by Holly Webb
“But the cat…” Alice reminded her. “I suppose the smell could just be a dead rat. But we both saw the cat and so did Eddie. Perhaps we should write to Papa and ask him to fetch us home?”
“Well, we haven’t come across a skeleton yet,” Maisie reminded her.
“I suppose so…” Alice agreed reluctantly. “But what are we going to do without any servants?”
Maisie frowned. “Have you ever done any cooking?”
Alice shook her head. “No. Well, only gingerbread elephants. I’m allowed to sit on the edge of the kitchen table and watch our cook.” She giggled. “She lets me hide from Miss Sidebotham sometimes.”
“We might need a bit more than gingerbread…” Maisie said. “I wonder where Miss Sidebotham is. I’d have thought she’d have come searching for you by now. Maybe she’s still hunting for her spectacles.”
Maisie tiptoed into the kitchen and peered at the pans bubbling on the stove. “Well, it looks like we’ll get our lunch, at least,” she said. “I know how to use a stove like this, I think. It isn’t all that different from the one my gran has. Just bigger.” She wandered around the kitchen, looking at the boards full of chopped vegetables and the mound of washing up piled in the scullery next door. “I suppose at least there’s only the three of us now,” she said thoughtfully. “Mrs James was having to cook for seven. And all the food must be delivered from the shops in the village. I should think there’s enough in here for the rest of the week,” she added, peeping into the huge stone-floored larder. “Look at all that cheese! And there’s a side of bacon, eggs, everything!”
“Maisie, do you actually think we can cook for ourselves?” Alice asked doubtfully.
“I can’t make calves’ foot jelly…” Maisie told her apologetically.
Alice smiled. “Thank goodness.”
“It won’t be the sort of thing Mrs Daley serves you at home, or like that delicious dinner Mrs James sent upstairs yesterday. No French cuisine, no Sweetbreads à la Maître d’Hôtel.”
Alice shuddered. “I don’t mind. Sweetbreads aren’t what they sound like at all. Can we do this washing up? It looks quite fun.”
Maisie looked at the pile and sighed. “I think I’d better wash. Miss Sidebotham would have forty fits if you reddened your hands. There’s some boiling water in the copper – it’s still steaming hot. You can dry. I saw aprons somewhere. Oh, here look.” She pulled two out of a drawer in the dresser and they put them on. Alice was giggling as though it was an adventure and Maisie couldn’t help laughing, too. It was hard to imagine someone who had never washed up in their life. She watched Alice anxiously as she handed her the pretty china teacups, but Alice was actually far more careful than she was.
“My gran would say you’re a good worker,” she told Alice approvingly and her friend went pink with pleasure.
“Do you think Miss Sidebotham will be cross?” she asked, as she dried another plate.
Maisie shrugged. “She doesn’t have much choice, does she? Not if she wants to eat. But once she knows the servants have gone, I should think she’ll write to your father. Or maybe even telegraph him. And I doubt if she’ll be much use in the kitchen.”
Alice sighed. “I suppose so.”
“Girls! Girls! Alice, where are you?” A thin, frightened voice echoed down from the main part of the house – it was Miss Sidebotham. Maisie and Alice exchanged looks and hurried through the servants’ quarters, pulling off the aprons as they went.
“What is it?” Alice asked anxiously, as they found Miss Sidebotham tottering down the last steps of the marble staircase. She was horribly pale and she had her handkerchief pressed against her lips as though she felt sick. “You still can’t find your spectacles?”
“Spectacles…” the governess whimpered. “I have just seen a spectre!” And she fainted to the floor.
Miss Sidebotham was laid out on the drawing room sofa with her handkerchief, smelling salts and a little brass bell she had found on the mantelpiece. She kept ringing it to call Alice and Maisie to bring her cups of tea and anchovy paste sandwiches, both of which, luckily, were quite easy to make.
It was a phantom cat that she had seen, she had explained, when she was well enough to talk. Apparently it had flitted down the upstairs corridor, outside her room, and frightened her into a fit. When the girls told her that the servants had walked out, she went into what she called a nervous collapse.
