Brody let out a snort.
‘Shall we go upstairs?’ Tegan said brightly. ‘That’s where the ghost is supposed to hang out.’
‘There’s no ghost,’ Brody corrected her.
She gave him a playful push. ‘Don’t be boring. You know I’ve heard her, and even your mum says she’s felt a ghostly presence in the attic. And everyone loves a ghost story for Christmas.’
By the look on Sophie’s face, that wasn’t true.
Tegan led the way up the stairs, with the guests in between and Brody bringing up the rear along with Harold, whose tail thumped against the banister with joy.
‘I feel like I ought to hold up an umbrella or something!’ Tegan trilled at the top of the stairs, clearly loving the attention.
‘This is just like the National Trust,’ Agatha declared as everyone squeezed onto the landing. Though spacious by most standards, it was cosy with ten people and an over-excited Labrador.
‘Are you going to charge us twenty quid each?’ Nico quipped.
‘Is there a tearoom?’ Una offered with a smile.
‘No, but this is where Brody hands us the bill for all the food we’ve scoffed,’ Nico shot back.
‘Actually you can pay by doing all the washing up and mucking out the stable,’ Brody said, more sharply than he meant to.
‘I’ve done worse jobs,’ Nico replied silkily.
‘Shall we move on?’ Tegan stepped in.
Brody caught Sophie’s eye, but she looked quickly away. Tegan led the way down the hall.
‘I haven’t tidied up!’ Brody said when she paused outside his room.
‘Oh, we won’t go in. I only wanted to show everyone the lintel over the door. They say the oak came from a shipwreck off Whitehaven.’
There were a few appreciative ‘Oohs’ from Una and the Smith half-sisters.
‘Is it true?’ Hugo asked Brody.
‘Probably. We had a local historian round and she said it was documented in some archive in the Armitt Museum in the village.’
Una’s attention was captured by something on a beam. ‘Oh! Is that mistletoe?’ she asked.
‘I never had you down as a mistletoe kind of guy,’ Nico said to Brody.
‘There’s greenery all over the house, after we hosted a Christmas party the other week. I didn’t put it there,’ Brody replied, aware that Nico was bringing out the grump in him.
‘Who did then?’ Nico asked.
‘I did,’ Tegan said. ‘I found it downstairs and couldn’t resist.’
‘In that case, we’d better make use of it,’ Una gushed and planted a kiss on Hugo’s lips.
Tegan smiled at Brody, who flashed a smile back and tried to avoid Sophie’s eye. She’d been almost silent on the way round the house so far. He longed to get the tour over with.
Agatha tutted. ‘Now, now, we can’t all start snogging each other on so slight an acquaintance. Apart from Una, Hugo and our hosts, of course.’
Nico smirked. ‘I think we know each other pretty well by now,’ he said to Agatha, playfully planting a kiss on the cheek.
‘Cheeky boy!’ Agatha replied with a girlish giggle and gave him a little push.
