"Wow," Ben said. "Were you scared?"
"A little," Charlotte said. "But somehow I knew the right thing to do."
"Do you think it was the witch?"
"I don't know. I'm starting to think there isn't a witch, not a real one."
"Why?"
"Because I've worked out the solution to the Guardian's riddle."
"Really? What is it?"
Charlotte recited the Guardian’s riddle.
"My first will glow and also has wings,
My second can't be found in town, but belongs to these things,
My third and fourth are in something that might scare,
My fifth is waiting at Pistol Pond, but isn't a hare."
“It's one of those puzzles where you need to work out which letters are in one word but not the other, or in both words in one line of the riddle, isn't it?” Ben said.
“That's right,” Charlotte said.
“I started thinking about it and I thought I'd worked out the first letters, but I can't make it work.”
“How far did you get?”
“On the first line, we need a letter that is in ‘glow’ and ‘wings,’ right?”
Charlotte nodded and Ben continued. “So that gave me ‘W’. Then we need a letter that isn't in ‘town’ but is in ‘things,’ so I picked ‘I’. Then we need a letter that is in ‘something’ and ‘scare,’ so I picked ‘T’ and ‘C’. That just leaves us needing an ‘H’ to make ‘witch,’ but I can't make that work. If I've got the last line right, we need a letter from ‘waiting’ that isn't in ‘hare’.”
Charlotte smiled, knowing their mother would be impressed by Ben's deductions to get to the conclusions he'd made. She was certain she wouldn't have been able to get that far when she was five years old.
“I don't think that's right, though,” Charlotte said.
“Why?”
“All we've talked about since we woke up is the witch Daddy made up a long time ago. I thought the answer was ‘witch’ too, but I realised I had started with that word in my mind and I tried to make the riddle fit that word.”
“So what is the solution?”
Charlotte talked him through her thought process. ‘G’ is in ‘glow’ and ‘wings,’ ‘H’ is in ‘things’ but not in ‘town,’ ‘O’ is in ‘something,’ ‘S’ is in ‘scare,’ and, to complete the word, ‘T’ is in ‘waiting’ but not in ‘hare.’
"A ghost?" Ben said, looking worried.
"That's the answer. If I’m right, there is a ghost waiting for us at the thirteenth hare."
The light in Ben's eyes seemed to burn out.
"I don't think we need to worry about it," Charlotte said.
"Why not?" Ben said.
"Look at what we've had to do so far. Pretty much everything has been fun, hasn't it?"
Ben thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded.
"So there must be good ghosts as well as bad ghosts," Charlotte continued. "I think we're searching for a good ghost who likes to play games."
Ben's eyes brightened once more. "And we've still got to work out what to do at the tenth hare," he said.
"Let's go," Charlotte said, and took her little brother's hand.
Chapter 19
They arrived together at number ten to find the sculpture of two hares boxing. They checked the map and this time the drawing had appeared, but the seventh, eighth, and ninth sculptures had appeared as well. An egg had been drawn next to each one. As they appeared on the map, numbers seven, eight, and nine seemed to form a crescent-shaped path that led back to number ten.
"What do you think we have to do?" Ben said.
"Do you remember when we came here for an Easter egg hunt?" Charlotte asked. Ben nodded.
"It was really easy," Charlotte said. "All we had to do was follow a map, find all the hares, and we got an Easter egg when we got to the end."
With that thought fresh in her mind, Charlotte looked up and down the wall.
"What are you looking for?" Ben asked.
"There," she said, pointing at a closed door. Ben followed her as she walked over to the door and tried the handle. It was locked and there was no key, but they noticed an empty basket sitting at their feet.
They cupped their hands around their eyes and peered through the glass. Inside was a small room with shelves lining the walls that held well-thumbed paperbacks—the kind of place where people leave books they've read and pick up another one in exchange. With only the moonlight outside providing any illumination, it was very difficult for them to make out anything other than black-on-black shapes within the room.
But then there was a yellow flicker from the middle of the room and they saw a lamp fire itself into life. They gasped as they saw an enormous bowl sitting on the table in the middle of the room, which contained what must have been at least a hundred chocolate eggs.
"Look at that!" Ben exclaimed.
"I've never seen so much chocolate," Charlotte said.
They contemplated the bowl of chocolate eggs and the silence was broken by their stomachs, which rumbled in unison. They burst out laughing.
"This must be part of the challenge," Charlotte said as they looked at the map again. Something else had appeared on the map: now there was a trail of footprints, running in a loop from where they were standing, past the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth hares, and back again.
"Let's follow the trail," Ben said, taking Charlotte's hand. They walked into the trees, following the path that led towards the seventh hare. They felt no fear. After all they had seen and done this night, they felt like the park was a second home to them now. It was somewhere they felt entirely safe; somewhere they could be themselves without any worries in the world. Somehow they knew their mother was safe—they would see her again soon—and everything they were doing would eventually lead them back to her.
"This is the last one, isn't it?" Ben said.
"What do you mean? Charlotte asked.
"It's the last puzzle," Ben said. "Seven, eight, nine, and ten: they're the last hares we have to free from their spell."
