The Hunting Ground Read Online Free

normally willing to talk to Elliott even if he didn’t talk to anyone else. Not this time.
    Elliott tried to lighten the mood with a few jokes, but it made no difference. Ben was wound up tight. And there was a strange touch of hurt in his eyes as well. Seeing it disturbed Elliott even more than the bursts of irritation he sensed simmering in Ben just under the surface. What on earth had happened to him in the East Wing’s corridors?
    ‘You’re acting a bit freaky, you know,’ Elliott said.
    ‘Nah, I’m all right,’ Ben said. ‘Just tired, that’s all. Didn’t sleep much.’ He stopped and gazed back the way they’d come. ‘But I hate this house, don’t you?’
    Elliott didn’t have any strong feelings about theproperty yet, but he played along, nodding agreement.
    They were standing by the drained lake now. It was enormous, covering a full quarter of the estate. Twenty feet below their feet wet mud caked the bottom.
    ‘I wonder why it’s empty?’ Ben said – the first sign of curiosity he’d shown since entering the garden.
    ‘The lake’s empty, and no one around for miles,’ Elliott muttered.
    ‘No one around for miles and nowhere to go,’ Ben echoed. ‘So what are we going to do?’
    They both yelled together, ‘
Jack all!
’
    It was a standard joke between them whenever they came to a new house.
    Ben gingerly felt his bruise. ‘You can stop following me round, you know, Elliott,’ he said. ‘I’m OK.’
    ‘If you say so,’ Elliott answered, seeing that Ben looked anything but OK. ‘But if it’s that interesting in the East Wing, I want to know what’s inside.’
    Ben firmly shook his head. ‘You don’t want to go in there, Elliott.’
    ‘No? Why’s that, then?’
    Ben stared at his shins. He wouldn’t meet Elliott’s eye. ‘Look,’ he murmured, taking an uncertain breath. ‘I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t even know why I went into the East Wing last night, OK? I know it was stupid. I woke up and I was looking at one of the portraits. Next I knew I was downstairs outside the EastWing. I’m not even sure how I got in there.’
    Elliott gave Ben space to say more. He didn’t.
    ‘Actually … I think I heard the same noise as you last night,’ Ben admitted, changing the subject. ‘Before I went to sleep, I mean.
Scrishing –
is that what you called it?’
    Elliott nodded. ‘Yeah. What do you reckon it was? We can usually figure these things out.’
    Ben scratched his chin. ‘A rat, maybe?’
    ‘Pretty big rat.’
    ‘Something else then. Could have been a lot of things, I suppose.’
    ‘Yeah, it could have been. But we’re alone in the house, aren’t we? Or supposed to be. What does that tell you?’
    Ben shrugged.
    ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ Elliott folded his arms. ‘You heard the sounds as well. Something made them. Me and Dad went round with a torch checking every room last night and found them empty.’
    Ben grinned, realizing what Elliott was suggesting, and also realizing that Elliott didn’t believe it for a second.
    ‘It’s a ghost!’ Ben cried, sending crows scattering from a nearby tree.
    They both laughed aloud, and for a few seconds all the tension was broken.
    ‘Whoo-whoo!’ Ben said sarcastically. ‘Don’t wake them up. They’re probably all over the garden.’
    ‘Maybe,’ Elliott said, enjoying himself as well now. ‘Or is it just one person?’
    ‘A single ghost, you mean? Someone who died here? Yeah.’ Ben smiled. ‘Someone who died horribly. So now they’re out for revenge.’
    ‘Yep,’ Elliott agreed. ‘And the ghost’s going to be especially hacked off as well, because it’s had to wait all this time to get it.’
    ‘So you don’t think we’re gonna be OK?’
    ‘No chance.’
    ‘Not even if there are two of us against one ghost?’
    ‘But there won’t be two of us, will there?’ Elliott said with a grin.
    ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘Because I’m not sticking around to help you. As soon as I see a ghost