Frost Hollow Hall (20 page)

The snow looked as white as sheets on a bed. My eyelids grew heavy. All I wanted was to sleep. I sank to my knees. Really, it wasn’t even cold any more; I’d stopped shivering completely. I scooped up the snow into a little pillow and lay back against it.

Tiny snowflakes tickled my face. I stuck my tongue out to catch them and watched as the sleeves of Cook’s coat turned white. Blimey, I was warm. Too warm for this greatcoat. I took it off and spread it out, then lay back down and shut my eyes. Just a minute or two’s rest would do.

Gently, deliciously, I began to drift off. I imagined I was lying in bed at home with the window wide open. But somewhere out in the lane a dog was barking, and the blasted thing wouldn’t stop. And then a person started calling the same name over and over again, getting closer ’til they seemed to be right under my window. I wished they’d just clear off and let me sleep.

The noises were lost in a gust of wind. I opened my eyes and looked about me. There was no dog, no person calling; all I saw was endless, swirling snow. Yet I didn’t feel alone.

‘Kit?’ I said, out loud. ‘It’s you, in’t it?’

The dead don’t always answer: I knew that now.

He was here. It was him. The air said so. The snow kept falling and the night got darker. I hoped it might never be morning so it could be like this for ever.

Dreaming: 6

Everything feels light. Kit and me, we’re drifting above the trees and fields. We’re free of the lake at last. It should feel right but it doesn’t quite. Not yet. Being this high up makes me giddy as if I’ve risen too high too quick. Kit looks startled too. The snow has cleared, and now the stars are out. The cold is blade-sharp.

Spread below us is someone’s old coat. On top of it, all curled up, lies a girl with wild dark hair. Her eyes are shut. She seems to be sleeping; I can’t quite be sure. Something twists in my chest and I realise I’m looking down on myself. I know this feeling – last time it happened I nearly died. Only now I’m too light-headed to care.

Who’d miss me if I did die? 

The answer comes so fast it takes my breath away.

Ma. It would kill her. I’m all she’s got left.

I gaze down at the girl, and out the corner of my eye, I see a movement. A dark shape is striding towards her, the lantern he holds casting light across the snow. The person looks familiar.

Will!

He’s found me, and I know I should be glad, but in truth I’m torn.

‘You can’t hold on for ever,’ Kit says. ‘You have to let go.’

He’s so close I can see the colour of his eyes, the shades of blue all mixed up together. The pain in them is fading. He looks tired, ready to sleep at long last. Not yet, though. Not yet.

‘The truth is very near now,’ says Kit. ‘ Go back for it.’

The most beautiful smile lights up his face. Just for a moment it dazzles me. He begins to move away from me. I try to hold onto his hand but it’s impossible; his fingers are as slippery as ice. And though my heart feels fit to break, I know what this means; I can’t stay here. It’s not my time. The truth is out there. To find it, I must leave Kit behind.

31

A Light to Guide Me

I grew aware of a hand touching my face. I opened my eyes to see Will crouched in the snow beside me, patting my cheeks.

‘Slap me again and I’ll kick you,’ I hissed.

‘Looks like
you
aren’t dead, after all,’ Will said. But there was no mistaking the relief in his face, and it made me suddenly fearful. Clearly I’d come very close to not waking up at all.

The snow had stopped falling but it was colder than ever, and I felt chilled to the bone. Struggling to sit up, I started to shake. I tried to put the coat back on, but my limbs were so stiff and heavy, I couldn’t even get my arms into the sleeves.

Will went to help me.

‘I can manage, ta very much,’ I said, though it was obvious I couldn’t. For I was shaking so hard now I could barely see straight, let alone put a flipping coat on.

‘For God’s sake, Tilly!’ said Will. ‘Stop acting like a baby!’

He pulled me to my feet. And before I knew it, he’d wrapped his arms so tight around me I could barely breathe. Cursing loudly, I struggled to get out of his grasp. But it was no good. He held me fast against him, my face pressed into his jacket, so I had no choice but to breathe in his smell of earth and cold air. I was too weak to fight him any more.

The heat from Will began to warm me, making my hands and feet tingle until they hurt. I leaned into him and his arms shifted, so he was holding me gently now, his chin resting on the top of my head. And though it surprised me to feel it, I was very glad indeed that he was there.

