Zeph saw the door open and he narrowed his eyes, trying to see better. It had begun to rain and he could feel the damp seeping into his jacket. He finished the last mouthful of his pasty and wiped his hands on his trousers, checking in his pocket for the snare he had brought with him. It was a piece of equipment he had often used in the fields round the hall, catching rabbits mostly, but sometimes a fox. One of them had bitten off its own paw in an attempt to free itself from the wire, but it hadn’t escaped far. He had found it nearby dead, lying in a pool of its own blood. Last night he had adapted the snare, twisting each end of the wire over a small piece of wood to help give him purchase. Anything else he might need he would find in the barn.
He watched Dan pause and glance back at the cottage, then he pulled the door shut behind him and walked quickly down the path to the forge where Ben had already started the fire. The blue fragrant smoke from the oak chippings he was using as kindling was drifting straight up into the dank still air. Dan disappeared inside and Zeph settled back. Nothing would happen until the horses had gone to the fields with George and Robert, the dairy maids had left with their buckets to see to the milking cows and the yard was deserted. Whatever was going on in the cottage would like as not distract Betsy if she came down from the farm cottages later.
The clouds were lifting a little and there was a patch or two of blue in the sky. Every now and then he heard the sound of hammering from the forge. A couple of hens were pecking round his feet; he clapped his hands at them and they flew up squawking.
It was a long time before Dan appeared in the doorway and headed towards the barn, as Zeph had known he would. There were always things to be mended, harness to be reinforced, tools to be reforged, and George often left the items to be seen to stacked just inside the doorway. It had been during those visits to the barn that Dan had taken the opportunity to stroke Bella and murmur in her ear, giving her a handful of oats. There was always the chance that he might have sent Ben to collect the repair jobs, but Zeph knew his man. Dan was methodical, doing things in the right order, and in the same way each day. He would have bet good money on the fact that Dan would come himself while the fire was steadily building its heat, and he was right. Silent as a shadow Zeph slipped from behind his hayrick and headed for the side door to the barn, groping in his pocket as he did so until his fingers closed around the wire.
Zoë woke with a start. She was clutching her stomach, groaning in agony as she ran towards the bathroom, leaving Ken sitting up sleepily staring after her. He lay back as she disappeared inside and slammed the door and reached for the pillow, clutching it over his head, not wanting to hear the sounds of her vomiting, but there was a long silence, followed at last by the splash of the shower.
She stared at herself in the mirror over the wash basin for a long time, waiting to see if she was going to be sick, until it dawned on her that there was nothing wrong. The stomach pains which had woken her had vanished. They were part of her dream.
She had straightened up at last and pushed her hair back from her forehead. Then she tore off her nightdress and headed into the shower. She was bathed in sweat and exhausted. In her dream she had been in labour and she had known she was going to die.
When at last she emerged from the bathroom Ken had disappeared. He had left a note on the kitchen worktop: Sorry you’re not well. Maybe you should call the doctor? I have to be in Ipswich by nine but I will ring later to see how you are.
She screwed up the note and threw it in the bin.
Leo put two slices of toast under the grill for her and pushed down the filter in the coffee jug. ‘You dreamed you were having a baby?’ He had been working in his garden when she arrived. With one look at her face he had thrust his spade into the earth and abandoned it. Within seconds of them going inside a robin had appropriated the handle as a perch.
She nodded. ‘It was awful, Leo. There was something wrong and there were people all round and they knew it was all going terribly badly and there was no doctor and the midwife was useless. She knew next to nothing. My neighbour knew more than she did.’ She grabbed the cup of coffee he poured her. ‘I woke up in such agony I couldn’t believe it.’
‘That must have scared Ken,’ he observed dryly.
‘Ken didn’t hang around to find out what was wrong. When I got out of the shower he had gone. He left a note telling me to call the doctor.’
‘Sympathetic chap.’
She took a deep breath. ‘I’m still a bit shaky, if I’m honest.’
