Prune 19, Cookies & Cream 23 [Divide and Rule]
Title: Haunted House
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution (Divide & Rule)
Flavor(s): Prune #19 (like taking candy from a baby), Cookies & Cream #23 (break)
Toppings/Extras: Whipped Cream + Malt - January Games Week 1 (From fachefaucheux: And, on a more fun note: what was the most trouble that Edward and Nancy managed to get themselves into as kids?.)
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2037
Notes: Summer 1922; Edward Iveson, Nancy Long, John Iveson.
Summary: Nancy and Edward take ghost-hunting a little too far…
***
The empty house lay a little way off across the fields. It was, of course, haunted. Edward and Nancy had decided that a long time ago. They had seen odd bits of movement in there - and even once an unexplained white shape at the window. Nancy claimed she had heard screams and moans, but Edward wondered privately if that might have been the wind.
On this particular holiday, they had grown more daring in their supernatural investigations, creeping into the overgrown garden attached to the house, regardless of the scolding they would inevitably get if any of the adults of the family found out what they had been doing. The garden wasn’t enough to give them answers, however, and the inevitable result was Nancy, spotting a window open and daring Edward to go inside.
They’d known they shouldn’t, of course; that even if sneaking into somebody’s garden could be forgiven, going inside a stranger’s house would not be. It felt even worse once they were inside. The house might be empty of life as far as they knew, but it turned out it wasn’t empty of furniture or of somebody’s belongings. Edward looked at Nancy in mute dismay as she slid down from the window sill to join him. Nevertheless, they couldn’t go back either, not now they were here. They would never have this chance again. It wasn’t the sort of thing they could get away with twice.
Nancy stepped forward, and the floorboards creaked loudly under her foot, causing her to start and grab at Edward’s arm.
“We should go,” she said, under her breath. “We did it; now we can go.”
Edward disliked breaking the rules far more than she did, but he also had a stubborn streak, and now that they were here, he wanted to at least look beyond this room. They’d come to hunt down a ghost - they couldn’t run away this soon.
“Ned,” said Nancy, and kicked his shin.
He didn’t need to ask why, although he still found time to wish she wouldn’t do that. They both heard it: a clear noise from the next room. Edward found he was holding onto Nancy in return, but before they could make a retreat, that same white shape they’d seen through the windows was standing in front of them, its outlines wavering as if blowing in the breeze.
They both froze, one of them giving a yell - Edward wasn’t even sure which of them it was - and then the shape screamed back at them, and they ran, all but throwing themselves out of the window and landing back in the garden in the sunlight, but still terrified, with their hearts racing and thudding loudly in their ears. They ran again and didn’t stop until they were safely back in Edward’s parents’ garden, falling onto the grass in a breathless heap. Edward had a stitch, but he didn’t much care, too relieved to be back in safety.
“Goodness,” said a voice from somewhere above them. “Whatever is all this haste about?”
Edward looked up guiltily to see Father looking down at them. He sat up immediately, a new and different sort of alarm overtaking him. Nancy put a hand to his arm, and they exchanged a glance: a brief mutual agreement that this was too serious a matter not to tell. They got the confession out by turns and without much coherence while Father merely stood and listened until they’d finished.
“Well,” Father said quietly. “You two can go and clean yourselves up and then, when you come back down, wait for me in the study. In the meantime, I shall be taking a brief trip down the lane - it sounds as if you may have scared poor Mrs Blackwell half to death.”
It ought to have made it better that there wasn’t a ghost, but it didn’t. Edward felt his heart sink right down into his stomach, a leaden, sick feeling.
“But that house is empty,” said Nancy, who didn’t seem to share his feelings, or not yet. “We wouldn’t have gone in if somebody lived there!”
Father raised his eyebrow. “I think, young lady, that the two of you have just conclusively proved that it isn’t empty. And whatever stories you may have invented, I assure you that Mrs Blackwell lives there - and unless you’ve given the poor lady a heart attack, she’s not a ghost. Now, I suggest you do as you’re told.”
