The Secret of Crickley Hall Read Online Free PDF

smiling and coyly sidling up to the back of Gabe's chair and hanging on to it.
    It was Eve who introduced her. 'This is Cally, our youngest. Her real name is Catherine after my mother, but ever since she understood our surname is Caleigh she's insisted on being called her version of it. Our older daughter, Loren, is busy upstairs at the moment.'
    'Hello, missy.' Percy stuck out a gnarled old hand to be shaken and Cally shyly touched it with her fingers, withdrawing them swiftly once she'd done so. Percy chuckled again.
    'So tell me, Percy,' said Gabe, leaning his forearms on the table, 'who built the house?'
    'Crickley Hall was built at the beginnin' of the last century by a wealthy local man by the name of Charles Crickley. He owned most of the harbour's fishing fleet and all the limekilns hereabouts. Great benefactor to the village, he were, but ended up an unhappy man by all accounts. Wanted to make more of Hollow Bay, make it a tourist attraction, but the locals went agin' him, didn't want no changes, wanted the place peaceful like, holidaymakers be damned. All but broke him in the end. Fishin' stocks dropped, South Wales stopped sendin' limestone 'cross the channel to his kilns, and money he invested smartenin' up Hollow Bay for the tourists came to nothin'. Locals even voted agin' him building a pier for pleasure boats an' such in the bay itself.'
    'But Charles Crickley built this place,' Gabe prompted.
    'Drew the plans for it hisself, he did. Weren't one for fancy ideas.'
    'That explains a lot,' said Eve as she poured boiling water over a tea bag in a cup.
    'No one likes the look of Crickley Hall,' commented Percy with a sigh. 'Don't like it much meself, never have done.'
    'You've worked here a long time?' Eve was now pouring water over the coffee granules.
    'All me life. Here and the parish church, I've looked after 'em both. They gives me help with the churchyard nowadays, but I takes care of Crickley Hall on my own. Like I says, jus' a coupla days a week, I come in. Tend the garden mainly.'
    He must be seventy-something if he's a day, thought Gabe, glancing at Eve.
    'Only time I didn't,' Percy went on, 'were towards the end of the last world war. Sent abroad then, to fight for me country.'
    Yup, Gabe confirmed to himself, definitely in his late seventies or early eighties even, if he'd been old enough to fight the Germans back then. He studied the short, wiry man with interest.
    'Ol' Crickley blasted a shelf out of Devil's Cleave with dynamite,' Percy continued, 'then built his home on it. Then he dug down to the ol' river that runs underground down the Cleave, made hisself a well in Crickley Hall's cellar. Even though the Bay River was only yards from his front door, he must've reckoned he'd have his own fresh water supply inside the house. Maybe he thought it were purer that way. An' he liked things simple, did Crickley, plain like. Only fancy part were the big hall itself.'
    'Yeah, we noticed,' agreed Gabe.
    'If he liked things simple,' put in Eve, 'and presumably functional, that must be why the kitchen is at the front.'
    'The las' of the Crickleys lef' here in '39,' Percy went on unbidden, 'jus' afore the shebang in Europe started. They wanted to avoid the trouble, thought England were doomed. Scarpered off to Canada, while I stayed on to work 'til I got my call-up papers. Be then, gov'mint had requisitioned the place 'cause it were empty an' they thought it'd do for evacuees. Sold coupla times since—Crickleys didn't want it no more—then the Templetons come along an' bought it. Retired early, Mr Templeton sold his business—somethin' to do with packagin' he told me—an lef' the city fer the countryside. Thought him an' his missis would be content, like, down here.'
    She handed Percy his tea and he took it with a nod of gratitude. He blew into the cup to cool it as Eve came back to the table with Gabe's steaming coffee.
    'I've just spotted Chester out there sitting under the tree with the swing,' she said