“I thought ghosts only came out at night,” Maisie said to Alice, as she cut bread for sandwiches and fed the trimmed crusts to Eddie. Miss Sidebotham liked them like that – she was very particular about her sandwiches, they’d found.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Alice said, frowning as she stirred the tea in the pot. “Perhaps the cat is ever such a powerful ghost… Oh drat! That’s Miss Sidebotham’s bell again!”
“Well, she’ll just have to wait! Honestly, she’s your governess and she’s got you running around after her like a slave. You’re supposed to be resting.”
Alice nodded. “I know. But I do feel so much better already, away from that dreadful fog. And this is fun.”
The bell jangled again and Alice and Maisie carried the tea and sandwiches up to the drawing room.
“Oh! There you are at last! I feel quite dreadfully faint again. It’s too cold in here. You must light the fire,” Miss Sidebotham commanded in a feeble voice.
Maisie shook her head disgustedly, noticing that she was quite well enough to wolf down the sandwiches. “We aren’t doing any more tea after this,” she said sternly. “I’ll light the fire, but then we have to finish getting the lunch. You’ll have to put more coal on yourself.” She went over to the fireplace, ignoring Miss Sidebotham’s shocked mutterings about her manners and knelt down to light the fire. The maids had left it laid with kindling – she only needed to set a match to it and add a little coal.
“There,” she said, standing up and then she coughed a little.
“Oh! It’s smoking terribly, you can’t have lit it properly, you silly girl!” snapped Miss Sidebotham.
Maisie felt like telling her to do it herself, but the fire was smoking, which was odd, as she was very used to lighting fires at home. The sweetish blue-grey smoke wafted out of the fireplace, swirling around the room and setting them all coughing. Maisie had a go at it with the poker, but it only seemed to make it worse. “Open a window,” she called to Alice, but Alice was standing transfixed in the middle of the room.
“Maisie, look!” she whispered in horror. Maisie turned round from the fireplace to see the ghost cat trotting towards her, its green eyes shining through the veils of smoke.
Eddie growled and the fur rose up on the back of his neck. He stepped towards the ghost, but it ignored him, turning away from the fire and walking towards the corner of the room. Its glimmering white tail wafted from side to side and it brushed across Maisie’s hand as it padded past. Then it went on through the wisps of smoke and disappeared. Maisie shivered in horror.
“It’s a sign!” wailed Miss Sidebotham. “We’re not long for this world. We’re all cursed!”
“Oh, Maisie, it touched you,” Alice whispered, her blue eyes round and frightened.
“I know…” Maisie said, staring down at her hand.
“Did it hurt you?” Alice gasped, hurrying over to look. “Has it burned you, or something awful like that?”
“No.” Maisie shook her head. Now she thought about it, it hadn’t hurt her at all. And it hadn’t been hot, or icy, or even damp. It had felt just like any other cat – soft and warm and furry. Maisie had a feeling it wasn’t a ghost at all!
“It’s just a cat!” Maisie told Alice again. “It seemed quite friendly to me. It’s probably lived here for ages.”
“Yes, hundreds of years!” Alice said, nodding her head stubbornly. “No one mentioned a cat when we arrived. If there was a cat in the house, wouldn’t someone have had to feed it? It would come into the kitchens to be fed. When we said that we’d seen a white cat it wo
uldn’t have frightened away Annie and the others, would it? They’d have told us not to be silly and that it was only the kitchen cat!”
“I suppose so,” Maisie murmured. They were walking around the gardens, exercising Eddie, while Miss Sidebotham had a rest on the sofa. Maisie thought she was probably sleeping off lunch. Mrs James had prepared plenty and somehow the encounter with the not-a-ghost-cat had left everyone feeling very hungry. “Actually, I bet it smelled Miss Sidebotham’s sandwiches!” she said suddenly. “Cats love fish, don’t they? I should think anchovy paste sandwiches would be a real treat. Perhaps it just lives on mice. It looked ever so thin, poor thing.”
