moan," she said. "I opened my door, and there she was—a black thing—bending over him like—like a vampire. I couldn't seem to see her face. She ran up these stairs, and I could see through the banisters that she went in the big attic room—the room they always talked about where the woman—"
She broke off, screaming sharply again.