Scarlet and Ivy 3-book Collection Volume 2

“Where do we go?” Ariadne asked, panicked.

“Outside!” I said, quickly slipping my shoes on without bothering to do up the laces. That was all I could think of. If there was a fire, we needed to get out.

I cracked open the door cautiously, but no smoke poured in. Instead there was just a flurry of other girls bustling out of doors in their nightgowns. We broke out into the stream and followed it down the stairs, which resounded with footsteps.

“Keep going!” I heard Mrs Knight’s voice shout from somewhere behind us. She sounded tired. “Everyone out, please! Hurry! No shoving!”

I felt reassured, surrounded by everyone else, with Ivy’s hand in mine, but I still expected to see smoke at every corner. Yet there was none. Where was the fire? In the kitchens? In a fireplace? Had someone dropped a candle? The bell carried on ringing, shrill and angry.

We finally reached the reception area and poured out into the cold night air, under a circle of lamplight. Relief washed over me. We were safe. Ivy leant against my shoulder, and I could feel the goosebumps on her arms.

Moments later, Mrs Knight and Miss Bowler appeared in the doorway, having herded everyone outside. Mrs Knight was wearing a blue dressing gown with flowers on it, while Miss Bowler (to my amusement) was wearing a sort of frilly pink nightdress. I had never seen anything more unlikely.

“Line up!” she bellowed over the noise of the ringing bell, acting like we were back at school – although the nightdress definitely took away from the effect. “Everyone STAY CALM!”

I think that made all of us jump, which didn’t help.

And then, as we were sleepily shuffling into a line, the bell stopped. Suddenly the valley was silent again.

“Has the fire gone out?” Ivy asked anxiously.

“That or it’s got to whoever was ringing the bell …” I said. I didn’t really want to think about that.

Now all of us from Rookwood were lined up, I could see that a bunch of the other guests were gathered on the opposite side of the porch. Phyllis was there, with a group of other women. There was a man wearing a very ugly green suit (why was he dressed at this time of night?) and furtively smoking a cigar. An elegant woman in a wheelchair with a silk nightgown glared at him and moved herself out of the way. I wondered if his cigars had been responsible for the fire.

“I can’t see any smoke,” said Ariadne, looking up at the building. “Perhaps it was only a small one.” Rose was peering around frantically, but if she was looking for smoke, she didn’t spot it either.

“Where’s—” Ivy started, but she was interrupted by Mr and Mrs Rudge suddenly stepping outside.

“Nobody panic,” Mrs Rudge said. “Everything is all right. We were merely having a safety exercise. We …”

We all looked at each other, as if to say: Really? A safety exercise? In the middle of the night? It didn’t seem likely.

“A safety exercise?” the green-suited man shouted, brandishing the cigar. “It’s one in the morning, madam! What were you thinking?”

Mr Rudge stepped up to him. “Don’t you talk that way to my wife! I’ll have you know it’s a very important procedure. We have to make sure everyone can evacuate on time. At night. Mmhmm. When it’s dark.”

“Pah,” said the man, shaking his head. “Ridiculous. Ridiculous. I’ve a good mind to ask for my money back.”

“Well,” Mr Rudge sneered at him, “I can tell you now, you won’t be getting it!”

“Gentlemen, please,” Mrs Knight called, trotting over to them. “Let’s calm down.” I think she thought they were about to punch each other, which I’d rather been looking forward to. She turned to Mr Rudge. “Are you saying it’s safe to go inside? I was about to take a register …”

Mr Rudge didn’t take his eyes off the green-suited man, but instead just waved a hand in the direction of the building. “Yes, yes, it’s fine.”

Mrs Rudge evidently decided this was a good time to take over. “Well done on getting outside, everyone. Time to go back in. We don’t want any of you to freeze!”

“All right, then,” said Mrs Knight, though she looked as puzzled as I felt.

I rubbed my head. I still felt like I wasn’t quite awake, and that this was all some sort of strange dream. Probably from eating real food instead of just stew. My body wasn’t used to it.

“Really?” said Ivy as we traipsed inside, rubbing our arms to get some warmth back. “Couldn’t they have at least done that during the day?”

