The Secret of the Swan

  Copyright © 2011 Gill Jepson

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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  ISBN 978 1848769 298

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

  For the real George

  1923-2004

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: Changes

  Chapter 2: Discoveries

  Chapter 3: A Promise 1415

  Chapter 4: The Errand Boy 1934

  Chapter 5: The Quest Begins

  Chapter 6: Strange Creatures

  Chapter 7: The Secret

  Chapter 8: The Stone

  Chapter 9: Seeking

  Chapter 10: The Vow

  Chapter 11: Finding

  Chapter 12: The Sacred Place

  Chapter 13: The Passing

  Chapter 14: Hide and Seek

  Chapter 15: Through the Tunnel

  Chapter 16: Deep Roots

  Chapter 17: Problem Solved

  Chapter 18: Timeslip

  Chapter 19: The Key

  Chapter 20: Goodbye

  Author’s Note

  CHAPTER 1

  CHANGES

  Rebecca hugged her knees, squeezing herself as small as she could, trying to disappear completely. She sighed heavily and shook her head, trying to clear her mind, hoping to shake out all the worries wriggling in her brain like little worms. It was no good. The thoughts wouldn’t disappear. She uncurled and sprang like a cat onto the grass. She stood and stretched, angry feelings fizzing and crackling like a firework inside her tummy. She scowled as she spotted the groundsman waving at her from the other side of the cloister. Why did he look so happy?

  She strode off down the bank towards the abbey church, kicking tufts of grass as she went. This was her special place; they used to come here all the time. It was a wonderfully magical place, but that had soon changed.

  She spun around quickly when she heard the shrill call of her best friend Megan. Rebecca sighed impatiently. Could she have no peace at all? Under normal circumstances she would have been thrilled to see her friend, but these weren’t normal circumstances. She groaned inwardly when she saw that Megan was not alone. She had that new boy in tow again. Well, she didn’t have to make friends if she didn’t feel like it. Who did he think he was anyway, coming to her abbey?

  The two children raced across the grass unaware of Rebecca’s hostility.

  “Hi!” breezed Megan.

  Something like a low growl escaped from Rebecca’s lips.

  Danny, oblivious to the unfriendly welcome, grinned amiably at her.

  She gritted her teeth and did not return the smile.

  “Phaw! Who’s rattled your cage?”

  This irritated Rebecca even more. She turned her back on him sulkily.

  “What’s up, Becca?” asked Megan, placing a kindly hand onto her shoulder.

  The gesture confused Rebecca. She didn’t want anyone to be kind and she didn’t want to have to be kind back. Her eyes prickled with hot, stinging tears. Trying to blink them back, she rubbed her eyes roughly.

  “Are you crying?” asked Megan.

  “NO!” snapped Rebecca.

  “You are!” insisted Danny.

  The tears came spilling down her hot, red cheeks and the anguish escaped in a terrible howl of unhappiness.

  Danny put his arm round her and Megan pulled her down onto the grass to sit with them. They sat together in silence for some time until Rebecca had cried her last tear.

  Gradually, over the following weeks Danny, Megan and Rebecca became inseparable. Soon it was hard to tell that Danny was a newcomer. In fact it had been strangely helpful that he was new and he hadn’t known how things were before it had all gone wrong. Their favourite haunt was Bow Bridge and the Vale of the Deadly Nightshade. At first Rebecca wanted to keep it all for herself. It was hard to let other people into her private world; after all she hardly knew Danny.

  The abbey was incredible. Once inside they played hide and seek, climbed and explored the ruins, made up games of knights, castles and dragons. They knew that you shouldn’t climb on ancient monuments, but somehow that made it even more fun. It wasn’t as if they could damage the ruins – after all they had been there since 1123, which seemed a very long time to them!

  Rebecca was glad she had decided to share her special place with Megan and Danny. It was never going to be the same as when she and her best and loveliest granddad used to walk amongst the ruins; but in a funny way, she had a warm, comfortable feeling when they were with her.

  Every thing had changed so quickly that summer. Granddad had a stroke. He looked the same, but whatever the stroke thing had done it must have been big because he had to go to hospital in an ambulance. Rebecca had been scared to visit, in case he didn’t get better. Confused thoughts and worries scurried round her mind like mice. It was like that game you played where you don’t step on the cracks in a pavement in case it really did give you bad luck!

  When she did visit, he waved at her from the chair next to his bed and smiled his lovely smile, the one that shone right up to his twinkly, blue eyes. The shock came when he spoke. Granddad spoke backwards! All his words were jumbled up. He got cross with himself when he couldn’t say what he wanted to, but laughed when her brothers teased him about it.

  Rebecca couldn’t believe it when the doctor said Granddad could go home. She had bubbles of excitement inside when they went to collect him from the hospital. The two of them smiled at each other on the way home. Soon things would be back to normal…she was sure!

