Before he headed upstairs, my dad stopped, one hand on the banister.
“I have something for you, Chloe,” he said. “I know I’m supposed to wait till dinner to give you your present but…” He withdrew a little velvet pouch from his coat pocket. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.” He placed it delicately in my hand.
I opened the drawstrings to find an antique Baltic amber pendant suspended from a silver ball chain. The pendant was flecked with rich swirling colors, held in place by little silver claws.
“This belonged to your mother.”
“Really?” I held it gingerly in my palm. “How come I’ve never seen it before?”
“She was saving it to give you on your eighteenth birthday.” Dad smiled thoughtfully. “It’s a family heirloom passed down from her great-grandmother.”
Receiving one last gift from my mother was a privilege I’d never expected. My grip on the pendant tightened.
“I love it,” I said, slipping the chain over my head. “I’m never going to take it off.”
The amber felt like it was pulsing against my chest, like it had a heartbeat of its own. I could feel my mother’s energy inside it, as if a little part of her had been captured and preserved. I knew now that I would carry her with me always.
Since Dad had gotten the ball rolling, other presents came out. Gran gave me a matching designer wallet and purse I’d had my eye on for a while, while Rory had clumsily wrapped up a new perfume that smelled like cotton candy. I didn’t know when he’d had time to go shopping, but I rewarded him with a big kiss on the cheek, and he squirmed with obvious embarrassment.
“Thank you, guys,” I said. “This is really awesome.”
Rory could tell I was starting to get misty-eyed. “Yeah, yeah, Chloe.” He nudged me. “We know. Now let’s go eat. I’m starving.”
Gran took us to the village pub called the George and Dragon, where I was allowed to have my first Pimm’s Cup. It tasted light and fruity, so the buzz of alcohol crept up on me out of the blue. But it did make me feel more carefree than I had in a long while. Was I actually enjoying myself? I wondered. I’d forgotten what that felt like.
When we got home, Grandma Fee even had a fluffy cream cake waiting for me in the kitchen, slathered all over with a sparkly pink frosting like I used to have when I was a child. The sight of it was strangely comforting. We cut the cake and drank hot chocolate in front of the roaring fire until I was yawning and ready to climb into bed. It hadn’t been the eighteenth-birthday extravaganza Sam and Natalie might have planned, but it had been perfect in its own strange way.
* * *
I opened my door to find the Hunt sisters sitting comfortably on my bed. Mavis had her nose in a book, while knitting needles clattered in May’s hands. I guessed she was supposed to be making a scarf, but it looked more like an elephant trunk.
“Do make yourselves at home… .” I said lightly, resenting the intrusion after the first decent evening I’d had in a while. I wasn’t in the mood for their schemes.
“Thank you, dear,” replied May obtusely. “As you can see, we have.”
“What’s going on?”
“We’ve had an idea,” Mavis announced.
“Seriously?” I burst out. “Look, I don’t think we need any more ideas. I haven’t seen anything in a while. Maybe we could drop the whole thing now?”
Nonplussed, May looked at me over the top of her knitting. “Are you always this irritable?”
“I just want to go to bed.”
“That’s all very well and good,” May said pertly. “But we made a pact, and now we need your help.”
“You guys must be crazy,” I said, pulling off my shoes. “The solution is simple—stay out of Isobel’s way. You’ve seen what she’s capable of.”
“Just hear us out.” Mavis’s face was alight. “Then you can decide whether you want to be involved or not.”
“Fine. But make it quick.”
“We want to make contact with the ghost of Benjamin Grimes.”
I was brought up short. “Why?”
“If anyone can help us, he can. He might know something we don’t.”
“Right…” I gave them a caustic thumbs-up. “Good luck with that.”
I decided these women were too naive. They just didn’t know when to back off. But I wasn’t going to let myself be dragged in. Alex was gone, and I’d closed the door on the ghosts of Grange Hall. There was no way I was going out of my way to draw Isobel’s attention. As far as I could see, you didn’t go poking a bear unless you had a death wish.
“It’s not about luck, Chloe, and you know it. You have a vital role to play.”
Damn it. How had I known this was coming?
“What role is that?”
“Well, on a practical level, we need a minimum of three people to hold a séance,” announced May. She sounded matter-of-fact. “It won’t work without you.”
I had to wonder whether this information had been freshly looked up on the internet. I let out a long sigh.
“Isn’t there someone else who can help you? It’s my birthday.”
“Happy birthday, dear!” Mavis exclaimed.
“Thanks,” I said. “And what better way to celebrate than a chat with a dead child?”
“But it’s not just any chat,” May explained. “We think we may have figured out the missing piece of the puzzle. But we need the séance to confirm our suspicions.”
“Your suspicions being?”
She tossed aside her knitting needles. “No séance will work without a medium present… . We think the medium might be you.”
I let out a short, brash laugh and sidestepped them on my way to the door. I would sleep in Rory’s room if it was the only way out of this. “Sorry, ladies, you’ve got the wrong person. I’m not interested in communicating with the other side anymore.”
