Chapter Twenty-Three

Present

‘What on earth are you screaming for? It’s only me!’ Ryan was standing at the end of the ballroom. ‘I’m not going to hurt you!’ Tegan stared at him — Ryan was the person who had invaded the ballroom, startling her in the process.

She found her voice. ‘Just don’t — creep up on people like that!’ Her heart still thumped like mad. ‘ And we are closed !’

‘How did I creep up on you?’ His voice matched hers for snappiness. ‘I’m way up here. You’re way down there. Coren told Sybill you were still here, so I came to find you!’ Ryan was glaring at her and Tegan felt the truce they’d sort of agreed on wobbling. She took a deep breath. She was getting tired of this, tired of the shouting and the grouching. And there were, actually, worse things to be dealing with than Ryan. Things like the Pencradoc ghosts.

The only thing was, his entrance had forced her to turn away from the charcoal sketch of Viola, and she could see that the ballroom was exactly as it always was. Light, bright and elegant, lined with beautiful watercolours and little oil paintings produced by the Teague family at the height of their occupancy here.

‘Okay. I’m sorry. You did startle me, though.’

‘Okay.’ He walked towards her, carrying what looked like a hatbox. ‘I guess I’m sorry too — for startling you. I came up with Sybill in the van after work so I could drop this stuff off for the Halloween trail. She was heading here anyway for the weekend and I kind of suggested I drive us so I could get this done.’ He raised the hatbox slightly as if to show her. ‘Coren’s apparently taking her back home Sunday evening. Like I said, he thought you might be in here so I headed along to see you.’

‘It’s fine. And thank you. I was in here looking for this.’ She gestured to the sketch. ‘Truth be told, I’m kind of pleased you’re human company.’ She could have bitten her tongue off as soon as she’d said it. How stupid did that make her sound — especially when she saw Ryan’s expression change from his habitual scowl to one of surprise and disbelief.

‘You expecting non-human company?’ he asked.

Oh, sod it. She had to tell someone and he was as good as anyone, she supposed, and, actually, she was still quite relieved it was him and not a see-through person instead.

‘Think I had it.’ She closed her eyes briefly in embarrassment. She opened her eyes again and looked straight at him. ‘Non-human company, that is. Downstairs. And in here.’ She shivered. ‘Just — voices, And the sense that someone’s with me. You know?’ She looked across at the sketch. ‘I came to look for that and it’s creeped me out. It’s Viola. Elsie’s bridesmaid.’ She stared at it for a moment longer. ‘It’s creeped me out, because she kind of looks like me, I guess. Same hair, same smile. It’s just a bit weird.’

Ryan came closer to her and looked at it. ‘Ah,’ he said after a moment, in an odd little flat voice. ‘So it is. She does look a lot like you. Um. Do you want to see what I have here? I have another photo of her. But it might creep you out more. In fact, I was pretty creeped out myself when I saw a couple of the pictures I found.’

‘Oh, God. Okay then.’ Tegan was slightly scared of what she’d see and she didn’t know if the ballroom was the best place to look. But the whole house could potentially be swarming with ghosts, so there was probably no “good” place to go to. ‘Come on then. Let me see what you found.’

‘I found a load of Halloween artefacts, bits of costumes and the like.’ He put the box down and opened it. ‘See? Cat ears and things. Witchy gear. And, believe it or not, a dog’s ghost costume. I can prove that’s what it is, because I have evidence. And the evidence is in this photo album.’ He took a black, ornately embossed book out of the box and Tegan saw he had it bookmarked with a card or something at one of the pages. ‘It’s family photos, from a party. The 1911 one we had the invite for. I can maybe guess at some of the characters involved, but it’ll take more of an expert than me to name them all.’

‘Wow.’ Tegan leaned over as Ryan turned the pages carefully. ‘I recognise these people. They were in the wedding photo.’

‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘But the most interesting page I thought — for us, anyway—’ Tegan noticed he didn’t look at her when he said that, and his voice was oddly guarded — ‘is this one.’ He slipped the bookmark out and presented the open album to Tegan.

