I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I sat down on the bed and read on as the terrible story unfolded before me.
I was born Eliza Kensington. My mother and father were Lord and Lady Kensington: they adored me, and I adored them. I have never known two people more kind or loving. All my parents ever wanted was that I should be happy, no matter what path in life I chose.
Then one week ago … my world ended.
My parents were on a trip when their ship was hit by a terrible storm. Every passenger on board perished, and at a mere twelve years old I was left an orphan. I have no brothers or sisters to look after me – all my father’s relatives are long dead. My mother spoke once of some far-off cousins whom she had never met, but no one has been able to trace them.
So I have been handed over to the two most despicable fiends to ever walk the earth – Mr Boggs and Mr Ulcer!
They are half-step-godsons of my father’s maiden aunt’s cousin, twice removed: the only living relatives that my family lawyers could find. They both arrived at Kensington Manor this morning, stinking of tobacco and bacon. Neither of them were wearing socks.
It’s impossible to decide which of the two men is worse. Boggs is slovenly and unwashed, as squat as a fistful of mince; Ulcer is a bony weasel with cruel yellow eyes and a pudding-bowl haircut. He is the ‘brains’ of the operation, which isn’t saying much.
‘So! This is the girl, is it?’ said Boggs, leering at me with beery breath. ‘The little runt we’re expected to look after, without ever seeing a penny for our troubles?’
I was shocked – was this the first thing my new guardians would say to a young girl who had just lost both her parents? But mother and father always taught me to be polite to others, no matter how disgusting, so I gave them my warmest smile.
‘Hello, Uncles,’ I said. ‘It’s a pleasure to—’
‘Put a sock in it, squirt!’ snapped Ulcer. ‘Let’s get this straight, right here and now – we don’t want to be here! Thanks to you, our carefree bachelor days are over, so you’d better start making it up to us, fast!’
I couldn’t believe my ears – these two spoiled, lazy rats wanted nothing to do with me!
‘Well in that case,’ I said, ‘you can leave. I’m sorry to have taken up your time.’
Boggs and Ulcer shared a look – and laughed.
‘Oh, we’re not going anywhere, girl!’ said Boggs. ‘We’re your guardians – that means that until you’re eighteen years old, you’re our property! Your idiot parents might not have left us a penny, but there are other ways we can make money off of you …’
‘That’s right!’ said Ulcer. ‘We have great plans for you, my girl. Great plans indeed!’
With that, the two men threw me into my bedroom and locked the door. I can hear them downstairs now, drinking their way through my parents’ wine cellar and shouting at the servants!
I have no idea what terrible fate awaits me. Will those two awful men put me in the workhouse? Cut off all my hair and sell it to wigmakers? Force me to be their slave?
No matter what happens, I must remember that I am a Kensington. We are strong; we can not be broken by anyone!
Day 1
Boggs and Ulcer kicked down my door this morning and dragged me out of bed.
‘Downstairs, runt!’ cried Boggs. ‘Your lessons start now!’
I was confused. ‘Lessons? But it’s a Sunday – my science and maths tutors don’t arrive until tomorrow—’
‘Science? Maths?’ spat Boggs. ‘Pah! You can forget all that rubbish! From now on, you’ll be studying nothing but the Kensington System!’
I had never heard of the Kensington System – no one has. Boggs and Ulcer invented it while drunk last night. Boggs had wanted to call it the Boggs System, Ulcer had wanted to call it the Ulcer System. In the end they reached a compromise.
‘A pretty little girl like you has no use for books,’ Ulcer explained. ‘It’s time you were made a lady – a proper one! The kind a rich prince would want to marry!’
‘That’s right.’ Boggs giggled. ‘And pay us a handsome sum for the privilege, too!’
I finally understood Boggs’s and Ulcer’s terrible plan: they were going to wait until I was old enough to marry and then sell me off to some foreign prince like a farmyard animal! I glared at them defiantly.
‘I refuse – I don’t want to be a princess!’
‘Tough!’ said Boggs. ‘We’re your guardians, and we’re going to train you in the Kensington System whether you like it or not!’
