The beams in this room didn’t have any marks, not as far as Maude could tell, but the wooden panels on the walls gave her the strange sensation of being trapped inside a box. She stretched out a hand, ran a finger down one of them, the brass bedstead groaning as she shifted her weight. The panels were original to the house her dad said, which meant they were old, very old.

Not as old as the drying ground, she thought. And it was like she was back there again, all alone in the cold, waiting. She didn’t want to think about that.

She caught her breath as something tugged against the pad of her forefinger, catching the skin. There was a fine line running down the wood, parallel to where it had been slotted into its frame; a hairline crack. She leant closer, even if you knew it was there, it was hard to make out; she wondered if it too had been there since the house was built.

She raised her finger and inspected it, a fine sliver of wood had caught in the skin, a spell, Nell called them; she pulled it free and a bright droplet of blood bloomed in its place. She popped her finger in her mouth and sucked, all the while considering the panel and the crack that ran down it – how it fitted into place, and what might lie behind it. She leant forward again, digging her fingernails in, trying to pull the panel free, but it didn’t move.

Downstairs, a door opened, then closed – someone had gone into the kitchen.

Maude stood and took one last look around the room, her finger stinging, then on impulse she knocked on the panel sharply, rapidly, three times.

Nell didn’t really like the house that much, she could tell. Fine, then Maude would definitely like it; they could ground her all they wanted, she would make this house her own.

Chapter 7

7

Nell woke up suddenly, as if someone was standing over her, calling her name, and for a few moments she wasn’t sure where she was, until the unfamiliar shadows in the room gradually resolved, revealing a chest of drawers, windows, the door left slightly ajar, and Chris beside her, dead to the world. Pushing back the duvet, she got heavily to her feet and stumbled to the bathroom to use the loo. It was cold. The window was open. She closed it, resisting the temptation to look out at the drying ground below. When she was done, she switched off the bath-room light and, stepping onto the landing, she paused and listened. She had the oddest feeling that she wasn’t alone, that quite apart from Chris and Maude there was someone, some-thing else in the house, that the house was – waiting.

Chris stirred as she slipped back under the covers, reaching out for her, pulling her close.