‘Have something to eat and you’ll feel better. It’s an odd thing to dream. But of course we were talking about kids yesterday.’ He glanced at her as he shoved a pot of marmalade towards her on the work surface, pushing aside a sketchbook and pencils as he did so. She put her hand on his arm to stop him and flipped open the cover of the book. Inside on the front page there were several small sketches of a heron. She looked at them closely. ‘These are lovely. Harnsers.’ She remembered the word. ‘Did you do them?’
He gave a resigned nod, removed the book from her hands and tossed it behind him onto the table. ‘Eat.’
‘You have so many hidden talents.’
He grinned. ‘Maybe. You concentrate on the talents you know about.’
‘OK. But first tell me something. When I said I dreamed I was pregnant you didn’t seem surprised.’
He shook his head, suddenly sober. ‘There seems to be a pattern emerging. I didn’t want to say anything to you in case it upset you and I suppose I wanted to see what happened.’ He stared down at the table for a moment, deep in thought. ‘Eat your breakfast, then we’ll talk about it. First I want to find one or two books to show you.’
In spite of herself she was hungry. As she ate the toast she looked at his sketchbook while he was out of the room. It was full of pencil drawings of birds. On the bookshelf behind the table she found a stack of other sketchbooks. All birds, some pen and ink, some watercolour, some with notes in small cramped writing of details of plumage and where he had seen them. There were, she noticed, small paintboxes and bottles of ink on the windowsill between the pot plants.
On the corner of the table was a jam jar containing brushes and pencils. She just had time to replace the sketchbooks on the shelf when she heard him coming back. Under his arm there were three old volumes with torn dust jackets. He grinned at her. ‘As you have probably guessed my current assignment is a birdbook.’ He had seen her looking at them. ‘I sometimes think I have managed to move sideways into the most wonderful job in the world. Now,’ he put the books down on the table, ‘as you know I’ve read a bit about the history of this estate; and I’ve collected a few books about it when I’ve found them in second-hand bookshops and car boot sales. It’s fascinating. One of the things that intrigues me is the number of times the ghosts are mentioned.’
Zoë closed her eyes in a gesture of denial. ‘Tell me,’ she said resignedly.
‘You already know about your house – The Old Barn. Then there are supposed to be ghosts here in the forge, and down at the water’s edge, and in the Hall itself. There isn’t much more to tell. No details.’ He hesitated. ‘There is something else, though. People have nightmares here.’
‘Great!’ She shuddered. ‘You mean, not just us. Sometimes I think I’m beginning to hate this place!’
‘Aren’t you even a little bit intrigued?’
‘No. I’m scared.’
‘No, you’re not. Not my Zoë. You are a brave lady with an enquiring mind. What you want to know is how and why it happens. So, I think you should know, for what it’s worth, that it is one of the things that tipped your predecessors over into leaving. Sarah was pregnant when they left. She kept on having dreams like the one you described. Everyone thought it was because she was scared of being pregnant. Her sister had died in childbirth and she had said she would never have children herself. Then it happened. She was quite pleased at first, then the dreams started and she became more and more freaked out by them.’
??
?You seem to have known them quite well,’ Zoë commented curiously. ‘I thought you didn’t rate them very highly as neighbours.’
‘I didn’t. I didn’t like Dave. And they chickened out. They should have waited to see what was going to happen.’
‘A research project.’
‘Yes.’ He smiled. ‘If you like. Go on, you’d like to know, wouldn’t you? What happened.’
‘I can guess what happened. Some poor woman who lived round here – presumably she didn’t live in the barn itself – was pregnant and very afraid. She probably died in childbirth.’ She shuddered again. ‘And her poor spirit is wailing from the rooftops about it and has been ever since. It is gross!’
He looked up at her from the book he was perusing. ‘You don’t sound very sympathetic.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She sat down abruptly on one of the seats by his window. ‘You’re right. That sounded awful. It’s just that it was too close. I was her.’ She reached for the coffee pot and poured herself a refill. ‘Is this why Ken was sleepwalking, do you suppose? Is it all part of it?’
