He blinked. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Without tongues, Zoe,’ Jo corrected her primly.
‘Well,’ Allie said as they headed up the hill, ‘tongues are optional.’
The slope lessened as they neared the top of hill, and Allie could just make out the old tower. The sweet smell of woodsmoke filled the air, and she could hear voices laughing and shouting.
The tight invisible string of nervousness Zoe’s story had strung around them loosened now as they headed across the stony hilltop to the castle.
Lucas led them to a spot where fallen stones had made natural steps up to the top of the old castle wall. At the top, it was about three feet thick, and for a moment they all stood in a row, looking out over the other side where a giant bonfire blazed. Students sat around it like a coven, talking and laughing.
As they walked up to the group, Katie bounded over to Allie. ‘Hey, you made it.’ She wore a ski jacket and white cashmere hat. ‘Welcome. There are drinks passing around and marshmallows, of course.’ Her smile was disarming. ‘Come on over.’
As she hurried back to the fire, Allie dropped behind to whisper to Jo. ‘Katie’s broken. Fix her.’
‘When did she stop hating you?’ Jo looked as baffled as she felt. ‘Why didn’t I get the memo?’
‘I don’t like that girl,’ Zoe said before spotting somebody she knew and running off.
As they reached the fireside, Allie instinctively glanced around for Carter but didn’t see him. As her eyes swept the crowd they alighted on Sylvain. Aside from a few marks, his face had largely returned to normal. The bruise across his throat had taken the longest to heal. He sat with Nicole, who looked glamorous in a long black coat and earmuffs. Seeing them together made Allie’s chest hurt – they seemed perfect together. And now she wasn’t perfect with anyone. When Nicole saw her looking at them across the flames, she waved a champagne bottle at her and smiled.
Allie held up her hand in a tentative wave.
Jo pulled her to the front where the fire was warmest and they sat on a large flat stone that had once been part of the castle structure. Zoe joined them and they watched as someone nearby held a long thin stick into the fire. When the marshmallow on the end toasted, the air began to smell of candy. Allie breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of camping trips and childhood.
‘Want,’ she said, in a piteous voice.
‘Lucas,’ Jo called over authoritatively.
Glancing over at her he arched one eyebrow.
‘Marshmallowy stick thing, please.’
From the stack on the ground behind him, he pulled a whip-like length of freshly cut twig. Someone passed a bag of marshmallows over.
Bottles of wine and champagne made the rounds as well. Some people had plastic cups; others swigged directly from the bottle. When one was handed to Jo, Allie held her breath. But to her relief Jo waved it away.
‘I’m like a saint now,’ she told the person who’d tried to give it to her. ‘Haven’t you heard? St Jo of Not Drinking.’
Allie passed on the wine as well. After what had happened at the summer ball she wasn’t interested in losing control.
Jo stabbed another fluffy marshmallow on to the end of the stick.
‘They’re so good but I can only eat three,’ she said pleasantly. ‘And then I want to vom.’
Someone threw more wood on the fire and it flared brightly, casting the woods around them into darkness. Its heat seemed to curl soft woolly tendrils around them. Leaning back, Allie looked up at the ruined castle tower that loomed over them, its crenellated roof like jagged teeth and tiny archers’ window slits like eyes.
‘I wonder if there’s any truth to it,’ she murmured, thinking aloud.
Jo looked over at her enquiringly. Allie could just make out the blue of her eyes in the firelight.
‘The story of the lady being murdered, I mean,’ Allie said. ‘I wonder if it really happened.’
Jo held her marshmallow just above the dancing flames. ‘My brother said he saw her ghost when he was at school here.’
Allie leaned back doubtfully. ‘He was just trying to scare you.’
Looking uncomfortable, Jo shrugged. ‘Maybe. But I don’t think so. Tom isn’t scared of anything, but whatever he saw that night, it did seem to scare him.’
Other students were listening to their conversation now.
‘What exactly did he see?’ Lucas stood next to her, a champagne bottle in one hand.
‘He said he and some friends were up here for the winter bonfire – just like we are now – only they were actually in the tower. At midnight, they heard footsteps above their heads. He said the wood floor creaked clearly with every step. Only there are no wood floors, no floors at all. Just empty space.’
The group had fallen silent now. Allie swallowed hard.
‘So they all decided to get the hell out, you know?’ Jo continued. ‘They took off running. But just before they went down the hill they looked back and they could see her.’
‘See what?’ somebody asked.
‘A woman in a long grey dress standing and watching them go.’ She pointed at the top of the tower. ‘Right up there.’
There was a collective exhalation, like a long sigh. Someone giggled nervously.
‘He probably imagined it,’ Katie said, pouring champagne into a plastic cup.
‘Maybe, but … Oh, bugger!’ Jo’s marshmallow was on fire and she blew on it fiercely, but by the time the fire went out it was a blackened lump. She scraped it into the flames. ‘He never came up here again.’