Page 107 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
‘You don’t get much bigger than a castle, do you?’ Benji says, thrusting his hands widely in the air. ‘I’ll contact him and see if he can give us any advice.’
‘Thanks, Benji,’ I say. ‘I appreciate it.’
‘Now, I’ve gotmanythings to do! Let me leave you two lovebirds alone, so you can chirp sweet nothings to each other, or whatever it is you do!’ He winks at us. ‘Toodle pip!’
‘Word sure spreads fast around here,’ I say, rolling my eyes at Tom as Benji departs down the corridor. ‘About us, I mean.’
‘Does that surprise you?’ he asks. ‘And I like hearing you sayus.’
I smile at him and take hold of his hand. ‘Nothing surprises me about this place any more,’ I say, leaning my face towards his. ‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘So what are you up to today, then?’ Tom asks after we’ve spent a few minutes close together doing something similar to what Benji has just suggested. Except there’s more kissing involved and slightly less chirping!
I don’t like lying, but I can hardly tell Tom the truth, which is that I’m going to try to speak to a ghost.
‘Oh, this and that – the usual.’
‘Can I take you out to dinner later?’ Tom asks. ‘It’s about time we had our first official date.’
‘That sounds lovely,’ I reply coyly, suddenly feeling shy when he mentions the word date. ‘Where were you thinking of taking me?’
‘There’s a cute little bistro in the village,’ Tom says. ‘It’s small, but the food is delicious.’
‘That sounds good . . . in theory.’ I hesitate. ‘But if it’s small and local won’t someone see us there, and then it won’t just be the castle that’s gossiping about the “countess”,’ I do air quotes with my fingers, ‘and her latest beau. It will be the whole village too.’
‘That’s true, I guess. It bothers you, then, people knowing about us?’ Tom looks a little hurt.
‘No, of course not,’ I tell him, touching his arm. ‘But this is all so new, Tom, I don’t want people getting the wrong idea. Okay, I don’t want Charlie getting the wrong idea. He’s young and impressionable, and he’s been hurt in the past.’
‘If it’s Charlie you’re worried about, then I’ll let you off,’ Tom says. ‘I think the world of him, you know that.’
‘Yes, and that’s why we mustn’t confuse him.’ I hold Tom’s gaze with a meaningful look.
‘I understand. Right.’ He taps the side of his nose. ‘You leave it with me, Countess. We shall have that date, and we shall dine like kings . . . or is that queens?’ He winks. ‘But what I can guarantee is it will be very secretive and very,veryprivate.’
Reluctantly, I leave Tom and make my way upstairs to the office. There are some things I need to check on before I go down to the Ladies’ Chamber to see if I can speak to Clara.
Tiffany is already working away happily when I get there.
‘Everything all right, Tiffany?’ I ask, secretly hoping she might have something she needs my help with.
‘Yeah, everything is fine here, boss,’ Tiffany says, saluting me. ‘Everything is running like clockwork, even in Arthur’s absence. Don’t tell him that, though, will you? He likes to think this ship can’t sail without him.’
So with Tiffany giving me no reason to put this visit off any longer, I head along the corridor and down the stairs to the Great Hall. I check my watch: it’s just gone ten o’clock. I should be pretty safe just yet from any visitors – the human kind, anyway – they usually don’t start appearing at the castle gates until just before eleven, unless they’re very keen.
I walk through the Great Hall and press the rose on the carving to allow me access to the Ladies’ Chamber. As always the door slides open, and I’m granted access to the light bright turquoise room.
But today, instead of leaving the door open, I use the handle that’s on the other side of the door to slide it shut again. I don’t want to risk anyone witnessing what I’m about to do.
To begin I sit on the chaise longue, looking incredibly awkward with my knees together and my hands in my lap. Then I stand up and move towards the window, wondering if this might feel more comfortable. When it doesn’t, I walk over and stand in front of the painting of Clara and gaze up at her, wondering exactly what you say to summon a ghost. When this doesn’t bring forth anything from my lips, I go and sit down at the little piano.
And at that moment it comes to me.
I begin to tap lightly on one of the piano keys, just the one, over and over, just like Clara said she’d done in her diary, and just like I believe she had done to summon me, when Tom and I were searching for her diary.
This should feel irritating, but strangely, it actually feels quite comforting to continually hear the same familiar note.
Just as I’m becoming completely mesmerised by the sound, I feel quite chilly. I look up at the window in case it’s been left open again, but it’s definitely tightly shut today. And it’s as I’m thinking about this that I feel something brush my hand.
