Childish Spirits Read online

  Ellie followed Moira along the hall and past the door to the cellar. They turned into a corridor that led to the dining room and billiard room.

  “What’s going on, Moira?” she whispered.

  In answer, Moira turned to one of the panelled walls. She ran her fingers along the rim of the top section of panelling.

  There was a grating, grinding sound as the whole section of wall slid aside.

  Ellie looked into the space beyond. The panels had hidden an ancient stone wall – and set into the wall, below floor level, was a large, rectangular hole.

  “The priest’s hole,” Moira said. “That’s where the answer is.”

  She held out her hand to Ellie.

  “Come on, then.”

  Ellie stared.

  “Down there?”

  “If you want to know what’s going on,” Moira said. “Come on. I’ll give you a hand.”

  Bewildered, Ellie stepped to the edge and took Moira’s hand.

  There were steps there, of a sort, but they were very uneven, and Ellie found it difficult to keep her balance.

  She caught her breath.

  “Moira…” She struggled to hold on. “What’s happening?”

  Very slowly, a smile crossed Moira’s face.

  “I told you I’d found the answer.”

  She let go.

  Ellie screamed as she fell six feet into the hole.

  She made a hard landing. Pain tore through her ankle as her leg twisted under her.

  Moira appeared, silhouetted in the doorway above.

  “Don’t bother to scream. The priest’s hole was designed for secrecy. You could be down there for months. And no one would know.”

  Ellie found tears springing to her eyes.

  “Why? Why?”

  Moira stood a moment, looking down at Ellie.

  “I warned you not to interfere.”

  There was a blaze of light. Moira shimmered – and transformed.

  A tall, forbidding figure in blouse and skirt appeared, carrying a cane.

  Miss McKendrick smiled.

  “I told you I’d be watching you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ellie stared at Miss McKendrick through the tears.

  “Then Moira –”

  “Never existed,” Miss McKendrick said. “I based her on those ridiculous people who came to look around. And I heard plenty of college stories here, in the old days.”

  She smiled.

  “I came to you, just when you needed a friend.”

  “So that’s how you got off the island!” Ellie paused. “It was you who told them to burn Edward in that portrait too, wasn’t it? You used Moira for that. What were you trying to do? Scare him out of hiding?”

  Miss McKendrick’s voice hardened.

  “You were warned, Eleanor. Once. Twice. Now, Edward is coming away with me. Tonight. And this house will go to its doom.”

  She extended a hand towards the panelled wall.

  “I’m so sorry that you and your family shan’t be here to see it.”

  Her grim smile was the last thing Ellie saw before the panel slammed shut.

  The narrow space of the priest’s hole was plunged into darkness.

  Ellie was too stunned to do anything for several moments, even to notice how dark it was, or how little air there was, or how much her ankle hurt.

  She felt in the pocket of her fleece and found her phone. She switched it on, creating a dim, bluish light that barely showed the tiny stone chamber around her.

  There was no signal.

  A memory was coming back… the island… and Moira’s reaction to being photographed. Quickly, she opened the gallery on her phone, found the images she’d taken of them at the folly.

  Each of the pictures showed Ellie. And next to her was an empty space.

  Ellie let her head drop. Then she let the tears come, properly now, hours of worry about Mum and Dad and Edward gushing out of her.

  “Oh, crikey,” moaned a voice. “Not the waterworks, please! I never could stand to see a girl cry. I had a cousin, used to howl if you so much as looked at her, or took one of her sweets…”

  “Edward.” Ellie was too weary even to be surprised.

  “I say.” Edward appeared, squashed into the space beside her. “That’s a bit of a turn up for the books, isn’t it? Miss Goody-Two-Shoes Secretary being old Miss Mc.”

  “Did you hear everything she said?” Ellie asked.

  Edward nodded.

  “Going to take me away, tonight.” He paused. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “Plan?” Ellie yelled. “Edward! We’re trapped underground!”

