Chapter One

"Do you know, I think cats can see things we can't!" declared Marta out of the blue.

The other three children, absorbed in their game of Ludo, ignored her remark.  Marta, persisted:

"I mean look at Misha now, what is she watching?  There's nothing there!  Or at least nothing I can see."

Xavier, her older brother, glanced over at the cat which was staring intently at the wall.  He shrugged and handed the dice shaker to Marta.

"Your go," he said firmly.

"Oh, is it," said Marta absently throwing a six.

Montserrat shook her head and tutted.  The boys exchanged glances and Pere winked.
Marta studied the board and moved one of her pieces onto the square occupied by Montserrat's last remaining piece in the game.

"Back you go!" laughed Pere delightedly.

"It's not fair!"  Montserrat protested, "She's not even concentrating on the game and she gets all the luck!"

Marta threw again and confirmed her cousin's comment by throwing a four and getting another of her pieces safely home.

"I'm bored with this game anyway," said Montserrat petulantly.

"You weren't five minutes ago when you were winning," objected Pere with a grin, enjoying the opportunity to tease his twin sister.

"Your go Montse,"  Xavier reminded his cousin using the abbreviation of her name he knew she hated.

Montserrat glared at him then picked up the shaker and concentrating on the image of a six in her mind threw a three. Pere grinned again and was about to say something when he noticed the cat.  It was following the movement of something or someone that was slowly crossing the room.  He felt an involuntary shudder and sensed the hairs on his legs and arms bristle.

"Did you see that?" he asked no one in particular.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," said Marta triumphantly,  "isn't it weird."

"What are you two on about?"  Xavier asked.  "Aren't you going to-"

"Look there it goes again!"  Marta interrupted.

This time all four children watched the cat follow an invisible presence around the room.
Xavier broke the silence:

"She's probably dreaming!"  he said dismissively.

"Not with her eyes open!" objected Marta.

"Oh she often does that," Xavier stated.

Marta refused to accept Xavier's explanation.

"She is not asleep Xavi, she's wide awake, look at her!"

"It feels suddenly colder, don't you think?" Pere asked as another shudder passed up and down his spine.

Xavier glanced at Montserrat whose eyes were wide with terror.

"Look you two, stop trying to frighten us all!"  he protested, adding in a comforting tone:  "They're just being silly Montserrat, don't worry."

"I never do like coming to Grandma's house!" Montserrat blurted out.  "It's so dark and spooky and old; not a bit like our nice bright modern flat!"

Xavier and Marta did not argue.  They agreed with their cousin's comments.  Neither of them particularly liked coming to this freezing cold enormous half ruin on the edge of the town.

"If only Grandma would move in with you like your Dad suggested," said Montserrat still nervously watching the cat.

"Where would we put her?"  Xavier objected.  "One of us would have to give up our room."

"Which would mean you'd have to share the other," noted Pere with undeniable logic.

Marta and Xavier exchanged horrified glances.  Pere, who had always been envious of his cousin's independent living spaces, grinned and added:

"She can't come and live with us, can she?  We're sharing a room already."

"There is another alternative," said Pere after a pause.

"You don't mean..."  said Montserrat without finishing her sentence.

The two girls slowly shook their heads as Xavier spoke:

"You couldn't expect her to go and live with Uncle Raimon, could you?"

The thought of their wonderful old grandmother at the mercy of Uncle Raimon and his wife Elvira caused them all to shudder.

"I suppose she'll have to come and live with us one of these days," admitted Xavier in a low voice.

Marta shrugged and reassured her brother:

"Oh it won't come to that.  Grandma's still active and besides she actually likes living here, though God knows why?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was haunted, this place!"  Montserrat stated, shivering at the thought.

Xavier smiled and shook his head:

"Nonsense!  In all the times we've been here have any of us ever seen any ghosts?  We've all stayed the night here at some time or other and I for one have never heard chains rattling or moans in the night."

"Nor I!"  added Marta, coming to her brother's assistance.

"It still gives me the creeps!"  Montserrat claimed, holding on to her argument.

Misha chose this moment to break off her intense stare and jump off the back of the sofa onto the floor.  She crossed to Xavier and began rubbing her back against his leg and miaowing loudly.

"Someone's hungry!"  Xavier said, reaching down to stroke the animal.  "I don't know if it's your supper time yet though."

The cat rubbed herself even harder against him and miaowed persuasively; Xavier gave in.

"C'mon then, I'll fill your bowl for you."

He got up and crossed to the kitchen door with the cat at his heels.

"Do you think we could have some more of that cake?"  Marta asked him before he left the room.

His answer disappointed the others.

"Now you know what Mum says about eating between meals.  It'll be dinner time in a couple of hours."

A couple of hours can seem like an eternity on a cold rainy winter day; especially when there is half of Grandma's delicious chocolate cake sitting doing nothing in the fridge.

While Xavier fed the cat the game was forgotten.  The twins started bickering at each other again and Marta, ignoring them both, went over to the window and stared out at the gloomy garden.  A large raindrop trickled down the windowpane and she put her eye close to it and smiled at the distorted upside down image of the room reflected in it.   There was a movement in the image as a figure came into the room, she turned to see if her brother had given in to temptation and was returning with four plates of cake.  She was surprised to find the scene exactly as it had been before: there were the twins, sat on the floor near the fire, arguing, but there was no-one else there.

