Read Online Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn - Free Book Online

have a grizzledy grey beard instead of white.”
    Belinda giggled. “What a nice man! I hope you didn’t tell him we’re too old for Father Christmas.”
    â€œGosh, no! I said could we borrow a pair of his socks ’cause they’re probably the biggest stockings in the house,
and he said yes. He’s a brick. Maybe I’ll be a sailor when I grow up.”
    â€œRight now what you’ve got to be is a gentleman. I have to take Nana out. Please, may I borrow your electric torch?”
    Derek hesitated, then came up with a compromise. “Tell you what, I’ll come with you.”
    Even with the torch, it was very dark outside, very different from London with its street lamps and lights in people’s houses. The wind was blowing in great gusts which hurried them along in one direction and held them back when they turned around. Some of the gusts showered them with raindrops. Derek thought it was very jolly, and Belinda could see what he meant, but she was glad to go back inside.
    They took Nana to the scullery where they had been told she was to sleep, then found their bedroom candles and lit them. They both thought it was very funny to be carrying lit candles up to bed with them, and Derek laughed so hard he blew his out halfway up the stairs. There were two lots of stairs, the second one very steep and narrow and sort of twisty, with a tiny landing at the top.
    The bedrooms were very small, with sloping ceilings because they were up under the roof. Derek’s was next to Belinda’s, with a connecting door. There was a door on the other side, too, which a maid had told her was to the Reverend Calloway’s room, and her parents were just at the bottom of the twisty stairs.
    She and Derek got ready for bed, then sat cross-legged on Belinda’s bed planning tomorrow’s treasure hunt. Derek was sure the map must have been hidden in the desk with the naked people on it. Bel voted for the other desk Uncle Miles
had shown them, in the South Room, mostly because she didn’t think they ought to be looking at the naked people.
    â€œWe won’t look at them,” Derek argued. “We’ll be too busy searching for the secret drawers no one else has found. I bet that’s why they didn’t find them, because they were squeamish about the naked people. You’re not squeamish, are you?”
    â€œNo!” Bel denied hotly, though she wasn’t at all sure what squeamish meant. It was a good word, though. Derek probably learnt it at his boarding school.
    â€œRight-oh, that’s settled then. Oh, hello, Aunt Daisy. Is it bedtime already?”
    â€œYes, darling, off you go. I’ll pop in when I’ve tucked Bel in. I’ve brought you a night-light, Bel, because you’re in a strange place and there’s no switch to turn on a light if you need one.” She lit a little, fat candle and set it on the chest-of-drawers. “All right, darling?”
    Belinda was asleep almost before Daisy had kissed her good night.
    She woke with a start some hours later. The wind was howling around the eaves and down the chimney, making the night-light flicker. When the howling paused momentarily, something scratched at the window-pane. Just the creeper growing up the wall, Belinda assured herself stoutly. That wouldn’t have wakened her—so what did?
    She lay straining her ears. Was that a footstep? Something moaned softly. Bel sat bolt upright.
    A white figure drifted towards her from the direction of Derek’s room. It had a head, but no face. When she sat up, the moaning grew louder. The figure floated on across the room, and then came a rattling noise.
    Belinda screamed.

5
    D aisy and Alec had retired early, though a considerable time passed before they settled to sleep. Daisy lay in bed, curled up against Alec, with his arm around her waist. He was already asleep. She mused on how wonderful life was. Before she was married, she hadn’t