Ghost Soldier Read online

  Too late Rob realized what he’d thought was a stick in Jack’s hand was a bayonet. He backed off, trying to pull Millie with him. But she was too nimble. Sidestepping quickly, she held out the basket of sandwiches to Jack, saying, ‘You could eat these sandwiches while I hold your sword for you.’

  Jack hesitated for a second and then exchanged the bayonet for the basket. He sat on the ground and, opening the sandwich parcel, stuffed the bread into his mouth.

  Rob stretched out his hand to take the bayonet from Millie. Jack looked up, his eyes narrowing. Millie shook her head slightly. Keeping hold of the bayonet, she sat down beside Jack. ‘I hope you like these ones. The plum jam is almost finished, so I had to use crab-apple jelly. I don’t like it so much. But Rob took me berrying, and I’ve got brambles and raspberries ready to cook up.’

  ‘There’s not a lot of time,’ Jack said. His face was twitching and his eyes slid this way and that. ‘I need to keep watch.’

  ‘I’ll keep watch as you eat,’ said Rob. ‘Although you are in Britain now, you know.’

  ‘I know that!’ Jack spoke angrily. ‘I’m not stupid. Or crazy,’ he added. ‘I’ve seen the enemy close by.’

  Millie looked around. Within the house a few nightlights were burning, but everything was quiet. From the woods came the occasional hoot of a hunting owl. Apart from that the world was silent and peaceful.

  ‘Where, Jack?’ Millie asked. ‘Where have you seen the enemy?’

  Rob felt his stomach curl up in anxiety, terrified that Millie’s question might set Jack off into some kind of fit. Yet he too desperately wanted any information Jack could give them.

  Jack jabbed his finger towards the house. ‘In there,’ he said. ‘Germans are hiding in the clinic. I’ve heard them plotting what they’re going to do. They come out at night to kill us. That’s why I’ve got this.’ He snatched the bayonet from Millie. Then he pressed his face right up against hers, his eyes wild and staring. ‘I’ve seen the ghost of a dead soldier.’

  ‘The ghost soldier!’ Millie let out a squeal of fright.

  ‘Maybe it’s not a ghost . . .’ said Rob. ‘Moonlight makes objects look eerie.’ He recalled being out with his father one night when a silver fox streaked past them. They’d seen it disappear under a hedgerow. Out of the moonlight, its coat became red.

  ‘Mill House is haunted,’ said Jack. ‘Everyone from these parts knows about the ghost of the dead soldier who couldn’t save his friend.’

  ‘Have you told anyone else?’ asked Rob.

  ‘Not any more!’ Jack shook his head. ‘I mentioned it once and they gave me more medication and I slept for three days and nights. But when I’m hiding in the servants’ staircase at night, I hear a man with a German accent giving orders.’

  Rob started. A man with a German accent! It must be Professor Holt whom Jack had overheard, as he had done.

  ‘What orders?’

  ‘Can’t rightly hear. Just snatches like, “I must have this,” or “You must bring me that.” The way he speaks, you can tell he’s in charge.’

  ‘Have you met this man?’

  ‘No, but I saw the ghost soldier! I did. I saw him!’

  Rob pulled Millie aside as Jack leaped to his feet. ‘You don’t believe me! But I’ve seen him. I tell you, I’ve seen him! You come here tomorrow night. Come late, after midnight, and I’ll show you the ghost soldier!’ He grabbed another sandwich. Then he ran back to the coal cellar and disappeared inside.

  He was barely gone when Nell shifted her head, looking towards the end of the drive. Rob picked up Millie’s basket and their blanket, and led her deeper into the shrubbery. A minute later a horse pulling a cart came trotting up the driveway. It was a long cart, with a lantern at the front to illuminate the road.

  What type of goods were delivered to the clinic in the middle of the night?

  As Rob watched, the cart swung across the front, heading towards the far side of the house. He grasped Millie’s wrist and hurried round. The side door was open with light spilling out. Staying among the bushes, Rob and Millie crept closer. Professor Holt and Major Cummings stood there. Rob put his hand on Nell’s head to keep her quiet.

  The cart driver reined the horse to a standstill, got down and opened the tailgate. ‘Got one here for you.’