On one side of the page was a girl dressed as a vampiress and on the other was a young man who looked angry and annoyed at something, but enormously sexy in billowing white shirt sleeves and a waistcoat, both of which were artfully distressed, or perhaps just tatty. Tegan didn’t know which it was.

Again, she had that weird feeling that she could remember the photograph being taken . . .

‘Stand still, Viola. You have to hold the pose for a few seconds so we can get it right. You can smile if you want, but you don’t have to.’

‘Can I just look kind of spooky and scary?’

‘If you want to.’

‘Wunnerful. I’ll do that then . . .’

Then, later on, she was aware of a banging pain in the side of her head and the most excruciating embarrassment she had ever felt in her entire life.

From above her, she heard Elsie say to him , ‘ Actually, on that note, vile sibling, I invite you to have your photograph taken for posterity.’

‘I don’t think—’

‘Hush, hush, hush. Marigold is too small to remember much about this, so the photographs are for her. Please tell me you won’t let your niece down, Laurie.’

‘Blackmailer . . .’

The present day swooped back in on Tegan, along with one, resounding word in her heart, in her mind, on her lips. ‘Laurie!’

‘Yes. Elsie’s brother.’ Ryan’s voice brought her fully back to her own world. ‘This is him in 1914.’ He handed her the card he’d been using as a bookmark. She took it, her hands shaking. It was a photograph of a young man, who looked very much like Ryan, practically smiling as he posed in his army uniform.

‘Laurie . . .’ she whispered, holding on to the photo just as tightly as she could, as if she was frightened to let it get away from her again.

‘He married Viola. And that, I suspect, was her at the party.’

‘She looks just like the bridesmaid in the wedding photo. And the sketch here. And . . .’ She stopped short at mentioning her otherworldly visitor with a bouquet. Instead she laughed, even though, strangely, she wanted to cry as well. ‘Laurie was my literary crush, you know. From Little Women . I’ve always loved him.’

‘Really? I’ve never read it.’

‘I doubt it’s the sort of book you’d have been interested in. But it’s my favourite one. Remember when we first met up again and I was a bit shocked that Elsie’s brother was called Laurie? I obviously wasn’t going to tell you then, but I used to have dreams about me marrying Laurie instead of Amy marrying him . . . God. Under the circumstances, and given my apparent likeness to Viola, that’s incredibly creepy.’ Tegan stared at the photo again.

Then, with a touch of her usual sass where Ryan was concerned, and perhaps as a little bit of her defence mechanism kicked in, she said, ‘And this Laurie looks a bit like you. If I’m creeped out about Viola, it’s only fair you should be too.’

Ryan went paler than usual. ‘Well, thanks a lot, Tegan. I don’t need you to creep me out. I did spot the likeness. Remember, I said it was weird when I came in here?’

‘And it’s got even weirder,’ she said quietly. Then she shivered. ‘And colder.’ She looked around and saw a mist starting to form behind Ryan, coming slowly down the ballroom towards them.

Nope. No. That wasn’t happening.

‘Come on,’ she said suddenly, grabbing his hand. ‘We need to get out of here. Leave the hatbox.’

‘I am not leaving anything ,’ he said, shaking his hand free. ‘Because who the hell is going to come back in here and get it?’ He ducked down and picked up the box and tossed the book into it. He might have seen the horror in her eyes and that she was looking over his shoulder; their eyes connected for a second, then he looked behind him. The mist was getting stronger and closer and starting to form shapes — legs, perhaps, coming out of it, arms, maybe.

Shit.

No.

They couldn’t hurt you, but who was mad enough to stay and risk it?

Not them.

She yelled at Ryan. ‘Let’s go!’

‘Right with you.’ And somehow, they were holding hands and running through the ballroom as if all the demons of Hell were after them, and not, God forbid, a pre-war version of themselves emerging out of the shadows to say “hello”.

* * *

Ryan couldn’t believe what he’d seen. It definitely looked as if something was coming along the ballroom, gliding towards them.

