Grim Hill: The Forgotten Secret (Grim Hill Series)

by Linda DeMeulemeester

  “But my friend Ann had been standing beside me at that moment. She jumped in and also said in front of everyone, in an even louder voice, that I was ‘cuckoo,’ or as you young people say nowadays, ‘nuts’…”

  I didn’t interrupt her to mention we would just say “crazy.”

  “Ann said how any girl would be happy to go to the dance with Gordie – and would he please go with her.”

  “So did he end up going with Ann?” I asked as I thought, Please tell me things turned out all right.

  Lucinda shook her head, and at first I thought it was because my voice had snapped her back to the here and now. But instead she clutched Gordie’s valentine, and I couldn’t help notice how it quivered in her trembling hands.

  “You know,” Lucinda said, “I remember the beginning of the dance – how much fun it was – but the rest is a fog. My time gets all mixed up lately.”

  Lucinda was very old and I worried how pale she’d become – her skin was almost translucent and her clear crystal eyes had somehow faded since the last time I’d seen her. Lucinda wrung her hands together. “I just don’t remember whom I went with, or if Gordie came at all. But I think that at the time it was all just typical teen trouble, Cat, not fairy trouble …”

  So the dance went off fine. Lucinda and her classmates had enjoyed themselves. If the dance had gone wrong, would the boxes of decorations still be sitting on our art shelf? Darkmont wasn’t exactly the type of school that updated equipment regularly. There was no budget to discard stuff that was still in good shape.

  The rest of the evening, Jasper and I carried boxes out of the Greystones’ garage. When we’d finished, Alice came out and dug through her leather handbag. “How much do we owe you two for cleaning the garage?”

  “Nothing,” Jasper and I both said in surprise.

  “Please, I insist.” Alice placed twenty dollars each in Jasper’s and my hands.

  “Thank you, but …” I said, feeling funny taking their money. They were our friends. It didn’t seem right.

  “We shouldn’t …” Jasper handed his money back, but Alice refused to take it.

  “Well … thank you. This is great because I’m trying to earn enough money to buy a dress for our Valentine’s dance.” I folded the money in my pocket.

  “You buy a new dress and have fun,” said Lucinda as she stepped out on the porch. She seemed shaky, and she’d wrapped herself in a heavy shawl.

  As Jasper and I got ready to leave, Alice whispered to me, “Enjoy your dance. Just be careful, Cat.”

  CHAPTER 9 - Love’s Dangerous Charm

  ON FRIDAY, DANCE lessons reached a low point. The girls had thought the lessons would be their big opportunity to secure their partners for the Valentine’s dance. But Mr. Morrows and Ms. Dreeble had us rotate to new partners with each new song. Mr. Morrows kept barking out, “Switch partners!” as he swept around the room with Ms. Dreeble in his arms. Was that a whiff of cologne I detected?

  The guys didn’t seem to mind all the partner changing. Currently Mitch and Zach were competing with each other on how hard they could spin their partners. When Mitch tossed Amanda high in the air and she let out a frightened cry, Mr. Morrows bellowed, “Enough, Mitch. That’s your last warning. This is ballroom dancing, not swing dancing – no tossing.”

  “Ow. Stop watching everyone else and stomping on my foot,” my current partner complained to me.

  “Sorry,” I said. I’d danced with four boys in the last half hour and stomped on all their feet. If I didn’t get the hang of this fox-trotting and rumba-ing, no one would come near me at the dance. I tried concentrating, but just as I was getting into the rhythm and matching my slide steps, Ms. Dreeble announced, “Please change partners.”

  Clive grabbed my hand. “Do you think you can manage a few basic steps without falling on your butt?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

  For someone who had lots of complaints when we danced, I wondered why Clive chose me for his partner every single time – no matter how I tried to dodge him. Whatever. Using my übersoccer-goal focus, I counted steps and remembered which foot went first and I followed his lead. Until, that is, Mr. Morrows switched the song and we were now supposed to waltz. It’s pretty hard to waltz when you try to stay as far away from a boy as possible, only lightly grazing your hand over his and not putting your other hand on his shoulder. It’s a logistical problem really, because that way you can’t anticipate which direction the boy is going in and …

  “Hey! You stepped on my foot on purpose,” Clive complained loudly.

