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me alone for a while. But the ghosts didn’t leave her alone. They even followed her from the graveyard when we left, only stopping when we got near Glebe House.
    Janey dropped virtually to the ground at one point to pick someone up from the grass. Soft words and smiles followed – plenty of smiles. I later found out that this ghost was a nine-year-old girl named Alice Everson.
    ‘What … what did you say to her?’ I asked afterwards.
    Janey shrugged. ‘I said I loved her.’ I must have looked confused. ‘Haven’t you ever told someone you love them?’ she asked me. ‘Something simple and truthful like that, if that’s what they needed to hear?’
    When I just stared at her like a dummy, Janey sighed. ‘The ghosts only have each other, Theo. It’s not quite enough. Hardly anyone living has my gift, and most of those who do are too afraid to use it. Or they stop using it because’ – she gesturedmeaningfully towards her own house – ‘it frightens people.’
    7th November. Since then I’ve watched Janey a lot. I’ve seen that wherever she goes she’s always reacting to the ghosts. There are four of them, all children – Sam, Nell, Leo and Alice – and they almost never leave her alone. Invited or not, they’re always crowding her, demanding her time. They tug her fingers, lift her hair. I stayed near her for over an hour that first day, saying nothing, while she gave something to each of the children, touched and touching.
    ‘It’s …’ Janey tried to explain what it was like having them around. ‘It’s like we’re solid,’ she said, poking my chest, ‘while they are
not
.’ She laughed. ‘They’re all movement, I mean. Like eels. All spirit. It’s hard for them to stay still, even for a little while. They’re meant to be on their way somewhere else. They’re always fighting the journey there. They’re all in motion from holding the journey back.’
    She made a gesture, and a ripple like a dancing wave flowed through her. Then she touched her left hand to her temple and closed the fingertips of her other hand with a small quiet
snap
. I realised after hours of studying her that it was a kind of special language I was seeing, something she only sharedwith the ghosts. Later, I dazedly followed Janey to an area where wild daisies were growing under a hawthorn bush. Fitting one into a buttonhole of her dress, she said, ‘This was Alice’s favourite flower when she was alive.’
    I thought I’d never really understand what was going on between Janey and the ghost children, but a few days later, November 5th, Guy Fawkes night, I decided to have a guess at what the ghosts were doing here. Dad had built a bonfire in the grounds, and I’d spent half the evening watching Janey’s head swaying near the flames.
    ‘The ghosts come for company, don’t they?’ I said hesitantly. ‘They left life too soon, before they were ready. And because you have this gift, they come here, you know, because, well, there’s no one else to talk to, and they’re lonely.’
    Janey laughed so hard that she honked. ‘No, Theo,’ she said. ‘This isn’t a romance or some sort of game. I’m not their dearest friend or anything. The ghosts are gathered here for one reason only.’
    ‘What reason?’
    ‘Right now, they’re hassling me about you and Eve. It’s been a long time since any kids came inside Glebe House.’
    Janey saw my bewilderment.
    ‘No, come on, tell me,’ I demanded. ‘What’s this got to do with me and Eve?’
    Janey folded her arms. ‘Describe the ways children die, Theo.’
    ‘What?’ I was thrown by the question. ‘I don’t know. Mostly accidents, I suppose. Disease … Hunger. That sort of thing.’
    ‘Or they’re deliberately killed,’ Janey said. ‘Murdered. Of course, the four ghosts don’t talk about the way they died very often. It’s not something they like being reminded of. Only the original owner of Glebe House enjoys doing that, and he does so whenever he can.