He felt a little sick and a lot scared. Not that he wanted to admit it to Tegan, although it had probably been crazily obvious when he’d grabbed her hand and they’d pelted out of the room.

Or had she grabbed his hand? He wasn’t sure — all he knew was that, somehow, they were still holding hands and were in the hallway, at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, both breathing heavily.

‘Oh my God. This place !’ said Tegan. ‘You saw it, didn’t you? Saw — them?’

Ryan nodded. ‘Yeah. I think so . . .’ He was still trying to process it. ‘How do you work here?’

‘I don’t know. They were in my office as well—’ She stopped herself short, then shook her head. ‘No. Never mind. Forget I said anything.’

They simultaneously seemed to realise they were still holding hands, released each other and both took a step backwards.

‘I can’t actually do that. Forget it, I mean. If it makes you feel any better, that story I found? It was here as well.’ He closed his eyes briefly, rubbed his hand across his face and then re-opened this eyes. ‘Up in one of the rooms they’re refurbishing.’

‘What were you doing creeping around up there?’ asked Tegan, looking shocked. As well she might.

‘I don’t know. That’s the thing.’ He was mortified now. ‘I just — found myself in there. Poking around inside a chimney breast.’

There was silence. ‘Wow. That almost trumps my story.’

‘Almost,’ he said miserably. He raked his hand through his hair. ‘Now I’m wondering if it was Laurie’s room and he took me there.’

‘Laurie.’ She shook her head. ‘If Viola keeps popping in to see me, it makes sense that he came to see you. But he’s my crush. I’m actually jealous.’

Ryan blinked and looked at her in astonishment. He realised, though, that she had actually been joking. He felt himself relax a little. ‘You’re welcome to him.’

Tegan sat down on the bottom step. Cautiously, he sat next to her, the hatbox between them. ‘So, what else is in there?’ she asked after a moment. ‘And more to the point are we safe to look?’

‘Like I said. Some old costumes that would look good in the display. Next to blown-up pictures of the photos they relate to. And a random old hand mirror.’

‘A hand mirror. I think they used to play games at Halloween with mirrors, you know. I did it myself when I was a kid.’

‘You know more about it than me then.’

‘Hmm. Can I see it, at all?’

It was an odd sort of request. They’d just been chased by ghosts and she wanted to look at a mirror.

And not actually leave Pencradoc and whatever might be floating around in that ballroom? What if it followed them?

But Tegan didn’t seem open to the fact this was an option, and Ryan didn’t dare question the wisdom of that request. He understood perfectly that sometimes distraction was the best thing to do. And he would just have to pray the ghosts would remain where they’d left them . . .

‘Sure.’ He tried not to think about that odd mist, and opened the hatbox, the photo album looking innocuous now, then handed her the mirror.

‘Thanks.’ She took it and held it up in front of her. The lights had been dimmed in the hallway for closing time and it was quite dark by now outside, being the beginning of October, but from somewhere up the stairs it seemed, a shaft of light glinted off the glass surface and reflected back on her face. For a moment, Tegan looked unlike herself and Ryan felt a shiver of unease.

‘Tegan?’ he asked. ‘You okay?’

‘I’m fine.’ She lowered the mirror and looked at him. ‘I can see I’m getting a spot on my chin, but beyond that . . .’ She shrugged. ‘They used to walk up the stairs backwards with these things, you know. Supposed to show you the person you’re going to marry. And there was candlelight. Usually.’

‘Gotta love a bit of folklore,’ he said wryly. ‘If you don’t mind contravening health-and-safety guidelines.’

‘It would have been fun, though.’ She stood up and again he got that flash of someone else’s face overlaying hers. ‘Look. Just like this.’

And before he could stop her, she held the mirror up in front of her face again and began to walk carefully backwards up the stairs, her gaze fixed on the mirror.

‘Tegan, I don’t think—’

But she held up her other hand as if to silence him and continued to walk. Her eyes definitely didn’t look like Tegan’s eyes and Ryan started to panic a little.

