Chapter 9
Melissa was surprisingly unmoved by the stone circle which was part of the various monuments that made up the Wyrd Stones.
‘I’ve seen better,’ she said dismissively. ‘Much better.’
‘Well obviously, it’s not Stonehenge…’
‘Stonehenge? Huh! That’s nothing but a tourist trap these days.
There are standing stones all over these mystical isles, Verity, and they have far better views than these.
Look at them, stuck in the middle of the woods!
What use is that to anyone? All these rowan trees everywhere. I wonder what they were afraid of?’
‘Quite a lot in those days, I should imagine,’ I said, while thinking that, surely, the views weren’t the point? ‘Rowan trees protected against evil spirits.’ I shivered. ‘I hope they planted them just in case, and not because they needed the protection.’
‘The best stones I ever visited were Castlerigg in the Lake District,’ Melissa said. ‘The view from there was amazing. All those mountains.’
‘You said you loved the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney,’ I said accusingly. ‘And what about Avebury? You adored it there.’
She waved a hand, dismissing my protests. ‘When it boils right down to it, they’re all just a bunch of old stones.’
‘Says the great television medium and communicator with spirits,’ I muttered.
‘What?’
‘Nothing. So you don’t want to hang around here then?’
She peered closely at me, her eyes questioning. ‘Do you?’
I knew what she was asking and I shrugged. ‘Not particularly.’
She sighed, understanding that I hadn’t seen anything or anyone unexpected. ‘Okay. Well… I suppose we might as well go to Woodstone Manor then.’
The manor house – or The Monastery – was on the edge of the woods at the far side of the Harling Estate.
We set off quite cheerfully, but the closer we got to the building the more uneasy I felt, and Honey clearly shared my feelings as the fur on the back of her neck stood up and she growled once or twice, her steps slowing.
‘Look at that,’ Melissa said as we drew to a halt just outside the manor house gates, which were rusting and hanging on their hinges. ‘Clearly no one comes near this place. I wonder why?’
I could already see that the house wasn’t anywhere near as ugly as I’d expected. In fact, it was rather lovely. Which did rather beg the question, why leave it empty and unfinished? The Harling Estate was well cared for and well maintained. Why had this particular house been left to fall into ruin?
In the lower windows, I was sure I caught sight of someone moving. Either the Monastery wasn’t as empty as I’d assumed, or my imagination was running riot. But if it was the latter, Honey shared the same affliction, because she growled again, quite menacingly this time.
My sister heard her and turned to me, scanning my face for any reaction.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Is something wrong?’
‘Just felt a bit cold,’ I said. ‘It’s quite chilly, isn’t it?’
‘What do you expect for late October?’ she snapped, clearly frustrated. ‘Come on, let’s go in.’
‘Inside?’ I felt a sudden sense of dread at the thought.
‘Of course inside.’ She pushed open one of the gates so we could enter the grounds. It creaked in protest. ‘Why not?’
‘The question, surely, is why?’ I insisted. ‘Why would we? What do you hope to gain from being in there?’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ she said at last. ‘If there are any spirits who wish to communicate with us, I can hardly expect them to come outside and meet us at the gate, can I?’
Us? Was she ever going to admit to me that her ‘channels’ weren’t temporarily ‘blocked’ but that her ability to speak to ghosts had gone forever? But no, that would be asking too much, clearly.
I could have said something about letting her go in alone while I waited outside, but why make things even more difficult for her?
Even though she annoyed the hell out of me, and it hurt like mad that she couldn’t bring herself to trust me with the truth, or ever thank me for the help I gave her, I wouldn’t make her suffer if I could prevent it.
This must be hard enough for her to deal with.
She didn’t need her own sister making it even harder.
Reluctantly, I followed her up the overgrown path to the house. It was very large and grand, made of golden Cotswold stone, with a roof of stone slates, and multiple chimney pots.
According to the website Melissa had found, it had several larger rooms that had no ceilings at all, which gave them double height. They had wide stone arches holding up the roof, giving it the appearance of an ecclesiastical building.
Walls were unplastered. Floors were bare wood.
Yet there had been a beautiful chapel put in place, and some of the rooms had fireplaces and carved stone figures of green men or woodland animals and birds, and huge stained-glass windows that went almost from floor to ceiling.
There was even a bathroom with a solid stone bath.
