Page 74 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
‘Thanks, Percy.’ I’m aware of some movement outside, so I quickly hurry the conversation along. ‘Right, now we’ve had this little chat and I’ve agreed to get the building checked out and look for this key, can I ask that for now anyway you cease from haunting this building? I’m looking at you in particular, Jasper.’
Well, I hope I am, I think as I glare sternly at an empty space.
But Charlie is silent.
‘What’s he saying?’ I ask.
‘He’s not saying anything, but the others are trying to persuade him. Okay, he’s nodding now. He says yes.’
‘Good, thank you, Jasper, and thank you, everyone else, for all your . . . help.’ I look at Charlie. ‘And thank you for speaking with Charlie like you do. It’s most appreciated. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to see and speak with you all too.’
‘Is everything all right?’ We hear Benji outside the door. ‘Only you’ve been in there a long time.’
I look at Charlie.
‘They’ve all left now,’ he says, looking around.
I nod. ‘Yes, we’re fine,’ I call. ‘We’re coming out now, Benji.’
But before Charlie and I leave the stables, I stop him.
‘Charlie, I must thank you, too,’ I tell him. ‘I may not have believed you to begin with when you started talking about Ruby, but I certainly do now.’
Charlie just nods matter-of-factly. ‘I knew you’d come round in the end, Mum.’
We have ghosts at Chesterford Castle, I think as I emerge with Charlie back out into the daylight. It’s a prospect I should find extremely worrying, but instead I find to my surprise that it’s enormously comforting.
Twenty-seven
‘So, I hear you had a bit of a time of it this morning?’ Tom says later that day. He’s popped over to the tower to see how I’m getting on.
‘You could say that. It’s not a situation I’d usually choose to deal with when I’m nursing a hangover, but we seemed to get it sorted out to everyone’s satisfaction in the end.’ I pour Tom some iced orange juice from the jug I have next to me on the table. It’s still about the only thing I’ve been able to stomach since I returned to the tower for some necessary peace and quiet.
Tom smiles.
‘What?’
‘It’s just you and your turns of phrase. You’re very businesslike when you’re dealing with people.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Nothing,’ Tom says, wisely choosing not to pursue this. ‘I hear it wasn’t just people you were dealing with this morning, though. I gather there might have been some uninvited visitors as well.’
‘They weren’t uninvited. This is their castle, too – in fact, they’ve lived here a lot longer than either you or I have.’
‘Easy,’ Tom says, holding his hands up in defence. ‘I was only having a joke – feeling a bit below par today, are you?’
‘Sorry. Yes, I am a bit. As you witnessed, I had a lot to drink last night – which I’m really not used to.’
‘Yes, I gathered that. Don’t worry about it, we’ve all been there. So, you really saw these ghosts that Benji told me about, then?’
I should have known it would be Benji spilling the beans. I hadn’t exactly asked him to be quiet about what had happened in the stables, I’d just assumed it wasn’t something he’d be telling everyone about.
‘I didn’t see them, exactly, but Charlie did.’
‘But you heard them?’
‘Well, no, Charlie did most of the . . . translating, I guess you’d call it.’
