Free Gracie's Sin by Freda Lightfoot

Nervous of being caught where she’d no right to be, Lou crept to this door and peeped through.
    ‘Hello! Anyone there? Rosieee!’ No reply. She glanced back at Gracie and, encouraged by her nod of agreement, tried again, taking a few steps along the stone passage. ‘Hello!’ Somewhere in the gloom ahead Lou thought she heard a rumble of sound and waited, trying to decide what it was exactly. She jumped when she felt something move beside her, but it was only Gracie and the two girls clung to each other, remaining very still as they listened.
    ‘Sounds like some sort of machine, in dire need of a drop of oil I should think, judging by all that whining noise its making. Mebbe she’s vaccuuming and can’t hear us.’
    ‘Could it be a dog?’
    ‘Surely not. No dog would whine so much, would it?’
    ‘What should we do?’ Gracie edged along the passage, uncertain, straining to penetrate the gloomy darkness ahead.
    ‘Happen we should just walk in, bold as brass like. What do you reckon? If we saw Lord Clovellan himself, we could say we’d popped in to have a chat with Rose. Back home in Rochdale, folk burst in without even knocking, at all hours of the day and night.’
    ‘Sadly, Lou, this isn’t anything like Rochdale. They might think we were trespassing, or trying to steal the family silver.’
    ‘Nay! Why would they think that?’ But Lou considered the point with all seriousness and finally conceded Gracie was probably right. She was disappointed all the same, having been looking forward to seeing Rose again, and she somehow felt the need to know that the girl was all right. ‘I just thought...’ Lou began, then became aware of a strange musty odour which she hadn’t noticed before. It brought her up short, causing a cold, chill prickle of fear to creep down her spine. Then she felt the faintest touch upon her neck. ‘What was that? Did you feel something?’
    ‘No, could be a ghost.’
    Lou started, ‘Oh don’t even suggest such a thing.’ Another sound, higher pitched this time, like an eery cry, followed by a noise like a door banging. ‘Eeh heck, happen you’re right. I don’t like this place. Too quiet by half. I’m off.’
    So saying she turned tail and ran, Gracie at her heel, chuckling softly, though what she could find so amusing about all of this, Lou failed to imagine. Even her own rather droll sense of humour had quite deserted her. She felt chilled to the bone with the creepiness of the place. Nothing would persuade her ever to go near it again. Rose would have to come to them. They scampered back through the kitchen, the pantries and larders, and out into the courtyard where Lou let out a great sigh of relief.
    ‘By heck, that were a rum do. What do you reckon made that noise?’
    Gracie said nothing, merely gazed at her friend out of wide, suspiciously bright eyes.
    They left the bicycle propped up in the laundry with a note attached to the handlebars, inviting Rose to come over any evening for a gossip. Then they set off back to camp, Gracie still struggling to stifle her giggles. It was only when Lou finally lost patience and insisted that she explain what was so damned funny, did Gracie admit that it had been she who’d tickled Lou’s neck, with the fringe of her scarf. ‘I was the ghost.’
    Lou let out a great roar, Gracie squealed in pretended alarm and the pair were racing back up the long drive, their fright and nervousness forgotten and only the fun remaining.
    Had they looked back at the house, they might have seen the pale outline of a heart-shaped face in one of the hooded windows, watching them go.

Chapter Five
     
    Part of their responsibility was to ensure that the quality of the wood they cut was of the very best. To hammer this home, a day or two later they were woken an hour earlier than usual, loaded up onto the lorries and taken to visit a mine. The Supervisor was in charge as usual, though Matron came along too.
    ‘Just to keep you gels in order,’ she