Free A New Darkness by Joseph Delaney

what had happened. It almost drove her insane, so she came to tell me what to expect.”
    “I saw the dead from a very early age,” I told her. “You’re fifteen now, so you must have been twelve when your mother came to see you. All those years, and nothing unusual had happened?”
    “I heard a few whispers in the dark, and once something touched me with a cold finger, but I just put it down to my imagination. My real mam said things don’t start to happen until you’re at least thirteen. Perhaps it’s different for a seventh son.”
    I nodded. That was a possibility . . . but I still needed to be sure. If Jenny’s mother had died, maybe I could talk to her other daughters, to check that Jenny was telling the truth. I was finding this hard. I had nobody I could ask for advice. “So what was your mother’s name, and where did she live?”
    “She wouldn’t tell me her name or where she lived.”
    I sighed in exasperation. If the girl was telling the truth, then discovering the whereabouts of her blood sisters would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The family home would now be occupied by someone else, and Jenny’s older sisters would no doubt have families of their own.
    Could I trust her? I wondered.
    I shrugged. I was about to find out. We’d go and do the test now. If Jenny truly was a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, she would pass the haunted-house test. While some who entered that house might just feel uneasy, thinking they were being watched or hearing a few raps, a seventh son of a seventh son would be receptive to the full ghast experience there. If she really did have similar powers, it would be the same for her.
    “We’ll head for Horshaw,” I told her. “I’m going to give you the same test that my master gave me and all his other apprentices.”
    “I can’t say I’m looking forward to it,” Jenny said, “but I’ll do my best. Whatever I face can’t be as bad as being in the tree hanging by my feet with that beast drinking my blood and biting me.”
    She was certainly correct there, but in the tree she had been tied up and in no position to run. First of all, I needed to know if she could hear the ghasts. And second, if she would simply run. It was no good taking on an apprentice who fled at the first sign of danger.

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HarperCollins Publishers
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    10
    The Haunted House
    I handed Jenny my bag. “You’ll be carrying this from now on,” I told her. “It’s one of the jobs apprentices have to do.”
    I was quite capable of carrying my own bag, but I was following in my master’s footsteps, upholding the traditions that he’d learned from his own master, Henry Horrocks.
    She smiled, but then pulled a face when she felt its weight. “What’s inside this—the kitchen sink?” she asked. “When do I get my own bag and a staff?”
    “Pass the test, and I’ll give you a temporary staff until we get a chance to have one made for you. . . . By the way,” I said mischievously, “a spook reserves the right to give his apprentice a new name. So which one would you prefer? I have three: Pixie, Buttercup, or Nettle?”
    She didn’t reply. Obviously she didn’t appreciate my sense of humor.
    So I made my expression stern. “Now come on—follow me and don’t dawdle. We’ve quite a few miles to cover before sunset.”
    Jenny gave me a hard stare, and a look of annoyance flickered across her face. She was proud, and no doubt didn’t like being spoken to like that. But she didn’t say anything. I realized I’d told her not to dawdle—and that made me smile to myself. It was one of the expressions that John Gregory had always used.
    Of course Jenny didn’t see my smile. I’d set off at a furious pace, leaving her stumbling along several steps behind. That was another thing my master always used to do. Maybe he did it to set an example when he was in a hurry, but it