  ‘Be careful, man!’ Major Cummings said sharply as the driver slid out a long wooden board.

  ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘This lad’s beyond feeling anything.’

  Between them, the major and Professor Holt lifted the board to carry it into the house.

  ‘It’s a dead soldier,’ Millie whimpered.

  Rob could see the soldier’s face quite plainly. He was a boy of about eighteen, his face pale as chalk, his jaw slack in the moment of death.

  The clinic door closed. The driver clambered back onto his seat and shook the reins to leave.

  ‘Don’t know why they bother,’ he said aloud. ‘That one’s a goner. Dead as a doornail.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ‘ROBERT GOWRIE!’

  Rob blinked his eyes open as his teacher called out his name.

  ‘You’re dozing when you should be writing. Are you sick?’

  ‘No, miss.’ Rob sat up straight in his chair.

  ‘Millie’s teacher, Mrs Proctor, says that Millie fell asleep twice this morning. What were you two doing yesterday evening that you cannot stay awake in class today?’

  Rob avoided looking directly at his teacher. It had taken him ages to get a sobbing, shaking Millie to sleep last night. He’d had to answer a dozen and more questions as he sat on her bed comforting her, and even more on the way to school this morning. His sister had finally accepted that the soldier they’d seen being carried into the clinic had probably died of his wounds during the journey in the cart. But Rob could not think why he’d been put into the cart in the middle of the night to be transported to the clinic in the first place. Why was the whole operation shrouded in so much secrecy?

  ‘Well?’ Miss Finlay was waiting for an explanation.

  Jed swivelled in his seat to stare at Rob.

  ‘Erm, my mother wasn’t well . . . she couldn’t sleep.’ Rob knew it was a shabby thing to do – speaking about his mother like that – but it was the only excuse he could think of.

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Miss Finlay’s face softened in sympathy. ‘Tomorrow’s Saturday. I could come round in the afternoon and see if I can be of any help . . .’

  ‘No!’ Rob cried out. The last thing he wanted was his teacher coming to his house. Jed smirked as Rob muttered a reply. ‘Thank you very much, but my mother would get more upset, and she has medicine, and she’ll not forget tonight – and I can . . . that is, Millie and I will make sure she takes it.’

  ‘Well, all right, then’ – Miss Finlay smiled at him – ‘but please let your mother know of my offer.’

  ‘I will. Yes, I will do that.’ Rob nodded his head several times.

  As soon as their teacher was busy at her desk, Jed leaned over. ‘You can put your mother in that clinic that you and your sister are always hanging around. They’ll know what medicine to give her.’

  ‘Shut up, you!’ said Kenneth.

  Rob gave his friend a grateful glance and went on with his work. But Jed’s remarks lingered in his mind. How did Jed know about their visits to the clinic? When Jed was out of school he went to work at Glebe Farm. He didn’t have any free time to spy on them. Rob looked out of the classroom window. In the distance, the farm buildings were silhouetted on the summit of the hill behind the village.

  Of course! Glebe Farm was so high up that it surveyed the whole valley. Jed, working in the yard, could see anyone going in and out of the woods. Rob’s chest tightened with tension. Standing there, Jed would not only have a view of Mill House, he’d also be able to see the shed where the puppy was hidden! He must have noticed them going in there and Millie taking the puppy out for exercise as she did every afternoon.

  Rob turned his head. Jed was still wa
tching him.

  At the end of the school day Jed trailed after Rob and Millie on their way home.

  As they went past the last house in the village, he came closer and, putting on Miss Finlay’s voice, called out, ‘What were you two doing yesterday evening that you cannot stay awake in class today?’

  ‘Walk faster,’ Rob muttered to Millie.

  But when they increased their pace, so too did Jed. ‘I know what you’re doing. You stopped me when I tried to enlist. I’m going to tell about you, and then you’ll get into trouble.’

  ‘Don’t listen to him, Millie,’ said Rob.

  Millie turned round and stuck out her tongue at Jed.

  In answer Jed scrabbled under the hedgerow for a lump of earth and threw it at them.

  A shower of dirt rained down. Millie stopped to shake it out of her hair. Taking advantage, Jed closed in. Now he had a stone in his hand. If he’d been on his own, Rob would have sprinted for the cottage, but he knew that Millie would never be able to keep up.