“Well, whoever heard of a fat ghost?” Alice said, throwing a stick for Eddie, so he raced off across the grass, barking excitedly. He wasn’t used to such nice places to play in. Playing with him had reddened Alice’s cheeks, too, and brightened her eyes. She looked worlds better. And not as worried about the phantom cat, either, now that Maisie had touched it and lived to tell the tale.
“I suppose it could be a friendly ghost,” Alice said thoughtfully. “It hasn’t done anything awful…”
“Actually, it’s done you a favour,” Maisie pointed out. “Miss Sidebotham’s far too upset about being haunted to think about lessons now.”
Alice laughed. “You’re right, I hadn’t thought of that. It’s fun staying here and looking after ourselves, Maisie. If she writes a letter to Papa, I think we should – er – lose it…”
“Alice Honoria Lacey!” Maisie said, grinning. “Miss Sidebotham’s right. I am a bad influence on you.”
“Maisie, have you seen my silver bracelet?” Alice asked worriedly, coming into Maisie’s room as they were getting ready for bed that night.
“What, the pretty one you always wear, with the little sparkly flowers?” Maisie asked.
“Yes, I can’t find it – I took it off because I thought it would get in the way with the cooking and the washing up. I’m sure I put it on the kitchen windowsill, but I just went back downstairs to fetch it and it’s gone.”
Maisie shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen it anywhere. You’re really sure you left it there?”
“Definitely.” Alice looked at Maisie, frowning anxiously. “Do you think it’s another ghost? Miss Sidebotham would say it was one of the servants, but it can’t have been. I definitely had it on until lunchtime and they’d all left by then.”
Maisie snorted. “Or she’d say it was me.”
“Yes, but I know it wasn’t you.” Alice nibbled one of her nails. “So it must have been a ghost…”
“Why would a ghost want your bracelet?” Maisie asked, but even she felt a little worried. Miss Sidebotham’s spectacles still hadn’t turned up and now the bracelet had disappeared as well. There was definitely something odd going on. “I don’t think ghosts steal things,” she said, trying to sound as though she believed it.
“But there’s no one else here!” Alice glanced nervously from side to side, as though she expected ghosts to come creeping out from behind the curtains. “I’m not sure I can stay here after all, Maisie… It must be another ghost. Who knows how many of them there are?”
Maisie sighed. “Well, Miss Sidebotham said she was going to write to your father. She told me I have to take the letter into the village tomorrow to post it.”
Alice sighed. “I just don’t know what to do – I do like it here, but I keep thinking something awful’s going to happen…”
The next morning, Maisie hurried down the driveway with Miss Sidebotham’s letter in her hand and Eddie trotting beside her. She and Alice had talked it over and decided that they ought to post the letter. Neither the bracelet nor the spectacles had turned up and the dreadful smell from the library side of the house seemed to be getting stronger.
Miss Sidebotham’s letter told Mr Lacey that the house was mostly definitely haunted and probably built on the site of some dreadful battle. She added that she could not be held responsible for the girls’ safety.
“As if that little cat had actually done anything to us,” Maisie told Eddie with a sigh. “Goodness, it’s cold.” There was a biting wind, swooshing through the tall trees that lined the drive. “Those nests don’t look very safe,” Maisie murmured, glancing up at the loose bundles of sticks up above her head. “Oh, a magpie. One for sorrow… We don’t need any more bad luck, thank you.”
More of the black and white birds swooped down to land in the trees, chattering and squawking, and Maisie sighed happily. It was only a silly rhyme, of course, but still… “There’s lots of them, that’s all right. Seven for a secret, never to be told… I wonder what it is.”
She hurried on down the drive and turned into the road that ran through the village. Only a few minutes later, she could see the church spire up above her and she came into the main village street.
Maisie looked around, wondering where the post box would be. She was just deciding that she would have to ask someone – there was a cluster of people standing outside the greengrocer’s shop – when one of the women walked over to her.
“Good morning, Miss.”
“Oh! Hello, Annie. I didn’t recognize you for a minute.” The maid looked very different in her neat dark coat and a smart hat instead of her uniform.
