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back
out of the light that strayed across the grass. His eyes blinked rapidly
for a moment and then he said, "I'm off," and he would have been
if I hadn't grabbed him. He was going nowhere.
When
I glanced at the windown again, it was easy to see what had bothered him.
It wasn't just the creepy crawly nature of the place, but something far
more eerie. Three hundred yards before us, the room that we had promised
to spy on not only had a light on but something in it which made our knees
knock together. A silhouetted figure stood motionless in the lighted
window.
I
ducked back and tried to discuss with Simeon what to do. I don't think he
heard a word because his chattering teeth made more noise than my
whispers. Somehow though he got the message. I had figured out that if we
went back to the garden's inner wall we could approach the window from the
side of the house instead of approaching it directly down the garden in
the spotlight of the window. Any sort of retreat was popular with Simeon.
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It
didn't take us too long to find our way round to the house, although it
was very dark and we had to be careful not to fall over anything. Like
brambles and discarded gardening tools. I lead the way of course making
sure Simeon was following. Mary Lawrence was going to be mine. She would
never speak to me again if we ran off, and I had to have a witness, so
Simeon was definitely coming.
We
could see the glare of the window from the side as we began to corner an
old buttress. I knew that once we'd got round this we'd be standing
adjacent to the window. I took a deep breath before I siddled up against
it. I could make sure that I would be out of sight of the figure to start
with, but what would happen when I peeked in? I had no idea how close the
figure had been to the window, but it must have been close. It wouldn't
have been so bad if the window had had had some curtains, but it hadn't. I
silently moved into place, and then heard Simeon wheezing behind me. I
could have kicked him. I didn't want to get caught now. |