Page 80 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
‘Charlie’s teacher?’ I prompt.
‘Oh her.’ Benji looks like I’ve just disturbed him from some very deep thought. ‘Sorry, what did you say?’
‘I said, I think Miss Gardener likes you.’ I whisper now, in case we’re close enough to Charlie for him to hear us.
Benji looks genuinely surprised. ‘Really? What makes you say that? I barely said two words to her, let alone enough for her to form an opinion of me.’
I grin at him. ‘Are you deliberately playing dumb?’
He shakes his head in a perplexed fashion.
‘You didn’t see it, then? The way she looked at you?’
‘Amelia, I truly have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Right . . . so you don’t like her, then?’
‘Who, Charlie’s teacher?’
‘Yes, Charlie’s teacher. Who else?’
‘Er . . . not in that way no. She’s not really my type.’
‘Ah.’What is Benji’s type?I wonder.
‘Sorry if I’m being a bit vague, it’s just while we were in the classroom I had a thought.’
‘Go on.’ I wave at Charlie; the signal he was allowed to ‘go on’ himself.
‘I think I need to read the rest of Clara’s diaries first,’ Benji says. ‘And then I might be able to tell you more.’
‘Benji!’ I whine. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘Sorry, Amelia, but for now it has to be. For if what I think might have happened actually did happen, then it changes everything.’
‘You’re talking in riddles now. Even more than you usually do!’
‘Yes, I know,’ Benji says seriously. ‘But this is important. Very important. The future of Chesterford Castle could depend on it.’
Twenty-nine
‘Hello, you’re back, then,’ I say to Tom when we bump into each other outside the office the next morning.
‘Got back last night,’ Tom says, looking uncomfortably at the floor. ‘I did clear it with Arthur before I went.’
‘I know, and it’s fine. We all need a . . . break sometime.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Did you go anywhere nice?’
‘Just to see my brother. He was staying just the other side of the border with some friends for the weekend. I hadn’t seen him for a while.’
‘Ah, that’s nice.’
Tom nods. ‘So what’s been going on here – seen any more ghosts?’
The minute Tom says this I can see him regretting it; this is, after all, what he thought we’d fallen out over.