“How are you, Miss? Have you and Miss Alice seen any more ghosts?”
Maisie looked at her carefully, trying to work out if she was serious or not. Her voice sounded as though she was really most anxious to know, but there was a hint of a smirk at the corner of her mouth.
“No… Well, we did see the ghost cat again. And the smell is getting worse…” she admitted. She didn’t feel like mentioning the bracelet. Annie had been so cross with Miss Sidebotham about her spectacles and Maisie didn’t want to offend her.
“Oh dear…” Annie was definitely trying not to smile, Maisie was sure of it. She thought it was funny! “I do hope that Miss Sidebotham isn’t too upset about it all,” Annie cooed sweetly.
“Could you tell me where to find the post box, please?” Maisie asked, trying not to sound too cross.
“Just over there, Miss,” Annie said pointing. “Important letter home, is it?” She peered at the address on the letter in Maisie’s hand. “To Miss Alice’s father?”
“Yes.” Maisie scowled. “Miss Sidebotham has written to tell him about the strange goings-on in the house.”
“Oh, is that so?” Annie was smiling widely and Maisie stalked away to the post box without saying goodbye. She was sure now that Annie hadn’t believed in the ghost at all. She had probably been angry that Miss Sidebotham had accused her of stealing and then had convinced everyone the ghost story was true, just to pay the governess back!
Maisie marched back to Wisteria Lodge with a determined look on her face. She was certain now that the ghosts were just a bunch of silly stories. And she was going to prove it.
Unfortunately, she had absolutely no idea how…
“How dare she?” Alice squeaked, after Maisie told her about the meeting with Annie. She banged her hands crossly into the bread dough she was kneading. “Oh, Maisie, you shouldn’t have posted that letter! Now Papa will make us come home, for no reason at all.”
“I know,” Maisie agreed. “I almost didn’t post it, but then I thought about the smell. I can’t think what’s causing it, but I bet it isn’t good for you. And there are those shrieking noises – when I woke up this morning, I’d been dreaming that there was a ghost screaming in my ear. I jumped out of bed and then I saw that Eddie was awake too, whining, and the fur on the back of his neck was sticking up. I think there really was a strange noise, even if it wasn’t a ghost. I heard it while I was asleep and it went into my dream. So I want to find out what it is. Besides, if we solve the mystery, we can write again and tell your father we can stay, can’t we?”
“You should have woken me up and told me!” Alice said. “I’m always moaning to you about things. Urrgh. This means we have to go back to the library,” she added, shuddering.
“Even though I’m almost sure the ghosts were all made up, I still don’t want to. It’s so spooky in there.”
“You don’t have to come—” Maisie started to say, but Alice glared at her.
“Of course I’m coming with you! Me and Eddie are your faithful assistants.” She pulled off her apron and looked rather doubtfully at the bread dough. “Do you think that looks right? It’s ever such an odd greyish colour.”
Maisie thought it looked dreadful, but she decided not to say so. “I’m sure it always looks like that before it’s baked.”
“Maybe… Come on then!” Alice started to walk bravely out of the kitchen, but she turned back before she reached the door to grab Maisie’s hand.
The smell got worse and worse as they started down the passage from the entrance hall to the library. It was almost choking and the darkness of the passage made it seem even harder to breathe. They had brought a candle with them from the kitchen, but it didn’t seem to burn very brightly.
“It’s dreadful!” Maisie coughed, pulling out her handkerchief and pressing it to her nose as they reached the open library door.
“Are there any green mists rising out of the floor?” Alice asked, as they peered into the dim room.
“Not that I can see…” Maisie told her. “Oh, Eddie, come back!”
The little dog had pricked up his ears and then dashed into the room, barking loudly.
“It’s the phantom cat!” Alice clutched Maisie’s arm. “Look, there it is, walking along the back of the sofa! Eddie, don’t chase it, it might do something awful to you!”
“Eddie!” Maisie yelled, but he was far too excited to listen. He never did listen when he was chasing cats, she remembered, thinking of that time on the way to Alice’s house, a few days before.