There was a hard look in Will’s eyes and bitterness in his voice. “It wasn’t an accident. And if you don’t want the same thing to happen to your sister then listen to my warning and get her out of this place while you still can. Now would you leave me alone? I’ve got lots of reading to do here. You can try to drag me out if you like, but I’m pretty confident you won’t manage it.”

After what he’d just told me, it felt wrong to go tell on him to Dad. It wasn’t like he was doing any harm there, poring over old documents, and if learning more about the place where his sister had died helped him get some kind of closure then I wasn’t about to interfere with that.

I left him to it, gathering up the chain when I got to the bottom of the ladder and holding it close against myself so that it didn’t clink as I tiptoed into 98my bedroom, where I hid it behind my backpack. Rosie was sound asleep as I slid in next to her.

It was difficult to prevent Will’s words from replaying inside my head:

If you don’t want the same thing to happen to your sister, then … get her out of this place while you still can.

I pushed his words away with an effort. It was desperately sad about Will’s sister, and if something ever happened to Rosie then I’d probably go a bit nuts too. I wasn’t superstitious, but ever since her illness it had been hard to escape the feeling that a long shadow hung over my little sister. That one way or another her time was going to be cut short…

I shook my head. I wouldn’t let myself go down that dark path again. Otherwise I’d never get any rest. So I lay back on the mattress, closed my eyes and willed myself to fall asleep.

99

Chapter Eight

When I woke the next morning, I was surprised to find that Rosie had already gone. It was only 8 a.m., and normally she would sleep in until at least ten. I got up, quickly threw on some clothes, then opened the window and pushed back the wooden shutters. Light washed into the room, along with the scent of seaweed and, unfortunately, guano. Another fly buzzed inside before I could close the window.

When I went past Charlie’s room, his door was open and he was still tucked up in his sleeping bag, sound asleep. At the staircase, I saw that Will’s bolt cutters were gone and the trapdoor was back in place, so I assumed he’d returned to the guga hunters’ camp. I went downstairs and the smell of coffee and toast drew me to the kitchen where Dad 100and Kate were having breakfast.