Shaking his head, Leo helped himself to the last drops of coffee, real coffee. He had not made the mistake of offering her instant again. ‘Dave never mentioned sleepwalking. Has Ken mentioned nightmares?’
‘No.’
‘I don’t think all this applies to the other barns. It is specific to yours. Threshing was built in the sixteenth century, I think, so it’s not as old as yours. And The Summer Barn was later than that. I think they put it up as a granary at the beginning of the nineteenth with lots of extensions later. Yours was the one the planning people made all the fuss about when they submitted the plans for conversion. If I were you I would want to know more. How else can you lay the ghost? The trouble is that there is often no record of the names of the people who worked on the farms. We know the Turtills were here, but unless there is reason to list the other inhabitants we will never know who they were.’
She was becoming intrigued inspite of herself. ‘There is the Census. That must tell at least who was here every ten years since the first, and it’s online now.’
Leo applauded silently. ‘What a fantastic point! I shall look it up. Just out of curiosity.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I’m really sorry, Zoë, but I’ve got to go out soon. Can we meet up to talk about this tomorrow perhaps?’
Zoë jumped to her feet. ‘I’m sorry. I never thought.’
‘It’s OK.’ He laid his hand on her arm. ‘Just an appointment I can’t miss. Row out to Curlew, if you like. Veg out away from the world. I do that often. It is so peaceful down there.’
She shook her head. ‘That might be lesson ten, but I think it’s too soon to go on my own. Don’t worry. There is a lot to do at home.’
He held out one of the books. ‘Some bedside reading?’
‘No way!’
He laughed. ‘OK. See you tomorrow, then.’ Walking with her to the door he watched as she crossed his garden and let herself out of the gate. Then he turned back to the kitchen. ‘Jade?’ He opened the back door. ‘You can come out now.’
There was a scuffling in the flowerbed and a red-faced Jade emerged from behind his lavender bush. He could smell the fragrance of the plant on her as she came and stood on his doorstep looking sheepish. ‘How did you know I was there?’ she asked crossly.
‘I can see through walls.’
‘And you sent her away.’
‘I told her I was going out. How much of that did you hear?’
‘All of it.’ She stared at him defiantly.
‘Liar.’
She smiled cheekily. ‘You don’t know how much I heard.’
‘I can have a good guess. Did you hear the bit about the police looking for your brother?’
‘No.’ She went white.
‘Well, they will be if he doesn’t behave himself. So you get home now and tell him.’
‘But I thought you might take me for a sail.’
‘Not today. I’m sorry.’
‘But you took her.’ The resentment was obvious.
‘I will take you, but today I have to go out. If you had heard every word of our conversation you would know that that is what I told Zoë and the same applies to you. I am busy today so scram!’
Her face was transformed into a scowl. ‘Can I stay here and wait for you?’
‘No. I’m sorry.’
She turned sulkily towards the door.
‘Jade!’ he called after her. ‘Key?’ He held out his hand.
She scowled even harder. Reluctantly she put her hand into her jeans pocket and produced a key on a keyring with a small pink plastic teddy bear fob. He opened the ring with his fingernail and took off the key, then he gave her back the bear. ‘Put your own door key on that, OK?’
She stuck out her tongue at him and headed for home. He waited until she was halfway across the grass before he closed the door and double-locked it. He didn’t trust her an inch. There would be backup keys and probably back-ups of the backups, if he knew anything about her at all. He wondered where she got the money to have all these keys cut.
Zoë paused as she got to the front door of The Old Barn and turned to look back at The Old Forge. She was in time to see Jade heading across the grass towards home and she gave a quick, irritated smile. You had to give it to the girl. She was nothing if not persistent. She stood by the door weeding one of her tubs, the one which contained pink geraniums and ivies and Michaelmas daisies, until she saw Leo come out. He had a portfolio under his arm. She watched as he turned and double-locked the front door – a wise move, in her opinion – and then he headed up the path towards the garages. So, he really was going out. Comforted that he had not been making some excuse, she turned and let herself into her own door, bolting it behind her with the thought that if Jade was at a loose end she might find the idea of neighbour-baiting an appealing one. She walked through into the great room and stopped dead.