Charlotte stopped in her tracks. After being separated and solving different puzzles themselves, she had lost track of their progress. But now that Ben had realised this would be the last puzzle before they had to go up the hill to the thirteenth hare, a cloud of sadness crept into her mind. This was the first time in a very long time that she and Ben had had so much fun together. It didn't have to end here, though, did it?
"We can come back and do this again, can't we? Maybe we can bring Mummy, too," Ben said. Charlotte could tell her little brother felt the same way she did.
"Of course we can," she said. "We can come back as much as we want."
Ben smiled, and so did Charlotte, then they burst into a run through the trees to the seventh wooden hare, which they found standing in a small clearing. Instead of bursting with golden light, it remained still, with a sign hung around its neck. On the sign was an arrow pointing down the path to their right.
They followed the path, which snaked through the trees and bushes. It led them past a patch of skunk cabbage, which gave off a scent appropriate to its name, but also looked like something that had fallen to Earth from outer space. The short walk led them to a bend where the eighth wooden hare stood on the other side of a flower bed, and around its neck hung a sign that directed Charlotte and Ben to head to their left.
Another short walk led them to the ninth hare; this time the wooden statue was lying down in a patch of leaves. A sign around its neck directed them to the left again.
The path came out at the intersection where they had solved the number puzzle to set hare number eleven free. Heading right would take them up the hill to Pistol Pond and the thirteenth hare. They went straight on and found themselves back at number ten.
"Look!" Ben said. "In the basket!"
They ran over to the basket sitting outside the locked door. It had been empty before they set off to see the hares, but now two chocolate eggs
sat in the basket. They looked through the window and saw that the bowl on the table behind the locked door was missing two eggs.
Without another word, they unwrapped the multi-coloured foil and ate their eggs, taking huge bites and groaning appreciatively as they did so. In no time they were done and they licked their fingers clean.
Charlotte thought for a moment and said, "Do you think we'll get more if we go round the hares again?"
Ben's eyes lit up. He nodded and broke into a sprint, shouting, "Come on, let's find out!"
They ran all the way round the path through the trees, past the seventh, eighth, and ninth hares, back to number ten and, as they hoped, they found two more chocolate eggs waiting for them in the basket. Once again, they tore the shiny foil away and gorged on the milky chocolate. With chocolate still smeared over their lips, they smiled at each other and both said, "Again!"
They ran giggling into the trees, following the signs hanging round the hares' necks for a third time, and for a third time they found their prizes waiting for them in the basket.
Charlotte puffed out her cheeks and let out a long breath, the way people do when they've just finished a huge meal. "How many times do you think we need to do this?"
Ben shrugged. "I never thought I'd say this," he said, "but I think I've had enough chocolate."
"Me too," Charlotte sighed. "When we got here, I thought I could eat that whole basket, but if I have any more chocolate, I think I'm going to burst."
Ben was about to say, "So what do we do now?" when they saw the golden glow. The two wooden hares of the tenth statue were shining, and the ring of their father's ashes rose and whirled round and round. Within the trees and bushes, they could see the golden glow from the seventh, eighth, and ninth hares as all the remaining hares were broken from their spell.
But this time the hares didn't run away; they hopped towards Charlotte and Ben. Then all the other hares they had freed from their spells appeared out of the bushes, forming a circle around the young brother and sister, who were frozen to the spot in amazement. All at once, the hares looked to the heavens. They twitched their noses and emitted a flash of golden, magical light from their eyes. Charlotte and Ben followed their gaze upwards and saw a flurry of snow falling from the sky.
Part Three
The Thirteenth Hare
Chapter 20
Charlotte and Ben had never seen anything like this and they wondered whether they would ever see anything like it again. The park was the perfect scene of an unspoiled summer night: the moon cast its glow across the trees, bushes and flowers, which were in full bloom; the earth beneath them was firm and dry; and, all night, the air had been fresh, but not bitingly cold. What they could see falling from the cloudless sky above them defied all logic.
A blanket of snowflakes descended from the heavens. Millions and millions of tiny frozen particles fell in the still air, settling on the canopy of leaves at the tree-line or falling to the ground through the gaps in the trees. Then, with a huge gust of wind, snowflakes were blown in all directions. The gusts continued, coming in waves, blowing the falling snowflakes all over the park until their whole world was covered in two inches of thick white snow, which seemed to magnify the moonlight, illuminating the entire park in a cool blue-white glow. Then, as suddenly as the snowstorm had blown in, it stopped. A final snowflake glided down, spiralling through the air, and settled at Charlotte's feet.
Charlotte and Ben surveyed the transformation of their surroundings with their mouths open in disbelief. The temperature hadn't changed. They should have been shivering in the cold, but they felt no different. As far as their bodies were concerned, this was still a summer's night. Ben looked down and saw that his feet were buried in snow. He shook the snow away and took his first step in the freshly-laid powder, hearing the satisfying crunch as his foot dug into the snow.
"I don't believe it," Charlotte said. "This is amazing. How could this happen? There are no clouds in the sky."
