The Secret of Crickley Hall

dream, Cally,' he told her softly. 'Look, there's no one there.'

'But, Daddy—'

'Hush, darling.' Eve hugged her tight. 'It's over now. We're here with you.'

'I left my flashlight beside our bed,' Gabe said. 'I wanna take a look inside that closet.'

At any other time Loren would have amended 'closet' to 'cupboard', but tonight she was too upset. 'Don't, Daddy,' she pleaded. 'Not while it's so dark.' The moon was abruptly hidden again and she sat on the bed with her mother, pressing against Eve's back.

'It's okay, hon. I just need to find out what was making that racket. We don't want it starting up again.'

He was gone before Loren could protest any more, ducking through the doorway, silently cursing the sudden power cut. Nevertheless, by the time he reached his and Eve's bedroom, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness some more. He felt his way along the side of the bed until he found the cold metal of the flashlight standing erect on the floor; there were no bedside cabinets in this stark room, just the bed itself, a tall chest of drawers, a high wardrobe set against one wall, and an oval mirror hung on another. He pressed the switch and the flashlight came on. He shone it towards the landing so that his wife and daughters would see its glow and feel reassured. He quickly padded back to his daughters, shining the light on Loren and Cally's beds first, and then into the suspect corner. It really was clear; no dark man lurked there.

'See?' he said. 'Nothing there at all.'

Leaving the bedroom again he returned to the cupboard out on the landing.

'Okay, you bastard,' Gabe muttered to himself, 'let's find out what the fuss is about.'

But all remained quiet now, although he didn't trust the silence.

He reached for the brass door handle and tugged it. The door did not move. He remembered he had locked it previously and he dropped his hand to the key below. Without giving himself time for further thought, he turned it.

Gabe felt the easing of pressure as the unlocked door shifted in its frame. He yanked the door open in one swift movement and shone the light beam into the cupboard's depths. Eve and the two girls joined him as he bent to peer inside. They stared nervously over his shoulder.

He shone the flashlight around the interior, checking the corners, the back and even the cupboard's ceiling. All that was there were the cardboard boxes, the rolled-up rug and the mop and broom that he had already discovered. Moving aside two of the boxes, he noticed there were two thinnish waterpipes running along the left wall an inch or so above the floor and disappearing into the back wall.

'Guess there's the answer.' Gabe's light-hearted tone was forced as he aimed the beam directly at the two copper pipes. He reached down to feel them. 'One of 'em's hot. Might be an airlock in it.'

'Gabe, that can't be it. We saw the door move when the banging got really loud.'

He couldn't explain it and he didn't even try. He was looking for a rational reason for the noise; he didn't want to spook the girls any more than they were spooked already—and that included Eve.

'I'll check it out tomorrow,' he promised. As he straightened up, he kept the light pointing into the cupboard as if expecting an animal of some kind—a trapped bird maybe (although how a bird could have found its way inside, he had no idea), a mouse, a rat, or even a squirrel. Nothing stirred, though; nothing appeared from any hole in the skirting board; no bird fluttered out at them.

The overhead light and the one in the bedroom further down flickered, dimmed, came back on for a moment, dimmed once more, almost went off again, then returned to a steady glow.

'Thank God for that,' Eve murmured in a release of breath.

'Percy Judd said there were power cuts here and I think we've just experienced one. I'll take a good look at the gen tomorrow, see if I can fix it. It should kick in when the power goes.'

'This house…' Eve allowed her comment on Crickley Hall to peter out, the inflection in those first two words containing the message.

'Yeah, I know. We'll give it just one week, okay?'

Once more, Eve gave no response to the time limit set by Gabe even though he'd reduced it by a week. She wasn't sure she could stand as much as another day here. She knew it hadn't been the waterpipes creating that din and so did Gabe; he was only trying to soothe the girls with his unlikely—no, ridiculous—explanation.

'Let's all get back to bed,' he suggested, swinging the cupboard door shut and locking it again.

'Daddy, can we come in with you and Mummy tonight?' It wasn't Cally who asked but Loren, and her voice was plaintive.

'Sure you can.' He hugged his daughter close and Cally raised her arms to be picked up by Eve. But before they could find their way back to the bedroom, a mournful howl came from Chester in the kitchen below. Although the kitchen door was closed, the howl seemed to echo around the great hall.

Not only did the children sleep with Gabe and Eve that night, but the dog also slept on the floor close to Gabe's side of the bed.

14: SUNDAY

Gabe had cleaned the generator's spark plugs and reset the gauges. He'd also cleaned the oil filter and made sure that the coolant level was correct. Then he'd washed out the fuel filter and checked the gen's fuse, to find that it had blown, which was probably the sole cause for the machine's malfunction. Luckily he had a selection of different amp fuses in his toolbox, so was able to fit a replacement. Oil level was fine and he tested all the electrical connections to make sure it was not just the fuse that was at fault. The only thing he was concerned about was that if the generator had been standing idle for a long time, then the gas—petrol, he reminded himself—might have gone stale, which would mean draining and refilling it with fresh.

However, the latter proved to be no problem, for when he tested the gen by switching off the main fuse to the house's power, the generator sprang into life like a runner taking over the baton. Satisfied, he switched back to mains electricity and returned the generator to standby.

Smiling at the machine as if they had solved the problem together, Gabe wiped his oily hands on a dry cloth he kept in his toolbox.

'Don't let us down, baby,' he said to the generator. 'We don't need any more scares like last night.'

Carrying the long metal toolbox, Gabe left the boiler/generator room and went next door to the well cellar. Like the landing light, the lightbulb down here was far too weak to brighten the place efficiently and the thicker shadows that were created somehow made him feel uneasy.

The rushing of the river at the bottom of the well was loud enough to catch his attention. Downing the toolbox, he went over to the low wall that encircled the pit at the cellar's centre and shone his flashlight into it. The beam of light reflected off the slick mossy wall before revealing the spumy, surging river thirty or so feet below. Anyone unfortunate to fall in wouldn't stand a chance, he mused: there would be no grip on the rough but slimy stonework and the coursing waters would immediately sweep that person away. He reminded himself to make sure the door at the top of the stairs was always locked in case Cally's curiosity got the better of her (he thought he'd locked it yesterday, but this morning he had found the door ajar again). The stone wall round the well was low enough to be dangerous should either one of his daughters lean over it for a look-see.

The noise of the river was amplified by the round wall to a constant, only slightly muffled roar, and the air here was so chilled he could see his own breath vapour.

Gabe checked himself. He had been leaning too far over the wall, almost mesmerized by the black pit he was staring into. He hurriedly stepped back from the brink and drew in a slow breath. Damn right it was dangerous. Loren, too, would be banned from venturing down here alone.

He climbed the cellar stairs and at the top he carefully locked the door behind him, giving it a pull to ensure it was secure. It was loose in its frame but remained shut. Leaving the toolbox on the hall floor, Gabe went into the kitchen.

Chester had dragged his sleeping blanket into the corner by the kitchen's other door and he looked up expectantly at Gabe.

'Still jumpy, boy?'

Gabe squatted to pat the dog's flank. Although no longer trembling, Chester nevertheless gazed appealingly into his master's eyes.

'Guess you're still not happy with the place, right? But you gotta acclimatize, pal. We