Free Ghosts of Rathburn Park by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

only shook her head and hurried on. Not until they were all the way back to the basement window with the missing pane did she stop and turn to face him. Her strange wildcat eyes were glittering again as she said, “Okay. Now what were you trying to say?” And then before he could think where to start, “But hurry! You have to get going.”
    For a moment Matt was tongue-tied. There were so many questions he wanted to ask. And sure enough, when he finally decided, it was obviously the wrong choice. “Who’s Dolly?” he asked. Amelia’s stare froze into an icy scowl and, turning her back on him, she pushed open the window.
    “Go on. Get out,” she said.
    Matt hesitated. “Aren’t you coming?”
    She shrugged. “Why should I? You know the way now.”
    “But the swamp,” he protested. “I don’t know my way across the swamp.”
    Amelia sighed and threw up her hands. “Well, you ought to,” she said. “It’s not that hard. Anyone can do it.”
    Matt managed a rueful grin. “Anyone but Frankie?”
    She started to smile and then swallowed it. “Yeah, anyone but klutzes like you and old Frankie. Well, come on then. I’ll go with you. But hurry.”
    They were still crossing the Palace’s overgrown garden when Matt caught up with Amelia, grabbed the back of her dress and pulled her to a stop. “Why won’t you tell me about Dolly? Somebody was yelling Dolly. You must have heard it. I just wanted to know who she is.”
    She shook her head, still glaring fiercely. “I don’t know anything about any Dolly,” she said. “You must have imagined it. Come on. We have to hurry.”
    Matt was sure he hadn’t imagined it, and somehow Amelia’s angry reaction made him all the more sure it was something he needed to find out about. But for the time being, he changed the subject. His next questions were about how many servants the Rathburns had now and if they still used the servants’ hallways, but Amelia didn’t answer those questions either.
    Matt went on asking questions without getting any answers until they reached the edge of the swamp. For a while after that the only question he could concentrate on was whether he was going to make it across, but as soon as he was back on dry land he began to try again.
    Catching up with Amelia, he said, “Hey, who else lives in the Palace now, besides you? Who else is in your family?”
    “Nobody,” she said. “Nobody else is exactly in my family.”
    “Wow,” Matt said. “You mean you don’t have any sisters and brothers and like that?” Then, as Amelia trudged on silently, “What’s the matter with you? Why won’t you tell me anything?”
    No answer. It wasn’t until they were back to the park and almost across the baseball field that Amelia suddenly stopped, turned to face Matt and said, “Okay. Okay. You want to know everybody’s secrets. I’ll show you a real one. Wait till you see this. Come on.”
    Matt’s first reaction was suspicion. Like, this particular secret would turn out to be just a way to get his mind off the kinds of questions Amelia didn’t want to answer. But after a moment he began to change his mind. What changed it was something about the expression on her face. A nervous, excited expression like she had just made an important decision.
    Actually, the thought of a nervous Amelia made Matt a little uneasy. A part of his mind was telling him that when a person who went through quicksand and dark basements without batting an eye was about to do something that made her nervous, it might be something you ought to think twice about doing. But another part of his mind said, “Okay. Let’s go.”
    Walking fast, like she wanted to get to wherever she was going before she had time to change her mind, Amelia led the way across the ball field and the parking lot, and then down the path that led to the old church. In the ruined entryway Matt’s bicycle was still leaning against the wall and Amelia stopped to stare at it. As he watched her run her