‘Thank you,’ I mumbled into his jacket, like I was testing out the words.

‘Did you say something?’

‘Thank you,’ I said, louder.

He stepped back so we weren’t touching any more. I saw he was smiling. And it was, in fact, a rather nice smile, not his usual stupid grin.

‘Come on,’ he said, gesturing over his shoulder. ‘Let’s get you inside.’

For that dark shape that I’d seen up ahead had indeed been a house – Will’s house at the edge of the village. I’d no idea I’d come so far off course. It looked smaller than I’d remembered it, and scruffier too. As we entered the yard, a great hairy dog set off barking and whining at the end of its chain.

‘It was Barney who heard you,’ said Will, meaning the dog, who was now wagging his tail in delight. ‘He woke me up with his hollering. Good job too, as it happens.’

We went through a door and into a warm kitchen that smelled nicely of baking. The only light came from the embers of a fire. My legs sagged beneath me, and I reached for a chair.

Will took hold of my elbow. ‘No sitting down yet. You’ve to warm up slowly,’ he said, and bid me walk about the kitchen ’til my fingers and toes had stopped hurting.

I groaned. ‘Just hope your ma and pa don’t hear us.’

‘Don’t fret. They’d sleep through an earthquake.’

In the time it took for me to thaw out, Will had stoked the fire and set two chairs at the hearth. He’d tried to heat some milk up too but managed to scald it in the pan. Even so, I drank it greedily, glad of how it warmed me inside.

‘Now,’ Will said, letting me sit down at last. ‘You’d better tell me what the heck’s happened.’

So I told him about Madame Martineau, the brown paper parcel, and the spirit revealing itself as Ada, though even to my ears it sounded unreal. And when I’d finished, Will said, ‘And now you’ve been kicked out, right?’

‘Don’t remind me.’ I felt hopeless enough already. ‘I knew this séance wouldn’t work. Kit was never going to show himself. But Lady Barrington just wouldn’t listen.’

‘That’s hardly surprising, is it? It is all so . . . well . . .
unlikely
.’

‘You still don’t believe me, do you? You think I’m mad.’

He ran a hand through his hair. ‘The thing is,’ he said, looking almost nervous, ‘I
do
think about you, quite a lot as it happens.’

I stared at him. ‘Don’t be daft.’

He was joking of course.
Wasn’t he?
This blasted fire was too hot of a sudden, and I felt myself flush.

‘What I mean is,’ Will said, hurriedly, ‘all this stuff about the Hall and Kit Barrington. My head’s full of it. I was wrong to doubt you.’

‘Oh. ’

A stiff silence followed. We seemed not quite able to meet each other’s eye.

Then Will got to his feet. ‘You need some sleep.’

He found me an old blanket that smelled strongly of wood smoke. I wrapped myself in it and quickly felt my eyes grow heavy. Soon I was fast asleep.

*

Some time later, I woke with a start. I knew at once what I had to do.
Go back for it
, Kit had said. It was simple. There was one place where I’d find out about Ada. And sitting here wouldn’t get it done. The clock on the mantel said quarter to three. If I went now, I’d just have time; Dorcas didn’t rise until five.

Unsteadily, I got to my feet. Will was still asleep in his chair. Tiptoeing past him, I held my breath. Luckily, there wasn’t a key in the door. I turned the handle. The door inched open.

‘Where you off to?’ said a sudden voice behind me.

Drat!

I shut the door again.

‘Nowhere,’ I lied, not turning round. ‘Go back to sleep, Will.’

But he didn’t sound remotely sleepy. ‘Not with you prowling about. Come on, out with it. What you up to?’

I faced him. He might as well hear it.

‘I’m going back to the Hall,’ I said.

Will’s mouth fell open. ‘Are you
completely
loopy?’

‘Probably,’ I shrugged. ‘But I’ve got to do it. If Mrs Jessop’s not around still, then this is my chance.’

‘For what, exactly?’

‘To find out all I can about Ada.’

‘But it’s the middle of the night!’

I wished he was still asleep. He was beginning to get on my nerves.

‘Will,’ I said, patient as I could, ‘Mrs Jessop’s got these books. She makes notes in them, on everything right down to the last broken teacup. There’s shelves full of the blinking things in her office but no one’s allowed to read them. They go right back to the time when Kit was alive.’

