Clifftoppers, page 1
For Auntie Frances and Uncle Max
It was snowing so hard, the path had almost disappeared. The only thing that proved its existence was the snow-laden trees on either side. Apart from the fact that his spectacles kept on fogging up, Aiden was extremely happy. He loved the snow, he loved racing around in the wild with his cousins, and he loved the fact that he and Ava had just defeated Chloe and Josh in their snowball fight at the bottom of the woods. They’d had to keep up a relentless barrage of snowballs to do it and the fight had lasted for at least half an hour. Right now, though, he was pretty sure Josh was sneaking around behind them and would mount an attack any second. For what felt like the millionth time, he took off his specs and defogged them.
“Whoop!” came a voice from his left and a snowball hit him on the cheek, sweeping his glasses from his hands.
“Josh! You total newt!” shouted Ava beside him. Aiden was vaguely aware of more snowballs flying through the trees as he fumbled on the ground for his specs.
“Argh!” shouted Josh.
“You deserved it!” yelled his sister.
Locating his glasses, Aiden wiped them off and looked over to where Josh was rolling around on the ground doing a full-on theatrical death, but still attempting to fire snowballs at them.
“Yay!” yelled Ava, charging towards her brother and dumping a load of snow on his writhing legs.
“I surrender, I surrender,” shouted Josh. “It’s all in my wellingtons!”
“Josh, you idiot!” yelled Chloe, running up through the trees. “We could have taken them!”
“No way,” said Ava, cramming a last handful down Josh’s neck.
“Truce!” said Aiden, picking ice from his collar. “I want to go sledging – I need to warm up.”
“Yes!” said Ava, kicking snow off a green plastic sledge that she’d been using as a shield. “See you at the top of the field.”
Josh stood up, shook the snow from his coat and raced off through the trees to find his sledge, closely followed by Bella, their grandparents’ dog. “Last one there’s a soggy shrimp!” he shouted over his shoulder.
“No way,” replied his sister, and Ava set off across the slope that led up to Frost Castle with Chloe at her side.
Following the two girls, Aiden waded out of a drift, dragging one of Grandpa Edward’s homemade wooden sledges through the gateway and into the field. This sledge was heavier than the others. It would be brilliant at coming down the hill; it was just hard work to pull it up. He didn’t mind, though. He didn’t mind any of it – it was wonderful to be in the countryside with his cousins at New Year. And there was snow!
He stopped to bash clumps of ice from his gloves and looked up the field towards Frost Castle. As he did so, he saw a yellow shape coming fast through the blizzard.
“What on Earth!” he shouted, pointing.
Halfway up the slope, Ava stopped, staring in horror as a small yellow car shot through a hedge, rolled once and slid on its side towards Chloe.
“Run!” yelled Aiden, too far away to do anything. “Run, Chloe – run!
“What?” shouted Chloe, looking back at him down the field. “What – why?”
Aiden gasped as the car continued to slide. “Run! Just run!” He dropped the sledge rope and half running, half falling, struggled over the snow, his feet tangling with Bella’s, both of them barely upright.
Ahead of him, Ava sprang into action. She charged towards Chloe. “Chloe! Move!” she called. Aiden watched in amazement as Ava made a superhuman leap, tackling Chloe’s legs and sweeping her sideways. The two girls somersaulted over the ground and into a snowdrift as the car slid past less than a metre from them.
“Wow!” shouted Josh, staring wide-eyed as the car glided by him. It slowed, ploughed through a thick mound of snow and then finally stopped at the base of a small tree. The tree bent and snapped and dropped its load of snow over the windscreen.
The cousins stared at the car for a moment, stunned, before Josh ran to help Chloe and Ava extract themselves from the snow drift and Aiden headed towards the car. The doors and windows were all closed, and through the snow-covered windscreen Aiden saw no sign of anyone moving inside.
Ready to turn and run at any moment if the car started sliding again, Aiden put out his hand and pushed to see if the car had really stopped moving. It had.
“Hello,” he said, stepping forward and peering through the windscreen. “Hello!” Inside, he could see a person bent forward, hanging from their seatbelt, their hands over their head. He tapped on the glass. “Hello – are you all right?”
