CHAPTER 1
"You will like Ravenshurst, once you get used to it, you know," Anita Woods told her two children, as they drove further away from London and their old life.
"No, I won't", said James sulkily. "It's all right for you, you will be near your new boyfriend, but Mandy and I are leaving all our friends behind us."
"Jim," sighed his mother, " I really had no choice. Since your father died, I have had to earn my living, and I could not afford the rail fares every day, as you know."
"You could have got another job!"
"The way things are now? Be sensible!"
"Jim," pleaded Mandy "Don't argue with Mum when she's driving. Look at the scenery or something."
"It's nearly dark, how can I?" sulked James. "And the Dreaded Derek will be waiting for us. How lucky can you get!"
"If I was not driving, Jim my lad" said his mother "I would cuff you round the ear. Now be quiet!"
"Yes, shut up, do", pleaded his sister. "I'm sure we will soon make new friends, and we can always stay with our old ones in the holidays."
"Your sister is always sensible", their mother said. "Why you both couldn't be, I don't know!"
"I take after my father!" replied James. "One day I will be a soldier too."
"The sooner the better," his mother was heard to mutter under her breath. Life was hard enough, without having an impossible son like this.
James went on enjoying his sulk, but suddenly he laughed, tugging Mandy's arm.
"I didn't know Ravenshurst was infested with Triffids!" he hooted.
"What on earth are you talking about?" enquired their mother, her eyes on the road ahead.
"We have just passed a sign which said "Heavy Plant Crossing" explained Mandy when she had stopped laughing. "Then one which said "Garden Centre!"
The atmosphere lightened slightly as they neared their destination.
Ravenshurst was a large village, more like a country town and quite a few small industries had moved there earlier in 1988, one of which was Maxey's Confectioners where Anita worked. The cottage she had bought was only down the road from the industrial estate, and the school was also not far away. As far as she was concerned, it was ideal.
Down Elchester Lane they drove, and turned left into a narrower road. In the dusk of the early September evening, the ancient houses looked very ghostly on either side of the lane. A faint mist was over the village, adding to the atmosphere.
"It's a bit spooky!" shivered Mandy.
"It's only because it's a bit foggy," said her mother. "Don't start frightening yourself. Your imagination will be the death of you! Here we are," she continued.
The house was set back from the lane; it was a black and white timbered cottage. Lights showed from the downstairs rooms and a removal van was parked outside the gate.
"Good," said Anita. "Derek is there before us."
The youngsters piled out of the car first, stiff from the journey from London. Derek was waiting at the door in the lamplight, as if he was the man of the house! James was enraged; charging forward he demanded,
"What do you think you are doing, acting as if you are my father! You aren't my father, how dare you!"
Mandy, following, was rooted to the spot and watched with a mixture of dismay and excitement. Their mother had just got out of the car and was also frozen for a moment with disgust.
"You are taking over our lives, and I won't have it!" shouted James, lashing out.
Derek stepped back, so that James missed, which was just as well, as Derek was a big man and could have floored James quite easily, if he had wanted to. He only said mildly,
"Don't you think your mother needs help moving in? Surely you don't object to that. And I've put the kettle on for you."
James was about to produce another retort when his mother came up behind him and shook him.
"How dare you!" she cried. "Really, you are a disgrace. You make my life impossible! And what will our new neighbours think!"
This was a valid point, as the people next door were peeping round their curtains to see what all the shouting was.
James, unfortunately, was not embarrassed. He shook himself free from his mother and launched into another tirade. He was tired and strung up from leaving his friends behind, and this was his outlet.
"My father died for his country - no-one can take his place. I won't forget him even if you all want to!" - this was said whilst turning round and glaring through the dusk at his mother and sister, then a final glare at Derek.
"James!" shouted his mother, and she seized him by the arm and frog-marched him into the lighted cottage, Mandy followed, and Derek took up the rear. Two removal men appeared from within the house, grinning. They had heard the row and enjoyed it hugely.
"Typical red-head temper," said one to the other when they got to the van. "Glad he's not mine. She's got a handful there all right!"
James was temporarily defeated because he really wanted a cup of tea, which Derek had made as he had said. So he said no more but sulked a lot. There would be time to do more about this later - he expected to be seeing plenty more of Derek.
There was a great deal of unpacking to do, but it was decided to leave most of it until the morning. Anita had given Mandy and James a bedroom each; but better than that (even James had to admit) was the fact that they also had a special study room to share. This was on the top floor of the house, a lovely room with a sloping ceiling and lots of oak beams. A dormer window looked out across the back garden (or would do in daylight) to the fields beyond.
James deposited the box containing his computer on the floor.
"I must say this room is great, Mandy. We can have some good times here."
"At last he likes something!" exclaimed his sister to the empty room. "Wonders will never cease!"
"You know what I don't like, and that's Mum taking up with that Derek Rogers. That and having to leave London. But this room is great, even so."
"It's not Mum's fault Dad was killed in Ireland, is it?" asked Mandy. "We all knew it could happen, and it's awful; I don't like it any more than you do. But we can't keep on and on about it, can we?"
