My husband and I booked a bed and breakfast in xxxxx, outside of Ottawa, Ontario. It was an older former farm home, rolling hills, well-kept lawn. Really a nice place. We were only there for the weekend, a wedding.

We checked in and put our bags in our room. It was nicely decorated, antiques – the whole works. My husband was acting strangely, while we were unpacking. He kept looking over his shoulder and was behaving very antsy. I asked him what the problem was and he told me that it was nothing. Forget it.

We grabbed a bite to eat and I was really tired at this point. I wanted to go back to our room and get some sleep, the wedding was the next day, at 11:00. My husband ordered a second coffee and asked for dessert. He never has a second cup of coffee after dinner and absolutely never eats dessert.

I asked him, again, what was bothering him. He repeated that it was nothing and to drop it. He really started to draw out the dessert and coffee. I was getting irritated and told him to finish up, that I wanted to go back and get some sleep. He got huffy but finished up his coffee – left most of his dessert.

When we arrived back at the B & B, he started fussing around the car. Picking at lint and brushing off his dash – he had it cleaned before we left. There was no lint and the dash was spotless. I was really irritated and went in without him.

I said good night to the owners, they were in the living room, watching television. I explained that my husband would be in, shortly.

I headed up to the room and changed into my pyjamas, I heard the door open downstairs and my husband’s voice. He was talking with the owners. I went about my night routine and had finished brushing my teeth when he finally came up stairs. He sat down on the bed. There were two lamps, on the night tables, on either side of us. I climbed into bed and turned off my lamp. I asked him if he was planning to come to bed or sit there all night. His behaviour was peeving me.

He snapped at me so I turned over and closed my eyes. He sat there for a while and then, I guess he realized he was tired as well. He went to the bathroom, did his routine and came back to the room. He sat on the bed again, fully clothed. I remember I was pretty mad at this point. I told him to get into his pyjamas and turn off the light.

He did 50% of what I asked, he put on his pyjamas but left the light on. I told him he had better tell me what his problem was or I was going to get really mad.

He told me that he felt uncomfortable as soon as we arrived. He said he felt like someone was watching him. He tried to laugh but I could tell he was upset. So, I told him to leave the light on but to please lie down and try to get some rest. He was probably overtired.

He laid down and I dozed off. Somewhere in the middle of the night, he shook me, hard.

The light was off – he was telling me to look near the window – there was a woman. I looked over but I couldn’t see anyone there. He insisted that a woman had been standing by the window, staring at us.

I told him, he must have been dreaming and switched on my lamp. There was nothing there but I did notice a definite smell of perfume in the air. It wasn’t mine. It was very flowery. I felt it was best not to say anything about it but he did. He asked me if I smelled something – like flowers. I lied and told him that I didn’t and in all honesty, I was getting a little spooked.

I said that if he felt that strange, to leave his lamp on. He told me that he had never turned it off. I’m pretty level headed but I have to admit, I was getting a little nervous and I was glad for the light from the lamp.

We tried to go back to sleep and really didn’t do much more than doze on and off. I was dozing when he poked me again – he said the smell was back and he looked scared. I think that scared me more than the perfume smell, which was back.

I tried to make light of it and tell him that the owners probably had those spray deodorizer things. Neither of us were convinced but we had to get some sleep. We tried again.

He didn’t have to poke me – I woke up because there was the distinct feeling of someone sitting on the end of the bed and my lamp was out. I didn’t turn it off. I knew I didn’t. My husband and I lay there, holding hands, tightly. He reached over and switched on the light. It felt like, whatever was at the end of the bed, got up, but slowly.

That was it, we knew were not going to get any more sleep. It was about 5:00 am so we stayed up. We decided we would either stay in a hotel that evening or head home. We put out our clothes for the wedding and packed up everything else. When we heard movement downstairs, we grabbed our suitcase and garment bags; my husband took them to the car and I went into the dining room. The lady of the house had coffee prepared and mentioned that we were up early. She asked if we had not slept well and seemed very concerned. I didn’t know what to say, so I just blamed it on our not being used to sleeping away from home. It was a lie but I just didn’t know how else to explain our behaviour.

We had paid for the entire weekend but told the owner that we would be heading back to our home, due to an unexpected business call. We told them we didn’t expect a refund as we had booked for the two nights.

After the wedding we did, in fact, drive home.

That should have been the end of things but it wasn’t. A few nights later, I was reading in our room when I smelled that same perfume. My husband walked into the room and I thought he was going to faint. He became very pale and his eyes were opened wide; he was looking around our room in a panic and I knew he smelled the perfume as well.

The smell disappeared and we prepared for bed, leaving one of our lamps on. We didn’t even discuss it, the lamp was left on.

We slept well that night, after the perfume incident. I think we convinced ourselves that it was just our imagination.

Then, later in the week, we were both awakened by something – the lamp was still on but near our window was a shadow. It looked like a woman. My husband flew out of bed and switched on the overhead light; the shadow disappeared but we both felt like something was in the room with us.

We had brought more than our luggage home.

This went on for a few weeks, the smell, the feeling like someone was watching but we didn’t see the shadow again. My husband and I were exhausted; we didn’t know what to do. This was our home and we felt, unsafe, in it.

I mentioned what was going on to a very good friend of the family and she suggested we call a medium. My husband was resistant at first; he didn’t want people thinking we were crazy but a few more nights of the perfume, with that uneasy feeling and he agreed to the medium.

I don’t know what we expected a medium would look like but she was a surprise. She was dressed like anyone you see in the mall, she was very nice, polite and respectful. We sat down and offered to tell her our story but she didn’t want to hear it. She asked if it would be okay if she took a solitary walk around the place. My husband and I went outside.

After about 10 minutes the medium came outside, she explained that we had an entity in the house. It didn’t feel like it meant us harm although the spirit seemed to be focused on my husband. She asked about the house and its history; we explained that we had never had a problem until the stay at the B&B.

The medium thought that perhaps my husband reminded the spirit of someone and she had attached herself to us.

She arranged to do a “cleansing”, she called it. There were three people and the medium, my husband and I were not present. The medium felt it would be easier to convince the spirit to leave, if my husband was not around.

Whatever they did, seems to have worked. It has been 3 months since the last incident.

(Names and places have been removed by request)