Do you want me to tell you, or do you want to wait and see? He said.
Oh, wait and see, i suppose! But hurry!
Her mother was still asleep in the hospital bed. On the table , minty saw her cassette player with the first cassette in it, and the headphones next to it.
Say hello to her, said the nurse. I'll be black in a minute, and she left the two of them togheter.
Minty touched her mother's arm. Mum, it's me, minty, she said. Did you listen to mky story? There's lots more to tell you. I went again , and-'
She stopped. Her mother's eyes were opening. She was looking straight into , minty's own eyes.
Minty...' she whispered. Minty!
Oh mum .... mum... you've come back! Cried minty.
Was it my story that brought her back ? asked minty, when she and mr Benson were driving back to belton.
Kate had not spoken again during the visit, but she was on the way back to the real world and would come a little more each day, the doctor had said.
I'm sure it was, said mr benson.
Aunt mary was plased, too. Well, that is lovely news, sha said. Did she have much to say?
No, just my name, said minty
There's a long way to go yet then, sadi miss raven, looking at them with cold eyes. Then she said to aunt mary. There's an interisting sundial in the house gardens, with two stone figures. Eros and chronos, i'm told
She knows theirs names, too ! thought minty.
She went out, not because she had anywhere to go, but to escape from her aunt and miss raven.
I'll go to the churchyard, she thought. I'll sit in that cold place. It must mean something, and perphaps i'll find out what it is if i sit and wait.
She sat on the grass, looking up at the top of the church, and the wind was cold on her face and arms. Then she began to feel another kind of cold.
Someone walking over my grave, she thought, or - something!
Minty! Minty! Came a whisper.
Tom was standing a few metres away, just inside the high gates, and his face was white and afraid.
Tom! She cried. She jumped up and went to him, and he looked at her without speaking. Come on , tom. Over here. She took him to the far side of the churchyard, and he lay down and began to cry. What is it, tom ? tell me, please.
After a long time, he said, dorrie.... my sister ... she `s coughing blood!
Oh- tom ! minty could find no other words to say.
He pushed a hand across his eyes. Crying won't help, he said. Dorrie doesn't cry. Do you know what she does? Screams! You should hear her!
I feel like screaming, too, said minty. She felt angry inside. What terrible lives children like tom and dorrie had! Ill, no friends or family to care fot them, and never a kind word from anyone.
Tom looked at her, we've got to get sarah out, haven't we? He said.
Yes, agreed minty. And we' ve got to get you out'
Me? How will i get out? And where?
Into moontime, said minty. But i don't know how yet.
They where all in this game thogether - kate, herself, tom sarah. She looked at tom. He was her friend but he was also a kitchen boy from a hundred years ago, here with her now. He was not a ghost , he was real - a boy with a dirty face and untidy hair. And she knew that if this moment was real, all things were possible.
We're all real! She laughed.
He jumped up from the grass. And i'll grow tall and be a footman or my name's not teddy larkin!
What did you say your name was? She said.
Teddy larkin, of course.
But- you said it was tom! Tom short for edward, he said, but kitchen boys here are always called tom.
All kitchen boys? She said?
That's right. There's three of us, all toms.
Then he started coughing. It was painful to hear.
Tom! Minty said, we'll meet by the moondial.
Midnight, tonight. Will you do it?
I'll try, he said when he could speak again, I' came to tell you about Dorrie. I- had to tell you.
You needed me, and i needed you when we first met.
And sarah - she needs us both, said tom.
It was as easy as that, minty thought. Nothing difficult about moontim. It was the most natural thing in the world.
Capitulo -7-
The end of the game
Miss raven is going to the house to look for ghost tonight, minty, said aunt mary that evening .
Make sure you don't look in a mirror! Minty was shocked to hear her own voice say the words.
What? Miss raven's voice was sharp.
It's - just something i heard, said minty. If you see a ghost in a mirror - the devil gets you!
Minty! She heard her aunt's shocked voice.
I - i've never heard anything so stupid! Said miss raven. She turned quickly and went out of the room.
At half- past eleven that night, minty looked out of her bedroom window and saw miss raven going down the path wearing a long black cloak with a hood.
Minty waited until she had gone, then went softly out of her room, down the stairs and out of the house.
Tom was waiting for her in the garden, beside the moondial. They loooked at the statue of the man and the boy, white in the moonlight.
It's the boy that will help us, said minty. And she put her hand on the boy's head. Now you, t