Mavis held up one knobby finger. “Just do this one last thing for us, Chloe. The séance won’t work without you. If you help us out tonight, we’ll never bother you again.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Cross our hearts,” she said, laying a hand over her breast. “You’ll never see us again.”
“Fine,” I grudgingly agreed. The idea of having them off my back was just too tempting. “Let’s just get this over with. Then I never want to hear another word about ghosts again!”
* * *
If I was expecting the séance to involve a Ouija board and an upturned sherry glass, I was sorely disappointed. I met Mavis and May in the dining hall after the rest of the household went to bed and found nothing but three candles dribbling wax onto the table.
“This is it?” I asked doubtfully. “I was expecting more of a show.”
“Not necessary.” Mavis beckoned me over. “A true medium needs only their presence in a room.”
“So no pendulum or blood sacrifice?”
“You’ve watched too many bad television shows. Although—” May frowned and glanced around the room “—perhaps a little offering wouldn’t go astray.” Her eye fell on a glass jar of Grandma Fee’s lemon shortbreads. She took them from the sideboard and repositioned them in the center of the table. I blinked incredulously at her.
“You’re not seriously offering cookies to a ghost.”
She shrugged. “It’s the gesture that really counts.”
“Are you sure he’ll even come? What if he’s having an awesome time on the other side and doesn’t want to be disturbed?”
“He’ll come,” Mavis assured me. “Just think back to the manner in which he died. Those spirits never fully cross over. They’re never at peace.”
“Okay…whatever.” The room felt hot and stuffy. I settled at the table while Mavis opened the window a crack and let the icy wind in. The candlelight flickere
d and cast ghoulish shadows on the wallpaper. I joined hands with the sisters to create a circle, and May told me to close my eyes.
“You have to summon him, Chloe,” she said.
I tensed up. “Why me? You’re the experts. I don’t know what to say.”
“Listen to the voice in your head,” Mavis encouraged. “Then you’ll know.”
I took a deep breath and cleared my thoughts. I tried to picture the face of the little boy in the photograph. I remembered his eyes and imagined myself staring directly into them. Then, as clear as day, the words appeared in my mind.
“Benjamin Grimes, we invite you into our circle. Come forward. Be guided by the light. Do not be afraid. If you can hear me, make your presence known to us.” I was surprised at myself. Where had that come from? It hadn’t even felt like me speaking.
For a moment everything was still. Then May’s eyelids drooped and her chin slumped onto her chest. Was she really falling asleep right now? I gave her hand a warning squeeze, but she didn’t respond. Then suddenly her head flew up and her eyes opened, staring fixedly into space. When she spoke, the piping voice of a child rang out.
“Mummy! Where’s my mummy?”
I looked at Mavis, too horror stricken to speak.
“Benjamin?” she asked softly. “Is that you?”
“Mummy?” he asked frantically.
“I’m not your mother,” Mavis replied. “But I know of her. She still lives here. She misses you terribly.”
“Can I see her?” the voice asked hopefully. It was a pretty eerie thing to witness, the voice of a five-year-old boy speaking through the mouth of a woman with a face as wrinkled as a walnut. Ordinarily I would have concluded that May was faking it, but tonight the idea didn’t even cross my mind. If I closed my eyes, I was convinced the boy was standing right next to me.
“Not right now,” Mavis said. “She’s sleeping. But you can help her…by helping us.” The spirit was quiet as he waited for her to elaborate. “Can you tell what happened on the day you left us?”
“I followed the beautiful lady into the woods,” Benjamin said.
“Was that the first time you saw the lady?”
“No, I used to see her everywhere,” the voice replied. “The lady and the men.”
“What men?”
“The two that were fighting over her.” Mavis looked confused, but I knew exactly what Benjamin was talking about.
“Why did the lady want to hurt you?” I threw in.
“I went too far,” the ghost child said. “I lost my way. She told me she would take me home.”
“But she didn’t, did she?” I whispered.
“No.” The voice was growing increasingly agitated. “She took me out in a boat…on the river. Then she turned it over. I didn’t know how to swim. I want to see my mummy now!” May’s body jerked violently, and I imagined the little boy Benjamin stamping his foot.
“Okay,” I said, trying to placate him. “Just tell me one more thing. Did the lady say anything to you?”
“She said she was sorry she had to take me.”
“But why did she have to take you, Benjamin?” I pressed. “Tell me.” I felt like I was picking away at a lock that was about to spring open.
“Because I knew things.”
“Who told you that?”
“She did. She called it a gift.” Shivers started shooting up my spine. I’d hated that word for as long as I could remember. Alex had called it a gift, too. It was anything but.
“Did she tell you what that means?”
“She said the ones with the gift knew too much. She said I belonged to two worlds and she was worried I would hurt her. I promised I wouldn’t, but she didn’t believe me. She said there were very few others like me.” The ghost child felt silent, and May kicked her legs in her chair like she’d been suddenly distracted
“Can I play now? Tell Mummy I put away my toys like I was supposed to.” The ghost seemed to have no inkling of how much time had passed.
