Page 4 (1/2)
Dervish drives like awind Blurred countryside No chance to talk or study the scenery I spend the journey with ing on for dear life
Finally, coe, he slows I peek and catch the nan as we exit - Carcery Vale
"Carkerry Vale," I runts
"This is where you live," I note, recalling the address from cards I wrote and sent with Mum and Gret (Mum didn&039;t like Uncle Dervish but she always sent him a Christmas and birthday card)
"Actually, I live about twoa tractor and waving to the driver "It&039;s pretty lonely out where I ae You can walk in any time you like"
"Do they know about me?" I ask
"Only that you&039;re an orphan and you&039;re co road Lots of potholes which Dervish swerves expertly to avoid The sides of the road are lined with trees They grow close together, blocking out all but the thinnest slivers of sunlight Dark and cold I press closer to Dervish, hugging warmth from him
"The trees don&039;t stretch back very far," he says "You can skirt around thee"
"I&039;m not afraid," I mutter
"Of course you are," he chuckles, then looks back quickly "But you have e house Three storeys Built fro as those I&039;ve seen in photos of the pyra out at the end is made from ordinary red bricks and doesn&039;t look like the rest of the house Lots of timber decorations around the top and down the sides A slate roof with three enormous chimneys The roof on the brick section is flat and the chimney&039;s tiny in comparison with the others The s on the lower floor run fro The s on the upper floors are sns On the brick section they&039;re very ordinary
"It&039;s not much," Dervish says wryly, "but it&039;s ho close to theat the house, almost afraid to venture any nearer
"Not really," Dervish says "It was a wreck when I bought it No roof or s, the interior destroyed by exposure to the eles I lived in the brick extension for years while I restored theto tear the extension down - I don&039;t use it any more, and it takes away froet round to it"
Dervish removes his helmet, helps me out of mine, then walks inal architect and how ain, but I don&039;t listen very closely I&039; terrain - lots of open fields, sheep and cattle in some of them, a small forest to the hich runs all the way to Carcery Vale, no neighbouring houses that I can see
"Do you live here alone?" I ask as we return to the front of the house
"Pretty much," Dervish says "One farmer owns most of this land, and he&039;s opposed to overdevelopuess his children will sell plots off when he dies But for the last twenty years I&039;ve had all the peace and seclusion a et lonely?" I ask
"No," Dervish says "I&039;m fairly solitary by nature When I&039;m in need of coe And I travel a lot - I&039;ve iant front doors, a pair of them, like the entrance to a castle No doorbell - just two chunky gargoyle-shaped knockers, which I eye apprehensively
Dervish doesn&039;t open the doors He&039;s studying me quietly
"Have you lost the key?" I ask
"We don&039;t have to enter," he says "I think you&039;ll grow to love this place after a while, but it&039;s a lot to take in at the start If you&039;d prefer, you could stay in the brick extension - it&039;s an eyesore, but cosy inside Or we can drive to the Vale and you can spend a few nights in a B&B until you get your bearings"
It&039;s te If the house is even half as spooky on the inside as it looks fro to be hard to adapt to But if I don&039;t row far creepier in ination than it can ever be in real life
"Cooyle knockers and rapping loudly "We look like a pair of idiots, standing out here Let&039;s go in"
Cold inside but brightly lit No carpets - all tiles or stone floors - but s and mats No wallpaper - some of the walls are painted, others just natural stone Chandeliers in theroom Wall-set lamps in the other rooms
Bookcases everywhere, most of them filled Chess boards too, in every room - Dervishfrom many of the walls - swords, axes, maces
"For when the tax collector calls," Dervish says soles it over his head and laughs
"Can I try it?" I ask He hands it to h level but no higher A quick reappraisal of Uncle Dervish - he looks wiry as a rat, but he must have hidden h the downstairs roo what each was used for in the past, pointing out items of special interest, such as a stuffed bear&039;s head which is e where a live vulture was kept, rusty nails which were used by the Roe, eainst a wall Dervish pauses at it and taps the fraernails "The last owner of this place - before it fell into ruin - was a tyrant called Lord Sheftree He kept live piranhas in this tank One day, a woman turned up with a baby - she claimed it was his, and she wanted money to pay for its upkeep"
Dervish crouches down and stares into the abandoned aquariu, multicoloured fish
"Lord Sheftree invited her to stay for the night," he says cal, he crept into her rooht it down here and fed it to the piranhas Took the bones away and buried thehty hell, but search parties couldn&039;t find a corpse, and nobody had seen her arrive with a child - so there was no proof she ever had one She ranted and raved and was eventually locked away in a ed herself there
"Years later, when Lord Sheftree was an old , he boasted about the murder to one of his servants, and told her where the bones were buried She dug them up and inforers got here first He was discovered chopped up into tiny pieces - all of which had been dropped into the piranha tank"
Dervish stops and I gaze at him in silent awe
He stands and facesthis to scare you," he s and bloody history There are dozens of horror stories, none quite as grueso I think it&039;s best you hear about its past now, from me"
"Is is the house haunted?" I wheeze
"No," he answers seriously "It&039;s safe I wouldn&039;t have brought you here if it wasn&039;t If the nightmares of the past prove too oppressive, you&039;re free to leave But you&039;ve nothing to fear in the present"
I nod slowly, thinking about Lord Sheftree and his piranha, wondering if I have the courage to spend the night in a house like this
"Are you OK?" Dervish asks "Would you like to step outside for fresh air?"
"I&039; like I hear this sort of stuff all the time "What&039;s upstairs?"
Mostly bedrooms on the first floor All are fully fitted, the beds freshly h Dervish says only four or five of the rooms have been used since he renovated the mansion
"Why bother with all the beds then?" I ask
"If soht," he laughs
Son countries, with histories as old andme about one particular bed, in which a French aristocrat hid for fourthe Revolution, that I think about how much they must have cost
"What do you do?" I ask my uncle It sounds ridiculous, but I don&039;t recall Mu Dervish&039;s line of work
"I dabble in antiques," he says "Rare books arethe occult"
Dervish looks at ly - we haven&039;t mentioned demons since he pickedme the chance to quiz him about them now But I&039;m not ready to discuss Lord Loss or his ood at it, to afford a place like this," I say, sliding away froer questions and issues