Chapter 19 #2
Mia hurried over and sat next to me again.
She pulled me into a hug, and I could smell the musky fragrance of her perfume, and the scent of coconut shampoo in her hair.
I’d never felt so at home in an embrace before.
In fact, it had been so long since anyone had held me that I struggled to remember it.
That just made me cry all the more, and despite my shame I couldn’t seem to help it.
I’d have expected someone as collected and elegant as Mia to have a handkerchief and she didn’t disappoint. She handed one to me and I mopped my eyes and nose, feeling more embarrassed than I’d ever felt in my life.
‘Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?’ she asked.
‘You wouldn’t believe me if I did,’ I sobbed. ‘You both think we’re fakes, don’t you? All that rubbish about the one-armed labourer. Did you think that was funny? Did you think I’d run off and tell Melissa the information and she’d humiliate herself by repeating it at the séance tonight?’
I realised I’d given away Melissa’s real name, but Mia didn’t pick up on it. Instead, she let me go and gave me a look of remorse.
‘I’m sorry, Verity. It wasn’t like that. Really it wasn’t. It was Florrie, you see. And if you’re what we think you are, you’ll know who I mean by that.’
I hesitated, but I didn’t have the energy to go on with this masquerade any longer. I nodded. ‘Your great-aunt. The little girl with the wellies. The little girl sitting by the fire right now, in fact.’
Mia closed her eyes for a moment. ‘So it is true.’ She turned to the little girl, who looked rather flummoxed. ‘How many more times? Florrie, get to bed!’
‘Aw, but Mia!’
‘It’s way past your bedtime. I’m surprised Agnes hasn’t come in here to drag you upstairs.’
‘She won’t come near cos of ’er!’ Florrie grinned and nodded at me.
‘So you think you’re safe? Well, you’re not. Scoot!’
Mia sounded so cross that Florrie clearly decided it was time to do as she was told. She flounced out of the room, muttering under her breath.
‘And I shall be up in a minute to check you’re in bed,’ Callie called after her.
‘Now,’ Mia said, ‘Where were we? Oh yes. Well, Florrie was convinced, that day you first visited the Hall, that you’d seen her.
I didn’t believe her, but I wanted to know for sure.
That’s why I set you that trap. It wasn’t to humiliate you or your sister, I promise.
I just wanted to know if you’d genuinely got the gift.
And of course, when Melissa told us about ghosts having no signs of injuries, we realised that at least one of you knew what you were talking about.
We still weren’t sure which one, though. ’
‘Which is why you got Quintus Severus to keep all the ghosts away from us both,’ I said flatly.
‘That was me,’ Callie said. ‘I’m afraid we did. How did you—?’
‘Millie told me.’ There. I’d ’fessed up.
Her eyes widened. ‘You saw Millie?’
‘And Bill, and Polly,’ I admitted. I drained my cocoa and sighed. ‘I may as well tell you it all, but you must swear that you won’t let on to Melissa that you know the truth. Promise?’
Callie and Mia nodded. ‘I swear,’ they said in chorus.
I believed them, so I told them everything. From seeing my confused dad wandering around at his own wake, to Melissa losing her gift, to the promise I’d made Polly, and the huge row I’d had with my sister.
‘That’s why I couldn’t believe it when you said she hadn’t revealed the truth at the séance,’ I said. ‘She must have had an attack of conscience after all.’
‘The ghosts never said a word!’ Callie said, sounding hurt. ‘They should know they can come to me if they’re worried about anything. Why didn’t Polly tell me?’
‘Maybe she felt guilty about talking to me behind your back,’ I suggested.
‘Oh gosh! I’m not that much of a dragon, am I? I’ll have a word with them all tomorrow,’ she decided. ‘They need to know I’m here for them, no matter what. This isn’t a dictatorship! I was just trying to protect them, that’s all.’
Mia looked puzzled about something. ‘Verity, what were you doing in the woods? Really?’
I put the tray on the floor. I hadn’t even touched the crumpets, which I felt guilty about, but I wasn’t hungry. In fact, my stomach churned suddenly as I remembered how I’d behaved earlier that evening.
‘It was like I was a different person,’ I said, as I struggled to explain what had happened, ‘I was so full of anger and a desperate need to prove myself. It’s not like me at all, it really isn’t.
I mean, I’ll admit that I’m fed up with doing Melissa’s ghost whispering for her yet never being allowed to tell anyone that I have the gift, but that’s mainly because she always seems so bloody ungrateful and takes me completely for granted.
It’s not because I want any fame or glory myself. Hell, that’s the last thing I want.’
Recalling the anger I’d felt earlier, I couldn’t believe I’d ever felt that way. What had possessed me?
I told them both about the strange feeling I’d had in the woods; how I’d closed my eyes for seconds but when I’d opened them again ten minutes had passed; how the brooch and the cup had felt hot in my hands; how I’d felt as if someone was watching me as I headed back down the pumpkin path.
‘But you don’t think this… I don’t know what you’d call it,’ Callie admitted. ‘Ceremony? You don’t think this ceremony worked? You didn’t bring anyone to you?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘No one appeared in the stone circle. I guess none of the ghosts were summoned. I was just spooked by the whole experience and started imagining things, I suppose.’
I remembered suddenly that I’d had a bag with me and I looked around anxiously. ‘My bag! Where—’
‘It’s right here,’ Mia assured me, reaching round the side of the armchair and lifting it up for me to see. ‘It’s safe.’
‘Did you look inside it?’ I asked.
‘Of course not!’ She sounded so indignant that I believed her.
‘Maybe,’ I said, ‘you should. Those are the items I told you about. The ones I got from the curiosity shop.’
‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘About that…’
She and Callie looked at each other and I frowned. ‘What? What is it?’
‘The thing is,’ Mia said, ‘when I met you and you said you’d been to the curiosity shop, do you remember me saying I thought it was half-day closing there?’
I nodded. ‘Vaguely.’
‘Well,’ Callie said, ‘it was. But that’s not all, Verity.
The person who runs the curiosity shop is a middle-aged woman called Mrs Bernice Brown.
She has one assistant – a younger woman called Louisa Ellwood.
Anyone who works at Harling Estates properties, even on a part-time or temporary basis, must get clearance from me or from Brodie.
’ She let that sink in for a minute. ‘The man who gave you those items had no such clearance. He shouldn’t have been in the curiosity shop at all.
The fact is, we haven’t the faintest idea who he is. ’