The person inside uncurled, their fingers unclasped and, slowly, they raised their head. It was a young woman, and she was white as a sheet. She undid her seatbelt and slid sideways across the car, her head crammed against the driver’s window. He saw her mouth something, and she reached above her head to try and open the door. “It won’t open!” Her voice was muffled. “I can’t get it to move.”
“Hang on,” said Aiden, leaning against the roof and stretching for the handle. It creaked and made weird pinging sounds but he couldn’t actually make it open. He wasn’t tall enough and the angle was awkward.
“Wait a sec.” Ava appeared beside him. “Maybe if we both try. You pull, I’ll try and get my hand in that gap and push from underneath.”
Together with the woman in the car, they shoved and hauled and, eventually, the door inched open.
“Oh my goodness,” said the woman, sticking her head and shoulders through the gap and reaching out to Aiden and Ava. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know,” said Ava as they helped her out. “Are you all right? That looked scary.”
“Did I – did I hit her?” The woman slid to the ground. “There was a girl in front of the car.”
“No,” said Chloe, stumbling to the car, brushing snow off her jacket. “No, luckily, you missed me. Thanks to Ava.”
“I’m so sorry,” said the woman, half standing and then leaning back against the car. “It’s just, so many odd things have happened to me since I started wearing this necklace.” She clasped a small golden pendant hanging from her neck. “And this is the final straw. It sounds crazy but I feel cursed!”
Scarves, middle of nowhere, snowing, yellow car sliding down hill. Cursed??? Why? Josh took a moment to write a quick description of the woman in his little red notebook. She was wearing woolly scarves, wound right up to her nose so he couldn’t really see her properly, but he reckoned she wasn’t actually that old. Maybe nineteen?
She was talking and he was half listening. “It’s been a terrible few days. First there was my uncle’s funeral, then yesterday I had to go to this crusty old solicitor and pick up the things Uncle Cecil had left me – which includes this.” She pulled at the pendant. “And when I got back, I’d been burgled. So I had to sit up waiting for the police. I’m so tired. And now this.” She pointed at the car lying on its side on the snow. Josh thought it looked surprisingly intact.
“A burglary?” asked Aiden.
“Well, attempted burglary – they didn’t actually get in. My neighbour saw a man at the window of my flat, and called the police, so I had to wait for the police to come again this morning before I left, and then just after they’d gone, I realised that I had a flat tyre.”
“Oh dear,” said Chloe.
“So why did you decide to drive in a snowstorm?” asked Ava, holding her hands out on either side as the fat snowflakes landed on the palms of her gloves.
“I had to get to Frost Castle – I thought I was nearly there,” said the woman, looking around.
“S’right there.” Josh pointed through the blizzard to the top of the hill.
“Oh!” The woman turned to look up, and as she did so, one of her scarves dislodged, showing her full face.
Ava stepped back, her jaw falling open “Are – are you Martha Darcy-Court?” she asked, eyes wide. “The Martha Darcy-Court?”
“Who’s Martha Darcy-Court?” whispered Josh to Aiden, who was rescuing a sled rope from Bella’s teeth. Aiden shrugged. Josh wrote Martha Darcy-Court? Who she? in his book.
“Actress,” whispered Chloe. “Famous actress. Starred in Crystal Rose, you know, the film?”
“That’s me,” said Martha, flashing a smile at Josh.
Josh turned his frown into a cheesy grin. Celeb, he wrote.
“Like, really famous,” hissed Chloe.
“Yeah, I got that!” snapped Josh. He put his notebook back in his pocket and stared at Martha. She didn’t look that special. If she was really famous, he thought, she’d be driving a better car or come with a bodyguard or something.
“So, what are you doing at the castle?” asked Ava. Josh could tell that she was trying to sound ordinary, not star-struck, but she was not succeeding. Her voice was all strangled and she had a totally stupid grin on her face.
“I’m in a play. It’s a murder mystery, written by Felicity Meadows. She’s an old friend of my mother’s and I agreed to do it months ago, for charity.”
