Moondial by Helen Cresswell

Author:Helen Cresswell [Helen Cresswell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571322916
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2015-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

Minty had to force the food down. She kept her eyes on the plate because that seemed safer than meeting the hard gaze of Miss Raven. Aunt Mary did not seem to notice.

‘She doesn’t even notice,’ Minty thought, ‘that Miss Raven’s not listening to a single word she’s saying.’

In the end, the visitor checked the flow of information about the old days at the House.

‘And now,’ she said, putting down her spoon, ‘what about these ghosts?’

Minty held her breath, concentrated on her plate.

‘Well, as to those,’ said Aunt Mary, ‘I’m afraid I can’t help, as I told you. But there is some story about the Queen’s Bedroom.’

‘I shall go over there myself,’ Miss Raven announced. ‘I have a nose for ghosts.’

‘Well, of course, if it’s your job,’ said Aunt Mary.

‘And what about you, Araminta?’ said Miss Raven softly. ‘Perhaps you have seen something?’

‘Oh, she’s not been here five minutes!’ said Aunt Mary.

‘Children,’ remarked Miss Raven, ‘have to be watched. I often think of them as spies.’

‘And she hasn’t even been in the House yet,’ went on Aunt Mary. ‘Runs around in the garden all day, don’t you, Minty?’

‘Ah,’ said Miss Raven. ‘The garden.’

The silence was like a black hole.

‘Then later, Araminta, you must show me the garden.’

‘There!’ said Aunt Mary. ‘You hear that, Minty? I must say it does sound old-fashioned, Miss Raven, you calling her Araminta.’

‘That is her name, is it not?’ returned Miss Raven.

Minty herself was glad that this woman addressed her so formally, while at the same time wondering whether it was not sinister. Araminta, after all, was her real name. Perhaps in using it Miss Raven gained some extra power over her.

Lunch over, Aunt Mary organized the afternoon.

‘I shall be in the shop till four,’ she told the others. ‘You and Miss Raven can walk over with me, Minty, and then you can show her the gardens.’

‘I’m surprised at your allowing her to run all over, Mrs Bowyer,’ said Miss Raven. ‘In my day, children stayed put. You knew where they were.’

In her day, Minty thought, children were prisoners. She felt like one herself, forced to walk by the tall stiff woman with her creaking shoes.

World was pottering in his doorway as they passed. He watched wordlessly.

‘Straight through that little door,’ said Aunt Mary, as she left them.

The pair passed through the stone tunnel on to the terrace. Miss Raven stopped, looking about her. She drew a long sigh. Minty planned desperately how she might avoid going by the moondial.

‘Look!’ she cried, pointing to the left. ‘The orangery! Shall we go there?’

‘Along the terrace, I think,’ replied Miss Raven.

They passed the calm, blank-eyed statues, and Minty wondered whether they were silently recognizing this visitor. She looked at them for clues. The stone eyes were fixed and expressionless. She felt, nonetheless, that they were witnesses.

‘You seem a very silent child,’ observed Miss Raven.

Minty could not think of a single thing in the whole world that she wished to say to Miss Raven. Except, of course, ‘Go away!’ Manners, unfortunately, forbade this.

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