Nancy seemed about to open her mouth to argue again, so Edward hastily pinched her arm, and then led her up the stairs, letting her go into the bathroom first.
When she came out, she looked unusually pale and dark-eyed. “Do you think we really did scare her to death?” Nancy said as she sat down on the bed. Her mouth gave an uncertain tremor. “She did scream an awful lot, didn’t she?”
Edward headed towards the bathroom. “I’m sure we couldn’t have done - I mean, I hope not. At least she didn’t think we were ghosts.”
“Just burglars,” said Nancy from across the landing as he pushed the door shut. “Not very big ones, but I don’t suppose she liked it much when she saw us.”
Edward shut the bathroom door, and if Nancy had anything more to say, he didn’t hear it, until he finished washing his face and changing his clothes, and returned to find her still sitting on his bed, swinging her legs against the side. She looked up again as he came in. “Ned. I’ve never seen Uncle John angry before. What will he do?”
Edward stared ahead. Father had been away for a couple of years before this, and even when he had been here, he tended to leave the scolding to Mother. However, Edward had a few memories of being lectured in Father’s study and how awful it had been, but he didn’t know how to say to Nancy that Father would probably be reasonable until they both felt like worms, and then he would just look at them and tell them he was disappointed in them, and it would be worse than whatever punishment he came up with after. He knew she wouldn’t understand.
“First,” said Father, as he sat down at the desk, Edward and Nancy standing opposite feeling like criminals, “I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that poor Mrs Blackwell seems to have survived the shock of encountering you two where you weren’t supposed to be. However, perhaps you could explain to me why, with permission to play in the garden and in the field behind it, you felt the need to steal into other people’s gardens - and then into their houses?”
Nancy gave Edward a look, but he was trying to ignore her and stared at his shoes instead. She took an audible breath and said, “Well, we thought it was haunted.”
“But you were still trespassing,” said Father, continuing to sound perfectly calm. “Even if it had been empty, that is a crime, you know.”
Nancy looked across at Edward again. He could tell somehow, even as he kept his gaze fixed on his shoelaces. “Well, we wanted to find out. I mean, if it was a ghost.”
“Edward?” said Father.
He dragged his attention off the floor for long enough to nod.
“And you thought that was a good enough reason to warrant breaking so many rules? Good rules, I might add. Rules that were made to protect you as well as the unfortunate Mrs Blackwell.”
That was the sort of unfair thing that Father did, Edward knew. You couldn’t say yes to that sort of question and then you were left without a leg to stand on. He sighed, and raised his gaze at last. “No, sir.”
Nancy, beside him, shook her head, but she still wore a slightly more mutinous look, her mouth set in a line.
“Well, then,” said Father, “in that case, you may come with me to apologise to Mrs Blackwell. Ned, I suggest you run and ask the gardener for some flowers to take, eh?”
Going back into the house through the front door was, if anything, worse than creeping in through the back. Once they arrived at it from the right way around, it seemed only too obvious that it wasn’t deserted. While the garden could use a little more attention, it wasn’t anything like as overgrown as the back and there were curtains visible at all of the windows while an empty milk pot waited on the step by the front door. Edward and Nancy felt smaller and smaller as they dragged their feet up the drive, exchanging sheepish glances as they finally reached the porch and the tall black door set back in it.
Father knocked on the door and called out, but he pushed it open and led them in without waiting for anyone to answer. As he led them along a dark hallway towards a downstairs bedchamber, Nancy caught hold of Edward’s arm again while he fervently wished they’d never even heard of such a thing as ghosts.
Once they got inside, they found there was nothing worse than an elderly woman sitting in a high-backed chair by the bed, wearing a dressing gown but with a white nightdress underneath.
“So you’re my intruders,” she said, as Father ushered them in. “Yes, I see you properly now. What are your names?”
“I’m Nancy Long,” said Nancy, adding after a pause in which Edward didn’t speak, “and this is my cousin Ned - Edward Iveson. We’re both very sorry.”
Edward knew he couldn’t leave it all to Nancy. It wasn’t fair, and she’d never forgive him. “Yes, we are,” he agreed. “We were looking for ghosts, you see - and we really are awfully sorry to have scared you.”