“Oh, yes.” Ava nodded. “They do something every year – pantomime usually.”
“Well this year Felicity is trying to ‘elevate’ it. Get reviews and coverage, bigger audience.” Martha rolled her eyes. “So, in a weak moment, I said I would take part – I think there are other actors too. Proper ones. It’s just that the weather’s much worse than it was at home and then, when I came over the hill, I lost control and you saw what happened…” She turned and smiled at them all. “Thank you for getting me out of my car – if you hadn t been here, I’d have been trapped.”
“S’nothing,” said Ava.
“You were lucky we were here,” said Josh.
“But are you OK?” asked Chloe. “You haven’t hurt yourself?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” said Martha, shaking off a shiver.
“Course she’s OK – look at her,” grumbled Josh. “She can walk and talk.”
“Sorry about him.” Ava flashed a smile at Martha, grabbed a handful of snow and jammed it down the back of Josh’s waterproof.
Martha looked back at the car. “My laptop’s in there, and my suitcase, and a rather pretty jewellery box that this necklace came in.” She wrinkled her nose and blew away a snowflake. “Although actually, that could be in my suitcase. Do you think we could carry them up the hill?” She unlocked the boot and the bags slid out.
“Yes, let’s get you to the castle,” said Aiden, grabbing Martha’s suitcase as Josh wiggled like crazy, shaking the snow out of his jacket. “It’s freezing out here. We could take you the quickest way?”
“Good idea,” echoed Ava, brushing the snow from her hood and taking the handle of the laptop bag. Josh glared at his sister. Going to Frost Castle sounded suspiciously indoorsy, not at all like playing in the snow. “But—”
No one was listening to him and Josh stared at their backs as they set off across the field. In an effort to slow them down, he took two handfuls of snow and lobbed them at his sister’s back.
He felt a little less miserable when he saw that he had scored a direct hit.
As the snowballs thudded on her back, Ava tried not to react. She was, in fact, star-struck. Martha Darcy-Court was so famous. There was Crystal Rose and she’d been on Saturday Night Singathon and Ava simply couldn’t think of anything to say that didn’t sound stupid. Chloe and Aiden seemed able to talk to Martha and babbled away happily as they stomped up the field. From time to time, Ava would open her mouth and half form a word before feeling clumsy and giving up. She wanted to seem intelligent and elegant. After all, she was the oldest.
Another snowball hit her back.
“Josh!” she snapped. Why did he have to be such a total idiot?
“It’s just here,” said Aiden, holding the gate open for Martha. “If we can get through this path, we’ll be at the side of the castle.”
“Marvellous, thank you so much,” said Martha, following.
Furious with herself and everyone else for being so annoying, Ava waited for Josh.
“I hate you,” he said when he caught up with her.
“I hate you too,” snarled Ava, tipping the snow from the top of the gatepost over her brother’s head.
“Ow!” he howled. Ava gave up all attempts at being elegant and charged off past the others to avoid Josh’s volley of snowballs.
Stumbling through snowdrifts, Chloe ducked down beside a crumbling stone wall that enclosed the castle grounds. She looked up at two grim towers that loomed out of the blizzard. One of them was crumbly but the other looked complete. They were both unlit. An archway to her left gave on to a large courtyard and a shadowy manor house lay behind that. She couldn’t really see it well enough in the snow, but she knew from previous visits that the house joined on to the towers.
Two small rectangles of light showed high over the front door. Otherwise, the place looked deserted.
“Ooh,” said Josh, stopping beside her. “That looks spooky.”
“Haunted,” said Ava.
“Seriously?” asked Martha.
“By the ghost of Anne, Lady of Frost Castle,” said Aiden. “She only appears at New Year.”
Beside Chloe, Josh let out a little squeak.
“What does she do when she appears?” asked Martha, shuddering.
“She howls,” said Aiden, putting on a spooky voice. “And weeps, and she walks the secret corridors, rattling chains and calling for her long dead husband who was executed by Queen Elizabeth the First.”
“How do you know?” asked Ava.
“Grandma told me,” said Aiden. “She also told me that she opens doors and slams them again. It’s really creepy. Felicity, the woman who lives there, doesn’t seem to mind.”