‘Starting with these filthy clothes,’ said Ulcer, tugging at my dress. ‘First rule of the Kensington System: only perfection is allowed!’
From now on, I am to wear ball gowns and a full face of make-up – from first thing in the morning to last thing at night! I kicked and fought against Boggs and Ulcer with all my might, but it was no use. They wrapped me in bodices that stabbed and pinched my sides, and strapped my feet in high-heel shoes that burn my ankles and make my toes sing with pain. Then they made me watch as they burned all my clothes in a bonfire in the middle of the dining room.
‘That’s enough lessons for today!’ cried Ulcer. ‘Back to your room!’
They left me alone in the dark of my bedroom once again; only now my body is so racked with pain I can barely move, let alone sleep!
Oh diary, what could they possibly have in store for me tomorrow?
Day 2
When Boggs and Ulcer led me downstairs this morning, I was shocked at the state of the house. All the windows have been barred; all the doors have been locked.
‘What have you done?’ I cried. ‘How will I ever get outside?’
‘You don’t need to go outside!’ snapped Boggs. ‘Second rule of the Kensington System: a princess’s home is her castle!’
From now on, I will be shut inside Kensington Manor from dawn to dusk. I am to be kept a prisoner in my own home until the day I’m married!
‘You can’t do this!’ I cried. ‘When my friends find out—’
‘From now on, you don’t have any friends!’ Ulcer cackled. ‘Rule number three: a perfect lady must be left alone!’
From now on, I am forbidden from speaking to anyone other than Boggs and Ulcer – and that includes the servants. If any of them talk to me – or are even seen in the same room as me – they will be sacked on the spot. Boggs and Ulcer have even installed hundreds of mirrors on every wall of the house so that the servants can see me coming at all times.
Well, that was the final straw. My parents always raised me to speak my mind, and as long as I carry their spirit in my heart, I will fight for what is right! I stamped my feet with fury.
‘You awful brutes. I won’t stand for it. Get out of my house at once, or I’ll make you regret the day you ever crossed a Kensington!’
Boggs laughed. ‘We’re your guardians, you stupid girl – until you’re eighteen, you have to do everything we say! And don’t forget the most important rule of the Kensington System: Silence – Is – Golden!’
Oh diary, this is the most fiendish rule of them all. From now on, I will be banned from talking! If I speak – if I make so much as a peep – I’m to be punished. A word out of place, a hummed tune, a cry of pain when I fall over – they’re all forbidden!
I seethed. ‘You can punish me all you like – I won’t let you win! I’ll fight you with everything I have!’
Boggs and Ulcer were furious – they whipped me till I bled and locked me in my bedroom.
‘Let that be a lesson to you!’ snapped Ulcer through the keyhole. ‘You need to learn some manners if you want to bag a prince!’
Their cackles echoed down the corridor as they ran off.
Oh diary, my body is in even more agony than before. But I must be brave. I must keep fighting! If not, what kind of future awaits me in Kensington Manor? To spend my days sitting in mute silence in the darkness, caked in make-up like a china doll?
Mother, Father, give me the strength to beat them. I cannot l
et them win. I cannot!
Day 3
My war against Boggs and Ulcer has begun.
This morning I broke all the mirrors in the house, smashed down the back doors and threw all my ballgowns in the lake. Boggs and Ulcer caught me, of course, and dragged me kicking and screaming back to Kensington Manor. I got another whipping for my defiance – and then they took down every portrait of my mother and father they could find and tore them to pieces in front of me.
I wept furious tears. Some of the servants – the ones I have lived with and loved since I was a baby – tried to stop them, but of course they were sacked on the spot.
My heart aches with sadness – but I cannot stop now, diary. I cannot let them win – I must keep going!
Day 4
Today I did everything in my power to break the rules of the Kensington System. I ran through the house screaming at the top of my lungs. I smashed every window. I stamped my make-up in to paste. Boggs and Ulcer punished me over and over and over. They took away my bed: they stopped feeding me. Thank goodness I had safely hidden this diary – if they ever find out about its existence, who knows what they would do to me!