  “Trapped, you think?” Edward smiled. “I wouldn’t have said that. This is part of the tunnels, remember? Priests did need an escape route occasionally.”

  He pointed to his left. Ellie could just make out a series of footholds set into the wall.

  “There’s a tunnel entrance just above us. We’re not far from the centre of the network. There’s an exit into the morning room, and stairs leading up… Come along.”

  Ellie struggled to move.

  “My ankle…”

  “Oh, good grief.” Edward rolled his eyes. “Hang on. There’s a trick I’ve always wanted to try. Never had the chance, ‘til now.”

  He held out his right hand to Ellie.

  It became solid.

  “Can’t do this for long,” he said. “Not like old Miss McKendrick. She fooled you completely. Solid human being… You’d better get a move on.”

  Ellie gave him a look of wonder as she took his hand.

  With Edward’s help, she scrambled upward and into the tunnel. Edward gave her a smile that was almost gentlemanly.

  “At last, after reading all those tales of knights and dragons. A real damsel in distress.”

  The tunnel was much narrower than those they’d explored earlier. Led by Edward, they advanced towards a doorway that was gradually becoming visible in the distance.

  “That’s the morning room exit,” Edward said. He sounded proud. “Not bad, eh?”

  “No,” Ellie admitted. “Now, maybe you can think up what we’re going to do next.”

  She paused.

  There was a faint sound…gentle… rippling…

  She and Edward looked down to see water running around their feet. They looked back.

  It was coming from the tunnel.

  “What –?” Edward looked dumbfounded. “What’s happening? Has someone let the bath overflow?”

  Ellie blinked.

  “The lake…”

  She looked at Edward.

  “Don’t you get it? These tunnels reach right to the lake. If the lake floods… and the entrance to the tunnels there is open…”

  “But how could…?” Edward started.

  His eyes met Ellie’s.

  “Miss McKendrick!”

  “Has she got the power to make a flood?” Ellie asked. “To raise the water level of the lake?”

  Edward frowned.

  “Unfortunately, yes. She’s a Spirit Guide, they’re very powerful. They have power over all the elements – earth, wind, fire…”

  He looked at the pool. It was deepening.

  “And water.”

  Ellie remembered Miss McKendrick’s words.

  This house will go to its doom.

  She grasped Edward’s hand.

  “Come on.”

  Pursued by the sound of water, they ran. The sound was no longer that of a trickle, but of a rushing torrent.

  Ellie remembered something else Miss McKendrick had said.

  You and your family shan’t be here.

  “Mum…” she muttered. “And Charlie…”

  Her face set in a frown.

  “We’d better get out of here. And above ground. Now.” She looked around. “Stairs, you said – where are they?”

  Edward moved forward.

  “This way.”

  A sub-tunnel off to the right led to a set of ancie
nt stone steps. Ellie followed Edward up, and up, and up. Every step she climbed made her wince with pain from her ankle. She had counted thirty steps – and thirty stabs of pain – before they’d even reached the top.

  “You certainly make a fellow work,” Edward said. He grimaced as Ellie gripped his hand more tightly.

  The stone staircase led to an archway that was covered in mould and cobwebs. Ellie spluttered, and Edward did his best to repress a grin, as a spider’s web brushed across her face.

  “Where does this come out?” Ellie gasped.

  Edward smiled.

  “I think you’ll recognise it.”

  A panelled door slid aside. Ellie stepped through.

  She found herself staring into the eyes of Edward’s tin soldiers.

  “The nursery!”

  Edward released Ellie, reached above them and pressed. The panel slid shut, blocking out the distant sound of water.

  They moved into the centre of the room. As always, the toys looked abandoned and eerie in the semi-darkness.

  “Welcome home!” Edward crowed. “Who’s for lemonade? Then perhaps a few songs on the jolly old piano! Take me away from my home, would she? I soon showed her…”

  “Edward,” said Ellie very slowly.

