“So how was your first night in Lashire Bluff’s most haunted house?” Matthew’s question totally ruined the moment.
“Haunted? You must be joking.”
“I never joke about something as serious as ghosts,” Matthew said. “Didn’t anyone tell you? This place is riddled with them. Why do you think Ma won’t live here, even though Gregory offered her a whole suite of rooms to stay?”
“Ghosts don’t exist,” I said, although the slight crack in my voice took away the edge from my attempt at acting confident.
“So you didn’t hear any strange noises last night?” Matthew raised an eyebrow as the blood drained from my face.
“N-no. Just my cat being his usual grumpy self,” I lied.
“No spectres rattling chains, skeletons dancing at the foot of your bed?”
“Oh, hush now, Matthew,” chided Rose, coming out of the pantry. “Stop scaring the poor girl. She’s got enough to think about right now, although I’m hoping my cooking has already been enough to persuade her to stay. But if it isn’t... why don’t you take her on a tour of the town?”
“Yes, Matthew. Why don’t you show me what you do for fun around here?” I asked.
“If you insist.” There was a twinkle in his eye as Matthew extended his arm for me to take. “Come with me, milady.”
***
I studied Matthew’s profile as he drove us away from my new home and down into the town. There was just enough of a smudge of stubble to give him that bad boy look. Rose might be all homely, but there was no doubting she had a good-looking son.
“So this is the road into town,” he said. “There’s only one way in and out, so you can’t really get lost. Over there, you’ll see the river. In the summer the local kids swim in it and there’s some good fishing to be had if you’re patient. The bridge we just drove over is centuries old. Bridge nerds come to admire it because it has a mosaic on it designed by some obscure artist. That same artist painted a lot of the paintings hanging in your house – rumour has it there are all sorts of strange occult symbols woven into the pictures, but the meaning has long since been lost. That there’s the town hall. It’s even older than the bridge, and if you love paintings of dead guys, you really must go inside where you’ll get more than you could ever imagine. There’s also a little museum about the history of the town, although there’s a reason it’s little. There’s not an awful lot to say about the place. We don’t have a large supermarket – the mayor’s done a good job of keeping out all the big chains, so most people shop in the market, which runs every day in that building over there. Out back there’s a huge outdoor area with plenty of stalls and you can buy pretty much everything you’ll ever need from local farmers and artisans. There’s an Italian restaurant, a diner and one pub which does a great Sunday roast, although don’t tell Ma I said that. And that’s about it for all the local attractions.”
“What do you mean, that’s it?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Don’t you have a cinema or a leisure centre?”
“Cinema? What’s that?” Matthew deadpanned.
“You can’t be serious. This place is like something out of the Dark Ages!”
“It’s not so bad once you get used to it. We don’t need a leisure centre when we’ve got the river for swimming, and most of us work in the farms so we get plenty of fresh air and exercise that way. Anyway, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Your uncle had a top of the range home cinema installed as well as a gym, and I’m guessing you haven’t discovered the indoor swimming pool you’ve got as well.”
“I have a pool?” My mind was whirling. It was all too much to take in – or rather, it was too little. How was I supposed to stay somewhere as backward as this? I might have an amazing house, but I was going to go nuts with boredom if I didn’t get out of this town.
“Your uncle was a bit of a recluse,” Matthew explained. “The older he got, the less he wanted to leave home for any reason, so he spent all his money on creating the perfect hideaway with everything he needed. Ma always says that he saved her after Dad died, but I think she was the one who saved him. If she didn’t take care of him, I don’t think he’d have seen another human being for months and she knew it. That’s why she continued to go to the mansion, even though she’s terrified of the place.”
“Rose? Terrified?” I found it hard to believe that the outgoing, confident housekeeper could be afraid of anything, let alone my house.
“I meant it when I said the place was haunted.” Matthew’s tone was matter of fact, making me think he believed what he was saying, even though it was clearly nonsense. “Lashire Bluff has a bit of a reputation for ghosts. Goats and ancient bridges aside, the main reason the town’s been able to stay as it has for centuries is because of the roaring tourist trade in ghost tours. There’re so many stories about spirits and spectres in the town that people come from all over the world hoping to catch a sighting of one of them. Gregory would never let anyone go into the mansion, which is a shame – that place could feature in an entire season of True Life Hauntings all on its own. Ma will never talk about the things she’s seen, but she’ll never spend the night there and she always tries to get
