The Curse in the Candlelight

by Sophie Cleverly

“He makes a very … valuable point,” Miss Bowler said.

  Mrs Knight didn’t seem to notice the inflection. I thought she was actually considering what he’d said.

  I grabbed Ariadne’s hand as well. We all held our breath.

  “I think you’re right, Mr McCloud. I think the girls should be allowed to stay.”

  “Thank you, Miss! Thank you!” We all ran forward.

  The headmistress was getting increasingly flustered. “All right, all right!” She waved us away. “But Muriel Witherspoon …” She turned to her. “What are we going to do with you?”

  “Well,” Madame Zelda piped up, “there’s only one way to get rid of a witch.”

  “NO!” we all yelled at her. Mrs Knight blinked at us.

  “You don’t want to know, Miss,” I said.

  Chapter Forty

  IVY

  n the end, the only person to be expelled was Muriel.

  I almost felt sorry for her. She cried and protested when Mrs Knight said her parents would have to be called.

  “This is all your fault,” she hissed at Ariadne as she was led away.

  Ariadne ignored her and turned back to us. “It isn’t,” she said with confidence. “I know it isn’t.”

  Scarlet hugged her. “Muriel tried to ruin your life, but all she’s done is ruin her own all over again.”

  “She destroyed her second chance,” I said. “We’ve got to be grateful for ours.”

  “I think we’re on more than two now,” Ariadne said with a smile. “Nine lives, like a cat.”

  I grinned back at her. “Or a lion.”

  As if on cue with all the feline talk, Ebony’s cat strode into the foyer.

  “Midnight!” she cried. “There you are!” She scooped him up in her arms.

  “Ahem.” Her father cleared his throat. “I wondered where the theatre’s best mouser had gone …”

  Ebony turned to him, red-faced. “Sorry, Papa. Here, you take him.” With clear reluctance, she kissed the cat on his forehead and then handed him over. He slung himself over Mr McCloud’s shoulder like a pelt scarf.

  “He’ll be waiting for you,” her father said, giving Ebony a matching kiss on the forehead.

  As they said their goodbyes, I looked back at Scarlet and Ariadne and stifled a yawn. “I’m exhausted.”

  Scarlet agreed. “That’s enough adventure for one night.”

  “At least there will be more to come,” Ariadne said, looking a little embarrassed. “My life would be frightfully dull without the both of you.”

  “And ours without you,” I said.

  And for a moment, we all just grinned at each other. Everything was back to normal.

  We watched as Mr McCloud left with the black cat. He winked over his shoulder, and then they disappeared into the night.

  So Muriel was gone from Rookwood. We heard that her parents had turned up to collect her, so that was something. If her family were willing to take her back, perhaps her life wouldn’t be so ruined after all. Maybe she did have a chance at normality too.

  Things didn’t quite go back to normal for Ebony, though. By Monday morning, the whole school had heard the rumours about what she’d been up to with Muriel. And now they all knew that Ebony was a fraud.

  The first thing I noticed was that nobody was sitting with her at breakfast. They had all moved their chairs as far away from hers as possible.

  “Do you think she’s all right?” Ariadne asked as we watched her despondently clear her plate away and trudge out of the dining hall.

  “She does deserve it,” Scarlet said, through a mouthful of porridge. “She tricked everyone.” She swallowed. “Including us. She nearly got us expelled, don’t forget.”

  It was as if Ebony’s power had evaporated overnight. I saw Penny shoving her and laughing on the way into Latin class. Once Ebony, red-faced, had gone to her desk, everyone shuffled away from her.

  At break, I went to the library to get some more books out. I saw Ebony sitting alone in the corner and I almost went over to her, but Scarlet pulled me in the other direction.

  When we got to the desk, Agatha and some of the other girls were talking to Jing.

  “I thought you said your name was Clarissa?” Jing said, frowning. She scribbled something out in the library book.

  Agatha sighed. “No, sorry. We don’t do all that any more,” she said with a sideways glance over to where Ebony was sitting.

  “Aren’t you her friends?” I asked.

  The girls all looked at each other. “Friends don’t lie,” Mary grumbled quietly.