  “No I didn’t.”

  “Cat, that paragraph I asked you to write – make it a five-hundred-word report,” Ms. Dreeble shouted over her shoulder as Mr. Morrows sashayed her around the dance floor.

  “Now look what you did,” I argued with Clive.

  “It’s your own fault,” he said taking my hand firmly and trying to propel me across the dance floor. “You heard the teacher before: guys are supposed to be the leaders.”

  As if! And when Clive launched into the next step, I snatched my hand away. He overshot his stride and collided with Zach, who then collided with Jasper, who’d finally managed to get Mia as his partner. Suddenly all the guys thought it was hilarious to collide with each other, and I had to leave the gym quickly before Ms. Dreeble blamed me. But others blamed me.

  *

  “Cat, it’s hard enough to get the boys to pay attention to us on the dance floor without you starting a stupid chain reaction.” Mia stepped in front of me as Emily, Amanda, and Lea were taping foil hearts all over the wall. We’d already begun decorating the gym with the Valentine’s decorations, but we were planning to leave the lanterns until last, so some stupid boys wouldn’t knock them all down with basketballs. Not that I was mentioning any names.

  “The next time we were to change partners, I would have been with Mitch,” Mia almost shouted. “But no, you don’t cause any trouble when I get all the boring dancers. Just as I’m about to dance with the boy I like, you have to get into it with Clive, and we all get dismissed early from the lesson.”

  I was glad Jasper wasn’t with us. That would have hurt his feelings. He wasn’t boring. He was smart and brave, and well, lots of great things that Mia just didn’t notice. And why don’t my friends ever see Clive’s role in all this? At least Jasper didn’t constantly pester Mia to get her attention. Then Amarjeet lit into me.

  “Rabinder was my partner for the first time since we began dance lessons,” she complained. “And we only danced together for about thirty seconds, thanks to you.”

  I didn’t like the angry scowls on my friends’ faces. Then Amanda said, “It’s not like the boys need any help hating this idea. I wonder if we’ll get them on board for the dance – yes, Emily, even if you wear an awesome dress.”

  Emily gave her a cold stare.

  All of a sudden I realized that relationships were like soccer, and that if you just sat around and waited for the ball to come to you, you’d never accomplish anything. You had to be strategic and plan ahead. Then I looked at Lea and got an idea – one of the best ones I ever had. “Maybe there’s a way for us to charm those boys into going to the dance.”

  Both Mia and Amarjeet dropped their scowls, and Emily and Amanda turned their heads my way. They all said simultaneously, “How?” Now I had my friends’ attention.

  “Lea,” I whispered, “what were those herbs you said that help you find your true love?”

  Lea laughed. “Lavender, yarrow, and maybe twitch grass and catnip.”

  “Love charms,” I stalled as I said with authority to everyone. “I might be able to come up with love charms for the girls.”

  “Say again?” asked Amarjeet.

  “Well,” I said, now remembering more about what Lea had told me about some of the plants in Sookie’s garden. “Some herbs are known for their romantic qualities. If you slip yarrow under a pillow, you will find out about your true love.”

  “Sweet,” said Mia.


  “That doesn’t sound practical,” Amarjeet frowned. “How exactly are you going to sneak a love charm under someone’s pillow?”

  “Maybe you don’t have to do that to make a charm work,” I began. Lea smiled reassuringly, prompting me to say, “I’ll figure out a way.” I actually had no idea.

  “I guess it can’t hurt. We obviously need all the help we can get,” said Amarjeet.

  The three other girls nodded. “Count us in.”

  Even Emily said, “Yeah, Zach won’t go to the dance if his friends won’t go.”

  Soon we were swarmed with other girls all wanting to get in on my plan. I’d gained the favor of practically every girl at dance class.

  I only hoped I could deliver.

  CHAPTER 10 - Digging up Trouble

  SATURDAY EVENING I should have been excited going over to Lea’s house. Digging the garden would give me more money to buy my dress, and I really wanted to hang out with Lea. But there was a clunky, sick feeling in my stomach. I hoped I wasn’t getting a flu. Sookie, however, danced on our porch like a top spinning out of control.

