The First Mrs. Bennett

William Bell Scott, Woman Startled by the Ghost of a Girl by a MirrorSecond marriages can be awkward, especially when the ex-spouse has issues with their former partner entering into a new union. If said ex-spouse happens to be dead, you know your domestic life has well and truly entered Strange Company territory.In her 1974 book “Haunted East Anglia,” Joan Forman described an unsettling episode in the life of an acquaintance of hers to whom she gave the pseudonym “Mrs. June Bennett.” At the time our story opens, June had recently married a widower, after which the couple settled into the Wroxam home Mr. Bennett had shared with his first wife. The late Mrs. Bennett had greatly loved the home and had been very possessive of it--as it happened, she had even died there. June knew of all this, but felt no superstitious unease at becoming the house’s new mistress.However, as soon as June took up residence, she noticed odd things going on around her. She would hear phantom footsteps walking…