The Smile of a Ghost

water. He told Bliss he thought Mebus must’ve hit him with a stone or something and got away.’

‘Mebus did get away?’

‘Not for long, however. He and Chain-boy nicked a car last night and turned it over on the A49. Chain-boy has head injuries, Mebus broke his collar bone and fractured two ribs.’

‘Karma,’ Lol said.

‘Don’t go there.’

Lol heard a car door slam and then Jane outside, laughing. Jane had a laugh like a firework going off.

‘So what did Mumford say to you at the door, after Bliss had left?’

Lol remembered seeing them together by the print of The Light of the World. Mumford looking uncomfortable, mumbling something quickly and then leaving without turning back. Merrily standing on the mat, exchanging thoughtful looks with Jesus.

‘He said something about… about the face he’d seen reflected in the Wye, when he was forcing Mebus’s head down towards the water.’

‘Not Mebus?’

‘No,’ Merrily said. ‘Not Mebus.’

Closing Credits

Well, it’s all there, if you want to check it out… Marion de la Bruyere, the Hanging Tower, the yew tree, the Palmers’ Guild, the Hungarian Suicide Song.

Visit Ludlow. You won’t regret it.

Detailed history of the town and its church can be found in the many books and leaflets by the tireless David Lloyd. His The Concise History of Ludlow (Merlin Unwin Books) is a good place to start. On the subject of the Guild (or Gild) I also consulted Michael Faraday’s Ludlow 1085–1660: A Social, Economic and Political History (Phillimore) and, on the castle, the sumptuous Ludlow Castle, Its History and Buildings, edited by Ron Shoesmith and Andy Johnson and published by the excellent Logaston Press. Peter Underwood’s A Gazetteer of British Ghosts (Pan, 1973) details relatively recent Marion experiences.

The Ludlow ghost-walks are now devised and led by Stuart Liggins and Leon Bracelin, who has far deeper roots in the world of psychic studies than the unfortunate Jonathan Scole and showed me a few… openings.

Vince Bufton of the South Shropshire Journal was very helpful with crucial details, as were Sally Boyce, Mike Kreciala and Alun Lenny. Also Stanton Stephens and Mike Lloyd of the Castle Bookshop and my CWA colleagues Bernard Knight (forensics) and Rebecca Tope (post-mortem couture). Nicky Carey and Lindy Reed, of Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, made the obstetrics work. Thanks also to Paul Devereux (Earth mysteries) and Merrily’s other spiritual consultant, Peter Brooks. The Powis Estate, owners of Ludlow Castle (where children, it’s worth emphasizing, must be accompanied by an adult), inadvertently supplied an interesting plot strand by refusing to help and suggesting that I change the location. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, finally, to the cool-headed but sensitive and encouraging editorial team of, in order of appearance, Peter Lavery, John Jarrold and Nick Austin.

As usual, however, before they saw any of it, The Smile of a Ghost was exhaustively edited, psychoanalysed, reoriented, sharpened and finally rescued from the abyss, over many weeks, by my wonderful wife, Carol, without whom…

About the Author

Phil Rickman was born in Lancashire and lives on the Welsh border. He is the author of the Merrily Watkins series and The Bones of Avalon. He has won awards for his TV and radio journalism and writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf for BBC Radio Wales.