  “How can you even grow plants in February?” shouted Skeeter over our back gate. He and Jasper had arrived. “Can I help?” In a shot, Skeeter was on the patio, and in moments, dirt was flying everywhere. A pot got knocked over despite Sookie’s frantic directions.

  “Where’s Clive?” I asked. Trust him to back out at the last minute. And I’d promised Bea he’d be there.

  “He’s meeting us at the witch’s house,” piped Skeeter.

  “I told you about a hundred times. It is not a witch’s house,” explained Sookie. “You shouldn’t be judgmental.”

  “Judge what? Is so! I saw one in the backyard – an evil, ugly witch.” Skeeter used his hands to tug his face into an ugly grimace.

  “Well you have a pretty weird idea of what ugly is,” I said, thinking about how attractive Lea and her aunt were. “You’ll see.”

  Skeeter shook his head doubtfully, but he didn’t seem any less enthusiastic about going over there. I hoped he wouldn’t say anything awful. I’d worked out with Mom that Jasper and I would leave first while Sookie and Skeeter played for a while. That would give us time to hang out with Lea before the pests arrived. As we were leaving, I found Mom in the sewing room pinning patterns and stitching seams.

  “Bye, Mom. Jasper and I are off to Lea’s.”

  Mom glanced up from my outfit she was sewing and said, “Fine, see you later,” and then she turned back to her sewing machine.

  I felt I should say I was saving for a dress and she didn’t have to waste her time, but what if I didn’t make enough money? Except that wasn’t it, I told myself. I knew she’d be disappointed, and I didn’t want to tell her I didn’t really like the skirt and blouse she was making me. So instead I said, “Skeeter’s already in the backyard with Sookie.”

  Mom looked up at me, dropped her material, and rushed outside. Skeeter was an okay kid, but things just had a way of breaking when he played nearby.

  As Jasper and I walked up the path to Lea’s, it was as if all the gathering dark settled thickly around her house. The shadow of Grim Hill stretched right through her yard. Another easterly wind began blowing, banging shutters and creaking the railing as Jasper and I climbed the staircase.

  “Wow,” said Jasper. “This house is a lot creepier in the evening.”

  Strange how it could look so deserted on the outside, but be so cozy on the inside. I lifted the doorknocker and crashed it against the door. We waited a while before the bolt rattled back and the door opened.

  “Cat, Jasper, hi!” Lea wore an amazing green tunic with skinny jeans and emerald sheepskin boots. Again I smoothed out my plain jeans and faded brown sweater, and wiped my black sneakers on the mat. I wished I’d dressed better – even for digging up dirt.

  Lea’s hair glowed in the dim hall light like crimson stained glass, and it was pulled back revealing a sharp widow’s peak that gave her face a heart shape. My dad used to call me his “October girl” because of my cat-green eyes, and he called Sookie his “sunshine girl” because of her blond hair. I wondered if Lea’s dad called her his “Valentine girl” because of the shape of her face. And then I wondered about her mom. Did Lea even have parents? She never mentioned them.

  Right away Lea whisked us up to her room, and Jasper did a double-take of all her books. Even he was impressed, and in no time Lea had loaned him a book of poems, which he tucked in his bag.

  “Girls like poetry, right?” he asked us. I guessed so, but Lea assured him most girls did.

  That was the neat thing about Lea, she had it all: looks, coolness, and loads of clothes, books, and jewelry, but it was as if it all meant little to her. I suspected you could ask for anything of hers, and she’d give it to you. Even though she’d been invited into Darkmont’s coolest inner circle, she only seemed to join those kids if I was there. She didn’t hang out with anyone else after school. I got the feeling she was a bit of a loner, actually.

  I wondered if she’d had many friends in her old town – if she’d been as popular. I was so curious, I asked, “So what town did you live in before? Do you keep in touch with your old friends?”

