I'M A DOCTOR, CHAPTER TWO
A/N: This is going to be a bit like the Oscars. First of all, I'd like to credit the lovely Sweeet-as-Honey for her ghost ideas, and Stephen King for inspiring me with his wonderful TV programme Rose Red. Not that I think Mr King reads fanfic, but better safe than sorry! Keira, Orlando and Biffo are original characters, you may recognise the others.
Robyn, much as she wanted to believe Louise's warnings were just sour grapes on her part, wanted to be sure. She looked up Redmyres Grange on Google a and did not like what she saw.
Throughout history, the unlucky Redmyres family had met their doom long before their time. Especially the youngest ones, Keira and Orlando, the twins, who had fallen downstairs and broken their necks at eight years old. As the little monkeys were sure-footed and smart, murder was suspected. The main suspect was their uncle Jonathan, now doing time for attempted murder, despite his pleas that he was innocent. Their nanny, Tess, had been heartbroken and had drowned herself in the river. Legend had it that Tess could be seen standing by the childrens' bed, weeping, dripping with pond weed. She was now known as Moist Tess. Keira and Orlando had appeared regularly to visitors to the house, and usually had something to sing about. They loved singing, the more silly the songs the better for the twins.
They had easily found a song about poor Biffo (real name Curtis) Redmyres, who had taken the idea of Flower Power and freedom to his heart. Alas, he had also embraced certain recreational drugs and his ending had been ghastly. Keira and Orlando had treated several frightened visitors to a song about this, and Biffo usually appeared behind them to verify their words very unpleasantly:
"He was high on pot, his last summer, didn't care a lot,
Danced round Notre Dame in a traffic jam, his last summer, flattened by a tram."
These were the latest ghosts, but since mediaeval times the Redmyres had been unlucky. Take pretty Zoe Redmyres. A lovely girl, but somewhat greedy for, shall we say, affection? Unusual for the 1300's, her benign father had consented to her marriage to Max Walker, a kind man but a peasant. There was a huge feast on the night before the wedding. Zoe had suggested hide-and-seek in her father's vast castle, and had climbed into a trunk she'd discovered in the attic. A huge trunk. Max had become uneasy and at last there had been a search party for her. After three days' intensive searching, they finally discovered what had once been Zoe in the trunk, into which she must have, said her grieving parents, shut herself. Then they had discovered who else had been hiding in the trunk. Leonard Lyons, a servant, who had pulled the lid shut on them both in a panic after hearing heavy footsteps. Neither of them had been able to open the lid again, and they'd been found wrapped around each other. Max could be heard gliding through the house weeping "Zoe, you've broken my heart."
Another ghost with a broken heart was Lady Taylorette Redmyres , who had borne a love child to Giorgio, the youngest son of the Rayneford family. Raynefords and Redmyres were like Capulets and Montagues, which meant that there could be no marriage between Taylorette and Giorgio. But Taylorette's domineering brother Ricardo Redmyres had challenged Giorgio and had fatally stabbed him. In grief and confusion Taylor had abandoned her baby, who had actually been taken in by the nuns. Then she'd hanged herself. Taylorette's father sent Ricardo off to the wars in rage, and he'd been killed in battle. Sometimes he'd appear at the window singing a dirty song about the joys of being a soldier. It wasn't uncommon for visitors to the Grange to see Giorgio staggering through the room clutching his bloodstained chest, or Taylorette swinging past the window, turning her head to look inside as the cowering humans.
Then there was the vengeful Sir Lionel Redmyres. He had set out to travel the world with his servant Big Macintosh, sometime in Charles the Second's reign. A bandit called Mercedes had leapt upon Sir Lionel and had slit his throat, while Big Macintosh had hidden in a cowshed. Despite the fact that Macintosh was executed for cowardice and Mercedes skewered by a smarter traveller, Sir Lionel was still not appeased. He had left his pretty daughter Honey at home when he'd set out on his ill-fated trip. Now he walked through markets – he'd been killed just outside a market – moaning 'Honey, Honey.' The shoppers had nervously handed him huge jars of the stuff, which he threw at their heads, causing them to flee in terror. Eventually he'd come back to Redmyres Grange, where he had taken up permanent residence after smashing every jar of honey in the place.
The most tragic death of all was probably that of Jeffrey Collier, a cheerful Victorian man who helped out in a schoolroom. One day the teacher proposed a trip in a Charabanc. The little ones were so excited, but alas, a fanatical preacher who disagreed with the teacher's 'liberal' teachings, had planted a bomb in the 'Chara'. Happily when it exploded, nobody was killed outright, and Jeff had bravely got not only Miss Tamsin, the teacher, but all the children, safely out of the vehicle. Then Jeff's heart had gone cold as he'd seen that there was one child still on the vehicle. It was a boy because it wore a little cap. Jeff had ran back into the Charabanc to save the little one… and found that he'd actually gone back in to rescue the class Mascot, Selfy the Teddy who had been dressed in boy's clothing. Jeff had tried to get back out again and had almost made it to the door when he'd tripped and fallen into the flames. Now poor Jeff hovered near Redmyres, still hoping he could save just one more child so he could rest in peace. He searched in every coach, every car, every mini bus, to no avail.
Robyn had put down the book with shaking hands. Lou wasn't just being spiteful. But, she wondered, why had Mr Harper insisted on just ten people coming to the Grange?
If she'd seen Harry Harper at that moment she would have been terrified. Harper was dancing round the fire in his vast living room chanting:
"When spirits meet with humans ten,
The devil will be loose again."
But the ten volunteers knew nothing of Harry's sinister plans as they emerged from the mini bus the next Friday evening. They just wanted to have the guts to survive the weekend and win that money for the kids.
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