“Benjamin,” I said softly, “if you see your mother now, you might not recognize her…” I wasn’t sure how much I should reveal, but the words spilled out anyway. “You’ve been gone for over fifty years.”
May went rigid, and a sound halfway between a moan and a cry of surprise escaped her thin lips. The candles died on the spot and the window slammed shut. She slumped forward onto the table and was still for several seconds before she lifted her head with a gasp.
“What happened?” she asked, blinking red-rimmed eyes.
“What an astounding thing! I can hardly believe it. The boy spoke through you! It was as if he was right here in the room. Do you remember any of it?” Mavis was rapturous, but May shook her head, disappointed to have missed the most definitive moment of their careers. Mavis fixed her gaze on me. “Chloe, you heard what he said?”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“Isobel believed the boy had the power to harm her. It’s as we suspected.”
“How?” I asked. “Gift or no gift, how could he have possibly hurt her?”
“Well…” Mavis thought for a moment. “During our research over the years, we’ve learned that ghosts can be destroyed by making them relive the pain of their past. Now the past is buried until someone comes along who can unearth it and use it against them, if they know how. I’m not sure whether Benjamin Grimes understood his own power or not, but the important thing is that Isobel did. She saw him as a threat…and perhaps a reminder of what she’d lost. Maybe that’s why she had to dispose of him.”
I desperately tried to piece things together in my head. “But if Isobel didn’t want people to know about her past, why would she show me all those visions?”
“Aah!” Mavis grabbed my arm. “Perhaps Isobel was not the one controlling the visions. The power of the medium was controlling her, forcing the past to resurface, forcing her to relive it.”
“What? So that would mean…” I faltered. “She didn’t want me to see them, after all?”
“Of course not!” Mavis cried. “She’s afraid of you. That’s why she’s been trying to scare you away.”
“But what could I do to her?” I asked weakly.
May’s eyes shone. “You can do a great deal. More than all of us combined.”
I fixed my eyes on the floor as the new information sank in, like a wave of nausea crashing down on me.
“Chloe,” Mavis whispered. “You and Benjamin are the same…”
I couldn’t stand hearing it spoken aloud.
“No!” I shouted, jumping up and backing instinctively toward the door. “Don’t say that. I didn’t want any of this!”
“It isn’t something you choose,” May replied, her misty eyes full of understanding for my plight. “It’s a gift you’re born with.”
“It’s not a gift!” I shouted at them. “Was it a gift for Benjamin Grimes? Look how he wound up!”
Mavis stretched her hands toward me. “But you’re not like him. Benjamin was an easy target. You’re older and wiser, and you have us here to help you. We thought we were at Isobel’s mercy, but don’t you see? You’re running this show, Chloe. You’re the only one who can control her…who can stop her.”
“I doubt that. She seems pretty indestructible to me.”
“I mean, you can make her cross over. Isobel doesn’t want to leave this place, but once she does she won’t be able to get back.”
I couldn’t believe it, the idea that I might possess the ability to destroy Isobel forever and break the curse that had haunted Grange Hall. All this time I’d thought she hated me for loving Alex. But she’d been trying to protect herself. She didn’t want to leave this place, and she’d known all along that I had the power to make her.
“Right!” May pushed her glasses up her nose. “We can’t sit ar
ound now twiddling our thumbs! We know what we have to do.”
“Um…no, we don’t,” I objected. “There’s no rule book for this. No seven-step procedure for disposing of unwanted ghosts. What the hell do we do from here?”
“We have to confront Isobel,” Mavis answered simply. “She’s going to come after you the moment she realizes you’ve learned your true identity.”
I sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t make this sound so much like a B-grade horror movie.”
“Sorry.” She shrugged. “But we don’t have a choice now. We have to find her before she finds you.”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said in a dull voice. “It’s her or me. One of us is going to have to go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I agreed to meet Mavis and May in the foyer ten minutes later. I’d headed upstairs after the birthday celebrations barely able to keep my eyes open. Now the adrenaline coursing through my veins was enough to put all my senses on red alert.
Despite their attempts to reassure me, I couldn’t help being plagued by doubt. Did these women really know what they were talking about? They’d damn well better. I was entrusting them with my life…all our lives, in fact.
I found them already waiting for me with their childlike enthusiasm, bundled up as if they were embarking on a trip to Antarctica.
“Are you sure about this?” I hesitated. “How do you even know where to find Isobel?”
“We’re not completely useless, you know!” May said. “We have a few tricks up our sleeve.” She winked at me, but her levity didn’t offer much comfort.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means try having a little faith, dear.”
“We’re not taking that MEF thing again, are we? It seemed pretty useless.”
“That’s an EMF detector,” Mavis corrected. “And it works perfectly well.”
“Fine,” I said. “Assuming you’re right and we do find Isobel, what then?”
“We’re hoping your gift will guide us when the time comes.”