Vulnerability has a scent which attracts predators of all types.
Mrs Redvale, the Rector's wife, knows something is wrong at Carthwaite Place, where Amelia Lornon is paid companion to terrible Miss Prunella Pendleham. Amelia is indeed in a bad way, for she also perceives the malignant ghosts at Carthwaite Place. Yet she keeps silent about them, thinking she must be going mad. She also likes to send Amelia up the dark stairs at night to fetch her wrap, because she knows Amelia had a fright up there once. On the left of the path were three rotting corpses in open coffins.