“That would make too much sense,” I said sarcastically. So far, very little of what went on at this hotel made sense.

The next morning, I felt myself having to fight to wake up: like I was swimming against a current that tried to drag me down. But I eventually surfaced, blinked in the bright sunlight, and noticed something.

My suitcase had moved.

I climbed out of bed, a good deal more sluggishly than I had done in the night, and peered down at it.

I knew it had moved, because I’d tossed it down haphazardly when I was getting ready for bed, and someone had put it back neatly with the clasps shut.

“Ivy?” I said, turning to look at my twin, who was half buried in sheets. “Did you tidy my suitcase?”

“Mm … no?” came the muffled reply.

Ariadne wandered over. “I think someone’s touched mine and Rose’s suitcases too,” she said, pointing at their side of the room, where Rose was staring into her luggage. “They look … how was it Anna put it? ‘Ruffled.’” She wrinkled her nose. “I’d barely notice it, but they knocked one of the candles out, and the lens cap from my camera was under the bed, and I know I didn’t leave it there.”

“Did they take anything?” I knelt down and flipped through my belongings, but nothing seemed to be missing.

“I don’t think so,” said Ariadne. “Unless they took some sweets or candles, because I’m not certain how many of those there were …”

Ivy rolled over. “Someone’s going through people’s things?” she mumbled. “In the night?”

I snapped my fingers. “The fire alarm! It wasn’t a safety exercise or whatever nonsense the Rudges came out with. It was a distraction. For the thief.”

“The funny thing is,” Ariadne pointed out, “that they don’t actually seem to be a thief. The only thing that’s been taken is Cassandra Clarkson’s necklace, and she might just have lost that.”

I remembered the gold cross appearing in the night and Mrs Rudge’s horrified expression, and I suddenly felt a chill. Could it be something more sinister than just someone out to steal things?

We went for breakfast, passing several other yawning girls on the way down the staircase. Nobody had enjoyed the rude awakening.

As I queued up to get a boiled egg from the counter, I heard the serving girls muttering to one another as they worked. I leant in so I could hear them better.

“… all that commotion yesterday over a candlestick,” the smaller one said, wiping her hands on her apron. “It was just a candlestick. I put it out on the table because I thought it looked pretty. I didn’t know Mrs Rudge was going to go spare.”

The larger one nodded. “These city folk are madder than a box of frogs. It looked ordinary to me. Pr’haps a bit old. Maybe it was pricey, but still. She didn’t have to shut the dining room.”

As soon as they noticed me standing there, the conversation came to an abrupt halt, and I was handed an egg.

I went back to our table and told the others what I’d just heard. Ivy frowned, Ariadne looked puzzled and Rose seemed uninterested – probably because she was getting a proper breakfast for what might be the first time ever. She seemed to be enjoying her toast immensely.

“So we couldn’t have our sandwiches inside because someone put a candlestick out?” Ivy wrinkled her nose. “That’s ridiculous.”

Ariadne was staring into the distance as she often did when she was thinking. “So we have Mrs Rudge getting horribly frightened by a cross and perhaps a candlestick, and people’s possessions moving in the night.”

I thought about it. “And I heard strange noises, and that draught of cold air from the fireplace … You don’t think …” I took a deep breath. It was probably crazy, but … “You don’t think that perhaps … this hotel is haunted?”

Chapter Thirteen

IVY

thought Scarlet was perhaps taking things a bit far. Maybe there were such things as ghosts, and the hotel certainly was strange – but why would it be haunted? I said as much to my twin, and she simply shrugged.

“Perhaps not. But you’ve got to admit it’s all weird,” she said. And it was true.

We’d only just finished breakfast when I saw Elsie heading towards us from the other side of the room.

“Here comes trouble,” I said.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” muttered Scarlet. “Why can’t she leave us alone?”

When Elsie reached us she leant over, putting her hands on the tablecloth. “Some of the girls have been telling me that someone has been going through their things. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” She stared pointedly at Rose, who leant back in her chair about as far as she could.

“No,” said Scarlet. “Because someone went through our things as well.”