  “She didn’t have any real powers,” another of them moaned. “It was all a trick.”

  “So you’re not witches any more?” Scarlet asked.

  Agatha glared at Ebony. “There’s no such thing as witches,” she said.

  It seemed everyone was embarrassed to have been taken in by Ebony. Everywhere we went, I heard people whispering about what she had done. Some people laughed at her. Some went quiet and solemn when she walked by.

  I could understand the feeling, because I felt it too. How had we been so swept up in everything she’d done? Even if Muriel had been behind it all, Ebony had been the one to convince us. She’d lied to everyone, invented a whole personality that she didn’t really have. How could anyone trust her again?

  After our ballet lesson had ended and the other girls were traipsing back up the stairs, Scarlet hung around the barre. I could see that there was something on her mind.

  “You’re lurking, Scarlet,” Miss Finch called out from the piano. “Is there something you want to ask?”

  Scarlet went over to her and I followed. “Miss …” she started quietly, before glancing behind her to where Madame Zelda was stretching in the office. “There’s something I’ve been wondering. Why did you forgive Madame Zelda?”

  “Scarlet!” I said, shocked. That didn’t seem like an appropriate question to ask. Madame Zelda had admitted to being responsible for breaking Miss Finch’s leg due to her jealously, many years ago. I didn’t think it was something Miss Finch would really want to talk about.

  But Miss Finch just blinked and then exhaled deeply. “Forgiving people isn’t about what they need, Scarlet. It’s about what you need.”

  My twin wrinkled her nose. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you have to decide for yourself whether to forgive someone. We …” she turned and looked into the office. “We work together now because I needed a friend and a colleague, and you girls needed a good teacher, more than I needed to hold a grudge for what happened years ago.”

  I tried to pull Scarlet away, but she was still going. “But Miss,” she hissed, “it doesn’t make what she did to you okay, does it? She pushed you off the stage and hurt you for life!”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Miss Finch smiled a regretful smile. “It was still wrong and it still hurts. I don’t think I had to forgive it, by any means. But I spent enough years hating her. It didn’t make me any better.” She shrugged. “Forgiveness is up to me. It’s nice to do things on my own terms.” I wondered if she was thinking of her mother, Miss Fox. “You have a lot of questions today, girls.”

  “It was just on my mind, Miss, that’s all,” Scarlet said.

  Miss Finch looked up at us both questioningly. “If you have someone to forgive, Scarlet, it’s going to be hard. But you won’t know if it’s worth it unless you try.”

  A few days later, Scarlet, Ariadne and I were passing Ebony’s room after breakfast, when we heard crying from inside.

  I looked at the others and they both nodded silently. No matter what she had done, we weren’t going to leave her to cry. I knocked gently on the door.

  “C-come in,” came the muffled reply.

  We peered round the door. Ebony was sitting on her bed, holding her teddy bear. Her face was streaked with tears. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Why weren’t you at breakfast?” Ariadne added, closing the door behind us.

  “Oh, i
t’s nothing,” she said, sitting up straighter and wiping her cheeks. When she saw our expressions, she clearly changed her mind and decided to answer. “It’s my birthday,” she explained solemnly. “And I’m alone and everybody hates me. I don’t even have my cat. This is the worst birthday ever.”

  “Ebony …” Scarlet began. “We don’t hate you.”

  “But I did terrible things,” she said with a sniff. “It’s no wonder people don’t want to be my friend. I brought it all on myself.”

  Ariadne went over to her. “Did you do terrible things? I heard it was a witch.”

  Ebony looked perplexed, but I realised what Ariadne was saying. “You weren’t being yourself,” I explained. “It was bad, but it’s over now. Nobody has met the real Ebony. Why don’t you introduce her to people?”

  The realisation dawned on Ebony’s face and her expression brightened. “Perhaps I should,” she said.

  Suddenly, I heard a commotion out in the hallway. People were gathering, numerous voices floating into the room.

  Curious, I got up to look and the others followed me.

  Someone had arrived at the school. I saw a trunk on the floor. Together we pushed through the small crowd of gossipers that had gathered, just in time to see …

  Violet, hugging Rose.

  I had never seen Rose look so delighted. Her best friend, the person who had saved her from the asylum, had returned!

