The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox Read Free Book Online

tell him so.
    After twists and turns they reached the stairwell. They crept down the stairs, the window on their right.
    At the next landing Peter stopped. He pointed to the wall at the turn of the stair.
    Kat stepped forward, and a sound, a low murmur, seeped from the very wall itself. She leaned in, cocking her head, when a short high screech made her jump, and then she heard a staticky hiss, and she backed up the stairs and right into Peter, so that she jumped again.
    He shook his head and pointed past her, at the wall, and she moved back down the stairs, and there it was, the thin outline of a door fitted so tightly in the wall that it was well hidden from all but the most discerning eye.
    Now she leaned her right ear flat up against the thin crack. And heard a sharp
screech
, and a
click-click
, and worst of all, silence.
    Until a
thud
and something moved, unmistakably coming right toward her.
    She turned around fast and caught Peter’s wide eyes, and they both ran up the stairs, top speed, taking the steps two at a time until they reached their floor, and they made it aroundthe corner into the hallway the same instant they heard the door open on the landing below. Kat pressed her back against the wall, her chest tight, knees trembling, eyes closed, and ears wide open. She heard the door below them close, and then a dreadful pause, as if someone on the landing was checking the air,
sniffing us out
, she thought, until whoever it was headed down the stairs, away from them.
    She and Peter waited until all sounds faded.
    And waited and waited. The castle grew still and silent, but for the wind, which moaned now at the windows.
    Peter stood with his back against one wall, Kat facing him with her back pressed against the other. She thought her lungs would burst, until she had to let the air out, gasping.
    He whispered, “Well, unless ghosts walk down stairs, it’s not a ghost.”
    Kat shook her head, both relieved and worried. “No. But it might be worse.”

    Peter tapped on the wall and Kat listened, poised to run, but finally they were satisfied that the secret room was empty. They examined the door, up, down, and around, but couldn’t see the way to open it. They tapped, and pushed, and tried to pry—Kat broke a fingernail on that attempt—but it wouldn’t budge.
    â€œHow do you know?” Peter asked when they’d given up andwere making their way back to their rooms, Kat chewing on her damaged index finger. “How did you know what it was?”
    Kat said, “Because I’ve heard a short-wave radio before.” In fact, she’d seen one up close.
    When Father brought a short-wave wireless home a couple of weeks before leaving, he’d shown it only to Kat. “Here, Kitty, have a look. I knew you’d be interested. Just keep it under your hat.”
    It was about the size of her valise and was rigged up to be carried like a backpack. He’d dialed up a colleague and let her listen in on the test. It had screeched so she had to stop her ears with her fingers. Father had said, “Noisy all right. But it might save someone’s life.” She’d touched the case with gentle fingers.
    It might save
his
life, that wireless.
    â€œWhy’s it worse to have a short-wave radio here than a ghost?” Peter asked. “A ghost would be far more trouble. Moving through walls. Moaning and howling and keeping us up at night, and maybe up to evil tricks. At the very least, scaring the devil out of me.”
    A ghost would scare the devil out of Kat, too, but she wasn’t going to admit that to Peter. Really, he was so honest. Blunt. She wasn’t sure what to think, since the boys she knew at school were all aloof. Peter’s straight brown hair now fell across his forehead. In the time since they’d left London—which alreadyfelt like a million years ago but was only yesterday—his bangs had come unglued. Kat rather liked them that