Elsie evidently hadn’t expected that development, because she stood up straight again. “Oh?”

“She’s telling the truth,” I added. “And Rose has been with us the whole time.” Ariadne nodded in agreement, taking Rose’s hand.

“Hmmph,” was all the prefect said, before scuttling to the next table to interrogate the girls there.

“I’m going to kill her if she accuses Rose one more time,” Scarlet said.

I gave my twin a look. She said terrible things sometimes. “I wouldn’t do that,” I cautioned. “I bet Elsie would haunt you out of sheer pig-headedness.”

That morning, we were meant to go out into the courtyard to meet again, but the drizzle had turned to heavier rain, and Miss Bowler decided to tell us the day’s activity in the reception area instead. She had already ordered us at lunch to put on our oldest clothes that we wouldn’t mind getting ruined.

“Right!” she said, as we crowded round her. “Time for a PROPER adventure today, girls! None of this pansy looking at landmarks!”

My heart sank. Anything Miss Bowler thought was great was bound to be terrible.

“Today we’ll be going caving!” she announced – to very little reaction.

“What’s that?” said Anna, in her usual slightly baffled tone of voice. “Just going in caves?”

“Quiet, Santos!” Miss Bowler boomed. “Yes, we’re going in the caves. For some proper exploring. Now …” she dragged a large chest into view and then banged on the lid. “I’ve brought some safety equipment. Very important.”

She opened the chest up with a creak, and as we craned our necks to peer in, I saw that it was full of helmets. They looked old, most of them a bluish-grey colour but some of them army green, all battered and dented and splattered with dirt.

“Right! Line up! Everyone get a helmet!” She picked up one of her own from a nearby chair – hers had a lamp on the front, I noticed, and looked considerably better quality.

Queuing for the helmets reminded me of the ice skating in winter – the ice skates certainly hadn’t been wonderful either, and that “fun activity” hadn’t gone well. I felt a horrible sense of foreboding. It wasn’t made any better by the fact that the helmet Miss Bowler handed me appeared to have a crack in it, as if someone had whacked it with a rock.

Scarlet fared a little better, with a helmet that at least didn’t look damaged even though it wasn’t clean. Ariadne’s was far too big and wobbled, while Rose’s chin strap was too tight and she had to leave it undone.

“Where does Miss Bowler get these things?” I whispered to Ariadne, who just shrugged. I imagined her rifling through rubbish tips, just looking for awful sports equipment that she could force on unsuspecting pupils.

Once everyone was wearing a helmet, Miss Bowler handed out a few torches, then stood up tall and assessed us all. “Let’s head out, then, you lot!” she said, looking unusually enthusiastic.

“Is Mrs Knight coming?” Ariadne asked.

“Not today,” said Miss Bowler. “She’s planning the rest of the week for you. Come on, then, no more questions – let’s get going!”

We trekked through the forest once again, and soon we were at the caves that we’d seen the day before. We saw the same wide, dark mouths in the cliff face, but there was a difference – this time, there was a man with an axe.

Fortunately he was in fact only chopping firewood with it. He looked up as we approached, axe paused in mid-swing. “Whoa there,” he called out in a gruff local accent. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

The man was fairly old, with grey hair and a bushy moustache, and he was dressed like a farmer. His face looked weathered, as if years of sun and rain and snow had found their way into the cracks. He also didn’t look very pleased to see us.

Miss Bowler strode up to him. “We’ve come to see the caves, my good man! These are my students.” She gestured at us.

His frown didn’t shift. “Haven’t seen you around before.” He sighed. “You’ll be from the hotel, then, I take it?”

“Yes, indeed,” Miss Bowler said, and I detected a flicker of annoyance in the man’s face.

“Right, right …” He dropped the axe into the mud. “But you’re interested in the surroundings? In local history?”

“Of course! Aren’t we, girls?” She looked at us sharply, implying that there was a right answer to this question.

“Yes, Miss,” we chorused.

That seemed to brighten his mood a little. “Oh, good, good.” He nodded to himself. “Most people aren’t, see. They just want a pretty view while they eat their fancy meals.” He shook his head sadly and then wandered over to one of the trees. “If you’re going into the caves, you’ll be wanting a guide. It’s not safe to go in if you don’t know the place.”

