Deadlight-Hall(46)

‘That’s a good suggestion. Leo, you’ll come along with me, and while we’re there, you’ll mind your manners and not speak unless you’re spoken to, remember. Get your coat, and we’ll be off to see if we can buy back our field.’

Leo, interested in this unexpected departure from routine, sped up to his room to get his coat.

‘We’ll take the old carriage path,’ said Simeon Hurst, lacing up his boots. ‘You’ve never been along there, have you, and it’s a nice walk of a fine morning. You’ll see how the two fields march alongside Willow Bank land, and you’ll understand why it’d be good for this farm to have the fields back. We’ll be back for dinner.’

Miss Hurst said there would be rabbit pie, which Simeon and Leo thought would do very nicely after their long walk.

But if Leo had realized the land adjoined Deadlight Hall, he would have found a reason to remain at the farm. He had never managed to completely push down the memory of the night when Sophie and Susannah vanished. Even though he had clamped a lid over it, the lid sometimes became dislodged, so that the seething memories escaped in little scalding dribbles, like Miss Hurst’s stews sometimes hissed and spilled out on the stove.

As they walked along the carriage path, Simeon pointing out wildlife and flora as they went and explaining about the different crops and how crop rotation worked, a slow horror was stealing over Leo. They were going towards Deadlight Hall. Deadlight Hall, with its iron-bound room and the furnace that roared greedily away. The place where his beloved twins had burned someone to death and then disappeared. But I promised I’d never tell anyone what they did, thought Leo. I promised, and I’ve kept the promise.

As the Hall came into view, a man walked along the path to meet them, hailing Farmer Hurst cordially. This was the present owner of the land, who might be prepared to sell it back to the Hurst family. Leo was secretly pleased when Mr Hurst introduced him as if he had been a grown-up. He shook hands politely as he had been taught, and stood quietly while the two men talked. Most of it was incomprehensible – there was a good deal about boundaries and rights of way, and Leo tried not to be bored. Then the man said, ‘Perhaps your boy would like to look around, would he?’ And, to Leo, ‘There’s a badgers’ sett nearby. And someone saw a heron near the canal last month.’

Leo understood that the man would prefer not to talk about the land in front of him, so he said thank you, yes, he would do that, and went off. No, he would not get lost, and yes, he would come back here.

He had not meant to go into the Hall, but it seemed to call to him. All the time he was looking for the heron he could almost feel the house pulling him. Perhaps he should let it. People said you could get rid of a nightmare by looking it in the face, and at home there had been a very old man, a rabbi and a scholar, who had told the children that you could drive out evil spirits by confronting them. You simply had to hold fast to your courage and your faith.

Leo did not think he had very much courage, but in this bright, clean, sunshiney morning, he thought he might have just about enough to look his nightmare in the face. He walked across the overgrown grass, and up the steps to the double doors. As he grasped the handle he was whispering a plea that the doors would be locked, but they were not, and they swung inwards with only a small protest.

The scent of damp and age and despair came out, and the bad memories swirled up, like a cloud of rancid flies. He flinched and almost turned back, but having got this far he must at least step inside. And once inside, it was not so bad. He did not remember much about the main part of the Hall – he supposed he had been too ill that night – and he looked around with curiosity. The schoolhouse at home had had an entrance a little like this – not as large, but there had been the same kind of floor, and the same wide shallow stairs leading to the upper floors. There was the door that led down to the furnace room. Someone had propped it open, and he could see the stone steps.

As he hesitated, trying to make up his mind to go through the door, something glimmered in the darkness beyond it. Something that was small and pale, and something that had long chestnut hair … As Leo stared, caught between fear and fascination, the outline half-turned, and he saw that a second figure, almost identical, stood there as well. Hands, small, soft, fragile, came up and beckoned to him.

There are moments in life when what you most want in all the world suddenly seems within your grasp, and logic deserts you. In that moment, Leo was aware only of a surge of delight. Sophie and Susannah! he thought, and went eagerly into the dark corridor and down the flight of stairs.