Page 112 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
I look around the room but I can see nothing, only hear this strange, barely audible scratchy sort of sound. If the room hadn’t been so quiet, I probably wouldn’t have heard it at all.
But apparently I don’t actually need to hear anything, because my wandering gaze suddenly rests on the floor next to the table.
I stare for a moment, trying to clarify in my head that what I’m seeing with my eyesisactually happening in front of me.
But there’s no doubt, it is.
I walk over to the spilt salt, and I see the last of a series of letters being formed in the white grains – a T, an L and an E.
I stare at the floor, unable to believe what I’m seeing.
And what I’m seeing is a message, written very clearly in the salt.
THE HEIR IS AT THE CASTLE
Forty-two
As I’m staring at the words I hear Tom coming back upstairs.
‘One hot apple crumble and vanilla ice cream,’ he calls cheerfully as he comes through the door. ‘Oh, I forgot the dustpan and brush,’ he adds as he sees me staring at the floor.
‘No!’ I snap, as my hand shoots up into the air to stop him. ‘Don’t touch it!’
‘Why on earth not?’ Tom asks, putting his tray down on one end of the long table before coming over to me. ‘What’s going on?’ he asks jokily, looking over my shoulder. ‘Have you been writing me love messages, Amelia? Oh.’ He stops short when he reads what’s written on the floor. ‘The heir is at the castle? What does that mean?’
‘I . . . I’m not sure,’ I half fib. The truth is I know exactly what the message is referring to. What I don’t know is towhoit’s referring.
‘Didn’t you write it, then?’ Tom asks, still looking at the words.
‘No.’
‘But if you didn’t, then who did? Has someone else been here while I’ve been gone?’
‘You could say that.’
Tom gently turns me to face him.
‘Amelia?’ he asks. ‘Is there something going on that you’re not telling me about? First you’re all secretive with Benji, and now this,’ he gestures at the salt, ‘weird message. What’s going on?’
‘Oh, Tom.’ I sigh, suddenly feeling the need to confide in him. ‘There’s so much going on, I hardly know where to start.’
‘Start at the beginning, then,’ Tom says, guiding me back to my chair and sitting me down. ‘We’ve got all night.’
I tell Tom everything. From what Benji and I had discovered in the missing diary to the matching cameo brooch and necklace; I tell him about my fears that Charlie and I shouldn’t even be living here at the castle, and then I tell him what I’d just witnessed.
‘You actually saw the message being written?’ Tom asks in amazement.
I nod.
‘And the words just formed in the salt on their own – you saw no one?’
‘I didn’t see anyone, no; but I knew someone was there.’
‘How?’
‘I could feel them.’
‘How do you mean?’
