Read Online The Mersey Girls by Katie Flynn - Free Book Online Page A

said, following the stairs round. She pushed and, like the door downstairs, it opened at once, though it gave a rather horrid creak. She found herself in a small, round room with four window slits, all giving views over different parts of the countryside. It was, she decided, a nice little room, with wooden boarding on the floor, the stone walls clean and dry . . . and a short wooden ladder which led up to what looked like a trapdoor in the ceiling. Someone at some time had dumped a good deal of hay here, it was piled up high to her right, but it neither smelled unpleasant nor straggled about; unlike the turf hut this seemed simply a pleasant, dry little room which nobody knew about but them. She was standing directly beneath the ladder looking curiously up when Caitlin appeared.
    ‘Phew – a secret garden downstairs and a secret room up,’ Caitlin said with considerable satisfaction, coming right into the room and looking curiously around her. ‘I don’t think witches come here, do you? Now there might be one or two on top of the tower, though – what a place to fly a broomstick from! Just wait till we tell the big boys what we’ve found! I don’t think we need go right up to the tower-top though, do you?’
    Lucy already had a foot on the ladder. She turned and stared at her friend ‘Not go up? We’ve got to, and we won’t tell the big boys, or it won’t be our secret – in fact it won’t be ours at all if they ever get their hands on it. Stay if you like, but I’m going!’
    She mounted the ladder and shoved hard at the trapdoor. It did not give an inch. She was going to shove again when Caitlin, staring up, gave a muffled exclamation.
    ‘Lu, you eejit! There’s a bolt – slide it back first.’
    Lucy looked, saw the bolt, and complied, then pushed again. The trap door opened easily and she pushed it right back and then hauled herself through the gap, looking round her as she did so.
    It was a round roof, of course, surrounded by spiky battlements and because the trapdoor was right in the middle of it, she was able to take a good look in all directions before climbing any further. It looked safe enough so she clambered out and onto a stone roof with some sort of tarry stuff spread on it, and when she looked back at the trapdoor she found that it, too, had been treated with tar, undoubtedly to keep the rain from penetrating the wood and soaking the room beneath. Having satisfied her curiosity on that score she crossed to the battlements, then looked over the edge.
    The view was splendid, the best she had ever seen, though she soon found that if she looked down to the ground her stomach turned over in a rather nasty manner and a strange buzzing filled her head. But if she looked straight across she could see to one side of her the sea lough with Cahersiveen beyond it, every detail perfect in the clear summer air. The bridge, the burnt-out barracks, the church and every house, shop and building spread out before her like a living map.
    Lucy shuffled round a bit further, still being careful not to lean on the battlements. She could see ferns and tiny plants growing between the stones and she could not help thinking of all the storms and gales the tower must have known, for Grandad said it was as old as time. But when she looked out there was the sea, with what she guessed must be the island of Valentia, looking like a relief map from here. And if she moved round further still she could see, though trees hid the finer detail, both the ivy-covered farm and the Kellys’ cottage, whilst above and behind them the hills stretched, golden gorsed, up to the brilliant blue sky.
    ‘What’s up there?’ Caitlin’s voice echoed hollowly round the room below. Lucy walked over and peered down at her, surprised to see that Caitlin’s face looked both pale and worried.
    ‘Nothing much, just battlements. But you can see for miles, Cait – want to come up and see Valentia Island? It looks like that map Miss Carruthers