  He gave his sister a quick push. ‘We’re almost at the bend in the road. I’ll wait behind and hold him off while you run home.’

  The stone struck Rob on his leg.

  ‘I’m not leaving you,’ said Millie.

  ‘Bring Nell to help me,’ Rob told her.

  Millie shook her head. ‘It’ll take too long. Jed could hurt you badly before I get back.’

  Rob put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. It might be too far for Nell to hear, but it was worth a try. They’d reached the part where the road curved and they couldn’t be seen from the village. Rob turned round, fists up, ready for a fight. Jed came on, grinning.

  ‘I can thump you anytime using only one hand,’ he boasted.

  ‘Not both of us, you can’t.’ Millie put up her own puny fists and stood beside Rob.

  ‘Need a girl to rescue you?’ Jed sneered.

  ‘Go away, Millie,’ Rob said. ‘You’ll only get hurt. Jed is such a coward that he wouldn’t mind if he hit a wee girl.’

  Jed hesitated.

  ‘If you take another step, I’ll scream,’ said Millie. ‘Nell will hear me and come running ’cos I can scream really big screams.’

  Rob knew that this was true. She didn’t do it so much now, but when Millie was younger and fell over in the playground, her screams had been spectacularly loud.

  Jed was remembering this too. He hesitated. Then he glanced towards the village. Kenneth had appeared on the road.

  ‘Millie!’ cried Rob. ‘Kenneth will help me. You race to the cottage and bring Nell.’

  Jed retreated. He picked up a few stones and lobbed them at Rob before running away.

  Rob waited for Kenneth to catch up with them. Kenneth’s house was in the opposite direction, so he must have come this way for a special reason.

  ‘Is there a hospital train due?’ Millie asked as soon as Kenneth was within earshot.

  ‘Tomorrow,’ said Kenneth. ‘They got word at the depot. Dad came in off his shift there and told me. I thought you’d like to know. Lots of carriages. Coming through at first light.’

  ‘Thanks for telling us,’ said Rob. ‘I’ – he looked at Millie – ‘we’ll be there.’

  Kenneth gave him a friendly punch on the arm. ‘Good luck,’ he said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  AROUND MIDNIGHT ROB was woken by Nell snuffling at his face. When he got downstairs, Millie was already waiting with her basket of jam sandwiches.

  Rob lifted the haversack he’d packed earlier with a spare lantern, matches and a blanket. Moving so fast across the pasture land and into the woods meant they had no time to wonder about spirits or let fear build inside them. But once they were in the woods it was very different. The falling leaves rustled like ghostly cloaked figures hurrying at their heels. Spiky outlines of already bare branches threw weird patterns ahead of them on the path. They got to the wall, tense and out of breath. Rob hefted Millie up and over, and then followed her, to find Jack waiting for them on the other side.

  ‘I’m patrolling—’

  ‘– the perimeter.’ Rob finished the sentence for him. ‘Well done, soldier,’ he added, remembering that Millie had said she thought Jack liked being praised.

  ‘We may have a long wait,’ said Jack. ‘There’s lots of activity on the third floor.’

  ‘I’ve brought sandwiches.’ Millie held out her basket.

  Jack took it from her but kept hold of his bayonet in his other hand.

  ‘They’re not all for you,’ Millie explained to him. ‘We’re going to meet a hospital train and I want to keep some in case my daddy is on it.’

  Jack paused in munching his bread. ‘I was on a hospital train,’ he said. ‘They handcuffed me to a post. But I found a key to unlock them. I’m good at finding things.’

  ‘You must be,’ said Rob, noticing that Jack had tucked the bayonet firmly under his arm as he was eating. ‘How did you manage to get hold of a bayonet inside the clinic?’

  Jack tapped the side of his nose. ‘There’s all sorts of storerooms in the basement, and when I was sent on patrol into no-man’s-land, I learned to move like a shadow in the night. So I’ve got me a hoard of useful stuff hidden away in the coal cellar for when I need it.’

  ‘The hospital train is coming through at dawn,’ Millie went on. ‘Do you think the ghost will appear before then?’

  ‘Ghosts walk in the dark,’ Jack said as they settled themselves under the trees. He offered Nell some bread and she went and sat beside him.