  Lea hung her head and mumbled something in a strange whispery voice she got when she spoke softly. It almost sounded like rustling paper caught in the wind. Then a terrible racket broke out downstairs. Someone was mercilessly hammering the doorknocker. Jasper and I looked at each other and said, “Clive’s here.” I hoped Lea appreciated me sacrificing our time together so her aunt could have another helper.

  When we opened the door, it amused me to see Clive’s eyes wide with nervousness. So he didn’t appreciate waiting out there on the porch in the dark. He always tried to make it seem as if he was so brave … actually, he sort of was, but that didn’t mean it should always go to his head. As soon as he saw me, he smirked. As Lea ushered him inside, Mom dropped off Sookie and Skeeter and they rushed up the steps.

  As they came in, Skeeter whispered something in Sookie’s ear, and I overheard, “Let’s look for the witch.” My face burned, but when I glanced at Lea, she seemed not to have heard. Sookie simply shook her head.

  “Ah, my gardeners have arrived.” Aunt Bea came out from the back of the house dressed in a peculiar gardening outfit. A long silky grey dress that swirled around her bare feet.

  Skeeter for once had nothing to say. We went out back and all grabbed shovels from the garden shed.

  “What’s in there?” asked Skeeter.

  At the end of the backyard, a whole section of the garden next to the graveyard had been closed in – the part of the garden that I’d seen dug up before. A tall fence had been built since I’d last been here, and amazingly, a tangle of thorny vines had already sprung up and covered the fence. That was fast. Sookie-fast. I grew wary. Skeeter ran over to the gate and tugged.

  “It’s locked,” he complained.

  “That is where I keep my most delicate flowers,” said Bea. “I close it off to keep it safe from pests.”

  For a second, I thought Lea’s aunt was talking about Skeeter, but then she smiled and said in a voice that sounded a bit chilling, “I cannot abide cats digging in my special garden.”

  We got right to work. I lifted a garden pick and slammed it hard into the ground over and over again. Pretty soon a blister boiled on my hand, and Lea kindly ran off to fetch me a pair of thick gardening gloves. Jasper and Clive dug into the ground with their shovels and turned up dense clods of grass.

  Sookie waltzed around in a ridiculous gardening outfit: a gigantic yellow straw hat, rubber boots, and an apron with pockets stuffed with miniature gardening tools. Sookie hovered by Lea’s aunt and helped her dig out potted plants all the while asking her endless questions about herbs.

  “Go play with Sookie,” I urged Skeeter. He could be pretty obedient when he wanted to be. He dropped his shovel and ran toward her.

  Lea carried out plant trays from the shed and from a broken-down g
reenhouse, and piled them by the garden.

  I noticed how every time she walked our way, Jasper and Clive stopped digging, leaned on their shovels, and got goofy smiles on their faces. It was hard work and their behavior slowed us down even more.

  Next, Skeeter tried sneaking a peek at the closed garden. When he tried crawling under the gate, Lea’s aunt moved quickly toward him, and for some reason, my heart sped up.

  “You need a special job,” was all she said to Skeeter. “Why don’t you come into the shed with me? I’ve got something I think you’ll like.”

  When Skeeter came out, he carried a drum. You could hold the drum in your hand like a large tambourine and bang it with both ends of a stick.

  “What kind of a drum is that?” I asked Bea.

  “It’s Irish,” Bea said. “Skeeter, why don’t you beat out a rhythm for us all to keep pace. It will make the work go faster.”

  With enthusiasm, Skeeter started banging away. Oddly enough, it was as if my heart began to match each beat. When Skeeter quickened the pace, so did I. Before we knew it, the garden was ready for planting. Skeeter kept up the drumming, and in a short time all of Bea’s plants were tucked into the soil. All except for about a dozen plants that Bea had given to Sookie to bring home.

  Then as bold as could be, Skeeter asked, “If you gave Sookie some plants, can I keep the drum?”

  My face flushed and then I thought, Hey, he’s not my brother. I looked at Clive. He simply shrugged his shoulders.

  Bea seemed unfazed. She smiled at Skeeter and said, “Certainly.” Then she came over and paid Clive, Jasper, and me fifty dollars each!

  “Wow, thanks,” said Clive pocketing his money. Jasper thanked her profusely. So did I.