Ken was there standing by the woodburner. With him were John and Amanda Danvers.
‘Surprise!’ Ken announced triumphantly. ‘You didn’t suspect, did you? They’ve come up for your birthday.’
‘My birthday!’ Zoë echoed. She felt weirdly out of sync. The two faces looking at her were like strangers.
‘Zoë, love! You look completely gobsmacked!’ Amanda let out a peal of laughter. She was dressed in an immaculate blue-striped top and skin-tight navy jeans with stack-heeled red sandals. Slim as ever, and with a neat bob of dark hair, she immediately made Zoë feel dowdy. She moved forward and gave Zoë a hug. ‘Ken told us you didn’t suspect a thing. Isn’t it wonderful? So much fun – and this place is completely magical. Glorious!’
‘Zoë, darling.’ John stepped forward, as always quieter, lower key than his wife. He kissed her cheek and reached for her hand. ‘So, how is wildest Suffolk? Are you settling in?’ Far taller than the rest of them, he was a rangy, angular man, slightly stooped, with a mop of untidy grey hair and gold-rimmed glasses.
He had always been more observant than his wife; he would have spotted the dark rings under her eyes, the moment of something like terror she had felt as she registered the people standing in the room, before she had actually recognised them.
‘It’s been quite a gear change, coming up here,’ she said quietly. ‘I expect Ken has told you.’
‘Ken has been raving about it all,’ Amanda said. ‘We’ve been following his emails avidly and reading his blog. So many adventures, and your own mooring at the end of the garden. We can’t wait to see how Lady Grace has fitted in. I do hope we can go out in her soon.’
So Ken had been emailing them. Zoë was trying desperately to readjust, to put Leo and Jade and the dream out of her mind and concentrate suddenly on practicalities, like preparing a bedroom for unexpected visitors. And a blog. She didn’t know he wrote a blog. She realised suddenly how out of touch she had become since they had moved. She couldn’t even remember when she had last checked her email.
As if reading her thoug
hts Ken broke in, ‘Your room is ready, folks. As it was all a surprise for Zo, I made up the bed last night after she was asleep. I was terrified she would hear me and think I was the ghost.’
‘The ghost?’ Amanda’s eyes rounded. ‘You have a ghost?’
Zoë and Ken exchanged glances. It took only a fraction of a second but John saw it. ‘My goodness, you have.’ He looked at his wife. ‘I hope you’ve got your ghost-busting hat on, darling. Amanda’s a dab hand with ghosts, did you know?’ He turned back to Ken and Zoë.
Zoë finally gathered her wits. ‘Well, you’ll have plenty to practise on here. But first things first. Let us show you your room. Once you’ve settled in we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.’
‘And we’re going to start with a pub lunch,’ Ken said. ‘No cooking for Zo today.’ He gave her a smile.
‘But my birthday is not for three days.’ Zoë had finally worked it out. She was appalled to find she hadn’t even known what day it was today!
‘No matter, darling.’ Amanda pounced and gave her another hug. ‘Every day is going to be a birthday for you this week. We are going to see to that, aren’t we, John?’
Zoë smiled. It had suddenly dawned on her. Ken must have asked them up in an attempt to cheer her up, to distract her. She wasn’t sure whether to be angry or touched that he should have thought of it.
Eric had guessed at once that he was a marked man. He watched from the edge of the woodland as it grew light, screwing up his eyes, trying to make sense of the scurrying forms which emerged from the mist and then disappeared again. He could see the forge from here, a solid form which from time to time dissolved into the shadows. By now there should be smoke emerging from the roof, but it looked bleak and almost abandoned. He thought about Edith for a moment, alone and worried about him, no doubt, but treasuring within her the hope of their future child. He wondered if Hrotgar had been there looking for him. Almost certainly. It was the obvious place to start the search. Luckily she knew nothing and would have told him nothing even had she known where her husband had hidden the sword.