“That would be jolly good!” Miss Bowler boomed. “Lead the way, then! I’ll bring up the rear.”

A ghost of a smile lingered on the man’s face, and then he went over to a hollow tree trunk, his movements sprightlier than I would have expected. He reached inside the tree, and with wrinkled fingers pulled out a leather bag. From the bag he produced a leather helmet and a stick with a cotton-wrapped end, along with a book of matches. A hat fell out on to the ground, but he tucked it away again. “Follow me, then,” he said. “Stay close, and do exactly as I say.”

“Yes, sir,” everyone said, which made the man look a bit uncomfortable. He probably wasn’t used to groups of schoolgirls turning up in this wilderness.

“What’s your name, sir?” Ariadne asked. “My name’s Ariadne. Like in ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’.” A few people giggled at this, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She always introduced herself that way.

“Mm? Oh, I’m Bob Owens,” he said. “You lot can call me Bob. But no more of that saying things all at the same time.” He waved his hand emphatically. “Come on, then.” He struck a match and lit the end of the stick, and I realised then what it was.

“A flaming torch!” I gasped aloud.

“That’s a bit medieval, isn’t it?” Miss Bowler said, lighting the flashlight on her superior helmet.

“It gets the job done,” Bob muttered. He looked a bit miffed, but he carried on anyway. He headed towards the caves, and we followed.

Scarlet grabbed my hand. “I’m not a fan of confined spaces,” she whispered. I understood, images of the asylum flashing in my mind, and I held her hand tight.

The ceiling inside the cave was still head height, even for Bob and Miss Bowler. The green of the forest crept in across the damp stone floor, and stalactites hung from the roof like stone icicles.

“They look pointy,” said Ariadne. “I hope they don’t fall on our heads.”

Rose giggled, but the thought worried me a little. Especially with my not-very-safe safety helmet.

At the back of the cave there was a thin passageway, leading off into pitch-black darkness. Bob went straight over to it. “This way,” he said. “Watch your heads. And your feet. Just … just watch everything.”

As we followed him, one by one in the flickering torchlight, I saw what he meant. The passageway started off fairly wide, but soon turned into little more than a crack in the rock. I felt Scarlet’s hand squeezing my own. “It’s all right,” I said, trying to be braver than I felt. “He knows what he’s doing.” I had no idea if he actually did, but that seemed to be a good and reassuring thing to say.

I pushed my way through the crack, having to turn sideways, feeling cold, slimy rock against my skin.

“Yeuuch,” I heard Scarlet say behind me. “This is horrible. I want to go back to ballet.”

“I think it’s fascinating,” said Ariadne brightly, and her voice echoed off the walls.

We kept moving forward, sticking close to the person in front of us (in my case, that was Nadia) and behind us (Scarlet). It got colder and colder and darker and darker the further in we went.

“Why can’t we all have a torch,” Scarlet moaned. “I can’t see a thing.” Then she yelped, suddenly.

“What?” I turned my head, because that was about as much of me as I could turn. But I soon realised what had happened when an icy-cold drop of water splashed on my head, and I yelped too, making her laugh.

“You’re going to need to duck here,” I heard Bob say from somewhere in the darkness up ahead. “Pass it on.”

The message passed down the line. “Why do I need a duck?” Ariadne said.

I soon saw what Bob was talking about as Nadia (moaning about how dirty her clothes were going to get) crouched down on her hands and knees. I reached out and felt the cave wall in front of me – it went down very low, and there was no way I could walk under it. Reluctantly, I let go of Scarlet’s hand and crouched down myself. My hands slipped on the freezing floor, and all I could think was that tonnes of rock were just inches above my head, waiting to fall on me.

But then … then I was out the other side, and I could just about stand up again, and the space had widened into a cavern. I could see Bob and the other girls in the orange glow of the flaming torch.

“I can’t do it,” I heard Scarlet call from the other side.

I put my hands to my mouth. “You can! Just don’t think about it!”

“I am thinking about it! That’s the problem!” Her voice bounced off the walls.

