SEVEN
The stairs creaked terribly, it would be possible for only a small child to creep up on anybody, I began to relax once we were further away from Mrs. Orgreave. It was time to start my investigation with George.
“So does your mother have any help running the boarding house… Are they any servants here?”
“We used to have servants but they never stay for very long now…” George replied candidly.
“Oh why’s that?” I asked lightly, ready to think there were sinister forces at work, though probably more likely that the landlady could no longer afford to pay for servants.
“Well Mama kept falling out with them.” The boy replied with disarming honesty, shaking his head, he smiled with childish indulgence at the troublesome grown up known as his mother.
“Sounds like your mother.” I had to admire Mrs. Orgreave’s spirit, smiling at George like a co-conspirator, I nudged him playfully in the arm.
“But I liked some of the servants, and even though they were girls, they were still my friends.” George blurted out with annoyance and glancing up at me, he pouted sadly. “It would be nice to have some friends my own age… But ever since we moved to this boarding house five years ago, it’s been frightfully difficult to make friends…You see I don’t really fit in with the other boys here.” George confessed, he took a deep breath as though a great weight had been lifted with his confession.
“Don’t fit in… The Doctor and I know the feeling George. You’re in great company, all the best don’t fit in that easily you know.” I winked at the youngster, full of reassurance and was rewarded with a huge smile.
We had reached the first floor landing. I established from George that the floor above was used for the servants quarters and also used for guests when the boarding house, once upon-a-time was a thriving place and then above that was the attic. Which George explored many years ago and according to the child no one ever went up there anymore. There seemed to be more space on the upper floor as George directed me towards the closed door of the communal sitting room, which in fact only belonged to the two spinster Claverley sisters. George pressed his head against the door and after a moments deliberation he cheekily stated.
“The old dears are definitely in there.”
Feeling like an intruder I went to knock on the door but George simply pushed the door open, some of his mother’s resentment had rubbed off on him.
“You can go in without knocking, this isn’t their house you know.”
Mrs. Orgreave’s unsuitableness for her vocation was all too apparent, along with her bitterness and feelings of degradation at having to run a boarding house.
I blushed as I wandered through the creaking door. Two sets of ancient eyes coldly turned upon me, I was suddenly reminded of Medusa but after an awkward pause the atmosphere altered instantly as the old ladies faces relaxed and the larger lady smiled with good natured delight at the intrusion.
“Hello, I’m Miss Bailey… I’m a friend of the family and will be staying here briefly.” I smiled politely, lying through my teeth as I sat down near the two sisters. I was struck at how much lighter and airy their sitting room was, there was a large bay window which the wind rattled against and I could even catch a glimpse of the sea and its pier. The outside world felt reassuringly close again. After salutations from the seemingly benign sisters, young George went over to the bookcase, sprawling across the floor he amused himself with a book of engravings, putting 21st century kids to shame with his resourcefulness.
“A friend of the family dear…” The colourful sister repeated sweetly. “I’m Miss Edith Claverley and this is my younger sister Mary…”
The elder looked more youthful and was by far the more gregarious, buxom in shape and stylishly dressed, the younger in contrast was tiny and dowdy, shrivelled up with age and appeared to behave more as the elder sister lady’s maid as she plumped up Edith’s cushions and kept pouring her endless tea.
“Travelled far dear?” Edith enquired with a hint of nosiness, her white curls quivering, long after she had finished turning her head.
I pictured myself travelling alongside the Doctor.
“You could say that…” I smiled to myself.
“Did you ride here?” Miss Claverley frowned in confusion and stared at my outfit, assuming my boots belonged to a horse rider.
I nodded as I glanced down at my outfit.
“Yes it was quite a ride.” I then turned my attention to the younger sister, not wishing to leave her out of the conversation. “Do you stay at this establishment often Miss Mary?” Mary’s response was to look wide eyed and stunned as her gaping mouth twitched into a spasm, she glanced over expectantly at her sister.
“Please excuse my sister, she is hard of hearing and is uncomfortable with strangers.” Edith curtly responded and glared agitatedly at me as though I had committed a grave social error by addressing her sister, no doubt the elder was used to being the centre of attention. But then my misjudgment was overlooked as she jutted out her double chin and continued in her self-importance. “Oh we’ve been coming here for years, since we were mere girls. It is the best place in the whole of Brighton…” There was a strange reverent tremor in her voice as Edith caught her breath and then continued in her praise. “No other place can hold a light to it.”
The sister’s emotion seemed out of place, I was convinced Miss Claverley was delusional. But I held my tongue, well it was impossible to interrupt while she was in full flight.
