The Whistling: Perfect for spooky season, the most gripping ghost story you'll read this year! by Rebecca Netley

Author:Rebecca Netley [Netley, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405950251
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2022-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

23

It was a few days until I was able to leave Iskar in search of the relief of my friend’s company.

‘I thought that you would come. Hettie’s body turning up like that is a dreadful thing. Poor Miss Gillies must feel it terribly,’ Bridget squeezed my hand, ‘but I think it’s worse for you.’

I was grateful for her sympathy. I opened my mouth to mention the dolls but held back. Would she have laughed? She would have seen my discomfort immediately and there was a little voice that told me she might think it had been Mary who placed them; I did not want Bridget to think ill of her.

‘The house has been sombre since we learned what happened to Hettie,’ I said.

‘Unchristian as it sounds, don’t you think it’s something of a blessing that she will not be able to ruin another child? But Mary …’ She paused. ‘I had wondered if such a dramatic thing might cause her to speak.’

‘She has not.’ My eyes roved the cheerful walls, the rise and fall of the dog’s ribs by the fire. How much easier, I thought, would my job have been had I nannied a child in surroundings such as these, in a place where nothing unaccountable could happen, a place I could not imagine steeped in shadows and where dolls could not disarm me.

‘She will not be missed,’ Bridget said.

‘I hear there was at least one who might,’ I ventured.

She put her head to one side in question.

‘Paterson claims to have had a relationship of some sort with her. Is it true or a boast?’

She laughed. ‘Him. That is true, but how deep his feelings ran, who can say? He is a womanizer to the marrow. It was very well known. I was surprised when Evangeline kept Hettie on after the affair was so much discussed. Such a bad influence.’

I thought about Paterson and Hettie. They made a pretty coupling.

I’m assuming he’s already tried his hardest to tempt you, Elspeth?’

‘He has. I do not like him at all.’

‘I suggest you stay well away. He is not the sort of man who has respect for the boundaries women such as us would impose. He has had many an affair here under the nose of his wife. He will take whatever he can.’

‘Was his relationship with Hettie a long one?’

She sighed. ‘I believe so. It was said that she was very heart-struck with him.’

‘And yet she left to go to America?’

‘Yes, perhaps it was over then, or she had bigger fish to fry.’

‘Paterson was her last lover here? You said she had taken a few.’

She nodded. ‘As far as I know. And how is Iskar? Is Greer still a thorn in your side?’

I laughed dryly. ‘A little, yes. I have given up trying to win her good favour; her manners are certainly amiss. Miss Gillies mentioned to me that Greer’s grandmother had been an unsuitable guardian.’

‘Did she indeed?’ She chuckled. ‘True enough. Greer’s grandmother was little regarded. She was a cruel woman, but more than that she had some very ancient beliefs that made the islanders fear her.

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