Free Rose 4: Rose and the Silver Ghost by Holly Webb Page B

tail wrapped around a rose stem, and the little sharp-eyed face peering out from between the thorns. ‘The mouse in the roses is the sign of the Fells. Some strange dream that one of our ancestors had long ago, I think.’
    Rose ran her finger over the little mouse, smiling. It seemed a more suitable emblem for her family than a proud lion, or a gryphon or some such fabled beast. She felt at home with a mouse.
    ‘I knew that things must be very wrong, when he handed it to me.’ Miss Fell’s voice was threadlike. ‘She wouldn’t have given it up easily.’ She struggled up out of the chair, looking suddenly exhausted. ‘I am going back to bed. I would appreciate it, dear ones, if you could manage not to produce any more disasters until late morning. Perhaps even after lunch.’
    Rose and Bella nodded guiltily, and then Rose suddenly had to strangle the most enormous yawn. Miss Fell had very strict ideas on young ladies yawning. One simply didn’t.
    ‘I am coming to sleep on your bed, Rose,’ Gus announced. ‘I approve of your new bedroom, very much, although I wouldn’t personally have chosen that odd violet shade for the curtains. But in general a much more fitting place for me to sleep.’ He wove himself around her ankles as she walked wearily to the door. ‘I will guard the mirror for you, if you like. Or are you going to sleep holding it?’ He stared up at her, his mismatched eyes bright and knowing, and Rose blushed scarlet.

    ‘If ever I fight with you again, Rose, you must just remind me of all this,’ Freddie muttered.
    They were sitting in the workroom with a plate of toast that Rose had begged from Mrs Jones, since they had all slept through breakfast. Bella and Rose were explaining everything that had happened since they found the painting to Freddie. Gus was apparently asleep in front of the fire, but his tail twitched irritably every time he disagreed with the girls’ storytelling.
    ‘I can’t believe you’re a Fell.’ Freddie shook his head. ‘That’s like magical royalty, Rose. One of the Fells back in Tudor times had a pet dragon, or so everyone says.’
    There was a disgusted sniff from the hearthrug, and Freddie glared. ‘They do say it! Just because you don’t believe in dragons it doesn’t mean I can’t. And I do.’
    ‘Stop talking fairy tales and do something useful with that mirror.’ Gus stretched himself paw by paw as he uncoiled from the mat.
    Rose blinked. She had the mirror on the table in front of her, at a safe distance from the toast. She hadn’t wanted to leave it in her room. ‘Such as what?’
    ‘Scry in it, of course! Have you forgotten what you borrowed it for?’
    ‘But we don’t need to now, Miss Fell told us about my mother.’ Rose frowned at Gus, who had jumped on to the table and was sniffing thoughtfully at the mirror again.
    ‘You did start to see something in it.’ Bella, who had been playing idly with a crust of toast, sat up straight, her eyes eager. ‘You said so, while Miss Fell was being so frightening. In fact, it was interesting enough that you didn’t even notice her.’
    Rose nodded. ‘A strange black tunnel. I think there was someone about to come out of it.’ She shuddered. ‘Or something, perhaps. It could have been anything.’
    ‘If we all do it together we’re even more likely to make it work,’ Freddie suggested, fingering the silver roses. ‘Don’t you think?’
    ‘Let Rose hold it,’ Gus told him. ‘She is the one with the family connection. You and Bella can hold her , and lend her the strength of your magic.’
    Rose nodded. Family connection, Gus had said. It made her heart jitter in a strange way. It wasn’t family in the sense she had thought of it – it was more like history. A very distant relative with a pet dragon. A link to a family house. Even if it was all about to fall down because her grandfather had been so furious with her mother. ‘I still don’t know what we’re actually looking for,’ she