‘And Ada,’ said Will, latching on.

‘Precisely. Surely Mrs Jessop would’ve have written something down about her own daughter. Especially if it all ended so strangely.’

I glanced at the clock. Time to be gone.

‘When I left tonight, Mrs Jessop had taken off somewhere. I’m praying she’s still not back, because this is my chance. I’d never get near them books otherwise.’

‘What if you get caught?’

It was a risk, all right. Twice I’d been caught trespassing,
and
I’d just got sacked from my job. There’d be no welcome for me back at Frost Hollow Hall; this time they’d be calling the magistrate. I felt sick at the thought. But I couldn’t help myself, not now the idea had taken hold.

Will made a sudden lunge for the door.

‘Don’t try to stop me!’ I hissed, barring his way.

‘You can’t go back there!’

‘I have to! There’s a link between Kit and Ada. And I bet you there’s proof of it in those notebooks.’

‘But . . .’

‘I
have
to know what happened, once and for all. Otherwise Kit will never be at peace.’

‘They might arrest you, though.’

‘Or’, I said, ‘I might make Kit Barrington happy at last.’

In my mind, it was well worth the risk.

‘Got a key to let yourself back in, then?’ said Will.

My heart sank. ‘No.’

‘I can hoist you up through a window. And if she’s locked her office, I can pick a lock quick enough. What d’you say?’

‘
You?
’

It hadn’t occurred to me that he’d want to come too, not after last time when Mrs Jessop had threatened to tell his pa.

‘Yes, why not?’

Heck, I hardly knew where to start. But in truth, I’d be dead in the snow if it wasn’t for Will Potter. It was one more thing I owed him for. Maybe it was time to start trusting him.

‘All right,’ I said, slowly. ‘But this in’t no dare and we’re in it together.’

‘I know that,’ he said. ‘This is for real.’

He looked pleased as punch, and though I didn’t expect it, I was too. It felt good to have someone by my side.

*

Will knew his way better than I did. We ducked under a fence, then followed a hedge all the way through the parkland until we found ourselves back at Frost Hollow Hall. The house was silent. The windows were shuttered and dark, and thin trails of smoke from the chimneys told us the fires had died down for the night. I headed for the back door. Mr Phelps had ordered Dorcas to bolt it, and true to his word it held fast against my shoulder.

Will pointed to a small window high above the kitchens. ‘Reckon you could get through there with a leg-up?’

‘I’ll give it a go.’

Quick as a flash, Will had hold of my leg. Never mind good manners. He counted to three then swung me upwards. I grabbed at the guttering. Gripped on tight. Then I heaved myself onto the roof. Once up here, it was a job to stand upright. The drop made me dizzy and the tiles were slippery as anything, and the blasted window catch was stuck fast.

‘Hurry up!’ Will hissed from below.

‘I’m doing me best!’

A sharp shove and the window swung open, wafting warm air up into my face. I peered into the kitchens. It was gloomy down there. A couple of gas jets still flickered on the wall, so I could just make out that right beneath me was the kitchen table, piled high with clean pots and pans. It was a good ten-foot drop down. I’d have to shut my eyes and pray.

‘All right?’ called Will, softly.

‘Yes. Come on up.’

He scaled the wall with ease and picked his way neatly over the roof to crouch beside me.

‘Wish on a star for luck,’ he said, pointing at the sky.

I swallowed.
Oh blimey, do I have to?
I’d sworn I wouldn’t, not since that awful night when Pa and Eliza had first gone. But right now I needed all the luck in the world. So I fixed on the brightest, biggest star, and on making my wish, I felt my courage rise.

‘Right,’ said Will. ‘You ready?’

I nodded. Swinging my legs round, I sat right on the edge of the window, feet dangling into the kitchen below. My heart began to race.

‘Aim to your left. And try not to land on nothing,’ said Will.

I squeezed my eyes tight shut.

‘One . . . two . . .’

He didn’t get to three. I pushed off with my hands. And I fell for what felt like for ever.

32

All About Ada

The ground rushed up to meet me. My legs buckled and I slammed hard into the table, sending pots and pans clattering to the floor. I landed in a heap amongst them. The din seemed to go on and on.