“Scared yourselves, too,” she said. “You thought I was a ghost, eh? Not yet, I’m happy to say.”
Edward looked across at Nancy again. “Yes,” he said. “And we promise never to do it again.”
“I don’t mind you coming in,” said Mrs Blackwell. “As long as you do it by the door and knock first. Come here, girl.” She held out a thin hand to Nancy, who cast an alarmed look at Edward, but stepped forward nonetheless. “You came in at the window, too, did you, miss?” She fingered Nancy’s plain summer frock for a moment and then let go of her. “Yes, in that you might. It was different in my day - too many petticoats and long skirts to trip you up, even when the boys would let you tag along. Else I suppose once upon a time, I might have tried climbing in windows myself.”
Since it was impossible to imagine the ancient Mrs Blackwell as ever being a child, Edward and Nancy could only exchange another glance. Nancy smiled back hopefully before at least taking advantage of the moment to present Mrs Blackwell with the flowers they had brought.
Father intervened then to apologise once again on their behalf, to ask her one more time if she was quite sure she didn’t need him to send for the doctor - Mrs Blackwell was something of an invalid these days - and when she assured him she didn’t, he marched the two of them out of the house.
Later, docked of two weeks’ pocket money, and under orders not to leave the garden without permission and having, even worse, had to give a promise to go with an adult to visit Mrs Blackwell at least twice over the holidays, Nancy looked at Edward.
“It wasn’t too bad,” she said. “I think Mother and Father would have grounded us forever. They still might when they hear about it.”
Edward nodded, but he could still see the look on Father’s face. Staring at his shoes hadn’t quite stopped him from glimpsing it.
“Buck up,” said Nancy, elbowing him and when he looked, she gave him a sympathetic grimace. “At least we didn’t kill that old lady. It’s just a shame,” she went on, “that it wasn’t a real ghost. That would have been worth it, wouldn’t it?”
It might, Edward cautiously allowed, but it would be a long time before he could feel sure of it.
***
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution (Divide & Rule)
Flavor(s): Prune #19 (like taking candy from a baby), Cookies & Cream #23 (break)
Toppings/Extras: Whipped Cream + Malt - January Games Week 1 (From fachefaucheux: And, on a more fun note: what was the most trouble that Edward and Nancy managed to get themselves into as kids?.)
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2037
Notes: Summer 1922; Edward Iveson, Nancy Long, John Iveson.
Summary: Nancy and Edward take ghost-hunting a little too far…
***
The empty house lay a little way off across the fields. It was, of course, haunted. Edward and Nancy had decided that a long time ago. They had seen odd bits of movement in there - and even once an unexplained white shape at the window. Nancy claimed she had heard screams and moans, but Edward wondered privately if that might have been the wind.
On this particular holiday, they had grown more daring in their supernatural investigations, creeping into the overgrown garden attached to the house, regardless of the scolding they would inevitably get if any of the adults of the family found out what they had been doing. The garden wasn’t enough to give them answers, however, and the inevitable result was Nancy, spotting a window open and daring Edward to go inside.
They’d known they shouldn’t, of course; that even if sneaking into somebody’s garden could be forgiven, going inside a stranger’s house would not be. It felt even worse once they were inside. The house might be empty of life as far as they knew, but it turned out it wasn’t empty of furniture or of somebody’s belongings. Edward looked at Nancy in mute dismay as she slid down from the window sill to join him. Nevertheless, they couldn’t go back either, not now they were here. They would never have this chance again. It wasn’t the sort of thing they could get away with twice.
Nancy stepped forward, and the floorboards creaked loudly under her foot, causing her to start and grab at Edward’s arm.
“We should go,” she said, under her breath. “We did it; now we can go.”
Edward disliked breaking the rules far more than she did, but he also had a stubborn streak, and now that they were here, he wanted to at least look beyond this room. They’d come to hunt down a ghost - they couldn’t run away this soon.
“Ned,” said Nancy, and kicked his shin.