Getting closer to the house, though, we could see that there were holes in the roof, the garden was a tangled wilderness, and some of the windows were cracked or broken. A few of the chimney pots looked as if they were crumbling and the front door was rotting at the bottom.
‘What a waste,’ I breathed. ‘It could be so beautiful.’
Melissa pulled at the front door, but it was locked. I felt an immediate rush of anger aimed in our direction and glanced uneasily at my sister. Surely, even she’d felt that? But she looked oblivious, tutting in frustration that she couldn’t open the door.
Honey, though, had backed away, her hackles raised, a deep growl emitting from her throat.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ Melissa asked. ‘Has she sensed something? Have you? I wonder if there are any windows open?’ she added eagerly.
‘We can’t go in there,’ I said.
She looked round sharply. ‘Why not?’
Why not, Verity?
‘The bats,’ I said. ‘This site is protected, remember? There are horseshoe bats here and we can’t disturb them.’
‘According to the website, they go off to hibernate in September,’ she said. ‘They won’t be back until April.’ She peered with curiosity at a clearly unhappy Honey then turned to me. ‘Are you sure that’s all?’
When I shrugged, she tugged at the front door again. ‘I wonder if it’s really locked or if it’s just stuck?’
‘Go away!’
The voice was as clear to me as Melissa’s. It boomed from behind the door – loud and angry and male. I stepped back as Honey barked furiously.
Melissa kicked the door in frustration.
‘Leave us alone!’
‘Go home!’
‘You are not welcome here!’
The voices were a chorus of angry disapproval. I gulped and stepped back again.
‘We need to leave here,’ I said. Honey was whimpering now, but made no attempt to leave my side, which I thought was the sweetest thing ever.
Melissa put her hands on her hips. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘Go – or it will be the worse for you!’
‘I mean it, Mel. We can’t go in there.’
She moved closer to me, her eyes showing her suspicion. ‘Why are you being so dramatic, Verity?’
‘I-I’m not being dramatic. I just don’t think it’s a good idea…’
The voices were yelling at me nonstop now.
I could sense anger and outrage, but I could sense something else, too.
Fear. These ghosts, whoever they were, were afraid of us.
They didn’t want to be discovered. They didn’t want to be disturbed.
For whatever reason, they had chosen to stay out here away from the rest of the village, and I could sense their desperation for us to leave them in peace.
‘I’m leaving!’ I said, much louder than I’d intended. I wanted them – whoever they were behind that door – to be assured that I respected their right to privacy. ‘I promise we won’t disturb you again.’
I could hardly look at Melissa as I turned and strode rapidly back to the gate, a clearly relieved Honey by my side. I was aware that my sister was following me, but we said nothing until we were standing outside the property boundary and the voices had stopped yelling at me.
‘Well.’ Melissa looked and sounded pretty shaken. ‘That was…’
‘I’m sorry,’ I told her miserably. ‘I couldn’t go in there.’
‘Why couldn’t you go in there?’ she asked. ‘You heard something? Saw something?’
I closed my eyes. ‘Do you really want to know?’
There was silence for a moment, then, ‘Yes. I think I do. You see, I didn’t see or hear or feel anything. Evidently my channels are blocked again. Probably because I’m so tired after all the travelling I’ve done lately. So what did I miss?’
‘Let’s walk back to the village,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you what I heard.’
As we headed back towards Rowan Vale, I painstakingly explained about the movement behind the window, the terrible feeling of dread I’d experienced, and the voices yelling at me to go away and leave them alone.
‘I don’t know what they’d have done if we’d found our way in,’ I admitted.
‘Probably nothing. After all, ghosts can’t touch us or harm us in any way.
But it wasn’t about that. It was about giving them the respect and peace they deserved.
They were scared, Mel. I felt it. They just didn’t want to be contacted, simple as that. ’
Melissa didn’t say anything for a long time, and I didn’t press her. I knew it had been a big deal for her, that there’d been such aggressive spiritual activity and she still hadn’t heard a thing.
‘How long?’ she asked at last, as we drew near to the signpost that directed us to Rowan Vale.
‘How long?’ I repeated her words, suddenly distracted.
I was sure, for a moment, that I’d seen something – someone – through the trees.
I shivered, my arms prickling with unease.
No matter how hard I stared, though, I couldn’t see anyone lurking.
I supposed The Monastery had spooked me more than I’d realised.
‘How long have you been able to communicate with ghosts?’ Melissa snapped.