  After waiting for half an hour, Millie shivered and said, ‘It’s colder tonight.’

  Rob too was cold and he could see that Jack was becoming restless. His tremors had started up and the muscles on his face were twitching. Something was needed to distract his attention and prevent his thoughts from sliding away to the place where his nightmares lived.

  ‘I’ve an idea.’ Rob spoke to Millie under his breath. ‘We could go to the shed . . .’

  To his relief, his sister smiled and agreed. ‘You always have good ideas, Rob! It would be warmer, and I think Jack would like to see the puppy.’

  ‘Puppy?’ Jack looked distressed. ‘War is not where a puppy should be. Bad enough for messenger dogs, but not for a pup, no.’

  ‘The puppy is safe.’ Millie took Jack’s hand. ‘Come and I’ll show you.’

  When they got to the bushes and Jack realized that he would have to crawl on all fours to worm his way through, his whole body began to shake.

  ‘Barbed wire,’ he said. ‘Can’t get through the barbed wire. Never get through the wire. They said the wire would be gone, but it wasn’t. Coils and coils of it. Alfie was left hanging on the wire, and Patrick, and Joe Priestly, and—’

  ‘Nell’s going through,’ Millie interrupted him. ‘Follow her and you’ll be safe.’

  Jack frowned as she went into the tunnel that Rob had created. She called for the dog to come after. Nell waited, looking from Jack to Rob until Rob nodded his head. As soon as Nell went in among the bushes, Jack bent down and followed her.

  The puppy was overjoyed to see them. Millie lifted him up and put him in Jack’s arms. ‘His name is Sandy,’ she said, ‘’cos he’s got a sandy-coloured tip on his ear.’

  Jack’s manner changed at once. He dropped the bayonet on the ground and went to sit in a corner, crooning to the bundle on his lap.

  Rob made Millie a bed on the floor and wrapped her in the blanket. ‘I’ll keep lookout,’ he said. He changed the angle of the telescope to train it on the house and watched until the lights glowing from the top-floor windows finally went out.

  An hour passed, maybe more. Gradually Millie’s chatter subsided. Rob clicked his fingers at Nell and pointed to his sister. Nell went to lie beside her to keep her warm. Millie reached out to cuddle the dog and immediately fell asleep. Jack sat stroking the puppy, and soon Sandy too was sleeping. Rob shifted position. He took out his grandfather’s pocket watch and looked at the time. Gone three o’clock. He could f
eel his eyelids drooping. He yawned, forcing his lids open, and stared out into the night. The windows of the house were blank.

  And then . . .

  One moment there was nothing. The next moment—

  In the end window stood a figure in white.

  With thudding heart Rob pressed one eye to the eyepiece. A wisp of cloud drifted over the moon. His vision blurred. He adjusted the focus. Then the cloud shifted and the moon showed through again. The figure in white moved closer to the window; close enough to be recognized.

  It was the soldier who’d been taken, lifeless, from the cart last night.

  Rob was looking at the face of a dead man.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ROB LET OUT a cry and the telescope tumbled from its stand.

  ‘Attack! Attack!’ Jack sprang up, bayonet in hand.

  ‘Be quiet!’ Rob shushed him. ‘We mustn’t wake everyone.’

  Jack was trembling all over. ‘Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see the ghost soldier?’

  ‘I saw something,’ said Rob. His own hands were shaking as he climbed onto his fire step and replaced the telescope. He focused it again on the end of the house. The window was empty.

  ‘You did see him, didn’t you?’ Jack’s tone was one of desperate pleading. ‘Didn’t you?’

  Rob looked into Jack Otterby’s eyes and saw the depths of his fear that he was going completely mad. Rob realized that how he answered this question was extremely important. Blood was thrumming in Rob’s brain, but of one thing above all he was absolutely certain. Although there was nothing there now, a moment ago there had been a figure in white standing in the end window of the third floor of the house.

  ‘There was a soldier standing at the window,’ he told Jack. ‘I saw him. The moon was out and I saw him.’

  Relief vibrated through Jack. ‘It’s true!’ he sobbed. ‘I’m not hallucinating. You saw the ghost soldier too!’

  Rob nodded.