“Do we have to go in?” asked Josh. “I don’t really want to meet a ghost!”
“It’s just a story, Josh,” said Ava, giggling. “It’s not like we haven’t been before, every year in fact – and I’ve never seen a ghost.”
“Anyway!” said Chloe, sounding brisker than she felt. “I think the door’s round here.” She set off through the courtyard towards the two lit windows. Before they reached the enormous door, it swung open and a woman in a brightly coloured cardigan called through the blizzard. “Come in, Martha, come in! I’ve been looking out for you, so glad to see you. And my goodness – Edward and Primrose’s grandchildren too! What a stroke of luck! Have you come to join in?”
“Oh Felicity, I’ve had such a time,” said Martha and then everyone began to talk at once, about the accident and the burglaries, about finding Martha and about how they rescued her from the car. But Felicity was unconcerned and wafted everyone into her hallway so she could close the door against the blizzard.
“How tiresome! Come on in,” she said, kissing Martha on both cheeks. “Simply marvellous to have you, whatever the circumstances. And these little darlings – I could so use them just now! Coats off, darlings, coats off!” Felicity led them from the first hallway into a second.
The first had been large, but this one was huge with a roaring fire. Chloe shook the snow from her jacket, and looked in wonder at her surroundings. She’d been to the pantomimes before but had forgotten how amazing the house was at this time of year. The vast room was wood panelled and every gap and ledge had been decked with garlands of ivy and tinsel. The firelight danced from baubles that hung from the imposing wooden staircase, and an enormous Christmas tree bedecked with glass ornaments stood in the crook of the stairs. It was magical.
“So pretty,” she murmured. “Like something out of a film.”
“Wondrous,” said Martha, from under her scarves.
“Does look good, doesn’t it?” said Felicity. Her chunky jewellery reflected the lights and made her look rather like a Christmas tree herself. “I do love this time of year. I was worried you might not make it, Martha, dear. Now, I know you’re Clifftopper children, but what are your names, eh?”
“Oh, I’m Ava, that’s Josh, my brother, and these are my cousins, Chloe and Aiden,” said Ava. “And that’s Bella – our grandparents’ dog.”
“Of course I know Bella, we’ve met lots of times. How lovely to see you.” Felicity held her hand out to Bella, and Chloe immediately decided that she liked her.
Behind Felicity, a door opened, and Chloe saw a look of wonder cross Ava’s face. “Harry Hobhouse,” Ava whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear. Chloe watched as Harry turned his polished smile towards Ava. With a sigh, Ava melted.
Then Harry caught sight of Martha, and added massive megawatts of smiledom. The white teeth gleamed and his smile seemed to double in size.
“This is Harry,” said Felicity. “My nephew. You may recognise him from Strangers and Friends, that television programme.”
“Friends and Strangers,” said Harry, walking forward, his hand outstretched. Ava reached forward and croaked something unintelligible, but Harry didn’t notice her and headed straight for the swaddled Martha. He hugged her as if they were long-lost friends.
Josh stuck his fingers in his mouth and pretended to be sick.
“Shut up!” hissed Ava. Josh began to shudder with laughter, making it much worse by clamping his hands over his mouth so it just came out as a hiss followed by a high-pitched squeak. Furious, Ava kicked him, and he threw himself to the floor, hooting with laughter. Felicity, Martha and Harry stood and stared at him, which made it all the funnier. Chloe tried to think of something really serious, but felt the giggles bubbling up from her chest and watched as Aiden’s shoulders began to shake.
“It’s just, it’s just,” struggled Josh. “Her face…” He pointed at his sister and dissolved into giggles.
As uncontrollable waves of laughter began to sweep over all three of them, the door from the first hall swung open and the strangest-looking man entered.
“Absolutely hopeless! I’ve got a set-building crew, but no one to do lights and sound – and they’re all far too ancient to be runners! Saw your car down there, Martha – shocking! Glad to see you look all right.” The man stamped his feet. Huge lumps of snow fell from his clothes and his beard. “Good grief – a dog! What’s a dog doing here, Felicity?”
