Harriett Read Online Free PDF Page A

the room with a fist full of spills only to pause and return
to the fire to light one of them.
    “ It’s probably the excitement of the evening,” Miss Haversham
snorted derisively. She appeared to be completely unconcerned by
the rather dramatic turn of events and cast the woman on the floor
a disparaging glance before she moved to a seat near to the
windows.
    “ I’ll get some water,” Harriett offered. She made it to the
kitchen with unerring accuracy and poured a cup of water from the
jug on the dresser. With a shudder, and with no small measure of
relief, she returned to the parlour. She was just in time to watch
Miss Hepplethwaite take a seat beside the fireplace, assisted by
Babette and Madame Humphries. Harriett hurried forward and held out
the glass of water only for Babette to shake her head.
    “ I think she needs something stronger, don’t you?” Her calm
gaze held Harriett’s for a moment. “I think we should stop now.
Harriett, would you sort refreshments out please?”
    Harriett
hurriedly poured sherry and brandy from the decanters before she
headed back to the kitchen in search of the cakes she had brought
home from the tea shop. On the way, she took several moments to
light the lamps and candles around the house, only slightly
relieved to have each room cast in a more amiable light. Feeling
considerably more settled, she handed out cake and plates to their
guests and helped herself to a liberal dose of brandy.
    “ What do we do now?” Mr Montague demanded when he had
sufficiently fortified himself with the alcohol. “I mean, I think
we should call it a night now. This has gone far
enough.”
    “ We cannot stop now,” Madame Humphries objected, clearly
outraged at the notion. “There is the demonstration to perform
yet.”
    “ I don’t think it is really a good idea -”
    “ Nonsense,” Madame Humphries snapped. “We have started now.
The spirits have given us several messages. We have asked them to
come forward. It would be rude to just cut them off now, especially
now they have started to give us messages. We cannot just leave it
now, there may be more.”
    “ But we don’t understand what we have already got,” Harriett
argued. “How can we ask them for more?”
    “ I want to know if my mother is able to get in touch with a
message,” Mrs Bobbington declared mutinously. “That’s what I came
here for.”
    “ I don’t mind either way,” Tuppence declared and deliberately
ignored her shaking hand as she took a sip of her sherry. “I mean,
we have come this far. What is there to lose?”
    Our sanity , Harriett almost snapped
but wisely kept quiet. She had experienced more than enough of the
charade for one night and didn’t relish it going any further. She
glanced at each person in turn and heaved a sigh when nobody made
their excuses to leave. They knew she couldn’t ask them all to go,
it would be the height of bad manners. The weight of expectancy
that hung over the room made it perfectly clear to everyone that
the circle was going to go ahead.
    “ But Miss Hepplethwaite is not well. She needs to go home and
rest,” Harriett argued lamely, although it was apparent from the
rosy cheeks and the steady composure of the bird-like woman that
she had quickly recovered from her sporadic ailment.
    “ Oh, I feel quite well now dear,” Miss Hepplethwaite replied
calmly. Her eyes met and held Harriett’s. The calm,
matter-of-factness in the woman’s gaze made Harriett wonder if it
had all been carefully orchestrated to bring the séance to an end.
She couldn’t blame the woman if she had had enough of the
shenanigans of the evening. However, Harriett couldn’t help but
wonder why the woman had feigned fainting in order to stop the
messages. Was she the one who had given them but had been unable to
provide any more information when pressed, so had decided to stop
everything?
    “ I am relieved you have managed to recover so swiftly,”
Harriett replied and gave the older woman