He didn’t need to ask why, although he still found time to wish she wouldn’t do that. They both heard it: a clear noise from the next room. Edward found he was holding onto Nancy in return, but before they could make a retreat, that same white shape they’d seen through the windows was standing in front of them, its outlines wavering as if blowing in the breeze.
They both froze, one of them giving a yell - Edward wasn’t even sure which of them it was - and then the shape screamed back at them, and they ran, all but throwing themselves out of the window and landing back in the garden in the sunlight, but still terrified, with their hearts racing and thudding loudly in their ears. They ran again and didn’t stop until they were safely back in Edward’s parents’ garden, falling onto the grass in a breathless heap. Edward had a stitch, but he didn’t much care, too relieved to be back in safety.
“Goodness,” said a voice from somewhere above them. “Whatever is all this haste about?”
Edward looked up guiltily to see Father looking down at them. He sat up immediately, a new and different sort of alarm overtaking him. Nancy put a hand to his arm, and they exchanged a glance: a brief mutual agreement that this was too serious a matter not to tell. They got the confession out by turns and without much coherence while Father merely stood and listened until they’d finished.
“Well,” Father said quietly. “You two can go and clean yourselves up and then, when you come back down, wait for me in the study. In the meantime, I shall be taking a brief trip down the lane - it sounds as if you may have scared poor Mrs Blackwell half to death.”
It ought to have made it better that there wasn’t a ghost, but it didn’t. Edward felt his heart sink right down into his stomach, a leaden, sick feeling.
“But that house is empty,” said Nancy, who didn’t seem to share his feelings, or not yet. “We wouldn’t have gone in if somebody lived there!”
Father raised his eyebrow. “I think, young lady, that the two of you have just conclusively proved that it isn’t empty. And whatever stories you may have invented, I assure you that Mrs Blackwell lives there - and unless you’ve given the poor lady a heart attack, she’s not a ghost. Now, I suggest you do as you’re told.”
Nancy seemed about to open her mouth to argue again, so Edward hastily pinched her arm, and then led her up the stairs, letting her go into the bathroom first.
When she came out, she looked unusually pale and dark-eyed. “Do you think we really did scare her to death?” Nancy said as she sat down on the bed. Her mouth gave an uncertain tremor. “She did scream an awful lot, didn’t she?”
Edward headed towards the bathroom. “I’m sure we couldn’t have done - I mean, I hope not. At least she didn’t think we were ghosts.”
“Just burglars,” said Nancy from across the landing as he pushed the door shut. “Not very big ones, but I don’t suppose she liked it much when she saw us.”
Edward shut the bathroom door, and if Nancy had anything more to say, he didn’t hear it, until he finished washing his face and changing his clothes, and returned to find her still sitting on his bed, swinging her legs against the side. She looked up again as he came in. “Ned. I’ve never seen Uncle John angry before. What will he do?”
Edward stared ahead. Father had been away for a couple of years before this, and even when he had been here, he tended to leave the scolding to Mother. However, Edward had a few memories of being lectured in Father’s study and how awful it had been, but he didn’t know how to say to Nancy that Father would probably be reasonable until they both felt like worms, and then he would just look at them and tell them he was disappointed in them, and it would be worse than whatever punishment he came up with after. He knew she wouldn’t understand.
“First,” said Father, as he sat down at the desk, Edward and Nancy standing opposite feeling like criminals, “I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that poor Mrs Blackwell seems to have survived the shock of encountering you two where you weren’t supposed to be. However, perhaps you could explain to me why, with permission to play in the garden and in the field behind it, you felt the need to steal into other people’s gardens - and then into their houses?”
Nancy gave Edward a look, but he was trying to ignore her and stared at his shoes instead. She took an audible breath and said, “Well, we thought it was haunted.”
“But you were still trespassing,” said Father, continuing to sound perfectly calm. “Even if it had been empty, that is a crime, you know.”
Nancy looked across at Edward again. He could tell somehow, even as he kept his gaze fixed on his shoelaces. “Well, we wanted to find out. I mean, if it was a ghost.”
