Spider Light by Sarah Rayne Read Free Book Online Page A

local lunatic asylum. The asylum itself had been called Latchkill and, according to the leaflet, it had been a dark byword for miles around.
    Latchkill. It was a harsh, ugly word. Latchkill–the place whereall the locks had been killed. Was that what the name was meant to imply? Do not risk coming here: this is the place where doors cannot be opened because there are no keys. Once you are in here, it is very difficult indeed to get out again.
    The words scraped against Antonia’s mind, taking her back to another place where latches had been killed. A place where some of the females preferred their own sex and practised their own initiation rituals when the wardens were not around.
    But she had survived it. She had even survived the night she was beaten up in the showers, when four of the women subjected her to rape. She had known, of course, that women could and did rape other women–she had had two girls as patients who had been the victims of female rape. But listening to a distraught patient describing the act was no preparation for the experience itself–for the glitter in the attackers’ eyes, or the smell of cheap soap in the shower stalls and the body scents of the women bending over her, or the feeling of their hands…
    Afterwards she had pushed the memory down to the very deepest level of her mind, and it had stayed there until the word Latchkill touched a raw nerve, and a pair of skewed eyes looking out of a framed drawing brought back the fear and humiliation of that night. You never entirely erased any memory, but it was odd that the sketch of the long-dead Thomasina Forrester should have dredged up that particular one.
     
    Godfrey had been inclined to discount Miss Weston as a possible new friend, so it was a nice surprise when she turned up just after eleven o’clock next morning, and asked if he knew of any sources she could explore to find out more about the Forrester family. She did not know exactly what she was looking for, she said, just general things: background, how they had made their money, why they had come to Quire House, what descendants there might still be in the area, Twygrist and its place in the scheme of things–it seemed to be bound up with the Forresters, what with the memorial clock and so on. No, there was no especial reason for herinterest, she said, but the leaflets Dr Toy had given her had been interesting, and she would like to read up about local history and local personalities while she was here. Nothing very scholarly, only a bit of relaxation.
    This was meat and drink to Godfrey, although he always flinched inwardly if anyone asked about Twygrist. But he had become quite adept at dealing with this by now, and so he said Miss Weston was welcome to any information that would help. They had disinterred a few things for the leaflets and the displays, but there was still oceans of stuff in Quire’s cellars which they had hardly looked at. There might be something about the Forrester family down there, although the term family was stretching it a good deal, because only old Josiah and his daughter had lived here.
    ‘Their bit of Quire’s history only spanned sixty or seventy years and when the daughter–Thomasina–died, the family died with her. So there won’t be a great deal of Forrester stuff.’
    Antonia said that anything there was would be fine, and Godfrey said it was a pity that Professor Remus was away at the moment, because he would know what material they had on Thomasina, although it had to be said that when Oliver did return his mind might still be attuned to first-folio Elizabethan plays or autographed verses from the Romantic period. It might take a day or two for him to adjust to Amberwood again, although when you did have his attention, you had it two hundred per cent, if Miss Weston knew what he meant.
    Miss Weston said she knew exactly what he meant, and there was no particular rush and she could come back another day, but Godfrey would not hear of this.