‘Tegan, that’s dangerous. Look, if you fall, it’s your own fault. I’m not picking you up off the floor . . .’

Then a couple of things happened at once.

Obviously, because she was being ridiculously stubborn and carrying out a stupid manoeuvre, she stumbled, but at the same time she stumbled, she yelled out in surprise, ‘You! What are you doing behind me?’

And then, seemingly, she missed her footing while trying to recover from the stumble and ended up in a tangled, tripping heap that slithered down the stairs.

Ryan flew up the steps two at a time and managed to catch her before she actually fell properly and ended up on the floor. Her weight and momentum had them both stumbling down the last few stairs, but finally he managed to set her on her feet again at the bottom.

He had never been this close to her before, even if they’d held hands briefly a few minutes ago. That was completely different to holding her around her waist, somehow pulling her a little closer as she looked up at him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes asking so many questions. He felt her hands settle on his shoulders, almost pulling him down to meet her.

He was, he suddenly realised, way too close for comfort. But even so, he found himself tilting his head down towards her, looking in her eyes, wondering exactly what it would be like to kiss her, wondering exactly why he’d left it so long . . .

Then he blinked and dragged himself back to reality. He took his hands away from her waist, forced himself to paste a scowl on his face and said, ‘I told you so. You could have broken your neck.’

Tegan seemed to come back to life at the same time. Quickly, she moved her hands from his shoulders and shifted her footing so she was planted more squarely on the floor.

‘What I don’t understand, then,’ she said, with another touch of that sparkiness, ‘is, if it was so dangerous and unadvisable, how or why you snuck up behind me and got yourself right there at the top of the stairs! And then looked in my mirror ! You must have known it would startle me!’

‘Exactly!’ said Ryan. ‘I know it would have been dangerous, if I had done a trick like that. But I promise you. I didn’t. I’ve been right here, all the time. Ready to catch you if you bloody fell down the stairs!’

They stared at one another for what seemed like an age as they both processed the information.

Tegan was the first to break the spell. ‘I have to get out of here,’ she said, almost in a whisper. ‘Right now. I’ve had enough.’ Finally! Thank the Lord, they could leave Pencradoc! ‘I’m going to see if the pub has a room for the night. I literally cannot be here tonight. It’s just — too much.’

The words were out before Ryan was fully aware that he’d said them. And given his current thinking about escaping from the place, he could have bitten his own tongue off by suggesting it. ‘If you want to get some clothes, I’ll come up and wait for you outside your room,’ he heard himself say. ‘I think we could both do with a drink tonight. I’ll stay in the village too.’

‘Where? In the pub?’ Tegan looked surprised.

Ryan shook his head. ‘No. In my van. It’s a campervan. Great for transporting things here, there and everywhere. And great for unscheduled stopovers. Like this one.’ There was a beat and he tried to swallow down any lingering animosity there was between them. ‘In all good conscience, I can’t let you cope with this on your own tonight. I’d rather spend some time with you and make sure you’re okay.’ He cringed. He had just given Tegan Burton an opening to throw his offer back in his face.

But, to his surprise, that didn’t happen.

‘Thank you.’ The words sounded strained. ‘I would — appreciate that. Would you — would you come with me now? Up the servants’ staircase.’ A smile struggled to appear on her lips, then died. ‘I’m not going up these things any more tonight.’ She nodded over her shoulder, indicating the Grand Staircase.

Ryan nodded back. ‘That’s fine. Lead the way. And this — hatbox. Where can I leave it?’

‘I’ll lock it in a cupboard in the office. Do you think we can take the photo album, though? I think I’d like to look at the photos in a neutral place.’

‘That sounds great. Surely they can’t get us in the pub?’

‘I bloody hope not,’ she replied. ‘Come on. And — thanks.’

‘No problem.’ He gestured for Tegan to take them through the maze of corridors he knew Pencradoc consisted of and tried to batter down the thought that, actually, if he was left to his own devices, he could probably lead Tegan there himself.

It was, very much, as if he was starting to recognise that he, Ryan, knew this place like the back of his hand.