Chapter 2 The Witch Story

After lunch Claire said, 'I'm going for a walk.'

'Don't get lost,' Aunt Min told her.

There was a cold wind, and it got colder when she arrived at the castle field. But it was a nice, sunny afternoon - an afternoon to laugh at stories about ghosts, she thought.

Claire saw the cottage and she saw Walter Burge outside it again. His car was near the cottage. She did not want him to see her, so she moved across and up the field quickly. From time to time she looked back at the cottage. It got smaller and smaller as she got closer to the castle.

Soon she was near the dark towers. There was no sun here and it was very cold. Everything was quiet. There were no sounds of birds or animals.

The cottage was far below her. 'I'm OK now,' she thought. 'He can't see me.'

She went over to the tallest tower - the Black Tower, the boy called it. Did the woman die here? There was a door at the bottom. Inside, stone stairs went up to the top.

Suddenly Claire was afraid. 'Why am I afraid?' she thought. 'Ghosts?'

Then she heard a sound.

She thought it was a bird and looked up quickly...

... and a big stone fell from the top of the tower.

Something in her head said MOVE! Claire jumped away and threw herself down. The big stone hit the bottom stair and broke, and for a minute or two Claire could not move.

Another accident? said something in her head.

She looked up at the top of the tower. Somebody... some- thing was up there! What was it? It had a head the colour of fire. But was it a man or a woman? Or was it a bird? Claire waited for it to fly down.

And then it was notthere.

 

Walter Burge heard the stone fall and looked up at the castle. His face was white and he was afraid. He saw somebody running down the field.

'Stop! 'Walter called. 'Stop!'

But the girl ran on, too fast for Walter's old legs to catch her.

 

Claire ran back to Aunt Min's cottage.

'Is that you, Claire?' said Aunt Min.

'Yes,' Claire answered. She waited at the back door for a minute before she went into the room at the front of the cottage.

'Claire!' said Aunt Min, looking at her. 'What's wrong? Your shirt is all dirty.'

'I - I fell over,' said Claire. 'Don't worry, I'm OK.' She tried to smile.

'Come and sit down,' said her aunt. 'Let's have a cup of tea.'

Claire sat down in a chair. Then she saw something in the corner of the room. 'You've got a Christmas tree!'

Aunt Min smiled. 'The day after tomorrow is Christmas Day, remember,' she said. 'I brought it in from the garden and put it up when you went for your walk. Do you like it?'

'Yes!' said Claire, laughing now.

'There are some lights to go on it,' said Aunt Min. 'I think they're in the little room at the top of the stairs. Perhaps you can look for them in the morning.'

'OK,' said Claire.

 

Much later, when Claire went to bed, she thought about the castle again.

'I'm not going back,' she thought. 'Genny Castle can have its secrets. I don't want to know them.'

 

The next morning Claire went up to the little room at the top of the stairs. There were a lot of boxes in the room, two old chairs, a desk with a broken leg and a big cupboard. The Christmas tree lights were in the cupboard. Claire found them easily.

She saw some books at the back of the cupboard. Most of them were stories, but then Claire found a very old book. It was small and thin, and she read the words on the front of it: The Story of Gentry Castle.

'Did you find the lights, Claire?' Aunt Min called from the bottom of the stairs.

'Yes,' Claire said.

She put the book inside her shirt. 'I don't want Aunt Min to know that I have it,' she thought. 'Why?' But she did not have an answer to her question.

Later that morning she went to her bedroom and began to look at the book. There were pictures of the castle and stories about people. These people lived at the castle many years ago. Some were famous, some were good, and some were bad.

Suddenly Claire saw a word.

Witch.

She began to read.

A woman came to the castle about two hundred years ago. She was a servant. Where did she come from? Nobody asked her, but soon after she came things began to go wrong. Servants were ill. Animab began to die. Everybody at the castle was afraid. 'What's happening?' they asked.

'It's the new servant!' somebody said. 'She's a witch!'

'A witch, yes!' said the others. 'She must die! Burn her!'

The man living at the castle had a daughter. She was fifteen years old. One day she too was ill.

'She's going to die!' the man said. 'Who can help her?'

'The witch can help her,' his servants told him. And they brought the woman to him.

'Please help my daughter!' the man said to the witch.

'No!' she said. 'It's right for your daughter to die. You burned my sister three years ago!'

'No!' said the man.

'You lived at a different castle then, and my sister and I were two of your servants,' said the woman. 'My sister, Alexa -'

'Alexa!' said the man. 'I remember! I remember her because she was a witch too! She was dangerous, so we burned her. And you are her sister?'

'Yes,' said the witch. 'I watched somebody I loved die. Now you are going to watch your daughter die.'

'No, please!' said the man. 'Help her!'

'Never!' said the witch.

And a week later the girl died.

After that, they took the witch to the top of the Black Tower and burned her.

Today, people say that they see and hear the ghost of the witch on the tower at midnight. They say that they see her fire-coloured hair and her green eyes.

 

Claire stopped reading. She did notwant to knowany more.