“It’ll be all right, I promise!” I called back.

There was silence, then, and I waited … until I heard shuffling, and eventually Scarlet materialised on all fours, her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“You did it!” I said.

“I did it?” She opened one eye, then slowly stood up and brushed herself off. “Of course,” she said. “Nothing to it.”

Not long after, Ariadne appeared, followed by Rose, and then the others. Finally Miss Bowler came huffing and puffing behind them. “Right,” she said loudly between gasps, leaning on her knees. “Are we all here?”

“Keep it down a little,” Bob said, frowning. “You don’t want to set off a rock fall.”

“Sorry,” Miss Bowler replied in a whisper that was almost as loud as her normal speaking voice. “Time to head down further, then?”

“Not down,” said Bob, holding his torch below his face to illuminate a creepy grin. “Up.”

Chapter Fourteen

SCARLET

decided quite quickly that I didn’t like caving. It was dark and wet and cold and, worst of all, claustrophobic.

And so far, at least, it had been dull. Nothing but rocks to look at. But then Bob got us all to climb up, one by one, through a hole in the roof, and things became a lot more interesting.

The cave opened out into a wide bowl shape, with the hole we had climbed through in the bottom – a bit like a giant sink. With the torches held up, we could see that the roof was covered in pointy stalactites and crystals. The light bounced off them, shimmering prettily.

“Oooh,” Ariadne said when she saw it. “If only my camera would work down here.” Rose stared upwards in awe.

We all sat round the edge, on the cold sloping stone, in a circle.

“They call this the Devil’s Basin,” said Bob in a low voice. “Legend has it that a giant witch used this as her cauldron, and the smoke from the magic potions rose up and left the crystals on the roof.”

“What balderdash,” Miss Bowler guffawed, attempting to clamber out of the hole, but having some difficulty. Bob glared at her, and she quickly changed the subject. “Big girls! Don’t just stand there staring! Help me up, will you?”

I tried not to laugh as Elsie and Cassandra, along with a couple of the other prefects, hauled Miss Bowler up and on to the edge. “Oof,” she said.

“If you’re all quite finished,” said Bob haughtily, “it’s time for a story. Put your torches out.”

“Oh no,” I muttered. I didn’t want it to be any darker than it already was. I wouldn’t be able to see the rock, and it already felt as if it was pressing down on me. My chest tightened.

“Will that be necessary—” Miss Bowler started, but Bob silenced her with another look.

“Torches out,” he insisted. He put out the one he was carrying, and the smell of smoke filled the air. One by one, the battery-powered torches were turned off, until Miss Bowler finally sighed and reluctantly switched off the one on her helmet.

I gasped. The pitch darkness was suddenly everywhere. Normally at night you had at least the moon and the stars to see by if you didn’t have a candle, but this was different. Beneath the earth, the darkness was real.

Ivy squeezed my hand beside me. “Take deep breaths,” she whispered.

I breathed slowly, in and out, in and out. For a moment, the sound of breathing was all I could hear, and I focused on it. Then Bob began to speak.

“For as long as there have been people in this valley,” he started, his voice lowered to the point that I had to lean in to hear him better, “there has been a village. It started as sticks and mud, but it grew over the years to stone and slate. There was a church, and a grocer, and a school. It was never a town, mind, just a village, but the people loved it and cared for it. Generations were raised there, father and son ploughing the fields, cutting peat on the moors, fishing in the river …”

He seemed to get lost in thought for a moment.

“Is there a point to this?” I heard Nadia whisper on my right, and I whacked her on the leg.

“Shush, I want to hear,” I said. Concentrating on Bob’s words was helping me forget my urge to panic and run away as fast as possible.

“Seren village,” he said, “was more than the stone and slate it was built of. It was a home. A place where people belonged.”

“I didn’t see any villages,” said Elsie, and this time lots of people shushed her.

“But one day,” Bob continued, as if nobody had interrupted, “a man came to Seren. And he knocked on every door, and he told them that their houses had been bought, that they were no longer their own.” He sighed deeply, regretfully. “The city, he said, the big city miles and miles from here, needed the water. And so the people had to leave.”