Traditional tale

The Lady Who Waits

Legend / folkloreOriginal CURSED retelling inspired by a local legend. Folklore, not proven.

Setting: Berry Pomeroy Castle case file (documented history kept separate).

Recorded narrator · sound starts when you tap Listen.

Gather close, and I will tell you of the lady who waits among the trees. They say that long ago, in a house of fine stone, there lived two sisters, and one of them loved what the other wanted.
The tale goes that the jealous sister locked the other away, down in the cold beneath the house, and told the servants she had gone visiting. Days passed. Then weeks. Nobody went down the stairs.
Now the house is ruin and ivy, and the trees have grown tall around it. But walkers say that on still afternoons, a pale figure stands at a high window, looking out towards the lane.
She is not looking for you, the old folk say. She is waiting for her sister to come back and say sorry. And if you hear a door close somewhere inside the empty walls, you should walk on quietly, and not answer.
Because some people say the sister did come back, in the end. And that is why there are two figures at the window now.