And she didn’t have to defend herself to a six-year-old.
She closed over the laptop and gave the little girl the attention she so obviously craved. ‘What have you been up to? Where’s your dad?’
Maeve shrugged. ‘He’s busy outside with the trees so I came back.’
‘Are they being naughty?’ Alex asked, deadpan, because she couldn’t resist it. She expected at least a giggle. Or to be told she was silly.
But Maeve didn’t laugh. If anything she grew more serious, a curious little frown creasing her forehead. ‘I made something for you,’ she said. ‘Daisy says it doesn’t work, that’s it’ssuper-sti-tion.’ She stumbled over the longer word. ‘But I still made it.’
Alex smiled at her reassuringly. ‘That’s very kind of you. What is it?’
Maeve held out a palm-sized ring of twigs and reeds, wound together with bright wildflowers. A tiny version of the one in the kitchen, made with less skill but a lot more enthusiasm. There was something about it that caught and held the eye, something that sent a shiver down Alex’s back but she couldn’t say why.
It reminded her of the ones she used to make with her own gran here in Wildewood Hall. Had Maeve copied the one in the kitchen?
Alex got up from the desk and crossed to the doorway. Over breakfast Nick had told Maeve, once again, to stay out of the study and let Alex work. Alex had heard him. Obviously his daughter was holding to the letter of the law. Her feet were firmly outside in the hall, but that was only a technicality. The other part of the stern commandment was being ignored completely.
‘That’s very pretty,’ Alex told her, turning the circle over in her hands.
Maeve still had that serious expression on her little face. She was a sweet kid, Alex thought, and Nick clearly doted on her. He had been trying so hard to keep her out of Alex’s way. Not an easy task. Maeve was persistent.
‘Mummy taught me,’ she said and suddenly her voice was very small. Something snagged in Alex’s brain. Was it the way she didn’t make eye contact, the same as Nick when he didn’t want to talk about something? They were very alike, the two of them. ‘Gran taught her.’ Not ‘Granny’, which was what she called Patricia. Gran was clearly someone else. Nick’s mother perhaps?But why would Nick’s mother have taught his wife something like this? Well, what was one more mystery around here?
‘I think it’s beautiful. Thank you. Will I keep it here on the desk?’
‘Keep it with you,’ Maeve said. ‘That’s what Mummy says. She says…she says the house isn’t good for you. And the trees don’t like you either.’
O…kay, Alex thought. Perhaps Maeve wasn’t fully aware that her mother was gone.
‘You still talk to your mummy?’ she asked. She couldn’t help herself. If there was a mystery to be solved, she instinctively began to dig, especially after her long experience onThe Ghost Patrol.
And Maeve didn’t disappoint.
‘Of course,’ Maeve sing-songed. ‘And with Daisy and Rose and all the others.’
Alex started. She couldn’t help herself. ‘Where did you hear those names?’
She knew them. She remembered them. She’d played with a Daisy and a Rose and… She shook her head, thoughts swirling wildly. But there hadn’t been any other kids here. Only her and Theo. It had just been a game, hadn’t it? Make-believe.
‘That’s their names, silly,’ Maeve admonished her in the way only a six-year-old could. It had to be a coincidence. Or local names. That had to be it, didn’t it? Families around here loved to use the same names over and over. ‘I play with them. But just them. Not with the dark man, and allhisfriends.’ She leaned in conspiratorially and Alex felt herself drawn closer. She couldn’t help it. ‘They’re not nice so we stay away from them… They’re all around sometimes, and then they aren’t. Like when they’re sleeping. But when they wake up, they can be really naughty. And noisy. At night, when I stay here, they keep me awake. Daddy says to ignore them, but that’s hard. And Daisy and Roseare my friends. I go and find them sometimes. They like the nursery, and we play on the stairs. And in the attic too with all the old things. But not in the cellar. We aren’t allowed in the cellar.’ She leaned in even closer. ‘Even if they try to tell you it’s fine, we never go into the cellar. Or the other dark place. That’s the worst.’
Creepier and creepier, Alex thought.The Ghost Patrolfans would love Maeve. She was a paranormal reality TV superstar in the making. Where on earth wasthe other dark place?
She really needed to write some of this down. Or record it. But then she’d need parental permission and she really doubted Nick would give permission for this interview. Especially if he heard the details.
‘Your dad said that to me too, about the cellar,’ she told Maeve. Well, he’d said something like it anyway. ‘What’s down there?’
‘It’s just dangerous,’ Maeve sighed. She started swinging back and forth again on the door jamb. ‘Dark and scary. Like the woods. We’re not meant to go there either. Especially not at night. Not without Daddy. You can get lost in there. Lostforever.’ She gave Alex a very pointed look. The little girl didn’t miss anything, did she?
Nick had almost lost his shit when he found Alex in the woods. And the excuse about the archaeology? Flimsy at best. Theo had died there. So had Dad. So maybe they weren’t wrong either.
Daphne was so much better with children than Alex was. The same wavelength, she used to say.They’re sensitive, you know, Alex. They see things we’ve forgotten how to see.
No, Alex was not going down that particular avenue right now. The house might give her the creeps, and nightmares, but that was only to be expected given what had happened the lasttime she was here. Bad dreams were the least of it. And as for the woods…
‘Tell me about Daisy?’ she asked, trying a different tack. Maeve clearly had an active imagination, and probably a host of imaginary friends. That would explain it. Alex had been like that once.
Behind her there was a dull thud. She turned sharply.