  The bowl shaped amphitheatre was strange. Rebecca’s Granddad had told her that it was made when the monks were quarrying the sandstone for the abbey and they made a fish pond in the base for the brothers. It had an eerie, strange atmosphere even when you knew what it really was. As somewhere to play, it was anything you wanted it to be. In winter it became the Cresta Sledge Run, in summer, a football pitch or a climbing wall and it was also a great place to have a picnic.

  The friends spent more and more time investigating the abbey grounds. The groundsman waved from different parts of the abbey and seemed to appear wherever they were. Rebecca and Megan knew him from school trips and knew he could tell stories about the abbey. On one particularly hot afternoon, they had gone behind the huge walls of the ruined church to get some shade. The tall ruins of the chancel and nave threw strong shadows across the grass. They lay on the springy grass, chatting and lazing through the long, hazy afternoon.

  “It used to be a cemetery here, you know?” Rebecca commented. She felt a pang as she said it.

  Megan sat up and shrugged her shoulders with a small shiver, “Ugh! You could’ve told us!”

  “Well, you could’ve guessed, there are grave stones all over the place ” said Danny.

  They all loo
ked around, to confirm what he had said.

  “Oh yeah! I never noticed before, I thought they were just stones!”

  They were not all immediately recognisable as gravestones. They were different sizes, shapes and styles. A couple of them had small body shaped indentations and one had a simple cross marked along its full length. The new discovery prompted them to start examining them in more detail. Danny tried out the body shapes by lying in them.

  “This can’t be right – a man wouldn’t fit in here!” shouted Danny. “It only just fits me!”

  “DUH! “exclaimed Rebecca,” They were smaller in those days!”

  Danny scrambled from his resting place, “Well, they must’ve been bloody midgets then!”

  “Well, they were smaller than we are today,” an unfamiliar voice broke in. They turned round quickly. It was the groundsman, recognisable by his white English Heritage helmet and green overalls. He had appeared silently, suddenly, out of thin air!

  “They didn’t have our rich diet, so they weren’t as tall as we are”. He talked to them as though he had known them personally, for years. Oddly enough, Megan and Danny began to feel as though they had known him for years, too. Rebecca remained aloof.

  “Do you know a lot about history then?” asked Danny.

  “Oh you know, you pick up odds and ends in this job,” he replied.

  “I bet you know lots about this place, don’t you?” pressed Danny, “Gruesome murders, ghosts and hidden treasure an’ all that. I bet there’s tons of that stuff here!”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far, but I do know things that aren’t common knowledge,” he said, with a half smile.

  “Brill!” Danny was jumping up and down and punching the air with excitement, “Go on then! Tell us! What secrets? Go on!”

  “Oh yes! Go on, tell us!” shouted Megan. The excitement was infectious.

  Rebecca stood quietly by. She was reluctant to include yet another person in her special place. “I bet he doesn’t know as much about the abbey as my Granddad anyway!” she thought. She watched him with detachment.

  “Well, I’ve a tea break due,” he said looking at his wrist watch,” I suppose I can spare a few minutes. ”

  “Huh! We’ll never get rid of him!” thought Rebecca.

  The man stood feet apart, hand holding his chin, as though he was considering a weighty problem. Slowly, he began nodding his head.

  “Well, I can tell you about the abbey treasure…or at least begin.”

  “I knew it!” yelled Danny jubilantly. “I knew there’d be treasure!”

  “Hmmm! There’s treasure…and treasure!” he said, mysteriously.

  Megan and Danny waited for him to speak, hardly daring to breathe. Rebecca pretended not to be interested. The groundsman was a picture of calmness and peace, almost as if time was standing still and his 15 minute tea break would be endless. He didn’t move for what seemed an age. Then, he suddenly galvanised into action and marched off towards a small, sandstone grave marker, sunken into the soft grass and moss. Megan and Danny looked at each other and followed him, Rebecca reluctantly joined them.

  “Few people know about this, so be careful who you tell. I found it, one morning, when I was trimming the grass…and this really is a treasure!”

  He knelt down and the children dropped to their knees too. He lovingly brushed back the grass bordering the edge of the stone at its base.

  “Here, take a look…” As he folded back the grass, the children peered closely at the stone. Rebecca forgot her bad mood and caught her breath in wonder as he revealed a beautiful, carefully carved image, standing proud on the flat edge of the stone. It was a detailed, delicate, perfectly fashioned swan.

  She reached out to trace the detailed outline and could almost feel the feathers. Around its long neck, was a garland of small flowers, so accurate that she could count the petals. The image mesmerised her and she became lost in thought, marvelling at how anyone could carve such a realistic image from stone. Suddenly her train of thought was shattered.

  “I didn’t expect a duck!” said Danny, disappointed. “I mean it’s good, but its not treasure not really!”

  “Oh it’s gorgeous, Danny!” exclaimed Rebecca, ”And it’s not a duck – it’s a swan! Trust a boy not to be impressed!”

  “No!” he explained, “I am impressed, but it’s just not what I expected, that’s all.”

  “I did say,” interrupted the groundsman, “There’s treasure…and there’s treasure!”

  “It means some’ing, don’t it?” Danny addressed the groundsman directly.