I can hear them downstairs now, trying to come up with some other fiendish punishment to break me – but they will all fail. After all, I am a Kensington! And as long as I have my parents’ love in my heart, there is nothing they can do that will break me! Nothing!
Day 10
Oh diary, how wrong I was.
My hand is shaking as I write this. Five days ago Boggs and Ulcer dragged me from my bedroom – but this time, they were smiling.
‘Quite the handful, aren’t you?’ said Ulcer. ‘We’ve had a hard job thinking up a good punishment for you – but this time, we think we might have struck gold!’ He turned to his accomplice. ‘Tell me, Boggs – what frightens people more than anything?’
‘Goldfish!’ Boggs cried.
‘No, you idiot,’ said Ulcer. ‘Being alone! Trapped in darkness! Feeling like you might scream and scream, and no one will ever hear you!’
My heart froze. They were leading me down a long corridor. At the far end, a hole was ripped in the wall. Inside was purest darkness.
‘We discovered a little secret about Kensington Manor,’ said Ulcer. ‘There’s a space between the walls that runs from one end of the house to the other. It’s just big enough for a person to squeeze through – but only just. It’s cramped and dark and full of spiders and the floor is thick with the bones of filthy rats!’
The two men thrust me into the darkness.
‘This is where you live from now on,’ said Boggs. ‘That is, until you learn to behave yourself!’
‘We’ll start you off with a taster,’ said Ulcer. ‘Five days! Don’t worry, there’s plenty of insects to eat if you get hungry!’
I cried out and fought against them – but it was no use. The two men were too strong for me. They heaved a wardrobe in front of the hole and closed up the wall.
Oh diary – how can I describe what it’s like in there? The space between the walls seems to stretch on forever – but there’s not even enough room to turn around. As you drag yourself along, the walls crush you and rub your skin raw, splintering your hands to bleeding. Rats scuttle over your feet and spiders cover your face. The dust chokes you and burns your eyes – oh, how it burns!
But worst of all is the darkness. It seems to go on forever – you can scream and scream into it and pound the walls, but no one ever hears. No one comes to help. All you can do is walk the walls, searching for any hope of escape … but of course, there is none.
After five days and five nights in hell, Boggs and Ulcer let me out and flung me back into my room. I wept for hours. Oh, thank goodness for this diary – thank goodness I have some way to tell the world what these monsters are doing to me! My only hope is that by keeping a record of it all, it will one day lead to their arrest. I shall write down every cruelty they commit!
The thought of going back into the walls is terrifying – but I must be brave. I must not let them break me. I must keep fighting, with all my heart!
If not, then … oh diary, what will become of me?
I lowered the book in horror. I struggled to make sense of what I’d read. How could two men lock a twelve-year-old girl in the walls? Was that really what I had just heard, scraping above my head?
But it couldn’t be – Eliza Kensington had written her diary almost a hundred years ago. She would be dead by now. There was no way she could still be crying and scratching inside the walls.
Unless …
No. I refused to believe in ghosts. There had to be some other, more rational explanation. Surely Eliza had escaped the house – surely she had been saved, and her dreadful tormentors locked up for their crimes?
But the more I flicked through the diary, the more I realised that it wasn’t true. The handwriting became more erratic, the sentences more confused. Days would go past without any writing at all – sometimes weeks. Eliza’s spidery handwriting became even smaller as she tried to fit in her increasingly rambling sentences.
Then, I found it: her final entry. It was crushed into the corner of the last page of the diary, the ink smudged and blotting:
Day 1,432
Darkness. That is all I know now Boggs and Ulcer are winning, diary. I am going mad.
I cannot spend another second in those walls – I cannot feel my fingers bleed against the wood one moment longer. I cannot eat any more insects to survive. I cannot fight them any more – I am done. They have broken me.
There is no escape from Kensington Manor. I must become the princess they want me to be, or else I will go mad. My only hope is that one day someone will discover this diary and know what happened – that I will not have suffered all this in vain.