She received no answer; Ben was jumping around in the snow. Without warning, the hares all turned and hopped away, leaving tracks in the snow. They were all heading in the same direction—towards the hill that led up to Pistol Pond and the thirteenth hare. Charlotte and Ben followed the hares along their path, past where the eleventh hare had stood, evidence of the number puzzle they had solved now buried under the blanket of fresh snow.
Charlotte looked at her brother; he was smiling as he followed the hares, but his eyes were vacant, like he was in a trance.
"Wait," she said, and stopped, but Ben kept walking.
"Ben!" she shouted, but he didn't stop. She ran over to him, grabbed him by the arm, and only then did he turn round to look at her. He blinked, as if he was snapping himself out of a daydream.
"What?" he said.
"Aren't you scared?" she said.
"Scared?" he said, "Scared of what?"
"Scared of what?" she said. "Scared of the ghost who is waiting for us at the top of the hill. Remember the Guardian's riddle?"
Ben shook his head. "No, I'm not scared. I don't know why, I just feel..." He thought for a moment, then said, "...safe. You said yourself–maybe it's a good ghost that's waiting for us.”
Charlotte wanted to protest, but she thought about what had happened to them, what they had actually seen. They had learned so much, as if someone was trying to help them—
Her thoughts were cut off as something in the snow caught her eye.
"Ben, look at that," she said.
"What?" Ben said, then saw what his sister was pointing at. It was a pair of footprints, freshly printed in the snow on the path just ahead of them. They were the prints of a left foot and a right foot, as if an invisible man was standing within arm's reach of them.
"Who made those footprints?" Ben asked.
"It must be the ghost," Charlotte said.
She gasped at the sound of crunching snow as another pair of footprints appeared. There was an invisible man and he was just ahead of them, walking up the hill.
"What do we do?" Ben whispered.
"I don't know," Charlotte whispered back.
There was more movement in the snow. But this time it wasn't footprints. A line drew itself into the snow, then they both realised their invisible companion was writing them a message.
Follow me. I'll look after you.
With that, footprint after footprint appeared, invisible feet crunching in the snow as they quickly stretched off into the distance.
"Hey!" Ben exclaimed. "He's running away!"
Without thinking, Charlotte and Ben ran through the snow, chasing after the footprints. The hares joined them in their chase, forming a squad in pursuit of their invisible target. The hill became steeper and the ground beneath the snow became more uneven, and they lost ground in their chase. But they followed the footprints as they went over the crest of the hill, leading them to Pistol Pond, where the view stopped them in their tracks.
The area was surrounded by a low fence but, for the first time that night, they had a view of the land outside the grounds of Hare Hill garden. The snowstorm hadn't descended on just the park; as far as they could see, the whole world was covered in a blanket of snow. Farmland stretching towards the horizon glowed white in the moonlight. Charlotte and Ben felt like they were looking out across an Arctic plain, not the Cheshire countryside. On their side of the fence, Pistol Pond was frozen over, reflecting the full moon in its glassy surface.
The trail of footsteps continued down the hill, but stopped at the snow-covered statue of the thirteenth hare. The ring of their father’s ashes was hidden beneath the snow. Charlotte and Ben held hands to steady themselves on the short walk down to the statue.
"What do we do now?" Ben asked, but before Charlotte could say she didn't know, wind began to blow around the statue. A vortex of snowflakes swirled around the wooden hare, lifting their father's ashes, creating stripes of charcoal grey within the white cloud. Then, for the final time, the wooden statue emitted a golde
n glow, which got brighter and brighter as the whirlwind spun faster and faster. Charlotte and Ben shielded their eyes and the hare let out a brilliant, dazzling flash.
They looked up, expecting to see a hare twitching its nose as it was freed from its spell. But the wooden statue was still there. Charlotte and Ben shot each other confused glances. This hadn't happened before. Had they done something wrong?
Charlotte was about to ask that very question aloud when there was an explosion of snow on the wooden hare's nose. It took them a moment to register what had happened. They wiped the specks of snow from their faces and thought, someone threw a snowball at us!
"Oh no, I missed!" came a voice from behind them. The voice was familiar to them. They looked at each other and registered the acknowledgement in each other's faces. Thoughts burst into their minds and they both felt like they could tell what the other was thinking.
It's him, isn't it?
How could this happen?
Is this real?
They were terrified to turn round, not because they were scared of who would be standing there, but what if he wasn't really standing there? The Guardian had told them a ghost would be waiting for them at the thirteenth hare, but they hadn't expected this. They never thought he could have turned into a ghost. Ben was first to look over his shoulder.
"Daddy!" he shouted at the top of his voice.
Chapter 21
Charlotte turned round to see her little brother running through the snow towards a man dressed in familiar clothes. His smile wasn't just warm; it was beaming. It was their father.
He knelt down in the snow with outstretched arms and scooped Ben up. He smiled at Charlotte and beckoned her over. Without thinking, she ran through the footprints Ben had made and threw her arms around her father and brother. The impact of her arrival threw them all backwards and they landed in a giggling heap in the snow.
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