Caitlin hooted and looked at me to share in the comedy, but all I felt was sadness. I smiled weakly. Caitlin’s expression changed to a serious one. ‘It’s one of those things, that you feel, you know what I mean? All families have their secrets, don’t they? Especially ones like mine.’
‘What does that mean?’ I rested my hand on my neck as I began to imagine dead bodies in the basement.
‘Just that the more money a family has, the more secrets and lies there are. You think this much wealth creates a comfortable quiet life? Well, yes, it does, but behind the scenes, there’s a whole heap of doodoo that no one knows about. Don’t you watch Dynasty?’ Caitlin asked.
I blew out a breath, relieved that Caitlin hadn’t revealed a murder in the family. ‘Is that a soap opera?’ I remembered Mum watching it a few years back.
Caitlin nodded. ‘Money, luxury, all this life, it all comes at a price,’ Caitlin continued. ‘Mama doesn’t know I’ll inherit it all, and do you know what? I don’t want to know why Granny’s cut her out of the will. Do you get me?’
I felt a strange tingling in my tummy as though I had just watched a thrilling TV series. Although Caitlin hadn’t recounted a murder or some great family tragedy, I was starting to get a feeling about the Clemontes, as though there was a lot more to them than met the eye. All this information Caitlin had just given me was not the sort of thing I heard every day. And to think it had all happened and still was happening, right where I lived.
‘Well, surely you’ll split it with her, give her some when you get the house?’ I said.
Caitlin screwed her face up. ‘Have you met my mother? She must have done something pretty terrible to have upset Granny enough to get herself disinherited. Granny is a perfectly lovely old lady.’
‘Still, though, Ava’s your mum,’ I said, barely unable to understand. I love my mum so much; I couldn’t imagine not giving her a share of an inheritance.
‘Well, as I said, Sasha, something happened, and I do not wish to know. But I know it’s pretty big. It’s a feeling you get, as though the house is trying to tell you something.’
I began to think about dead bodies in the basement again.
‘Old houses have a way of releasing things; it always happens in the books I read. Servants are forever overhearing the family’s secrets.’ Caitlin was using her dramatic tone again, and I winced at her use of the term servants. I thought about Mum and Dad and how hard they worked. I supposed someone like Caitlin would see them as servants.
‘The servants lived in the eaves, you see, the part of the roof that overhangs on the outside of the house, but from there you can hear things going on inside the main house – that’s why they call it “eavesdropping”. Then there’s the grates, the fireplaces, some of them lead straight up to other rooms – if you sit at the bottom of one of those, you can hear an entire conversation, clear as day.’
I sat pensively, looking back through the woods towards Saxby. I knew it as an old house, but it had never occurred to me that it was still so alive with so many secrets.
Caitlin stood up and pulled something out of her pocket. Before sitting down again, she leant over and handed it to me.
‘Look, this is called a skeleton key. It opens the door to every room in the house. Granny put it on a skull keyring for me. Do you like it?’
I took the keyring with the key dangling from it and ran my fingers over the blackened eye sockets of the skull, letting my fingertips press into the indents. The key was small but heavy and a dull grey, almost green in colour. There were no serrated edges to it, as you would expect to see on a normal key, and at the top there was an elaborate swirling design.
‘It looks so old. It must be the same age as the house.’ I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
‘Yes, and so are its secrets.’
Caitlin edged closer to me. She rested a hand on my leg and looked deep into my eyes. I felt completely under her spell.
‘Sasha, if you ever overhear anything, about the house or my family, that you think will disturb me, don’t tell me. I just want to enjoy my inheritance and never have to feel the guilt. Do you promise? If you hear any secrets, keep them to yourself. Never tell me. That would make you a most treasured friend in my opinion. More than a friend really. You’re almost like a sister to me.’
My heart swelled when I heard Caitlin’s words. I had always wanted a sister. Caitlin and I would make great sisters. I looked at my friend as I clutched the keyring and key, and I thought about all the places she had told me about, from the eaves to the fire grates in the fireplace, and the places this key could open, and suddenly I wanted to be there, amongst the secrets of the house, to be cocooned within it, where no one would see or hear me, where no one knew I was there absorbing the history from the walls within.
I looked at Caitlin’s hand on my leg, her face so earnest, willing me to promise to her. Promises tied you to someone – they made you invincible. This was the first step on our journey of a true friendship. I would honour her request and that would make me the best friend she could ever wish for.
I made my lips tight to emphasise my words. Then I took her hand in mine, an act that no longer felt novel or alien,