Oh, Mother, Father … forgive me!
‘You screamed, sir?’
I yelped with fright. Jasper was standing in the doorway.
‘Sorry I took so long,’ he said. ‘I was boiling some eggs for Christmas dinner.’
He held up a large bowl filled with a hundred hard-boiled eggs.
‘Jasper.’ I was trembling – I must have been white as a sheet. ‘What on earth …’
‘Egg, sir?’
Jasper offered me the bowl. I shook my head. He sat down beside me.
‘I do apologise about the noise, sir. It can be a terrible effort sleeping at Kensington Manor sometimes with all that scratching and wailing. This was once the most beautiful stately home in the country – but no one cares to visit any more. The noises put people off – that and its tragic history. Memories like that have a tendency to stain a place.’
My eyes widened. ‘You mean … Eliza Kensington?’
Jasper carefully severed off the top of an egg with a practised movement.
‘I see you found her diary. It’s a terrible shame, what those men did to her. Boggs and Ulcer started locking Eliza in the walls for weeks at a time. She’d wander from one end of the house to the other, scratching at the walls and sobbing. Enough to drive anyone mad. Soon enough, the Kensington System began to work – Eliza stopped fighting back. She stopped talking. Finally, she stopped thinking. She’d spend whole days sitting in a chair like a china doll, blinking silently in the darkness.’
I stared at Jasper, completely aghast. I tried to find the right words.
‘Jasper … are you trying to tell me that I’ve been listening to the ghost of a twelve-year-old girl who was tortured to death in this house?’
Jasper stared at me for a moment – then laughed.
‘Forgive me, sir – I keep forgetting how little you know of Kensington Manor! I’m guessing you haven’t heard what happened to Eliza when she turned eighteen years old?’
I shook my head. Jasper smiled.
‘You see, as Eliza got older, news of a beautiful young lady at Kensington Manor spread across the world. Boggs and Ulcer waited expectantly for the offers to come rolling in and, sure enough, on the morning of her eightee
nth birthday, they heard a knock at the door. When they opened it, a royal regiment strode inside. They were all wearing the coat of arms of Lutgenstein – the wealthiest royal family in the world!
‘“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” said the messenger. “I have come to seek out the young Lady Eliza.”
‘Eliza sat serene and blank in the corner. She had barely even noticed the men walk in.
‘“There she is!” cried Ulcer. “One hundred per cent bona fide princess material!” He rubbed his hands with glee. “Where is he then? Where’s the lucky Prince of Lutgenstein?”
‘“Dead, sir,” said the messenger.
‘The uncles were confused. “Dead?”
‘“Along with the King and Queen,” said the messenger. “And all their children. The entire Lutgenstein royal family was wiped out last year in our country’s worst-ever Zeppelin accident. First cousins, second cousins, great aunts, grandnephews … every single one of them, incinerated! We’ve spent months searching for a last living Lutgenstein.”
‘The uncles were furious.
‘“Well, what are you wasting our time for?” said Boggs. “We can’t marry Eliza to a dead prince!”
‘The messenger smiled.
‘“We’re not here to discuss marriage, gentlemen. We’re here because this lady’s mother” – he pointed to Eliza – “was the last remaining Lutgenstein. Which makes Eliza the rightful heir to the family throne!”
‘The entire regiment bowed down to Eliza. Boggs and Ulcer could hardly contain their delight. They leapt and danced around the room.
‘“We did it, Boggs!” Ulcer cried. “What a prize we bagged – queen of the wealthiest royal family in the world! We’re rich beyond our wildest dreams …”
‘“Are you now?”
‘The uncles spun round. To their surprise, Eliza had stood up. Her eyes – which had been blank for so many years – had flickered back to life.
‘“Sit down and shut up, girl!” said Boggs. “We’re your guardians, and—”
‘“Not any more,” said Eliza. “I’m eighteen years old today – which means from now on, I make my own decisions. And I will see that you two despicable men never get a single penny.”
Christmas Dinner of Souls Page 5
