1 The Ghost The cold winter wind had brought gloom and rain I was glad of it I never liked long walks on chilly afternoons and the bad weather saved me from one Eliza John and Georgiana played around their mama in the drawing room I was not invited Mrs Reed insisted I keep my distance from her and her darlings I preferred my own company anyway I slipped into the breakfast room and sat cross legged in the window seat with a book in my lap Then the door fl ew open Madam Mope cried John Reed Where is she 4
I had drawn the curtain when I slipped into the window seat It was unlikely John would have found me but Eliza put her head in at the door and said She is in the window seat I came out immediately as I had no wish to be dragged out John snatched away my book You have no money and you ought to beg and not live here with gentlemen’s children like us I’ll teach you not to touch my things Everything in this house is mine He insisted I go and stand by the door I went He fl ung the heavy book at me and it knocked me down I struck my head on the door and it began to bleed The blood and the pain opened the door to the anger in me The hot anger that had longed to come out for all the years I had been trapped in that cold house Wicked boy I said You are an evil bully He ran at me then and grabbed my hair I felt a drop or two of blood trickle down my neck and I fought back wildly John screamed 5
and Mrs Reed rushed into the room with our nursemaid Bessie and another maid Abbot Take her away to the red room Mrs Reed said Lock her in there I was dragged upstairs and locked in The red room was kept clean but never used anymore The servants were a bit afraid of it and I was terrifi ed This was the very room where Mr Reed had died many years before Mr Reed was my uncle He was the one who insisted I be brought to live with them when my parents died of typhus fever On his deathbed he had made Mrs Reed swear to raise me as her own It was that promise that froze my blood now Mrs Reed had surely broken it I lived there but she hated me and her children tormented me Would Mr Reed now see their treatment and come back from the grave The very thought of the cold hand of comfort from a ghost made my heart race in my chest 6