That caught my attention! She had never asked me that before.
In fact, when she’d first found out – by accident – that I could talk to spirits, she’d basically brushed it off and acted as if it was irrelevant.
It was only when she’d needed my help that she’d even acknowledged it properly, but she’d never asked me anything about it.
She didn’t know what form my communication with the ghosts took, or how frequently or easily I could talk to them, or what sort of ghosts I’d seen, apart from the ones I’d informed her about for the benefit of It’s Haunted!
I wondered what I should tell her. Should I pretend this was a fairly recent thing?
That I’d only developed my ability after she’d lost hers?
But where would that get us? Like it or not, this was a pivotal moment for us.
We were finally facing up to the truth of our situation.
It would be the worst time to tell lies.
‘Since…’ I hesitated, then ploughed on. ‘Since Dad died. I saw him. At his funeral.’
Her eyes widened and she drew me to a halt, reaching out for a moment before withdrawing her hand and looking away. I saw the gleam of tears in her eyes, though.
‘Your dad’s funeral?’ she murmured. ‘You were twelve.’
I didn’t tell her that, technically, I was eleven. She was close enough.
‘Did he speak to you? Could you speak to him?’
I nodded. ‘I had to explain to him. He wasn’t sure what had happened. He was confused. He came to find me, and I sat with him and told him that he was a ghost now, and that he’d have to learn how to deal with that somehow.’
‘You did all that when you were twelve?’ she said bleakly. ‘Didn’t you tell Mum?’
‘Mum was in no fit state,’ I said, rolling my eyes.
‘She was playing the grieving widow, remember? Even though they’d been divorced for years, she wanted the attention.
She was drunk. She could barely stand up.
Dad said she was a disgrace and he was disgusted with her, which was pretty rich coming from a dead, alcoholic, cocaine addict. ’
Melissa stared at me for a moment, then to my amazement she started to laugh.
‘Bloody hell! We had no chance, did we? Honestly, what with my workaholic father who treated me like a minor inconvenience, your addict dad and our ridiculous mum…’ She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself.
‘I’m sorry you had to deal with all that alone. If you’d told me…’
Her voice trailed off and I wondered if she was questioning what she would have done if I had told her. How would she have reacted? Had I been wrong to keep my secret all these years?
But no, I knew deep down that she wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
She’d resented me ever since I was born.
Her gift was something she shared with Mum, and she was much happier believing that it was something I wasn’t part of.
It made her special. She’d have resented me more if she’d known I’d even taken that from her.
That was why I’d kept it a secret from her, right up until I accidentally let slip something that I’d heard a ghost telling her.
There was no way I could have known it if I hadn’t shared her ability.
The secret was out, but that had only happened just over four years ago.
Before that, I’d nursed it to myself for over twelve years.
I held my breath, waiting for her to finally confess her secret.
Now she knew the truth about how long I’d been ghost whispering, was she at last going to admit to me that she’d fully lost her own ability, instead of persisting with this ridiculous charade of blocked channels caused by diet, tiredness, stress…
? You name it, Melissa had come up with them all.
But the moment passed, and she didn’t tell me.
Instead, she said, ‘I must be having an off day. All the stress, I expect. And I think the HRT patches are interfering with the channels.’
‘Hmm,’ I said. ‘It’s just one thing after another, isn’t it?’ I probably sounded more irritated than I’d meant to, but I couldn’t help it. I was bitterly disappointed in her.
She gave me a sharp look, as if she wasn’t sure if I was being sarcastic. Then she pulled her coat tighter and said, ‘Well, since you seem to be able to pick up the slack when I’m having problems, maybe you can help me for a change.’
Help her for a change?
‘In what way?’ I said, trying to mask my annoyance.
‘Have a wander around Rowan Vale. See if you can spot any spirits who’ll be happy to chat to you. There must be some ghosts round here who are friendlier than the ones at The Monastery. I’m going back to the inn for a lie down. I feel quite drained.’
‘Okay. Will you take Honey back with you? I don’t know how long I’m going to be and she’ll get bored.’ I looked at her hopefully, and she rolled her eyes.
‘Fine, if I must. She’ll have to amuse herself while I have a nap, though. You can take her for another walk after dinner if she needs one.’
She marched determinedly down the road towards the village centre and The Quicken Tree Inn, leaving Honey and me to trail behind her.
Just like we always did.