The Whitby Witches 1 - The Whitby Witches Read Online Free PDF Page A

dreams,' she stammered. 'Sometimes he has them in the daytime and he gets muddled up. He used to think Mum and Dad came to see him after the accident. That—that's not all. He used to tell some of the other kids at the hostel funny stuff that frightened them. We had a new girl come who used to live with her gran before she died and Ben told her that he could see an old woman sitting next to her when she was in the TV room, stroking her hair. Apparently that's what this grandmother used to do. Yvonne started to wet the bed after that and the other kids used to look at Ben like he was some kind of freak.'
    'Go on,' Miss Boston prompted her gently.
    'Well, that's why we never settled down with the foster families. With Aunt Pat, the last straw came during one of her posh dinner parties. Ben came running downstairs saying he'd seen Mum. Aunt Pat went dead red; she hated the embarrassment of it, she didn't want anyone to think she had a retarded relative in the house. I heard her and Uncle Peter talking one night—their room was next to mine and the walls were thin. She said she couldn't stand it any more, and Uncle Peter had to go along with her. It was horrible listening to them discussing us like that. I wanted to shout out that I could hear them but I never did.
    'The other families were the same. One lot were really religious and thought Ben was possessed or something and the others just looked at us funny.'
    'You did not fully understand yourself. You are a very brave girl.'
    At this point Ben sauntered up to them. 'Come here, Benjamin,' said Miss Boston. 'Get under my cloak and I shall tell you a tale. You too. Jennet.'
    The children huddled up to the old woman and sheltered from the bitter wind like chicks under their mother's wings.
    'Do you see that?' she asked them, nodding to a tall, thin cross. 'That is Caedmon's cross.'
    'Who's he, then?' Ben wanted to know.
    'Ah,' Miss Boston explained, 'Caedmon was a cowherd, long before the Normans came. He used to tend the cattle on the plain back there when the abbey was just a monastery. He was painfully shy and awkward, poor fellow. In the winter when fires were lit and songs were sung around them, all the other servants of the monastery would do their party pieces, except Caedmon. He felt so unhappy because he could not sing that he would retire early and his friends would shake their heads and feel sorry for him.
    'Then, one night, a vision came to him in a dream. It was an angel, which bade Caedmon sing of the glories of God the Maker. Do you know, when he awoke he felt confident as never before and began composing his own verse. Caedmon is recognised as the first English poet.' And Miss Boston ended her tale with a satisfied sigh.
    'That's soppy,' sneered Ben, greatly disappointed.
    'You impudent rascal,' cried Miss Boston with mock severity. 'And what kind of stories do you like, may I ask?'
    'Scary ones—with monsters,' he whispered conspiratorially.
    Miss Boston's face became grim as she shook her head and gasped, 'You mean you don't know? Have you come here unprepared? Did you not pack your garlic?'
    Ben squirmed happily on the tomb, shaking his head. 'Why?' he giggled.
    'Because, child,' she moaned in a horrified voice, 'the most dreadful monster ever created came ashore at Whitby—Dracula himself. King of Vampires!'
    'He didn't!'
    'Oh yes he did, young man—he changed himself into a great black dog and jumped from the doomed ship Demeter as she ran aground, just down there.' Miss Boston paused for dramatic effect and they all stared down at the rough sea. 'Now,' she said in a bright, cheerful manner, 'it's getting colder—let us return home. Don't pretend to be a vampire, Benjamin, you haven't got the cloak for it.' And she flapped her own, although she resembled a large green chicken more than a bat. Benjamin, however, was still staring down at the rocks below. He seemed to be watching something.
    The old woman squinted down and saw a blurred shape move quickly