  “Teach her to tangle with a Fitzberranger.” Edward aimed a few mock-punches at an imaginary opponent.

  “Edward!” said Ellie more loudly.

  The electric light flicked on, all by itself. Edward turned.

  Standing next to the bookshelves was Miss McKendrick.

  “I really must congratulate you,” she said to Ellie. “But then, I didn’t really expect you to stay there to drown.”

  She reached out a hand towards Edward.

  “Thank you for bringing him to me.”

  “You leave him –” Ellie started forward.

  Miss McKendrick flung out her other hand. A vortex of light spun out of nowhere, a network of light-beams imprisoning Ellie.

  Ellie screamed.

  “Don’t you dare –” Edward started, but his voice was high-pitched and timid.

  “Oh, be quiet!” Miss McKendrick glared. “Master Edward, you’ve behaved very badly. And it’s time for you to pay the penalty for your actions.”

  She reached out again towards him.

  “Come with me.”

  She looked back at Ellie.

  “If you want your little friend to survive. What shall it be this time, Eleanor? The snakes? The hospital? It’s amazing what can be done with the power of the mind.”

  She took a step closer to Ellie.

  “Or shall I simply increase the fear? Until your nervous system collapses, and your mind burns out? Or I could send you to sleep, like I did your family, by the lake. But this time, there would be no waking.” She turned to Edward. “The decision is yours.”

  Edward looked at the floor.

  “What’s this really about?” Ellie shouted. “Why have you got it in for Edward?”

  For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of pain cross Miss McKendrick’s face. But then it was gone.

  Miss McKendrick pointed towards the far wall.

  A section of panelling slid open. Ellie managed to turn her head to see. It looked like the other tunnel entrances… with a black space beyond… but there was something different about it. It looked transparent, shimmering, like Edward… unreal…

  Miss McKendrick moved to Edward.

  “Come.”

  Edward gave Ellie a last, helpless look.

  Then he took Miss McKendrick’s hand.

  Miss McKendrick led Edward towards the black space.

  “I suggest you forget you ever saw this, Eleanor. I’m still prepared to be merciful. You’ll be released. I advise you to go. And leave this sad place behind.”

  Ellie struggled and yelled.

  The panel slid shut, and Ellie was left alone.

  At once, the light-beams disappeared. Ellie fell forward and straight onto the train set. She felt the station and signal box crunch under her.

  Bruised, exhausted, she lay upon the broken toys.

  As soon as she could move, she hobbled across to the panelling and searched for the entrance, any hidden controls.

  There was nothing. Somehow, she knew that hadn’t been a real door.

  For a moment, she stood staring at the wall. Another tear came to her eye. She brushed it away.

  There was nothing she could do for Edward now. Right now, her job was to get downstairs, and warn Mum about the flood.

  She paused. She looked back at where she had fallen.

  Something had happened to the train set table. She remembered hearing a clicking sound as she fell.

  A drawer had sprung out from the edge of the table. A drawer that previously hadn’t been visible.

  Ellie looked inside.

  The drawer was packed with items. Papers, mostly, old and brown around the edges, their ink faded with age. But also books. Notebooks, bound in leather. There were other items too. A very old sepia photograph of a middle-aged woman, stern-faced and unsmiling. A silver inkwell. A locket, marked with the letter E, on a slender, gold chain. Ellie opened the locket. It contained a picture of a young man with long, dark hair and a beard.

  Ellie knew him straight away. It was the man she’d seen on the lake. And the woman in the boat with him, laughing and happy, had been Miss McKendrick.

  Very carefully, Ellie picked out an envelope. It was open. A few flakes of sealing-wax tumbled back into the drawer.

  The envelope was addressed to Miss E. McKendrick, with the Manor’s address beneath.

  After a pause, Ellie reached inside. Not for the first time since coming to Inchwood, she had the feeling that she was trespassing.

