The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [34]
rocks – some small, some as big as a fist, hammered the floor before them. If they had not been standing under the edge of the gallery, they would inevitably have been struck.
Where on earth were they coming from? thought Sarah, looking up in a sort of awe; and then –
‘Look out!’ she screamed and threw herself with all her weight against the Doctor, knocking him – and Verconti –
flying. But she was too late to get out of the way herself The massive lump of masonry she had seen dislodge itself from the front of the gallery struck her a glancing blow and threw her to the floor, where she lay senseless.
The rain of stone had stopped. There was silence, except for Louisa’s screaming.
120
Ten
‘Thank you for saving my life,’ said the Doctor gently, as Sarah opened her eyes.
‘Tit for tat,’ she said, and tried to sit up.
‘No, don’t try to move,’ he said, as she grimaced with pain. You must be joking mate, she thought, as she winced back into the pillows. It was difficult to know which hurt more, her head or the top of her arm.
‘You hit your head when you fell,’ he went on, but there’s nothing broken. You must have a touch of concussion and your shoulder’s badly bruised. The best thing you can do for the moment is to rest. Now drink this.
It will ease the pain.’
‘But Doctor, we’ve got to talk,’ she said with feeble urgency. ‘Have you found out anything? Is it all right to stay here? What if that kitchen-maid catches sight of you.
She’ll recognize you as the ghost she saw – and then what?’
Sarah herself could hear the rising note of hysteria in her voice. For a moment she wanted to cry.
‘Don’t worry, we’re quite safe. You’re suffering from shock, that’s all. I’ll get them to make you some sort of posset.’
What was a posset, for Pete’s sake?
‘I’d rather have a cup of tea.’
121
‘I’ll see what I can do.’
She had been put to bed in Louisa’s room, a frothy confection of frills – and furbelows? thought Sarah. What the heck was a furbelow, anyway? She wouldn’t know one if it walked up and kissed her. The afternoon sun filtered through the curtains and a stray beam lit up the dancing dust. Everything was still. In the distance, she could hear a lilting song, and the ever present susurration of the waves far below the window.
Suddenly she knew why she wanted to cry. The thought she had been pushing away came back with even more insistence. If the ghost Louisa was so proud of was only this poltergeist, then what of the white lady? Louisa must be some sort of medium if she were the reason for the poltergeist to have come; so why hadn’t she seen the white lady? She’d lived in the castle for nearly three years, and she’d never even heard of the white lady?
Yet the Doctor’s scope had shown quite clearly that this time was the only one since the sixteenth century that the castle had had a violent psychic disturbance.
It couldn’t be! It mustn’t be!
A gentle voice broke in upon the turmoil of her thoughts. ‘I’ve brought you some tea. Cook was loath to unlock the caddy, but I made her.’
122
Sarah turned to her, the tears streaming down her face.
She couldn’t speak.
‘Why Sarah, dearest!’ said Louisa, putting the tea down and taking Sarah’s brown hand in her soft white fingers.
‘Whatever is the matter?’
‘Oh, Louisa,’ Sarah managed to say, convulsively gripping her fingers, ‘be happy. Please be happy!’
A smile dimpled the childish face. ‘Why, as to that, I declare I cannot help it. I have done my utmost to feel as I should, but without success. I fear I must lack sensibility.
Why, in Udolpho St Aubert can scarce look at a sunset without weeping with a fine melancholy.’ She was laughing at herself ‘For my part, I find them rather jolly!’
Still crying, Sarah was laughing too. Her fears were nonsense. The lady in white