The House of Hidden Wonders by Sharon Gosling

Author:Sharon Gosling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

“I’m sorry that we’ve ended up back down here,” Zinnie said, keeping her voice quiet in case of echoes. “But I don’t know where else to go. There won’t be any people here – they’re all still afraid of the ghost.”

“I don’t mind,” Aelfine said, still shrouded in her cloak as they made their way through one of the dingy rooms close to where Zinnie had first found her. “No people is better.”

Zinnie was still shaken after her flight from Grove Street and her horrible run-in with Talbot, but the deeper they got into Mary King’s Close, the calmer she became. The place was still deserted. A cold dark ruin it might be but at least they’d hear anyone coming for them. She wished she could get word to Sadie not to come back home. Her sister would be worried, she knew, but Zinnie hoped she had the sense to stay put with Nell – assuming Doctor Jex-Blake didn’t turn her out, of course.

A muted chattering came from beneath Aelfine’s cloak.

“I think you can let Ruby out now,” Zinnie said. “The poor thing must be tired of being under there.”

Aelfine opened her cloak and the monkey jumped down from where she’d been clinging round her waist. Ruby stretched her arms and then ran lightly up to sit on Aelfine’s shoulder, her tail curling round her mistress’s neck as she muttered in her own little language. She watched Zinnie with strangely wise eyes.

“Is that why you pretended to be a ghost in the first place?” Zinnie asked, her candle casting their faces into strange patterns of shadow as they started moving again. “To scare people away?”

Aelfine nodded. “I just wanted Ruby and me to be safe.”

“How did you do it? I really thought it was a spirit come to haunt me.”

The girl bit her lip, as if she didn’t want to speak. “I learned it at the circus.”

“OK,” Zinnie said. “So it was a sideshow? And the person who did it showed you how to make the ghost?”

Aelfine shook her head. “No one was supposed to know how,” she said. “But I hid and watched. I’m good at hiding. Then I asked Ruby to help me.”

Zinnie stopped again. “You mean you learned how to do it yourself, just from watching? That’s very clever.”

Aelfine shrugged, as if she weren’t used to praise. They had reached the room with the fallen floor. Zinnie held out her candle, careful not to step over the edge of the void.

“Well, here we are,” she said softly. “This is as far as we can go.”

“No,” Aelfine said. “There’s more rooms. Over there.”

She pointed into the darkness on the other side of the gaping hole. Ruby chattered in agreement.

“I can’t get over there,” Zinnie said. “There’s no floor, Aelfine. There’s nothing to walk on and I can’t climb the way you can.” She looked at the girl thoughtfully for a moment. “The ghost was floating in mid-air. It was … see-through. I know it was you, but – how?”

Aelfine looked at Ruby for a moment.

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