  “Oh yes!” he agreed, “But it will only reveal itself to those who can see!”

  He turned and looked at his watch.

  “Well! Better get on…” He strolled towards his hut on the rise of the hill.

  “Hey! You can’t leave it like that! What does it mean?” shouted Danny.

  He turned slowly and smiled, waving back at them.

  “Oh don’t go!” cried Rebecca, “You haven’t told us anything yet. We don’t even know what to call you.” She regretted her churlish behaviour earlier.

  He stopped. “You can call me Mason. That’ll do. Everyone calls me that.”

  With that he disappeared into his hut, closing the door. They looked at each other, exasperated.

  “Let’s go and talk to him some more. Come on!” encouraged Danny.

  As they ran to the hut, Rebecca said “I didn’t know they still used this, Granddad said they took your money in there and there was an old stove to keep them warm.”

  “Well he won’t need a stove today, it’s boiling!” Danny commented.

  “I bet they’ve given it to Mason to put his tools and hat in,” Megan added.

  “Yeah! ’Cos you pay your money in the museum now!” agreed Danny.

  They reached the hut, the door was shut fast.

  “God! He must be sweltered in there in this heat! It’s only a little hut ain’t it?”

  He knocked on the door and waited. No answer. He knocked again, a little harder. Still, there was no reply. “Mason! Come on! We won’t go till you tell us!” cried Danny.

  Ten minutes elapsed and the door remained shut. Danny reached for the handle, “He’s locked it!” he stated obviously.

  “Yes, but look!” gasped Rebecca, pointing at the door.

  A large padlock hung from the hasp, on the outside.

  “But we saw him go in!” said Megan in a puzzled tone.

  “He did go in!” added Danny.

  There was no obvious sign of escape – and why would he want to escape anyway?

  “It’s weird! He went in. We could see him clearly all the way up the hill and there’s nowhere else he could have gone.”

  If they were puzzled now, this was nothing to their astonishment the next time they saw him.

  CHAPTER 2

  DISCOVERIES

  Granddad settled back at home and things appeared to be back to normal. Rebecca called in every day to keep him company. He had become quiet and thoughtful; she thought this might be because his speech was still strange and muddled.

  On Thursday it was very hot. Granddad had changed into his shorts and put on his sun hat. Rebecca joined him in the back garden and they sat quietly together on the bench. Rebecca basked in the sunshine and smiled to herself. “He’s going to be alright, I know it.”

  She looked at him; he had nodded off, his chin resting on his chest. She watched his chest go up and down steadily and the rhythm of his breathing was comforting. Like a clock ticking…in …out…in…out…tick…tock…tick…tock.

  She smiled smugly and hugged his arm. He stirred for a second, muttering under his breath. She couldn’t tell what he was saying at first.

  “Stone…the stone. Go gone Sid! Brother is he?”

  She sat up and looked at him closely. He looked troubled. Suddenly, he waved his arms about as if he was swatting an invisible insect.

  “Me head…creatures…Mam! MAM! Scratchin’ murk
ies, hide…crawlers …sign at them looking!”

  “Granddad!” cried Rebecca in alarm.

  He woke abruptly and both of them jumped. He looked at her as if he had never seen her before, his eyes as round as two blue buttons. Gradually, the recognition returned to his eyes and he smiled. Rebecca smiled back, a little uncertainly.

  The weather changed. Big black clouds rolled in off the Irish Sea and brought thunder and spectacular bolts of lightening with them. She felt afraid. Not just because of the thunderstorm. Something else was frightening, but she couldn’t tell what…

  The mystery of Mason’s disappearance plagued them. Rebecca knew what they had seen, but could not explain his disappearance. There was something special about the groundsman. By three o’clock the next day, they could contain their curiosity no longer. They decided to return to the abbey and sped down the fields to Bow Bridge and across the path to the railway crossing. When they reached the abbey museum, they paused in the entrance, panting and gasping for breath in the heat.

  They paid their money and bought an ice lolly to quench their thirst. The ticket lady smiled, “My word, you do like this abbey! What on earth are you hoping to find?” she continued. She stared and smiled very intensely. Rebecca felt a shiver ripple down her back.

  “Er nothing really…”

  The woman continued to beam, the smile stretching across her face almost unnaturally.

  “I’m sure there’s something you’re looking for dear,” she insisted.

  Rebecca grinned nervously and shook her head.

  “You can tell me, dear. This old abbey has many hidden secrets… and you children wheedle your way into nooks and crannies… I know, I’ve watched you!”

  Rebecca stared at her, motionless, unable to speak.

  The smile vanished from the woman’s face, her features freezing into a scowl like one of the abbey’s gargoyles.

  Abruptly she turned away.

  “Well off you go! I can’t spend all day talking to you!”

  Danny shrugged and led the girls to the steps outside.

  “Well that was weird,” whispered Megan as they walked down the steps.

  The view was panoramic. They could see the cemetery, where they had talked to Mason yesterday and in the distance, the old custodian’s hut.