BooksBarbecue
Back The House of Whispers Save as PDF
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for The House of Whispers
  3. Title Page
  4. Note to Readers
  5. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  19. Twelve
  20. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  25. Sixteen
  26. Seventeen
  27. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  32. Twenty-One
  33. Twenty-Two
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  37. Twenty-Five
  38. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  39. Twenty-Six
  40. Twenty-Seven
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Thirty-Two
  46. Thirty-Three
  47. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Thirty-Six
  51. Thirty-Seven
  52. Thirty-Eight
  53. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  54. Thirty-Nine
  55. Forty
  56. Forty-One
  57. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  66. Forty-Eight
  67. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  68. Forty-Nine
  69. Fifty
  70. Fifty-One
  71. Fifty-Two
  72. Fifty-Three
  73. Fifty-Four
  74. Fifty-Five
  75. Fifty-Six
  76. Fifty-Seven
  77. Fifty-Eight
  78. Fifty-Nine
  79. Sixty
  80. Priory Hospital North London: 20 December 2019
  81. Acknowledgements
  82. About the Publisher

But looking at the room now, I had another idea. I dashed up to the attic and knelt in front of the old boxes the previous owners had left. Rohan had said they contained toys. Maybe there was something I could put on the bed for Grace. She’d always liked stuffed toys, her bed at uni always adorned with a teddy or two. I blew at the dust and started pulling things out of the box. Random toys: a skipping rope, a bag of cars, some Lego, and then, at the bottom, a small, wooden cot painted lavender and white and, lying inside it under a stiff, flowery duvet, a faded brown teddy bear with threadbare patches on its chest and paws. I pulled it out and gave it a sniff. A bit musty but nothing an airing wouldn’t solve.

‘Would you like to come downstairs?’ I asked the bear, waggling him as I talked, causing the bells in his ears to jangle.

‘Thought you’d never ask,’ I said in a gruff, bear voice.

I shoved the toys back in the box and, downstairs, I placed Bear on the pillow of the bed and stepped back. Nice. Homely. Welcoming.

I sat down on the bed and looked at the room from Grace’s perspective. It wasn’t big, but it was fresh, clean and cosy, and it was free. When I thought back to our student digs, I was sure this would be fine. We’d been happy in those days, hadn’t we? To begin with, at least.

Nineteen

It was largely thanks to Grace that I ended up with a boyfriend. I was never man-mad; never one of those students who used her time at university to work her way through the male cohort. Neither was I like Grace, hellbent on finding my one-and-only. While I was studying, the other students didn’t interest me with their silly psychodramas, amateur drinking and snapchat, so I went about my business quietly getting on with my work, staying resolutely single throughout my degree and it was only after I graduated that Tom appeared in my life. He was older than me; an artist who taught at a nearby school; a free spirit with longish, curly dark hair, and a goatee and moustache – which was a look I never thought I’d go for – and an appealing gravitas that came from having experienced, I got the impression, the underbelly of life.