The Haunting of Highdown Hall Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’d pop in here for a change tonight though. I work locally as well. What do you do?”
    And here it was, so soon, the question she always dreaded. How should she reply? The answer: ‘ I see dead people’ rarely enamoured her to strangers even if they had seen and enjoyed the film Sixth Sense . Rather, it tended to make them look at her with barely concealed horror before making some excuse, any excuse, no matter how trivial, and hightailing it from her, condemning her mid-flight as some sort of fruit loop. Until they encountered a problem of the spiritual kind that is. Then they flew right back.
    Refusing to be embarrassed, however, and reminding herself that her profession was just as valid as any other, she replied confidently, “I’m a surveyor, a psychic surveyor.”
    “A what?” he asked, clearly baffled.
    Holding her head high, she continued, “I run a company called Psychic Surveys, just a short walk from here up the High Street, opposite the castle. I survey houses for paranormal presence and, if such a presence exists, I work either alone or with a team of psychics to send that presence into the light, where it belongs.”
    “You’re a ghost hunter?” gasped Cash, his eyes wide, not with horror she was quick to note, but fascination.
    “We don’t call them ghosts, we call them spirits,” she pointed out. “And we certainly do not go hunting for them.”
    “Wow! I never thought I’d be sitting in a pub on a Monday night talking to a ghost hunter!”
    “As I’ve just explained,” Ruby replied, a little peevishly this time, “I am not a ghost hunter, I’m a psychic surveyor. There’s a difference.”
    Nodding towards their empty glasses Cash said, “Well, whatever that difference is, I’d love to hear about it. Another drink?”
    Ruby contemplated declining. It had been a long day and that hot bath she had imagined earlier, filled to the brim with bubbles, poured from the green bottle, the one that promised to ease her aches and pains, was calling to her. But there was something about Cash that intrigued her and it wasn’t just their mutual taste in books.
    “Okay,” she conceded, reaching for her purse, “a rum and coke, please.”
    “No, I’ll get these. It’s a shame this is a Harveys pub and not a Shepherd Neame. If it was Shepherd Neame I’d get a pint of Spooks, as it is Bonfire Boy will have to do.” He winked cheekily at her before heading to the bar.
    With his back to her, Ruby was able to scrutinise Cash more closely. He was tall, six foot at least. His skin light caramel in colour and his black hair closely cropped, giving him a clean, streamlined look. In jeans, Timberland boots and a jacket, he was dressed casually, but not without style. Attempting a stab at his age, she’d put him at around twenty- eight – four years older than her.
    When he came back with their drinks, Ruby endeavoured to change the subject.
    “So, what do you do for a living?” she asked breezily.
    “I’m a website designer, freelance.”
    Ruby sat abruptly up. “A website designer, seriously, you’re not kidding me?”
    “Er, no, I’m definitely not kidding you.” Clearly he was amused by her somewhat extreme reaction.
    “It’s just, I need a website,” she attempted to explain her enthusiasm before adding somewhat dejectedly, “but I suppose you’re expensive. You guys always are.”
    “Hey, not so fast, I’m very reasonable actually. We could come to some sort of deal, I’m sure. But enough about my profession, it’s not exactly mind-blowing, not like yours. Tell me more about Psychic Surveys.”
    Ruby sighed. She did think his profession was pretty mind-blowing actually, the wonderful world of computers as mysterious to her as the paranormal world was to others. Still, at least he wanted to know more, this man beside her; at least he wasn’t running in the opposite direction.
    “What do you want to know exactly?” she asked, slightly defeated.
    Cash ran his hand across his