  The envelope contained not one, but three folded letters. She unfolded the first one. It was only a page in length. She squinted to read the spidery scrawl.

  Dear Emily

  I apologise for the shortness of this note, but I must ask you not to communicate with me again. You must see that the situation has become impossible, and that any friendship we might once have enjoyed can no longer continue. I am returning herewith your last letter, and also send a letter I have received from Mr Fitzberranger, which I hope makes everything plain. By now he may already have acted in accordance with it. I sent warning as early as I possibly could.

  Please accept my very best wishes for your future.

  Kind regards

  Mortimer Harvey

  Ellie turned to the second letter. It was written in stout, sloping handwriting, different from the first. The opening lines had been written so hurriedly she couldn’t read them. Then:

  …and I feel so miserable, when you have to be away. Edward was so horrid today, and every moment I was thinking of you. I keep remembering that first time we met. As soon as I saw you, it was as though my concerns just vanished – my mother’s illness, my schooling going to waste, and the fact that Edward is utterly un-teachable. None of it mattered any more, because I’d found you. It was amusing at first, having to conceal everything from the family, for I knew what they thought of me! I’ve heard the murmurs, in the drawing room! Poor little thing, with her books, and what of her father? – left when she was a child – he was something in Trade, you know! But then, no one ever expects a governess to have feelings.

  Mortimer, why cannot we tell them now? Why must we continue this pretence? I know you do not love her, and you cannot mean to marry her simply for her wealth? I’m sure Mr Fitzberranger is beginning to suspect. He is determined that nothing should stand in the way of the engagement, and Miss Sally’s happiness. You must…

  Ellie opened the third letter. It was written in yet another hand.

  … clearly, Mortimer, the matter must be resolved with as little scandal as possible, in order to preserve Sally’s reputation, and that of our family. There is no alternative. The young woman must be made to understand that she must go, and Edward will be sent away again to school. In a situation
such as this, she can scarcely expect more than one week’s notice, or anything in terms of a reference. I think you should not visit us until after her departure.

  I have spoken to Sally, and she is sensible and practicable enough to offer you forgiveness. I sincerely hope, Mortimer, that your married life will bring less unpleasantness to this household than the events which have gone before.

  Yours, etc…

  Ellie squinted to read the signature.

  C.G. Fitzberranger.

  Was that Edward’s father?

  She knew she had very little time. She tried to piece together what she’d read with what she had found online.

  Her heart was thumping.

  Mortimer Harvey. That was the man who had inherited the estate from Edward’s father. And… wasn’t Sally short for Sarah? That was Edward’s sister. Mortimer Harvey’s wife. They were the ancestors of the Miss Harvey who’d passed the Manor to Journeyback.

  And the “young woman” who had come between Mortimer and Sally, at the time they were engaged… was Miss McKendrick…

  Quickly, Ellie made for the drawer again. She was onto something, at last.

  At the very bottom, she could see something gleaming, half-hidden under the other items. She reached beneath and picked out a maroon, leather-backed book with a single word emblazoned in gold lettering.

  Journal.

  A piece of ribbon bookmarked it at the final entry. The journal stopped suddenly, in the middle of May.

  This marks the conclusion of my journal, which ends here with my position in this household, with my reputation – and with my life. I have already written to my Mother, telling her of the circumstances in which I find myself, and saying that I am sorry for bringing our family to further disgrace. I know that, in the absence of my Father, my departure from this Earth will leave her alone in the world, and for that I have expressed my true sorrow.

  I keep thinking of those lines from Shakespeare:

  “There is a tide in the affairs of men

  Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune…”

  In my case it seems only to have led on to ruin and despair.

  As such, I feel it best now to submit myself to the waters. The lake, where Mortimer and I enjoyed such happy times together, shall be my final resting-place.

  Ellie’s eyes widened.

  The bottom of the page was signed.

  Emily McKendrick.

  She let the book drop to the floor. She was shaking.