Chapter 12
I’d taken Honey for a walk and eaten dinner in the restaurant before I told Melissa what had happened that afternoon.
She’d asked me, the moment I got back to the cottage after saying goodbye to Mia, if I’d had any luck seeing ghosts, and I’d admitted I hadn’t, but I hadn’t told her about my conversation with Mia, nor about the items I’d found in the curiosity shop.
I still wasn’t sure I should tell her, so I decided to put it all to the back of my mind and try to enjoy the rest of the day.
We had a lovely meal in the restaurant of The Quicken Tree Inn, but Melissa was subdued, to say the least.
‘I can’t believe you didn’t spot a single ghost,’ she said, pouring herself a large glass of wine from the bottle on our table. ‘Did you even look, or were you distracted by the charms of this place? I know what you’re like for a pretty village. You’ve always been the same.’
‘Believe me, if there’d been any ghosts around, I’d have spotted them,’ I said. ‘There just weren’t. Maybe we were mistaken about this place.’
‘Rubbish! Look at what you experienced at The Monastery! And you said there were three spirits at Harling Hall. If all else fails, you’ll have to go back and talk to them.’
‘I also told you that they made it very clear they didn’t want their presence known,’ I reminded her. ‘They won’t talk to me, Mel. Believe me.’
‘And the ghosts at The Monastery won’t talk to you either.’ She gulped some of the wine back and slammed her glass down on the table. ‘Great. So the only places we know there are ghosts are haunted by spirits who refuse to communicate with us. Brilliant Halloween event this is going to be.’
‘I don’t understand it really,’ I admitted. ‘It’s such an old village, and with the Standing Stones and everything… I mean, if ever a village looked like it should be inhabited by ghosts, it’s this one. Especially with a drowned Hollywood film star and a murdered war widow in its history!’
We wandered thoughtfully back to the cottage where a delighted Honey was waiting for us. I made a fuss of her then let her out into the enclosed garden before making Melissa and me a mug of hot chocolate.
‘I did get a couple of interesting things from the curiosity shop,’ I said eventually, when Honey was back in the living room and Melissa and I were sitting down, sipping our drinks.
‘What sort of things?’
‘A brooch,’ I said eagerly. ‘A mourning brooch from Whitby, made from real Whitby jet. And a chipped teacup that’s part of a 1939 Royal Doulton tea set.’
She stared at me. ‘Is that supposed to cheer me up or something?’
‘Well…’ I shrugged as an idea suddenly occurred to me. ‘Maybe I could try to find their original owners? On Halloween night all things are possible, aren’t they? I might be able to bring their spirits to me.’
‘If they’re here,’ she pointed out. ‘They might have passed over. The owner of the teacup might even still be alive. Although, granted, it’s unlikely a child owned a Royal Doulton cup and an adult at that time would be positively ancient now.
What about this Roman soldier that Mia woman told you about? ’
‘You said you weren’t interested,’ I reminded her. ‘You said it was a cliché.’
‘Beggars can’t be choosers,’ she said gloomily. ‘At this rate we’ll be hunting for grey ladies and headless horsemen.’
‘Or farm labourers with their arms ripped off,’ I muttered, still hurt and angry about Mia’s mockery.
‘Huh? What farm labourer?’ Melissa demanded.
I sighed and took another sip of my hot chocolate. ‘I bumped into Mia,’ I admitted. ‘She – she fed me a ghost story that was clearly fake.’
Melissa’s eyes narrowed. ‘Did she indeed? And why would she do that?’
‘She thinks I’m a scout for you. That I’m trying to secretly research ghosts in this place so I can tell you all about them.’
Melissa looked outraged. ‘She thinks I’m a fake?’
I couldn’t bring myself to remind her that was exactly what she was, so I just shrugged.
‘Well, that’s charming,’ Melissa muttered. ‘I hope you put her straight.’
‘Of course, but then she told me about this ghost that was clearly made up so I guess she didn’t really believe me.’
‘How do you know he was made up?’ Melissa asked.
I laughed bitterly. ‘Oh, come on, Mel! A farm labourer who had his arm ripped off and goes around searching for help with blood pouring from his shoulder? How likely does that sound to you, given what we know about the afterlife?’
She sighed. ‘You’re right, of course. That injury just wouldn’t be visible. There are no injuries in the afterlife. Everyone’s healed, which is one of the things I always found – find – most beautiful and reassuring about death.’
‘Exactly. She was clearly trying to make a fool of me. A joke at my expense. She’s decided I’m a liar and she thought she’d teach me a lesson.’
It still hurt. I couldn’t deny it.
‘And at my expense, too. She thinks I’m a fraud, remember?
Hmm.’ Melissa drained her hot chocolate and sat back on the sofa, thinking.
She must have been thinking very hard, because when Honey padded over to her, she reached out and stroked her, fondling her silky ears with what was almost affection.
