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

to be his heir. She will go back to the magister and ask for a boy, before the heather purples the fells. A boy that Leonore can save from a life of misery, a boy she will raise from poverty and shame, much as she has saved Rose.
    And there is that other thing, that feeling that came from her chatelaine with the charming of Rose, a feeling almost as good as love. With her cold new-minted finger she pushes the charmed Rose aside.
    Her sacrifice is blood and bone. But the children sacrifice something far more valuable.
    By rock
and bone, by blood and stone, not life, nor death
, but lost, alone . . .

11
    Ghosts
    T HE EMPTY ROOM made Kat’s heart pound like a drum. A pack of playing cards lay scattered across the floor.
    Then Rob’s hand thrust out from under the bed and waved close by her feet.
    â€œWhat in the world?” Kat fell to her hands and knees, and Peter dropped down next to her. Rob’s and Ame’s white faces shone in the gloom.
    â€œA ghost! Right here!” Robbie whispered.
    â€œI tried to tell Rob it was all right,” said Ame. “It’s a nice ghost, like Mr. Pudge. But Rob made me get under the bed.”
    â€œThat’s because I wanted you to be safe,” Rob said crossly.
    â€œThere are no ghosts,” Kat said, her voice trembling. “Come on out.”
    But Robbie shook his head. “It’s still here.”
    Kat looked around the empty room, warding off a shiver. “Where, then?”
    Robbie pointed. “There.”
    â€œAh,” Kat said, as his finger waved toward the window. She took a breath, letting her insides settle. “Another someone out in the garden.”
    â€œNo!” came Rob’s coarse whisper. “Not outside! Look in the lavatory.”
    â€œThe lavatory?” Kat was sure Robbie must be wrong. She opened the bathroom door and looked inside, and . . . she couldn’t help herself.
    Kat cried out and stumbled backward.
    â€œHere!” shouted Peter from behind her, yelling at the figure by the sink. “What do you think you’re doing?”

    Kat didn’t want to chase the boy. She’d already given him the fright of his life, she could see that much in his face. And she was sorry for his twisted, painful-looking shoulder, and he ran dragging one leg, pinwheeling his arms. Peter followed him out the door halfheartedly and stood and watched until the boy disappeared.
    Kat pulled herself together.
Keep calm,
for pity’s sake. Even if she was shaking all over.
    When she bent to look under the bed again she found the two pairs of round eyes. “It’s all right,” Kat managed. “He’s gone. Only a boy. A poor crippled boy.” Then she leaned back on her heels and said, “But how’d he get in here, anyway?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Robbie said as he and Ame crawled out from under the bed. “We were playing Go Fish, and all of a sudden he was here in the room, watching us.”
    Amelie nodded. “He was here out of nowhere. Like a ghost would do.”
    â€œAre you sure he was real?” Rob asked.
    â€œHe looked as real as you,” Kat said, but she didn’t feel at all certain. “What do you think, Peter?”
    Peter pushed his hair off his forehead. “He ran like he was real,” he said. “I think.”
    â€œDid you touch him?” Rob asked. “Was he solid?”
    â€œSure he was. I couldn’t see through him,” Kat said. “Ghosts—if they exist, and I’m not saying they do, because I’m quite certain they don’t—but if they do they’d be transparent.”
Wouldn’t they?
Kat turned the watch on her wrist. She didn’t want to admit that she’d been scared to touch him, as if he might feel . . . cold. Or that her hand might slip right through him. She shuddered.
    â€œHe made noises, too,” Peter said. “I heard his