“Edward?” said Father.
He dragged his attention off the floor for long enough to nod.
“And you thought that was a good enough reason to warrant breaking so many rules? Good rules, I might add. Rules that were made to protect you as well as the unfortunate Mrs Blackwell.”
That was the sort of unfair thing that Father did, Edward knew. You couldn’t say yes to that sort of question and then you were left without a leg to stand on. He sighed, and raised his gaze at last. “No, sir.”
Nancy, beside him, shook her head, but she still wore a slightly more mutinous look, her mouth set in a line.
“Well, then,” said Father, “in that case, you may come with me to apologise to Mrs Blackwell. Ned, I suggest you run and ask the gardener for some flowers to take, eh?”
Going back into the house through the front door was, if anything, worse than creeping in through the back. Once they arrived at it from the right way around, it seemed only too obvious that it wasn’t deserted. While the garden could use a little more attention, it wasn’t anything like as overgrown as the back and there were curtains visible at all of the windows while an empty milk pot waited on the step by the front door. Edward and Nancy felt smaller and smaller as they dragged their feet up the drive, exchanging sheepish glances as they finally reached the porch and the tall black door set back in it.
Father knocked on the door and called out, but he pushed it open and led them in without waiting for anyone to answer. As he led them along a dark hallway towards a downstairs bedchamber, Nancy caught hold of Edward’s arm again while he fervently wished they’d never even heard of such a thing as ghosts.
Once they got inside, they found there was nothing worse than an elderly woman sitting in a high-backed chair by the bed, wearing a dressing gown but with a white nightdress underneath.
“So you’re my intruders,” she said, as Father ushered them in. “Yes, I see you properly now. What are your names?”
“I’m Nancy Long,” said Nancy, adding after a pause in which Edward didn’t speak, “and this is my cousin Ned - Edward Iveson. We’re both very sorry.”
Edward knew he couldn’t leave it all to Nancy. It wasn’t fair, and she’d never forgive him. “Yes, we are,” he agreed. “We were looking for ghosts, you see - and we really are awfully sorry to have scared you.”
“Scared yourselves, too,” she said. “You thought I was a ghost, eh? Not yet, I’m happy to say.”
Edward looked across at Nancy again. “Yes,” he said. “And we promise never to do it again.”
“I don’t mind you coming in,” said Mrs Blackwell. “As long as you do it by the door and knock first. Come here, girl.” She held out a thin hand to Nancy, who cast an alarmed look at Edward, but stepped forward nonetheless. “You came in at the window, too, did you, miss?” She fingered Nancy’s plain summer frock for a moment and then let go of her. “Yes, in that you might. It was different in my day - too many petticoats and long skirts to trip you up, even when the boys would let you tag along. Else I suppose once upon a time, I might have tried climbing in windows myself.”
Since it was impossible to imagine the ancient Mrs Blackwell as ever being a child, Edward and Nancy could only exchange another glance. Nancy smiled back hopefully before at least taking advantage of the moment to present Mrs Blackwell with the flowers they had brought.
Father intervened then to apologise once again on their behalf, to ask her one more time if she was quite sure she didn’t need him to send for the doctor - Mrs Blackwell was something of an invalid these days - and when she assured him she didn’t, he marched the two of them out of the house.
Later, docked of two weeks’ pocket money, and under orders not to leave the garden without permission and having, even worse, had to give a promise to go with an adult to visit Mrs Blackwell at least twice over the holidays, Nancy looked at Edward.
“It wasn’t too bad,” she said. “I think Mother and Father would have grounded us forever. They still might when they hear about it.”
Edward nodded, but he could still see the look on Father’s face. Staring at his shoes hadn’t quite stopped him from glimpsing it.
“Buck up,” said Nancy, elbowing him and when he looked, she gave him a sympathetic grimace. “At least we didn’t kill that old lady. It’s just a shame,” she went on, “that it wasn’t a real ghost. That would have been worth it, wouldn’t it?”
It might, Edward cautiously allowed, but it would be a long time before he could feel sure of it.
***