“Maybe there’ll be a cinema in the next town,” I said to myself.
CRASH!
As the words left my lips, the panes of glass in the conservatory walls around me shattered into a million pieces. I ducked into the blanket as glass rained down around me.
“Whoa!”
Ice cold wind swept through the exposed holes, making an angry whistling sound as it hit me square in the face.
Pulling the blanket tight around me, I ran out of the conservatory, the door slamming shut behind me although I barely touched it.
Guess I wasn’t going anywhere until I got the glass fixed.
Pulling out my phone, I tried to ring Matthew to see if he knew anyone who could help me, but I didn’t have any reception. As I made my way to the landline in the kitchen, I held the phone up, angling it around to see if I could pick up a signal, but nothing.
Thank goodness the landline was working. I copied Matthew’s number from my contacts and waited for him to pick up.
“Libby? Is that you? Is everything okay?”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m okay, but the same can’t be said for the house.”
“What happened?”
“It was so weird. I was sitting in the conservatory thinking about what I was going to do today when all the glass suddenly shattered. And I mean all the glass. It was like someone smashed them all on purpose.”
“That must have been scary. Did you say something to make the spirits in the house angry?”
“S-spirits? Do you really think they could have done that?”
Matthew laughed. “I’m teasing. Of course not. No, it sounds more like it was just one of those things.”
“What – all the glass smashing at the same time like that?”
“Yep. It’s not common, but it happens. Sometimes, when glass is installed, there isn’t enough space for the glass to move, so it develops internal stresses which will eventually make the glass break. Either that or someone put in glass that was too thin so when it gets hit by a strong enough gust of wind, it breaks.”
“It was really windy...” I said. “But even so, that glass looked like it had been there for a long time. Why would it break now?”
“Who can say?” I could practically hear Matthew shrugging. “Unless you really did upset the ghosts in the house.”
“Stop joking about that,” I warned him. “It’s not funny. Although I’ve been finding a few things about the place which suggest Uncle Gregory rigged a few practical jokes. Looks like all these ghosts everyone’s so scared of are nothing more than my uncle pulling the wool over your eyes.”
“Yeah, well, even if that’s true, it doesn’t matter,” Matthew told me. “I’m telling you now, no glazier’s going to come up to the mansion. They’re all too afraid of what they might see.”
“You kidding me?” My heart sank. “What am I going to do?”
“Luckily for you, I happen to be really good at DIY. I can bring my brother Jacob and the pair of us can put some stronger glass in for you, glass no poltergeist will be able to smash.”
“Thank you,” I breathed. “I can’t leave the house without anyone here until it’s fixed and I really wanted to go out today. Speaking of which, is your mum okay? She wasn’t here this morning.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry about that. She must have forgotten to tell you. Today’s the monthly craft fayre in town. Ma always has a stall selling her cakes. Gregory used to give her the day off as long as she baked one for him.”
“Sounds like a fair deal,” I said. “You guys certainly seem to like your fayres around here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I found my uncle’s diary. He talked about the traditional summer fayre. Said something about me having to ride a goat...?”
Matthew laughed. “Gregory’s hilarious. He must have known you’d eventually read his diary. No, you don’t have to ride a goat at the summer fayre – or the winter one either, which is coming up. But as the Fortune of the town, you have to take part in a little ritual which is supposed to bless Lashire Bluff. There’s a little procession and you give an offering of food and drink to the river. It’s actually rather moving, and if you really wanted to ride a goat, I’m sure it could be arranged.”
“I think I’ll pass if it’s all the same to you.” I laughed with him. “Look, how soon do you think you can be here? I’m getting stir crazy sitting about the place.” And even though I’d discovered my uncle’s trick with the string and envelope, I still felt like someone was watching me the whole time.
“I’ll come up and measure the windows so I can order the glass,” Matthew said. “I can give the look over the rest of the place if you like, make sure there aren’t any other windows about to implode on you. You can go and check out the craft fayre while I’m doing that if you like.”
“That would be good.” I shuddered at the thought of the massive windows in my new bedroom suddenly giving way.
***
Matthew looked round the conservatory and whistled at the mess.
“Pretty impressive,” he said. “And you say you were in here when this happened?”
“That’s right,” I nodded. “I had the fright of my life.”
“I can imagine. You’re lucky you weren’t badly hurt.” He reached out and lightly rubbed his hand up and down my arm to reassure me. I closed my eyes, loving the feel of his touch. There was something about Matthew which made me feel safe and, in that moment, I wanted nothing