  “Violet?” I said in disbelief.

  She turned and saw us. “Oh, hello,” she said, looking considerably more cheerful than the last time we’d seen her.

  “You’re back!” Ariadne exclaimed, gaping at her.

  “Well,” she said sheepishly, “I’ve been trying to persuade my guardian to let me come back for months. He heard that the school is better now and he finally agreed, but the term had already started. But then Mrs Knight telephoned us to say that a place had become available.”

  Rose bounced up and down beside her, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Who’s this?” Violet asked, pointing to Ebony.

  “Oh,” Scarlet said. “This is Ebony.” She looked back and forth between them. “Ebony McCloud, Violet Adams. I have a feeling you two will get on well.”

  Ebony hesitated for a moment, but then stepped forward. “Shall I help you with your trunk?”

  “Yes, please,” said Violet brightly.

  We left them to it and headed for the stairs. Lessons would be starting soon.

  “It’s like they’re completely different people,” Scarlet whispered.

  It was true. A light had been switched on in the darkness, and now two of our former enemies might become good friends.

  “If we’re stuck here, we might as well make the most of it,” Ariadne said, hopping down the stairs. It was an echo of something we’d said many times.

  I thought how I’d felt when we started the year, how I’d hoped nothing bad would happen to us again. But perhaps bad things were inevitable. Perhaps there would always be challenges to face, monsters to battle. But with my twin and my friends by my side, the monsters were going to have a fight on their hands. And that was what mattered.

  Scarlet grabbed both of us in a hug. “And we won’t let anything tear us apart again. Promise?”

  “Promise,” we chorused.

  And as the morning bell rang for lessons, I felt as though it was ringing in a better future.

  Acknowledgements

  This book is a tribute to my love of spooky goings-on and all the things that go bump in the night. Thanks go to:

  All the team at HarperCollins Children’s Books – my wonderful editor Michelle Misra; Sarah Hughes, Samantha Stewart, Louisa Sheridan, and everyone who has helped to put me in front of my readers in some form or another. Also to Lizzie Clifford, who had some brilliant witchy ideas.

  The legendary Jenny Savill, and all at Andrew Nurnberg Associates – thanks for your support.

  The illustrators of these editions, the great Kate Forrester and Manuel Šumberac, and to Elisabetta Barbazza for working so hard on the designs.

  My overseas editors, illustrators, translators, and everyone who brings these books to a worldwide audience. You are stars!

  As usual, everyone at r/YAwriters, #UKMGchat, Bath Spa Uni and the fabulous MA Writing Group of Wonders. Thank you for all your wisdom and chatter. You are writing lifesavers. And to all my online followers, for sticking around.

  My friends and family, and Ed – with love, always. Thanks for indulging my spooky side.

  And of course, thank you for reading. There are still some final secrets to uncover …

  Have you read them all?

  A creepy boarding school.

  A sudden disappearance.

  A secret diary waiting to be found.

  This is the story of how I became my sister …

  The wind is howling.

  The rain is freezing.

  But that’s not the reason why pupils at Rookwood School are feeling the chill …

  Beloved ballet teacher Miss Finch suddenly disappears.

  Poison-pen letters start circulating.

  “Accidents” are plaguing the students.

  Is someone out for the ultimate revenge?

  A school trip to Shady Pines Hotel.

  A lake covering up dark secrets of the past.

  A new threat is haunting the girls.

  Will the souls of the flooded graveyard be laid to rest?

  About the Author

  SOPHIE CLEVERLY was born in Bath in 1989. She wrote her first story at the age of four, though it used no punctuation and was essentially one long sentence. Thankfully, things have improved somewhat since then, and she has earned a BA in Creative Writing and MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University.

  Now working as a full-time writer, Sophie lives with her partner in Wiltshire, where she has a house full of books and a garden full of crows.

  Books by Sophie Cleverly

  The Scarlet and Ivy series in reading order

  THE LOST TWIN

  THE WHISPERS IN THE WALLS

  THE DANCE IN THE DARK

  THE LIGHTS UNDER THE LAKE

  THE CURSE IN THE CANDLELIGHT

  About the Publisher

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  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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