There were fewer rooms than I had expected, and they felt more like chambers or prison cells than living spaces, with empty fireplaces that had all long-grown cold. Some of the walls and floors had faint imprints on them where furniture and machinery had once stood. I saw a row of fuel tanks with brass taps in one room, while another contained a living area. There were a couple of mouldy sofas, a coffee table and even a collection of chipped mugs on a dresser.

I’d thought the rooms would be empty and it was eerie seeing a living room set up like this, as if the former keepers might walk back in at any moment. A coil of rope and some old life jackets lay scattered on the floor, and a smell of saline damp and rusty metal hung about the place. There were dark brown blotches showing through the flaking paint.

I called out to Rosie a couple of times, but there was no answer and my voice seemed weirdly loud in such a confined space. I really didn’t want to climb 123the tower any further. I thought about going back down and leaving Rosie to her ghost hunting, but that protective instinct had kicked in, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax until I’d found her and made sure she was all right.

Trying to ignore my increasing vertigo, I forced myself to continue climbing until I was almost at the top of the tower. Here I finally found my sister, as well as what must surely be the Strangers’ Room. Like Will had said, it was completely unlike any of the others. The furniture was long gone, but the room wasn’t plain and simple; it was elaborately ornate with carved wooden panels on the walls, a mosaic floor and a domed ceiling. There was a large, curved mirror contained within a marble frame, topped with a model of a ship, and the fireplace was made from marble too. It felt all wrong for a lighthouse – too grand, like some kind of gilded bedchamber in a palace. A room that shouldn’t have been there.

Rosie was standing by the fireplace and turned round to grin at me. “Isn’t this amazing?” she said, gesturing at our surroundings. “Who’d ever expect to find something like this here?”

“I read about it in the logbooks,” I said, stepping 124inside. “They called it the Strangers’ Room. It was meant to be a space for important visitors who were passing through, but the lighthouse keepers sometimes used it themselves too.”

“Cool.” Rosie beckoned me over, a look of excitement lighting up her face. “Check this out.”