I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or Honey, but our dog kept very still, as if she was afraid any sort of movement would bring Melissa out of her trance and the ear fondling would be over.
‘You know,’ Melissa said at last, ‘I think Mia might just have unwittingly tipped us off that there is more to this village than she wants us to know.’
‘What do you mean?’ I couldn’t see how. Turned out, Mia was just another mean girl who liked to make fun of dweebs like me.
‘Think about it,’ Melissa said. ‘Why would she tell lies if she had nothing to hide? And don’t you think it odd that she didn’t mention Harling Hall at all?
In fact, she’s directed us away from the village centre entirely.
A farm labourer who’s wandering around acres of fields somewhere.
For some reason she’s making us look beyond the streets of Rowan Vale, which makes me think there’s something or someone here that she doesn’t want us to meet. ’
‘But Mia doesn’t even believe in ghosts,’ I said.
‘Doesn’t she? I wonder,’ Melissa said grimly.
I thought back to that afternoon in the kitchen at Harling Hall. There’d been a little girl playing with a kitten. There was something about that conversation Mia and I had had that was ringing a bell somehow. I just couldn’t think what it was.
I gave up and finished the rest of my hot chocolate.
Melissa had stopped stroking Honey, who gave a heavy sigh and dropped down on the carpet, her head on her paws as she gave me a doleful look.
‘That’s it,’ I murmured as realisation dawned. ‘The golden retriever!’
‘Sorry?’
I tried to recollect the memories of that afternoon, piecing them together bit by bit. ‘Mia said her gran had once had a golden retriever, just like ours. And the ghost – the little girl ghost – she said something like, “Who, our Janet? I didn’t know about that!” Or something like that anyway.’
‘Right,’ Melissa said slowly. ‘And…?’
‘Mia had said earlier that she had a sort of family connection to Harling Hall. I never thought about it at the time, but what if she meant the little ghost girl?’ Now that I came to think about it, as she’d mentioned it, hadn’t her gaze briefly flitted to the corner where the spirit had been lurking at the time?
‘So, “Our Janet”, whoever she was, could have been Mia’s grandmother?’ Melissa sat up, her eyes gleaming with excitement. ‘And if that’s the case, do you think it possible that Mia does believe in ghosts? Maybe can even see them?’
‘I suppose it might be,’ I said. ‘But if so, why is she being so unhelpful and mean?’
‘I don’t know, but it intrigues me. There must be something they’re trying to keep from us. You said the spirits at the Hall didn’t want their presence known?’
‘Well,’ I said, trying to remember, ‘the woman definitely didn’t. I’m not sure about him, but she was adamant.’
‘I think,’ Melissa said, tapping her fingers on her chin as she always did when she was thinking hard, ‘that tomorrow we should go back to Harling Hall and talk to Callie and Brodie.’
‘Oh, no!’ I said in dismay. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.’
Hell, the last thing I wanted was another awkward conversation with Mia. Or to see her. Or to be within a hundred yards of her, quite frankly. My face still burned when I thought of how she’d made fun of me.
‘Mia works for Callie, right? Callie is the owner of this estate – the whole shebang. And there’s something weird about that, too. Did you know the Harling Estate used to belong to Brodie’s grandad?’
‘Sir Lawrence,’ I said. ‘Yes, I know. So what?’
‘So how did someone like Callie come to buy it off him? You saw her, you spoke to her. She’s not some upper-class twit with more inherited money than she knows what to do with, and she’s not old enough to have earned it.
Surely it should have been passed to Brodie?
So how did the estate fall into her hands? ’
‘Lottery win?’ I suggested.
‘Really? And why would she buy it anyway?’ She tapped her chin again. ‘Nope, something’s not right here. I want to find out exactly how much Callie knows about the ghosts in Rowan Vale. And I know just the way to do it.’
‘Melissa, maybe we should leave it,’ I said weakly.
‘We have a séance to do,’ she reminded me. ‘The Cotswolds Courier will be there. The local television news will be covering it. And you want me to leave it?’
‘You could tell them anything,’ I pointed out. ‘Who’s going to correct you? Who’s going to know if you’re wrong?’
It wasn’t the right thing to say, and I knew it even before I’d finished asking the question.
Melissa’s eyes flashed at me. ‘I have never, ever made things up,’ she said coldly. ‘I may have… floundered a little on occasion, it’s true. When my channels have been blocked. But that’s where you came in.’ Her eyes narrowed suddenly. ‘You’ve never invented a ghost, have you?’
‘Of course not! I wouldn’t do that.’
‘Good. So don’t ask me to. We have our integrity, whatever the people round here want to believe. And if they’re making fun of us then that’s even more reason to get this right, don’t you think?’
She had a point. Whatever Mia thought of me, I would prove her wrong.
‘Okay, Mel,’ I said heavily. ‘Harling Hall it is then.’