“And I can tell you we’ve seen a great many owners come and go over the years… A great many at this wonderful establishment.” Edith then turned her head slyly in George’s direction and then beckoned me closer as she whispered discreetly into my ear, unable to hide her contempt for Mrs. Orgreave. “Poor boy, do you know what will become of him and his… Mother?” I nodded not wishing to satisfy the curiosity of a woman who seemed to thrive on other’s personal miseries. Edith grasped my arm, her grip was rather startling for a woman in her sixties. “Oh though I pray, day and night I do for the child… And all that dreadful business with the boy’s father.”
I glanced up at Edith Claverley her eyes blazed with feverish excitement as she spoke. I disengaged my arm gently and tried to hide my disgust. I peered over at the clock, it was almost two o’clock in afternoon time was getting on and we were no nearer to finding the TARDIS. I stared down longingly at the tea, realizing that no one had bothered to offer me a cup, I cleared my throat and commenced with the true purpose of my visit to these strange sisters.
“Miss Claverley may I ask you something please? It’s on behalf of a friend of mine, who’s currently resting downstairs.” I sincerely hoped the Doctor was still waiting for me downstairs. “You see something very precious was taken from him and we believe its whereabouts can be traced to this building or nearby. It’s a blue box, well more of a tall pillar with a door. And George here, couldn’t help mentioning that he overheard the pair of you talk of a blue box…”
It was as though the air had been sucked out of the room Edith Claverley stopped sipping her tea, the cup poised between her mouth and mid-air. With shaking hands the elder sister placed her bone china upon the saucer, spilling most of the contents. Mary Claverley’s response was to rise swiftly as though she had been scolded by the split tea and retreat over to the window seat. George by this time had also risen to his feet, eyeing the sisters nervously. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I was on tenterhooks even though the sister’s reactions were unsettling and I couldn’t understand how a couple of elderly spinsters could be connected to the TARDIS. Edith Claverley had been struck dumb and that was the most disturbing thing of all.
“George…Why don’t you go downstairs and check on the Doctor, see how he is?”
I was conscious of trying to keep the child away from anything distressing, besides his mother was bound to be searching for him. And the way Edith Claverley eyed the boy with malicious intent as though he was a terrible creature sent to torture her, I thought it was best to remove George from out of the line of fire.
“If you’re absolutely certain Anna?” George responded politely but his eyes said “You will be fine if I leave you won’t you?” I nodded and smiled as a relieved George raced from the room with boundless energy.
There was a sharp intake of breath from Edith.
“Well I never, the little eavesdropper.” I glanced over to Mary but she now stood gazing out the window, her shoulders raised tensely with her back to the room, an inscrutable, dark outline. “Though I blame the mother, no manners at all…” And so Edith continued to talk, shaking with barely contained outrage until I began to understand the significance of the Doctor’s TARDIS to these two sisters but the mystery only deepened. “You must understand Miss Bailey, my sister and I…We are very private people.” Miss Claverley suddenly looked older, the colour drained from her face. “Miss Bailey I’m afraid, we cannot help your friend, the blue box you speak of…We do not possess it physically, it is a spiritual manifestation . The blue box, we’ve seen it in our dreams, ever since we were young women and every time we have slept in this house, dreaming the same dreams. But only lately the vision has grown stronger, a pillar of blue shining light, a portal to heaven, and there’s a voice calling out to us, calling to us as though it were God himself.” Edith Claverley stopped abruptly and wiped away a tear, a hardness and resilience which had kept her sustained for years suddenly consumed her whole being. “It is the very reason why my sister and I have returned to this place every year Miss Bailey.”
“Right I see.” I blushed awkwardly at the intensity of Miss Claverley but there was no denying it, the two sisters had definitely seen the TARDIS, it had been part of their lives for decades. “I am sorry if I have caused you and your sister any distress.”
But Edith Claverley now simply looked right through me, offended that I knew of the existence of their blue box. It was as though I had sullied the divine belief that Edith Claverley had lived by for all of her adult life. The elderly lady rose stiffly to her feet and made her way towards the door, stopping simply to issue her orders to her younger sibling.
“Mary I am going to lie down, my spirits are somewhat out of sorts and I have a headache… If you could bring me a cold compress of lavender.” Edith Claverley paused and opened the door, her eyes coldly appraised me for one last time as she cleared her throat, straining to speak the words. “I think Mary we shall not spend another night under this roof.”
And so I was left alone with the younger sister, that’s when events took an even stranger and chilling turn…