"It's not that so much. It's her trying to replace him with that Derek. Who is he, anyway, I'd like to know?"
"We know she met him at work, don't we?" said Mandy, sitting down on the wooden seat set in the window bay. "He started at Maxey's about six months ago, just before they moved to Ravenshurst. And we know they travelled to work together, until he moved here last month. And," she went on thoughtfully, "he has been a great help to Mum, you must admit that."
"Oh, I do, but for what reason? I do not like him and that's that. How do I know he hasn't got a wife somewhere else and is just after Mum for her money?"
Mandy laughed. "Mum isn't that rich! Anyway, Mum says he lost his wife some years ago, so they are both in the same boat."
"I expect he did her in and buried her in his garden, which is why he has moved away," said James darkly.
Mandy hadn't thought of that. She couldn't find any reply to it, and it worried her for the rest of the evening. Maybe their mother's friend was sinister. It was odd how he had suddenly turned up. James' suggestion got mixed up in her mind with the spookiness she had felt when they first arrived, and it wouldn't go away.
She lay awake for what seemed hours that night, after Derek had left, expecting to hear the floor creak and see the murderer (or maybe a ghost) come in. Of course, the floor did creak - but then the floors of old houses do...
James, having decided that there was going to be a fight on, and relishing the prospect, slept peacefully, undisturbed by dreams of murderers or ghosts.
As time passed, things began to get organised - mostly, it had to be said, by Derek, who helped Anita with the furniture and getting the cottage into working order.
"Just as if it's his," sulked James, but avoided any further rows, as he was busy settling into his new school and couldn't put energy out both ways.
Ravenshurst Comprehensive was not too big, as comprehensive schools go, and the local children were friendly and did not make James and Mandy feel too much like foreigners, which had been another of their fears. They soon made friends - James's special friend was Rodney Omatola, who lived next door but one.
"What did you do at school today, Jim?" asked his mother one evening.
"It was quite good," admitted James. "We did local history this afternoon. I didn't think places like this had history - you know, interesting stuff like lost abbeys and fights and things. We did science this morning. That science master is really a strict bloke, isn't he Mandy? You've had him, haven't you?"
"Yes I have, but I think he's really very good at his subject," replied Mandy. "They tell me he always gets good marks from his classes because he says 'woe betide you if you don't do well' in tests. Mind you, he worries me!"
"He sounds rather a dragon to me", said Anita. "Still, I shall expect you both to become scientists now!"
"I think I shall be a local historian," replied James. He felt that would be great fun, particularly if he could get muddy digging up fields to find the buried past.
Then the evening was ruined for him by Derek coming in, so he retreated to the study (now called The Hideout).
The following evening, James came back from school later than usual - he had managed to get himself one hour's detention for passing toffees in class and answering the teacher back.
Their mother had also stayed late at the office, so Mandy was in the house alone. James found her in the kitchen, getting something for them to eat, but every light in the house was on.
"What on earth are all the lights on for?" asked James in amazement. "Mum will kill you - we'll have an enormous electricity bill!"
"Yes we will!" cried their mother, coming in the back door. "What are you both doing?"
"Sorry," whispered Mandy. "It was my fault. But I was frightened."
"What on earth of? Jim..." their mother glared at James, who returned a look of pure blue-eyed innocence. For once, something wasn't his fault.
"Oh, it's nothing to do with Jim. I walked home with a girl in my class - Rowena - and she told me this story about a ghost and I am really scared!"
"Ghosts! Nonsense! Remember your age!"
"People a lot older than me believe in them!" retorted Mandy crossly.
Anita hurried off to turn out the lights in the rest of the house.
James, deciding this was a crisis, and in films people in a crisis needed hot, sweet tea, made a pot of tea and put out the sugar and cups, feeling that at least he had done something useful.
Mandy sat down at the table and drank her tea.
"Now tell me all about it," her mother told her, having come back from turning off the lights and feeling a little calmer. It was usually James who caused trouble, but she knew all about Mandy's imagination - fuelled, as she often told her, by the records she listened to and the rubbish she read.
Mandy launched into her story. "There was an abbey here once, with monks in it -"
"I know all about that," began James, feeling superior.
"Be quiet and let your sister talk," said his mother.
"This abbey was near where your factory is, Mum. There was a monk got killed and pushed down a well. This well is in the garden of a cottage down the road the other way from the factory, and the monk's ghost walks up and down the road between the factory and the cottage. The worst is that if you meet him, you die!"
"What if you drive down the road?" enquired James. Girls never thought things out practically.
"Dunno," admitted Mandy.
"Anyway," said their mother, "why worry? Our road is a turning off before you reach that cottage with the well, and you should be all right going to school and back. Ghosts walk at midnight, don't they, and you are not going to be out then - not if I have anything to do with it - and this house is well off its 'beat' - if what you say is true."
Mandy admitted that was so.
"Well then, no more sillies. Oh, here comes Derek."