"How odd, " she thought, and turned back to stare into the tiny distorting mirror again.  Just as she did so another drop trickled down to join the one she'd been staring at and the now larger drop ran down the pane to the bottom of the window.

"Drat!"  she said aloud.

The twins looked up at her and Pere gave his sister a look which said: "She's barmy, our cousin."   Montserrat giggled and nodded agreement.

"What are you trying to do, catch raindrops?" Pere asked.

Marta wanted to keep what she thought she had seen secret so she answered:

"I'm betting myself on which drop falls fastest."

"It's no fun betting against yourself," cried Pere leaping up and crossing to her.  "We should each put five cents in a kitty, choose a drop and the winner takes the lot, what do you think?"

They played the game until Xavier returned five minutes later, by which time Pere was a whole Euro richer.

"What took you so long?"  Marta enquired, her suspicions aroused.

"Oh, I cleaned the mog's bowl out first before I fed her and then I couldn't find the can opener.  It was under the dirty dishtowels and..."

Marta crossed to her brother and interrupted him.  She looked up at his eyes and challenged him to deny what she knew.  She guessed that he was lying, because whenever he told a fib, he always had to elaborate on it.  The more details he gave, the bigger the lie.

"It's true, go and look,"  Xavier added defensively.

"You've been at the cake!"  Marta said accusingly, after catching a whiff of chocolate.

"I haven't!"

"Liar!"

"Not,"

"Yes, you are!"

Pere, pocketing his winnings, said:

"Well I'll just go and check then."

Xavier blocked his path saying:

"Oh no you don't, I know your game, you'll eat some and then blame me!"

Pere looked offended:

"I'd never do that!"

Marta knew what would happen next.  Her brother always lashed out when he felt cornered.  She did not have time to warn Pere as Xavier's fist slammed into the younger boy's chest.
The fight was over almost at once.  Pere lost and lay sobbing in his sister's lap.  Xavier looked at each of them in turn, challenging them to say something.  Montserrat's eyes burned, but she said nothing; Pere's were too full of tears to focus and Marta just shook her head gently.

"And you better not tell anyone either, or I'll make it worse for you,"  Xavier stated, before storming out of the room.

Pere sniffed and said:

"He had been at the cake, I could smell it on his breath."

There was no enthusiasm now for any games, and the next hour was spent in near silence re-reading the old comics that Grandma kept for their visits or else peering out of the window, through the rain, at the darkening sky.  Marta tried staring into rain drops again, but did not see anything unusual in the distorted reflections; eventually she dismissed what she had seen as a trick of the light and forgot about it.   Misha joined them, licking her lips, but for the rest of the afternoon she simply curled up on the sofa and went to sleep.

"Where's Xavier gone?"  Montserrat asked after a particularly long silence.

"I don't know and I don't care," Pere spat out.

Marta sighed, then replied to the other girl's question:

"He'll have gone up to Grandpa's old room again, I suppose."

Montserrat shivered at the thought.  Grandpa's old room was the creepiest part of this spooky house.  Grandpa had died before most of them were born and Grandma had preserved his study exactly as it had been on the day he died.  It was a queer place, more like a room in a museum than one in someone's home.

"What does he do in there?"  asked Pere, who had only been in the room once, as a dare.

Marta shrugged:

"He pokes about among Grandpa's books and things and-"

"Gosh, I hope Grandma doesn't catch him in there!" gasped Montserrat.

"Oh he's pretty careful to put everything back in its place,"  Marta maintained.  "He never takes anything out of the room.  Though I know he'd love to have that old portrait of Grandpa.  He stares at that for hours."

"Well, you can see what Grandma means when she says Xavier takes after him," Montserrat noted.  "They really do look alike."

Suddenly Misha's head lifted up and she gave a contented sounding "Miaow" and began to stretch and wake herself up.

Montserrat jumped:

"That'll be Grandma back!"

"I don't hear anything," Pere said sceptically.

"Someone better warn Xavier!"  Montserrat stated in a panic.

"Well I'm not going!"  Pere said folding his arms.

Without a word Marta slipped out of the room and dashed upstairs just as Grandma's key was inserted into the lock.

Grandma came into the living room weighed down by the two heavy carrier bags she was carrying.  She went into the kitchen and plonked the bags on the solid oak table.  Then she went through to the living room and smiled at the four little angels who greeted her,  not, for a minute, taken in by their feigned innocence.

"So what have you four been up to while I was out?" she asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Nothing much, Gran," said Marta dismissively.  "We've played a few games and read comics all afternoon."

Grandma frowned, saying:

"Very convincing Marta, but I don't believe it is wholly true, is it, eh, Xavier?"

The eldest boy glanced at the others.

"No, honest Gran," he stated, "that's all we've been up to."

Grandma gave them a sly grin and said:

"When your father was a boy, he used the word honest whenever he was telling a fib.  But I'll believe you for now.  But remember..."

The children knew which of the old lady's sayings was coming now and they said it along with her:
"Be sure your sins will find you out!"

The five of them burst into laughter and Grandma shook her head saying:

"Well, who is going to help me put these things away in the kitchen before your Mums call round to pick you up?"